I suddenly felt reinvigorated…hopes and dreams. I wasn’t acting the fool at all. I’m offering people something they truly wanted and wished for. Would it be wrong of me to reject the naysayers in favor of these people? My mind was thinking, 'Probably no, a few combined negative voices could destroy an entire unit.' We got rid of them fast in the Corps. Unit cohesion was more important than any skill you could teach. I decided to take action and advised my good dreamer of the same. She deserved her dream more than they deserved the right to complain. I strode off to find Sheriff and his wife and arrange a private meeting, I wanted my caregiver there with me. I wished Michelle were here, but I’d just use the advisors I had on hand.

I truly felt that this was a large risk to the township we were working to create. It was a risk I had created by inviting without interviewing and I needed to fix it. I seriously did need negative attitude and had been lucky so far to avoid it. Hell, I didn’t even want them anywhere near where we were located. They had to go tomorrow. I could feel my resolve building like anytime previously I had to fire an employee; I had to steel my nerve. I was about to sell people back into slavery. Lucky for me that I already knew I was damned for all time. What’s a little longer after that?

The naysayers were still dominating the conversation when I arrived at our back-of-wagon speaking post. I instructed Timmons to have the crowd separate into women and men and children, so we could assign work separately. He set to the task and slowly the people started to move. I was thankful for small favors.

While he did that, I pulled aside Amos, Sheriff and Mrs. Sheriff and made it clear that any troublemakers had to go, and go now. I banked on the fact that both of them seemed to be educated when I asked them to slowly push the small group of agitators into a working party of their own. I was clear on the fact that I would handle them myself from that point.

Thankfully, I got to focus on the business at hand. We listed off the work parties I needed over the next four days. Ladies to care for the children, ladies to cook, ladies to sort through all of the household lots for shipment. We also needed ladies to do laundry and anything else Mrs. Sheriff could think of. It was her working party and I fully expected them to meet the needs of the group.

I reminded her that they would need travel food, because cooking was in the evening only, so they needed to prepare for both the boat travelers and the land travelers. There were at least twenty grown women on hand and I trusted that they could handle it.

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All of this was stated in a hoarse voice with lots of notetaking by Clara. I had been surprised when both Peter and she showed up, but I was far from unhappy.

Sheriff got the same spiel, but I needed different work parties from him. I required wagoners, laborers to load wagons and boats, firewood gatherers for the camp, and help with preparing the larger items for shipment. He had a lot of men at his disposal. Like his wife, and it was his job to make sure our journeys were successful. I asked each of them to get two trustworthy runners from the youth ranks to keep the messages flowing.

Finally, and most reluctantly, I pointed out that every man had to be able to ride and it was up to him to arrange that. He was to send me a runner with tack requirements.

Hell, that was more than enough to put everyone in motion, so I cut them loose with those instructions. I had a brief word with Timmons before he left and then went back to center stage to watch what happened. My caregiver was still with us and I told her that I would need her once it was time for me to talk more. I asked her name and she smiled and just said, "Call me ‘Aunty,' everyone else does." Well, I should have expected as much, so I simply offered her a smile and asked her to accompany me to town for a refreshing drink before I had my dinner meeting.

We headed back to the gathering, where I stopped and pulled the Sheriffs off to the side. “I still don’t know your names. It would help if I knew what to call you.”

Hell, that wasn’t a lot to ask but boy did I get a return in spades. They looked at each other and Sheriff said plainly, “I guess if need something you can call me ‘Wayne.’”

“Wayne?” I asked, taken aback.

“Yup, as in Wayne Gretzky, the consummate winner. Since I get to choose.” Mrs. Sheriff smacked him and he just grinned. “Maybe like in ‘John Wayne,’ or maybe Wyatt like ‘Wyatt Earp.’”

I looked at the sky and simply said, “What. The. Fuck?” Their laughter was fun to hear and my hopes rose even further. We didn’t have time to push it further but we’d have a private meeting tonight in the family room at Byrnes after dinner. It was stupid, but they would have to come in by the back door until we got the fuck out of Missouri.

I had Amos drive Aunty back to town on the wagon while Jeb and I rode alongside. My mind was upside-down once again. I had never expected this to happen, but the laws of Chaos and the laws of Random should have prepared me for the extreme outside chance. But really, from the era of time where Gretzky and John Wayne were a thing?

The vastness of those laws could suck you in to forever, though. The odds were beyond the definition of my simple human mind so I tried to turn my focus to the here and now. I had a lot going on and couldn’t afford to drop the ball.

We went to Byrne’s and took Aunty to the family room. We needed to have another conversation about what I had bought into.

Wayne Gretzky indeed. Maybe I’d call him Urkel.