Fated Memories by Joan Carney

Author:Joan Carney [Carney, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

***

Suppertime meant a community stew that included contributions from everyone. As days wore on, what started out as tasteless sustenance became even less appetizing, but the choices were limited. At least by combining their meager rations with whatever could be foraged or stolen from the surrounding farms, they could stretch them to fill everyone’s stomachs. While gathering for supper late one afternoon, Jackson, Max and Carlyle discussed the meat wagon waiting on the train tracks for clearance to continue.

“Didja see the cattle car on the track with all the hogs on it today? There must've been a hundred-head easy of big fat sows. And here we are getting the same old salt pork and beef bits for our supper.”

“Someone oughta lighten the load on that train, if you get my drift,” Jackson answered in an off-the-cuff way. He never imagined anyone might act on his idea.

But soon a round of “I'm ins” filled the air and Maggie’s eyes started doing their Lucy dance again. This time they’d get no argument from Kitty. A meal of fresh pork chops or ham sounded too enticing to refuse. No way was she missing out on that. In fact, she pictured herself floating on the scent of roasting meat like a cartoon character. The drool hit her chin as she imagined the juicy meat and crisp skin after roasting it on a spit. God, I’m hungry. Even Simon needed little encouragement and, before they knew it, they’d hatched a workable plan to rescue one of the hogs to satisfy their desperate appetites.

Under cover of dark, they made their way to the edge of the camp where the train tracks were. The pickets had been double-posted on that side to guard against enemy soldiers sneaking up on the tracks, so they had to be careful, and take slow, quiet steps. Locating the right car was a snap. They just followed the stink and the snorts.

Maggie and Kitty took positions as look-outs while the men selected and butchered a nice fat specimen. They loaded it onto their makeshift litter and covered it with a sheet Maggie had appropriated from the hospital. Now the trick was to retrace their steps to the campfire with their prize.

With visions of pork chops dancing in their heads, they made a lot more noise on the way back. Enough so, that they spooked a sentry who demanded they halt and identify themselves.

An expert at thinking on his feet, Simon spoke up first. “We have a severely injured railroad man on this litter who will die if we don’t get him to the hospital by the shortest route. We didn’t want to risk taking the time to go around to the front gate for fear he might not survive long enough to be treated.”

“That’s right,” Maggie added. “I’m Lucy and this is Ethel, we’re the nurses sent to tend him while he’s on his way.” She yanked Kitty closer so the guard, straining to see in the dim moonlight anyway, might be more inclined to fall for this sham.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.