Once they were out of the sprawling urban area, Reno read until they neared the Texas-Arkansas line. “I remember when I came to Texas for the first time. We crossed over from Louisiana, a little farther south. I almost lost my leg to an alligator when I was trying to fill up my canteen from the bank of the Sabine River. Now, that was an experience.”
“I bet it was. Parts of East Texas are still wilderness.”
“I remember this one soldier brought his wife along, poor woman.” He chuckled at the memory. “Better I should say, poor man. They had come across from Monroe in the north part of Louisiana and she hated East Texas at first sight. She declared the place to be headquarters for ticks, redbugs, fleas by the millions, and snakes gliding through the grass by the hundreds. Her unlucky husband could not do enough for her. She refused to sleep next to him on his army blanket and demanded he build her a little treehouse every time they camped for the night. One evening after she’d been particularly shrewish, the wife crawled up onto this little ledge he’d built for her in a big oak, all padded with piles of soft pine straw. The rest of us were on the ground, of course. We had just about drifted off to sleep when she started hollering and squawking and flailing around. Her husband was trying to get to her when she just fell right out of the tree on top of him. When he finally managed to figure out what was wrong, he found a six-foot black snake draped around her neck. The serpent had fallen down on her from an upper branch while she’d slept.”
“Ick! Can you imagine? It’s a wonder she didn’t get bit!”
“Yea, it’s a wonder.” Tilting his head, he gazed at her shrewdly. “You do realize, Miss Stanton, that should you return with me to my time, you’ll have to face a few hardships. I’ll do everything in my power to make your life easy, but you won’t have all of these luxuries you take for granted in this life.”
Journey lifted her chin and pursed her lips. “We’ve talked about this – I don’t need luxury. I certainly don’t love ticks or fleas, but I could endure them. Now, snakes are a different story. Be we in this time or yours - you, as my protector, must make a solemn promise to go above and beyond the call of duty to keep any and all snakes as far away from my person as possible.”
“That’s quite a demand. Would you like to make it a part of our wedding vows? To love, honor, and keep snakes away?”
Any mention of their future marriage thrilled her to the core. “Yes, I would like that to be included. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome and I’m starving. Can we stop to get something to eat?”
Reno’s request echoed her own sentiment. “I’m hungry too, but we’ve made great time. What would you like to eat?” She began naming off fast food served by the restaurants listed on the roadside signs. “Fried chicken, burgers, catfish.”
“Catfish sounds good to me. How about you?”
“Perfect.” She took the next exit and pulled into a rustic establishment. Soon they were chowing down on fried fillets, French fries, and hushpuppies. Journey couldn’t eat all that was on her plate, but Reno managed to eat his and what was left of hers.
Once they were on the road again, he delved back into the history book. Of course, to him – it wasn’t history. Some of what he read hadn’t even happened yet. As she set a course for Little Rock, he read more about the history of Central Texas. Journey found she didn’t mind the quiet. As long as she was with Reno, she was content.
It wasn’t too far down the road, before the silence was broken.
“What a bastard. Listen to this. The old ass published his own newspaper in Weatherford, TX called The White Man. Its sole purpose was to whip up venom against the Indians.”
“Wow. He didn’t even try hide his hatred, did he?”
“There’s more. He was appointed lieutenant colonel over the Second Texas Mounted Rifles and assigned to guard a chain of forts stretching out west. He occupied the Mesilla Valley in the territory of Arizona and proclaimed himself military governor.”
“Talk about ballsy.”
“I agree.” Her observation made Reno laugh, then he went right back to reading. “The editor of the only newspaper in