The Jarginson Family Saga part 6

Several days later, when Lizzie was 100 or more miles away from her foster home, she was getting the wagon bed ready for the night when she heard footsteps in the clearing.
    “He--hello? Who’s there?” Lizzie cried out. The footsteps stopped, and Lizzie began to tremble.
    “Helloooo! Who’s there? I know someone’s over there!” Lizzie called into the night. A small voice answered.                       
    “I’m just a little boy---don’t harm me!” A small boy appeared out of the shadows. As he came closer, Lizzie thought he looked familiar.
    “What is your name?” Lizzie asked softly.
    “Archie.” He said. Lizzie stared at him.
    “Archie? Archie!” Lizzie cried, hugging the little boy.
    “Oh, little Archie!”
    “Liz--Lizzie?” Archie asked timidly.
    “Yes, Archie dear, I’m Lizzie!” Lizzie cried, hugging Archie again.
    “What are you doing way out here, Archie?” Lizzie asked, over joyed to see her little brother again.
    “My new foster home-- it was attacked by Indians-- and Papa Jonas and Mama Rose were killed, and so was little Rachel, their new baby. I was the only one left, and I ran away from the house before the Indians saw me. Then someone found me and helped me locate James and Annie’s new parents. They are doing good, and I got to see them! Now we know where everyone is--except for Sadie and Nellie! Lizzie, we’ve got to find them, and go home!” Archie was crying now.
    “Oh, Archie. You’re right, we do need to find everyone, and get all eight of us home again. Oh, how I wish that Papa and Mama were still here!” Lizzie cried softly, cuddling little Archie.
    “Well, Arch, let’s be on our way. Here’s some bread and milk, and here’s some blueberries that I picked along the trail.” Lizzie said, handing Archie his supper.
    “Thank you, Lizzie. I’m so glad that I found ya!” Archie said, gobbling up his supper. Then Lizzie handed him 2 of the rest of the cookies that she had bought at the last town.
    Then she made another pallet on the wagon bed floor and they fell asleep, ready for the next day to come. They traveled on the next morning. When they neared the next town, Lizzie noticed that this was the town that Nellie had been picked.
    “Archie, guess what, we might see Nellie here!” Lizzie said happily. Archie smiled.
    Towards afternoon, Lizzie spotted a group of girls talking and playing.
    “Archie, let’s go over there.” Lizzie said, jumping down from the wagon and tying the horses to the post. Then she helped Archie down and they walked over to the girls.
    “Hello, girls!” Lizzie said friendly.
    “Oh, hey! Are you new to town?” An 11 year old girl asked.
    “Actually, my brother and I are just traveling, and we stopped by in this town to visit someone, if we can. My name is Lizzie Jarginson, and this is Archie. Do you have any idea where Nellie Jarginson lives now?” Lizzie asked.
    “Oh, you mean Nellie Johnson? I know where she lives! Oh, my name is Clara.” The girl said.   
    “Yes, Nellie Johnson, I guess. Well, is this Nellie adopted? And was her other last name Jarginson?” Lizzie asked.
    “Oh, yes, all of that is right. Are you related?” Clara asked.
    “Yes,” Lizzie said.
    “Oh, I’ll go get her now!” Clara said, trotted off.
Minutes later, a tall, golden headed girl came up with Clara.
    “Nellie?” Lizzie asked.
    “Yes.” Nellie said, not knowing who Lizzie or Archie were yet. Archie beamed happily, knowing that they had found Nellie, too.
    “Nellie, don’t ya remember me, Lizzie? Archie is here, too!” Lizzie said. Nellie stared at them and then burst into tears.
    “Oh, Nellie, what’s wrong?” Lizzie asked, hugging Nellie tightly.
    “I’m so happy that I had to cry-- I’ve missed you so! Oh, Lizzie, Archie!” Nellie said. Lizzie smiled at her and Archie hugged her, too.
    “Come meet my foster parents, Lizzie, Archie!” Nellie said, taking both of their hands and skipping along the street. Lizzie and Archie skipped along with her.
    “Nellie, Nellie!” A young lady was calling.
    “That’s Mama Beth!” Nellie cried, running to the young lady.
    “Nellie, who is this? They look so much like you, Nellie!” Mama Beth said.
    “Mama Beth, these are 2 of the sisters and brothers I have told you all about! Elizabeth, known as Lizzie, is 13, and Archie is 7!” Nellie was saying happily.
    “Well, howdy do, Elizabeth and Archie!” Mama Beth said.
    “Mama Beth, can they come inside?” Nellie asked, still holding onto Lizzie and Archie.
    “Of course they can come in, come on in, Nellie, Papa Bart is home, too.” Mama Beth was saying. So Nellie led the way into the house.
    Once they were all in the living room, Lizzie explained why they were here.
    “Well, you see, we plan to find where our siblings are living for the time being, and when we all are together, we would like to live together again, until someone is willing to take all of us in. But, as we’ve heard, 2 of our siblings, James and Annie, have already been legally adopted, so there’s only six of us now. What we wondered, is Nellie adopted yet?” Lizzie asked.
    “No, not yet. We weren’t planing to, either.” Papa Bart said rather stiffly.
    “Now, Bart! Don’t be so silly! But, Lizzie, no, we weren’t planing on adopting Nellie, we are just keeping her until something else happens.” Mama Beth said.
    “Well, it seems that something has happened, Ma’am. If you don’t mind, we’d like to take Nellie with us, since you haven’t adopted her yet.” Lizzie said.
    “That’s fine with me.” Papa Bart said.
    “So we can take Nellie with us?” Lizzie asked hopefully.
    “Well, if Nellie agrees, I suppose.” Mama Beth said.
    “Yeah! Mama Beth, I’ll miss you and Papa Bart, but I’d love to go with my sister and brother!” Nellie said happily. So it was arranged, and the next day, Nellie packed up her things and left the town with Lizzie and Archie.
    Days later, they drove into a town where a train was leaving for a town called: Jopplin, Missouri.
    “We’ve got to some how catch that train! Uncle John and Aunt Eleanor live close to Jopplin, in a city called, Carthage!” Lizzie cried.
    “Oh, yes!” Nellie and Archie agreed. On the day that the train was to leave, Lizzie, Nellie, and Archie were standing on the platform, trying to think of a way to get 3 tickets for the train ride. You see, they only had enough money for 2 tickets.
    Suddenly, a middle aged lady walked up to them
    “Hello, children!” She said cheerfully.
    “Hello, ma’am.” Lizzie said.
    “You need something?” The lady asked.
    “Actually, we are trying to think of a way to get tickets, for we only have enough money for two, and we need three. You see, we must get to Jopplin!” Lizzie said sadly.
    “Oh, my! Well, my dears, I believe I have enough money to pay for one more ticket!” The lady said, going through her purse.
    “Indeed! But, first, you children must tell me, are you trying to run away from this place, or are you on a ‘mission’?” The lady asked.
    “On a ‘mission’ I would say. You see, we are orphans, and our aunt and uncle live close to Jopplin.” Lizzie didn’t say any more.
    “Well, then, I’ll be glad to help you pay for the tickets! My name is Phoebe Jarginson.” The lady said.
    “Jarginson? That’s our last name!” Lizzie said.
    “Oh? Well, may be we will get to know each other some more on the train! Now, come along, let’s get your tickets!” Mrs. Jarginson said cheerfully.
    Once on the train, Lizzie told Mrs. Jarginson the children’s story.
    “My, my!My adopted daughter and you have the same storys!” Mrs. Jarginson said when Lizzie had finished.
    “What is her name?” Lizzie asked.
    “Sadie.” Mrs. Jarginson said.
    “Sa--Sadie?!?!” Lizzie asked.   

The Jarginson Family Saga part 5

ONE YEAR LATER.............
    Mr. and Mrs. Beasley had gone to town, leaving 5 year old Sammy with Lizzie and Damaris at home. Lizzie had gone out to fetch water from the well while Damaris was reading to Sammy. Sammy had learned that his Papa and Mama didn’t treat Lizzie and Damaris that well, so he was being a good boy now. Lizzie was just pulling the pail of water out of the well when she heard a huge, CRASH! She turned quickly intime to see the back porch go up in flames.
    “What! NO!” Lizzie ran with the pail of water and splashed it on the flames. Nothing happened. She had to get inside and get Damaris to help her get everything possible out of the house. She ran inside, yelling to Damaris in fright. Sammy started to bawl, but he quieted and helped them throw items into canvas bags. They threw the bags out the front door and started knotting blankets into bags and loaded the blankets with things. They had 30 canvas bags filled and 18 blankets bags filled, along with 2 bags that contained the quilts and other blankets in 1 hour. They then rushed outside.
    “Wait, where's Sammy?” Damaris cried.
    “He didn’t come out! Oh, no!” Lizzie cried as part of the roof collapsed. They heard Sammy scream.
    “I have to get him!” Damaris shouted, and she ran into the blazing house. A few minutes after she entered, the whole roof collapsed and the house fell to blazing embers.
    “DAMARIS! DAMARIS! SAMMY! SAMMY! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Lizzie sobbed.
Lizzie sobbed for quite some time, then she stood and, tearfully, hurried to the barn. She carefully hitched Daisy and Annie, the plow horses, to the spare wagon and drove them to the house. She pulled the reins and tied them to the only remaining post and piled the canvas and blanket bags and placed the 4 bags that contained food supplies in the front with her. Then she lugged all of the pails out of the barn and filled them with water, covering them with scraps of canvas, and tieing the canvas so that no dirt could get in. Sadly, Lizzie decided that she would flee from the place, and try to find her siblings. Mr. and Mrs. Beasley wouldn’t even miss her, for sure. Lizzie suddenly broke down in tears. She would never see dear Damaris, or little Sammy, ever again. For, she wasn’t sure if Damaris had been a Christian, and she knew that the Beasley’s were not. She sobbed even harder at this. Finally, she stopped crying and urged the horses to a gallop down the drive. Once in town, she traded the horses for pack horses, and bought a straw hat and tucked her hair up into it. Next, she traded some of the items for some overalls and other clothes. Then she covered her face and arms with mud and continued on. She did this so that if Mr. and Mrs. Beasley saw her, they wouldn’t recognize her. Just as she drove the horses past the general store, Mr. and Mrs. Beasley walked out. Lizzie slumped in the wagon seat and acted old and tired. Mrs. Beasley noticed Lizzie.
    “Benjamin, look at that poor old fella. We could use a boy on the ranch, don’t you think?” She was saying. Mr. Beasley grunted and Mrs. Beasley walked over. Lizzie tryed her best to look different.
    “Hallo, young lad! Why don’t you come on home with Benji and I and get cleaned up, say. And do a few chores for us...you’ll be paid, laddie.” Mrs. Beasley was quite cunning.
    “So-rry, M--a’am. Me’s Pap and Mam be’s waiting on me to bring home de supplies from town. I be going now.” Lizzie said deeply, using incorrect English.
    “All right. But, You remember that our place is ALWAYS welcome for young lads like you. Now, what is your name?” Mrs. Beasley said.
    “Uh--Ah.......Leonard Canary.” Lizzie made up a name.
    “I see. You new to town?” With that, Lizzie clucked the horses to a gallop and rushed out of town, afraid that they would catch her. She looked back, and they were standing there, staring after her.
     Lizzie galloped the horses until they were at least 4 miles away. Then she let them pick their own pace for the rest of the day.
While the horses trotted and cantered along the dirt road, Lizzie thought about where she was going to go.
    “Wait! I have an idea!” She suddenly said. She would sell the things that she didn’t need, and then when she arrived in a town, she would do odds and ends, and earn enough money for a train ticket.
Then she would catch the first train heading to Uncle and Aunt’s place.
    One day, she came to a town, and she started her plan. First she set up a stand on the outside of the town, and she sold, two lamps of the six that she had, the two chairs that she and Damaris had helped each other drag out of the house, all the breakables, and other things that she would not be needing on her trip.
    By the end of the day, she had sold ten of the fifty bags that she and Damaris had rescued. She planned to send the money to the Beasley’s address, so that she wouldn’t be stealing their money and things. Then she used the money that she had earned in tips and bought some more food and milk.
    Now she had ten bags of food, gallons of water and milk, ten bags of blankets, five of pillows, four of sheets,three of quilts, four canvas bags of clothing, and then four bags of odds and ends and things.
She loaded everything back into the wagon and she trotted the horses to the edge of town. In a grove of trees, Lizzie piled blankets and pillows and things and made a bed. Then she hung blankets from the trees around her and made a closed-in little room.

The Jarginson Family Saga part 4

CHAPTER FIVE-- THE BEASLEYS
Once there, they all got out, and they went inside.
    “Children! Get on down here!” Mr. Beasley called up the stairs.
Two faces appeared and a girl and boy hurried down. The girl was older, about Lizzie’s age.
    “Lizzie, this is Damaris, who is 13, and this is our little boy, Sammy, who is 4.” Mrs. Beasley said.
    “Howdy do!” Damaris said, shaking Lizzie’s hand. Mr. Beasley eyed her sternly and Damaris’s smile faded quickly.
    “Damaris, take Lizzie up to her room, would you.” Mrs. Beasley said.
    “Yes, Ma’am.” Damaris took one of Lizzie’s bags and Lizzie followed her up the stairs. Once they were upstairs, Damaris led Lizzie into a large, airy room with light blue walls. Two beds stood against two of the walls. A large dresser stood in-between the beds, and a wash stand was by the door. The floor was covered with a blue carpet. Damaris opened the closet and set Lizzie’s bag inside, along with her suitcase.
    “I’ll help you unpack later, Miss Lizzie.” Damaris said.
    “Oh, Damaris, just call me ‘Lizzie’, not ‘Miss’. I’m only 12, turning 13 next month.” Lizzie said.
    “All right. I hope you don’t mind that we will be sharing a bedroom.” Damaris said.
    “Oh, I don’t mind, not at all.” Lizzie replied.
    “Uh, why don’t you freshen up a little before supper? I’ll be back to wake you when it’s time.” Damaris said.
    “All right.” Lizzie said.
The next day, Damaris and Lizzie were tidying their room. Lizzie had just put her teapot that had been given to her by her mother when Sammy ran in, carrying several toy trucks.
    “Zoom, zoom, zoom!” He yelled, crashing the trucks into the dresser. Damaris dived for the dresser and caught the teapot just as it was falling of the dresser. Several items fell to the floor, causing a loud bang.
    “Sammy! Shoo! Now look what you’ve done!” Damaris cried, looking at the broken items on the floor.
    “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it!” Sammy yelled as Damaris pushed him towards the door. At that moment, Mrs. Beasley burst into the room, stopping when she saw the mess and Sammy in the room. Lizzie thought that Sammy was going to be punished, but Mrs. Beasley said,       
    “You careless girls! You’ve ruined all these things, and now you’re being cruel to my boy!” She stormed over and snatched Sammy into her arms, glaring at the girls.
    “But, Ma’am, Sammy ran into the dresser and knocked it over, not us!” Lizzie tried to explain.
    “You girls clean this mess up, I’m taking Sammy away-- and you better not torture him again!” Mrs. Beasley said, hurrying out the door with Sammy.
 Damaris and Lizzie quietly picked up the things that had stayed together and then Damaris brought the broom and dust pan and they swept up the broken items.
    That night, when the two girls were in bed, Lizzie said,
    “Damaris, how come Mr. and Mrs. Beasley are so unkind to you, and so nice to Sammy? Aren’t you their daughter?”
    “No, Lizzie. I’m adopted.” Damaris said.
    “Oh! When were you adopted?” Lizzie asked.
    “I guess I can tell you my story. Well, When I was born, My mama died giving birth to me. Then when I was six, My Papa went to war, leaving me and my oldest sister, Dianna, who was 15 at the time, to care for our selves. Any ways, Papa was killed in war, and then Dianna got ill with cholera, and after a year, she died, too. I lived on the streets until I was almost 8, then one day the Beasley’s came to town, and they took a liking to me, since they had no children of their own yet. One day, almost a year after I had been adopted, Mrs. Beasley became pregnant with Sammy. They were starting to get tired of me, and by the time Sammy was born, they decided that Sammy was their only child that they should love, and so ever since, they’ve treated me almost like a slave.” Damaris said.
    “Oh, that’s so sad, Damaris!” Lizzie said.
    “Are they going to do that to me?” Lizzie asked.
    “I’m not sure, Lizzie, most likely. But you’ll have me, I only had...no one.” Damaris said after thinking a bit. Then they fell asleep.

The Jarginson Family Saga part 3

CHAPTER FOUR-- ABOARD THE ORPHAN TRAIN
    “Supper time!” Cara laughed.
    “Okay, we better go then!” Lizzie said. The girls happily left the room and hurried to the dining room.
That night, Cara, Candice, Delia and Daisy helped the other 4 girls get their quilts and things onto the beds and they all settled in for a good nights sleep. In the middle of the night, Annie woke and saw that Nellie wasn’t in the bed that they were sharing. Then she looked over at Lizzie and Sadie’s bed and saw that they weren’t there, either. Scared, Annie thought that they had left her alone in the orphanage and returned home. She tried not to cry, but a single sob escaped from her.
Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder and she jumped. She looked up and saw a girl standing there. In the dark, she didn’t recognize Cara Nelson.
    “Annie, are you all right?” She asked.
    “Wh-- who are y--you?” Annie stammered.
    “It’s me, Cara. Are you okay?” Cara asked.
    “Where are my sisters?” Annie asked.
    “Nellie had to go to the restroom, but your older sisters are right across the room. You saw the other empty bed, because Delia and Daisy had to go to the rest room, too. Now, you go on to sleep, all right, Annie?” Cara said.
    “Okay. Will you wake me up for breakfast, please, Cara?” Annie asked.
    “Of course, I will, Annie.” Cara said.
    “Thank you. I think I will be able to sleep okay now.” Annie said.
    “Okay, I’m going back to my bed now, if that is okay with you.” Cara said. Annie smiled yes and Cara returned to her bed and they all went back to sleep.
    The next morning, the eight girls went to breakfast, and Cara, Candice, Delia and Daisy met James and Archie.
Then the week flew by and soon it was the day before the orphans would head out west. Annie and Nellie were a bit nervous, but Lizzie and Sadie kept them calm. The next morning, everyone was told to find their brothers or sisters and they got everyone into the train cars. The boys had two cars, and the girls had two. At the first stop, four girls and three boys were picked. That left, thirty-seven boys and thirty-six girls.
After 5 more stops, A couple were talking to Delia and Daisy. They were adopted and when the orphans boarded the train again, there were only 20 girls, and 18 boys. At the next stop, some people stopped to talk to Archie.
    “What is your name, little one?” The man asked.
    “Archie Jarginson. I am six years old.” Archie said.
The couple asked some more questions, and they told him that they were Jonas and Rose Barry.
Eventually, they decided that they would take Archie in as a foster child.
Lizzie, Sadie, James, Nellie, and Annie said tearful good-byes to Archie and waved sadly as they rode away in the wagon.
The rest of the orphans boarded the train again. After a few more stops, the only ones left were, Lizzie, Sadie, Nellie, Annie, Cara, Candice, 4 other girls, James, and 2 other boys.
    “Miss Hilda?” Annie asked when the nurse came into the girl's car.
    “Yes, Annie?” Hilda asked.   
    “Are we ever going to get a home?” Annie asked.
    “Of course, dear. We have 4 more stops before returning to the orphanage.” Miss Hilda said.
And she was right. At the next stop, James and Annie were taken together, Nellie by her self, and 2 of the other girls.
This left only Lizzie, Sadie, Cara, Candice, and the other 2 girls named, Amy Johnson, 6 and Ameila Jackson,15.
At the next stop, Cara and Candice were taken. Lizzie and Sadie sadly hugged them good bye. Then at the last stop, the rest of them were picked.
    [Okay, now this story is going to be based on Lizzie’s foster family.]
    Lizzie tearfully hugged Sadie good-bye.
    “Please, Lizzie, you’ll come visit, won’t ya?” Sadie asked sadly.
    “If possible, yes, Sadie, dear.” Lizzie said.
    “Well, Miss Lizzie, we actually live quite a ways from here. It would most likely be hard to see each other too often.” Mr. Keno, Sadie’s to be foster father said.
    “I see. Well, good bye, Sadie dear.” Lizzie said, choking back a sob. Then Mr. Beasley helped Lizzie into the wagon beside Mrs. Beasley. The ride to the Beasley farm was about 15 minutes.

The Jarginson Family Saga part 2

CHAPTER THREE-- THE ORPHAN TRAIN
    “What are we going to do?” Sadie sobbed.
    “Children, we have arranged for you all to go on an orphan train out west.” The officer said.
    “But, sir, what about our Aunt, who is ill, and her children? Papa and Mama were going to help them.” Opal said.
    “We have discussed that, too. The oldest two will go to your Uncle and Aunt's place, and the other six will be put on the orphan train.” The officer said.
    “Why can't we all go together?” Emma cried.
    “Your Uncle and Aunt can't take all of you. Just the oldest ones. Now, my wife is coming in a couple of hours to help you all pack and get things ready to leave. I will sell all the horses and animals for you. And the money will be divided evenly between all of you. Right now, I suggest getting all suitcases ready. I will stay here until Amaca gets here.” The officer said. Two hours later, the officer's wife, Amaca, came and she kindly calmed the younger ones and put them to bed for a nap and helped the older ones pack.
    “Mrs. Carls?” Sadie asked.
    “Yes, Sadie?” Mrs. Amaca Carls asked.
    “Why can't we live with you and Mr. Carls?” Sadie asked.
    “Oh, Sadie, we have children of our own, and I don't think we could keep all of you.” Mrs. Carls said.
Four weeks later, the Jarginson children sadly left their home that they had know all their life and rode with the Carls to the Aid center where the orphan trains were put together.
Opal and Emma hugged their younger siblings good bye and then left on the train that would take them to Uncle John and Aunt Eleaner's house.
Lizzie, Sadie, James, Nellie, Archie and Annie followed Mr. and Mrs. Carls, into the tall building.
The lady at the desk was kind and she told them where to find the director of the orphan trains. They went to his office.
    “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Carls! And, who are these children?” Mr. Linnus said.
    “They are the Jarginson children, Elizabeth Anne, Sadie Jo, James Jacob, Nellie May, Archie Lee, and Annie Joanne. Their parents, Lewis and Mary Ann Jarginson, were killed in a train wreck. There older two sisters, Opal Josie and Emma Kim, are going to their Uncle and Aunt's home to help take care of their children and help with their Aunt, since she is ill.” Officer Carls said.
    “Ah. So you would like me to register them for the train ride?” Mr. Linnus asked.
    “Yes, if there is room for six more.” Officer Carls said.
    “All right. Let me look on my files here................ Yes, there is room for 10 more children. So after the 6 Jarginsons, I can take 4 more. The train is leaving in a week. Meanwhile, we are keeping all the orphans in the orphanage. I'll get Ms. Samson to bring the children to their rooms.” Mr. Linnus said. With that, he rung a little bell beside his desk and a young lady came in
    “Laura, these six children are new to the orphanage. Please show them to their rooms.” Mr. Linnus said.
    “All right, Mr. Linnus. Come along, children. Howdy do, Officer, Mrs. Carls?” Ms. Samson said.
    “Fine, thank you, Laura.” Mrs. Carls said.
Then Lizzie, Sadie, James, Nellie, Archie and Annie followed Ms. Samson to the main part of the building, waving good bye to Officer and Mrs. Carls.
Once they got to the halls of rooms, Ms. Samson told the girls to go into the 4th room on the hall and then she went with the boys to the boy's section of the building.
Lizzie quietly opened the door to find 4 girls talking and laughing on a bed.
    “Oh, hello!” One of the oldest girls said when she saw Lizzie, Sadie, Nellie and Annie.
    “Hi. I'm Lizzie Jarginson, and these are my younger sisters, Sadie, Nellie, and Annie.” Lizzie said.
    “Oh. Are you new to the orphanage? I’m Cara Nelson, and I’m 14.” The girl said.
“Yes, we are new. Our parents were killed in a train wreck about a month ago.” Lizzie said.
    “Oh, dear! That’s too bad. I’m Candice, Cara’s younger sister. I’m 12. Are you four all that’s in your family?” Another one of the girls said.
    “No. We have 2 older sisters, Opal and Emma, and our younger brothers, James and Archie.” Lizzie said.
    "Oh! Eight children! I had 5 siblings. My name is Delia Dexter. I’m 13, and this is the only one of my sisters that survived in the fire. Her name is Daisy, and she is 10.” The other girl said.
    “I see.” Lizzie said quietly.
    “Well, Why don't we help Lizzie and her younger sisters unpack and get settled?” Cara said. Lizzie smiled at her and the 8 girls set to work. By evening, the girls had all their things unpacked and were chatting with Cara, Candice, Delia and Daisy.
Suddenly, a loud bell rang.

The Jarginson Family Saga part 1

Here is a story I wrote probably around 7 years ago... It's really long, so I'll do it in parts, if you want to keep reading it!

THE JARGINSON SISTERS AND BROTHERS

        CHAPTER ONE-- MEET THE JARGINSON FAMILY
    Once upon a time, There lived a little girl whose name was Elizabeth. Nearly everyone called her 'Lizzie.' Her last name was Jarginson. Lizzie was sitting in the large flower garden of the 'Circle C' ranch. It was almost spring in the year of 1910.
Lizzie was resting after a long day of roping calves.
Suddenly, she felt a tug on her overalls. She looked down to see one of her younger sisters, Annie. Annie was 5. She had turned five 2 weeks ago.
    “Hey, Ann!” Lizzie said.
    “Lizzie, Ma wants you.” Annie said, pulling Lizzie to her feet.
    “Oh, all right!” Lizzie laughed as Annie pulled her along.
    “What is it, Ann?” Lizzie asked. Annie ignored her and trotted along the path towards the house, tugging Lizzie along.
Lizzie pried Annie's hand off her arm when they got to the house and charged inside to find Mama standing in the sun room inside the door, all dressed up in her best dress and sun bonnet.
    “Going to town, aye?” Lizzie asked as half a dozen children rounded the corner and came up.
    “Yes, Lizzie, dear. And, there's something else. Your aunt Eleaner is dreadfully sick, and your Papa and I arranged a quick train ride to the country. We are going to take care of her and her children until she is well. Of course, this means that you will have to take care of your younger siblings during the day, since Opal and Emma work.” Mama explained.
    “But, Mama! I'm only 12! And I have so many younger siblings!” Lizzie exclaimed.
    “Lizzie, dear, there's only 5! And, James and Sadie would help too, so that leaves 3 young ones and 3 of you to take care of them.” Mama said.
Opal was 16 and Emma was 14. They both worked part time at the general store about 2 miles from home.
Sadie was 11, James 10, and the younger three were, Nellie, 9, Archie, 6, and Annie, 5, whom you have already met. In all, including Lizzie, there were 8 children.
        CHAPTER TWO-- THE TRAIN WRECK
That day and the next passed without trouble, and Papa and Mama were still on the train.
    “Mary Ann?” Papa said.
    “Hmmm?” Mama asked, waking from her sleep.
    “How many children do John and Eleanor have now?” Papa wondered.
    “Um, five, with the new baby. There's Nora, who's 9, Cara, 7, Daisy, 5, and Candy, 3. And Johnny is the baby.” Mama said. Suddenly, the train jerked to a stop.
    “What was that?” Mama asked.
    “I'm not sure. I'll head to the first car and find out.” Papa said, rising from his seat.
    “All right.” Mama said. She continued her knitting then.
When Papa reached the front car, he questioned the engineer.
    “The tracks stopped suddenly, and it's a cliff. The train is about to topple. I've called through the radio for everyone to get out of the train. You'd best hurry out, too, sir.” The engineer sounded as if this happened every day.
    “Uh, sure.” Papa hurried back to Mama, and just as the first few people jumped out of the train, it rocked, and tumbled helplessly over the cliff. Mama screamed as Papa and she were swept out of the train car door opening and fell the rest of the way down the cliff.
    Meanwhile, the eight children were safe in the farm house. Suddenly, a galloping horse arrived and the man knocked at the door. It was a police officer.
    “Where is Opal?” Sadie whispered.
    “In her bedroom, uh, I'll answer the door.” Emma, trembling, opened the door.
    “Hello, sir, any thing you need?” Emma said.
    “Ah, yes. Mind if I come in? Are all of your siblings here?” The officer asked.
    “Come in, we're all here, except for our parents.” Emma said. The officer seemed to choke and he turned away for a moment.
    “Is there anything wrong, sir?” Emma wondered.
    “Ah, indeed, there is, Miss.” The officer said quietly.
    “Oh, dear.” Emma said.
    “What is wrong, may I ask?” Emma added.
    “Well, can all of your sisters and brothers be here?” The officer asked.
    “Yes, sir. Nellie, go get Opal. The rest of you sit down on the couch. Sir, you may sit down, too, if you would like.” Emma said. Nellie hurried down the hall towards Emma and Opal's bedroom.
Three minutes later, Nellie and Opal came in.
Once every one was seated, the officer spoke.
    “Children, I am sorry to say.........But.. Children, the train that your parents were riding on fell over a cliff. Everyone in the train was killed.” The officer said sadly. The younger ones burst into tears and Opal, Emma and Lizzie stared at the officer, stunned.

The Words "National Disaster"

I'm sorry I haven't been posting. I have been very busy and out of ideas. Finally, in desperation I turned once again to some of my old journals. Interestingly I found a void. It's where this story takes place.Oh and Grace, I'd be interested in hearing your perspective on this--especially if you think I was accurate. After all, I'm not the only one who's lived through a National Disaster! :)

What do you think of when you hear the words “National Disaster”? Big, scarred eyes, houses thrown all over the place, FEMA performing dangerous rescue missions? Something that happens to those people, way over there?  So did I until one knocked on my back door.

I was ten at the time and living on farm attached to the side of a hill in Southeastern Kansas. A hill? Yes, I said that right, there are hills in Kansas. In fact my town had a whopping two hills.

I didn’t think much farther than that I was glad the drought was over when one afternoon the sky opened up and started drenching everything within sight. After delightedly splashing in a few mud puddles, life went on. I still had baby and grown goats to feed and milk plus eggs to hunt for, there was nothing new. The next morning things were a little more exciting. We had gotten so much rain that our creek and the creek between us and town a mile away, had both flooded and covered the road that ran by our house. That happened every spring though and after a few days it would go down and we could once again get to town. There was one unusual difference, my Dad was out of town and due back that day—could he make it through the water in our 4-wheel-drive pickup?

Being ten I didn’t worry much about my all powerful Dad until later that night when I climbed, dripping, out of a hot shower and looked out the window. It was still raining dogs and cats and there was water pouring off our hill in torrents. I had never seen that before and obviously my older siblings hadn’t either because they were standing outside in rain coats watching it with frowns on their faces. I put on my pajamas and went back to the window. Water was pouring off the hill as fast as ever, in fact, it was filling up the creek so much that our entire field was flooded and the wet brown line was creeping towards the machine shed. Now that was a lot of water.

My siblings came in shedding water droplets with their rain clothing and discussing whether or not they should move or ancient tractor “Alice” (an antique and cantankerous Alice Chalmers)and other machinery out of the machine shed and into the rain or leave them be and hope the water didn’t get as high as the machine shed. If they took the tractor out it would have to be left unprotected on our driveway where it could rust even more than it already was. Besides, the water was still three or four feet away from the base of the shed, it was extremely unlikely that it would get high enough to do any damage to Alice. They wished my Dad were home to make the difficult decision for them but that could not be helped. He wasn’t expected home until pitch dark, ten. Then they informed me they had moved the baby goats, which were largely my responsibility, out of the field to higher ground. I thanked them and said good night.

I climbed into bed that night happy to hear the rain on the roof; such a wonderful way to be lulled to sleep! Pitter, patter. Pitter, patter. The thought suddenly ran through my mind “Great Scot! Is it ever going to stop?”

Granted the rain stopped eventually. Sometime in the night even, but there are more than a hundred people who would have appreciated it stopping sooner. Five of those were my family.

I woke up first the next morning which was unusual. 6 A.M. was not my sunshine time especially on a Saturday morning when I was allowed to sleep to the unheard of 7 A.M. but something told me I should wake up and check on things. I looked out my window and gulped. I must be having one of those dreams where dreamed up woke up and began my day and then I really woke up to find myself still in bed. Oh well, there was always the old pinch test. I applied it to my thy and yelped. I was awake after all.

My heart started beating, were my eyes telling me the truth and was I really the first to discover this or had the rest of my family all seen and simply gone back to bed. I tiptoed down stairs and peeked out our large glass doors.  Uh-huh. Not cool. I went back up stairs across from my bedroom to my parents. My Dad ( who I forgot to mention, I called “Papa”. ) had made it through in the night and there he was sleeping peacefully. He didn’t know, I was sure of that.

“Uh, Papa?” My voice cracked as it’s still liable to do in tense moments. I cleared my throat as he rolled over and slowly opened his blue eyes that matched mine. “The machine shed is—ehem—er—flooded.”

He flew out of the bed and before I new it was hoping around with one leg in his pants.

My Mom sat up. She was a light sleeper and had heard it all.

“What do you think you’re going to do Lane? She said it’s flooded. Isn’t it too late?”

“Well, maybe I can still get the tractor out, you know it’s a long ways off the ground.”

“Uh—“ my voice cracked again. “I can barely see the roof; I don’t think you can get the machine shed out.”

He stared at me. I was ten but not prone to exaggerate…well, not too much.

“Show me.”

I obeyed.

“She’s right Marcia.” Was all he said.

So what do you do when half of your land is under water and as far as you can see so everything beyond that? My family had a rule which said, “If you’re not working on Saturday then you need to be doing school.” There isn’t much work you can do if 9 of your acres are under ten foot of water—we did school. No big scarred eyes from this disaster.

About two that afternoon the water was still rising somehow though the rain had mostly stopped. We had checked on all our neighbors who shared our island hill and looked curiously in the direction of town but there wasn’t much else to do so we just sat in our dark house reading. After a while we saw a boat with some black clad guys go zipping past our hill and slow way down. Across their backs were the letters F-E-M-A.  They seemed to be hesitating and after a little bit turned around and went back towards town. Interesting. FEMA is here. That means this is pretty bad…I wonder if anyone is in danger… We could see the others were all thinking the same thing and I got up and went to the glass doors gazing Westward across the expanse of brown water. A small movement on the brown surface caught my eye and I called my brother over to look at it. He shook his head and went to get the binoculars. It was a jet ski pulling a row boat with some people in it. It was coming from the direction of a house hidden behind some trees. We looked at each other. That would be the *Breaders. They would rig up something like that and go rescuing their neighbors. Good for them!

My brother and sister were soon bored with the inside life and began brain storming who on our hill had a canoe. They located on and paddled to town.

“What are you kids doing!!” they heard the angry voice of a man great them as they stepped on to dry land at the edge of town.

They looked up startled to see several FEMA guys and a television crew.

“Um—“

“What are you kids doing back there? Don’t go back there you hear me? You don’t know what’s back there! That’s no place for kids.” It was a FEMA guy.

“Um—“ they looked at each other uncertainly. “We live back there.”

All eyes turned on them.

“You live back there? You mean there are still people back there?”

“Uh—yes.”

“Why didn’t you evacuate?”

“We didn’t know we were supposed to and besides, our houses are all safe. There’s probably thirty of us back there including the people who live in that—“ pointing to a completely submerged house “—family. They are in their camper on our neighbors land.”

“Ah. Were glad to know that they got out safely. We didn’t want to go back there and risk hitting a barbwire fence and scratching the bottom of the boat.”

“The bottom of your boat…—Yes well we’re all safe. Thanks for asking.” They hopped back in the canoe and began rowing away. No dangerous FEMA rescues here. Nope, it was a neighbor who rigged up something to get an older couple off their roof.

“Hey! You kids seen on your TV this has been declared a National Disaster?”

My siblings looked at each other. Our power lines were under water and we were very much out of power. No, they hadn’t seen it on TV.

To make a long story short, no houses were thrown around; they just all got free remodeling jobs. Brown carpets, brown walls, brown stripes on their outsides, ect. Everything was brown except for some very delighted trees and plants. And guess what? It didn’t happen to those people over there. It happened to me, normal everyday me.

*Some names have been changed to preserve the privacy of these individuals.

Since No One Else Is Posting...

Here are just a few little poems I wrote a long time ago when I first started my writing venture. Some of them are really dumb, but here they are anyways...


There was an old man,
Who lived in a pan.
A giant came,
Who had no name,
And took the pan,
Then dumped the man,
And the poor old man,
Who lived in the pan,
Was never heard from again.

There once was a frog named Wuddle,
Who lived in a very big puddle.
A dog named Cuddle,
Jumped in the puddle,
And carried poor Wuddle away.

It is not theirs or his or hers.
It is not mine because it's yours.

The world is full of dangers.
The world is full of fun;
And since it's full of strangers,
Be careful, Everyone.

Miss Kaytlin loves to read her books.
She also draws and writes and cooks.
Though if she tried to sew a dress,
I'm sure she'd have an awful mess!

I just really don't understand why,
Uncombed hair always makes my mom sigh,
Oh but maybe someday,
When my hair has turned gray,
Perhaps then I will just let it fly.

First Snow

This isn't the best, but I though you might enjoy it.

Two angels lay on their bellies in the clouds, peeking down at human life below. The first angel, Mike, was thick and broad shouldered. He had a very serious look upon his face. His golden eyes pierced the cloud cover below, searching. The second angel, Gabe, was smaller but shared the same twinkling eyes. A yawn escaped his mouth; and he stood, stretching his arms and wings. His gaze turned to a sleeping cherub, her golden head resting on a pillow of cloud. Chuckling to himself, Gabe grasped his own pillow and tiptoed toward the dozing Goldilocks. He raised it high before launching it at the mound of curls. The cherub let out a yelp and withdrew a tiny sword. Upon seeing Gabe, she let her flashing sword slide back into it's sheath and grasped her own pillow, a determined grin on her face. Gabe's eyes widened, and he let out a whoop, starting heaven's pillow war. Unfurling his wings, he lept into the air, the cherub at his heels. Other angels, cherubs, and seraphs joined the fray, giggles and laughter echoed off the clouds. Someone's pillow burst, releasing a puff of white. More giggles erupted and soon all heaven lay beneath a powdered mess.

Mike lay motionless, ignoring the play around him. Not a single feather on his wing twitched. His eyes were fixed on the life below the clouds. Temporarily dropping out of the game, Gabe hovered to his friends side. “Why don't you come play, Mike?”

Mike barely turned his head to look up at his friend. “We have all eternity to do things like that” He motioned towards the pillow fight. “But this...” he said, pointing towards the earth. “...is temporary. Besides, see what damage you have caused below?”

Gabe peeked through the cloud cover, eyes colliding with a world of white. The tiny flakes from their pillows frosted the ground. More flakes tumbled from the clouds, dusting the trees. “It's not so bad,” Gabe insisted. “I think it's kind of pretty!”

“Yeah, but what will they think?” This time Mike pointed towards white-covered tents where tiny faces peeked out. One bold human stepped from the safety of his home to examine. He gathered a bit of the stuff in his hands and watched it shrink in size, a pool of water in its place. His eyes widened, and he frantically waved his arms, motioning for the others to join him. Laughing, the children burst from their tents, leaving a trail of footprints wherever they went.

“See, Mike, they like -” Gabe's words were cut short when something smacked him from the clouds. Pillow in hand, Mike chuckled, watching his friend's hollering form tumble towards the earth. White flakes flew back into the air when Gabe's flailing form plopped into a snowdrift. Laughing, he shook the flakes from his wings and lept into the air.

Meanwhile, a young girl spotted a blur of white drop from the sky and bounce back into the air. Curious, she plodded over to investigate. Stumbling across an oddly shaped canyon in the snow, she shrieked for her father to come see. “Papa, Papa!” she giggled. “Come see what I have found!” Her father dashed to his daughter's side. “Look,” she said, grasping his hand. “A snow angel!”

You Gotta Shake It!

Last night as I was laying on my bed trying to think of something to write, my eye fell on one of my very old journals and I picked it up and began skimming it. I ran across this story and decided I would type it up for the blog even though it is really short. And yes, this really did happen to me.

You Gotta Shake It!

Tap, tap. I felt the light application of a finger on my shoulder and surprised I turned from examining Wal-Mart’s supply of cottage cheese. An old lady was towering over me and bending down so her face was very close to mine. She smiled pleasantly.

“You gotta shake it!”

“Uh, shake it?” I was totally lost.

“Yeah! When you are picking out what type of cottage cheese you want, shake it.” She picked one up enthusiastically and shook it in her ear.

“O-k-a-y. Thanks.” I snatched a carton of cottage cheese and tried to edge away.

“You gotta shake it. Make sure that it’s not dry. You wouldn’t want to make it home to your kiddies with a dry carton of cottage cheese would you?”

I blinked hard. I was thirteen and looked thirteen. Did she really think I was shopping for my kids? Dry cottage cheese? What! Who had ever heard of such a thing? This lady was nuts! Sweet, but nuts!

“Uh- yeah thanks!” I was almost a foot away now.

She reached out and grabbed my arm. “No! You haven’t shaken it yet! That might be dry!”

I looked at the carton in my hand, strongly doubting it.

“Now, let me see you shake it!”

I obliged.

“Did it sound wet?”

“M-hm.”

“Oh good, now your kiddies can have some yummy cottage cheese when you get home to them.”

“Yeah! Thanks!” I gasped and vanished into another isle.

P.S...This is also our 100th post! Yay for L.A.R.K.!

New Page!!

You may have seen that we added a  new page--thus adding a new element to our blog! I'm excited about it but I likely shot myself in the foot (seems like I do that a lot these days!). I don't have time to write stories and read books much less add write reviews about the books I read! Anyway, hopefully the other authors will do a good job and I can ride along on their coat tails. Feel free to go check out our new page and leave feedback!

Book Review Page Coming Up and Helpful Links!!

Forgive me for not having written anything recently. I have been very busy doing some leg work for this blog. Hopefully the results will be that we soon will have a new page containing book reviews!

In the meantime I thought I would share a few links that has been very helpful to me. The first one is from Go Teen Writers, a blog that I greatly appreciate in general.

http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com/2013/03/its-release-dayfree-gift-gtw-self.html#comment-form

These are links to baby name sites. I know Grace and I both have used them to come up with character names.

http://www.babynames.com/

http://www.babycenter.com/baby-names

This is my personal favorite.

http://www.behindthename.com/

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, just simply offering you some options! Sorry for all the baby stuff on the sides of the sites. Sometimes you have to deal with annoying things to get a good result.

And last but not least, a translator. Yes I said that correctly, "translator". I love to throw bits of other languages into my stories so this site has become indispensable. Sometimes, I also use it to come up with names by simply typing in what I want the word to mean and then choosing from my options.

http://translate.google.com/

Hope you can find these useful! I hope to get back to writing on here soon but no promises!