Fort Laramie (12 page)

"Good night, Carrie," he said. "I hope you sleep well, and wake up ready to work tomorrow." His parting shot stung. He had said that a spanking meant all was forgiven, but obviously, it wasn't forgotten. She'd apologized for being rude, and she'd promised not to do that again, and here he was making some snarky comment about it in front of everyone. Well, he could sleep alone the rest of the summer! She fumed as she made her way to the tent and flung herself onto her sleeping bag.

Julie was crying and didn't want to talk. Tom was a jerk. And Carrie was sorry she'd ever come on this damned adventure in the first place. She cried a bit herself, and then she went to sleep.

Julie woke her up in the middle of the night.  "Carrie, we've been best friends for a long time, haven't we."

"Yes, Julie. We have. What's up?"

"I need to teach that conceited jerk a thing or two! And I need your help."

Carrie gulped. It sounded like another spanking to her. But friends were important, and friends stood by each other, even when boyfriends didn't. "What's on your mind?" She stifled a giggle and Julie laid out her revenge.

The next morning, they went through the motions as though everything were fine. But it wasn't, of course. Tom was distant, and Adrian was still furious. The interns tried joking around, but after Tom snapped at them, even they grew sullen. It was a relief to be able to put on their costumes and return to the fort.

Tom's soldiers raised the flag and saluted, then dispersed to their various assignments. Tom came to the Burt house and watched as Carrie welcomed the first group of tourists. She offered them tea, but having Tom watch her made her nervous. She spilled a bit on a tourist's lap, apologizing profusely. The woman brushed it off graciously, and continued to chatter on with her friends, but Tom's warning look was not reassuring. He came up to her and placed his hand on her rump and patted it, although she was turned so that none of the tourists could see.

"Behave yourself," he said quietly.

"I am!" she hissed. "Now go away and stop watching me! You make me nervous."

He didn't go away, so she did. She went into her kitchen and started a fresh batch of molasses cookies. They were a favorite among the tourists and interns alike, and she'd had to order a larger jar of molasses. "Cooking over a wood fire is a lot harder than it looks," she began, interacting with the tourists. Tom tilted his chin in her direction, as though warning her yet again, and then he disappeared.

Good enough! Now she could focus on her job, and be pleasant and informative, and patient, and pretend she knew what she was talking about as she named the fluffs of sheep wool and the parts of the spinning wheel. Maybe she couldn't spin yet, but as long as she was on crutches, Tom needn't know the truth.

She made it through lunch, and through the cleanup, until late afternoon, and Julie came for her. It was time to put her revenge into action.

They slipped past the soldiers demonstrating their weapons. It was tricky for Carrie, as the crutches were awkward and by the end of the day her arms were sore and aching, but they made it to the parking lot, then hid between the rows and rows of cars to find Adrian's van parked at the very back. Julie pulled two tweezers from her apron pocket. "Here we go, girlfriend. Are you in?"

"You're going to get us both spanked," Carrie commented.

"That behemoth isn't going to lay a hand on me ever again," Julie fumed.

Carrie wished she could say the same about Tom... but then again, she didn't want him to go away. She just wanted him to be nice to her. Didn't he respect her? After all his talk about respect, and trust, and such, and he didn't respect her. He didn't trust her. Of course, she'd nearly sabotaged his precious project at every turn. She'd ignored his warning and cut her foot before their first day on the job. She'd been rude enough to the visitors that they had left a complaint about it, and he didn't even know the worst of it yet - that she had lied about being able to demonstrate spinning. But still - he should have forgiven her and forgotten about it after he spanked her for the rudeness, not come into her home to check up on her.

"One, two, three," Julie counted. Then together, they twisted off the valve stems on two tires. The air rushed out, leaving the bright yellow van with two flats.

"I feel kind of bad about this," Carrie said as they snuck back into the Fort.

"Nonsense," Julie huffed. "He deserved this."

"But why both tires? Why not just one?"

"Because if he has half a brain, he has a spare tire, numbskull. He could simply change the tire and catch up. This way, he'll have to call for a tow. He probably won't even come to town tonight."

"Town?"

"Don't you listen to anything? Tom was going to take us all into town for dinner tonight. The camp stove isn't working, and he's tired of sandwiches. After dinner, he'll buy the part he needs to fix the stove. He told us that at breakfast."

Carrie shrugged. She hadn't been listening, because she was too busy stewing about her relationship - or lack of relationship - with Tom.

"Stop worrying, Carrie. You'll draw attention to us, and Tom will know something is up. It's imperative that he takes us back to camp before anyone realizes Adrian's van has a couple of flats."

"I'll try," Carrie said.

"No! Do, or do not! There is no try," Julie said in her best Yoda impersonation. They both laughed, and returned to work.

Tom picked them up at closing, continuing to bring the van in from the parking lot, in consideration for Carrie's foot. She felt badly about deceiving him, about her part in vandalizing Adrian's car, but then Tom the Jerk continued in his jerkiness. He didn't open the passenger door for her. It was the first time since leaving Wisconsin that he hadn't opened her car door. She hadn't realized how quickly she'd come to see that simple gesture as a sweet symbol of his thoughtfulness. She blinked rapidly, refusing to let him see he had made her cry. She yanked open the side door and climbed into one of the back seats with Julie. Another student was quick to take her precious front seat, and Tom talked to him as though everything was right with the world.

They stopped at the campground long enough to change into shorts and tee shirts. Then they grabbed their wallets and purses, eager for a night on the town. He didn't take them to Hank's Steaks, though. That was a little pricey for a larger group. Still, the fast food burgers tasted delicious, and better yet, no one had to clean up afterwards.

One student opted to go to the sporting goods store with Tom. The rest wanted to hang out in what comprised the downtown area of Fort Laramie. There were two bars, a bowling alley, the movie theater, a couple of shops, gas stations and restaurants. All of the students headed into the bar, although two of them - Carrie and Henry - weren't quite legal yet. Carrie flashed her driver's license at the bar tender when he asked for it, and he nodded, not actually reading her birthdate. Or else he just didn't know enough about Wisconsin driver's licenses to see the difference between over twenty-one and under. She slid up on the bar stool, trying not to grin like an idiot. Of course, hanging out with Julie made people assume she was older. Julie was older by a full year, and a bit more sophisticated. She'd lived in Europe before her parents split and her dad them moved to Madison. Carrie used to be a bit in awe of her.

Julie bought the first drinks, Carrie bought the second. She wasn't sure what they were drinking, only that it contained orange juice and tasted very, very good. She felt lightheaded, and then she felt sleepy. She would have quit with two, but Julie ordered another round. And then she lost count. Julie was beginning to act very silly, and she was a riot when she was drinking. She told bawdy jokes, she sang off key, and she flirted with everybody.

"Hey, girlfriend," Julie said later. "Don't look now, but I think Mister McKay jush came in."

She was slurring her words together. Carrie should tell her it was time to quit... if she could remember what it was she wanted to tell her. Oh, right. Tom McKay. "Really?" She was holding her liquor better, maybe. Or maybe it was the adrenaline spike just hearing Tom's name mentioned caused to course through her. She chewed her lower lip nervously. Vandalizing Adrian's van had been a stupid prank. Was it enough for Tom to drum them both out of the internship?

"Yup! He's with Adrian. You know, my husband the blacksmith?"

"Shh, Julie!" she whispered urgently to her friend, "Pretend we don't see them."

"Are you kidding? There are only three tables in the whole joint!"

"Hi, girls. Mind if we sit down?" Tom McKay sat down next to Carrie, and Adrian sat next to Julie.

"Hi guys!" Julie said with too much boozy cheer.

Adrian took Julie's glass and motioned to the waitress to bring her some coffee.

"Hey buster! Whadya think yer doin'? Thas my beer!"

"Can you get her home okay?" Tom asked Adrian.

"It would be my pleasure," Adrian said meaningfully.

Without saying a word to Carrie, Tom grabbed her upper arm and began to propel her toward the door.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing! I'm not going anywhere with you!" Carrie's voice rose in volume, and the waitress looked warily between Tom and the guy behind the bar.

"It's okay," Tom reassured him. "She's my wife."

This seemed to satisfy the guy behind the bar. He totally ignored Carrie's frantic clarification of "Pretend! Just...pretend wife!"

Julie shouted the damning parting shot. "I guess it wasn't such a good idea after all. Sorry, Carrie."

Carrie would have to remember that Julie was a lousy drunk.

Although the soft evening air was pleasant, it did nothing to cool Carrie's burning cheeks. Before Julie's outburst she thought she had a chance of bluffing her way out of this, but even in the uneven light of a pink neon sign in the bar's window, Carrie could tell Tom's jaw was clenched. So that's what "tight-jawed" looked like! she thought incongruously. Tom didn't say a word, just opened the door to his van and shoved her in. If her reflexes hadn't been dulled by beer, Carrie might have let herself out while he went around to get in. As it was, however, he had fastened her seatbelt and made the engine roar to life before she even knew what had happened.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" She tried to sound imperious, and only succeeded in sounding whiney.

Tom didn't answer.

"Listen, you! I know my rights! Innocent until proven guilty! Don't you know your...uhm...history? And how come it's his story and not her story, I'd like to know!" Good lord! She was babbling and she was sober enough to know it, but too drunk to stop it.

Tom didn't say a word.

"Okay! Okay! It was petty and petulant! Is that what you want to hear?"

No answer.

"Would it help if I said that it wasn't my idea? It was Julie's. I guess that sounds pretty stupid. But she's my girlfriend, and your buddy Adrian hurt her feelings. I'd do anything for her."

Tom's silence was annoying. Annoying enough that she felt the need to fill the silence with mindless chatter.

"I woulda given a lot to have seen his face when he found he had two flat tires!" She laughed and curled into a ball of pure joy as far as the seatbelt allowed. She was laughing so hard; she didn't even notice that they had stopped. When she finally became aware, she began to be alarmed.

In front of her, she could just make out the sheen of the Laramie river. As for the rest, it was pitch black and deserted. No lights. No cars passing on the road. Hell, she wasn't even sure there was a road back there. She hadn't been paying attention...but she was now! She just knew another spanking was on the horizon. And damn it all, that didn't even bother her. In fact, she hoped he would get to it soon, so she could go to sleep. She yawned. Sleepiness was why she rarely got drunk. One drink and she was fine. Two, and she was tired. Usually by the third drink, she was asleep. Tonight adrenaline had kept her going. She'd done something really naughty, something totally immature and deserving of a spanking, and she knew it was only a matter of time before Tom put her over his lap.

"Adrian didn't do anything to deserve your mean-spirited prank. The only thing he did was fall in love with your self-centered, spoiled girlfriend. And when he called her self-centered and spoiled, she tried to break up with him. You should have stopped her, instead of encouraging her. Instead, you went right along with it, and added at least two more hours to my already long day."

"Tom, I-."

"Shut up. It's my turn to talk. You've been self-centered, too. You act without thinking, putting yourself and others in danger. You've repeatedly put this program in jeopardy. I forgave you, because I'm in love with you, and because you're so beautiful, I figure that everyone has always catered to you."

"Tom," she tried again. He was so wrong! She wasn't beautiful, for one thing. And she wasn't self-centered. She never thought of herself at all!

"I always tried to focus on your sense of humor, your intelligence. You shone with those qualities in class, and I wanted to believe that the good in you outweighed the bad. I'm not normally a stupid man, Carrie. But somehow, where you're concerned, my intelligence has left me as flat as Adrian's two tires tonight."