1.0 Whole Chapter 1 Payne Township, Sedgwick County, Kansas - February 1874

 

Mum looked over her shoulder and then turned completely away from the fire she was stoking. She

froze in place, listening. ARJ watched his mother closely as he set the log he was about to hand her back on the pile. Every evening the sunset plunged them into the deep cold of Kansas February. Since the sun set an hour ago, the main room of the cabin had turned dark and chilly except for the warmth and light coming from the dancing fire.

 

Mum, ARJ, and even four-year-old John William stood like statues, listening in the silence.

 

“It must have been the wind.” Mum whispered. “I wonder what’s keeping your father.”

 

She walked to the front door and slid the cross bar into place. That made ARJ nervous since that was normally his father’s job.

 

Mum walked to a wooden crate padded with blankets, a makeshift cradle, that sat on the floor by the bed. She bent and touched baby Eva Anna, still sleeping, and pulled the blanket up under her chin.

 

She walked to the shuttered window and froze again, listening. John William whimpered.

 

“Where’s Daddy?” he asked.

 

“ARJ, will you take your brother and go sit on the bed near the baby?”

 

“What’s wrong?” ARJ asked.

 

“Arthur Robert Jarman.” Mum whispered. “Do as I say.”

 

ARJ guided John William to the bed where they sat close together. He pulled the edge of the quilt over his brother, keeping his eye on Mum who had walked back to the door. He saw her look up at the rifle that hung over the cabin door.

 

‘What did she hear?’

 

A light flickered through the cracks of the shutter and then between the boards on the front of the house. Suddenly there was the sound of running footsteps coming toward the cabin.

 

Boom – boom – boom!

 

The butt of a gun landed angrily on their door.

 

Everyone inside cried out at the same time, Eva Anna, the loudest.

 

ARJ bounded off the bed and toward Mum. She glanced at him and the others, placing her left hand on her pregnant belly as she lifted her right hand to touch the rifle above the door.

 

“Son, stay with JW and the baby like I asked you.”

 

ARJ choked back tears! He didn’t want to be the brave seven-year-old brother, but he quickly retreated to the bed.

 

A fist struck the door next in an angry throb, causing Mum to jump again, and JW to pull the quilt over his head.

 

“Dibbens! Come out here!” A stranger's voice yelled from the other side of the door.

 

ARJ crawled across the quilt on his stomach and put his eye up to a crack in the wall. Frigid air washed over his eyeball but the sight outside chilled the rest of him. Torches in the hands of several men crackled and burned in the dark night, lighting the faces of twenty or thirty men who filled the farmyard.

 

‘Why were they so angry? And where’s Dad?’

 

“Dibbens! We aren’t leaving until you come out!” Another voice yelled.

 

Mum reached up with both hands and pulled the gun off the wall.

 

 

“My husband isn’t home! What do you want?” She yelled through the door.

ARJ looked over at her. She had her face pushed against the door. Her voice sounded angry and frightened at the same time.

“You have no business with my children and I!” Mum yelled through the door.

ARJ could see her silhouette against the far wall which now glowed with the dancing flames in the fireplace. He saw her brace herself as she held the rifle.

“Shhh… John William. It’ll be okay.” she said gently, as her younger son’s shrieks rose to match those of the baby’s.

ARJ lay still with his face against the cold wood. He could hear some of the men talking on the other side of the wall.

“It’s her husband we want.” One man said.

“I just checked the shed.” Said another. “No wagon or horse inside. She’s probably telling the truth.”

“He’s got to come back some time.”

“You men stay here, and we’ll start for town. Maybe we’ll meet him on the way.” He heard a man, maybe the leader, tell some of the others. ARJ watched as some of the torches moved off toward the road.

ARJ felt his heart racing. He crawled back to JW. “Don’t cry! Dad will be home soon.” He slipped between his brother and the edge of the bed so he could pat Eva Anna who was in full wail.

“Dad will come home and make them leave.” He said to reassure himself, as much as his siblings.

The waiting mob seemed to cool their fervor as the group split, but they remained.

Mum was now pacing from the door to the bed and back again. Her slender back stiff and straight as she paced, listening for danger, and protecting her children. Once or twice, ARJ saw her hands shake as they gripped the rifle. He had never seen her hold the gun, let alone shoot it, but he knew she would do whatever she needed to do.

It seemed like hours before they heard the wagon. At once, ARJ was relieved Dad was home, and terrified for what the mob would do now.

Shouting filled the air as the wagon wheels rumbled to a stop.

ARJ told his brother. “I’ll be right back. Pat the baby so she doesn’t start crying again.”

JW scooted over and ARJ crawled back to peek through the crack. He saw Dad jump from the wagon and slowly walk the reins around to tie the team to a fence post. He calmly patted the horses the way he used to calm the horse that pulled his cart through the streets of Ryde on the Isle of Wight, just a year ago.

Dad attempted to walk toward the house but the men shifted to block his way. Dad looked toward the cabin and then raised his voice.

“Anna? Are you safe?”

Mum let herself lean her back against the wall when she heard Dad’s voice. Then she turned and pressed her face against the door. “We’re unharmed, Arthur!” She called back.

The man who seemed to be leading the mob stepped in front of Dad. “Dibbens, no one has hurt your family. You’ll stay here and answer us.”

The other men expressed their agreement and anger filled their voices. A man near the back of the crowd held a rope in the air. ARJ wasn’t sure he understood what the rope was for, but it frightened him just the same.

 

“You Arthur Dibbens?” The first man asked impatiently.

 

Dad smiled, but it didn’t look like a real smile. “I am. What can I do for you?”

 

“The name’s Williams, Robert Williams. This land belongs to me! I get back here from a job only to find you filed papers on land that belongs to me!” The mob nodded and agreed forcefully again, a few stepping closer to Dad. ARJ held his breath.

 

“We don’t take well to claim jumpers around here!” The man with the rope yelled. ARJ shivered and looked toward Mum. She was still leaning against the wall; the rifle stood next to her, but she no longer gripped it like before.

 

ARJ looked back through the crack. Dad stood still, separated from the rest of the family by a sea of angry faces, lit by torch and lantern light. A strong gust of wind suddenly swept the farmyard causing some men to extinguish their torches. Controlling the riotous flames in a crowd suddenly became worrisome.

 

ARJ lost his dad's face in the commotion. He searched frantically with his eyes in the much dimmer light until he spotted him. Dad pulled his coat collar up over his neck and pushed his captain’s cap tighter on his head. The wind picked up again and ARJ found it difficult to hear what the men were saying. Partial sentences swirled on the gusts.

 

His dad’s voice, “The clerk in the land office…” The wind whistled through the crack and drowned out the words. He heard him speak again. “I have the papers …” eeeeeeeeeoooow… Perhaps …wwwwhhhhooooo… let the claim expire?”

 

Angry voices answered him, but the wind carried them off with Dad’s voice but ARJ heard only pieces. “Should string you up!” “…cabin down around you!”

 

Dad calmly responded saying that the horses were cold. “…a frosty night…might get sick…join me … shed … you wish.”

ARJ saw his dad slowly turn his back to the men and begin to unhitch Sugar and Spice. Most of the men followed him toward the shed, keeping him in sight but allowing him to lead the horses to shelter.

As the crowd moved, ARJ could no longer see Dad in the darkness. He held his ear against the crack but all he heard was the Kansas winter wind. Mum strode toward the bed and sat on the foot. She leaned the rifle against the wall next to her. ARJ crawled back toward John William and Eva Anna, who had fallen asleep in exhaustion. Suddenly he was sleepy, also. He slipped beneath the quilt and felt the warmth of his little brother next to him. The fire popped and crackled as it began to die down, in a steady rhythm that seemed to mark the seconds and minutes as they went by. All else was quiet in the cabin as the wind whistled around the corners.

‘I’ll just lay here for a minute and get warm, until we hear Dad’s voice again.’ He thought.

“Arthur!”

ARJ’s eyes opened suddenly at the cry and the sound of the crossbar dropping into place. Startled, he sat up and before he realized what he was doing, he had jumped over JW and the crate, and was on his feet.

His bleary eyes searched the dark room until he spotted the shadows of Mum and Dad, near the door, holding tight to each other.

“Arthur, you’re frozen!” Mum said, as she pulled him toward a chair by the fireplace. “That was the longest wait of my life!”

She began pulling logs from the pile and setting them in the embers, waking the flames.

“I thought they’d never leave!” She went on. “They ARE gone, Arthur, yes?”

Dad nodded his head. “I surely hope so!” His words shivered in the darkness.

ARJ came from behind and hugged his father’s neck. “Dad! I was so scared!” he admitted as he held on tight. “Are we going back to England?”  His father patted his arms and then reached for the cup of hot tea Mum held out for him.

Dad looked at him. “Go back to bed, son.” He patted him again. “Everything will be alright. We aren’t going anywhere. America is our home now.”

“It doesn’t feel like home.” ARJ whispered, but he didn’t argue further. The room was cold, and the bed invited him back. He lay quietly under the quilt and listened to his parents talk.

“What did those men want? They were sure angry! I had the gun down most of the time.”

“You had the gun? They MUST have scared you.”

“I was ready to use it. All I could think about was the children. I’ve watched you enough times. If they’d have gotten in…” Mum emptied her worries onto Dad before her voice trailed off.

“Their problem wasn’t with you, so they should never have threatened you like they did.”

“I heard something about the claim?”

Dad sighed. “They accused me of claim jumping. Supposedly, this Williams fellow owns the land but according to the clerk at the land office, the land was available. I have the papers!”

He shrugged his shoulder toward the door. “The men in the crowd tonight have a real loyalty to Williams, it would seem.” He paused, staring into the fire.

Then he added in a quieter voice, “I had to promise to relinquish my claim just to get in the cabin.”

The room was quiet for a while. ARJ lifted his head slightly, waiting for Dad to say more.

After a minute, Dad continued, “We may need to find another piece of land, for our own safety. If these neighbors will do what they did tonight, I hate to think what might happen in a REAL dispute.”

“I shudder to think.” Mum said quietly. Dad put his arm around her.

“They frightened you and the children and kept me away from my family for quite a long time.”

Mum nodded. “You were out there well over an hour before they let you by!”

“I’ll go talk to the law tomorrow to see if I should press charges.”

In the shadow of the room, ARJ’s eyes closed, and he was asleep.

~He was back on the Isle of Wight. ARJ stood at the crest of a tall white cliff, topped with grass and trees, overlooking the ocean. The sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky and ARJ lifted his chin and felt the warmth wash over him. He looked toward the foot of the cliff and saw children splashing and laughing in the shallow waves that lapped the beach with a steady rhythm. A line of neat beach huts lined the narrow boardwalks built along the shore. The boardwalk branched out above the shallow waves. ARJ’s eyes swept across the horizon and he breathed in the island breeze feeling safe and revived. As he gazed at the comforting scene, a dark cloud appeared on the horizon. ARJ watched the billowing gray mist swell as it came closer and closer, finally engulfing the entire ocean before him in an angry storm. Waves rose and the winds began to howl. The people on the beach ran for cover, following the steps up the narrow chine. ARJ desperately wanted to run to meet them in a safe shelter on the high ground, but as he turned to go, a gust of strong wind picked him up with such force that he found himself in midair, falling off the chalk cliffs of home and into the ocean far below. ~