Rapids.” She pointed to each one on the map and Mourning’s eyes followed her
finger. She left the book and clomped out.
The next morning she found him again and pulled a copy of the Journal of the
American West from under her coat. “There’s a whole article in here about Michigan – about how it isn’t true what people used to say about it being a big
swamp. That was all a big fat lie told by Mr. fancy pants millionaire John Jacob
Astor and his fur company because all they wanted in Michigan was lots of bears
and foxes, not settlers. So they made up a report about Michigan being no good
for farming.”
“And now who say different?”
“There’s a government report that says so – from twenty years ago. They sent
a bunch of men called the Cass Expedition to go canoeing all over Michigan.
Those men came back swearing that all the farmers had to do was clear away the
trees and they’d have fine farmland.”
Olivia kept up her campaign, but it wasn’t reading material she was counting
on to win him over. The bossy, annoying women of Five Rocks would do that
for her.
A body can live with anything, as long as they believe they have no otherchoice, she thought. But once he’s convinced he does have one, he won’t be ableto stand those busybodies for one more minute.
One day in February Mourning finally asked, “Just where it be, this land we
gonna farm? Show me on the map.”
Olivia felt as if he had kicked her in the stomach. She wasn’t prepared for it.
She was so busy convincing him, she forgot to convince herself. But there it was,
him saying it out loud, agreeing to go with her. For a moment she stared at him,
stunned. Then she had to restrain herself from throwing her arms around him. In
the end, all she did was point at the map and say, “Well, now that that’s finally
settled, we can get down to planning. From now on we have to be extra careful
not to be seen together.”
Olivia went through her father’s desk and found the deed to the land and a copy of both wills – Uncle Scruggs’ and Seborn’s. She took them upstairs and slipped them into a thick envelope that she hid under her mattress. Then she began pouring over her guidebooks again, underlining important points and
making neatly printed lists. When she next met with Mourning she caught him
studying her when he thought she wasn’t looking. He must be wondering if I’ll
really go through with it, she thought. Same as I’m wondering about him.
They would buy most of what they needed in Detroit and so planned to carry
as little as possible – only their clothing, a few personal belongings, and Mourning’s heavy case of tools, which he called his Most Precious Belongings.
As far as Olivia could see, it was pretty much his only belonging. Olivia would
also bring the double-barreled shotgun Uncle Scruggs had given to her and she
planned to relieve Tobey of the flintlock Hawken rifle and flintlock pistol that had been birthday presents to him from their father. Tobey never touched them.
They had been under the eaves collecting dust for as long as Olivia could
remember.
Olivia and Mourning both wrote down everything they thought they needed
to buy when they got to Detroit and compared lists. The necessities – lanterns, whale oil, matches, soap, rope, washtub, bedding, pots, pans, water barrel –
seemed endless. There was always something else.
