6//Lydia- April 30, 1843, Missouri

As soon as I stepped into the creek, I smiled. It was nice, and soon, much to my delight, Rose came in after me. As we walked along, we chatted with each other and Scotty and Billy would chime in at times too. Rose and I kept our arms linked as I dragged her alongside me. 

“Have you ever kissed anyone?” I asked her, causing her to blush.  

“No, but Billy has, what about you?” she responded with a giggle. Billy kept silent.

“Oh, yes, back home Jules and I kissed the Oleson twins, Mary and Sam. Sam was not a good kisser, but Jules seemed to have a good time,” I told them. “Sam Oleson also kissed Will Johnston two days after. His parents didn’t do anything but Will’s cut his…  ya know… balls off. Mr Johnston tried to kill Sam, but the sheriff stopped him. I suppose I made him realize he liked kissing boys,” I added.  

“You’re not disgusted that he kissed a boy?” Rose asked. I shook my head. 

“No, Ma and Papa say that things like that don’t matter as long as someone is happy,” I responded. 

“That’s smart. Mother and Father have always told us that it is wrong. They lectured us after the priest back home talked about it in church. They said they would kill us if we were ever a queer. I like your parent’s views much better,” Rose said, looking down at her feet then up at me. 

We chatted about what our lives had been like back home and soon, Jules came and joined us. He had his shirt in his hand and it was dripping wet, like the rest of him. 

“Where is Mingan?” Rose asked. Jules shrugged and kept walking with his silly little frown. He was so grumpy over unreasonable things. 

“Lighten up little brother,” I said as I dropped Rose’s hand and threw my arm around Julian’s shoulders. He glared at me and shoved me away, walking ahead of the other four of us. I decided it might be fun to splash him, get him riled up a bit more, just because he was always angry at the smallest things. I cupped my hands and threw water at him, then Rose. 

“Lydia! I’m going to kill you!” Jules yelled. He splashed me at the same time Rose did and I started running away from them and back to the wagons. I laughed as they yelled threats after me and I spun a couple times as I ran, letting my dress back down to my legs. Ma would have been horrified if she saw I had tucked my skirt up. 

Moments later, Rose came up behind me and linked our arms together as we walked towards Mingan. 

 “Why’d you run off, Ming?”I questioned him, taking Rose’s hand in mine. Beside me, Jules was whistling and looking past Mingan and into the distance. I looked up but saw nothing that he could be interested to look at.

“Don’t call me ‘Ming’,” he spat at me, taking me aback.

“Sorry,” I said as I swung Rose and I’s intertwined hands. “So why’d you run off?” I asked.   

“None of your business, I don’t ask you about your life,” he said with an icy cold tone and a glare directed at me. Boys are so complicated, I thought to myself as Rose and I skipped away back to the creek where Scotty and Billy still were. 

“I wonder what happened with them,” I mentioned to the stunning girl at my side. 

“I don’t know, maybe they had a disagreement?” she suggested. I shook my head in response and twirled around before responding with words. 

“No, Jules probably insulted him or said something stupid. He’s insensitive like that,” I told her. Obviously, with my amazing detective skills, my sidekick Rose and I would find out what my brother did to upset the indian boy. 

For the next couple of hours Scotty, Billy, Rose and I waded in and out of the creek, finding pretty rocks and talking more about life back home. By the time it was dark, my pockets were heavy with shiny rocks and my feet were pruned. As the sun set, we made our way back to where the wagon train had stopped for the night. There were two fires with food being passed around them from person to person. Someone passed me a plate piled with roasted meat of some kind, griddle cakes that someone had left over from lunch, a roll of bread, corn, and potatoes. Next to me, Rose had the same and we sat down a couple feet from where the adults were. Jules came and sat too, Eliza Jane and Huritt at his side. 

“I found the little kids,” he said, annoyed. Huritt and I both must have seen Mingan step down from their wagon, as we both called for him to sit with us. He looked over at us and visibly sighed.  He came over and sat next to Billy, as far away from Jules as he could. 

“So, Jules, what did you do to upset Mingan?” I asked. Maybe I could get them to talk and they could be friends again?

Julian got up and walked away towards Scout, our dog. I guess not. I shrugged and the mothers decided the kids should sleep in the wagons together as it would be less dangerous than the ground. Rose, Eliza Jane, and I would spend the nights together and Huritt, Jules, Mingan and Henry would share. Scotty, Billy and two other boys would share a third wagon and I did not listen to the rest.