JULY 19, 1861

Melissa entered the post office to get their mail. Jennifer saw that there was no mail in the Hagan’s mailbox. However, she did remember seeing an envelope addressed to Melissa in the mail that had just come in. Melissa saw that their mailbox was empty, so she turned around and started to leave. Jennifer quickly sifted through the pile of envelopes that was in front of her on the counter. “Melissa,” she called. Melissa turned around and saw Jennifer holding an envelope. “It just came in.”

Melissa smiled and walked over to the counter, “Thanks.” She took the envelope and her eyes grew wide. The envelope was addressed to her. She had never received a letter before. Every time she picked up the mail it had been for Jacy, and they had all been from several friends back home. Of course all of them just wrote Jacy now and then to let her know that they still hadn’t seen their mother.

Jennifer saw how surprised Melissa was, so she asked, “Is anything wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong.” Melissa took her letter and left. She didn’t want Jacy to see the letter at least not until she figured out who it was from, so she decided to go over by the corral at the livery stables and read it. She glanced around and since there was no one around, she tore open the letter and began to read.

Dear Melissa,

I know you don’t know me, but it seems like I know you, well, at least a little. Jake told me so much about you while he was staying here. I’m really sorry about Jake. I read in the paper about his death. You must be very heart broken. For the short amount of time that I knew him, he seemed like a very wonderful man. I had just broke up with a boy, and he tried to make me feel better.

I know he was really in love with you by the way he talked and how his eyes sparkled every time he mentioned your name. He had wanted us to meet someday, maybe we still will. I had thought to come and see you. I’m sure your grieving and I wish I could be there to comfort you as your man tried to comfort me after my break up with my boyfriend, but since you don’t really know me, I thought a letter would be for the best instead of coming in person. I’m very sorry about your loss, and if there is anything that I can do for you, please let me know. Please write back so at least I will know that you received my letter.

Hopefully Your Friend,
Suzie (Dr. Venables daughter)
2 Forks

Melissa folded the letter up and put it in her pocket. Maybe she had been wrong about Jake. Maybe she shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, and maybe she shouldn’t have left so soon when she had been at the doctor’s house. She should have trusted him more. Feeling guilty that she had been wrong about Jake and that she had drove him into kidnapping Jacy, she walked over in front of the store where she had left Braids, and she climbed aboard. She left town, riding two miles southeast towards the cemetery.

She saw the sign, ‘Dreamville Cemetery’, and stopped Braids. She got down and walked inside the cemetery. She didn’t know whom, but somebody had put a fence around the area. There were only three graves. Melissa passed Fred Potter’s gravesite. She read his date of death as she walked by, January 8, 1860. She remembered that terrible day because he had tried to kill Caller Bob, Teaspoon and Cody, but they had stopped him. She never knew why he had tried to kill them. There hadn’t even been a write up in the paper about it. It’s like nobody had wanted to talk about it or at least not to her.

Down the way was another gravesite and from where she was standing she could read the headstone, ‘Simon Moore, Mar. 18, 1860.’ She didn’t know him, but Jesse had told her that he had kidnapped Caly and that the Pony Express riders had saved her. She was glad that he wouldn't kidnap anybody ever again.

She turned her head and continued to walk. She stopped in front of Jake’s headstone. All it said was his name and date of death, July 11, 1861. Maybe she should have had a bigger headstone made with something special said on it. She knelt down and asked Jake for forgiveness. She was sorry that things had turned out the way they had. She wished he were alive right now. She wished she knew if it had been her fault that he had taken Jacy. But, unfortunately, since he was dead, she would never know. She sat there crying wishing that things had been different.

As she got up to leave she noticed a small fresh grave farther over on the right side of the cemetery. She wondered why she hadn’t seen it when she was walking over to Jake’s tombstone, probably because she was very upset. Wondering whose grave it could be, she decided to walk over and see. It was a very small grave and as she arrived in front of the tombstone and read it, she realized why it was so small. Lee had lost her baby. She felt sorry for Lee. No one should have to feel the loss of a child. She read the tombstone again, Angel Ann Hickok, our little Angel in Heaven, July 15, 1861. Melissa wiped the tears on her face with her hands, and then she turned around and with her head hanging low she left.