Free Rocky Mountain Justice (The Legend of Camel's Hump) by Jeff Noonan Page A

basement and the project would be started.
    On Monday, a delegation of three townspeople, George Parker, Wayne Flynn, and Otto Schweitzer, the town grocer, would go to Big River and set up a bank account for the project. They would also talk to the owners of the lumber mill and the hardware store to arrange for building materials.
    The plan in place, the townspeople “passed the hat” and collected almost a thousand dollars, in cash, checks, and IOUs, to start the project. Everyone had known that this was coming and, again, the people were ready.
    When the meeting was finally breaking up, Jerry and his father went to where Aunt Hilda and Ray were setting, talking to some well-wishers. Taking his sister aside, Wayne offered their cottage to the widow for her to use until the new home was finished. Even though she had thought about this already, the offer caused Hilda to totally break down. It took several minutes before she could communicate anything, and even then her acceptance was just a nod and huge hugs for both Wayne and Jerry. She was beyond verbal communication.
    Jerry and his father headed for home, knowing that they had a huge cleaning job to do the next day.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
    Strange Behavior
      J erry and Wayne labored through the weekend preparing their home for the Moore’s arrival. First they scrubbed the home thoroughly and then they did several huge loads of laundry, including all of the bed linens. Then they removed all of Wayne’s clothing from his bedroom, bundling it for transport to the mine cabin. With that done, they turned to some badly needed touch-up painting and even weeded the long-ignored flower gardens in the front yard. By Monday morning, when Aunt Hilda and Ray arrived, the home looked vastly different from the house that Jerry had come home to a few days before.
    But it all didn’t matter a lot, because when Hilda arrived she immediately put them all to work again, re-scrubbing everything that didn’t move. She put Ray with Jerry, cleaning and rearranging the bedroom that the boys would share in the future. A spare cot that Wayne had stored away for company was brought down from the attic and soon the home was set up to accommodate Aunt Hilda, Jerry and Ray. For the summer, Wayne would be staying in his cabin beside Flynn Lake.
    By lunchtime the home was ready and the Moore family’s’ few remaining belongings were brought in and stored away. Townspeople kept arriving with used clothing and little things that they could spare for the family. Soon the home was overwhelmed by ladies who took it on themselves to help cheer up Aunt Hilda. The boys felt totally out of place in this crowd, so they decided to go out to the burned home, feed the chickens, and look for anything that might be there that could have value.
    They stopped for Dawn and then the three drove to the home site, arriving in the early afternoon. They parked Jerry’s coupe to the rear of the chicken coop and fed the chickens. Then they wandered around the site for over an hour, looking and digging for little trophies that were now important souvenirs of the Moores’ life before the fire. Finally they gave up, convinced that they had found everything that was, even remotely, of value.
    Jerry and Dawn climbed into the car and prepared to leave. But Ray held back, saying, “Guys, I think I’m gonna hang out here for a while. I want to look around some more. I’ll see you down at Otto’s Soda Fountain in an hour or so.” Jerry and Dawn agreed and they headed back toward town. When they were out of sight behind a hill, Jerry pulled the car over and put his arm around Dawn’s shoulders.
    Dawn came willingly toward Jerry, cuddling in the comfort of his arms. Looking up at him she commented, “This isn’t going to do you a bit of good, you know. If I kiss you, you’re gonna bleed all over everything. You are out of commission, Sir!” Jerry chuckled and held her tighter. “Just want to tell you how much I love you, Dawn.