The Five Dollar Mail Book 3: The Road Home

111: To the Depth and Breadth and Height

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Rosie by Laura Hollingsworth. All graphics by me.

Book 1: The Green, Book 2: Lynch's Boys, Book 3: The Road Home, and the Riders & Kickers Anthology are available on Amazon under the name Regina Shelley. So if you hate waiting for chapter posts and/or want a more polished read, the finished product is available now.

Rosie thought she just might pop like a soap bubble. The schoolhouse was filled with the warm, amber glow of oil lamps, and she was sitting with people she had grown to love so fiercely that she didn't' know if her heart could contain it.

They'd gathered in the evening at the schoolhouse, to decide who was to win the wager Luis and Wash had made. To decide which of the two of them had progressed farther in their goal of learning to read. All Rosie knew was that she was glad it wasn't up to her to decide. And anyways, she had decided, I don't even care. I love them both. And they both have won.

Wash was sitting in a desk to her left, his long legs sprawled awkwardly into the aisle as he exchanged flirty glances with Miss Sullivan. He looked happy, and it was all Rosie could do to not jump up, run over, and hug him. And Luis...Luis, with his sweet brown eyes and his adorable curls and his amazing accent...sat beside her, his long, warm fingers entwined with hers.

Tommy stood at Mrs. Plunkett's desk, peering over the schoolmarm's shoulder with a furrowed brow as the two of them considered the two sheets of paper in Mrs. Plunkett's hands. He let out a long exhalation through pursed lips and pushed his glasses back up onto his nose. "I don't know," he muttered. "They...it's...what do you think?"

Mrs. Plunkett cocked her head and raised her eyebrows, deep in thought. "Well, Thomas...I would say Mr. Monahan and Mr. Santana are even."

"We can't be even!" Luis blurted, a faint smile dimpling his cheek. "Shoveling the stables is on the line here!"

"Aye," Wash laughed, sweeping his coppery curls from his face and leaning back into the too-small desk. "The stakes are pretty high on this, so they are. We were at a tie back when we were both gormless eedjits who couldn't read our own names. We can't still be at one after all this."

"Well," Tommy stood thinking, staring up into the whitewashed rafters as if the answer might be etched into the wood. "I dunno...maybe...what if...how about we come up with something else to break the tie? Some...other subject?"

Mrs. Plunkett considered this. "Penmanship, perhaps?"

Miss Sullivan smiled, giving both Wash and Luis knowing looks and shaking her head. "Something else, I think. I am not sure which of them has the worse handwriting."

"Art!" Rosie blurted, remembering the incredible beauty of the clay letters Luis had made. "Luis is an amazing artist! You all saw what he made!" She gave Wash a sheepish look. "Sorry, Wash," she winced. "I think he should get some credit for that. It helped him study!"

"Aye, so it should, lass," Wash smiled back at her, holding up his hands in defeat. "I got all thumbs on me hands, so I do."

Miss Sullivan perked up, arching an eyebrow. "Well, Mr. Monahan...you may not be much of an artist, but you are an absolutely gifted mathematician." A faint smile tugged at her lip, and she gazed at him a little too long before turning her attention to Tommy and Mrs. Plunkett. There was a light in her eyes Rosie hadn't seen there before. "I've never seen anyone go through arithmetic papers so quickly and accurately," Miss Sullivan went on. "Surely, there's something to be said for that."

Mrs. Plunkett nodded, shrugging at Tommy. "I don't know if I can make a fair choice between them."

"It's a tie, then," Tommy said. "I can't either."

"So," Wash leaned forward in his seat and cracked his knuckles. "We both do half the stables. It's better than the whole barn, so it is, I don't mind so much..."

"No," Tommy said. "I'm taking care of it. You both should get a month off stable duty."

"That's not fair to you," Luis protested, "It's our bet, you shouldn't have to do all that work..."

"Oh, I'm not going to do it," Tommy said. "I'm gonna talk the Old Man into paying someone to do it,"

"Lad, how are..."

"I'm the only one of his crew that he hasn't had to get out of jail at some point," Tommy said, winking. "And you two learned to read! He'll do it, I know he will. Anyone...uh...anyone care to place a wager that he won't?"

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