Mister Quaid: 1800s (WLW)

Part Two, 1879: Chapter Eleven

November 16th, 1979, Fort Worth, Texas

Alice was tired of all of this bureaucratic talk, this business of running around and having to curb to the urges of governmental and fundamental ties. It wasn't that she didn't hold love for the land. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She loved Texas, it was her first home and where she was born, but the simple fact of the matter was that she was there to do business. Listening to these men bicker was not only becoming tedious, but she had grown exhausted of it all.

When Walt made her his partner in their railroad business, she didn't fully grasp what the entirety of the job entailed. She was very excited to begin a new chapter in her life after being homebound, unwilling to do much of anything for so long. She had been heartbroken and that heart would never mend in spite of how hard she may try to force it to do so, but she came to the realization one morning that if she were to remain in the swallows of self pity and lovelorn longing, she would never find real peace. Still, why did she ever think that she would find peace in this job?

Unlike her brother, Alice was not tied down by a family, she had no one to call her own and that was not going to change, so she had taken the role of traveling around the country for business meetings. Also, after the attack on their homestead which felt a lifetime ago at times, Walt couldn't get around as he had in his youth. His leg, after growing infected while Alice was away on her expedition, was cut off just before his wedding. He was now a homebody and would have it no other way, which was exactly what Alice felt, but she hadn't quite anticipated such arduous meetings at every turn.

The most recent of them was the major shareholders trying to negotiate the terms for extending a railway from Fort Worth connecting to Denver City and along the New Mexico border. It would connect to major railroads and open up commerce on the western side of Texas, which was something that needed to happen. The job opportunities for immigrants and Americans of colour were endless and with lynchings being such a major problem at the moment, disturbing life and integrity primarily within the black community across the nation, Alice and Walt wanted to create work and some stability for those who needed it most.

Regardless of this, not everyone at the table agreed with the business proposal, nor did they agree with the government's hold over so much prosperous land. Prosperous land that was sure to line their pockets.

They were all the same. Alice had figured that out long ago when she first began traveling around the country. All these men cared about was money and power and Alice, as a woman, was apparently in no place to argue with them. According to them, she shouldn't even be the one sent to discuss business with them and some of the men were childish enough to completely ignore the things she said as if her knowledge of trade and railroads held absolutely no merit in the world.

Why couldn't more people be like her brother? She missed Walt and wanted to visit him, but each time she did, it was a pale reminder of what she would never have in her life.

In the last six years, Walt had gotten married and started a beautiful family, his wife giving birth to two lovely girls who took after her in everything they did. Jeremiah had passed away as had Opie and Alice had nothing of her own anymore other than a small home in Fort Worth, Texas and a studio apartment up north. It should have been enough. She wrote Hany and Jessie Hendrix as often as she could and was in her home state, but it felt all wrong. As if a piece of her life was missing and as much as she would prefer to never put a name to that missing piece, she couldn't help but do just that.

Its name was Peter Quaid. A name that rang in her mind daily, wavering her footsteps and making her chest pained that way Pete always made it ache. Six years, two months and seven days. That was how long it had been since she and Pete said their goodbyes, like nothing had ever happened between them in the first place. Alice would have liked to say her life was better off without Pete and that she didn't still hold a place for her in her heart, but that would be a lie. She was in her mind every hour of every day and the ache never ended. It probably never would. Especially after the fact that she figured out all too late that she was dearly and desperately in love with her.