Episode - 070 - One Lucky Soldier

Stop Making Yourself Miserable

In the four episodes that preceded this one, during the Civil War, Annie Franklin, a nineteen-year-old woman who happens to have psychic gifts, had come to Virginia to take her brother, Daniel, a badly wounded Union soldier, back home to Connecticut for care.

It had been a difficult and trying time. After attempting to take advantage of her, an unscrupulous Union captain angrily refused to give her the furlough she needed. Then, when she went back to the field hospital to see what she could do for her brother, she found that it was basically deserted, and along with a few hundred other soldiers, he had been left there to die.

Overwhelmed by their desperate situation, she had gone out into the field to try to think, but broke into tears and ended up sobbing into her lap. Unexpectedly, a man dressed in buckskin riding clothes came over and offered to help her. He took her by the arm and started walking her towards a table where some soldiers had gathered.

But she was still shaken by the terrible experience she had when the army captain had tried to molest her, and she pulled her arm away, refusing to move until the stranger told her his intentions. The man assured her that he was acting in her best interests and as the episode ended, the two of them stood facing each other as she tried to decide if she could trust him.

And now, the story continues…

* * *

He took her by the arm again. She intuitively felt her body relax and began to walk along with him before she had consciously made up her mind to do it, which surprised her. As they approached the table, the soldiers immediately looked up with attention.

“Do you happen to have a paper with your brother’s name on it?” he asked Annie.

“Why yes, I do. I have his enlistment certificate,” she said.

“Oh perfect,” he responded and held out his hand “Give it to me.”

She couldn’t tell if he had given her an order or made a statement of assistance, but he spoke with total authority and complete confidence. She handed him the paper, and when he took it, she felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders.

“Fred, we still have a few furloughs left in the pack, don’t we?” he asked one of the men at the table.

“I think we have a few left,” the man replied.

“Good,” he said, putting the enlistment certificate on the table. “Fill one out for this young lady’s brother, will ya?”

“Sure thing,” the man said, rifling through the certificates that were neatly filed in a leather saddlebag. “Be happy to.”

“A furlough?” Annie asked, hardly believing her ears. “I thought you could only get them at the War Department.”

“Well, things are not always the way they seem,” the man responded. As the clerk at the table filled out the papers, the man in buckskin motioned to two other soldiers who joined them.

“This girl’s brother is in the infirmary tent. I want you to get them to Georgetown right away,” he said quietly. “Go tell Serling to dress up as a doctor and dress Willoughby up as another wounded soldier. Take the two snipers and dress them up as orderlies. They’ll all travel along as one party.

“Georgetown is a great place for them to lay low for a few days. They’ll know where to go. Tell them that once we get things set up, I’ll get their orders to them.”

He looked over at Annie, who was clearly amazed by what was happening. “This really came along at just the right time,” he said, smiling at her. “It’s perfect.”

“All done, Charlie,” the man at the table reported to the man in buckskin. He walked over and read the papers. After a moment he signed the furlough and handed it to Annie. “Here you go,” he said to her with a smile.

“So that’s it?” she asked him. “I don’t need to go to another doctor and I don’t need to get an army officer to authorize this? This is all we need?”

“That’s right,” the man replied. “We just took care of all that here. You don’t need to do anything further. Just get your poor brother some care and bring him back to health. A military escort will transport you to your friends’ house.”

He then walked over to the table and started talking to the soldiers. After a moment Annie walked over to them.

“Um, pardon me, but when do you think we’ll be able to go?” Annie asked tentatively. “I don’t think Daniel can last here more than a few more days, maybe a week at most. Longer than that, I - ”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he interrupted her. “I wasn’t clear. You’re going today. I put a rush on it. They’ll probably have you both on the road within an hour. Two at the most.”

“Oh my God!” Annie said quietly, almost to herself. “Oh my God,” she repeated as she breathed in a deep sigh of relief.

“Everything will be taken care of for you from here,” the man continued. “Now you just do what the soldiers tell you to do and you and your brother will be in Georgetown before nightfall.”

“Oh my God!” Annie quietly repeated again. It seemed to be all she could express, the unexpected change in their fate had happened so suddenly, she could hardly think straight.

The air was cold and still reeked of death, but now she was filled with gratitude, and everything was different. She held out her hand to the noble stranger. He shook it and held it in his and said, “Miss, it’s been an honor to meet you. You came at just the right time.” He paused for a moment and added soberly, “Good luck to you and your family in this bitter time of trial for us all.”

“Sir,” she responded. “I just want to say, really from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say,” she stopped and looked him squarely in the eyes. “I just want to say… thank you.”

“You’re most welcome,” he replied. He patted her on the hand, then buttoned up his buckskin jacket. He gave her one last look, then turned and walked toward his horse, a huge golden stallion with a bright white mane.

He put on his brown leather riding hat and mounted the massive steed that seemed to welcome him into the saddle. It eagerly shook its head and snorted, like it couldn’t wait to run. He turned the horse away from Annie and sat in the saddle for a few moments, gazing out at the field. He seemed to be deciding which way to go. The day had brightened, the sun was shining, and the stinging rawness had gone out of the air.

He continued to survey the scene as Annie watched him from behind the horse. With this simple act of kindness, he had ended her horrible ordeal and saved her brother’s life. It was far beyond anything she could have hoped for.

But who was this mysterious stranger? He was clearly in charge of the soldiers at the table, but he seemed kind of young for that. Obviously, he was deeply involved with the brutality of the escalating war. Yet there was a steely kind of optimism about him…a sense of confidence in that ultimately - the power of good would prevail.

As she looked up at him, she became overwhelmed, not only by what had he had just done for her, but also by the man in the saddle, himself. He muttered something to his horse, it turned around and, he was face to face with Annie once again.

On horseback he certainly cut a striking figure. But she suddenly realized how handsome he actually was, and she stared up at him like he was a gift from above. They looked at each other for what seemed like a very long moment. Then with a warm, yet slightly coy smile he said, “Well, I’ll tell you one thing, Miss Annie Franklin, your brother is certainly one lucky soldier!”

No man had ever looked at her quite like that before. There was something endearing in his eyes, but there was also something more than that. A thrill rippled through her and she felt the blood rush into her head. Even though she was already nineteen, she came from a small town, had been sickly as a child and had no experience with men at all. Her breath quickened and she blushed as red as a beet.

“Who knows?” he finally said, “Maybe our paths will cross again someday. You take care of yourself ‘til then, okay?’

“I will,” she said with a subtle smile as her face lit up like a budding rose.

“I’ll take that as a promise,” he said with a knowing look and turned the horse around. Giving it a slight nudge, it lunged forward and then galloped away. She stared at him for a few moments until he finally disappeared over the horizon.

“Is this really real?” Annie asked abstractedly. “I mean this is real, isn’t it?”

“Pardon me, Miss?” asked the soldier who was sitting at the table near her. She turned to him and put the paper on the table.

“Oh. I mean the furlough,” she said, quickly changing her focus. “It’s real, isn’t it? I mean, that man wasn’t even in uniform. Can he really do what he just did?” she asked.

“Well, his kind never dress in uniform. They run undercover. But that furlough is as good as gold. You see his signature there?” the man pointed at the paper. “You see that - Charles Keane – BDF.”

“Yes,” Annie said. “Does that mean something?”

“You bet it does. BDF stands for the Baker Detective Force and that means a hell of a lot. They’re a top-secret group, the Bakers. Nobody really knows that much about them. I think there’s only about 12 of them in the whole army. But you see that signature there? That can only be overruled by a four star General.”

She stared at Keane’s signature on the furlough. The soldier gave her a kind pat on the hand, then added reassuringly, “You’re safe now, Miss. You can relax.”

* * *

It was dusk when Annie stood and watched as two soldiers carried the stretcher holding her semi-conscious brother into the parlor of the Harrison’s home. Just a few hours earlier, on the hospital grounds, she had been staring into the pits of hell, only inches away from having to make a vulgar deal with the devil. Then unexpectedly within minutes, the dark scene had suddenly filled with light, her troubles had vanished, and now she could see a clear pathway home.

Filled with gratitude, she lit a candle on a nearby table and heaved a deep sigh of relief. Finally able to relax, she sat down and stared at Daniel’s peaceful face, glowing in the warm, flickering candlelight. He had fallen asleep and was snoring softly. Smiling, she gazed contentedly at his chest, rising and falling with the steady flow of his rhythmic breath.

And so ends the story of when the psychic met the spy. And this is also the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one.