[color=007236]"Keziah Wilkinson ... That was my brother Samuel. Samuel Black."[/color]

William's first thought -- a very [i]man[/i] thought -- was [i]Brother...?  Great, that means you're available, yeehaw for me.[/i]  Then he caught the fact of the different surnames, and William was disappointed to know -- incorrectly, of course -- that Keziah's husband would likely be returning soon enough.

Keziah finished with her cooking preps and clean up, then headed out of the room to check on the sister of whom William was only now becoming aware.  Despite his hostess's order to stay put, though, William was up on his feet and heading for the door even as she was still heading down the short hallway.  No sooner had she ducked inside the other bedroom then he was heading for the door through which he'd earlier seen evidence of the Revolutionary War.

William hadn't been sure of what to expect from the aftermath of the fight outside the cabin.  On Normandy Beach in 1944, the Allied Forces had suffered almost 75,000 dead with twice that number injured.  Eighty years before that, the Army of the Potomac had suffered more than 23,000 dead at the Battle of Gettysburg, with the Army of Northern Virginia incurring similar losses.  But the population of the British Colonies in America had been small in 1775 relative to the US in 1863 or 1944: there had been only 2.5 million people in the 13 colonies at the beginning of the American Revolution, and today the Greater Boston Area alone had twice that many people inside its borders.

When he got outside, William was grateful not to find a sea of dead or writhing bodies.  From the door step, he could see only three soldiers at all: one standing nearby, another seated on a stump being tended to by Samuel, and a third laying toes up near a burning wagon, another man's coat laid over his stilled upper torso and face.  [i]One dead,[/i] William thought with a sigh.  Then, walking toward Samuel to lend a hand if needed, he began to see the others.  In every direction, soldiers -- some in British Red, others in Patriot blue, and still more in just ordinary farmer wear -- were either dead, dying, or hoping to avoid either.  It wasn't like any of William's reenactments, of course.  They had used real gun powder -- without shot, of course -- to fill the air realistically with smoke.  And sometimes they had used powerful, buried high pressure air devices to blow loosened dirt high into the air, simulating cannon balls exploding on the earth.  But because children were often at these events and -- with the recent 21st century wars -- people could see enough blood and guts on the nightly news, no fake blood or lost limbs or other graphic injuries or deaths were exhibited as part of the reenactments.

But now, William found himself looking at bloodied bodies, some with limbs blown off, one even with its head missing.  He got dizzy with his spinning about looking at the mayhem, and he leaned over to puke out the break and water his hostess had just recently given him.  He recovered, but when he did and rose tall once again, William found himself staring down the barrel of a long rifle as the man eying him through the simple sights was saying to others nearby, "[i]Come take a look at this bloody Englishman, boys!  What the hell is this?  This ain't no redcoat uni'.  Whatcha wearing, boy?  It sure ain't our uniform.[/i]"

Another male nearby called out, "Kill'em, Phillip!" 

Another screamed, "[i]Kill him dead, Elijah!  He's an enemy soldier[/i]"