They have all gone mad

Dear Journal,

This place has driven the entire family mad!  First of all Mother sensibly did not like the abode   hovel    building we were abiding within and so we had to move which I had hoped oh so sincerely would mean back to Colorado as, if one is going to go through the bother of packing up and placing things on a wagon, one might as well get on with it and go somewhere a bit more settled and civilized but NOOOOOO where did we go?  You will not believe it, nor did I.. across the street!  Yes, all that work and there we are, across the way smushed between a boarding house and a restaurant.  This is madness.

True, it is an improvement if we must stay.  The house is bigger though still I must share the room with Marrant and her paints but we are near the river which is better than near the door to the mine with all those dirty miners and the shooting range with all the loud bangs night and day.  And the man who runs the boarding house is very handsome. And not wed.  He is a little old, but not so much.  I believe he must have money to run a boarding house.   We are also near Auntie Bluebird's kitchen and she is much nicer than America though even darker skinned.  And her food is delicious.  If from her I can learn to cook, surely I will be able to find a husband worthy of me.

But I wander from the madness.  Mother, Father, America and Marrant are all mad.  They insist I have done awful things. Am I gone mad also?  No one will tell me what exactly it was that I did.  Father eyes me sternly in that manner he has and says, "You know what you have done," and "I should expect this from your sister, not from you."  Then he begins to raise his voice and say something about boys and young girls and turns red and storms out.  Mother merely nods in agreement with Father and tells me I must not "talk back" when all I do is ask for an explanation.  America, to be expected, says nothing but laughs in that silent way she has, right behind Mother and Father!  Marrant says I did wander to the river in my sleep and met up with a boy!  Surely I would remember that!

My punishment is not so dreadful anyways, except the disappointment of Papa who has never before raised his voice at me, his favorite I am sure.  And it is fine to see Marrant doing my chores as I sit in my room and read my cooking book and magazine - I do not really need to leave and it is only another day before I can.  Papa has forgotten about the writing of the entire Bible, which is good as I did run out of papers and inks rather fast.  Further, I did slip out to a baking contest, Father thinking I was Marrant. She was left behind, doing my chores and hers, muttering and kicking things as so she did, while America grinned and Mother felt her way around the new home.   They are mad.

Deadwood - located in Phoenix Pass, Second Life (not really in South Dakota)