Experiment 2

While the two men looked through the window of the park ranger's office, Sarah Lee Poole worked on her wagon. It would not only be her display backdrop it would be her home for the three day event. Even if they saw her working, they would assume that Sarah was a man. Most of the people who met her even socially thought that she was either a sissy or a dyke.

Sarah Lee was neither, but she probably could whip half the guys she knew. No she wasn't all that big 5'9", she weighed a respectable 170 pounds, she wasn't strong, and she didn't have a black belt in anything except her one good black dress. What she did have was ten years of street cop experience. She had worked the gang squads in her town as well as the major crimes division's swat team. Sarah Lee was the poster girl for female cops everywhere. She was every bit the better man at most things she tried.

Most things included her dad's business, she could have walked off the force and become a well-paid professional photographer anytime she wanted. Instead she had stayed a cop and found her own creative niche. Sarah Lee loved to shoot old civil war reproduction photographs. When she could swing a few days off, she would load her authentic civil war photographer's wagon onto the small trailer behind her old beat up Toyota land rover. The rover was famous for it's adaptability. Sarah Lee's rover had a small block Chevy V8 under the beat up hood. It was necessary for hauling the trailer with her wagon perched on top.

Since Sarah wasn't an official re enactor, she had to set up her wagon with the vender. She still managed to spend all her evenings, with the old wooden camera on a tripod bye her side while sitting around a cook fire in front of some tent. Sleeping in a tent wasn't for her but sleeping in the back of the wagon was only slightly better. Her father had insisted that she do it as authentically as possible. A blanket roll on the hard wooden floor was the required way to go. It did offer a little more security, which eased her cop's mind a little. Sarah loved her father and would never knowingly disappoint him.

She finally had the wagon set in place and tied down. She looked up to the ranger station far above the meadow where the encampment was set up. She didn't see the two men, and most likely they hadn't really noticed her. Sarah was thinking that they should have found a way to disguise the newer stone building so that it fit the period. Hard to imagine yourself in the 1860s with a view of the park rangers parking lot. Her Rover and trailer would be hidden behind a grove of trees half a mile away.

"Hey there Sarah, I got those cards. Wife and I had a grand old time writing our friends notes and sticking our pictures in them. Most of them weren't sure if they were my grandfather or me. Great fun girl, don't you stop doing that I want me some more from this battle."

"You still got my card?" She would have called him by name but she had no idea who he was.

"Yeah, I'll be looking for this set up there."

"Well give me at least a week."

"Can do girl, and you have yourself some fun to. Me and the wife will be by for a new portrait tomorrow or Sunday." He took about a dozen steps then turned back. "Why don't you come over to the camp tonight. We are gonna' have a dance, you might get yourself a beau,"

"I'll come over but the beau things is more likely after they get liquored up or desperate." Both Sarah Lee and the soldier laughed.