As local railroad baron D.J. Sinsley ambled down the main street in Wallace, ID on a warm autumn afternoon; he watched as the children played in the streets and around the buildings. He pondered his life; it had been a tale of public success and personal tragedy. He had made his fortune in exploiting the new mineral discoveries of the Coeur d’Alene River country. He had built a railroad and steamboat line that was quite literally moving mountains. As the mines grew so did his wealth.
However, his life was empty. His wife had died while giving birth to their second child, a son. His wife had already given him a lovely daughter. As the children grew they became the center of his life, though he never let them know it much. He was so busy building his empire that he rarely took time for the children. They were raised by various nannies. When he was five, his son was thrown from a horse and was sadly taken from him. All that was left was his daughter Sheyenne Kaihla and his railroad.
As he fell deeper in despair he found refuge not in the only treasure he had left but in his work. He pulled farther from her and yet he was unable to see that as she grew she became more distant. He decided that a rough and tumble mining town was no place to raise a proper lady. He sent her away to a finishing school in Seattle. He wrote but seldom would work allow him to visit. She deeply resented her father and the loss of her mother. One day she disappeared without a trace.
Sinsley dove deep into depression. The only thing he had left was an empire that caused him so much regret. He tried to drown his sorrows in alcohol, gambling, and unsavory female companionship. The local reverend offered him the comfort of Jesus. Nothing seemed to replace the family he had lost, especially the daughter he had caused to turn away. Anger gave way to depression, which eventually just turned into a life of subsistence.
Now on this autumn day he was just a shell of a man. He watched the children play, wondered what his son would have become, wondered what became of his daughter. As he wandered along the Wallace store fronts there were a series of colorful posters nailed to the posts and doors. The circus was coming to town. Of course he had already known this as they were in negotiation to lease his tracks to bring their train into town. But the colorful posters grabbed his attention in another way.
Suddenly his gaze fell upon a particular one. A gypsy fortune teller, a mind reader said the sign. Madam Kaihla, the World’s Greatest Mind Reader from Post Falls, Idaho Territory. Wait, could this be just a coincidence. Unlikely so, after all Kaihla was not a common name and surely only one had ever come from the newly formed frontier town of Post Falls. His heart leapt, could it really be his long lost daughter would be returning to him. He would have to wait, for the circus would not be in town for another month. This will be the longest month of his life.
To be continued. . .
