Medicine Dan

Medicine Dan was an old man, aged prematurely through excessive time travel. He ran the ferry from the Port of Pouteau to the other side of the river. His boat had a powerful outboard motor, and an anti-time device affixed to the controls. It looked like a jerry-rigged toaster with a clock face soldered on. The trip across the river seemed to take about an hour, but upon arrival at the far shore one could expect to have gained or lost up to a week's time. Medicine Dan spent a lot of time on the river, spent it like money thrown into the wind. You could never know when or where to find him. To get across the river, it was best to camp out on the pier and wait. He accepted barter for his services, and welcomed gossip. For these reasons, Medicine Dan was the go-to man when one needed information, or hard to find commodities like moonshine or tobacco. Due to the irregularities of both of their schedules, Marylou and Medicine Dan had never crossed paths, although each had heard tell of the other. That is, until Marylou ran into him at the Market. She recognized him from his distinctive suit and grey beard, and he noticed her golden circlet.

"You Marylou?" he asked gruffly, squinting at her.

"Marylou von Fixin de Hoolie," she said, "And you must be Medicine Dan. I've been hoping to meet you one of these days. I'm looking for someone in the future, my dad Hans Sneebum."

"How far you reckon he went?" Medicine Dan was no stranger to the future. He had contacts all the way from last week to the next century. 

"That's the thing we don't know," she sighed. "He got washed down the river about four years ago." She shifted her feet and looked plaintively into his wrinkled face. 

"Tell me this. What's the most likely thing he'd get up to? Did he have a reputation for something n'ruther?" Medicine Dan, a consummate tale-teller, needed a hook. Something to pass around, fish for information.

"Well, he was a card-carrying member of the Icelandic Doomsday Seed Traders Club...He collected seeds of all kinds, especially heirloom vegetables. I guess he'd be looking for seeds wherever he landed. That, and he had the bluest eyes you'd ever see."

"Gotcha."

"What do you know of the future, Medicine Dan?" 

"Well, 'bout twenty five years from now, Scrappers get kinda mean. Times are tough, no place for a lady. After that, there's a renaissance, and things get damn near bucolic. Hey, maybe your Daddy has something to do with that! Did he have any seeds with him when he got carried off?"

"My dad never went anywhere without pockets full of seeds...." Marylou thought for a moment. "What is it you want, Medicine Dan?"

The old man looked at Marylou carefully. He was so used to people asking him for things, he was taken aback for a moment. "More than anything I'd like a dog. Someone to replace Clarabelle, my beloved mule, may she rest."

After this fateful encounter, Marylou set off for Leroy's Foos Ball and Pool Hall. She liked to go there on her trips to town to play a game of foos ball, and have a plate of their famous cheese fries. Little did she know who and what waited for her there.