THE MERCY CONTRACT
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ARTICLE I: PARTIES TO THIS AGREEMENT
Section 1.1: The Woman
On the sixteenth day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-one, there arrived in the township of Providence, Nevada, by afternoon stage, one (1) female passenger, sole occupant of said conveyance.
Name (as given): Abigail Kern
Age (as stated): Forty-two years
Place of Origin (as stated): No fixed address
Occupation (as stated): Medical practitioner, unlicensed
Distinguishing Features: Dark hair, prematurely lined face, tremor in left hand
Baggage: One (1) medical bag, leather, worn
Contents of said bag (observed):
Bandages (cotton, unbleached)
Scalpel (surgical steel, tarnished)
Laudanum bottles (quantity: four; condition: three empty, one half-full)
Tintype photograph (subject: male, approximately 20 years, Union Army uniform)
Fragment of photograph (subject matter: unidentified, showing portion of female hand, reaching upward)
The Woman took lodging above the Criterion Saloon, Room 7, and paid for one (1) week’s accommodation with currency she did not possess in sufficient quantity to warrant such expenditure.
Section 1.2: The Man
On the seventeenth day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-one, there arrived in the township of Providence, Nevada, one (1) male person, traveling by horse.
Name (as given): Moses Pitts
Age (as estimated): Fifty-eight years
Place of Origin (as stated): No fixed address
Occupation (as stated): Bounty hunter, operating under warrant
Distinguishing Features:
Height above average (6 feet 2 inches, estimated)
Beard greying
Literate (exceptional)
Horses:
Two (2) — one roan mare (riding), one bay gelding (pack)
Cargo:
One (1) deceased male person, wrapped in canvas
Identity unknown
Value to carrier: $150 bounty (uncollected)
Personal Effects (observed):
Sharps rifle (.52 caliber, well-maintained)
Leather journal (handmade, approximately 200 pages, three-quarters filled with script and pressed botanical specimens)
Fragment of photograph (subject matter: unidentified, showing corner of wooden structure, aflame)
The Man stabled his horses at Petersen’s Livery and took lodging at the boarding house, Room 3.
Section 1.3: The Child
On the nineteenth day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-one, there arrived in the township of Providence, Nevada, one (1) male person, traveling on foot.
Name (as given): Henry Childress
Age (as stated): Nineteen years
Place of Origin (as stated): Deceased rancher’s property, thirty miles south-southwest
Occupation (as stated): Ranch hand, now unemployed
Distinguishing Features:
Severe stutter rendering speech functionally impossible
Extraordinary recall (self-reported, unverified)
Dark complexion
Black hair (straight)
No identification papers or documentation of birth
Personal Effects:
Currency totaling forty-three dollars
Book of poetry (Whitman, *Leaves of Grass*, fourth edition; unable to read but memorized through auditory exposure)
Fragment of photograph (subject matter: silhouette of a child, standing, observing)
The Child obtained work at Petersen’s Livery; compensation: room and board, no wages.
Section 1.4: Terms of Arrival
Each of the above-named Parties received, by means unknown and undocumented, their respective photograph fragments.
On the reverse of each fragment, inscribed in script (India ink, unfaded), one (1) word:
Remember.
No return address.
No date of posting.
No signature.
Each Party, upon receipt of said fragment, experienced compulsion (nature: unclear; strength: irresistible) to travel to Providence, Nevada.
None can articulate why.
This constitutes Section I of the present Agreement, whether entered into knowingly or otherwise.
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ARTICLE II: THE TOWN AS IT EXISTS
Section 2.1: Providence — A Brief History (Official)
Providence, Nevada, was founded in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven by seven (7) prospectors who filed claims for silver mining in the region.
Population (at founding): 47 persons
Population (at height, 1877): 4,200 persons
Population (current, 1881): 187 persons (estimated, declining)
The town consists of:
One (1) main street, unpaved
One (1) saloon (Criterion)
One (1) general store
One (1) livery stable
One (1) assayer’s office (closed)
One (1) marshal’s office
One (1) boarding house
One (1) opera house (unfinished, abandoned)
Various residential structures (majority unoccupied)
The silver deposits were exhausted in eighteen hundred and seventy-eight.
No significant mineral discoveries since.
The town is dying.
This is not disputed.
Section 2.2: Providence — A Brief History (Unofficial)
Prior to eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, the land now occupied by Providence was known as Bittercreek.
This name does not appear in official state records.
The land was occupied by a Paiute encampment of indeterminate size (estimated: 40–50 persons, including women and children).
On the fifteenth day of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, said encampment was destroyed by fire.
Casualties (as reported by Ranger Samuel K. Dutch, dated November 28, 1866):
40–50 persons, deceased
Cause of death (as reported):
Gunshot wounds
Burns
Smoke inhalation
Survivors: None confirmed
Exception: One (1) child, unaccounted for
Seven (7) men were interviewed as potential witnesses.
All seven (7) stated they were prospecting elsewhere at the time of the incident.
No charges filed.
Case closed.
The seven (7) men subsequently purchased all land claims in the area and founded Providence directly atop the site of the former Paiute encampment.
Main Street runs through what was the center of the camp.
Section 2.3: The Seven
The following men founded Providence:
1. Thomas Garrett (mine supervisor, deceased September 12, 1881)
2. Samuel Dutch (prospector, deceased September 14, 1881)
3. Clay Herschel (town founder, deceased September 16, 1881)
4. Martin Kellerman (merchant, deceased September 18, 1881)
5. Douglas Fenn (assayer, deceased September 19, 1881)
6. Lars Petersen (livery owner, deceased September 20, 1881)
7. Jacob Ware (rancher, deceased September 22, 1881)
Each man was found positioned identically:
Supine
Hands folded over heart
Expression of terror fixed on face
Official cause of death (in all cases):
Natural causes, age-related failure of heart
Unofficial observation (as noted by The Man, Moses Pitts):
Each deceased bore identical marking on chest — circular scar, faded, approximately one (1) inch in diameter, positioned directly over sternum
Origin of scar: unknown
Age of scar: fifteen years (estimated)
All seven (7) men died within ten (10) days of the Parties’ arrival in Providence.
This fact is noted without interpretation.
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ARTICLE XI: SIGNATURES
This contract, entered into by parties unknown, for purposes unknown, with terms unknown, is hereby declared:
INCOMPLETE
No signatures provided.
No witnesses present.
No enforcement mechanism exists.
No resolution achieved.
No parties satisfied.
The contract remains open.
The terms remain unmet.
The debt — if debt there was — remains unpaid.
Or has been paid in full.
Both statements may be true.
Both statements may be false.
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ADDENDUM: OBSERVATION FOR THE RECORD
In the desert, five miles north-northwest of where Providence used to be, there is a place where nothing grows.
Beneath a dead tree, one-quarter mile further north, there are three graves with six names.
At the base of the third grave, there is a handprint pressed into stone.
It remains damp.
It will always remain damp.
Long after Providence is dust.
Long after the desert reclaims the ground.
Long after no one remembers what happened here.
The handprint will remain.
And the word carved above it, barely visible:
Remember.
This constitutes the entirety of the agreement.
This constitutes the entirety of the evidence.
This constitutes the entirety of what can be known.
[END OF CONTRACT]
[NO FURTHER TERMS]
[NO APPEALS PERMITTED]
[CASE CLOSED — UNRESOLVED]