Authors: Shirley Kennedy
“
It’s clear.”
She slipped from the wagon and took a quick look around the rain-soaked camp. No one was in sight except Clint. “It’s clear for the moment,” he said. “You’d better go.”
Her heart swelled. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, but already her mind had turned to matters more practical. Time to start dinner ... Noah would soon be back ... where was Abner? Hard to believe only minutes ago she was in such a state she wouldn’t have cared if the whole world had seen her making love with Clint. Now apprehension coursed through her. What if Agnes had seen her? What if Abner found out? What if ...? No more euphoria; she was back on earth again.
“
Goodbye.” She gave a wicked little smile. “Whenever I see a scorpion, I shall think of you.”
Not waiting for his reply, she hobbled away, wondering how she could’ve been so flippant with the man who’d just turned her whole world upside down.
Carried away on the wings of love.
Yes, she had been, and yes, she knew there’d be sleepless nights ahead when she remembered the sheer bliss she’d experienced on this bleak, rainy afternoon.
“
Lucy, what happened to you?”
Damnation! Agnes’ voice. Lucy turned to see her gossipy friend’s head sticking out of her tent.
What happened to me? Well, if you must know, I just finished making mad, passionate love with Clint Palance right under your very nose. By the way, do you have any idea how large he is? It was so long and hard it drove me wild. In fact, he’s such a good lover, I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming and waking the whole camp up. It was just so wonderful. So what do you think of
that
, Agnes!
“
I got stung by a scorpion.”
“
Oh, you poor dear. It must have been terrible, getting stung like that.”
“
Yes, it was pretty bad, all right. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another, isn’t it?”
“
It’s just awful, the hardships we must endure.”
“
You’re so right.” Lucy nodded her head in solemn agreement and hobbled on her way.
A few days later when the wagon train was underway again, Noah called, “Look, Ma, what’s that?” Seated on the wagon seat between Benjamin and Lucy, he pointed to the distant horizon where a lone pillar of rock reached toward the sky.
“
I don’t know what that is.”
Just then Charlie Dawes appeared, pacing his horse to the slow plodding of the oxen. “Son, that there is Chimney Rock. They call it a great natural wonder.”
“
Why do they call it a chimney?” Noah asked.
“
Because when you get up close, it looks like one. It looks close now, don’t it? You ain’t going to reach it for two more days. It’s the first of our landmarks. It tells us we’re five hundred and some odd miles from where we started. Folks like to climb it, at least the lower part. After we pass it, Fort Laramie’s just three days away.”
Abner rode up. In his usual brusque fashion he inquired, “What’s going on?”
Charlie’s eyes shifted to Abner. “We’re talking about Fort Laramie. By the way, we’ll need two or three days’ rest when we get there.”
Abner stiffened, as Lucy knew he would. His hard-driving ways drew many protests, but he kept insisting they move at as fast a pace as possible. “We must not waste time.”
“
The folks need a break. There’s plenty of wood at Fort Laramie, and grass and water. The people can trade at the fort and bathe and wash their clothes.” Charlie Dawes, until now always congenial, regarded Abner with a hard glint in his eye. “I highly recommend you stop for a couple of days. Otherwise ...”
“
Otherwise what?”
“
These people are tired and worn. They’ve still got a long way to go, and they need a couple of days to get clean, buy some food, give their animals a good feed, and get their spirits back up. Plain and simple, there’s going to be trouble if you don’t let them rest.”
Abner’s jaw clenched. His lips pinched tight. “I shall keep your advice in mind, but may I remind you the final decision is mine?”
After Charlie shrugged, gave a curt goodbye, and rode off, Lucy couldn’t keep silent. “You’d better listen to what he says. We’re so in need of a rest, and—”
“
God and I shall be the judge of that, not you.”
Lucy knew better than to waste another word, even though she was hearing constant rumblings of unrest and dissatisfaction with Abner’s leadership. Surely he sensed how unpopular he’d become. She’d even heard rumors many in the party wanted him deposed and another leader elected.
Better than anyone, she could understand why.
“
Ain’t this grand?” exclaimed Hannah. “Two whole days in Fort Laramie.” She, Lucy, and other women from the party, pails in hand, strolled toward the thick woods near the fort to pick berries.
“
We surely need the rest.” No need to mention the heated argument Lucy had overheard between Abner and the members of the council. A shouting William Applegate threatened to depose Abner as leader if he didn’t allow a two-day rest in Fort Laramie. All the other men agreed. Lucy silently applauded when Abner finally gave in to the pressure.
Fort Laramie, situated on a tongue of land formed by the junction of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers, offered a heavenly abundance of water. How wonderful to wash all over and feel really clean! Lucy had spent an enjoyable day with her women companions, bathing, cleaning out their wagons, and washing all their clothes, while Abner joined the men in mending wagons and equipment, and turning the cattle out to graze on the plentiful grass. Now, in the late afternoon, she strolled toward the woods feeling better than she’d felt for days ... weeks! She wore a newly laundered blue calico dress and left the hated sunbonnet behind. How nice, the carefree feel of her freshly washed hair falling loose around her shoulders.
She wished Clint could see her now. Since they had made love in his wagon, he’d constantly been on her mind. She longed to be with him, away from prying eyes, but the chances of that happening again were slim to none.
She pulled her thoughts back to earth. “I’m going to make a berry pie for dinner, and one for Bessie,” she called out to Hannah, Agnes, Martha, and Inez when they spread out to collect berries. Poor Bessie, who was near her time, remained behind.
Engrossed in her berry picking, Lucy soon found herself alone, although she hardly noticed, so intent was she on filling her pail with the plump gooseberries and chokeberries she found in great quantities. Finally, when she had filled her pail to the brim, she stopped, raised her head, and looked around. Surprised, she found high walls on either side of her and realized she must have worked her way into a canyon filled with tall trees and thick undergrowth. Where was she? How still it was. Where were the others?
“
Agnes?” she called. “Hannah? Martha? Inez?”
No answer. Only her own words echoed back at her. She called again, louder, and listened intently, but the only sounds she heard were the caws of a passing raven, the gurgle of a brook, and the rustle of soft wind through tall pine trees.
“
You can’t be lost,” she muttered to herself, annoyed but not alarmed. Her friends couldn’t be far. All she had to do was retrace her steps, and she’d be sure to find them.
Which way? Clutching her pail of berries, she turned in a slow circle and tried to decide which way she’d come. Trouble was, each bush looked like another, and each tree looked like the next. She had no idea which way to go.
“
Agnes?” she yelled at the top of her voice, more impatient now. “Hannah? Inez?” No comforting reply, but she still felt no alarm. She’d find that creek she heard and follow it, and in no time she’d be back with her friends.
She followed the sound of flowing water and soon found a gurgling brook flowing over moss-covered stones, edged by tiny violets and moss roses. How pretty. She’d like her friends to see it, but meanwhile, should she go upstream or downstream? She had no idea. Downstream, she supposed. That was as good a guess as any.
She started walking, finding the way easy going at first because she could follow along the bank. Farther along, the underbrush was so thick in places that she had to wade through the creek in order to get around it. She kept a firm grip on her pail, though. Bessie
would
have her pie. And Noah, too, and Henry and Benjamin. Even Abner.
Over and over, she called her friends’ names, but no one answered. She had no idea of the time, but it seemed an hour at least that she’d struggled down the stream with no end in sight. She wondered how she could have wandered so far. Surely, she should’ve found someone by now. She glanced up at the sun and saw it was about to set behind one wall of the canyon. That meant she was facing west. But from which direction had she come? She didn’t know, and soon darkness would set in.
Now she recalled the warning she’d been given at the fort.
Don’t stray too far. Indians ... grizzly bears ... snakes!
A sudden fright overcame her. Soon she’d be all alone in the dark, lost in the wilderness. She sank to the ground, her back to a tree, her heart pumping with fright. She had no place to run, no place to hide, no weapon of any kind. So vulnerable anything could get her! Her mind racing, she remained absolutely still against the tree, terrified something monstrous would leap from the bushes at any moment and pounce on her.
Just then, she heard a slight rustling in the bushes. Must be her imagination. Again a rustling. She turned her head toward the sound and saw, not six feet away, the glittering black eyes of a snake staring straight at her. Panic like she’d never known welled in her throat.
Run
! cried a little voice within her.
Get up and run
! But her body refused to cooperate. The snake, its body a blotched mixture of yellow, gray, and brown, left the bushes and slithered straight toward her. She let out a small scream, pressed her back to the tree. In the wink of an eye, the snake wound into a menacing coil, its head swaying back and forth, forked tongue flicking rapidly. She heard a funny sound. Rattles! A rattlesnake! She could hardly breathe.
Again she told herself she must get away, must run. Barely had she started to put thought into action when she heard a voice.
“
Lucy, don’t move.”
She froze.
“
Don’t move.”
She shifted her eyes toward the sound of the voice. Dressed in his buckskins, knife in hand, Clint Palance stepped through the bushes, his eyes on the snake. With a motion so swift it was just a blur, he sent the knife flying square into the snake’s head, killing it instantly. She slapped a hand over her mouth and gazed wide-eyed, unable to speak, first at the dead snake, then up at Clint.
“
Good afternoon.” He retrieved his knife, slipped it into its sheath, and smiled. “Out for a stroll?”
Hand shaking, she pointed at the remains of the snake. “Get that thing out of here!”
“
My pleasure.” He picked up the dead reptile and tossed it back into the bushes. “Better?”
“
Much better.” Her fear gone, she was so relieved to see him she wanted to leap up and throw herself into his arms. Pride prevented her, though. Since that day they’d made love, they’d hardly said a word to each other. As a result, she felt a certain constraint had grown between them, and the intimacy they’d shared was gone. “Well, it appears you’ve saved me again.” She picked up her pail of berries and held it up to him. “Care for a gooseberry?”
He sank down beside her. “Did you know everyone’s looking for you?” He took a berry and popped it into his mouth. “Hmm, good. Why didn’t you stay with the others?”
“
Why didn’t they stay with me?” She managed an elaborate shrug. “Actually I wasn’t really lost.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Not scared, I suppose.”
“
Not at all. I was just resting. How did you know where to find me?”
He grinned. “You left a trail a mile wide. Footprints—snapped twigs—broken branches. An elephant would be harder to find.”
“
Really?” She tilted her nose up. “I’ll have you know I knew what I was doing. I was following the stream, just like I’m supposed to. Sooner or later—”
“
You’d have ended up in Texas. You were going the wrong way.”
“
Oh.” She put her hand over her mouth and started to laugh. “I made a mess of it, didn’t I?”
“
Pretty much.” He weighed her with a critical squint. “You shouldn’t have wandered off. There’s plenty of Sioux around here. They’re not always friendly.”
Her laughter stopped abruptly. “I worry a lot about the Indians.”
“
They’re pests more than anything else. You’ll see a lot more of them coming into camp, begging for food or anything else they think you might give them. If you don’t watch, they’ll steal anything that isn’t nailed down. You can’t blame them. This is their land, and we’re stealing it.” He paused, as if weighing whether or not to go on. “ I won’t lie to you. Ahead we’ll be running into parties of Shoshones. They’re a dangerous lot. Arapahos, too.”
“
Do you think we’ll be attacked?”
“
Just keep an eye out and be careful. Tell Ben and Henry to keep their guns handy, and loaded.” A chill ran down her spine, but before she could pursue the subject, he continued, “Do you realize this is only the second time we’ve been alone?”
“
I guess it is.”