Mountain Moonlight (14 page)

"Didn't Pauline say to keep bearing left?" Davis added.

"You got it."
The k
id was going to be a helluva guide some day. Good sense of direction, despite his getting lost that once. Knew his way around a horse, too.

Some time later, Bram decided they'd come as close as they were going to get to the place where Pauline had said the snake landmark once was. He called a rest halt.

When Davis slid off his horse, Bram noticed him gingerly rub his rear. Must still hurt some when he rode. They'd make it a short day.

"I wish that old snake hadn't crumbled away," Davis said. "I would've liked to see it."

Bram pointed. "By Pauline's account it hung off that rock over yonder."

A thick stand of greasewood prevented any attempt to get closer to where the landmark snake once was, so Davis tramped around the area looking for a way past the barrier. Bram noticed Vala keeping an eye on her son, but she didn't call out any warnings.

Bram had started to walk over to her when he heard Davis say something. He turned to look.

"Mokesh, Mokesh, Mokesh," Davis chanted in a low tone, over and over.

Bram stared at him, noticing the boy was frozen in position. He changed direction rapidly, heading for Davis. As he came closer, he held, his attention caught by movement on the ground. Snake. The most dangerous kind--rattler.

Not moving, with the familiar snake-sighting chill crawling along his spine, he watched the snake glide in under the greasewood and disappear. Big one.

"Any more?" he called to Davis.

The boy broke from his frozen position and ran to Bram, who put an arm around his shoulders. "One rattlesnake was enough!" Davis told him.

"More than enough," Bram agreed.

"I was watching out 'cause
Pauline
said I had to be extra careful about snakes today. When he rattled at me, I remembered what you said so I stopped moving. He wasn't coiled so I stayed still and waited and did what Pauline said and sure enough, he didn't try to bite me."

"What happened?" Vala demanded, hurrying up to them. "Are you all right, Davis?"

"He spotted a rattlesnake," Bram said, playing it down. "He had seven rattles." Davis put in.

Vala glanced around nervously.

"It's okay, he went in the greasewood," Davis assured her.

"I'd still rather get out of here," Vala said.

Bram nodded and they remounted. He wondered why the boy had been chanting Mokesh's name--is that what Pauline had told him to do if he met a rattler? Why would she do that? Mokesh did have sort of a hissing sound. Ndee words often matched the animal they described. Bram blinked.

Where had that thought come from? And why had he suddenly recalled what the word Mokesh meant?

Golden Eyes. Rattlesnake.

The story his father had told him about Mokesh began unraveling in his mind, a story he would have sworn minutes ago that he'd never heard. Another blocked memory. How many of them had he stowed away like that?

Troubled by the realization he'd selectively eliminated another good memory of his father, he passed the rest of the day's trip in a half-daze, paying just enough attention so they didn't get off the right trail. As he'd intended, he called an early halt.

"Doesn't look like we'll find a better place than this for a night camp," he said, noticing that Davis didn't protest. The ride had to be making him hurt.

Once they'd set up and chowed down, Bram asked Davis what Pauline had said about rattlers.

"She told me that's what Mokesh's name meant and if I didn't scare the snake, it'd go away peacefully if I chanted that name over and over. So I did."

"Didn't do any harm," Bram said. "And you remembered what I said about snakes. Smart kid."

"I was scared," Davis admitted.

"That's smart, too."

"I'd have screamed," Vala put in.

"Maybe it's a good thing I saw the snake and not you, Mom."

"I'd just as soon neither of us had seen it," she told him.

"Speaking of snakes," Bram said, "when it gets dark it's my turn to tell a story." Very deliberately, he added, "It's one my father told me when I was a kid. He wasn't around much but when he was, we did things together."

As he spoke, Bram felt something give way within him. Was it because he'd never before said anything good about his father?

"My father doesn't do much with me," Davis said matter-of-factly. "'Cause I'm a poor athlete."

Bram wasn't going to let it rest at that. "You mean in team sports."

"Yeah."

"I noticed you have a good sense of balance and I mentioned to your mother that I think you'd do well on skis. That's a sport you can do alone."

Davis stared at him. "Skiing? You really think I'd do okay?"

"Hey, good balance is half the battle."

Davis's pleased expression rewarded him.

As the evening slipped into night, Vala began posing riddles. Davis knew most of them, but she caught Bram on several. He dredged a few up from his younger years and finally caught her on one. They were laughing together when he noticed Davis's speculative gaze shifting from one to the other of them and wondered why. It made him uneasy.

"The snakes must be asleep by now," Bram said abruptly. "Time for my father's tale."

He told them about the wounded stranger the Ndee welcomed into their camp and how the old medicine man, Mokesh, meaning Yellow Eyes, cured him.

"When enemy soldiers came for the stranger and demanded him, the Ndee refused to give up the man, even though warned that, as a result, a great enemy force would soon come through the mountain pass and kill every man, woman and child of the Ndee.
"

"Mokesh listened to the Great Spirit and understood what he must do to save his people. He would stand guard in the narrow pass and stop the enemy warriors.
"

"The Ndee didn't see how he could stop more than one man, but when he looked at them with his yellow eyes, they believed him. And so, instead of fleeing, they remained in their camp, waiting and watching."

Bram told how the enemy warriors laughed at the old man facing them with nothing more than a medicine rattle and a stick with two curved points at the tip.

"But when they charged at Mokesh, the warriors fell back screaming in pain. Before their eyes he changed into a gigantic spirit snake with huge yellow eyes and two enormous fangs, a snake whose tail bore rattles. Many warriors died from the poisonous bite of Mokesh and the rest ran off, afraid of the Guardian of the Ndee."

"Mokesh turned into a rattlesnake!" Davis exclaimed. "That's why he had yellow eyes to begin with, 'cause rattlers do. And that's why Mokesh means rattler, too."

Bram nodded.

"I bet old Mokesh knew that story. I wonder why he never told it to me?"

"Maybe he didn't live long enough," Vala suggested. "He must have known many, many stories. More than he had time to tell you."

Davis nodded. "Yeah, I guess. He told me once he chose stories I needed to hear. Maybe he even knew I'd come to the Superstitions with his map and meet Bram and hear the Mokesh story."

"Who knows?" Bram said, expecting Vala to chime in with a reminder about reality.

She didn't.

"Now I know why Pauline told me to chant Mokesh's name if I met a rattler," Davis said. "Mokesh is really a Ndee spirit." He looked at Bram. "How come your father knew that story?"

Bram shrugged.

Davis opened his mouth, glanced at his mother, and closed it again. Bram hadn't seen her expression but he could visualize the quit-asking-personal-questions frown she'd given her son.

Bram wasn't sure why he hadn't admitted the truth. Davis, he knew, would be pleased. And Vala? He'd been with her long enough to believe she wouldn't care one way or the other. So why hold back? Damned if he knew.

"We all gonna sleep under the stars again tonight?" Davis asked. As soon as he said the words, he looked stricken. "Uh, maybe I won't," he added.

"I'll share the tent with you," Vala said.

Davis blinked and cast a glance at Bram.

"Don't you want me to?" Vala asked her son.

"Uh, I guess so."

Bram wondered what the devil was bugging the kid.

He hadn't behaved like this last night. Did it have anything to do with what Pauline had said to him this morning?

"I'm hitting the sack," Davis told them and scurried off to the tent.

"What's gotten into him?" Vala asked.

"Beats me. It's just as well. Having you within arm's reach with Davis between us is a waste of moonlight."

"I don't think the moon cares about your opinion. It'll shine anyway. But I agree that it's just as well you're sleeping by yourself in the moonlight."

Bram was silent for a bit. "We'll spot the last marker tomorrow," he said finally. "The place marked with the X isn't far from that point. With luck our journey will be over."

"And the treasure found."

"You're still expecting something tangible?"

Vala sighed. "I don't know what to expect. Davis needs something, some closure to this treasure hunt."

Bram pushed back the words he wanted to say. What about us?  We need closure as much as he does.

"I guess I'll turn in." Vala started to stand up.

He caught her arm and pulled her back down and into his arms. A goodnight kiss wasn't all he wanted but he intended to stop there.

The kiss lasted longer than he meant it to. He'd thought he was long past the stage when a kiss could turn his world upside down. Wrong. It took a lot of willpower to end the embrace and let her go.

Vala all but fled to the tent. If she'd stayed any longer in Bram's arms she didn't know what might have happened. She changed into her sweats and slid into the sleeping bag.

"Mom?" Davis's voice was sleepy.

"Yes, honey?"

"I saw you and Bram kissing. That means you like each other?"

"You could say that, yes. Why?"

"I just wondered. I like him, too. He's way cool." Vala wasn't going to argue about that. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" she asked, remembering her son's odd behavior earlier.

"Uh, not right now, okay?"

After they exchanged good nights, she lay awake listening to the rhythm of Davis's breathing change into the sleep mode. Then she heard a single coyote call. No answer came. Could it be searching for a mate? How sad if the coyote never found one.

When she realized she was on verge of tears, she shook her head, telling herself she was being ridiculous. More than likely that lone coyote was the Trickster, looking for trouble.

And just when had she dropped out of reality and began to believe in Apache--no, Ndee--legends? Would she never get that straight?

Still, believe or not, on those days when everything went wrong for no particular reason, it was almost as though there were a trickster out there somewhere playing games. Strange what thoughts came into your head when you camped out in the wilderness. Probably because you had time to think rather than being constantly busy.

Tomorrow they'd reach the end of their journey. After that was the trip back. Then the return flight to New York. This time she couldn't stop the tears.

In the morning, Bram had barely crawled out of his sleeping bag before Davis, fully dressed, bounced from the tent. He gazed up at the sky, lightening toward dawn and said, "We're gonna find the treasure today."

"How can you tell?" Bram asked.

"We're almost there, aren't we?"

Bram nodded. "But, at the moment, we're here, not there."  He examined the sky and frowned. Though not completely overcast, he didn't like the look of what clouds there were.

"Sometimes you sound like Pauline," Davis complained.   

"Thank you for the compliment. She's a wise woman."

Davis looked momentarily confused and was silent for a bit. Finally he said, "I saw you and my mom kiss last night, so I asked her if she liked you and she said she did. You must like her, too. Otherwise you wouldn't kiss her."

"Good logic, kid. If I didn't like her I wouldn't want to kiss her."

Like wasn't the right word, but would have to do since he didn't have a substitute.

"I told my mom I liked you, too," Davis went on.

Bram grinned at him. "I never met a nine-year-old boy I liked better than you."

Davis grinned back at him.

"So now can we conclude the mutual admiration society and start making breakfast?" Bram asked.

Davis chattered away about the treasure as he helped. "If it's gold, I'm gonna buy Mom a house. Houses are bigger than apartments and you can have lots of pets if you want and a big yard."

"And if it isn't gold, then what?"

"I guess that depends on what else it is."

No disputing that logic. "Do you like living in New York?" Bram asked.