Timecachers (33 page)

The strawberries were irresistibly juicy and lusciously sweet, even after the grape dumplings they had just enjoyed. Adam was learning that the Cherokee enjoyed eating just as much as storytelling.

“I’d like to tell you the story of how the first strawberries came to be,” she said.

“Yes, perfect,” said Jimmy. “That’s one of my favorites, especially when there are fresh strawberries to go with it!”

“You like any story that comes with food,” she said with a snort.

“That I do, my beautiful wife,” Jimmy admitted, popping another plump strawberry into his mouth.

Rebecca shook her head with an amused smirk and began her story. “This story starts with the first man and the first woman. Now they were very happy together, and loved each other very much, which was a good thing since there wasn’t much of a choice of anyone else to be with. But they were like all couples, and once in a while they quarreled and got angry with each other, probably because the man did something stupid or ate all the food.”

“Hey,” said Jimmy, fumbling his pipe, “I don’t remember that being part of the story.”

“Who’s telling this story, me or you? Now don’t interrupt,” she scolded.

“Yes, my darling. Please forgive me. Go right ahead,” Jimmy said, dabbing some strawberry that was dribbling down his chin.

“Where was I? Yes, I remember. So this time when they quarreled, the woman just had to get away from first man for a while. She decided to take a long walk until she got her temper under control, and started walking down the road. Maybe she was just going to go for a stroll and think about how silly men could be.

“Anyway, first man got lonely really quick and decided to follow her, but she just kept walking and didn’t look back at him. He thought that maybe she was never going to come back so he started pouting with his head hanging down while he walked. He was really sad because he had been acting like a spoiled little child, but first woman just didn’t want to deal with him right now. She just wanted to be by herself for a while.

“Well,
Unehlanahi
, the Sun-god who created first man and first woman, saw first man sadly shuffling along and asked him what was the matter. First man told him about the quarrel. He said he was afraid and lonely because first woman walked away and left him. And he was getting really hungry and might starve to death if she didn’t come back soon.
Unehlanahi
told him that if he didn’t act like such a baby she might not have left, but he felt sorry for the pitiful first man.
Unehlanahi
was a man too, after all.
Unehlanahi
asked the man if he would like to help him get first woman to come back. First man said yes, he would really like that and he’d be really grateful to him and maybe they could have a smoke and swap hunting stories sometime.
Unehlanahi
said that he’d see what he could do to fix things up with her.

“
Unehlanahi
knew that first woman really liked sweet fruits, so he made a blueberry bush full of fat, ripe blueberries appear in the road ahead of her. First woman just kept walking, though, as if she didn’t even see them, so
Unehlanahi
tried to tempt her with a clump of sweet huckleberries. She didn’t pay any attention to those either, so one by one
Unehlanahi
made all sorts of fruits appear, but first woman just ignored them all. She really just wanted to take a nice, peaceful walk. Perhaps later she’d stop to pick some herbs or sit under a hickory tree for a while.

“
Unehlanahi
scratched his head, trying to think of something he could tempt her with. He was starting to think that this woman was pretty stubborn and maybe the best thing for first man would be to just let her go. But then he got an idea for a new kind of fruit and made a whole field full of strawberries appear for first woman. Well, this was just too much for her to resist, since she had never seen a strawberry before and they looked so plump and red she just had to stop and try one. When she tasted one, they were just so delicious that she picked as many as she could carry. She forgot about wanting to be alone and what had made her mad. She turned around to find first man so he could taste the new fruit. It didn’t take her long before she met up with first man, and they both walked home, eating strawberries and happy to be together again.”

“So now you know, my friend,” said Jimmy as he puffed a cloud of tobacco smoke, “how strawberries came to be. And you can also understand why the Cherokee are a matriarchal society. Our women are so strong-willed the creator had to invent a new fruit to get one to change her mind!”

“I guess we should be thankful that they are,” said Adam. “I’d hate to think of a world without these delicious strawberries. And thanks for the great story, Rebecca. It was very entertaining, especially with your added interpretations. I think your story would appeal to the feminists in my time.”

They finished off the strawberries and talked more about farming and raising sheep, with Jimmy listing off a number of chores he hoped to get done tomorrow. Adam was pleased when he suggested turning in for the evening; he was feeling the aches and bruises from the earlier encounter with the sheep. He hoped a good night’s sleep would leave him feeling refreshed for helping with tomorrow’s chores. Rebecca provided him with a straw-filled mat for sleeping in a private corner of the house. Jimmy and Rebecca retired to the sleeping loft Jimmy had recently added for them and the new child.

As he lay on the sleeping mat, Adam thought about how open and trusting of him these people were. It was a stark contrast to the way he would expect to be treated by strangers in his own time. He wondered if the world had really become so much more evil over the years, making people wary of anyone they didn’t know. Or was it that the Cherokee people were simply overly trusting and naive? He fell asleep thinking that if the latter was true, the United States government was about to harshly punish them for it.

Adam woke to the sound of Jimmy and Rebecca’s laughter echoing through the farmhouse window. Apparently he had overslept, the sun already streaming brightly through the window. He slept soundly after the previous day’s exertion; he felt as if he had just closed his eyes. His muscles were still tender from wrestling with the sheep last evening, but he eased their aching with a few stretches. He dressed quickly and went outside, noting that the sun had already risen well above the horizon. He shielded his eyes from the shining sun and mumbled a good morning to Jimmy and Rebecca.

“
Osda sunalei
!” they answered as brightly as the sunlight.

“That means good morning,” said Jimmy. “Another phrase for your Cherokee vocabulary.”

“Mmphh,
osda sun
…” said Adam, still trying to wake up.

“
Sun-ah-lay
,” said Jimmy.

“Did we wake you? Good! We thought you would sleep all day!” Rebecca chided cheerfully. “Jimmy and I have already been to the water, and the morning is passing quickly. I set out some of Jimmy’s spare clothing for you,” she said, pointing to a neatly folded pile of clothes. “Jimmy can show you the path to the river where you can wash, and I will prepare us something to eat.”

“Thanks, er, I mean
wado
,” Adam said. He grabbed the clothes and followed Jimmy down the trail.

As they walked, Jimmy told Adam that they were fortunate to be on the river so they could come each morning if they chose. He explained that “going to water” was a Cherokee tradition that they found to be an exhilarating way to start the day, and that they tried to keep the tradition in all but the coldest part of the year. When they reached the riverbank, Jimmy showed Adam several places among the rocks that formed natural pools, and led him to one of their favorite spots, an isolated pool formed by a semi-circle of half a dozen boulders. The water was crystal clear, and Adam could see the sandy river bottom below through at least ten feet of water.

“There are some places where you can wade in slowly,” said Jimmy, “but on a warm day like today I like to just jump into one of these deep pools. I’ll leave you to your privacy and meet you back at the house. Just follow the trail back,” he said as he turned and headed up the path.

“Okay, great,” he said to himself as he started to undress. It wasn’t the first time he bathed in a river. He’d done so often while backpacking in wilderness areas. “I guess in the 1800’s pretty much all of Georgia is a wilderness area,” he chuckled to himself.

He stood on top of the boulder, picked a spot in one of the deep pools, and jumped.

He would have screamed the instant he hit the water if he had any breath in his lungs to do it with. The biting cold shock of the frigid river left him breathless. As he submerged, Adam figured the temperature of the gelid water was nearly thirty degrees colder than the air, something he now realized he should have considered before plunging headlong into the icy pool. He briskly stroked his long arms and kicked his feet, clawing his way upwards, gasping for breath as he broke the surface.

“Wow!” he gasped. “Brrr, did Jimmy call this exhilarating? I’ll say!”

He caught his breath and eventually adjusted to the temperature as he swam vigorously through the chilly water. Once he became used to the cold, he began to enjoy his swim, diving several times and then floating silently, taking in the serenity of the wooded stretch along the riverbank. He dove back under, discovering that the pool was deeper than it appeared. He grabbed some sand from the bottom and used it to rub the grime from his body, then swam some more. He was fully awake now and the cold water had erased any remaining muscle soreness. He climbed out of the water and lay naked on a sun-heated boulder, letting its warmth dry him before donning the fresh clothes.

Striding energetically back to the house, he could smell coffee brewing and breakfast cooking. At the table set up on the porch, Jimmy sat with a mug of steaming coffee, eating a huge plate of biscuits smothered in gravy.

“Now you look much livelier,” he said, motioning to Adam to sit down and pouring him a tin mug of coffee. “Did you enjoy the water?”

“Very much,” said Adam, “once I recovered from the shock. That’s some cold water!”

Jimmy shrugged. “You should feel it in February.” His words were muffled by a mouthful of biscuit.

Adam thought he would prefer not to. He helped himself to a plate of eggs and sausage, along with a couple of biscuits. The coffee was hot and strong, and between the caffeine and his cold dip in the river he was getting anxious to get started on the day’s chores.

He thanked Rebecca for the breakfast as he cleaned the last of the eggs from his plate, and rushed to join Jimmy who was already heading to the barn. Adam knew there was a full day of farm work planned. He was enjoying the vigorous lifestyle, the great food, and Jimmy and Rebecca’s company. He also was concerned about looming disaster yet to come, and the effect it would have on them. Adam wasn’t foolish enough to believe that helping with farm chores was going to make any difference to the outcome, but he would do his best to respect the Cherokee’s preference to deal with things as they arose rather than fretting about things that might never occur. In a way, he envied their attitude, wishing he could prevent his knowledge of the devastating removal from weighing heavily on his mind. As he ran to catch up to Jimmy, he wondered how his other friends were doing. He hoped they were being treated as well as he was.

Chapter thirty

S
al wasn’t about to give Yonah the satisfaction of knowing how much his leg muscles ached from the brutal hike. There wasn’t much he could do to hide his panting though. His lungs burned from the exertion and the thinning air of the high altitude made it even more difficult to catch his breath. They had followed a series of trails for the last few hours, most of them ascending, without stopping for a break. The last mountain path Yonah had taken was a steep climb of about 600 feet in elevation gain in less than a half mile. They now stood on the top of a ridge.

“Still with me, Squirrel-man?” Yonah said, making no attempt to conceal his sneering tone. He was not winded in the least.

Sal struggled to breathe normally. “Right behind you, Tonto. It’ll take more than that little climb to lose me.”

“Losing you is not my intention,” Yonah replied. “I would only have to waste my time looking for you. I just have not heard your chattering for a while. We have much farther to go, so we will stop here for a few moments before going on. I have brought some supplies from the food Benjamin provided so we may also enjoy a small meal.” He removed a small bundle from a pouch he was carrying and handed Sal a strip of dried venison and a handful of
gahawista
—kernels of dried, parched corn.

Sal was exceedingly relieved they were taking a break, but he just shrugged and said, “Whatever, dude. You’re the chief.”

He sat on a convenient boulder and used his teeth to rip off a small piece of the tough meat. It took some chewing to get it soft enough, but he was finally able to swallow it. He popped a couple of the corn kernels into his mouth and began working on crunching them up. They were hard as pebbles, and had about as much taste.

“I thought you Indians hunted for your food,” Sal remarked as he crunched on the corn.

“We do. Although there is no longer enough game to live entirely by hunting anymore, now that so much of our land has been ceded to the white settlers.” Yonah knew that the game had been depleted from overhunting by both white and Indian hunters. He avoided elaborating on the subject to Sal, though. “The venison you are eating was hunted by Benjamin and his son. It has been dried to make it better to carry on a long journey, and the
gahawista
is excellent for travel.”