Authors: Jeffry S.Hepple
C
lementine crawled to the rear of the wagon, climbed over the tailgate and jumped down into the cold, dew-dampened blow sand. “If you’re awake don’t look,” she said to the pile of blankets under the wagon. “It’s too cold and too dangerous to go find a bush.” She pulled her nightdress above her hips and squatted next to the outside rear wheel to urinate. The still invisible sun was painting the eastern sky with broad strokes of pink, yellow and orange. “It’ll be sunup soon,” Clementine said. “Might as well get a fire started.” She stood up and smoothed her nightdress over her legs, then bent down again to look under the wagon. “Did you hear me, Coyote?”
The blankets shifted and a pair of black eyes blinked at her from the depths.
“
What’s the matter?” She giggled. “Did watching me pee give you a boner?”
“
You should not say such things,” the boy grumbled.
“
Whenever you get finished with what you’re doin’, get a fire started.” She climbed back over the tailgate and began dressing.
Jack was half dressed and pulling on his boot. “You shouldn’t tease that boy.”
“
Why not? You keep telling me that he’s completely trustworthy.”
“
It isn’t a matter of trusting him; it’s a matter of kindness to him. Anyone can see that he’s desperately smitten with you. It’s cruel of you to ridicule him.”
“
Okay,” she said with a sigh. “But he deserved some deviling for looking when I asked him not to. I had a good reason for wanting to stay near the wagons. I didn’t do it to tease him.”
“
You’re right. He should have turned away. I’ll speak to him about it.”
“
No. Don’t do that. It would embarrass the fool out of him. Just let it be. No harm done. He’s not the first man to see my bare ass.”
Jack looked at her for several seconds. “If you’re suddenly feeling generous toward the boy, you might reconsider letting him ride in the wagon, if only until we get through this soft sand. He has a bad blister on his right foot.”
“
Okay,” she said, after a beat.
“
Really?”
“
Yes, really. Don’t push it.” She pulled on her calf-high boot and kicked the tailgate to force her foot in all the way. “This is a strange country. Hot as Hell in the daytime and freezing cold at night.”
“
High deserts are like that.”
“
This dang sand sure is slowing us down.”
“
Yes,” he agreed. “It wasn’t marked on the maps.”
“
Have you given any more thought to going directly to Fort Laramie?”
“
There’s nothing to think about,” Jack growled. “I’m going to see the Tetons, even if I have to go alone.”
“
Now don’t get so scratchy. I just asked.”
“
You asked as a way to register your disapproval, knowing full well that I wasn’t even considering going directly to Fort Laramie.”
“
I can’t get anything by you, can I?”
“
The real question is: why do you try?”
She pulled on her other boot. “If I’d approached the subject more directly, would it have resulted any differently?”
“
No.”
“
Then it hardly matters, does it?”
“
Probably not.” He climbed over her and vaulted off the tailgate. “Let’s go, Coyote. Time’s wasting. You’ll be riding in the wagon today with Mrs. Van Buskirk.”
~
The sun was almost at its zenith and the day was very hot. Clementine was driving the team; the boy called Coyote was sitting beside her. “What kind of name is Coyote?” she asked.
“
You people who have names that mean nothing find great importance in the names of others,” he observed.
“
My husband says that the coyote is one of your heathen gods that plays tricks on people.”
“
I am not a god or a trickster.”
“
How old are you?”
He shrugged.
“
Sixteen – maybe seventeen, would be my guess.”
Another shrug.
“
How did you end up in California?”
“
When I was very small some men killed my mother and took me and my sisters to California to sell us as slaves to the rich Mexicans. I got away.”
“
What happened to your sisters?”
He shrugged.
“
Damn. Havin’ a conversation with you is like talking to a wall.”
“
I can walk, if you want. I walked all the way to California when I was not as tall as your boots. I can walk all the way back.”
“
You might as well ride. The horses won’t notice your scrawny ass.”
He didn’t reply.
“
Jack’s mother’s Indian. Or Mexican. I’m not sure which is which.”
“
He told me.”
“
Did he tell you that his brother married a half Indian girl? She’s Montauk. Montauks don’t look like our Indians out here.”
“
Our Indians?”
“
You know what I mean. Indians west of the Mississippi.”
“
Can you read?”
“
What?”
“
I asked you if you could read.”
“
What’s that got to do with what we were talking about?”
“
Nothing. Can you read?”
“
Yeah, I can read. Pretty well. I don’t write so well. It takes a lot of practice and I never had the time. Why?”
“
I thought you might want to teach me.”
“
To read? Why would I want to do that?”
He shrugged.
“
How is Jack doing with his Indian studies?”
“
He already knows the Old Language; he just has to learn how to say the words in Sioux, and he learns very fast.”
“
He’s got a gift for languages. He must get it from his mother. She speaks every language in the world.”
He looked at her dubiously.
“
What?” she asked.
“
No one can speak every language in the world.”
“
Well she speaks a lot of ‘em. French, Spanish, Comanche, Apache, Kiowa – even Latin.”
“
You admire her?”
“
Yeah. Why is that so surprising?”
“
You don’t like Indians.”
“
I like some. Not all.”
Coyote pointed ahead. “The outriders have seen something.”
Two mounted men had joined Jack at the front of the column. Both were gesturing back in the direction from which they had ridden.
“
There’s a shotgun under the seat, do you know how to use it?” Clementine asked.
“
Yes.”
After a short conversation, the riders went out again and Jack signaled the wagon train to prepare to circle.
“
What’s wrong?” Clementine shouted at Jack.
“
No need for alarm,” he answered. “This is as good a place as any. Start your turn now.”
“
No need for alarm,” she muttered. “Why would we be forming a circle if there wasn’t trouble?”
Coyote was peering at the horizon. “Many horses.”
“
Horses or mounted men?”
“
Men on horses.”
“
Must not be hostiles,” Clementine replied. “The outriders are headed toward them.”
To avoid one another’s dust, the wagons were spread abreast in a wide, uneven line, so circling the train was not a fast or trivial matter. Clementine, in the designated lead wagon, began turning her team left in what would be a large circle, and the other wagons began to line up behind her. When all the wagons were in line, she would begin to tighten the circle until her team was close to the last wagon in the train.
When Clementine finally reined in her horses, most of the livestock had been herded into the center of the circle. She set the brake, tied the reins to it, and jumped down. “Are you gonna tell us what’s going on, Jack?”
He waved at her and rode past. “No need for alarm,” he shouted. “No need for alarm.”
“
Shit,” she said.
“
You say that word a lot,” Coyote observed from the wagon.
“
So what?”
“
Not very ladylike.”
“
What the hell do you know about how white ladies should behave?”
He shrugged.
“
Can you see those riders yet?”
“
I can see that they are white men.”
“
Army?”
“
Yes, but not the blue-coat army.”
“
Come on. Let’s go see what Jack has to say.” Clementine waited for Coyote to jump down, then she started toward the center of the circle where a crowd was forming. “Give me that shotgun. You’ll upset people if they see you carrying it.”
He handed her the weapon.
Jack climbed up on the back of a nearby wagon. “Can everyone hear me? Tighten up a little. Okay. As I said, there’s no cause for alarm but there is a minor inconvenience.” He pointed toward the group of riders that were now quickly approaching. “That’s the Mormon Militia. They want us to follow them to their city near the Great Salt Lake.”
“
What for?” someone shouted.
Jack checked on the progress of the riders. “The Governor of this territory is a man named Brigham Young. Some say he’s a prophet, some say he’s off in the head, but everyone agrees that he’s an autocratic leader.”
“
Meanin’ what?” a man asked.
“
Meaning that if we don’t agree, we may have a fight on our hands,” Jack replied.
“
Them damn Mormons will steal our young women,” a man at the back shouted. “Brigham Young has two dozen wives and he’s lookin’ for more.”