“Oh, there he is!” said Polly.
A figure limped along the road towards
the waylaid troupe of players. Janet and Bernard sat on the running
board of the long car, sharing a cigarette and singing a song,
Kenneth was throwing rocks down the embankment trying to hit a
particular tree. Jean Francois stood beside the car, trimming his
immaculate eye brows and mustache in the rear view mirror. Jules sat reclined in
the third row seat with the door open, one ham-like leg hung out of
the car. He occasionally nipped from a flask when no one was
looking, though everyone knew. Polly had been picking wild flowers when
she saw Herman.
“What's wrong with your leg? I
thought you went for help?” Janet said when Herman reached the car
and leaned on it for support.
“The leg is the price for what I hope
will be good advice. It is thought our trouble is a matter of air
mixture and perhaps dust.
“I told you we weren't out of gas,”
Kenneth said. He shook the car and put his ear to the open gas inlet.
“Good heaven's boy!” Jules
supported himself from slouching further with one
arm, while replacing the flask in his vest pocket.
“Kenneth, do you know of this air
mixing doodad. It seems we have to give it more air and less fuel.”
“I'm an scenic artist, not a
mechanic.”
“You're a stage hand,” said Janet.
“A lazy one,” said Jean Francois.
“You read Jules Vern, that makes you
more a mechanic than the rest of us,” said Herman.
“I just know you can fix it Kenneth,”
said Polly. She clasped her hands behind her and twisted back and
forth causing her skirt to swirl.
“Fine,” Kenneth said throwing one
more rock at the tree and missing, “I'll take a look.”
William was so thirsty he had stopped
thinking about being hungry. He could hear the stream from the road.
It was a long steep gulley. He guided himself along the trees until he reached a
bare patch of gravel. He dug his heels in which sent a small
avalanche of stones plummeting down towards the bottom of the gulley.
One rolled under his foot and soon he was rolling down the side
himself, gaining speed and loosing control.
The sun pierced William's vision when
he opened his eyes. What had happened? His head hurt and was swimming
in dizziness. His hand was lying in the stream. He remembered rolling down the steep slope then... He
felt his sore head. It was wet. He looked at his hand.
Blood.
William managed to roll up onto all
fours. His mouth was still dry as brown paper. He scooped a couple of
handfuls of water from the stream, drank some and washed the blood off
his head. He started to drink from his hands again but plunged his face in like and animal and began gulping. It
was the best, coolest water he ever tasted. He drank and drank. His
gulping and snorting was the sort of thing that would get him
walloped by me, his papa, and later his sister. It was when he stopped
drinking that he noticed the snorting wasn't coming from him.
He carefully looked up. Across the
stream and down some, just a few yards all told, was a mountain of
chestnut fur. The bear stopped drinking and looked up as though it
could sense William's open jaw. It sniffed the air and snorted
loudly. William fell back on his britches and clamored backwards like
a crab. The bear walked into the stream towards him.
“Don't run ya,” said a voice from
the top of the gulley. “Run and she will think you taste better.”
William froze, but did not take his
eyes off the bear. The bear froze as well.
“Gud ya, now you stand,” the voice
said. “On feet. Go, do.”
William hesitated, the bear's nose
probed the air, sniffing.
“Taller eez less tasty. Go do, go
do.”
William eased to his feet. He was a
might unsteady, what with the incline and his dizziness. The bear
took a step back and made a belch-like grunt.
“Gud, now you walk, go.”
William didn't like the idea of turning
his back to the bear and climbing up the bank. He liked the idea of
going anywhere else even less.
“Where?” William said as loud as he
dared.
“To bear. Look eyes ya.”
“Whaaat?”
The bear took a step into the water.
“Go do, look eyes. No run.”
William swallowed and took a step down
the slope and another into the stream. The bear backed up onto the
opposite bank.
“Gud, gud, keep walk. Look eyes.”
Williams slowly crossed the stream
towards the beast. Looking into its small dark eyes. The bear turned
on its haunches and lumbered away with a snort.
William started breathing again. He
looked up towards the voice. He recognized the large black hat from
the man on the road the other day. The bad man, Ruby had called him.
William started making his way up the steep bank.
At least he wasn't a bear.
The climb up was arduous. The fall down was quick but the climb up, especially where there were no trees to hang on to, seemed to take forever. When William reached the top. Kohn was
sitting in his truck. The passenger door was open. William did the
only thing there was to do. He got in.
The man had in his hand a large leaf.
Spread on it was a gooey green substance. Kohn handed William the
leaf. William looked down at it, dumbfounded. Kohn took the boy's
hand and brought it up to the wound on his head.
“OOOW!”
The green goo burned against the bloody
spot high on his forehead. William allowed his hand to drop but Kohn
plastered it back.
“Ow.”
William noticed a rifle sticking up from
behind the seat.
“Why didn't you shoot him? I coulda
been kilt.”
Kohn started the engine and clicked off the parking brake. He
had shifted through the gears before he bothered to respond.
“Walking towards bear eez work better
than gun ya. Mato go on and be mato, boy go on and be boy. Eez
better.”
“Mato?”
“Ja mean Bear.”
“You injun or somthin?”
“Depending is on who you ask.”
“I'm askin' you.”
“Ya. Born in Sverige, but yes, injun I
think, ya.”
Ruby looked at the twine tied to her
ankle and the other end tied to the bumper of the truck a few feet
from the rock she was sitting on. Caleb muttered to himself and he
extracted the tent from the back of the truck. He talked constantly
whether or not there was anyone listening 'praise be oh Lord'. He
especially couldn't keep his trap shut about Brother Tobias. 'Brother
Tobias said this, Brother Tobias said that, Brother Tobias' word, his
truth, his disciples, of which Caleb fervently counted himself as one.
'Brother Tobias's, wives.'
They had never even met the man, just
answered an ad in a magazine, purchased some books and bibles and
written a bunch a letters back-n-forth. They were on there way to
live with him in some sort a village or community or somethin.
Ester was sitting in the shade reading
the Tobias 'bible'.
Even though it kinda hurt, Ruby made a game of jerking her leg and
snapping the twine taut. It made a sound like a washtub bass.
“Quit that girl,” Ester said, “we
don't wanna get up Caleb's ire.”
“Why's this thing necessary?” Ruby
said giving the line one more defiant tug.
“Girl, you run off three times.”
“'My right. This here's kidnappin.”
“You'd starve out there.”
“Like my brother!”
“Keep your voice, girl. Why
you always gotta do evil, you better learn to behave.”
Ruby kept playing with the twine but stopped short before it made a sound.
“Ester, how do you know what's evil
and what isn't. Some German killed my papa and that was evil sure enough, but if
my papa killed some German girl's papa does that make him evil too.
“God puts a conscience in us to tell
us what's evil and what's not. If it feels bad, that means evil is in
you, and you should get on your knees and pray for forgiveness.”
“So if it feels good, then it's okay?”
“Good heaven's no girl! That's what is specially evil! You should pray right straight for even
thinking such things."
“I ain't yer daughter. You should just
turn me loose for the law catches you."
"We answer to God's law and God has told Caleb you belong with him.
It's a shame-n-all you if you got no kids y'own but...”
Ester laughed.
“What'd I say so funny?”
“Girl, You ain't gunna be a
daughter.”
Ruby looked puzzled.
“An don't you forget. I'm the one in
charge so don't be getting' no ideas otherwise. I had him first girl.
I'm the one in charge.”
Ruby felt the blood drain from her
face. Suddenly the rope around her ankle felt like a thick, heavy
chain.
She would try again tonight, and this time she could not fail.
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