Leaving home in the 1800's to a new and unknown land.
The old man is standing at the edge of a small meadow. Off to his right he can see the grass flattened by deer or elk where they stopped to rest last night. On their rising they left trails through the damp grass of the meadow early this morning.
At the far edge of the meadow nestled amongst the majestic pine and fir, almost invisible to the observer, is a round lodge with a roof made of bark. Tree branches are interwoven to form the sides of the lodge and packed with mud. At the front of the lodge looking out across the meadow is an opening covered by tanned elk hides. Smoke is slowly rising up through the tree branches from a hole in the roof.
Inside the lodge the old man finds the Trader dressed in buckskins lying on his bed. His face is damp and flushed. His eyes are bright with fever. On his face are red spots. Some have broken open into sores. He has always been slender of build but now he is gaunt from the sickness.
To his left lay the bodies of his two children, a young boy and a girl. On his right lay the body of his wife. The sickness has stolen everything from him. He has nothing left but the memories and the knowledge that he will soon follow his family.
As he lies on his bed of furs the Trader remembers in the beginning it was just him and his brother. They were standing straight and proud on the bow of a flat boat as it traveled up the Missouri River toward their destination. They left their childhood home and family to come west to the frontier. They’d been young men then, it’s hard to believe that it was only 7 years ago in May of 1816 when they arrived. Their goal had been to establish a trading route among the inhabitants of the area, trading for furs, gems, metals, in addition to cutting timber to float back down river to civilization.
The Trader can still remember the excitement of looking out over the virgin forest from the deck of the boat. How the trees grew thick and tall, reaching to the sky. They saw deer, elk, bear and mountain lion along the shore. And then there were the Indians. It was not a land for the faint of heart nor physically weak.
If anyone had asked the brothers what they were feeling as they stood on the shore and watched the flat boat push off up river, they would have responded with feelings of fear for the solitude of the forest. They would have expressed anxiety over the unknown dangers that awaited them behind every tree. Even more than the excitement it would have been the feeling of elation at starting life anew. It was as if they had not existed prior to stepping off the flat boat and entering the wilderness. The wonder of the unknown, magic of the forest, thrill of adventure and knowledge yet to be gained through experiencing what was yet to come, gave them a feeling of rebirth into a world which awaited them.
The first year they split up. They didn’t know what await them in the wilderness so they decided that each would travel outward in a loop, one traveling to the south and one to the north. They had cloth, knives, buttons, and trinkets to trade with. They each carried a pack which held their treasures as well as essentials for themselves and food for them to survive. They each had a flint lock pistol for protection and a long rifle to hunt with. When they parted they agreed to meet back at the drop off point on the river at the end of March the following year.
The snow was still under the trees and in the shaded areas. The temperatures were well below freezing when the two brothers reunited in the spring of 1817. The Trader remembered the joy of the reunion. The stories they had to tell each other as they sat around the fire and talked the night through. They spoke of country and mountains they had crossed. The dangers they encountered. They described the animals seen and of the streams teeming with fish and beaver. They told of Indians that they had met both friendly and not.
The furs they brought out were of the best quality. They both had cached furs in the forest because there had been more than they could carry. They decided the oldest brother would take the furs and travel down river on the next flat boat to Saint Jo and sell them to buy more trading goods. The Trader, being the youngest, would take the remnants of goods to trade with as he went to collect the hidden caches of furs. He would build another cache for the recovered furs near the drop off point on the river so they would be ready when the next load went to Saint. Jo.
It didn’t take long to develop a pattern of work. They would trade with the Indians for furs through the spring and summer months traveling from encampment to encampment. When the weather turned cold and the animal’s fur started to thicken, they each would find an area where several creeks came together and sign of beaver, mink and muskrat were plentiful. They would build shelters to live in and trap through the winter.
After the second winter the brothers struck a deal with the fur buyers in Saint Jo to have a boat pick up the furs and leave trade goods. The brothers would leave a sign along the river when they had fur to ship. The fur buyers would send trade supplies to be left in place of the furs.
It was in the third year that the Trader married an Indian woman and she traveled with him through the mountains to help with the fur. When he shot animals she would do the skinning and preparation of the meat because she said it was a woman’s work. She knew the plants that grew in the forest and what they were good for. She was a better cook than he and their life had been good.
In the fall of the fourth year the woman announced that Grandmother Spider was coming to visit. Grandmother Spider was the mother of all things. That evening the woman presented him with a son. Grandmother Spider came again the winter of the fifth year and brought them a girl child.
His wife had explained that when Grandmother Spider delivered a child she would pour water on the ground. This was the start of the new child’s River of Life. The child has the ability to increase the flow of his river by the way he lives his life, but at the same time he can diminish the flow through wrong decisions. There are events which the child has no control over that can affect the flow as well. Some people have long rivers and they do many things before their river runs out. When their river dry up they cross over the Great Divide. Others have rivers which only flow a short time then dry up and they cross over.
She had been a good mother and wife. She was happiest when she would sit with the children in the evenings and tell them the stories of how Old Man Coyote would chase the White Snow Fox out of the valleys far below and up through the forest to the mountain top where the fox had his den. The flowers and grasses could grow only as long as the fox was in his den. She told how Brother Crane carried water from the lakes far to the north on his wings to drop to the plants and animals to give them life. It was also Brother Crane who provided water so that all rivers could flow and fish had a place to live.
It had been a time of peace and contentment. Never had the Trader thought such a time could happen for him. His life style, his wife and the children brought him great happiness.
In the fall of the sixth year word came from the Northern tribes that the older brother had been killed by a bear. The Trader traveled to the North Country to say goodbye to his brother and to bring back his furs. He had felt guilty not mourning the loss of his brother but he found it hard to be sad when his children and wife were around him.
The sickness came from the trade goods the fur buyer left at the river. Shortly after the arrival of the new trade goods the children came down with a fever. Within a matter of days the red spots materialized and the children became delirious. It was like nothing the Trader or his wife had ever seen. They never had sickness in the mountains. There was no medicine that his wife knew of that would help the children. While taking care of them she became sick herself. The red spots were so painful when they broke open and started to weep. The crying of the children never stopped and it was more than he could bear. He was ashamed to feel relief when the children’s rivers finally stopped flowing.
The Trader had no time to mourn for the children because he still had to care for his wife. All he knew about nursing was from watching her care for the children. At least she didn’t cry out from the pain like the children had. He was sick, but he couldn’t take time to be ill because his wife needed him. He would bath her face with cool water and that seemed to comfort her. She wouldn’t eat. Then late one night her river flowed into the ground and he was alone.
There was nothing left to do but wait for the end. Everything which had meant anything to the Trader was gone. He slowly closed his eyes, and said to the old man, “It is time for me to go. I hear the owl calling my name.” He took a deep breath and smiled.
The old man started preparing the logs and branches for the burning of the lodge. It was the only way to defeat the sickness. As he gathered sticks he began to sing the Death Chant to accompany the family of souls on their journey with Brother Owl to the Great Divide which separates our world from the world beyond.
The old man lit the fire and slowly turned away with a great sorrow in his heart as he sang a sad song of farewell to his Daughter, her Husband and his two Grandchildren.
The end
An adventure-filled time-travel western. Given a 5-star editorial review in 2020 by the InD'tale Magazine. "The weaving in of actual historical connections between the characters is fascinating. Fans of this genre will love the originality with the a
An adventure-filled time-travel western. Given a 5-star editorial review in 2020 by the InD'tale Magazine. "The weaving in of actual historical connections between the characters is fascinating. Fans of this genre will love the originality with the a
