by Jane Toombs
"Is Pauline a real medicine woman?" Davis asked. By now he was limping, but he hadn't complained "A Ndee, I mean?"
"No one's sure what she is or where she came from, but she's a medicine woman, all right."
Davis looked at Vala. "Is it okay if I call her Pauline?"
"No one ever calls her anything else," Bram said.
"Then I guess you can, too," Vala told her son.
Bram stopped a fair distance from the cabin, cupped his hands together and blew into them, making a strange wailing sound. He then waited until the cabin door opened and a tall thin woman appeared on the tiny porch holding something that looked to Vala like a shotgun. She caught her breath.
"Bram Hunter," he called. "Got a hurt boy here."
The woman waved them on toward her cabin.
"Are you sure it's safe?" Vala asked in a low tone. "She'd have shot over our heads by now if she didn't want us here," Bram said. "She might turn me away sometimes, but she'd never deny help to a child. Pauline's kind-hearted."
Maybe, but the woman also carried a shotgun. Still, if she could help Davis, was all that was important. Bram said she could, and Vala believed him. She did trust him and was ashamed of blaming him when they'd found Davis missing. As he'd said, it was nobody's fault.
"Don't offer to pay her," Bram warned before they got to the cabin. "You'll insult her. I'll tell her we'll arrange for supplies to be sent to her when we get back down the mountain. She won't say yes, but she won't refuse."
"That's like barter," Davis said unexpectedly. "We learned about barter in school. She gives me some medicine and you guys give her some supplies."
"Right again, partner," Bram told him.
Up closer, Vala saw the cabin was made of planks and metal haphazardly clobbered together. The roof appeared to be sheets of tin.
"Used to be a prospector's cabin in the old days," Bram said. "After he died it was abandoned until Pauline moved in and fixed it up some."
"A prospector for gold?" Davis asked.
"Yup. He couldn't've found much, to judge by the looks of the cabin."
"Maybe he hid what he found, like the Lost Dutchman Mine."
Bram shrugged. "By all accounts, he died flat broke, like the Dutchman."
By now they were almost to the porch and the woman standing there obviously overheard the last remarks because she said, "Crazy men. These mountains keep their gold." Pauline's voice was surprisingly melodious, in contrast to her stark appearance. Two dark braids, streaked with gray, fell almost to her waist. She wore a long brown dress that looked as though it might be made from homespun cloth, with a deerskin vest over it.
Vala couldn't begin to guess her age, through she had to be at least sixty, since she had wrinkles and Bram had called her old.
"I got stuck by a cactus," Davis told Pauline before anyone else could speak. "Bram says you can heal up the holes. I sure like your headband. Mokesh had one, but his was sort of worn out." Davis winced as he climbed the porch steps.
Pauline smiled at him. "Mokesh, is it? We'll talk about him later, after you feel better. First things first."
"I'm Vala and he's my son, Davis," Vala said, stepping onto the porch, trying not to notice the shotgun, now leaning against the cabin. "I'm pleased to meet you, Pauline."
"Ain't nobody said that to me and meant it for quite a spell," Pauline told her.
"I believe you can help Davis," Vala said, putting as much conviction into her voice as possible.
"Looks like maybe you brung me some good ones," Pauline said to Bram. She picked up the shotgun and led the way into the cabin.
Because the several windows were small, the one-room interior was dark but, Vala saw, clean and neat. The furniture consisted of wooden chairs and a table, plus a cot. A curtained alcove held, she supposed, a bed and, perhaps a dresser. One entire wall was taken up by shelved open cupboards, with a sink fitted into one of the cupboards. Plastic water bottles were lined up on the lower shelves.
The stove appeared to be either butane or oil.
In one corner was a stone fireplace with a very small fire burning. The place smelled of herbs.
"You got a cool house," Davis said as Pauline led him to the cot.
"It suits," she said. "Now you got to take all your clothes off."
"Right in front of everyone?"
"If that bothers you, I'll herd us all onto the porch till you're under that sheet on the cot, flat on your belly."
"Maybe if you just turned your backs, you and Bram and Mom."
When Davis was ready, Vala watched as Pauline swung out a large kettle that hung over the fire and poured steaming water into a basin before she swung the kettle back into position.
"I ain't gonna scald the boy," Pauline said, evidently catching Vala's worried expression.
"Might be best if you and Bram go set up your tent nearby while I take care of Davis."
"Good idea." Bram took Vala's hand, urging her out through the door.
"I don't know--" she began as he closed the door behind them.
"I do. Pauline won't do anything to harm Davis. Her potions will ease him and help healing. They're natural herbs. I don't have anything in my first aid kit that'll work as well as what she'll do."
Vala glanced at the closed door, then sighed and followed Bram down the steps. What she really wanted to do was hover over her son, just as Bram had accused her of doing. Was it so wrong? Still, if Davis had wanted her to stay, he'd have asked her to.
She recalled that the last time he'd been to the doctor, he hadn't wanted her to come into the examining room with him. Somehow she'd have to adjust to the fact her little boy was growing up.
Once they'd set up the tent and made sure the horses were tethered and fed, Vala faced Bram.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have blamed you for Davis getting lost. I was too upset to think straight."
He nodded. "I took that under consideration. The boy's smarter than maybe you realize. Courageous, too."
She nodded. "Even with those dreadful cactus spines sticking in him, Davis was so proud of remembering what you told him to do if he ever got lost."
"You got a good kid there, Vala."
"I know. If only--" She sighed and didn't go on. If only was no more than a dream because Neal would never change, never recognize his son's worth.
Evidently following her train of thought, Bram said, "There's more to life than organized sports. Davis has excellent balance, I bet he'd be good on skis. Has he ever tried skiing?"
"No."
"Might be the place to start building his confidence in himself."
"You've been doing a fine job of that," she said. "I really do appreciate it. Acceptance from a man means so much to him."
"I didn't get much of that when I was a kid."
If she'd remembered rightly about Bram living with his mother only, then he must have had an absent father. No wonder he understood Davis so well.
Time to change the subject Bram told himself. She didn't want to hear about his past problems. "I'll lay odds Davis is not only comfortable by now, but asleep."
"I hope so."
He nodded toward the cabin. "If I'm right, then Pauline won't throw us out again. Come on."
He'd hit it on the button. Davis, lying on his stomach, was sound asleep on the cot. Bram listened as Vala explained to Pauline that Davis didn't wake easily so there was no need to be particularly quiet.
"I been waiting to tell you if you put that boy on a horse tomorrow you'll undo all the good that's got started," Pauline said in her deep, melodious voice. "He'd best stay right here for one more day."
"We'll do whatever you say," Bram told her.
"Good. 'Cause I need some roots and plants you two can fetch for me before dark. Gonna tell you right where they can be found. Lots quicker getting there with horses than on shank's mare, like me."
"We'll be glad to help out," Vala told her.
"'Course you will. Couldn't be raising a fine boy like
your son if you wasn't all right yourself."
Pauline eyed Bram. "Might be some rabbit stew on the fire when you get back. Old feller from the back of nowhere brought me a couple real early this morning."
Bram knew the rabbits must be payment for one of Pauline's remedies. "I'll take right kindly to that stew," he told her, grinning.
"Always making fun," she grumbled. "Get you going or the boy and me might just finish all that stew before you get back here. Here's the directions."
He listened while she told him what she wanted and how to get where the plants grew, then took the trowel, clippers, and basket she handed him.
Vala took another look at Davis before they went out.
"He'll do without you for a time," Pauline assured her. "Might be somebody else'd appreciate your attention, though. Providing he deserves it."
Bram put his hand over his heart. "I'm a most deserving man."
Pauline snorted. "They all say that." She fixed her attention on Vala and added, "He's better'n some."
On that note he and Vala left the cabin. Not until the horses were saddled and they'd mounted--Vala could now swing onto Susie Q like a pro, he noted--did he speak.
"How deserving do you think I am?"
"More than some," she said, imitating Pauline. "I've never had rabbit stew, by the way. How is it?"
"Anything Pauline cooks is good."
"I don't know how she can live as she does--so isolated and alone."
"I do. I have the tendency myself once in a while."
She stared at him. "I guess I like people around too much to understand hermits."
He half-smiled. "I'm no hermit, though I admit the genes may be there."
"Genes?"
"My father was a wanderer. Or at least that's what my mother always called it." Inwardly, he cursed himself.
What was there about this woman that made him want to dump the past on her, to tell her more than she'd want to know, more than he'd ever told anyone?
Abruptly, he shifted to something else. "Want to try sleeping under the stars tonight?" he asked. "There's going to be a penultimate moon."
"What kind of a moon is that?"
"My term for one night short of full. Hard to tell the difference, actually."
"Never in my life have I slept outside."
"Past time to try it, then." He didn't understand why he needed to share the experience with Vala, but he did. He wanted her to feel what he did--the awesome beauty of the night and the stars and the universe.
"If I can reserve the right to retreat to my tent," she said.
"You won't want to." He glanced up at the sky, all but devoid of clouds, and saw a hawk circling in a thermal.
Vala must have followed his gaze, because she said, "Isn't he gorgeous? I've sometimes wondered why predators so often are. Eagles, cougars, wolves--all graceful and deadly."
"They're doing what they were born to do--hunt for food. Like men used to in the old days. The Ndee were never in one place long enough to grow crops--hunters, all of them."
"I can't think they found much to hunt in the Superstitions."
"There's game here. But the Ndee didn't trespass much on their sacred mountain."
"Have you studied the Ndee? You seem to know them well."
"Something like that."
No matter what subject they started out with, the conversation seemed to circle back to his past. No doubt because it was so easy to talk to Vala that he forgot to be careful what he said.
"Oh, look!" she cried, pointing. "That must be the landmark."
Bram looked, then turned to grin at her. "You spotted the guide bear, all right."
"I can't wait to tell Davis, but I hope he won't be too disappointed he wasn't the first to see the bear."
"Look at it this way. If he hadn't gotten lost and blundered into that cactus, we wouldn't have come to Pauline's and we wouldn't be where we are now. So Davis can take part of the credit."
"Wounded but justified," she said, smiling at him. "Interesting old Mokesh's map has been accurate so far," Bram said. "The bear isn't as well known a landmark as the lizard. I knew roughly where it was, but not exactly. We'll have to change direction some when we hit the trail again."
"Do you actually think we might find something when we reach the map's end?"
"If you mean treasure, I doubt we'll find gold."
She sighed. "There has to be something. Davis will be heartbroken otherwise. You see, he trusted Mokesh, so he believes in that map."
"Mokesh was a medicine man; Davis won't be disappointed." Bram wasn't sure how he knew this, but, as though Mokesh himself was whispering into his ear, he had no doubt he was right.
"Davis trusts you, too," she said.
Bram was well aware of the boy's hero worship. He hadn't earned it. All he'd done was try to help a kid like he'd once been, feel better about himself. Considering he was a man who avoided entanglements of any kind, it was strange how involved he'd managed to get with both Vala and her son. He ought to put an end to it. He could, couldn't he? Yeah, he told himself. Sure. And I suppose you think inviting Vala to spend the night with you under the stars is your first step to disentanglement.
His momentary uneasiness about involvement was erased by a rush of anticipation about what the night might bring, anticipation so intense it filled his mind--and body.
Vala, glancing at Bram, caught his dreamy smile--at nothing--and wondered what he was thinking. Why had he mentioned sleeping under the stars? Now all her thoughts were irrevocably focused on that. She should have said no, but the idea intrigued her.
Or was it the man who intrigued her?
Foolish question. She'd been caught up in something beyond her power to resist every since he'd walked into that cafe in Apache Junction and looked into her eyes. Though it may have been a mistake to bring Bram back into her life, she was glad she'd ignored that crossed-off name and called him. Never mind that she hadn't expected to feel so drawn to him, he'd made her feel young again, made her feel attractive even in her jeans and long-sleeved shirt trail clothes.
Much as she loved her son, Bram had made her realize there was more to life than being a mother. Not that she'd ever neglect Davis, but she'd been reminded she had a right to a life of her own. A right she just might seize and explore tonight under the stars.
Chapter 7
When Vala and Bram arrived at the spot Pauline had sent them to, they found some of the plants she'd mentioned and began clipping off the parts she'd told them she needed, dropping them into the basket. When it was full, they searched in vain for the other plants she'd described, ones whose roots she'd asked them to dig for her.
"I guess we'll just have to take her what we've got," Vala said.
Bram nodded. "What she wants isn't here. Makes no sense to go on looking when we don't know where else they might grow. Odd that she told us they grew here. As well as she knows the Superstitions, it isn't like Pauline to make such a mistake."
They remounted and soon were threading their way back through a narrow passage between two peaked rock formations. When they came into the open, Vala asked, "Don't you know anything about Pauline other than that she's a medicine woman and a hermit?"
Bram shook his head.
"She acted as though she knew who Davis was talking about when he mentioned Mokesh. That's surely not a common name."
Bram was fairly sure Pauline had Ndee blood, but didn't say so. If Pauline wanted people to know, she could tell them herself. If she didn't, he wasn't going to be the one to say anything.
"I suppose she thinks we're out of our minds to be following that old treasure map," Vala went on. "Oh, not you--I mean Davis and me. Since he's a kid, it boils down to me."
"She wouldn't make that kind of judgment."
"I distinctly heard her say it was crazy to search for gold in the Superstitions."
"You're not searching for gold," he pointed out.
"But we sort of are, Davis and I. Gold is treasure."
>
"Definitely. But as I keep repeating, treasure doesn't have to be gold."
"Well, no, but in the Superstitions everyone pretty much figures it must be."
"Yeah, the Lost Dutchman Mine and the Apache gold are pegged into the mountain, whether or not they ever were here. Or ever existed."
"You said Apache gold, how come not Ndee."
"That's what the general public calls it. Apache or Ndee, however you think of them, didn't have any interest in what to them wasn't a useful metal so the chances of them amassing gold is remote. In my opinion, both the legends are little more than fairy tales."
"But you said the Dutchman was a real man."
"He existed, all right. Dutch is what they called Germans in those days and Jacob Walz came from Germany. What I said earlier about him is true, though--he died stone broke. No one has ever proved one way or the other whether he actually did mine for gold or whether the nuggets he once found came from a hidden Spanish cache, one with its own legend."
"So just maybe...." she said softly.
"Don't get fixated on gold," he warned.
"I'm not. But wouldn't it be wonderful if once in a while a fairy tale came true?"
"They never do." He heard the bitterness in his voice, surprised he still resented his father with such intensity. He thought he'd put that behind him.
Being on this mountain with this woman from his past was stirring up a multitude of emotions, some better left unexplored.
Later, back at the cabin, both Vala and Bram enjoyed Pauline's rabbit stew. Davis woke up in time to eat, sitting in a chair padded with a cushion, but acted more sleepy than hungry.
"I don't hurt except a little bit," he told his mother. "Pauline's medicine is working."
"Could the medicine be making him drowsy?" Vala asked her.
"Sometimes does," Pauline said. "No harm to it."
"I'm awake now," Davis insisted. "I been thinking about getting lost and all and I figure maybe it was Coyote playing a trick on me like he does in the stories."
"They are just stories," Vala reminded him.
"Yeah, but they mean something. Mokesh said so. He said they wouldn't have gone on telling them for so many years otherwise."