“Again with the words, Jake. I am getting tired of waiting. I have work to do.” Two Spirits stood, his arms once more crossed over his chest. “Mister Eathen does not pay me to play games. Do what you are going to do, so I can return to my duties.”
Losing all control, Jake ran at Two Spirits, his knife arm poised and ready. In a flash, Two Spirits kicked out one long leg, catching Jake in the side of his head to send him sprawling once more into the dust. Before he could move, the younger man knelt behind him, his knee pressed into his back. With one hand filled with Jake’s hair and the other filled with his knife, Two Spirits growled low in his throat, “Which shall it be, white man? Should I cut your throat or just scalp you?”
“Mister Eathen,” Jake squealed like a cornered pig, his eyes bulging with fright, “you better shoot this crazy son-of-a-bitch, ‘fore he scalps me!”
Eathen chuckled, taking another draw on his cigar.
“I will not scalp you, Jake,” Two Spirits told him with great humor, pulling him to his feet. “Here, take your knife. I do not have time to play anymore.”
When Jake slapped the knife-hand away, Two Spirits threw the knife point-down in the dust.
“Too bad nobody wanted to bet,” Eathen laughed, “I woulda had fifty bucks.”
“Two Spirits look out!” Jessie screamed.
Jake’s knife whizzed by Two Spirit’s back, just missing him as he walked away.
“That does it, Jake, you sneaky bastard.” Eathen jumped the fence and strode in anger across the pen. “You’re outta here. Pack your shit then pick up your pay. I want you off this ranch in ten minutes. If you ain’t gone by then,” Eathen walked up to him, “I’ll shoot you myself for attempted murder!”
“Yeah, I’ll go.” Jake sheathed the knife, stooped to pick up his hat. As he straightened, he eyed the older man with a smug glare. “I should tell you somethin’ you need to know, but since you fired me over this worthless trash,” he nodded towards Two Spirits, “I’ll let you find it out on your own.”
“Right at this moment, Jake, I wouldn’t believe anything you had to say, anyway. So I guess it’s best you keep whatever it is to yourself.”
“You remember that down the road,” Jake warned him. “It’s gonna happen. Mark my words. It’s gonna happen.”
“What was that all about, Eathen?” Charlotte asked as she and Jessie came up to stand beside him.
“Just Jake runnin’ off at the mouth like always. Nothin’ for us to worry about.”
“Miss Jessie, you take care now,” Jake called out to her. “And stay outta trouble, you hear?”
“Yeah, Jake,” she called back, ignoring his meaning, “you do the same.”
“Well, it seems you’re the only one he cares to say good-bye to, Jessie.” Eathen placed a hand on her shoulder. “Jake always has been a little strange.”
“Like they say,” Jessie laughed, “it takes all kinds.”
“Maybe now, with Jake gone, things’ll be easier on that young man.” Charlotte’s gaze followed Two Spirits across the pen. “I guess he always enjoyed ridin’ him about somethin’ or other’.”
“Just because the Indian could show him up’s all. Men like Jake like to be the best at everything. When a young pup like Two Spirits comes along and unseats him, he can’t handle it.”
“Sounds to me like you’re gainin’ some respect for Two Spirits,” Jessie smiled up at him.
“I gained a lotta respect for him today.” Eathen cocked his head laughing with open admiration. “He didn’t stand around whinin’. He got it done!”
“From what I’ve heard, he took this job so he could feed his mother and younger sister,” Charlotte explained. “I guess the Indian agent at the reservation don’t give them the food rations like he’s suppose to. It’s sad that some people have to do without, while others, like ourselves, have so much.”
“Maybe I’ll look into that situation the next time I go to Helena.” Eathen looked thoughtful. “The government ain’t too choosy when it comes to what agents they appoint.”
“You would really do that, Daddy?” Jessie’s surprise at his words was apparent on her young face.
“Of course I will. Don’t hold your breath for anything to be done,” Eathen warned her, “but it’s worth a try.”
“I’m so lucky to have you for my father.” Jessie rose up on her tiptoes to drop a quick kiss on his cheek. “You always make me feel so secure and protected.”
“That’s what I’m here for, Jessie.” He halted her as she started to pull away, hugging her close to him for a moment. “To protect you and your mother. And to give you the very best I know how.”
“I wish all families could be as happy as ours. When I think about poor Miss Sarah and Little Frank havin’ to live with Mister McKennah,” she shuddered, “I feel so sorry for them.”
“Frank can be a hard task master.” Eathen laced his hand with Charlotte’s. “Then I guess we all can.”
“What him and those other men did to all those Indians down by the lake.” Jessie clucked her tongue. “It just makes me sick.”
“Don’t think about things like that,” Eathen told her.
“Mama said he asked you to go with him that day.” Jessie squinted up at him. “I’m so glad you didn’t, Daddy. Knowin’ that just makes you that much more of a man in my eyes.”
“Mine too,” Charlotte spoke up.
“No man has ever made me mad enough to kill him,” Eathen breathed. “I hope that’s one thing in my life that never changes.”
“So do I,” Jessie whispered.
Chapter Eighteen
Whenever she could find time to break away from her duties around the house, Jessie would saddle up and ride to the lake to wait for Two Spirits. Very seldom did she find herself being disappointed. In the shade of the tall pines, on a bed made up of soft blankets, they made love at their leisure. Secure in the belief no one knew about their meetings, they continued to see each other without fear of discovery.
Jessie shivered as a soft breeze passed over her. Rolling to one side she flipped the top blanket over then snuggled her naked body beneath its warmth.
“The days can still be cool, little one.” He glanced down at her as she lay with the light blue saddle blanket pulled up to her chin.
“I wouldn’t care if six feet of snow covered us, as long as we’re together.” She threw her bare arms wide, enclosing him in their softness as he bent over her.
Stretching his lean body out straight, he pulled her head down on his chest. “I wish I could claim you as my woman, instead of hiding what we feel for one another.”
“Someday, my darling,” she whispered, nibbling on his bare chest and delighting in the taste of his skin, “we’ll be able to tell the world of our feelings. But for now, I’m happy here in our own secret place.”
“No, Jessie,” he corrected her, “the place we have chosen is known by many because of what happened here all those years ago to the Kainah Blackfoot.”
“A lotta people won’t come here just for that reason. They think the place is haunted.” Uncaring of her nakedness, she rose up on her knees and, curling her fingers into talons, pretended to lunge at him. “Lucky for us they feel that way.”
He did not return her light mood. Rising to his feet, he walked a short distance away to begin pulling on his jeans and shirt.
“Why are you gettin’ dressed?” She threw her arms over her head, stretched. “I told my mother I planned to go for a ride and would probably be gone most of the afternoon.” She pulled a small daisy growing near the blanket and inhaled its sweet fragrance. “We have hours before I have to be home.”
When he finished dressing, he returned to where she lay, watching him.
“What is it?” She glanced up at him. “Did I say somethin’ to upset you?”
“Do not make light of the stories you have heard about this place being filled with restless spirits, Jessie. When people die before their time, they do not always walk their
path to the sun right away. Sometimes it takes many years.”
“Two Spirits, you ain’t serious,” she laughed, throwing one leg over her upraised knee and swinging her foot back and forth. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.” She stuck the plucked daisy in her hair. “People tell those kinds of stories just so they can scare those silly enough to believe in them.”
“There will always be a difference between your world and mine, Jessie. I have seen things your people only hint at over their late-night campfires. The spirits of those who have gone before do not sleep. They roam the land where they felt most at peace. The Kainah Blackout killed those many years ago are still here.” His watchful eyes looked out over the still land. “I can feel their presence even now.”
Jessie stood up, pulling the blanket around her. “Two Spirits stop it. You’re scarin’ me.” Even though she didn’t believe in ghosts, right then, standing there in the shadow of the trees, she could almost imagine such things could exist. “This is just our imagination playing tricks on us.”
“Why, Jessie? Because you say it is so?”
“Two Spirits, I say it is so because we live in the real world. Stories are nice to hear, but that’s all they are. I know you’ve been raised different from me,” she told him, trying to hold onto her patience, “but that don’t change the fact of what’s real and what ain’t.”
“Would you believe I have seen spirits?” Two Spirits dropped down on the flat blankets.
“I’d ask what you’d been drinkin fore you saw them.” She gazed down at him.
“Do not make light of my beliefs, Jessie.” His voice took on a bitter tone. “I saw the spirits while seeking my vision quest to become a man. Every Blackfeet male must find the one who will be his protector in this life.”
“What do you mean by this life? Are you sayin’ we have more lives after we die?”
“Yes.” He nodded, staring out over the still waters of the lake. “My people believe we live many lives. Each one different than the others. In some lives we may return as someone we did not see eye to eye with in this life,” he shuddered, “even a white man.”
“Would that be so bad?” She shot him a cold look.
“For me,” Two Spirits closed his eyes for a brief moment, “it would be almost the worst thing I could think of.”
“I won’t ask why, Two Spirits, ‘cause I think we’d just end up fightin’ and I don’t want that.” Jessie walked over to sit beside him on the blankets. “So I’ll sit here in silence while you tell me about your quest.”
“When I turned fourteen, I sought the powers of the spirits.” His young voice took on a somber tone as he reached back through the years. “I did not eat or drink anything for three days, making my body an empty place for the Old Ones to dwell. On the last day I received my vision.”
Jessie remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
“My body trembled from hunger and thirst. I knew I would have to end my fast soon if the spirits did not smile on me with a vision. As I waited, I saw two white wolves walk out of the forest. I found it odd I did not feel any fear as I watched them walk towards me. One of the wolves carried something in her mouth. When she stood in front of me, she dropped what she had been carrying on the ground at my feet.”
Caught up in his story, Jessie leaned forward. “What did she drop?”
“I saw two small children wrapped in a blanket. A boy child and a girl child. The boy child belonged to my people. The girl child belonged to your people. To protect them, I stooped down and picked them up and held them against my chest. The male wolf watched me as I held them, but the she-wolf growled, wanting me to put them back down. For some reason, I placed only the boy child back on the blanket. As I watched, the male wolf walked to where the child lay, and before I could move to stop him, he quickly devoured it. Then, before my eyes, he began to change, taking on the appearance of a young warrior. Without a word, he held out his arms for the girl child I held close. With real fear in my heart, I placed her in his outstretched arms. As I stood watching, they faded until I could no longer see them.”
“That is a very strange story,” Jessie whispered.
“Our medicine man told me they signified two spirits. I never understood why I would see spirits of children on my vision quest. He could not tell me the answer.”
“Do other young boys see children in their vision quests?”
“I have never heard of anyone who has. When I talked with Pehta about my vision, he said something very strange.”
“What was it?”
“He said the spirit children told of a time already lived and a time yet to come.”
“Is that all he said?”
“Yes. I think he knew more, but he refused to tell me. Pehta is very gifted. The Old Ones gave him the gift of sight as a young boy. He knows things others can not. For some strange reason, I feel you are somehow a part of that vision. Pehta does too. I can see it in his eyes when I talk about you.”
“You think the white child you saw is me?” Jessie stared at him in amazement.
“Yes.”
“If I’m the female then who’s the male?”
“At first I thought he had to be me.”
“And now you don’t? Why?”
“Because of something Pehta said.”
“What did he say?”
“He said the spirit had to be that of his brother, Appearing Wolf.”
For a long moment she looked at him in disbelief. “Two Spirits, I spent time alone with him down by the lake. I thought him to be a harmless old man.” Cold chills of fear rolled over her. “Now you tell me he believes his dead brother haunted your dream?”
“Jessie, Pehta is harmless. He is very special to me and my people.” Two Spirits stood. “Why do whites always think someone is dangerous just because they are different?”
“I don’t think you need to get mad just because I feel ill-at-ease around someone who believes in ghosts and tells you his dead brother is still around. Or at least he thinks he might have been when you had your dream all those years ago.”
“I did not have a dream, Jessie.” He scowled at her. “I had a vision. There is a big difference.”
“All right, if you say so.” Jessie fluttered her hands in dismissal. “The fact still remains; Pehta’s not the sound-minded person you think he is.”
“Are you all knowing because you are white, Jessie?” Two Spirits’ voice shook with his anger. “Does your white skin give you the power to know about others who do not walk this earth the way you do?”
“Two Spirits, why are you gettin’ all upset over somethin’ so silly as a stupid ghost story?” She pulled off the blanket, throwing it to the ground to gather up her clothes.
In an instant he moved towards her, grabbing her shoulders and yanking her around to face him. “Never make fun of my beliefs again, woman! Not everyone looks at Mother Earth through eyes blinded by prejudice!”
With real fear, Jessie jerked away from him. Pulling her underclothes off a limb, she jerked them on. “I’m not the one who’s bein’ prejudiced here, Two Spirits.” She stuffed one leg into her jeans, watching to make sure she could still run if she needed to, before sticking in the other leg and pulling the jeans up to her waist. “You were the one who made a racial slur against my blood first.”
“Only because you took something very sacred to me and turned it into a joke,” he shouted back.
“How can not believin’ in somethin’ that doesn’t exist be considered makin’ a joke?” she screamed, yanking on her blouse that was smudged and stained with tree bark, cursing under her breath when she couldn’t wipe it off.
“Only you and others of your race say it does not exist. You are blind. You can only see through eyes of the whites!” he yelled right back.
“And you,” she dropped to the ground to pull on her socks and boots, “can only see through the eyes of a savage!”
They glared at each other until Jessie stood and, lifting one leg
at a time, pulled the hem of her jeans down over her boots. With a last look at the man staring at her with hostile eyes, she turned on her heel to stomp off towards her waiting horse. Mounting, she jerked the reins free from a low hanging branch and then, without a backward glance, kneed him onto the path leading away from the lake.
Two Spirits stood watching her leave with all the anger at her refusal to accept his beliefs still burning within his soul. As he turned to mount up, he caught a slight movement out of the corner of his eye. Crouching low, he made his way towards the tall ferns where he knew someone waited.
“Thought you’d pulled a fast one didn’t you, injun?” Jake drawled, rising from his hiding place. “I knew if I waited and watched you’d make your move.”
“You have been told to leave this property.”
“Oh, I left all right, just like the boss ordered. ‘Cept, I didn’t go far. I figure you’re my ticket to gettin’ my old job back, Johnny Two Spirits. Soon’s I tell Thornton ‘bout you bangin’ his precious daughter, you’ll be one dead red boy.” Jake rubbed a dirty hand across his stubbled chin. “Course, seein’ as how he’d never have found out lessin’ I told him, he’ll be so damn grateful, he won’t rest til I’m back on the payroll.”
“What about Jessie? Do you not care what this will do to her?”
“I could give a shit less ‘bout that snobby little bitch. Tell you the truth, I’m glad you busted her; always walkin’ ‘round thinkin’ we had to jump when she called. I wanta see her face when she finds out I’m the one who told her pa what she is.” His thin mouth split into an evil grin. “A worthless…little…slut…” he enunciated each word, “who bedded down with a red nigger.”
“When a person takes pleasure from the pain of others, he is said to be touched by evil spirits.” Two Spirits watched the other man’s movements. “You must be a very vile person, Jake.”
“I ain’t in the mood to hear your heathen beliefs, injun. You poked Thornton’s daughter. Now you’re gonna pay the price for that little ride, so don’t try talkin’ your way out of it. I got my horse tied just a little ways up this trail,” he shoved Two Spirits ahead of him, “so let’s go get him, then we’ll come back for yours. The sooner I turn you over to Thornton, the sooner I can get my job back and start enjoyin’ life again.”
Fated Memories Page 23