Spirit Pouch

by Vaterlaus, Stanford

  I just smile at Ty and smugly walk away.

  "I'm right and you know it," Ty calls after us.

  We check the horse and the oxen. They are fine. Coming back into camp I can hear Joseph first.

  "I got him!" Joseph whoops like an Indian on the war path.

  William and I both walk over to Joseph. Joseph, Ty and Annie are all kneeling around a circle drawn in the dirt. Three marbles sit inside the circle.

  "But you didn't bump him out of the circle, so it is my turn," Annie says. "That's the rule."

  [87]

  "I know," Joseph replies haughtily. "But I still hit him hard. Ty's marble is clear over onto the edge."

  "Your marble is on the edge now, too," Annie says. "And I'm going to hit it out."

  "If your marble goes out," Joseph says defensively, "then you lose."

  "I know." Annie frowns and throws her taw.

  I know that when you throw a marble, it is called a taw. The marble you are trying to hit is called a duck.

  "Out!" Annie yells. "Your duck went out of the circle."

  "You were trying to get my marble out and you hit Ty's marble," Joseph sings triumphantly. "I'm still in."

  Annie pokes Joseph with an elbow.

  "I guess I lose this round," Ty says sadly.

  "My turn," Joseph sings. He lets go of his taw and it collides with Annie's duck driving both marbles out of the ring.

  "I hit you out!" Joseph chants. "I hit you out."

  "You went out, too," Annie says. "So the game is a tie."

  "I know. But I still slammed you right out of the circle," Joseph says dancing a little.

  "Thanks for teaching me how to play," Ty says.

  "You can play for keepsies," Annie explains. "Then if you knock a marble out you get to keep it."

  "Really?" Ty says.

  "Yes, but I don't like to play that way. You could lose all your marbles."

  Ty stands up and walks over to meet us.

  "Will you play with us?" Joseph jumps with enthusiasm as he runs in front of William and me, while dragging Ty along.

  "What are you playing this time?" Ty asks, smiling.

  "There are lots of bushes and rocks," Joseph replies looking around and pointing. "So we could play Hide and Go Seek."

  "Okay," Ty agrees for us, "but Jared has to be 'it'."

  "Wait!" I yell. "If I see you then you must get back to this rock before I do." I put my foot onto a large rock nearby and point to it. "If I get here first then you are caught."

  "Last one caught is 'it'," Joseph laughs.

  "That's right," I smile. "I'm only going to count to thirty, so you have to hide quickly."

  I sat down on the rock and buried my face in my hands. "I'm counting," I yell. "One, two, three," I yell slowly. I hear feet scramble away, with a little whispering. "Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine." For a moment it is extremely quiet. I hear a bird call from a distance and a blanket flap. I guess Henry is folding it. "Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen."

  "Go hide over there," I hear Annie hiss.

  Footsteps on some twigs. "Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen."

  "Don't follow me," Annie scolds from somewhere behind me.

  "I'm not," Joseph answers defensively.

  "Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one."

  "You've gotta hide," Joseph advises. "You can't just stand there. Jared is almost to thirty!"

  Annie squeals. It is not an irritated squeal, like I expect, but one mixed with fear, like last year when my mom got a bee in her hair. I quit counting and turn around.

  "Joseph! Stop!" Annie cries. "You're pushing me."

  From Annie's voice I can tell where they are, but I cannot see them.

  "Oh wow, that is a big snake!" Joseph exclaims. "Move back!"

  "No! It will strike me! Go tell William to bring his gun!"

  "Step behind me," Joseph commands. "It won't bite me because I'm holding still."

  "It will strike one of us," Annie breathes.

  I can see them now. Annie in front of Joseph and not three feet away is a large, brown rattlesnake. It is coiled, with its triangular head raised slightly toward Annie and Joseph. I can hear the rattle now, which is shaking a vigorous warning only inches from the snake's deadly, venomous head.

  "Slowly step back," I say quietly.

  "See. I told you," Joseph says urgently.

  "No! It will bite me."

  "It won't bite me," Joseph says. "I've got boots on."

  "I have boots," Annie hisses.

  "But I have long pants. It can't get me." Joseph reaches for Annie's hand and pulls her backwards.

  As they move the snake strikes. Annie screams and they both hit the ground kicking and scrambling backwards out of reach of the snake.

  William runs up with his rifle, takes aim at the snake and shoots. The snake lays sprawled out in the dirt.

  "You made it strike!" Annie screams at Joseph. "You made it strike!" Annie is crying now and I help her up, putting my arm around her.

  "It didn't bite you though, did it?" Joseph defends himself.

  Annie stops crying and lifts her skirt to check her legs. No bite marks. Not even a scratch. "It could have bitten me," she yells angrily.

  "We can thank our God that you are all right," Henry says, mostly to Annie. "How is everyone else?" he asks looking around.

  "It was a prairie rattler, Father," William reports. "Apparently it struck when they started to move away, but it missed."

  "That ol' snake isn't going to bite anybody now," Joseph says still sitting in the dirt and rubbing his leg above the boot line.

  "Joseph," Henry steps closer. "Are you all right?"

  "Yes, Father. I just scratched my leg on a rock when Annie fell on me."

  "Come here," Henry says. "I want to see that scratch."

  Joseph pulls his pant legs up and I breathe a sigh of relief. Henry inspects his leg very closely.

  "Puncture marks," he says solemnly. He picks Joseph up in his arms and turns toward camp.

  My heart sinks. "How poisonous are prairie rattlers?" I ask William.

  Ty answers, "About the same as diamond backs. It can vary a lot. Sometimes they will strike and not inject any venom if it is a defensive strike. Hunting is another matter."

  "So, do you think they have anti-venom in Willow Springs?" I ask William.

  "I've never heard of anti-venom," William says. "What is it?"

  "It is a serum, sometimes made from horse blood after a horse has been bitten. It helps cure snakebites," Ty answers.

  "I know you are smart, Ty," William produces a worried smile. "But if that were true I would have heard about it. People die from snake bites all the time. They are never given anti-venom. That sounds like an old wives tale."

  William runs to catch up with his father.

  "Anti-venom will not be discovered for another twenty or so years," Ty says. "And we don't have enough time to make any. Besides, no one will let a couple of boys test their theory on their horse or on a bite victim. So forget it."

  "Elizabeth," Henry bellows. "I need a bed."

  "What happened?" Elizabeth panics.

  "Snake bite on his leg. Prairie rattler." Henry takes a deep breath, "Bring me my knife."

  "I'm all right, Mother," Joseph says as Henry lays him down in his own bed. "It doesn't even hurt. I'll be okay."

  "Henry," I say. "Can I talk with you about Joseph for thirty seconds while Elizabeth fetches your knife … over here?"

  We step a few paces away. "We have a lot of rattle snakes in Arizona," I begin. "So, I have studied about snake bites a little."

  "What can you tell me?" Henry says, agitated. "Be quick."

  "The first thing is that cutting open the bite will do very little to help a snake bite. It will probably only allow dirt to get in and cause an infection."

  "Thank you, Jared," Henry says. "This is my son, and you expect me to sit back and do nothing. I cannot do nothing, and this is what has been done for many years
. I'm sorry. I am going to open the bite and suck the venom."

  "Wash his leg with soap," I say. "and wash your knife, too. That is, if you must do this."

  Henry glares at me, turns and leaves me standing here. "Elizabeth. I need soap and water, quickly." Henry kneels down beside Joseph. "This is serious, Joseph," Henry says, wiping a tear from his eye, and then regaining his composure. "We have to treat this snake bite, and it is going to hurt. I need you to be brave, son."

  "What are you going to do?" Joseph asks.

  "I am going to cut the bit open a little and suck the poison out. We need to be quick and I need you to be brave."

  "I will, Father."

  "Jared, William, Ty, I will need your help." Henry pulls Joseph's pant leg up. The bite is red now. I have no trouble spotting it this time.

  Elizabeth brings soap and water and quickly washes Joseph's leg, then washes Henry's knife. "Hands," she says.

  Henry scowls, "Elizabeth!"

  "Hands, too," she says. "I heard what Jared said about infection."

  Henry holds out his hands and Elizabeth scrubs them quickly with soap and a wet towel. "Okay."

  "Boys, hold him so he does not move. I want to be quick and precise."

  We each take an arm and leg and then a fourth pair of hands grasp Joseph's leg.

  "Thomas!" Joseph says.

  "We can talk later," Henry says. "Help me with his leg."

  "I prayed you would be here," Joseph says. "I'll be all right now, Father."

  Henry takes the knife and with quick motion makes a slit through the skin and into his leg, directly through both puncture points. I am surprised to see that at first there is no blood, but then it begins to ooze from the incision.

  Joseph closes his eyes and his face tightens up like he wants to cry out, but he holds it back. Henry puts his mouth over the cut tissue and sucks hard. Then spits.

  Joseph pulls on his leg, clenching his teeth. Henry sucks hard on the bite one more time for almost a full minute, and Joseph cries. Henry spits again, and wipes the blood from his mouth.

  "Elizabeth, we need a bandage," Henry says finally.

  Elizabeth tears one of her new towels into strips, then washes the incision and places a bandage loosely over the wound.

  "Okay, Jared," Henry says turning to me. "What else do you know? Maybe you could tell Elizabeth and me."

  We walk away from Joseph to the other side of the far wagon. "First of all, the venom is going to try to spread, not so much through the blood, but through the tissue." I know that it actually will spread through the lymphatic system. I had learned that at a Boy Scout meeting from a park ranger. But I do not have time to give an anatomy lesson right now.

  "We know that it will spread," Henry says.

  "So, we need to apply a restricting band above and below the bite. It needs to be snug, but not so tight that it cuts off the blood flow."

  "Okay," Henry agrees.

  "The next thing is that his leg is going to swell, so we need to take off his boot and maybe his pants."

  "Okay, we can do that, too," Elizabeth says.

  "It is going to hurt a lot." I look at Elizabeth. "It will hurt because of the swelling. And it will cause his heart beat to increase. He needs to be kept warm, and keep the bite below the level of his heart. One of the reasons that people die from snake bites is from heart failure."

  Elizabeth starts crying and Henry puts his arm around her. "Maybe we should discuss this later," he says sternly.

  "There is no later time, Henry," I say boldly. "He needs to be re-assured that he will be okay. He needs to stay calm. That will help to lower his heart rate."

  "Is that it?" Henry says.

  "He will probably vomit," I say. "So he needs to sip water. You can't let him dry out."

  "Thank you, Jared," Henry says with tears in his eyes. "Let's go save our boy."

  "Henry," I speak softly. "Most of all he needs a blessing from his father."

  "I … I'm not sure …"

  "I will help you," I say. And I do. Henry gives Joseph a beautiful blessing. He lays his hands upon Joseph's head and, as his father, asks God to bless Joseph with courage, and to know that God loves him, and that he will recover and heal quickly from the poison of the snake bite.

  Elizabeth tears two long strips of cloth. I think it is another new towel. She places one snugly above the bite.

  "That hurts, Mother," Joseph cries.

  "That's pretty normal, Joseph. You got bit by a poisonous snake. But you are going to get well. And these bandages that I am putting on will help keep the poison from spreading. That way you will get better much faster."

  "Am I going to die, Mother?" Joseph asks.

  "Someday … when you are old, I suppose," Elizabeth hugs Joseph and blinks away a tear. "Your father gave you a blessing and asked God to heal you from that poison. You're father has great faith, and so do I. Now, I want you to rest so that you have the strength to get well." She kisses him and he closes his eyes.

  Joseph sleeps for three hours. Henry and Elizabeth sit nearby and speak quietly with Thomas, glancing at Joseph occasionally when he cries out in his sleep.

  "When I'm driving the freight wagon," Thomas says, "mostly I walk and guide the oxen. In the evening I un-yoke them and put them to pasture for the night. In the morning I yoke three pair of oxen to my wagon and I have to be ready to move out shortly after sun up."

  "The food is okay," Thomas says. "But nothing like Mother's cooking. It is the long work hours that is hard."

  Joseph rolls over, crying softly. Elizabeth is at his side immediately. She carefully lifts his blanket and checks his leg. I can tell from her eyes that it looks bad, so I quietly join Elizabeth. Joseph's leg around the bite is now blue and purple and is swollen like a small water balloon.

  "We need to loosen the restriction bands a bit," I whisper.

  Elizabeth gently pulls on the bands and begins to retie them.

  Joseph's eyes open and they are confused and wild for a moment as he awakens. He cries. "It hurts. My leg hurts."

  "I know," Elizabeth says, putting her face in his. "Snakebites hurt for a while, then they get better."

  "I need it better now," Joseph cries.

  "I'm going to change the bandage, Joseph," Elizabeth says. "That will help it a little."

  "Okay, okay," he whimpers.

  Elizabeth starts loosening the second restrictive band and I say, "You have been really brave so far, Joseph. I've seen several people with snakebites and they all started getting better after one day."

  "A whole day?" A tear runs down Joseph's cheek and I wipe it off.

  "Yes," I say. "So, can you be brave for one day?"

  "I think so," he squeaks. "But it really hurts."

  "I know. Rattle snake poison is pretty strong. That's why we have to be brave, and stronger than poison," I add with a smile.

  "I can be stronger than poison," Joseph squeaks.

  Elizabeth brings a cup of water and hands it to Joseph after I stack a blanket and pillow behind him so he can sit up. "Drink this," she says. "I am warming up some soup for you. It will help you fight off the poison."

  Joseph drinks the water and then leans back against the blanket and pillow. His face is tense and his eyes look glazed.

  Exhaustion, I think. Maybe some dehydration. I reach down and check his pulse on his wrist. Ninety. That's too high for a child at rest.

  "Hi, Joseph," Thomas says. "I've missed you out on the trail."

  "You have?" Joseph's eyes light up for a moment.

  "You bet," Thomas says. "I kept thinking that you would be good at this. And when we were rounding up the oxen to get them yoked I was thinking that you would like poking those big ol' oxen to get them to move."

  "I would like that," Joseph says as his eyes light up again with imagination. "I could train them to go left and right or even to back up."

  "You could," Thomas agrees, smiling.

  "Did you see any Indians?" Joseph asks.


  "Yes."

  "Did they try to shoot you?" Joseph asks with excitement.

  "No, we just saw them from far away. And I think they were Ute Indians. Ute are not hostile, so we were okay."

  "It's a good thing they weren't Sioux Indians because they would scalp you!"

  Elizabeth brings a bowl of soup and so I leave to make some room at Joseph's bedside. "Here is some soup to help make you strong," Elizabeth says as I walk away.

  Thomas keeps talking to Joseph while Elizabeth feeds him soup.

  When I walk behind the wagon William says, "Just how many people have you seen get a snakebite and actually get well?"

  "One, actually," I answer. But what I don't say is that the snakebite I saw was in a video, and that person got to the hospital and received anti-venom.

  "Well, I've seen several people with snakebites," William says with anger in his voice. "They all died."

  "I agree, William. This snakebite is serious."

  "So, you just go around creating false hope? How will that help?"

  "I am trying to encourage faith. Faith that Jesus Christ will heal him from this poison. Faith is not false hope."

  "I wish I could have your faith," William says. "Joseph is my brother. I don't want him to die."

  "It doesn't have to be that way," I say. "But he must stay hydrated. Eat and drink lots of fluids. He needs to be reassured, so that his heart rate stays down, and he needs to be kept warm. Tonight and tomorrow will be critical."

  "I hope you are right," William says, pushing a tear off his cheek. "I just hope you are right." William walks away and a short time later I see him talking to Joseph. In William's hand is a small figurine carved from wood.

  "It's an Indian," William is saying.

  "A Sioux Indian?" Joseph asks.

  "Yes. He is a Sioux. Can you see his tomahawk? I'm almost through carving it in his hand."

  "He looks mean," Joseph imagines. "Is he going to scalp someone?"

  "He might," William says. "Maybe we can make a peace treaty."

  "I don't think he wants a treaty," Joseph says. "He wants to scalp someone."

  "Maybe he wants some clothes?" Annie says.

  "Yeah," Joseph agrees. "And some food." Joseph winces and almost cries.

  "Okay, boys," Elizabeth says. "Make some room. Joseph needs food, too." She sits down next to Joseph with another bowl of soup. I see her hand feed Joseph and he drinks a big cup of water.