Camp Camel: The Heart of Texas

by Eaton, Rosemary

  Bryan took a breath, “But you survived. You’re not the same person who started on that trip because of what you went through and maybe that’s why we survived Jenny. Maybe you are still a knife, but a better honed one, and mine, not his now. I think what happened to Tatsinuupi was because she couldn’t see how happy the sons made him. He loved her, but it just wasn’t enough. That wasn’t your fault.” Bryan waited for her to respond and then finally asked, “We’re back in the game again right?”

  Jenny grunted, “You think you can beat me now? We see. You not say who enough for. Enough for Sparrow Hawk, but not enough for Tatsinuupi. But why we survive have nothing to do with how I change or not. It have to do with you and his love of you fighting for me. He would have let them kill me and be done with it. He still may. He will never understand why one would want to grow old. It is not how Comanche think.” Jenny waited for Bryan to consider her answer.

  Bryan said, “Not true. You trusted Gage to come. You never would have trusted him before not to try to kill you. You changed and we lived because you got me to wait for Gage.”

  Jenny stated, “Your point. I have been a knife in someone’s side most of my life. Even yours. I think that is why he named me that. If I had known then what I know now, maybe I would have done what Father said I should have done. I would have taken the knife in my hand and cut deeper for fear of what was to come. I kept hoping tomorrow would be better, but it never was.” Jenny smiled a wry sort of smile, “But you give me hope that there is a better place waiting someday.”

  Bryan looked at all the scars and evidence of exactly what might make a woman consider taking her own life in front of him. If he’d know what would happen the night they walked out, he might have even done it for her. Bryan commented, “And we’re going to find it together. You just have to trust me on that. But there were a few good moments here and there that made it worth seeing what happens next. Not all good, but not all bad.”

  Jenny looked at him like she wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t quite convince yet. Jenny sighed, “Your point.” Then she continued, “It took a lot of tomorrows before I saw that one better day. Many beatings by Sparrow Hawk to make me forget I was ever white until one day I was not. It was day Itsee was born and then Paaka that made my heart glad. I had a handsome man who wore very little clothes. There were horses that I could see while I worked grinding corn or tanning buckskin. But no rocking chair. I came close. Did not miss dusting or scrubbing floors, so I guess it worked out alright.”

  Bryan let out a long drawn out sigh, “I see. Only those two? I disagree. Sparrow Hawk loves every one of your children. Because they are his sons and because they are yours.”

  Jenny replied, “Your point. They all made him proud. There was no beating those days, but I did not realize how the wheels of my future turned in Tatsinuupi’s hands.”

  Well, she was in a confessional mood. MacLeod would have loved to been there for this, but it wasn’t completely foreign for a patient to want to talk to a doctor either. Especially after a hard battle that made you reflect on your choices in life. Bryan keep his voice steady and nonjudgmental as he asked, “What happened?”

  Jenny continued, “I learned to hate camels. They spit on me. They bite my hand. They ate better than me and had water when I had none.”

  Bryan said, “What happen to the poop and pee?”

  Jenny said, “You are too smart for me. I ate their poop and their pee turned my hair red.”

  Bryan smiled, “Now that’s an idea. We could use camel pee to dye your hair red.” Then Bryan thought about how Lacy’s leg had smelled when he used pee for an antiseptic at Crockett’s Bluff when they didn’t have anything else, “Well, maybe not. It would stink pretty bad.” Bryan put a question he wondered about now, “You didn’t know Gage had been reported dead in the war after he left for Arkansas? You hadn’t seen him since the night he tried to strangle you before Wasapi was born?”

  Jenny said, “Game not work that way, so that is questions in your mind for me. I was sad when I saw his stone and thought he was a ghost that night your Major take me to Father’s home. Hoped someday he would not think of me like that, and now no chance to see if that true until he show face in fire. Then I knew, he still hate me bad and think of me as only the Knife, not sister. If he was in village, it was not while I was there. Sent away much by Tatsinuupi so it is possible he came in then.”

  Bryan admitted, “Well he scared the crap out of me Jenny. I was sure we buried him in Judsonia. I guess he surprised us all that night.”

  Jenny replied, “I thought a spirit come back to finish what he started that night.” Jenny added, “But that not as bad as night Chibitty born. My world came to and end and was reborn that night. Never will I forget that.”

  Jenny said pensively, “If you had let me die, you would still be happy and not forced to leave because of me. Sparrow Hawk would not have had to make sons choose and they might have returned some day to know Cole and Hope. Levers would not have been moved, ravine not flooded, grass not died, animals and people not had to move on because water gone. All rests on that one night. I was happy knowing you cared and wanted me. Sad that Chibitty might not have name, but I think I would have found him with Snow Bird’s help.”

  Bryan shook his head, “If I had let you die, Sparrow Hawk would have made a target out of me and filled me with arrows. Believe me, it was as much for me as it was for you. I should have gone with you.”

  Jenny said, “Chibitty was not your fault. It was mine for leaving fort. You reach out your hand and I bite it off like rabid dog bites those who offer him food.”

  Bryan remembered the night they chased her down, “I think Itsee and Paaka had more to do with that Jenny than any of us.”

  Jenny thought about her sons, “Maybe, maybe not. It smell of Red Cedar’s doing to me. It does not matter, we can not change it now.” Jenny grunted, “Huh, I want my sons to be educated men, but here I am with words so broken no one think I’m white. One day, you must remind me of words I leave out or use wrong. I do not want people looking at you like you make big mistake taking old squaw as companion. That is the word is it not? Not wife. Just good friend who stay with you.”

  Bryan swallowed, “Companion yes, but more. You’re my wife. What have I done to make you think that?”

  Jenny replied, “You do not touched me even though I do not bleed now. Maybe you never want to touch me again like that. You wanted son or not? You are not too old to have son. You like children, you like Major’s wife, I see it in your eyes when you look on her.” Jenny swallowed, “So that just leave me. You just do not feel that way about me. Not your fault. You not in right mind when you say you marry me. Even Major say that to you.”

  Bryan lecture her, “Remember you asked me to do this. One word that could have been used better is the verb want. Do you remember tenses? For example want is something you desire right now or in the future. Wanted is something that applies to the past that didn’t happen. Perhaps you meant to ask me if I want a son, not if I wanted a son in the past?”

  Jenny squinted her eyes trying to figure out what she said wrong. Jenny asked, “You not want Brianna to be little Brian?”

  Bryan’s brow furrowed as he looked down rather than acknowledge what she had said. He quickly finished looking through his last screen then looked her in the eyes and changed the subject, “Wife is the word Jenny. You are my wife, not just a companion. Remember that. People would look on both of us as wanton sinners with no morals if you weren’t my wife. I haven’t touched you, because I want to give your body time to heal. That indicates I don’t feel you have healed yet, not that you’ve healed and because you were hurt was the reason I didn’t touch you earlier. I will touch you again when I feel the time is right in the future.” Bryan hoped that was confusing enough to change the subject from whether he might or might not have wanted Lacy to name a son for him or even worse, she thought he’d fathered Brianna.

  Jenny corrected her use of the wo
rd and said, “You are the only one I want to touch me in the future. I will wait, but you do not have to wait for me to touch you. Is it not permitted?”

  Bryan’s lip curled up, “Better.” Bryan told Jenny to change the words ‘Is it not permitted’ to ‘If you wish I could rub your tired muscles and make them feel better, would you like that Bryan?’. Bryan suggested, “We could snuggle and watch the stars and moon rise in the sky tonight. There are many ways to enjoy being together and I intend to show you all of those before we’re too old to enjoy them.”

  A smile crossed Jenny’s face, “Ribs still hurt too much? I should not pester you and make you feel bad because it still hurt.”

  Bryan coughed, “Well, that too, but right now, it’s time we move down stream. Seems strange to say that given it’s nothing but a dry creek bed now.”

  They packed everything up and thirty minutes later Jenny pointed to a spot where there was still water puddled. There was evidence of other people having visited the site not long ago. Bryan looked around, “You think it’s safe? Maybe we should just skip this. Not a lot of water and both people and animals have been coming here.”

  Jenny looked at the tracks, “See the pole marks, they left. Too little water left. We should spear holes for snakes. Not reach in there Bryan.” Jenny rummaged through the camp and came back with a few discarded bowls, clay jars, scraps of buckskin, beads, and things left behind by their previous owners and pack them in the wagon.

  Bryan took out his amphibian gig and stood back as he speared it down into each hole and brought up three water snakes wriggling like worms on the ends of the pole. Jenny chopped off the head with the hatchet and saved them to roast putting them in one of her newly claimed jugs. Bryan lowered a bucket and dragged it back up using a rope and dumped the mud and rocks into his sieve. Jenny looked on the other side of the of the holes along the dry creek bed. She found one rock with a fossil showing and put it in her pocket. There was some flint, long narrow arrow heads that broken off when spearing fish that she pocketed, but there wasn’t any of the jewels Bryan wanted to save as she walked further down the creek.

  Bryan picked out a few rocks and put them over on a cloth to dry off. Some he threw away, but a few went in his pouch. Bryan looked at her, “Small ones. I guess anything of size probably stopped before now.”

  Jenny walked back toward Bryan, “No more stones past holes.” She walked back up the dry creek bed. There were a couple puddles where tadpoles swam, but there was very little of interest. Bryan scooped a couple more buckets and sieved through the remains being careful to avoid pottery shards and what looked like a collection of lost artifacts like beads strings that had broken off, bits of deer horn, broken arrow heads, small bones. The hole had collected both the lost and the garbage from upstream over time. Bryan found one coin, but it was a silver dollar not Spanish gold. Jenny came behind him and picked a few of the objects Bryan and thrown out as items she wanted to save.

  Bryan chuckled, “You’re a pack rat. Now why do your want that broken antler?”

  Jenny said, “Poke holes in leather. Like awl. It still has some use. Those beads can be used again. bowl has only small crack. Can use for something.”

  Bryan repeated, “Pack rat. My God I married a pack rat.”

  Jenny shook her finger when he tried to take some out, “You just wait. I make new ones, then these can go. We not have anything Bryan. Keep you from eating sand in your bread.”

  Bryan smiled, “Well, when you put it that way, I guess we could keep it for now.”

  Bryan packed the wagon and helped Jenny up and they crossed the dry creek bed to the north side and headed northeast. Once they were out of the valley and on the high desert plains, Bryan shot three rounds into the air. There was a return of three shots echoing from a hill further south. Bryan and Jenny watched until an explosion rocked the ground and the sound of water flowing down toward the dry creek bed could be heard.

  On the opposite hill Mr. Travis addressed Thomas MacLeod, “That’s how you drain a sink hole Thomas.”

  MacLeod grinned, “Yes, Sir. That worked just like you said it would. Nice and steady. No biblical flooding at all. You seem to know what you’re doing for sure, Sir.” Gage looked at MacLeod as he sucked up to his Dad. MacLeod had convinced the old man, that without his help all the hunting the hill country offered was about to be a thing of the past. It was only his expertise that could save the deer and wild game from extinction. Once day the railroad would be coming through and this was valuable land that would support families moving westward from the worn torn states.

  Mr. Travis said, “You bet I do. I built those rails with my own two hands and blasted openings between those caverns. I knew them like the back of my hand. I intentionally had that water draining out this hole. I figure, the water will drain enough for us to get to the mule in a couple of days. Higher ground up by the ranch.”

  Gage’s eyes twinkled as he played up to his Dad, “And the bats Dad? They are going to leave aren’t they?”

  Mr. Travis looked at Gage, “Gage, once the water drops, they’ll be flying out to get food. I figure we open all the windows and doors and then when they’re out, we seal the house up tight. One small blast and we seal up the cavern under the house from the rest of those and that damned geyser.”

  Gage grinned, “Sounds like a plan for sure Dad.”

  MacLeod said, “We fish like the apostles and pull up those coins that get washed out.”

  Gage wasn’t so sure about that. His experience with Jenny was still fresh on his mind as he asked, “You sure that net’s not trapping the snakes too?”

  MacLeod replied, “Oh come on how big do you think they could be? There’s room for them to get out at the top of the net. I’ll show you.”

  Gage said, “Dad, maybe you better move back. Jenny was pretty sure there were a lot of snakes.”

  Mr. Travis said, “Bosh!”

  MacLeod hoisted up a bundle from the stream below using a pulley, “Gage, give me a hand. I think we hit the mother load.”

  Gage gave MacLeod a hand as they pulled the bundle up and swung the bundle over to the top of the cliff. As the net strings broke from the weight, out tumbled rocks, some coins, and a ball of snakes that scattered in all directions. Shots could be heard as Gage, and Mr. Travis fired at the slithering mass of angry water snakes. The horses scattered rearing and bucking as they left. Daisy growled and stomped sending the snakes back toward the creek below leading to another round of shots as the men cursed and scampered up into the trees.

  Gage looked at MacLeod, “Well, I’d say they could be about four feet long and too many to get through your holes! Maybe we should just let that stay on the bottom and wait and give them a chance to get away before we start pulling it up next time.”

  Dallas rode up on Bull with a pack camel and kept his distance from Bryan’s wagon as he had the camel go to it’s knees and tethered him. Bryan gave Jenny the reigns, “Hold on good, just in case they spook.” He lowered the tail gate to the wagon and started pulling out the bags they had collected from the creek.

  Dallas nodded to Jenny, “You’re looking well Jenny. How was your rock hunting trip?”

  Jenny looked behind her, “You see for self. Bryan work hard for this.”

  Bryan restated, “You can see for yourself.”

  Jenny said, “You can see for yourself. That better?”

  Bryan said, “Is that better?”

  Jenny said, “Is that better?”

  Bryan chuckled, “Yes that is better Jenny. Just remember you asked me to do this.”

  Jenny blushed as she said slowly, “Maybe I should keep mouth shut.”

  Bryan replied, “That’s true. That last remark should have been kept to yourself. You don’t have to say everything you think. Choose when you speak and when you just think your thoughts.” Bryan waited. Jenny looked at Bryan and back to the Major and said, “Bryan is my teacher. He is not being a smuck.”

  Dallas turned and tried
not to react in front of Jenny as he coughed, “Sarrie, something caught in my throat Bryan.”

  Bryan looked offended, “She asked me to do this. She wants to learn.”

  Dallas said softly, “Until she doesn’t and then you’re back to smuck. Maybe you should pick and choose when you do that and how much at a time. Just saying, it gets old fast.”

  Bryan sighed, “I’ll take that in consideration.” Bryan opened several bags, “I didn’t check them with a loop, but I think they’ll be pleased with this. There was more than I expected. I guess that geyser might have flooded the caverns in the past to have washed that much down stream. We stopped about three miles down. Looks like someone left a campsite down there recently too.”

  Dallas asked Jenny, “Did you recognize them?”

  Jenny said, “There was foot prints of women and children, some dogs and horses tracks. Men probably on horses, but we not see them, just tracks.”

  Bryan looked across to the other hill, “So, where to next? Should we go on to Delight?”

  Dallas handed Bryan a paper, “You earned it. Both of you did.”

  Bryan unfolded it. There was a pass giving him permission to travel with his wife Jenny Travers. And a new set of orders. Dallas gave him a copy of his marriage license stamped and filed in Kerrville. Dallas told Jenny, “Mrs. Travers, I’m afraid you’re stuck with this smuck now. Your marriage has been recorded properly.”

  Jenny said, “That paper say he married me forever?”

  Dallas replied, “Yes, Mam, for better or worse the two of you are married forever or until one of you dies or gets tired of being corrected and you leave him.”

  Bryan corrected Dallas, “If you get tired of me correcting you, then you just say Bryan, hold me and read to me, tell me about the Greeks or ancient Romans, or cook for me, teach me music, or sing me a song. I can do other things you have no idea about yet. I taught lots of things, not just English.”

  Dallas motion over to one of the camels, “I’ve got a few things for you Bryan.” Once they had moved away from the wagon Dallas handed Bryan a bag of gold dust, “I exchanged what I could. I figure this can be traded no matter where you end up. Dallas gave him the tin picture frame that Bryan had brought from White County, Arkansas showing a picture of his family home. Dallas looked at Bryan, “One of the camel handlers brought this to me.” Dallas pulled out a black Pearl the size of his thumb nail. Dallas continued, “He said he won this from a Union prisoner of war. The man was trying to bribe his way out of the guard house by offering to lead him to the ship. MacLeod believed the camel herder, right after he broke the man’s fingers. Unfortunately, the prisoner died of his wounds before we could question him.”