by Rita Hestand
Just you remember you're as rich as can be
As long as you're over by the old oak tree!"
"What are you singing?" Josh Hightower frowned as he shoveled the last of the dirt over the graves, licking his chafed lips.
"I don't know, a song, Pa used to sing it all the time. Seemed kinda right to sing now. I'm surprised I can remember it, usually I forget the second and third stanzas." Katherine shaded her eyes from the sun as she grabbed the canteen of water and took a swig. She handed her brother the canteen and took the shovel from his callused hands. Her hand covered his for a moment. Just for a moment, she looked at how tan she had become against her brothers fair skin. She'd always marveled at the difference in her other siblings too. Her dark hair to their light, her darker skin to their light. But she never spoke of it. And the fact that her eyes were brown and not blue bothered her too. But surely, someone looked like her in the family past. Her mother often recalled an old aunt two generations back that was dark skinned and haired, just like her. In fact, she named her after her.
"Don't make any sense." Josh emptied the canteen pouring the remainder over his head to cool himself, his eyes narrowing on the distant plains.
"I don't guess it had to make any sense to Pa. But it sure made him happy to sing it. I remember he'd grin like a hound dog treein' a coon, when he sang it." Katherine's muddled thoughts fought for sanity, she almost smiled, almost.
"Reckon this is good enough?" Josh motioned at the graves in front of them. He glanced up at the oak tree and shook his head slowly. "Who'd have thought an oak tree would survive out here."
"It'll have to be good enough, I'm too tired to do more." She looked at the tree and marveled too. "It's a beauty, but you're right, it looks plumb out of place out here. According to Pa Mr. Berry from Mississippi planted this tree way before the war with the Mexicans."
She started to carry the shovels back towards the station, her body sagging with a weariness she couldn't explain. "That ground is hard as sin."
"That dang tree is not from Mississippi," Josh sounded frustrated at her as he caught up to her.
"What do you mean, that's what Pa said…"
"Pa was joshin' us. Can't you tell when he was joshin' us? Pa could tell some tales. That tree's been here longer than anyone or anything, why look at how big it is and how beautiful. Nope, no one from Mississippi brought that tree here. I reckon God Almighty planted it Himself."
Katherine glanced at it once more, "Maybe you're right, it's just too beautiful for words. It's the only thing that makes this place look like anything. Maybe God Himself felt sorry for the land here and planted it."
"Maybe…" Josh murmured.
"You believe in dreams, Josh?" Katherine asked out of the blue as she faced him suddenly for an answer.
"Dreams? Ain't thought about that one, Katherine. Why?"
"Oh nothing…it's just…I had one…it was so real…so," she threw her hand up to wave it a fast goodbye as Josh eyed her. "It was nothing…"
Josh almost smiled, almost, though not quite.
Had their faces become masks, because a smile might crack them? Her mind seemed to wander a lot. Like that silly dream. Meeting a man she'd never seen before, telling him he would know her. How silly was that?
"I guess we ain't dead after all…if you can still dream."
Katherine thought of it, and the dream, and the man in the dream. He was handsome beyond compare, but how could she have conjured him up. She'd never seen anyone like him before in her life? She shrugged such thoughts away as there wasn't time to think of dreams. Perhaps she had eaten too much, that would account for the dreaming. Besides, such a handsome man would never have anything to do with her.
Four graves as yet unmarked made the small area beside the barn look like an abandoned cemetery. Katherine swallowed hard. The dried lump in her throat made it painful. "Sometimes I feel like we need to dig one for you and me."
"Yeah…me too…" Josh's expression wore blankness.
Katherine gathered the crosses they constructed and placed them with the names and dates on them as well. It seemed such a final act. Carved with a kitchen knife, they would have to do.
"Hawks is comin'," Josh walked along side his sister.
"I seen him. Wonder what he wants this time. He's been over nearly every day. You'd think he'd have the decency not to bother us on a day like this."
Josh shrugged. "He's got some others with him today. Maybe he's just bein' neighborly and wants to help us," he said, frowning.
Katherine glanced at the approaching riders. She recognized them all, but she couldn't muster any welcome for them, she was simply too tired. They stirred the dust up and it took a few minutes for it to settle enough to speak.
Katherine couldn't smile any longer; she just stared up at them, muttering under her breath at Josh. "Somehow I just don't think it's help he's offering. He doesn't show up for any work, if you'll notice."
"Mornin' Miss Katherine, Josh," Hawks reined his horse as he rode up beside them. If he heard them he didn't let on. The other four were the Tyler brothers. They were neighbors too, much younger than Hawks, one even Katherine's age. The boys tipped their hats.
She looked at them for a moment assessing each one. There was Jesse Tyler, the oldest; he'd taken over his Pa's farm when his Pa died in an Indian attack. Paul Tyler, he acted a gentle man, only four years older than Katherine, always kind and considerate, she liked him. There was Rufus Tyler, the edgy one, always nervous, as though someone were about to shoot him in the back, and then the youngest, Mathew Tyler. Mathew had more sense than the rest of them. He'd had more schooling too. Katherine rather liked Mathew but he seemed shy of girls.
"Hawks, Jesse, Paul, Rufus, Mathew."
"Sorry we got here too late to help," Mathew sounded genuinely sorry, his glance slid quietly over Katherine. He rocked in the saddle as though torn between jumping down and helping her right then, or going on with the others. She knew Mathew had shown an interest in her, but it would be a long line of Sundays before he got the nerve to speak of it. And Katherine might be too old by that time to consider it. "Ya'll okay?"
"We got it done." Katherine leveled her voice even though the knot in her throat hurt her to talk.
"Fever is a bad thing, you're just lucky you and Josh didn't come down with it." Jesse held his rifle in his hand as though he intended using it. Jesse was no nonsense and all business, setting an example for his brothers, Katherine supposed.
"Yeah, I guess we are," Katherine's voice squeaked this morning. She didn't feel lucky. And she wasn't sure she wasn't dead. Something inside her seemed to have died. She didn't feel like talking, but they couldn't know that. They couldn't know that her and Josh felt more dead than alive.
"Comanche's are on the up rise again, Old Buffalo Hump's been givin' us trouble off and on. You'd best keep your rifles near," Hawk directed. "We're alertin' everyone along the stage lines."
"Thanks, we heard about Camp Cooper closing. That's not good for us. You'd think with the smallpox that it would have stopped them for a while. But we heard the Second Calvary pursued them." Katherine glanced at them.
"They did, but then again they ain't gonna forget the Council House slaughter. Not old Buffalo Hump at least. All his chiefs done in as they was. That's what got him riled again. So you two keep your rifles loaded, and watch out. We're alertin' all the settlements around about here." Jesse was saying.
"We will, and thanks for the warning." Josh nodded.
"You know…I feel bad about what happened at the Council House, I mean the way I heard tell of it, it wasn't a fair fight. We shouldn't have done that to them, I mean, not like we did anyways. What's done is done. Can't change it, I suppose. But when will the killing stop?" Katherine reflected on the incident.
"Don't go feelin' too sorry for them, they been raidin' families all along the Red because of it. It's gotta stop somewhere. Aw…I reckon that ranger got a little carried away up in Kansas, but that's what happens
…heard tell some Texas settlers got some revenge done on the reservation too. It's like it never stops. One side does somethin' then the 'tother. Just be ready," Hawks warned.
"We will. You're welcome to come in and sit a spell?" Katherine offered, not really feeling as charitable as she should.
"Nope, ain't got time for that. We'll be movin' along. Gotta put out the warnin' for all the folks along the line. You be tellin' the whip about the Indians ya hear?" Hawks instructed. "They as likely to come down on him as any. I don't look for Butterfield to stay in this business long now, what with the talk of war between the north and south."
"Is it that bad?" Katherine grabbed her chest. "Will it come to that?"
"It ain't lookin' good. Damn slave issue is 'causin' all kinds of hell in Washington they say. Some young lawyer up there makin' speeches about freedom for all, so there's no tellin' what might happen. South blames the north, the north blames the south. It's almost as if they don't speak the same language. Words out that Butterfield is broke too," Hawks informed them.
"What does that mean for Texas?" Katherine asked caught up in the tale. "And what would that mean for the stage line?"
"Texas is sorta split on slavery, so we ain't sure just how that will go. Some needs their slaves for the cotton pickin' down here. Others don't own slaves, sort of a toss up how we'll go if there's war. As for Butterfield, it could mean shuttin' these stations down. Too much killin anyway with the Comanche."
"Have you had actual word from Mr. Butterfield?" Katherine's eyes rounded on him.
"Nope, all just gossip, a drummer ridin' through remarked of it in the saloon the other day, in town. Can't never tell, but the Indians ain't givin' much break these days. Don't know what'll happen around here if the war breaks out neither. The Indians will still be here and they might decide Texas is easy takin's. Could get awfully dangerous around these parts."
"Might ask the whip, he'd know more than us about Butterfield," Jesse chimed in.
"Yeah, we'll be doin' that." Josh nodded as though he'd already dismissed them and wondered why they were still here.
Katherine knew Josh was disturbed by all the war talk. She hoped he wasn't thinking about joining.
"Give us a yell if you get into any trouble, here?" Mathew tipped his hat to Katherine. It was the first time he'd really addressed her and she blushed under his scrutiny.
"We'll be all right." Katherine tried to smile but found it nearly cracked her face to do such a thing. Smiles were a thing of the past.
"I see you buried 'em good and proper," Hawks glanced toward the graves.
"Yes…"
"I'm mighty sorry 'bout that. What you two gonna do now?" Hawks asked as though he had every right to do so. He studied them both with curiosity it seemed.
"Right now, I'm just too tired to figure that out, Mr. Hawks," Katherine cried and turned to go inside.
"Thanks for checking on us, Mr. Hawks," Josh said as he followed his sister. The only way to get rid of Hawks was to walk off and ignore him.
"I'll be about," Hawks said and turned his horse north to ride away. The Tyler's all tipped their hats to Katherine and nodded to Josh.
"I wonder why he's keepin' track of us so," Katherine muttered angrily as she stomped back to the porch.
More trouble, Katherine sighed heavily as she made her way into the house. She didn't need news like they brought. Things were bad enough here at the station. She didn't want to think about other places or people. And she sure didn't want Josh worrying over the war.
Chapter Two
"He's still up there," Josh said, glancing up on the ridge before giving his sister a hard look. His frown climbed all over Katherine.
"I know." Inwardly Katherine shuddered, but for nothing would she let anyone see. "Ain't no law against somebody starin'. Just bad manners is all. Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing it bothers you."
"What does he want? If he's just keepin' an eye on us, he's got a mighty peculiar way about it. Downright spooky if you ask me." Josh's frustration aimed at her.
"I don't know, and I don't care what he wants. As long as he isn't bothering us, it's none of our concern." Katherine's voice was harsh, uncaring. "We got more to worry about than that old man."
"But he just keeps watchin' us all the time. Don't it give you the creeps?” Josh's voice rose with indignation.
"Yes." She turned to look at Josh as though she'd bitten her tongue the last time. "It makes my skin crawl. It makes me want to vomit, but I'll not give him the satisfaction of knowing it. Nor will you."
Josh nodded, his face wrinkling where the dust laid dormant too long. "Guess you're right about that. We'll ignore him and maybe he'll go away." Josh went into the barn.
Katherine sighed heavily, her eyes straying to the top of the ridge just once before she turned back to her task. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. It felt like a warning sign to be wary. Wary of what? Hawks wanted something, but Katherine had no idea what.
He'd befriended her father when they first came here, five years ago. Yet, all the time they'd known him, her father hadn't invited him inside the house. He always spoke with him on the porch. An oddity the rest of the Hightower's soon expected of them. Katherine thought it strange, but she wasn't old enough to voice her own opinion at that time, so she said nothing. Her mother never spoke of the man, but from her glacier expressions Katherine instinctively knew her mother disliked Hawks.
Every time her father spoke with Hawks as he had called him, her father seemed distraught. So Katherine assumed early on that whatever business he had with her father, it wasn't a good thing.
Hawks wasn't a man to be forgotten though, with his bigger than sin beer belly, big bushy eyebrows stuck out over high dark needlepoint eyes, and a voice deeper than thunder itself. Then there was his Indian wife who followed behind him everywhere. Of course Katherine hadn't seen her lately and she wondered about that.
Katherine had asked her mother about the Indian girl many times. Each time the answers were the same. Why did she follow behind him all the time, like a slave?
"She's Indian, that's reason enough. It's their way. Indian women have no rights, they're slaves to their men." Her mother said, "Indian women don't walk beside their men like us white folks, they walk behind. Just another one of the ways they are different. Another reason to leave them alone."
"Are Indians bad, mother?" Katherine asked quietly as they cleaned the dishes one night. When her mother frowned up at her for asking such a question, Katherine bit her lip and was silent a moment. "Well, I mean, are they all bad?"
"Bad enough, girl. They've killed some of our own folks. White folk aren't supposed to mess with Indians and vise versa. That's partly why your father doesn't invite Hawks inside. Married that heathen."
"What heathen?" Katherine twisted her head in puzzlement.
"The Indian girl, the one that follows him around. That's his woman. All Indians are heathen."
"But Mama, she's so young, how could she be so bad?"
"More than likely, they ain't even married, not by no preacher. It'd be my guess she was probably sold for horses by her father. That's how they do things. Ain't nothin' like us."
"Sold…you mean…she had no choice in the matter?"
"Heathens have their way, we got ours. Best not to mix the two. Don't go feeling sorry for no Indian girl, they's killers everyone." Her mother looked at her boldly and Katherine didn't know what to think. "Just as soon stab you as look at you. Remember that, girl."
"But Mama, she don't look like no killer, she just looks like a girl. I bet she's not much older than me…"
"Don't you go socializin' with that girl. You stay away, you hear me!" Her mother had been so adamant. She didn't understand it.
This intolerable land offered little company as it was and her mother wouldn't allow her to socialize with the only girl her own age she'd seen in months.
Katherine soaked this in, but she had a hard time thinking badly of the girl.
Especially if she had no choice but to be with Hawks. She felt sorry for her. Still, she couldn't tell her folks that. They were older and set in their thinking. Katherine prided herself with having a mind of her own even though she seldom agreed with her parents since developing it. Even if she couldn't voice her thoughts aloud she still had it in her heart. People were people to her, unless they did something terrible, like kill or rob. This girl did neither and Katherine smiled at her when she came. The Indian girl smiled back and quickly doused the smile when Hawks returned to her.
Katherine often wondered about the Indian though, she was very pretty and young like her. She would like to have made friends with her, she had so few friends out here, but she knew her mother wouldn't approve. The day her mother spoke of it, Katherine made up her mind to never judge anyone by the color of his or her skin. What did their skin have to do with who they were?
Katherine didn't understand why her parents didn't try to like the girl. But it wasn't her place to ask. She knew when to keep quiet at the table.
That was when they first came out west though. Now Katherine was nineteen with a mind of her own.
She wondered why she never saw the Indian with Hawks any more. What had happened to her? More importantly, what did Hawks want from her and Josh?
Chapter Three
She smelled the enemy before she heard the incessant rattling that sounded more like a hiss. Without thinking she grabbed the axe. With unerring accuracy as though she had already gauged where it was, she struck, and struck and struck. Blood gushed in all directions. Dust scattered but Katherine continued to strike the bits and pieces of rattlesnake.
The sound of her chopping brought Josh running from the barn. For a moment he only stared and then he slowly grabbed the axe and took it from her shaking hands.
Katherine stared at the red soaked ground. Without a word she went back to the task at hand as though nothing had happened.
Josh stared at the blood a few minutes, then at his sister. Glancing up the ridge, he bent his head quickly and dug a shallow grave for the snake.