The Amen Trail

by Sharon Sala

  “So, Emory James… I’m trusting you’re not the kind of man to try something when my back is turned.”

  “No, ma’am,” Emory said, and scooted all the way back to the end of the wagon. “I’m just grateful… real grateful for your help.”

  She nodded, then turned and stared straight ahead.

  “We’re fine,” she said.

  “Good to know,” Eulis said, and flipped the reins on Rosy and Blackie’s back.

  He clucked his tongue sharply. The mules began to pull—the wheels rolled—and the journey resumed, bringing them just a little bit closer to Cherry Creek.

  ONE MORE MILE TO GO—ONE LAST SOUL TO SAVE

  Black Dog was dead.

  Millie Sees Crow had made up her mind to do it after he’d slashed her face for the second time. When he’d found her with the trapper, he’d been furious. He had cut her hair, her cheek, and then cut off the end of her nose, claiming that he was going to make her too ugly for any other man to want. She still didn’t understand what had made him so angry, because he often sold her services to other men and kept the money for himself.

  She’d killed Black Dog the night after he’d buried the trapper in the sand. She thought the trapper called himself James, but she wasn’t sure. White men had strange names that meant nothing to her. After she’d killed Black Dog, she’d thought about going back and digging up the trapper, but she’d decided against it. For now, she was glad to be on her own. Her cheek was sore and her nose very painful. She touched them lightly, satisfied that there was still enough of her medicine on the wounds to keep off flies.

  Millie Sees Crow wasn’t, by nature, a vicious woman, but Black Dog should not have marked her face. She’d told him so as she was cutting off his manhood. He’d screamed at her, going mad from the pain until she’d slit his throat. After that, he’d been quiet. She’d strung his penis on a long piece of rawhide and tied it around her waist. Eventually, it would rot and fall off, which was fine with her. By then, she would have taken his power as her own.

  She glanced toward the horizon, gauging the location of the sun to give her an idea of how much time before sunset. She’d never been this way before, but in the foothills of this vast mountain range were many small creeks and plenty of forage for her two horses.

  When she was healed, she was going back to her people, the Comanche, which meant backtracking over a lot of territory. Even though her father had traded her to Black Dog for five horses and a dozen buffalo robes almost ten years ago, she thought he would welcome her home—especially after he saw what Black Dog had done to her. She had guns and knives and two horses. Maybe there would be a man among her people who would be willing to overlook her scars for the fine things she would bring to their lodge. She was still young enough to bear children, although all during the years she’d been with Black Dog and the men he sold her to, she had never become ripe with child. It occurred to her that she might be barren, but it was nothing she could control. All she needed to do now was heal, gather enough food to start her journey home, and hope to make it before snow fell.

  A rabbit bolted out from the underbrush along the path and ran in front of her horse. She pulled her pistol out of her pocket and shot. The rabbit dropped in mid-leap. She grunted with satisfaction, pulled the horse to a halt and got off to retrieve her kill. It would fill her belly tonight and she would keep the fur to line moccasins she would wear when the winds grew cold.

  She cut the rabbit’s throat to let it bleed, and then skinned it with only a few swift strokes. Wrapping both meat and fur into pieces of rawhide, then stowing it inside Black Dog’s saddlebags, she remounted and resumed her journey. A couple of hours later, she stopped on a small rise above a creek, hobbled the horses, and began to make camp. It was almost dark when she heard what sounded like a team and wagon. Millie Sees Crow didn’t like surprises, so she picked up Black Dog’s rifle and slipped into the trees.

  ***

  Emory James’s butt hurt from bouncing around in the back of the crazy couple’s wagon. His ribs hurt from nearly being pulled in half. His head and face hurt from the beating Black Dog had given him before planting him in the dirt. It had occurred to him more than once that he might be taller now than he had been before they’d pulled him out, because every joint in his body below the waist had been stretched to the point of pain. He still couldn’t stand up without wobbling and wondered if his knees would ever be the same.

  He looked up at the couple in the wagon seat. From the back, the woman looked ordinary—even pretty. She had nice curves and the long thick braid down her back was nut brown. But she was scary. She’d laughed at his pain and made fun of his dingus, which had totally pissed him off. Added to that, she hadn’t said more than a dozen words since they’d begun their journey together, and that had been hours ago.

  The driver seemed all right, but he was definitely attached to the woman, although Emory was pretty sure that their relationship didn’t have anything to do with sex. He couldn’t put his finger on why they made him nervous, but he’d made up his mind that once they got to Cherry Creek, he would be going his own way.

  “Hey!” he called out. “It’s gonna be dark soon. Aren’t you gonna make camp?”

  “Been smellin’ smoke for a while now,” Eulis said. “Thought we’d make sure that whoever has made camp isn’t a threat before we stop.”

  Emory’s belly flopped.

  “What if it’s Black Dog? Damn it, man, why didn’t you say somethin’ sooner? If it’s him, I’m a dead man. I want out! Let me out!”

  Letty turned around. The gun turned with her and once again Emory found himself staring down the barrel as Letty spoke.

  “Mr., if we wanted you dead, we would have left you in the ground, right?”

  Emory swallowed nervously then nodded.

  “So, wouldn’t you think it would be in your best interests to be quiet until we find out a few things?”

  He nodded.

  “Good. Trust me. If that campfire belongs to the man who planted your ass, then we don’t want to spend the night with him, either, do we?”

  “No.”

  “So, if it was me, and I wasn’t interested in meeting back up with this Black Dog, I’d be flat on my face in the wagon, and hiding beneath that tarp.”

  Emory lurched toward the tarpaulin covering their goods and crawled under. Letty heard him moan once, then curse softly. Either he’d bumped something that hurt, or he’d wet himself. Either way, she didn’t much care. She was still on the side of the woman who’d been caught in the middle of the mess, even if she was an Indian.

  A few minutes later they pulled into the campsite. The campfire was burning, but there was no one in sight.

  “Hello the camp!” Eulis called.

  No one appeared, although there was a rabbit on a spit slowly cooking over the open fire.

  “Hello the camp!” he called again, then thought about backing up and moving on down the road.

  He didn’t like the feel of this. Whoever this belonged to hadn’t gone far. The rabbit was nearly done and it was obvious they wouldn’t go off and let it burn. He peered into the shadows beneath the trees, but saw no one.

  At that point, Letty handed Eulis the rifle and started to get down. He grabbed her by the arm.

  “Where are you goin’?”

  “You have to ask?” she drawled.

  “Lord, Leticia, your bladder sure does act up at the worst times. Can’t you wait?”

  “I been waiting for more than six hours.”

  “But this camp… it doesn’t feel right.”

  “It can’t feel any worse than my bladder,” Letty said, and began to climb down.

  At that moment, there was movement in the shadows. Eulis grabbed Letty’s arm.

  “Wait!”

  She turned, watching as a small brown woman emerged from the trees with a gun aimed in their direction. Her face looked as if she’d been beaten, and as they watched her come closer, realized that her hair ha
d been chopped off, her cheek had been slashed and the end of her nose had been cut off, too.

  “We saw your fire,” Letty said. “We mean you no harm.”

  “You go now… I don’t shoot you!” Millie Sees Crow said.

  “Please,” Letty said. “We need to water our mules.”

  “Don’t forget to tell her that you also need to pee,” Eulis drawled.

  Letty glared.

  Millie Sees Crow grinned. “You go make water there,” she told Letty, pointing to the bushes behind the wagon.

  “Thank you,” Letty said, and was undoing the rope around her waist as she hurried away.

  There was some noise in the wagon behind Eulis, and then suddenly Emory’s head appeared over the side.

  “That’s Black Dog’s woman. Watch out. He’s still somewhere in the trees!”

  Eulis spun, his fear for Letty uppermost.

  “Letty! It’s Black Dog’s camp! Look out! Look out!”

  Millie’s eyes widened when she saw Emory’s face. She pointed at him with her chin and then grinned.

  “Aaiieee! It is the trapper, James. You don’t die.”

  Emory ducked back down into the wagon.

  Eulis didn’t know what to do. For all he knew, he already had Letty in his clutches.

  “Letty! Letty! Are you all right?”

  Letty came out of the bushes tying the rope back around her waist.

  “Yes, I’m fine. What’s all the yelling about?”

  “Emory said that’s Black Dog’s woman.”

  Letty’s smile slipped sideways. Lord. Why was it that they always stepped into the shit instead of over it?

  She scooted behind the wagon then peered over the side.

  “Where’s Black Dog?”

  “Dead!” Millie said.

  Emory came out from under the tarp within seconds.

  “Dead? Where?”

  Millie pointed with her chin. “Two days that way.”

  “Are you sure? How did it happen?”

  “I sure. I stuck knife in him.”

  Everyone stared at the little brown woman. She didn’t look like a killer, but they didn’t have a reason to dispute her word.

  Letty circled the wagon and moved toward the fire. She pointed at Millie’s face.

  “Did he do that to you?”

  Millie nodded. “I cut off man part. See.”

  She held up a strip of rawhide that she’d tied around her waist. The trio stared in horror at the short piece of man meat hanging at the end of the strip.

  “Good Lord,” Letty muttered.

  Eulis felt his testicles drawing up into his belly and cupped himself in reflex.

  Emory climbed over the side of the wagon and then wobbled toward the fire.

  “Sorry about what happened to your face, but it don’t matter a bit to me,” he said, then pointed to the rabbit. “Reckon I could have me a piece of that rabbit?”

  Millie pointed her rifle.

  “Shoot your own,” she said, and waved the gun in Emory’s face.

  Emory didn’t take her seriously, and saw this as his opportunity to get away from Letty and her gun.

  “Come on, Millie… you’re gonna need someone to take care of you. Black Dog hurt me, too. He took my horse, left me for dead. You and me… we’ll be good together. I don’t beat my women.”

  Letty didn’t believe what she was hearing. Even if the woman was an Indian, she didn’t deserve an asshole like Emory James.

  “Millie? Your name is Millie?” Letty asked.

  The little Indian woman frowned. “No. Black Dog call me that. I am Sees Crow of the Comanche. I need no one to take care of me. I take care of myself.”

  Letty eyed the piece of shriveled up prick dangling near her knee, and allowed as how the little woman sure could do that.

  “We’re gonna be moving on down the road now,” Letty said.

  Millie Sees Crow nodded. When Emory started toward her, she pointed the gun at his belly and frowned.

  “You go now.”

  Emory flinched. “But what are you gonna do out here all alone? It’s dangerous.”

  “I kill trouble like I kill Black Dog. You go.”

  Letty got in the wagon. Eulis started turning it around.

  Emory didn’t believe she was serious, and didn’t move when she ordered him to go.

  Then she pulled the hammer back on the rifle.

  His eyes widened in disbelief.

  “You wouldn’t kill me? Not after all we’ve been through together?”

  Eulis was pulling out of the campsite when he heard the rifle go off. He flipped the reins on the mules hard and fast. They bolted into an all-out run. He didn’t look back.

  But Letty did.

  She saw Emory James jump, and then turn around and chase after them. She knew the mules were going too fast for him to catch up, and she didn’t bother to tell Eulis to slow down. She didn’t like the man, and from the way Millie Sees Crow had behaved, she didn’t like him either.

  “Is he dead?” Eulis asked, as they cleared the trees.

  “Not yet,” Letty said, which was the truth.

  Emory was still running and waving at them to stop.

  “That was a close one, wasn’t it?” he said.

  She nodded, then settled the rifle back across her lap and turned her face toward the mountains.

  “Eulis?”

  “What?”

  “Reckon it will be safe to make camp tonight?”

  He thought about it, and then frowned.

  “We could go on until it gets dark. I don’t mind making cold camp if you don’t.”

  “Works for me,” she said, and then added. “Let the mules run a bit, why don’t you? The farther away I am from that mess, the better I’ll sleep.”

  Eulis urged the mules on, letting them run for a bit longer before he slowed them down. That night, they made camp beneath the overhang of a rock. With the mountain at their back, and a clear view of the land in front of them, they felt confident that they were safely out of harm’s way.

  The next morning they resumed their journey, and four days later, they found Cherry Creek.

  ***

  It had rained on them last night as they’d slept beneath the wagon, using the bed as a shelter from the storm. This morning when they’d awakened, the air had been chilly, almost cold. Letty had put on two shirts instead of the usual one and put on two pair of socks to help warm her feet. Eulis had done the same, and then had to shed one shirt as the morning had lengthened. But it was their first sign that the elevation was significantly higher, and the year was coming closer to an end.

  They’d been on the road since daylight, and knew they must be close to their final destination. They’d seen a pair of men on horseback late yesterday evening who informed them they were on their way back to Cherry Creek. It had been promising—even a little bit exciting—to know that they were on the verge of a new phase of their lives.

  Last night as they’d made camp, Letty had wanted to talk and make plans about the future, but she had to keep reminding herself that her future was not necessarily Eulis’s. There was bound to come a day when he wanted to move on—maybe even find a woman and marry. Now that he didn’t drink any more, Letty was of the opinion that Eulis would make a good husband.

  The thought that he might leave to marry another woman left her torn. On the one hand, she was happy that he’d changed his ways, and when she was feeling self-righteous, took most of the credit for his transformation. If it hadn’t been for her, he would still be sweeping floors and digging graves for drinks. But then she had to remember that a man had died before Eulis’ chance for redemption had come. At that point, the image she had of herself being Eulis’s redeemer became tarnished, since the man who died, had died in her bed.

  She lived with the guilt on a daily basis, and even though she’d experienced a sense of salvation during Eulis’s first revival preaching, she wasn’t sure that her redemption was good enough for a ha
ppy-ever-after life of her own. So she stayed quiet about her dreams, and never let on that she wanted more out of life than what she had.

  ***

  “Eulis! Look! Oh my lord… there’s a house up ahead!”

  It had been so long since they’d seen anything resembling civilization that Letty was ecstatic.

  Eulis leaned forward to look, then grinned.

  “By golly, Letty, you’re right. It’s a right nice lookin’ house, too.”

  It wasn’t until they got closer that they realized it wasn’t just a house, it was an inn, and according to the sign, an inn called Four Mile Inn.

  “Oh Eulis… can we stay here? Just for a night? I can’t remember the last time I slept with a roof over my head.”

  “I reckon we oughta’,” Eulis said. “To get the lay of the land, so to speak.”

  “I can’t wait,” Letty said. “I wonder if they’ve got a bath?”

  Eulis chuckled. “Shoulda’ known you’d be wantin’ a bath.”

  Letty frowned. “At least you won’t be the one hauling the hot water up the stairs.”

  “And praise the Lord for that,” Eulis said.

  Mention of a higher power reminded Letty that they had yet to decide how they were going to introduce themselves back into society—even if it was going to be a rough and tumble gold field.

  She glanced up at the towering trees bordering the narrow road, took a slow, deep breath, inhaling the fresh, clean aroma of pine and rain-washed air, and thought about how far they’d come from Lizard Flats.

  “Eulis?”

  “What?”

  “Are you gonna preach?”

  “No. I told you before, it just ain’t right.”

  She nodded. “Then that’s, that.”

  He glanced at her and then clucked to the mules, urging them on as they traveled the last few hundred feet up the incline to the inn.

  “Letty, are you mad at me?”

  She frowned. “Of course not. Why would I be mad at you?”

  “For not keepin’ up the pretense.”

  Letty sighed. “Did you just hear what you said?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Pretense. You said, pretense. That tells me that your heart was never in it… not in the way it needed to be.”