Blaze left the women sitting on the floor, like Story Teller Dolls, feeding the puppies. He came back with one of the square laundry baskets from the laundry room. He’d put a fluffy towel in the bottom and had a second smaller one hanging over his shoulder. After he sat it down, he stood watching how gently and tenderly Lynette and Lucinda dripped one little drop of milk at a time into the puppies’ mouths. They looked so beautiful as they cooed and talked softly to the little ones. When it looked like their bellies were full, Lynette told Lucinda to be sure to rub their little “wee wees” to stimulate them to pee or poop. She’d spent a lot of time watching Animal Planet and knew this was the right things to do. She was talking to the puppies in that silly baby talk adults use when they first encounter a baby. But it seemed appropriate. Once the puppies were asleep and tucked under the warm towel, Lynette disappeared. Blaze called all over the house for her, but she was gone. Lucinda said she left in her truck, but no one knew where she’d gone. She could’ve called the vet from the house. Why would she go to town to get the vet he reasoned? Then something told him where she might be.
He drove down near where the cattle were and where they had encountered that grotesque scene. Sure enough, there was her truck. As he pulled his truck up next to hers, he saw her pouring something on the dead snake. She struck a match to it, and the carcass went up in flames. From the back of her truck she retrieved a black plastic bag, some yellow rubber gloves, and a shovel. Blaze climbed out to help.
“She deserves to be buried decently,” Lynette uttered, beginning again to cry.
“Let me help you, Baby,” he said sweetly.
Blaze began to dig a grave as Lynette gathered up the horribly swollen body of the brave little mother dog. She looked to be part German Shepherd, and a mix of something else. She was a medium size dog, so whatever she was mixed with wasn’t as large as the standard shepherd. She rolled the body onto the plastic bag but did not put her in it. Instead, she carried her over to the grave, laid her gently into the dirt, took the shovel from Blaze and covered her over. There were little dark spots on the dirt where her tears fell to the freshly turned earth. Lynette retrieved first one, then another rock from the outcropping and placed it on top of the dirt. Blaze saw what she was doing and helped her.
“Maybe that’ll keep the coyotes away until the earth takes her,” she said.
Then she turned her attention back to the snake. It, and the dead puppy beside its smashed head, was charred, but she could still see that it had been a snake. She raised the shovel and began to chop up the carcass. She beat it with the flat side of the shovel. Then she poured more liquid cooking oil on it, and set it afire again. Blaze watched. He wondered, was she just killing the snake, or was she finally killing some of the hurt in her life. He reckoned that the pain must have been great.
When the snake ceased burning this second time, and was rendered to pure ashes, she set at it again with the shovel, then dragged and scattered what remained of the ashes.
“There,” she said proudly, with a smack of her lips “all gone”.
LYNETTE FED THE PUPPIES every two hours around the clock. The lack of sleep was showing but she never complained. When Lucinda came to clean, she tended to them so Lynette could get a nap, and as often as possible Blaze and Aaron took turns. On the weekend before the wedding, Clare was at the ranch, and she took one of the nights so Lynette could get a full nights sleep. With everyone pitching in, she was able to care for her new wards and continue the demanding tasks leading up to the wedding.
Blaze didn’t like it the first few nights when she slept in the guest room with the puppies. Her bed was his bed, but she made him understand that it was for his good that she was abandoning their bed temporarily. The puppies would require her to get up every two hours; the clock was set. It would wake him and he’d be rest broken. It didn’t make any sense for both of them to be tired. After awhile, the innocents could sleep in the laundry room, but for now, so tiny and vulnerable, they needed a mother with them all the time. They’d had a rough start in life.
A curious thing happened also. Well, not so curious. Suzie Q immediately stayed in the house wherever the puppies were. If they were in the bedroom with Lynette, she slept next to the laundry basket. If they were moved to the kitchen, everyone had to step over her because she’d lay right next to them. When they were in the laundry room, she would sleep in there. Rusty came and sniffed them from time to time, but he wasn’t particularly interested. He just didn’t like it when they yelped. It was if he was trying to tell Suzie Q to do something. Men! Blaze noticed Suzie Q’s maternal instinct, so he brought a large box home one day, cut it down to about 18 inches high, and filled it with old towels. He put the puppies in there and sure enough, Suzie Q climbed in and scooted the squirming little bodies up next to her. There was nothing to nurse, but they were quieter, and Lynette didn’t have to get up but every three hours. A couple of times, he reached over and turned the alarm clock off just before it rang, so it wouldn’t wake her. He tip toed into the kitchen, warmed the milk in the tiny infant bottles and fed the little pot bellied beasts while sitting on the couch watching the nightly CNN, turned down low. He actually liked to feed them. While he did, Suzie Q sat next to him on the couch as if watching to see that he did it right. He kissed their little pink noses after they were full, “wee wee’d” and put them back in the box with Suzie Q.
On the one occasion when he crept back into bed, Lynette scooted next to him, throwing her arm over his chest and a big leg over his.
“Thank you,” she whispered, “Now can I have a little of that TLC?” she asked half asleep, but in need of him as usual. The puppies had put a bit of a crimp in their love-life so they’d uncharacteristically missed a few days together. In response to her obvious need, Blaze moved his hand down her stomach and into the soft, guarded area, and with his fingers, massaged gently back and forth, making sure she was ready for him. She moaned and let her legs fall apart. Her arms laid limply, stretched out to her side, as he eased on top of her. He worked slowly and with an easy rhythm, almost as if not to disturb her. He moved in the ways he knew she liked. After long minutes, she raised her arms and began rubbing his shoulders and neck. Running her fingers into his hair, she kissed him softly and started to move. He knew that movement. He recognized the pressure. Her open palms began to press on the sides of his rib cage. Then, she was still, as though waiting for something. She dropped her head to the side and shook in a wave that started between her legs and moved quickly up her torso and into her face. She breathed in two sharp snatches, held her breath for an instant, then released and relaxed with a sigh. He waited for awhile, then started moving again, this time with his need in mind.
It was he who brought the towel that night. Lynette slipped her delicate fingers into the palm of one of his hands. He closed his fingers around hers. They settled back into a wonderfully restful sleep. If peace could truly be defined, they were at peace, together.
The puppies were gaining weight by the day and moving much more though they slept about twenty hours each day. Their eyes were still not open but they could root around and find Suzie Q in an instant. If she left the box to eat or go tend to her needs, they started to whimper and Rusty would drape his head over the side of the box as if to comfort the little beasts, but he never climbed in with them.
One was half brown and half white. The other was black and tan. The adults could only guess what they were going to look like. They didn’t have particularly big feet, so the guess was that they would be medium-sized dogs. They needed names. But that could wait. For now, they were just the brown one and the shepherd.
CHAPTER 23
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Days Before The Wedding
Blaze and Lynette had an appointment to meet with the Tribal Elder and Father Gibbons from San Tome’s Church on the reservation, at 3:00 the next afternoon to finalize the details of the wedding ceremony. He and she had talked about it several times, as they did about most things. The
re was a we-ness in everything they did. Lynette had everything typed out on the computer and she and Blaze needed to put their heads together before they met with the officiants.
“Tell me, Honey, do I have all of this correct?” she asked, handing Blaze a copy of the order of the ceremony and keeping a copy for herself.
“The elders walk in ahead of everyone, and are seated to the right. Then the people who will participate in the service …” she began. The two studied the papers carefully before Blaze settled back in his desk chair, leaning sideways, just looking at her. His heart was so full. She had been careful to include all of the necessary rituals of his people and meld them in with other religious readings and rituals from non-Native sources. He looked at her and smiled.
“Why are you smiling at me like that?” she asked.
“I don’t have the words to explain it,” he replied, almost sadly. Continuing to gaze lovingly at her, she knew he was forming a thought, but she had no idea how eloquent the words would be that spilled from him lips.
“Lynn, six weeks ago I was a man with a lot of stuff, possessions, some limited status, but my heart was hollow. There was a hole in it. My tent, so to speak was empty. My spirit hung on, only because life is so precious. I worked hard to make up for what I didn’t have. I went to bed at night lonely. I held onto a pillow sometimes, and almost cried for want of someone to love me, and someone I could really trust and love. To be honest with you, the night we met you and Clare, Aaron and I had laughed about hanging out, and maybe ‘getting lucky.’ It was the first time we’d even talked about that sort of thing in a long time. And then you showed up in the lobby of the Cattle Baron. I looked at you, I watched you because I knew, in that instant, that the Great Spirit, or as you say, The Universe, had sent me someone – someone special, someone for me, someone permanent. Getting lucky took on a whole new meaning after that. When I took you in my arms for that first dance, and you trusted me to lead you, my head was crazy with thoughts. Getting lucky was the furthest thing from my mind. Feeling lucky insinuated itself into my thoughts – lucky to have met you. Each time we danced, I felt closer and closer to you, and by that last dance, when you rolled against me and let me speak into your ear, I knew – I knew we could have something incredible. It wasn’t just the potential for sex, it was passion for you, and passion from you. There’s something so indescribable about you.” He stopped for a second to clear his throat. She thought he was about to cry.
Don’t cry sweet baby, she said to herself. Don’t cry.
“In these short six weeks that we’ve been together,” he began again, “you’ve filled the hole in my heart so completely that it runs over. I find myself wanting to shout sometimes, like you do – just stand out in the open and shout to the heavens, at the gift that you are to me. I look at you sometimes, and all this just doesn’t seem real. On the face of this earth, I know that in this moment, I am the happiest man alive. I’ll spend my every day left on this earth trying to make you happy Lynn. Do you hear me – every day. That is my promise to you,” he said resolutely.
“And honey, I’ll do everything in my power to help us hold on to this happiness, this joy,” she answered, touching his hand.
On the day of the wedding, it would be exactly six weeks from the day they met as strangers until they bound themselves, legally, to one another for life.
They’d talked, over the weeks, about couples who met and married quickly. She remembered Lyndon Johnson fell in love with Lady Bird Johnson from the beginning and they were married about three months later, and that marriage lasted until he died. Yes, there was a serious indiscretion but they held on to the marriage. And there were other instances of people marrying only two and three weeks after meeting, and the unions lasted 40, 50 even 60 years. So, they concluded, they were not exceptional. This was going to be another marriage that would end only when death separated them, and they weren’t even sure if that could. Maybe they’d spend all eternity in the light of God, and with each other. There was hope.
Father Gibbons sincerely wanted them to return to the Church as practicing Catholics. Difficult as the decision was, there were just too many differences now that they had grown away from doctrinal practices of the Church. Besides, they were both divorced, and they had no regrets about terminating their individual marriages. Each had entered into their first marriage willingly and with a full understanding of what they were doing. Those marriages could not be annulled by the Church. Therefore, Father Gibbons would officiate at their wedding in his capacity as a licensed minister in the state of New Mexico. The chief elder would co-officiate as a representative of the Apache Tribe.
The four people poured over the order of ceremony, and made a few minor changes. The officiants-to-be gave their individual blessings on this upcoming union.
Thank goodness for pretty stationary paper and Blaze’s computer. Lynette was able to print out the program for the ceremony with ease and it looked as though it had been professionally done. The background paper was a pale blue, with a rainbow running from the bottom to the top. She imported a photo they had taken together with her digital camera, and situated it in the upper right corner. That being done, it was time to feed the puppies.
Lynette managed to get away the next morning for her only fitting of her wedding dress. It was gorgeous. The seamstress was, indeed, a meticulous master of the art of dress- making. The creamy suede garment hung just perfectly, and from tiny strips of the cloth, she had woven a macramé type belt with turquoise beads braided into it. The belt was designed to hang loosely around Lynette, below the waist line and just above the hip bone. She sashayed around the lady’s living room watching how the fringes moved with her. It was a soundless symphony of movement. As she watched herself in the full-length mirror, placed at an angle against the living room wall, she cautiously stroked the suede fibers that covered her, with visible reverence. The women who were Blaze’s ancestors would have worked many hours to turn an animal skin into a supple piece of cloth from which a wedding garment like this could be made. Lynette wondered how many cut fingers and raw, bleeding hands it took to lay out this much cloth; how many sore backs and strained muscles it would have taken to scrape and pound a piece of deer skin into this much wearable fabric. She knew that it was the woman’s job to scrape all the flesh and sinew from the skin using, at first specially shaped stone tools, and later metal knives. Once the skin was free of extraneous matter, it was then pounded mercilessly against rocks and rinsed in a running stream for endless hours until it was clean. She was glad that no woman had to toil in that manner for her to have this magnificent garment. But in her thoughts, she honored the women who did. The seamstress took note of her seriousness. She could see the pride on Lynette’s face, and how she held her breasts high and her back straight as she modeled her wedding dress.
“It is perfect. Just perfect,” she said, complimenting the seamstress for her skills.
“He will love you even more when he sees you,” the wise old woman, with the tiny, wrinkled hands said to her.
“I’m not sure it’s humanly possible for a man to love more than he does. And I love him equally,” she said with tears forming in her eye. “You and your family will come to the wedding as a special guest, won’t you?” Lynette asked, pleadingly. She had already given the lady a written invitation, but now it was a personal request.
“Yes we will. It will just be my husband and myself. We’ll take your bus from the village here,” she said. “We don’t drive much anymore.”
Covered in a specially purchased, heavy, black plastic dress bag, Lynette laid her wedding dress carefully on the back seat of her red Chevy Cobalt sedan. She had purposely driven it instead of the truck specifically for this purpose. The trick was to get it into the house without Blaze seeing the bag. She didn’t want any questions, which she would refuse to answer. With a planned diversion from Janette, she slipped the dress into the house from the garage and scurried down the hallway to the guest room where she
hid it.
Now, the evening before the wedding, the house turned into “family central”! Aaron’s children, grandchildren and Lynette’s daughter, Janette, came in together in a rented SUV the day before. Some close friends and Clare arrived earlier in the day. Trapper and Merrilynn, came in later that night. The house was swarming with people, yelling, loud laughter and “lies, all lies,” the about-to-be married couple hollered playfully back at their adult children who were totally intent on roasting them over the coals. They told outrageous stories of child abuse and neglect. Janette complained that she was not allowed to have her own bathroom as a child. She had to share one with her sister! It was a crime against nature, she declared! She accused her mother of being heartless for taking her on a camping trip where there was no electric outlet for her to plug her hair rollers into. Trapper denied ever allowing his dad to beat him at baseball, knowing all the while that Blaze let him win to bolster his confidence as he grew up. Merrilynn called him Scrooge because he wouldn’t buy her a new car for her sixteenth birthday. She had to drive one that was three years old! The indignity of it all! Aaron, who’d known Blaze the longest of course, got his licks in and Clare related some of Lynette’s less than stellar moments. She told how Lynette embarrassed her during a class on the day Lynette turned forty-two. Someone asked how old she was, and Lynette replied that she was one year older than her bra size!! There was stunned silence in the classroom for a few seconds, before the classmates pounced on the inquirer for his rude question. It was all in good fun, and Hawk and Maurice, who were certainly included in the pre-nuptial evening, laughed a lot and watched all the gorgeous women in their body-hugging shorts and jeans. Blaze could see them deciding which ones they may try to hit on
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