Ida's New World

by Lise Muusmann

   Chapter 57

  The furious weather passed over after an hour. Everybody sighed with relief and found a place to sleep. The next morning, Henry and Frederik approached the field with anxiety and foreboding. Half of the field had been ploughed the day before, and in one third potatoes had been put into the ground. But now the field was unrecognisable, it was so water logged it looked more like a lake.

  “We will have to wait a couple of days before continuing with ploughing here,” Henry said.

  Anna, Katrina, Ida and Lisa started on the way home with dry firewood in their arms. It was quite difficult to walk the hills, because they were wet and slippery with mud.

  “Oh, I am so tired of all this mud,” Ida said and lifted a foot, so one could see big cakes of mud under it. “My shoes will not survive.” They looked at her and started to laugh. The girls had slipped and fallen several times. Their dresses were as dirty as their shoes.

  “Look at my mud dress,” Lisa said. “It is disgusting.”

  The Jensen’s house did not look good. They stood for a long time and surveyed the damage. Water dripped from the walls, and the roof was no longer a roof.

  “We shall have to see what we can do to repair this dreadful mess,” Katrina said.

  Anna nodded and looked the house over properly. Much of the peat would have to be stacked and placed correctly again. But the worst was the roof, which was completely destroyed. Several upright beams would have to be replaced in the earth wall, and all the roof lining would have to be done again.

  “Ida and Lisa. You gather up the peat bricks, while Anna and I will take care of the tree poles.”

  “But we can’t get up there. We are a bit too small for this job.”

  “We will get some boxes to stand on.”

  The women started to drag boxes outside. It was heavy work and they grunted and groaned with the effort. The weather had cleared and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky once more. Soon it became very hot.

  “Phew, what heat,” exclaimed Anna. “But we must repair the roof before evening sets in.”

  The girls got busy gathering up the fallen peat and the women struggled to replace the tree poles into the earth wall again. They balanced on the boxes and had to help each other in order not to fall into the mud.

  “Should we have stayed at home instead?" Anna asked and laughed. “I could never have imagined the hardship awaiting us over here in America.”

  “Yes, we could have stayed home in the shadow of the Lord of the Manor’s whip.”

  They started to laugh, and looked at each other, and then laughed even more.

  Footsteps approached through the long wet grass and someone cursed in English. It was Rose.

  “Hi, Rose, welcome to mud land and the mud house,” Katrina shouted with a long tree pole balancing in her hands.

  “I thought you might need a helping hand. What a trip over here. Have a look at me, I am soaked in mud and dirt.”

  She twirled one full round, and was greeted with a roar of laughter. Her shoes and clothing were caked with mud.

  “We all look just as bad,” Katrina shouted and finally achieved getting the tree pole into the hole in the wall. “Look at our house. Will it ever become a home again?” She asked and almost fell from a box.

  ”Who knows?” Rose said and looked disconsolately at the falling down house.

  “Later, we shall wash our clothes,” Anna said. “We can’t keep on wearing all this mud.” Ida translated into English.

  “No,” Rose said distractedly. “I wonder how Stephen is? How have they all fared under the storm?” She shook her head and started to sniffle. “I want to walk back to that Indian camp and demand they hand Stephen over to me.”

  “It is quite far away, and any pathway is no doubt as muddy and slippery as this hill,” Katrina said. “And he can't walk back with you. It was very unfortunate indeed, that broken leg.”

  “I have such a bad feeling about it,” Rose said wrinkling her forehead. “Suppose he does not want to be with us anymore? Maybe they will move on and take him too, then we shall never see him again!” Rose began to cry heavily.

  She sat down on a box and cried, her whole body shaking in grief. Anna and Katrina stopped their work and went to comfort the unhappy mother.

  “Of course he will come back. And we can go and visit him.” Katrina suggested comfortingly. “We must go and visit him soon, and see how he is healing. Right?”

  “But now I shall go and make some coffee,” exclaimed Anna. “We need something to comfort us.”

  It was only as they sat at the coffee table, that they finally managed to calm Rose by promising her they would all go together and visit Stephen.

  “We have to mend this roof first,” Katrina said, then asked her, “when will our men be back again?”

  “Oh, they are running here and there trying to find a dry spot for their stupid plough,” Rose said. “I am about ready to go back to Ireland!”

  “Funnily enough, we were talking about that very same thing, just before you came up the mud hill,” Katrina said.

  They looked at each other over the coffee cups and then they all burst out laughing and the relief that good friendship brings, flowed over and around them.

  Chapter 58

  Rose stayed the night at the Jensens. The next day she was very restless. She walked in and out of the peat house distractedly, and was not of much use to herself or anyone. She fell several times, and her dress, cleaned the night before, was soon covered in mud again. She didn’t seem to notice.

  Ida and Lisa helped Katrina and Anna to make the house look like a home again. They gathered peat bricks and stacked them firmly. The women hammered twice the amount of tree poles and planks into place, so that the roof became much stronger than before. Nobody noticed Rose, who ran confusedly out onto the path that led to the valley. She was talking to herself. Then things went quiet. After a while, they noticed she had gone.

  “Rose?” They shouted and started to search for her. “Rose, where are you?”

  But there was no Rose to be seen and no Rose to be heard. They sat down on the logs in the yard at the front of the house and looked up at their work. They had almost finished repairing the house. The peat house looked like the house again. At the same time they were anxious. What had happened to Rose?

  “Here they come!” Ida shouted and ran down the path.

  “Who is coming?” Anna asked and got up with difficulty. She was completely worn out from all the hard work. “Who is it, Ida?”

  “It is us,” Frederik answered.

  “Here we come,” Henry said. He looked up at the house admiringly. “You have been busy!”

  The two men dismounted from the horses.

  “She is gone,” Lisa said. “We are looking for Rose.”

  “Is she not at your own house?” Katrina asked Henry, tensely.

  The men shook their heads.

  “We have just come straight over from the house, and we did not meet her on the way,” Henry said. He began to look worried.

  “She was talking about visiting Stephen in the Indian camp,” Katrina said in a low voice. “She was out of her mind with worry about something.”

  “What are you saying?” Henry shouted his eyes wide. “Is it possible? Do you think Rose has gone looking for the settlement?”

  “I think so, it could be,” she answered and quickly translated for Anna, who nodded in agreement.

  “A good thing we brought the horses over.”

  “What about taking the wagon?” Katrina asked.

  “Well, it is back at our place,” Henry answered. “Perhaps it was stupid not to bring it along.”

  “We would need the wagon, if we were to bring Stephen back,” Frederik said. “We have to go back and get it”

  He and Henry looked at each other for a moment. Then without a word, they mounted again and rode off, carefully, so the horses didn’t slide in the mud and hurt themselves.

  Stephen, wh
ere are you?

  I am so very blue

  I want you to come back

  my heart is all black.

  Ida sang a sad song all the way down to the place, where they were to meet the wagon. She had stamped her foot and demanded to come along to find Stephen and Rose at the Indian settlement and her father could not refuse, so they agreed to meet along the way. Ida ran over the back of the hill behind the house to meet them.

  Finally she saw the wagon slithering through the mud. She climbed up into the back of the wagon, and sat at the rear so she could look out at the slowly passing landscape. It did not take long before she fell asleep with the wagon’s rhythmic rocking.

  She woke to hear Frederik and Henry shouting excitedly. They had halted, she rushed to the drivers box.

  “Where in the whole wide world have they gone and so quickly?” Henry stood and shouted, turning quite white. “And where is Rose?”

  “What is happening?” Ida gasped as she looked out on an empty and deserted plain, where once there had been a busy established-looking settlement. Now there was not a trace they ever had been there.

  “The Indians have gone,” she whispered, astonished.

  “Yes, Ida,” Frederik answered. “They’ve moved camp. Have you kept an eye out for Rose?”

  “No, I fell asleep.”

  “What am I going to do now?” Henry said with his hand in his hair, his voice choking with despair.

  “Well, they do travel around a bit,” Ida said.

  “Yes, I know they do,” Henry said irritably. “The question is, in what direction have they gone?”

  “First, we have got to look for Rose,” Frederik said. “Then we will have to look for the Indians later.”

  “Yes, but they have Stephen, and he was not fit to travel.” Henry looked like a man about to lose his mind. Frederik threw an arm around his shoulders and hugged him.

  “Listen up. First, we drive down and see if we can find tracks showing which direction they took. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open.” He turned towards Ida. “You will have to keep your eyes open too. You can sleep when we get home.”

  “Yes, Father. I will.” Ida became aware of the seriousness of the situation. Rose and Stephen were both gone and so was Bearboy.

  “Right then,” said Frederik and patted Ida on the hair.

  She placed herself very upright at the back of the wagon. She looked out for the flying feathers of the Indians.

  Chapter 59

  Ida fought hard to stay awake. It was hot and stuffy and the wagon rocked drearily. She stared out at the endless waving prairie grass until her eyes burned and became scratchy. Where were the flying feathers? Where was the Indian tribe? Where was Stephen? Where was Rose? It was unbearable to think of. Ida’s scratchy eyes filled with tears. Eventually, in spite of everything, she fell asleep.

  The wagon rocked along and it often slid in the wet mud. All of a sudden, things went completely wrong. Ida woke, lying in the tall prairie grass. Her head hurt and when she touched her hair, she felt blood oozing out. Her hand was wet with blood. She sat up and saw the wagon on its side and Frederik and Henry crawling out of the wreckage.

  “What happened?” Ida tried to stand but felt too dizzy. She felt wet in her hair and on her face as the blood ran down her forehead. Frederik reached her first and lifted her up. Henry walked around the wagon, on its side. One of the horses had slid in the mud and was lying still tangled in the reins. The other horse was clearly frightened and stood trembling and snickering to it’s friend and team mate. Frederik left his daughter on the grass a little way away from the wagon wreck, and went to help Henry with the horses. Henry gently untangled the horse on the ground, talking soothingly to it. He helped it to stand by guiding its head with the bridle and up it rocked onto its feet. Luckily there seemed to be nothing broken or strained. It was also clearly shaken.

  “Bloody hell,” exclaimed Henry. “We have to walk them around a bit to calm them down. Well, bad luck always comes in threes.”

  They walked patiently up and down with the two horses who were disturbed by the mud and by the crash. Finally, they both began to nibble at the greener shoots of the grass, and Henry hoped they may be ready and able to help right the wagon back onto its wheels again. Frederik and Henry tied the traces to the side of the wagon and harnessed the horses. While Frederik pushed from the other side, Henry urged the horses to pull as hard as they could. They succeeded, but the horses got a bit unruly again when the wagon landed loudly back on all four wheels.

  Ida was bleeding from the wound on her head. Frederik tied a handkerchief around her head and told her to keep as still as possible. “Stay here, sitting in the grass, until I put you in the wagon again.”

  “There are flying feathers,” murmured Ida, who had seen something moving above the grass. “Look! Flying feathers.”

  Three Indians on horseback emerged from the long grass. They halted their horses and stared at Ida, the two men, and all the signs of a recently capsized wagon. One of the men jumped from his horse and walked towards Ida. He pointed at her bleeding head and said something in Indian. Henry limped slowly toward them. He stared at them as if trying to recognise them from the camp.

  “Stephen?” He held his hand at the height of Stephens head, indicating a boy, then pointed at his leg and make a snapping motion. ”Broken leg. Stephen?”

  “Stephen,” said the Indian standing next to Ida and nodded.

  Henry laughed a little with relief. An understanding!

  Ida was lifted up into the wagon by the Indian. He then mounted his horse and the three Indians rode in front of the wagon. They pointed forward and rode slowly ahead, their horses picking out the best route for the wagon horses to follow. Henry and Frederik jumped up on the drivers box and the wagon followed the Indians.

  “Oh, I have such a headache,” Ida whimpered. Frederik turned towards her and said, “keep still as you can and I hope we will be at the camp soon.”

  After half an hour’s journey, they reached the new Indian camp. It was situated in a beautiful forest clad hilly terrain. The medicine man came immediately forward and carried Ida to his tent. Meanwhile, Henry and Frederik eagerly looked around as best they could, to see if they could spot Rose.

  “Where on earth are they?” Henry asked hoarsely. He was clearly nervous, and he was limping as he had twisted his leg when the wagon tipped over.

  “Come on, let’s go back to the medicine man’s tent. Maybe Stephen is still there.”

  Inside the tent, an Indian woman with long black plaits was tending to Ida’s wound. She had a nasty big gash from her forehead into her scalp. The woman had parted her hair and the gash was bathed and cleansed. Then the Indian woman put a fine clean bandage tightly round Ida’s head. She went to a bag that hung on the tent wall and found a beautiful beaded band that she put over the bandage and stood back and smiled at Ida. Frederik nodded and smiled. He put his hands together at his chest and bowed a little to the woman, as he had seen done before. She smiled at him in acknowledgement.

  “You look good to go now, Ida,” he said beaming with joy. Henry tried to talk to the medicine man using sign language.

  “Where is Stephen?” He asked anxiously pointing down at one of his legs.

  The medicine man shook his head and shrugged, as if he did not understand.

  “Where is my son?” Henry asked and stared the medicine man straight in the eyes. “I want to take him home.”

  The medicine man turned his back to him as though the conversation was over. He obviously did not want to talk further with Henry. Henry did not accept this. He followed the Indian and tapped him on the shoulder. “Where is my son, my wife?”

  Henry patiently described a woman with his hands, and mimed playing the piano. But although there was a flicker of recognition with the piano playing, the medicine man then looked puzzled, and again merely shook his head and turned away.

  “You might as well give it up, this time,” Frederik said. “I t
hink we better try to get home. It’s a long way to go, and we don’t really know what’s going on here. Let’s go home and rethink.”

  He hurried over to Ida and lifted her up in his arms. “Let’s get back to the wagon.”

  Henry glanced back at the two older Indians before he left their tent. He nodded politely and so did they.

  As they walked back to the wagon they made a quick search around the open spaces between the tents and called out Rose and Stephen’s names. The camp was just as big and as active as it had been in the last place. The women were again working tirelessly on the handicraft frames. The Indians nodded briefly towards them as they passed, but there Stephen was not to be seen anywhere. “Perhaps he is resting in the tent of one of the families? Bearboy’s tent perhaps?” Frederik muttered to Henry.

  But now the wagon was surrounded with Indians, who were all talking animatedly amongst themselves. Henry asked them if they had seen Stephen and his wife Rose? They merely shook their heads and quickly moved away from the wagon. Whatever they had been discussing, Henry and Frederik had no clue. All they could do now was climb aboard, turn the horses around and head for home. Children from the camp followed them for a bit, but suddenly they were gone as well.

  Chapter 60

  Frederik had to carry on alone with the plough, when the water finally sank away into the soil. Henry sat outside his house glassy-eyed, staring into the distance. He was no longer interested in work. Anna fetched Bluebell over to the Jensens and made room for her next to the oxen at night. The men daily rode around in the countryside, calling for Rose and hoping perhaps to come across Stephen out with some of the Indian lads, if his leg had mended, of course.