The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  “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 happy-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.”

  He thought about it a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Letty said. “You did good, and you made a whole lot of people happy. But unless you feel a real calling for the job, you don’t need to be doing it.”

  “Yeah, okay. I just didn’t want you to be mad at me.”

  Letty turned to look at him then, gazing her fill at the lean, brown lines of his face, and the hair in need of cutting and sighed.

  “Eulis.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m not the easiest person to be around and I know it. And I might get pissed off at you now and then, but not for anything real big. Truth is that I’m proud of you.”

  A big lump tied itself into a knot in the back of Eulis’s throat.

  “You are?”

  “Yes.”

  He glanced at her briefly then quickly looked away, afraid that she might see what he was feeling.

  “I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me before.”

  Letty saw a muscle jerking at the side of his jaw. She thought about hugging him, and then decided he would get the wrong idea—or maybe the right one. Either way, it wouldn’t do either one of them any good. He knew too much about her past to ever look at her as anything other than a whore.

  “The past is the past,” she said. “We got ourselves a second chance and, I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna make the most of it.”

  Unaware of what was going through Letty’s mind, and still overwhelmed by the fact that she’d praised him, Eulis just nodded in agreement.

  “We’re here,” he said, as he pulled the wagon up to the Inn.

  “Yep, we sure are,” Letty said, and quickly got down as Eulis set the brake and tied off the reins. It remained to be seen exactly where “here” was, but she was glad to be standing on solid ground.

  Eulis shouldered the rifle as they walked into the inn together.

  It was a strange set-up for a hotel.

  There was a small saloon set up near the door, with a bar barely as long as a man was tall, but the bottles on the shelf behind it, and the stack of clean glasses were proof of its purpose.

  The room where travelers ate was one big space, with an odd assortment of chairs and tables scattered about. Letty could smell food cooking, but the kitchen was somewhere out of sight.

  There was an even tinier general store in another part of the lobby with some folded clothing on a table, a side of smoked pork hanging from the ceiling, and some flour and coffee beans. Before she could look further, a tall, middle-aged woman appeared in a doorway, moving toward them with a no-nonsense stride.

  “Welcome, travelers. I’m Mrs. Cocker. You here just to eat or do you want a bed, too?”

  Eulis glanced at Letty, who was unusually quiet.

  “Two beds, please, and a meal. And do you, by any chance, have a bath house?” He pointed to Letty. “Letty, here, favors a tub bath real highly.”

  The woman nodded briskly while eyeing Letty’s manly style dress.

  “Bath house out back. Got hot water on the stove. It’ll cost extra.”

  “Lovely,” Letty said, and then pointed to the small dry goods store. “Got any shoes for sale?”

  “Women’s shoes?” Mrs. Cocker asked.

  “Actually, no. I need something sturdy. I’ve about walked the soles off of these things. Besides which, it’s coming on winter.”

  The woman peered down at Letty’s feet then motioned for her to follow.

  “Come with me. Maybe a small pair of men’s shoes will fit. Since you’re already wearing men’s pants, I don’t suppose you’ll mind.”

  Letty heard the sarcasm. Once it would have hurt her feelings. Now it just pissed her off.

  “Yeah, I’m wearing men’s pants because my last dress burned up when I fell into the campfire. And the rest of my business is none of yours. Do you want to sell shoes and rent us a bed, or do you want to criticize my fashion sense?”

  The woman didn’t blink. “I’ll sell you anything you need,” she said. “Have a seat.”

  The moment passed. Letty found a pair of shoes that fit, but they didn’t look new.

  “These have been worn,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah, those belonged to a kid named Pete McKay. Young Scots. Red hair, freckles, big smile.”

  Letty stared down at the shoes on her feet.

  “What happened to him?”

  “Pneumonia. Died last spring. Broke his father’s heart. He packed up the family and headed for California. Doubt if they made it past that damned desert, though.”

  Letty felt sick at standing in these shoes, as if she had transgressed on someone’s grave.

  “There’s a desert between here and California?”

  “That’s what I hear,” Mrs. Cocker said. “Never seen it myself. Don’t plan to, either.” She pointed at Letty’s feet. “You want the shoes or not?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’ll be four bits.”

  “I’ll give you two, and that’s more than enough. They’re used.”

  “Done,” Mrs. Cocker said. “So you want the beds or not?”

  “All of it,” Letty said. “For one night, we want it all. Beds, bath and meals.”

  Mrs. Cocker nodded, then eyed Letty one more time. “That kid… Pete McKay.”

  “What about him?”

  “I got some of his clothes, too. Throw in another two bits and you can have them, too.”

  Letty thought of their dwindling cash, but winter was coming, and she couldn’t exist on Eulis’s cast-offs through ice and snow.

  “All right.”

  “I’ll gather them up later, but for now, follow me. I’ll show you to your beds and then get the hot water for your bath.”

  “I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Letty murmured, more to herself than to Mrs. Cocker, but the woman heard her just the same.

  “Honey, if you’re not careful, you could die here at that. It’s a hard place here, these gold fields. Men do bad things to good people for a little color, and you’d better beware. This place isn’t heaven. It’s closer to hell.”

  Letty glanced at Eulis, who was staring at the woman with a hard look on his face.

  “Sorry to dispute your word, ma’am, but this ain’t hell. We already been there and come out the other side. Maybe this is somewhere in between, in which case, I feel comfortable in tellin’ you that me and Letty, here, are gonna be just fine.”

  Letty’s heart swelled as she looked at Eulis with pride. If she hadn’t already told him she was proud of him, she would have said it now. As it was, all she could do was follow him and the innkeeper to the dormitory where the beds were set up side by side, to be had for nominal cost.

  “Not much privacy here,” Letty said, as she gave them two beds near a window.

  Mrs. Cocker turned around and looked at Letty.

  “If you don’t mind my saying so, you might need to rethink your business here. In the gold fields, only the strong and the tough survive.”
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br />   Eulis looked at Letty, wondering what she was going to say, but then she caught his eye and to his surprise, she started to grin.

  He grinned back.

  She chuckled, and then looked away as she sat down on the bed, looked at him again and laughed out loud.

  He was still grinning as he sat on his bed. He threw his hat on the floor, and then chuckled as he watched her laughing. She was doubled over on the bed and trying to take off her new boots. But the harder she tried, the funnier everything became.

  “Only the strong… Lord have mercy.” She rolled off the bed onto the floor, pointed at Eulis, and then slapped her hands over her face as she was struck with a fresh wave of hysteria. “Stop… stop… don’t look at me,” she begged.

  The innkeeper frowned. “I don’t know what I said that was so humorous. This is not Philadelphia.”

  Letty took a deep breath and bit her lower lip, but it was no use. She looked at Eulis and then rolled over on her belly, laid her forehead in the crook of one arm, and started slapping the floor with the flat of her other hand as she laughed until she cried.

  Eulis sighed. It was to be expected that the relief of reaching their destination would come out in some fashion, but he would never have expected this.

  Mrs. Cocker stared at the woman as if she’d lost her mind and then turned to Eulis.

  “Is she all right… I mean… she’s not touched in the head or anything, is she? I don’t want no crazy woman sleeping under my roof.”

  Eulis grinned. “No ma’am, she’s not crazy. She’s also no sissy, and the fact that you looked at her and thought that might be the case is what has tickled her funny bone.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t get the joke,” Mrs. Cocker said. “Stew’s on the stove when you’re ready to eat. Bath tubs are out back. I’ve got three, only one’s got a hole in it. Pay up front.”

  “What’ll we owe you?” Eulis asked.

  “A dollar apiece,” she said.

  “A dollar?”

  She put her hands on her hips and nodded again to accentuate her price.

  “A dollar, and a cheap price at that. From here, it’s four miles to Denver and the gold fields. Things are a lot higher there.”

  Eulis counted out the money, then sat down on the bed and waited for Letty to regain her senses as the innkeeper left the room.