The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  Eulis grinned. “Soon as you button your britches.”

  “Eulis!” she begged, and then began fumbling with the buttons.

  He laughed again, filled with joy, and a hope that he’d thought himself too far gone to ever know again, and opened the palm of his hand.

  “Give me your hand,” he said.

  Letty extended her hand as Eulis laid the nugget in her palm.

  “Oh lord,” Letty whispered. “Just look! Oh, Eulis… just look!”

  “I’m lookin’,” Eulis said, but he was no longer looking at the nugget. He was looking at Letty.

  She was bone thin, with a scrape on her nose where she’d just taken a fall, and her hands were callused and rough, even cracked and bleeding in places from the water and the cold. There was a bit of red leaf stuck on the braid down her back, and she was about the prettiest woman he thought he’d ever seen.

  Letty turned the nugget over and over, mentally marking and weighing it in her mind.

  “Reckon it’s some of that Fool’s Gold?” Eulis asked.

  “No. I looked at that stuff real close in the assayer’s office. This is the real stuff, Eulis! The real stuff!”

  Then she threw her arms around his neck and started jumping up and down.

  Eulis grabbed the back of her britches to keep them from falling down around her knees again, and grinned.

  “Here!” he said, and handed her a small leather pouch. “I been savin’ this for our first find. I reckon this is it.”

  Letty opened the bag and dropped in the gold, then handed it back to Eulis. Her eyes were shining and there was a look in her eyes he’d never seen before.

  A funny feeling came in the pit of his stomach—a kind of knotting, drawing pain that made him want to cry and laugh all at the same time. A feeling that swelled his heart and caused him to choke on whatever he’d been going to say next.

  “You did good,” she said softly. “You did real good.”

  He swallowed nervously and turned loose of her pants. Letty grabbed them before they fell again, and by the time she was buttoned back up, he’d put the pouch in his pocket, buttoned the flap, and the moment had passed.

  That had been then, and this was now. Weeks later, their tiny pouch was only about half full. Enough to know that they would be able to afford food for the winter, but not enough to buy them a decent place to stay.

  Little Bird was sad. She’d been sad for many moons now—ever since the spider people had come to Cherry Creek. Before, it had been a joyous place to be. Game had been plentiful, and the chokecherry bushes for which Cherry Creek had been named were always heavily laden with the bitter-sweet cherries. Now everything was wrong. This season the chokecherries had been sparse and the ones that had ripened were small, with a tendency to rot on the bush. The deer that had survived the white men’s indiscriminate hunting practices had gone up to a higher elevation, and the pure water of Cheery Creek that had sustained The People for so long had been fouled by the spider people and their thirst for gold. But what bothered Little Bird even more was that she no longer felt safe in her own tipi.

  White men came into their camp almost every night wanting a woman to lie with. Because it was the custom of The People to share their women from time to time, the warriors obliged. But Little Bird hated the white men and their ways. They were brutal and hairy, and smelled foul, as if their bodies were rotting, although they had yet to die.

  And today was no different. The morning had dawned cold and gray. Her man was still sleeping beneath his blankets and her cooking fire had gone out. When she got up to relieve herself, she’d been accosted by a white man walking into the camp. He staggered as he walked, and smelled of the white man’s drink. Before she knew it, she was flat on her back with her legs spread and he was fumbling with his breeches.

  Little Bird pushed at the man, trying to get him off of her, but he wouldn’t budge, so she reached for the nearest weapon, which happened to be a large rock, and swung it at him as hard as she could. There was a sound, not unlike that of a clay pot breaking, and then he was still.

  Little Bird pushed him off her then crawled to her feet. To her surprise, she was still alone. Afraid of the backlash that might occur between the spider people and the Arapaho, she grabbed the man by the arms and began dragging him into the trees.

  It quit raining before sunrise. Letty watched the first gray fingers of light pulling aside the curtain of night. As soon as she could distinguish shape and substance, she put on her boots, and crawled out of the tent, leaving Eulis still asleep in his blankets.

  After a quick trip to the bushes, she began gathering some dry wood for the fire, although the chore took longer and longer each morning, due to the fact that they were quickly using up all the dead fall. The next time they went into town, they were going to have to buy something larger than their hatchet to cut wood.

  Letty didn’t realize how far she’d gone from camp until she heard a twig snap in the bushes. She looked up and then spun around, only to come face to face with a young Arapaho woman.

  The woman gasped.

  Letty took a step backward and dropped the wood in her arms, just as the woman dropped the man she’d been dragging.

  Letty eyed the man, taking in the fact that there was a lot of blood on the side of his head, that his pants were undone and that he reeked of liquor. Also, that the young woman looked scared out of her mind. She knew the Arapaho shared their women and before this, had given no thought to whether the women had been in on the decision. But she thought about it now, and recognized the panic in the Indian woman’s eyes. She remembered how scared she’d been when Howe had died of a heart attack, and had it not been for Eulis, would have probably been hanged. Despite her fear of Indians, she felt a greater bond—that of woman to woman—and pointed to the man at their feet.

  “Did he hurt you?” Letty asked.

  Little Bird’s eyes widened. She knew enough of the white man’s words to get by, and unconsciously put a hand to her breast, feeling the tenderness where the man had grabbed her as he’d shoved her to the ground.

  Letty’s eyes narrowed in anger as she looked down at the man again. Then she looked up.

  “My name is Letty.”

  Little Bird touched her chest. “Little Bird.”

  Letty pointed at the man.

  “Is he dead?”

  Little Bird nodded soulfully.

  Letty brushed off the palms of her hands.

  “Then I reckon we’d better get rid of him. Need some help?”

  Little Bird couldn’t have been more surprised by the offer, but she was too desperate to refuse. She nodded once.

  “All right then,” Letty said. “You take one arm. I’ll take the other. Got a place in mind to put him?”

  Little Bird pointed up the path.

  “Cave. Bear sleeps in winter.”

  Letty frowned. “Reckon the bear is in there yet?”

  “Soon,” Little Bird said.

  “Then we’d better get at it,” Letty said, and together, they began dragging the man up the path.

  By Letty’s best guess, it had taken the better part of thirty minutes to reach the cave, but she had to admit that once there, it was the perfect hiding place—almost as good as the grave where they’d buried the real Randall Howe.

  When they started inside, she had a moment of hesitation, fearing that a bear would already be occupying the spot, but to her relief, it was empty. They dragged him as far back into the cave as they could see to go, then dropped him like a hot potato, and made a run for the light.

  Once outside, they were almost giddy with relief, and Letty found herself grinning at her co-conspirator.

  “It is done,” Little Bird said, and then sat down at the side of the path, covered her face with her hands, and began to weep.

  Letty knew the feeling all too well. She knelt beside her, and then tentatively touched her shoulder.

  “Hey… Little Bird… it’s over. No need to cry now.” />
  “Afraid,” Little Bird said.

  “Yeah, I understand. But I won’t tell.”

  Little Bird looked up. Tears were hanging on her lashes like dew on the grass.

  “It’s our secret,” Letty said. “You know secrets?”

  Little Bird shook her head and frowned.

  Letty sighed. “It’s something that two people know, but do not tell.” Then she pointed to the cave, then to herself. “I know.” Then she pointed at Little Bird. “And you know.” Then she closed her fists, as if holding something tight. “But no one else knows. Ever.”

  Little Bird’s eyes widened as she thought about what the woman had said and pointed to the cave.

  “No talk more ever.”

  “Right,” Letty said, and then held out her hand. “Come on. Let’s head back down. I need to find wood for a fire.”

  Little Bird almost smiled. “I, too, make fire.”

  “Well, then,” Letty said, somewhat surprised to realize how similar their lives probably were. “Let’s go.”

  Little Bird got up, tore a limb from a small bush and began brushing out any signs of their passing as they retraced their steps. It wasn’t until they were back where they’d first met up, that they stopped and spoke.

  “There’s my wood,” Letty said, and began gathering it back up in her arms.

  “I go,” Little Bird said.

  Letty nodded. “Goodbye, Little Bird.”

  She eyed Letty thoughtfully and finally smiled.

  “Secret,” she said.

  Letty smiled back.

  “Secret.”

  Little Bird lifted her hand in a gesture of farewell and disappeared into the woods.

  Letty gathered up the firewood she’d dropped and headed for camp. By the time she returned, Eulis was up, reviving the embers of the dead fire with the last of their kindling. When he saw Letty coming back into camp with the firewood, he grinned.

  “Wondered where you were. Thought you might have gone fishin’.”

  “Nope. Just getting wood for the fire,” Letty said. “I reckon it’s too cold for fish to be moving this early.”

  Eulis nodded. “Probably. Have we got any flour left?”

  “A little,” Letty said.

  “Then I’ll make us some flapjacks. Soon as we eat, I reckon we’d better hitch up the team and make a trip down for supplies.”

  “And maybe see about wintering in town.”

  “Yeah. Maybe, although I reckon we might have left that a little too late.”

  Letty frowned. That was the story of her life. Too late and a dollar short.

  “And maybe not,” she said. “Won’t know until we try.”

  No Room In The Inn

  Letty and Eulis began the trip into town just as the first flakes of snow began to fall. They looked nervously at the sky, then at each other before Eulis clucked to Rosy and Blackie to hurry them along.

  “Don’t worry, Letty. This don’t mean winter has set in. It’s just a few flakes of snow. I doubt it will last long.”

  “Right.”

  “Just in case, we’ll go ahead and get a good bait of winter supplies, but I don’t think this is gonna amount to much.”

  She didn’t doubt his prediction, but she was concerned about the future.

  “Eulis… exactly where are we gonna spend the winter?”

  “Oh, we’ll get us some rooms in town. Lay out pannin’ for the winter and get fat and sassy.”

  She tried to laugh, but fear of the unknown didn’t let it get past a smile. She didn’t want to put a damper on the plan by reminding him of his earlier prediction that there might not be rooms to be had. She decided to wait until misfortune fell before she started to bemoan the fact that if they couldn’t find a room they might not live to see another Spring. But something odd began to happen as they drew closer to town. As frightening and uncertain as their future was, for the first time in her life, Letty felt like she was truly alive.

  Suddenly, Eulis pointed up in the trees to their right.

  “Look at that! Ain’t he a fine one!”

  A twelve-point buck was looking down at them from a jut of rock off the ridge. The majesty of the animal in its natural habitat was stunning, but Letty was too practical to ignore the opportunity that had just been presented. Reality raised its ugly head as she reached for the rifle. As if sensing imminent danger, the buck leaped from the rock and into the trees. Seconds later, it was gone.

  “Dang,” Letty said. “That buck would have been good eating.”

  Eulis nodded. “Still… it was a beaut. Sorta glad it got away, you know?”

  Letty shrugged. “It didn’t really get away. As long as it stays around here, it’s only a matter of time before someone shoots it. Might as well have been me.”

  Eulis eyed Letty critically.

  Letty saw the look and frowned. “What?”

  “I don’t know… just thinkin’.”

  “About what?” Letty asked.

  “’Bout how much you’ve changed.”

  Suddenly, Letty felt threatened, which was an odd emotion to be feeling around Eulis.

  “What do you mean?”

  He shrugged. “You know… before when we were at Lizard Flats, your emotions and all… well, they were hard… you were hard.”

  “And now?” she asked. “What about now?”

  “Well, we got things tougher now than we ever had ’em, and I reckon that would make anyone, man or woman, tough and hard. Only you ain’t that way anymore.”

  Letty turned around and stared, not believing what she was hearing.

  “Are you calling me a sissy?”

  Eulis’s eyes widened, then he started to grin. Wisps of Letty’s hair had come undone from her braid and the hat she was wearing had one of the widest brims he’d ever seen. There was a scrape on her chin and her fingernails were broken and dirty and she thought he’d just called her a sissy. He laughed.

  “Not hardly, Missy.”

  Letty frowned. “You’re laughing at me.”

  “Well, lordy, Leticia, you are the touchiest woman I ever knew. I wasn’t callin’ you no sissy, and I wasn’t talkin’ mean about you. I was tryin’ to pay you a compliment.”

  “Then you better keep talking, ’cause I haven’t heard one yet.”

  “What I was tryin’ to say was that no matter how tough we’ve had it, you just keep gettin’ stronger. You ain’t hard-hearted anymore, Sister Leticia. You’re strong, and one might even say you got tough, but tough is good. It means life can’t beat you down anymore.”

  Letty didn’t know what to think. She’d been too busy trying to stay alive to think about the past. She sat there for a few moments, then looked at him and grinned.

  “That was the compliment, wasn’t it?”

  Eulis nodded. “That was it.”

  “It was almost a good one.”

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “No… thank you.”

  Eulis smiled. He hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

  Letty rubbed her hands together and then put them in her pockets. The snow was coming down a little harder now.

  “Good thing we’re almost there,” she said. “It’s snowing heavier.”

  “Looks like goose feathers,” Eulis said.

  “But not nearly as comforting to sleep on,” Letty countered.

  The wagon continued to roll. Once Letty shivered, then quickly looked behind them, as if expecting to see danger on their heels, but saw nothing except snow. Shrugging off the feeling, she turned back around and pulled the collar of her coat up around her ears.

  “Still wish I’d gotten a shot off at that buck.”

  Eulis threw his head back and laughed, but the sound was smothered by the snow as they started down the hill into town.

  Because of Leticia Murphy’s revelation months ago at Four Mile Inn regarding Boston Jones gambling habits, he had been forced to clean up his act. Word had spread quickly that he’d been accused of using a
marked deck, so he’d had to rely solely on his wits and skill to skin the miners out of their pokes. As a result, he didn’t have nearly as much socked away as he’d planned. Now winter was upon them and he was stuck in Denver City until Spring, which was also not what he’d planned. It galled him greatly to know that a woman’s inability to keep her mouth shut had hampered his business, and often daydreamed about the various ways he might get back at her, although nothing ever came to fruition.

  Today, as it was his habit to do so every morning, he was in his room, sitting at the window overlooking the road that led in and out of town. He was contemplating the fact that it was beginning to snow when he saw Letty and Eulis coming into town in their wagon. He recognized the mules first, and then the wide-brimmed hat that Letty had taken to wearing.

  The streets were jammed with miners who’d come into the city to winter. He grinned to himself as Letty and Eulis passed beneath his window, because he knew there were no more rooms to be had—hadn’t been for more than a week. Even the stable and the bath house had been turned into rough sleeping quarters. For the men who’d been sleeping in tents strung along Cherry Creek and the South Platte, the cold nights had been warning enough for them. The town was teeming with more miners than rooms, so much so that a good number of them were buying available horses and wagons and leaving the mountains before it was too late.

  Boston struck a sulphur match and lit the thin, dark cigar he’d been holding, then drew three good puffs from the tightly rolled tobacco leaves before it flared properly. The scent of a good cigar and a warm room made him smile. Add a soft, feminine woman who knew when to keep her mouth shut, and he’d be set for the winter.

  He leaned forward, watching until the used-to-be preacher’s wagon rolled out of sight, wondered how soft Sister Leticia’s body might be, then shrugged off the thought as he remembered how she’d grabbed his dingus and given it a yank. Trying to cuddle up to her, would be like cuddling a rattlesnake.

  He kicked back in his chair, propped the heels of his boots on the windowsill, and enjoyed his smoke, knowing full well whatever goods were still for sale in this city had gone sky-high, and hoping they didn’t have enough gold dust to buy a can of beans. It would serve them right.