The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  It hadn’t snowed in days, and what snow there was wore a two-inch crust of ice. Herds of elk were visible from the doorway, as were small herds of buffalo. The mules had suffered the most, having little to no shelter, and Eulis feared that one of Blackie’s ears had frozen so badly that he was going to lose the top half. Still, the animals had been able to stomp down the snow enough to graze and they’d made a path to the waterfall and back.

  Eulis came in the doorway with an armload of firewood and set it against the wall.

  “That oughta’ be enough for today. I’ll bring more in before dark,” he said, and then took the rifle down from the mantle.

  Letty tried not to let her uneasiness show, as she realized he was determined to go hunting.

  “You sure you’re ready for this?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” Eulis said. “I’m sick of elk. I’m goin’ rabbit huntin’, and that’s that.”

  “All right,” Letty said. “Just watch out for wolves.”

  “There’s plenty of game in the valley. They ain’t gonna bother me.”

  She thought of the wolf she’d encountered just outside their door and frowned. She had yet to tell him, only now she felt obligated to do so, so that he would be vigilant.

  “I was bothered by one when you were sick,” she said.

  Eulis was all the way out the door, but something about the way she said that turned him around. He walked back into the cabin and shut the door.

  “What do you mean… bothered?”

  “Um… it uh… I—”

  “Damn it, Letty.”

  “You cursed.”

  He sighed. “I told you that you were bound to drive me to it again, and you have, so you should be happy. Now talk to me. What happened to you while I was sick, and why am I just hearin’ about it now?”

  She threw up her hands and then pulled the box with the moccasins that she’d made out from under the bed.

  “I wanted to surprise you. I was saving them for Christmas, but for all I know, it’s already come and gone. So… Merry Christmas.”

  Eulis stared at the moccasins in disbelief.

  “Where did you get these?”

  “I made them.”

  “From what?”

  Letty rolled her eyes. “From the wolf.”

  “You shot a wolf.”

  “No. The rifle was in the cabin.”

  “So… what did you do… talk it to death? For God’s sake, Leticia. Quit beatin’ around the bush and tell me what happened.”

  The tone of his voice pissed her off. He wanted to know what happened. Fine. She’d be happy to tell him.

  “Well, it was like this. I’d just finished washing the poop off your butt and went outside to dump the water. When I turned around, the wolf was standing between me and the door.”

  Eulis’s face paled. She didn’t know whether it was from the fact that she’d washed poop off his ass, or been attacked by the wolf, and right now she didn’t care.

  “I waved the poop pan at him, but it didn’t seem to faze him. His foot was bleeding and he was missing some toes. Looked real hungry. It seemed obvious that he wasn’t about to get picky about what to chew on. He was willing to settle for me or the elk hanging in the lean-to.”

  “God All Mighty,” Eulis whispered, and sat down on the bed. “Did it hurt you?”

  “No.”

  “What happened?”

  “I brained it with a stick of firewood and skinned it out. I cured it like you showed me, then measured your foot while you were sleeping, and made these for you. If you don’t want them, I do.”

  Eulis clutched the moccasins against his chest and looked away. To his utter embarrassment, he started to cry.

  It was the last thing Letty would have expected him to do and attributed it to his recently weakened state.

  “Look, it won’t hurt my feelings if you—”

  “You could have been killed. You could have laid out there in the snow and died and I wouldn’t have known a thing.”

  “But I wasn’t hurt,” Letty said, as she sat down beside him.

  He stared at her, unashamed of his tears and then shook his head.

  “You killed it with a stick.”

  She nodded and wiped the tears from his face.

  “It was a big stick,” she added.

  He looked at her for a minute and then started to grin.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Just like in the bible.”

  “What’s like in the bible?”

  “You know… David the shepherd boy, who kills that giant Goliath with a rock and sling? That’s you, Letty, only you used a stick, not a rock.”

  A little pleased with his analogy, she couldn’t help but grin.

  “The critter wasn’t hardly a giant.”

  Eulis ran his hands inside the moccasin and then kicked off his boots.

  “I thought you were going hunting,” Letty said.

  “I changed my mind,” he said. “Elk meat is fine with me. I’m gonna sit here in our home, with these fine shoes on my feet, and think how blessed we’ve been.”

  “Blessed? You got smallpox and I got attacked by a wolf and you call that blessed?”

  “But we didn’t die. We could have, but we didn’t. I call that blessed.”

  Letty stared at the man she’d come to love and shook her head.

  “You know what? Despite the fact that you’ve given up preaching, I’m thinking you’re still a preacher at heart.”

  He pulled on the moccasins and wiggled the toes against the fur lining.

  “Feels real good,” he said. “I reckon I’m gonna wear ’em when we have the funeral.”

  “We can’t have a funeral for the wolf. I dumped its carcass out in the meadow weeks ago.”

  “Not the wolf. Us. Remember the night of the blizzard?”

  She arched an eyebrow. It was their first night to make love.

  “Of course I remember that night. I remember it very well, thank you.”

  “I think my superb lovemakin’ has driven the rest of the night from your mind.”

  Letty rolled her eyes.

  Eulis ignored her as he continued.

  “I told you that when I got better, we were goin’ to have a funeral and bury our old selves, remember?”

  “You were serious?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “But what in the world are we going to bury?”

  Eulis frowned. “It’s got to be somethin’ we still have from before. Somethin’ that don’t belong here anymore.”

  Letty shook her head. “I think I left all that behind.”

  “I got a flask of whiskey in my bag.”

  Letty gasped.

  “Not to drink, you understand. Just to prove to myself I didn’t want it no more.”

  Letty laid her head against his shoulder, just for a moment, but long enough to let him know she understood. Then she got her bag from the corner of the room and set it on the bed.

  Eulis stood up and moved away, figuring she might need some privacy to find the part of her past. He watched her unfasten the bag and, one by one, remove the articles from inside.

  There was a tortoise-shell comb that he’d never seen her wear.

  “My mother’s,” she said, and laid it aside.

  Next came the stockings and her old pair of shoes—part of her life as Sister Leticia, but nothing to do with the White Dove Saloon.

  She took out a handful of books, then a small wooden box with a tin-type inside.

  Eulis peered over her shoulder.

  “Who’s the kid?” he asked, staring intently at the little girl with a large bow in her hair who was missing her front teeth.

  “Me.”

  A lump came to his throat, thinking of the years of hardship that little girl had endured before she’d come to this place. He put his hand on the back of her head and then left it there, as if cushioning her from some unseen blow.

  “Here,” she said, suddenly, and han
ded him a small bag.

  “What’s in it?” he asked.

  “See for yourself,” she said, and dumped the contents onto the bed. “Rouge for my cheeks, kohl for my eyes, and color for my lips. War paint from the White Dove.”

  Eulis gathered up the makeup and dropped it back into the bag.

  “War’s over,” he said gently. “Time to bury the past.”

  “I’ll get the shovel,” she said. “Only I don’t know where we’ll dig, seeing as how the ground is frozen and all.”

  “Out where the mules shelter,” Eulis said. “And I’ll get the shovel. You carry this.” He handed her the deceased’s remains.

  Letty put on her coat and clutched the items against her chest as she followed him out the door.

  The air was so cold that snot froze on Eulis’s upper lip, and he was thankful for the fur-lined shoes he was wearing. He swiped at his lip with the back of his hand as he slogged through the snow to the lean-to.

  The ground was pitted and rough from the mules hooves. Manure in various forms of decomposition lay scattered all around. He kicked at a frozen clump near the gate and then walked inside. The immediate shelter was a welcome relief from the wind.

  Eulis thrust the shovel into the ground, grunting slightly when it didn’t give. He moved to a different location and tried again, this time meeting with some success. Finally, he had the hole dug—small, but deep. He turned to Letty.

  “The bodies, please.”

  She laid the whiskey and the makeup bag down in the hole and stepped back, watching solemnly as Eulis covered them with dirt. Then he set the shovel aside and took off his hat.

  “Dearly Beloved… we are gathered here today to—”

  Letty hissed and rolled her eyes.

  “That’s for weddings,” she muttered.

  “I know,” he said softly, and took her by the hand. “As I was sayin’… we are gathered here today for two reasons. Buryin’ what was left of the old Letty Murphy and Eulis Potter, and joinin’ together in holy matrimony, the new man and woman who have come to take their place.”

  Letty gawked. Leave it up to Eulis to do something weird, but sweet.

  “You never asked me to marry you,” she mumbled.

  “Will you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Then hush up and let me finish what I been tryin’ to say.”

  Letty bit her lip to keep from spouting off, and tried not to grin. This was certainly nothing like the romantic wedding she’d dreamed of as a girl. Hellsfire, it wasn’t even a wedding. It was supposed to be a funeral of sorts. Eulis, being the frugal kind, had tossed the vows in for free.

  Eulis took her by the hand.

  “Do you, Leticia Murphy, take this man as your lawful wedded husband?”

  “Yes, only I—”

  “Now, you ask me,” Eulis countered.

  Letty sighed. “But I’m not the preacher.”

  He grinned. “And neither am I, so that makes it even.”

  She frowned. There was a mistake in that logic somewhere. She just couldn’t put her finger on the spot.

  “All right… do you, Eulis Potter, take me as your lawful wedded wife?”

  “I sure do,” he said, and then took her by the hands. “By the power I have taken upon myself, I now pronounce us as husband and wife. And God help any fool who tries to put you under.”

  “Asunder,” Letty mumbled. “The word is asunder.”

  “Whatever,” Eulis said, and kissed her soundly.

  Letty found herself kissing him back.

  A blanket of snow slid off the roof of the lean-to and landed with a shower of ice crystals at their feet.

  “Where are we going for our honeymoon?” Letty asked.

  “To bed,” Eulis said.

  “Works for me.”

  A quiet descended upon the meadow as the cabin door swung shut. Smoke from the chimney thickened as extra wood was added to the fire, but one needed warmth to a room when not wearing any clothes.

  Hidden Riches

  Almost a month had passed since the marrying and the burying. By Eulis’s best guess, January should be almost gone. Within a couple of months, the first signs of spring should be evident, which meant they would be leaving Letty’s Eden.

  Each night as Eulis undressed for bed, he inspected the skin on his body, and each time he did, the scars from his smallpox seemed a little bit smaller and a bit less pink. With time, they would fade even more, although vanity was not something he dwelled upon. His thoughts were all mixed up with the newness of their relationship, and his responsibility to her as a husband. Here, in this hidden-away valley, it was easy to get by. Money was unnecessary if you were willing to live on nothing but meat, and dress like an Indian. But the clothes on their backs were wearing out, and come spring, there was a strong possibility that they would be forced to wear buckskin back into Denver City. Although he kept his beard cut short, he’d let his hair grow long. Although it was nowhere near as long as Letty’s, it still hung down his back. The only time she wore it down was when she intended to wash it, and only until it was dry. After that, she would gather it all over one shoulder, brush it until it was as dark and shiny as the pelt of a mink, then braid it back up. He would watch her do that at night as she sat on the stool by the hearth. It often occurred to him that a man could die happy from that sight alone. But he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life isolating himself and Letty from the rest of the world. Decisions would have to be made soon, and they would do it together, just as they’d done all along.

  What concerned him most was where would they go from there. He wasn’t of a mind to go back to panning for bits and pieces of gold, and living in a tent, and it wasn’t fair to subject Letty to that hardship again. They still had most of the small poke of gold nuggets that they’d panned from Cherry Creek last fall, but it was hardly enough money to set them up for life. What he needed was a plan.

  Before he’d been a drunk he’d been a soldier, and before that, and only briefly, his father had tried to farm. But being orphaned at such an early age had shortened any apprenticeship he might have experienced. Like Letty, all he knew how to do was survive.

  Unaware of Eulis’s concerns, Letty went from day to day without thinking too far ahead. It was how she’d kept from going insane while sleeping with men for money and habit was a hard thing to break.

  What had changed most for her was her self-esteem. It didn’t make sense and it shouldn’t have mattered, but symbolically burying herself had made a marked changed in Letty’s attitude. She held her head up higher when she walked, and she moved with a confidence and pride that she’d never had before. But she wasn’t the only one who’d changed.

  If Eulis could grow wings, he would be flying. He woke up smiling, and went through the hard winter days with gusto. Cutting wood was a blessing, and bringing in a brace of rabbits now and then as a change to their diet gave him joy. Once in a while they talked about the future and where they might go, but not often. Until the spring thaw, they were just marking time.

  On this particular day, the sun had come up to reveal a clear sky. For the time being, the sunshine was melting snow from the roof. In some places it splattered, in others it ran in rivulets onto the snow and ice at the base of the cabin. Eulis had taken the mules out of the valley and up into the tree line to haul back some wood, while Letty decided to make good use of his absence by giving the cabin a thorough cleaning. After wiping ash from all the flat surfaces inside the cabin, she set a bucket of snow by the hearth to melt for mop water. While it was melting, she took the broom to the far corner of the room where they’d been stacking the firewood, and began sweeping up the leaves and wood chips with a passion.

  Soon, the air in the room was swirling with dry ash and dust motes. When she began to make herself cough, she decided a little air on the subject wouldn’t be amiss and opened the door just a crack.

  The air was cold, but it smelled fresh and clean, and as she leane
d outside, she took a deep cleansing breath before returning to her task. It wasn’t until she went back to the dirt she was sweeping that she saw something odd. The addition of light into the room was highlighting the tiny bits of dust still floating in the air. Only the bits were no longer floating. Something was pulling them toward the back wall.

  If it had been toward the chimney, it would have made sense. After all, there would be a natural draft from the doorway to the flue, but there was no reason this should be happening—at least not from the door to the corner of the room.

  Curious, she moved toward the wall and laid her hands against the rough-hewn wood, tracing the path of the chinking between the logs. To her surprise, she felt a rush of cold air, which didn’t make sense. The cabin had been built flush up against the mountain. There shouldn’t be anything back there to make a draft and yet it was there.

  She stood for a moment, studying the darkened corner, then got the poker from the fireplace and began tapping it along the wall. Within seconds, she heard a difference in the sound and tapped the poker again, thumping on the logs until she settled on a section that sounded different—almost hollow.

  Frustrated by lack of light, she hurried back to the door and opened it back as far as it would go. Cold air immediately filled the room, but it couldn’t be helped. She had a mystery to solve.

  The addition of light was more than revealing. Almost immediately, she could see a faint, but distinct cut in the logs from about three feet below the ceiling, then all the way to the floor. Still uncertain of what it was that she’d found, she began pushing against the logs in an effort to see if anything moved.

  The only thing that happened was that the room kept getting colder. Irked with herself for letting out so much heat, she decided to give up the search and ran to close the door.

  Even though the fire was burning hot, the room was now freezing. She stirred the fire then added another log. Her hands were like ice and her feet weren’t much better. The way she figured it, she would get warmer faster if she continued to work. The mop water had melted, so she sloshed it across the floor, then took the broom and began sweeping it down. She was working her way toward the corner when she stepped on a piece of bark. Before she knew it, her ankle rolled and she was falling backward. She knew she would hit the wall, but she never expected it to swing inward. The unexpected motion caught her off guard and when she fell, she hit headfirst and hard.