Yellowstone Heart Song

by Peggy L Henderson

  “I love you, Daniel,” she said barely above a whisper. As she left the room and softly closed the door behind her, she hoped that Zach could talk some sense into him, and she could come back to reattach his leads.

  *****

  Aimee had barely closed the door, when Daniel came at his father. “Why did you bring me here?” he demanded. “You should have left me to die.”

  “I couldn’t do that, son,” his father said quietly.

  “Take me back,” Daniel ordered. His father’s eyes widened in surprise. “Take me back, now.”

  “Daniel, you don’t know what you’re saying. Your injuries . . . ”

  Daniel cut him off. “If I die, it’s as it should be. Take me back.”

  His father finally nodded, removing the snakehead from his pouch. “Alright,” he sighed. “If that’s what you really want. But what about Aimee?”

  “What of her? As you said yourself, she is safely back in her time. This is where she belongs.”

  His father opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again, and walked around the bed to the side that held the IV in Daniel’s arm. Pulling quickly, he removed the needle from his son’s arm.

  “Put your hand over that so it don’t bleed,” Zach said gruffly. Then he held firmly to Daniel’s arm, and pressed a finger to the snake’s left eye.

  Chapter 24

  One month later. Yellowstone Wilderness, 1810

  Daniel wrapped the buffalo robe tighter around himself, trying to ward off the chill of the cold October wind. His hair whipped around his face. He gazed out across the gaping expanse of the canyon before him. Sitting on a rocky outcropping, he watched solemnly as the brilliant yellow and red colors of the canyon walls appeared to change their shimmering hues with each passing moment as the morning sun’s rays illuminated the rocks. Off in the distance, he heard the roar of the mighty E-chee-dick-karsh-ah-shay as its turquoise waters plunged loudly several hundred feet deeper into the canyon. He had never tired of this awesome spectacle in all the years he had come to this spot. This time, however, it brought no joy to his heart. Everywhere he looked, visions of Aimee materialized before his eyes. The sound of her voice echoed on the wind, sometimes so clearly, Daniel thought he was loosing his mind.

  “I want you to know that no matter what happens in the future, I will always love you. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you. Please don’t ever forget that.”

  Had he been wrong? Had she been trying to tell him something that last day, with her words of love and the intensity and passion with which she had made love to him the night of the storm? With the way she had clung to him the morning he left the cabin?

  He stiffened at the rustling sound of leaves behind him, but didn’t bother to turn around. He had been aware of Elk Runner watching him from the trees for some time already.

  “Why do you come, brother?” he finally asked, his eyes still riveted on nature’s splendor before him, thinking of how he had wanted to share this spectacular place with Aimee, but had never gotten the chance.

  Elk Runner approached, found a spot next to him, and lowered himself to the ground.

  “Your father asked me to seek you out.” Elk Runner peered sideways at him. Daniel let out a dismissive snort.

  “He is dying, White Wolf. He asked to speak to you before he leaves this world and joins your mother.”

  Daniel didn’t reply. What more could his father have to tell him? If he was asking for forgiveness, he had already granted him that before he left the valley and their cabin three weeks ago. After a week of lying in bed, waiting for his body to heal, he had to get away. He’d still been weak when he left to set out on his own to try and escape the anguish in his heart and head. Day after day, his mind was overrun with visions of a fair-haired woman.

  Aimee. His gediki. His heart song. Her scent lingered on the blankets and furs of his bed, tormenting his mind and body. He couldn’t remain in the cabin any longer, the place that held such bittersweet memories.

  He had told his father he was leaving to figure out where he would go from here. Zach had simply nodded in understanding. His parting words had been of forgiveness because he knew it’s what his father wanted to hear. Daniel wasn’t sure if he truly forgave the man for never telling him the truth about his birth. He had accepted it. What else could he do? He realized it didn’t change who he was now. He had no desire to leave the mountains or seek out another way of life.

  “He will not live much longer, White Wolf,” Elk Runner interrupted his thoughts. “You must go and make peace with him.”

  “I’ve already made my peace with him,” Daniel said stoically.

  “He has important words to share with you. Perhaps you have made your peace, but he has not. He cannot leave this world until he has truly made peace with you. He is your father,” Elk Runner implored.

  Daniel sighed heavily, and rose from his place on the rocks. He clutched the side of his abdomen where he felt the familiar tugging sensations from his healing wounds. It was getting easier every day. The wounds had healed on the outside, but certain movements still caused some discomfort. He had even managed to remove the stitches himself, remembering how Aimee had removed Elk Runner’s.

  “Let’s go, then,” he said resignedly, and started walking.

  Two days later, Daniel quietly opened the cabin door and walked in. His father lay on his bunk, sweat drenching his face and chest. His breathing came in quick and shallow gasps, his eyes sunken in his head, his features gaunt. Daniel barely recognized him.

  He sat down on the bunk. “Hello, father,” he said quietly. When Zach’s eyes flew open at hearing his son’s voice, Daniel held a cup of water out to him. Zach took several swallows, then handed the cup back.

  “I’m glad you came back, son,” Zach said breathlessly, his voice a weak rasp. “It’s time I joined your mother, but before I go, I want to do the right thing for once in my life.”

  Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand.”

  “Aimee Donovan,” Zach said, then went into a coughing fit. Daniel felt a jolt of adrenaline at the mention of her name.

  “I’ve done wrong by her, and by you,” Zach whispered. “I need to make this

  right before I go.”

  “Make what right, father?” Daniel hissed between clenched teeth.

  “I’ve lied to you all this time, son,” Zach implored him with watery eyes. “I’ve kept the truth from you.”

  “What truth, father? You told me about my birth. What more is there?” His voice rose in anger. What more could there possibly be?

  Zach reached for the pouch around his neck. With shaking hands, he removed the snakehead, and held it out to Daniel.

  “Remember, the right eye takes you to the future, the left eye brings you back,” Zach said. “Take it. Go and bring her back. Then destroy this cursed thing.”

  Daniel stared blankly from the snakehead to his father’s face. The man was losing his mind. When he didn’t reach for the object, Zach sat up with great difficulty, and reached for Daniel’s arm.

  “Aimee Donovan is the one true path in your life, Daniel. Her intentions were good and honest from the beginning. I . . . I made her swear to me not to reveal my secret to anyone, most of all you. She kept that promise, even at great . . . personal sacrifice to herself and . . . to you. She is an honorable person. The lies and deception are mine.” Zach’s words came between labored breaths, and his forehead beaded with perspiration.

  Daniel tried to absorb what his father told him.

  “You falling in love with her never . . . entered my mind when I sent her here. Just as I never expected her . . . to fall in love with you.” Zach met his penetrating stare. He took a deep breath, and continued, “she begged me to let her stay here when I came to send her home. I . . . I had to forcibly remove her.”

  Daniel jumped from the bunk as if he’d been burned, his eyes narrowed with anger. His jaw clenched and unclenched. He spun away from his father, runni
ng his hand through his hair. Aimee truly loved him? It wasn’t a lie? His father forced her to leave.

  “I’ve made wrong decisions all my life, . . . hurting the people I care about. First . . . with your mother. She never wanted to leave New Orleans . . . and come into the wilderness with me. That was my dream. If she’da had a midwife . . . in the city, she might not have died. Then I’ve kept the truth from you . . . all this time . . . ” Zach paused. His head fell back against the furs on the bunk, and he closed his eyes. “And finally Aimee,” he continued. “I didn’t think . . . letting her stay here was for the best. Seeing her again when I brought you to the future . . . I should have brought her back with us then, but you . . . were so fightin’ mad and didn’t want to listen to anyone, and I was afraid you’d do yourself more harm.”

  Daniel slowly turned to face his father again. Zach raised himself up with great effort, and held out his arm, urging him to take the snake.

  “Go and bring her back, Daniel. It’s what you both want.” Zach sank back down into the furs, another coughing fit overtaking him. Daniel sat down next to him and offered him more water, but Zach waved it off.

  “How will I find her?” Daniel asked quietly. A tiny shimmer of hope dispersed the dark cloud hovering over his heart. Would she take him back, forgive him, after the way he had treated her? “I know nothing about the future.”

  Zach let out a bark-like laugh. “You’ve never had trouble tracking anything in your life, Daniel. Just remember, don’t . . . don’t take any weapons with you when you go. It’s a lesson I had to learn. The hospital where I met her is called . . . argghhh?” Zach suddenly lurched forward and clutched his chest. His eyes opened wide, and he gasped for air. Daniel grabbed his father’s arm and felt the old man’s body go limp. His eyes took on a glazed, lifeless look, staring into nothing. Daniel eased him into the furs. His father’s image became a blur as his own eyes grew moist.

  “Go in peace, father,” he said quietly, swiping a hand across the old man’s face to close his eyes. Countless minutes passed before he picked up the snakehead that had fallen to the ground. Daniel stared at it for a long time before stowing it safely in the pouch around his own neck.

  *****

  Daniel blinked, opening his eyes with a start at the loud noises coming at him from all directions. He quickly raised himself to his feet, fighting off the dizziness that swept over him. The belt around his waist felt too light without his knife and tomahawk.

  “What the hell, man! Get outta the street!” Someone shouted, and Daniel found himself staring at the metal objects that moved on their own. He remembered his father telling him about them.

  Glancing quickly around, he noticed a number of people several paces to the side of him scurrying about, and he darted in their direction. No wonder his father had almost been killed by one of these monsters. They moved at incredible speeds.

  Daniel surveyed the unfamiliar scenes around him. His eyes scanned the large structures that rose in a line beside him. This must be the city, but nothing even vaguely resembled the world he was used to. The air was hot and thick with foul odors he could not identify. Strange trees with long bare poles and fan-like large leaves in their canopies rose in an unnatural straight line in front of the buildings. He had never seen trees like these before.

  He studies his surroundings. The horseless carriages moved endlessly up and down what must be a street, and he observed their movements for some time. They were everywhere. Even in Philadelphia, he had never seen so much hustle and bustle.

  He had to find Aimee quickly. Staring at the moving monsters rushing by, he realized what an impossible task this might turn out to be. He had no idea where to begin his search.

  “You lost, mister?”

  Daniel whirled around to stare down at a young boy sitting astride a bright red contraption with two wheels at either end.

  “Cool pants!” the boy said, when he didn’t respond.

  “Which direction is the hospital?” Daniel finally found his voice again.

  “Which one?”

  Daniel frowned. “I’m not sure.”

  “The closest one is Anaheim Memorial.”

  “Can you lead me to it?” he asked hopefully.

  “Umm . . . sure. It’s only a few blocks.”

  His spirits renewed, Daniel followed the boy through a labyrinth of streets until they stood before a huge building with the words Anaheim Memorial Hospital in large red letters at the entrance.

  “Thank you for your help.” He reached into the small pouch around his neck and pulled out a large curved claw, and handed it to the boy.

  “Grizzly bear claw,” Daniel said with a smile. The boy stared with his eyebrows drawn together. A Tukudeka boy would have reacted with sheer joy at such a gift.

  “For real?”

  “I killed the bear myself, and have the scars to prove it,” Daniel said bemused.

  “You’re just pulling my leg, mister. But thanks anyway.” The boy stuffed the claw in a pocket in his britches, mounted the strange contraption, and took off. Daniel shook his head, stared at the large letters overhead again, and headed for the wide glass doors into the building, as he had seen several other people do. He shrank back momentarily when the doors opened on their own before he had even reached them.

  He was determined not to let anything in this strange world deter him from finding his gediki. His father had told him how unimaginable everything was in the future, and he certainly had been correct. He stood in a large hall, unsure of where to go. People moved past him, and everyone seemed to be in a hurry. He caught a few curious stares from several who passed by him. On the wall to his right, he saw large white letters spelling out the word Information. Squaring his shoulders, he walked up to the huge curved desk, and noticed a dark-haired woman sitting on the other side. Her unnaturally long fingernails were painted a bright red. They were in constant motion, quickly moving over some tiny square pegs on a black shiny board on her desk.

  “Can I help you?” the woman peered up at him from under her spectacles. Her eyes widened for a brief moment.

  “I require information. I am searching for someone,” he said.

  “A patient?” the woman asked.

  “No.” he hesitated. “Her name is Aimee Donovan. She is a nurse.”

  “She works here?”

  “I don’t know.” Daniel took a deep breath, noting the woman’s frown.

  “I’m afraid I can’t be of much help. There are hundreds of nurses employed here.”

  “Hundreds?” Daniel echoed, his shoulders sagging. This search might truly be impossible, he started to realize. How was he supposed to track someone who didn’t leave any tracks in the traditional sense? How did anyone find anyone here in this time?

  The woman must have seen the downtrodden look on his face. “Can you tell me anything else? What department does she work in?”

  Daniel searched his memory for any information Aimee might have divulged about herself that could be useful to him now.

  “I know she lives with a woman named Jana Evans.” It was all he could come up with.

  “Jana Evans?” Someone behind him echoed the name. Daniel turned his head to find a heavyset negro woman approach him. She wore clothing similar to what he recalled Aimee wearing that day when his father brought him to this time for his injuries. The day he shunned her.

  “Do you know her?” he asked hopefully, giving his full attention to her now rather than the woman behind the desk.

  “I did a surgical internship a little over a year ago with a Jana Evans over at Orange County General,” the woman said. Daniel tried to hide the fact that he understood nothing of what this woman had just told him. Except that she seemed to know of Jana Evans. It was a start.

  “How can I find her?” he asked eagerly.

  The woman looked him up and down quizzically. “Who wants to know?”

  “I do.” Daniel’s eyebrows furrowed.

  “And who might you be?”
<
br />   Daniel groaned inwardly. She wasn’t going to make this easy.

  “My name is Daniel Osborne. I’m searching for my wife. All I know is that she lives with a woman named Jana Evans.”

  “Your wife, huh?” Her eyebrows rose in such a way that left no doubt she didn’t believe anything he said.

  Daniel took another deep breath, meeting the woman’s hard stare unflinching. He couldn’t afford to lose his temper now.

  “Please, if you can help me find her . . . ” He watched as the woman reached into her loose blue pants and pulled out a small black device, which she unfolded. Fascinated, Daniel watched as the unfolded part illuminated, and the woman prodded at it repeatedly with her fingers.

  “Yeah, I still got her cellphone number. Do you want me to call her?”

  “Call to her? Will she hear you?”

  The woman’s eyebrows shot up again and she gave Daniel a skeptical look. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

  “Yes, please . . . call on her.” Daniel groaned inwardly. He hated being at this woman’s mercy, and that communicating with her had to be so difficult.

  The woman shot him one final piercing stare, then poked at the little device in her hand again, and held it to the side of her face. Daniel stood by, observing and listening, completely perplexed.

  “Jana? Yeah, hi, this is Felicia Harding. I don’t know if you remember me, but we interned together a year ago . . . Yeah, that’s right! . . . They offered you a job? . . . Hey, that’s great . . . No, no, I’m doing’ fine. I’m in peds at Anaheim Memorial . . . Hey, this is kinda weird, but I got some,” – she gave Daniel a perusing once over – “Davy Crocket wannabe here. He says he knows you. Hang on.” Looking a Daniel, she asked him, “whatcha say your name was again?” Daniel gave it to her.

  “He says his name’s Daniel Osborne, and he thinks his wife is living with you.” For some minutes, all Daniel heard were grunts of acknowledgement from the woman before him.