by C L Lassila
She had missed there morning lovemaking. “I want you inside of me,” Adelaide whispered.
Calix moved forward and she felt his erection penetrate her while his hands continued their caress. She moved her head to the side to find his mouth. As they kissed he thrust deeper into her. The passion moved them both to orgasm. They lingered in bed, both of them savoring what they had gone without for far too long.
Calix new well the workings of the farm and fell back into the morning routine. He went out to draw water while Adelaide started the fire in the stove. They talked over breakfast and it was decided that Adelaide would accompany Calix into town. Jonas had been true to his word about writing every week. Adelaide would collect his letter and send one off, with news of the farm, to Isle Royale. Calix was to meet up with Ten Crows.
Adelaide now went into town only once a week for the purpose of picking up Jonas’ correspondence and any supplies that she might need from the store. After Reverend Fay’s sermon on the subject of dominion, she stopped attending Sunday morning church services. She could no longer allow herself to participate in a religion that granted its members permission to destroy what she held dear. Christianity was a religion, she had come to realize, that was damaging to the natural world, and antithetical to what she believed. What she would do when Jonas returned she did not yet know. It was not a problem that arose with Calix, who on this matter shared her views.
With the chickens and crows fed, Adelaide, Calix and Darwin set off for town. They had not been on the road for long when two mule drawn wagons rumbled by each carrying ten young men in the back.
“Things are beginning to move fast now,” Calix commented. “The investors want the mines to start producing profit and that means bringing copper out of the ground.”
“And it means bringing in a lot of men to bring it out of the ground,” Adelaide replied. “Where are all of these men going to live?”
“Initially in tents,” Calix answered. “But the profitable mines will build their own towns. There will be houses and businesses and churches and schools. All of the things that you like.”
“What they call civilization?” Adelaide said sarcastically. “I don’t see anything civilized in killing a beaver so that someone can wear a hat made from its pelt.”
Just as Adelaide finished her statement, Darwin took off running down the road toward someone walking in their direction from the direction of town. It was Ten Crows.
As they approached him he addressed Calix. “I was coming to find you,” Ten Crows said. “I have had enough of whites. I am going back to Lanse.”
“You have to be my guest at the farm for at least one night. Or longer if you would like, Ten Crows,” Adelaide said adamantly. “You are one of the few people whose company I enjoy. Please stay for a few days.”
“One night, beyond that I don’t know,” Ten Crows replied.
“What happened that was so bad that it pushed you out of town?” Calix asked laughing.
“Ignorance.” Ten Crows replied.
“That will do it,” Calix answered.
“Walk with us,” Adelaide said to Ten Crows. “Tolerate it for one more hour and then we can all go to the farm.”
Reluctantly, Ten Crows turned around and returned with Adelaide and Calix to Copper Harbor. Before they reached the edge of town another wagon rolled by, this one filled with crates. The once quiet dirt road was becoming a busy thoroughfare. Adelaide was shocked by the change in the town in just one short week. The construction of half a dozen new buildings had begun and several more lots had been cleared. People, most of whom Adelaide did not recognize, were moving about in all directions. It seemed as if, in the course of the week, the population of the town had doubled in size.
Calix and Ten Crows stopped at the hotel to attend to some business while Adelaide continued on to the post office. She had just parted company with the two men when she heard someone calling out to her. She hastened her step in the hope that the person would lose interest. When she continued to hear someone shouting her name she stopped and turned around. Lucinda Eads with Emily Stanton in tow hurried down the dusty street toward her.
Red faced and out of breath, Lucinda Eads finally reached Adelaide.
“Oh, my dear, I thought that I would never get your attention,” Mrs. Eads said, struggling to catch her breath.
“Hello, Lucinda. Hello, Emily,” Adelaide addressed the two women.
“May I have a moment of your time, dear?” Mrs. Eads inquired.
“What can I do for you, Lucinda?” Adelaide replied.
“I just wanted to express my concern. I saw you with that man. Is that the kind of company that you should be keeping? With your husband away and all,” Mrs. Eads said. “I am worried about your safety.”
“Calix Purchase?” Adelaide asked. “Is that the man that you are referring to?”
“No, dear, the other one, the Indian,” Mrs. Eads said under her breath.
“His name is Ten Crows, Mrs. Eads, and he is a good friend of both me and my husband. It would serve you well to not judge people that you do not know,” Adelaide replied indignantly.
“Well, you should be careful, dear,” Mrs. Eads continued. “With your husband away people will begin to talk.”
“Let them talk, Lucinda,” Adelaide said, walking away from the two women. “Let them say whatever they wish.”
While Mrs. Eads and Emily Stanton stood and discussed Adelaide’s behavior, she continued on to the post office where she exchanged letters with a very busy Mr. Pope.
“Too busy to talk,” he said as he handed her the letter from Jonas. “How I miss the days when there were two letters a week to sort out”
“Those days are long gone, unfortunately, Mr. Pope,” Adelaide replied.
“So right you are, Mrs. Rose, and good day,” Mr. Pope said as he hurried off to attend to another task.
As Adelaide made her way to the hotel, a fist fight broke out between two men on the opposite side of the street. Soon they were surrounded by a circle of cheering onlookers. Calix and Ten Crows were waiting for her on the hotel’s porch.
“Ready to go home?” Calix asked when he saw her.
“More than ready,” Adelaide replied.
Adelaide looped first one arm through Calix’s and the second through Ten Crows. If they were going to talk then she would give them something to talk about. With Darwin close by, the trio walked back to the farm.
By the time that they got back to Adelaide’s house it was late afternoon. Jonas had purchased pasties and a bottle from the hotel restaurant, so not having to cook dinner, Adelaide had time to show Ten Crows how well the plants were doing. The black-eyed susan, the yellow cone flower and the milkweed plants were all several feet tall and would soon be in bloom. The elderberry, blackberry and thimbleberry would soon produce fruit. All on the farm was thriving.
The late spring day was transforming into a beautiful spring evening. Adelaide, Calix and Ten Crows decided to make use of the newly planted potato field. The bare ground of the field was well suited to building a campfire. After reminiscing about the enjoyable nights spent around the campfire while traveling from the Sault to Lanse, they decided that it would be a pleasant way to spend the evening. The men collected fire wood while Adelaide went to the house to get three cups and some blankets. The blaze guided her back to where Calix and Ten Crows were sitting and talking. They each took a cup and filled it halfway with whiskey. Adelaide sat down between Calix’s thighs and made herself comfortable, resting back against his broad chest. Ten Crows sat to one side of her while Darwin lay down on the other. They sat outdoors around the fire under a blanket of bright stars that stretched from horizon to horizon. Each of them knew that changes were coming, changes that they did not what, changes that they could do nothing to stop.
Calix and Ten Crows began to entertain Adelaide with tales of their adventures in the wilderness. They had been fast friends for many years. They all laughed and joked and refilled their c
ups and then the conversation turned more serious.
“We should have fought the white men to the death,” Ten Crows said. “We should not have signed the treaty.”
“I don’t know how you deal with it,” Adelaide commented. “To have people come to what has always been your home and treat you like you have no right to be there”
“They will devour anything that they can make money on,” Ten Crows added. “Down to the bare ground. How do you raise a child if you are Ojibway? Do you send them to the mission school where they cut their hair short, make them speak English and give them a Christian name? Do you have them grow up in a culture that you have no respect for? Or do you teach them how to be Ojibway, when there is no place for us in the white man’s world? If the whites have their way, our way of life will be gone.”
“Do you have any children, Ten Crows?” Adelaide asked.
“My wife and children were killed by a disease that the whites brought here. I won’t take another wife,” Ten Crows replied.
Calix, who had been sitting quietly and listening, pointed to a constellation and asked, “Do you think that they have the same problems out there?”
“Hopefully they are wiser,” Adelaide replied.
Calix got up to move away from the fire to relieve himself.
When they were alone, Ten Crows said to Adelaide, “Your children didn’t want to be in the world of people.”
“How did you know?” Adelaide asked in disbelief.
“I had a dream,” Ten Crows replied. “Your children will have trouble in this world because they come from you, just like my children would have trouble now because they would be Ojibway. The world will become more difficult for people like us.”
Calix returned and the conversation once again became light hearted. It was quite late by the time they extinguished the fire and retired to the house to sleep.
The house had been dark when Ten Crows entered it the previous night. When he awoke in the morning the rooms were lit by the new day’s sunshine. He walked around the room and looked at the numerous water color paintings that Adelaide had done and then tacked to the wall. He studied each one quietly and intently.
Adelaide watched him as she started their breakfast and explained, “I painted those in the winter when everything was white. I found myself missing colors.”
“You don’t just see nature,” Ten Crows said. “You feel it.”
Calix, who had just walked into the room, laughed and added, “She eats, drinks and breathes it.”
Over breakfast Adelaide attempted to persuade Ten Crows to stay on for several more days. She wanted him to teach her the medicinal uses for various plants that grew around the farm. Finally Ten Crows agreed and Adelaide was over joyed. After finishing the morning’s chores, she and Ten Crows set off. Calix stayed behind. As a gift for Adelaide, he had brought with him from the Sault a canvas hammock which he intended to hang between some trees in a shady spot near the wild rose bushes and milkweed. Darwin followed along after Adelaide and Ten Crows.
Not wanting to forget any of Ten Crow’s instruction, Adelaide wrote down his words in her journal as he spoke. Each entry contained the plants name, its Ojibway name, the medicinal use of the plant and its preparation. He told her how milkweed was used and how many of the parts of the plant could be used as food. She learned about the uses for strawberry leaves and Juniper berries, yellow cone flower and tamarack tea. When Ten Crow’s felt that she had been given enough information to take in for the day, they returned to where Calix was working.
The hammock was now hanging in its place amongst the trees. Calix told Adelaide to try it and so she lay back in the comfortable sling of sturdy fabric. Swaying gently she looked up through the branches to the blue sky and breathed in the air perfumed with the scent of the wild rose blossoms. She closed her eyes and sighed.
“You brought me paradise, Calix,” Adelaide said. “Thank you.”
Calix laughed and said, “You are welcome. It will be paradise until the mosquitos and horse flies decide to eat you.”
“I will take as much paradise as I can get,” Adelaide replied. “Be it a little bit or a lot.”
Over the next two days, Ten Crows taught Adelaide about the uses of the other plants growing on and around the farm. The list of plants in her journal became quite long. The wild indigo and the purple coneflower, she learned, had grown from seeds acquired from trading with tribes further to the south. Calix had obtained the seeds so that Adelaide’s garden could contain shades of blue to compliment the pink and yellow of the other flowers growing there. But Ten Crows was familiar with the plants and the told Adelaide what ailments they could treat.
On the third day of Ten Crows’ stay the three of them along with Darwin went off to explore the woods. Adelaide took samples of the plants that Ten Crows pointed out, plants that she was not yet familiar with. Some of the plants were trees, others were growing low in the underbrush and still others it was the root that Ten Crows dug out of the earth that contained the medicine. She would do a quick sketch of the plant or tree in her journal along with the notes that contained the information about the plants usage.
Finally it was time for Ten Crows to end his visit. Adelaide was sad to see her good friend leave, a man from whom she had learned so much, but she understood why he had to go. Calix had decided that he would stay on indefinitely in Copper Harbor. There would be plenty of work available if he found that it was necessary. Until then he would make his way with winnings from the Saturday night card games.
Weeks had passed and Jonas had not returned from the island. He had kept his word and wrote regularly and explained to his wife that since the island had a finite season in which copper could be extracted and shipped he wanted to stay and make certain that things ran smoothly at the mine. A bank had been established in Copper Harbor and anything that Adelaide needed could be paid for from an account that Jonas had set up there. But Adelaide found that she needed little more than Calix and the farm. If Jonas returned, Calix would then take a room in town. Until then he was Adelaide’s houseguest. Their days began and ended in each other’s arms.
The small, purplish pink buds that hung in balls on the milkweed plants unfurled their pedals, at last, and released their pleasing fragrance. Adelaide had planted the milkweed seeds and cuttings all over the farm, not knowing what area would best suit them. To her delight they sprouted wherever she had set them into the ground and now surrounded by milkweed blossoms the entire farm was scented by their sweet, spicy perfume. During this time, after spending their day at work on the farm or off in the woods, Adelaide and Calix would lie together in the hammock each evening as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Lulled by the scent of the milkweed, serenaded by the buzz of insects, they would doze off, Adelaide comfortable in Calix’s arms. Adelaide had dreamed of falling asleep on a warm summer’s night with the air perfumed by milkweed. Now her dream had come true.
Besides wanting to enjoy the aroma of flower blossoms, another reason that Adelaide had planted around the farm the flowers, bushes and trees that she had chosen was to attract wildlife. When the project began she was pregnant and, fearing that she would not be able to get into the forest to observe birds and other animals once she had a child, she wanted to draw them close to her home. Her goal was achieved and there were days when much of her time was spent sketching and observing the birds and butterflies visiting the farm. Much to her delight the milkweed flowers were favored by brightly colored, tiny hummingbirds. She and Calix would watch, captivated, as the little birds would move from flower to flower, hovering in the air as they ate. Darwin too was mesmerized by them. He would sit and watch them quietly, his eyes tracking the path of this marvelous little creature that was so novel to him. And the butterflies came too. Brightly colored and intricately patterned, they would flutter amongst the blossoms, adding more color to the already colorful landscape.
Most of their afternoons were spent on the farm or walking in the woods. One day a w
eek, Adelaide would venture into town, while Calix would go there more frequently, depending on his needs. Adelaide had not been down to the lakeshore in some time. She and Calix decided that it might be a pleasurable way to spend a summer day, so after the morning chores had been attended to they set off with Darwin and made their way to the lake. It was a warm day with hardly any breeze, the blue sky blending into the blue of the quiet water. They had brought some blankets so that they could lie comfortably on the sand, as well as some biscuits for lunch.
Adelaide immediately sat down in the soft sand and removed her boots and socks. She then rolled her pant legs up above her knees. Walking down to the water’s edge, she stood and watched the gentle surf crawl up over her toes. The water was cold. Darwin stood beside her and took a drink. Adelaide waded into the lake until the water reached her ankles. As her body adjusted to the lake’s temperature, she was reminded of how refreshing it was to feel the water on her bare skin. Adelaide thought of how exhilarating it would feel to have her whole body immersed. She looked at Calix who was still sitting in the sand untying his boot laces. She squatted down and ran her fingers through the water.
Calix sat and watched Adelaide playing in the lake. She stood up and turned, facing him, a big smile brightening her sunburned face. She quickly undid the buttons on her shirt and after taking it off she tossed it up onto the beach. She then did the same with her trousers. Laughing, she backed deeper and deeper into the lake, her naked body invigorated by the lake’s cold water. Finally she fell backwards into the water, totally submerged. This was her baptism.
Calix watch as Adelaide disrobed, enjoying the beauty of her nude form.
“Come and join me,” Adelaide called to him.
Calix quickly undressed and ran naked into the water. The contrast of both the warm air and the cold water on his bare skin was a pleasurable one. He dove in and swam over to Adelaide. Darwin too, braved the cold water, and began to swim.
Adelaide stood up, waist deep in the water, her nipples standing erect on her wet breasts. She splashed Calix as he swam toward her. When he reached her he stood up and pulled her to him. She felt his hard penis rest against her stomach as he kissed her. She laughed and wrapped her legs around him as he picked her up and filled her with his erection. Made buoyant by the water, her arms wrapped around Calix’s neck, Adelaide moved up and down on his cock. The pleasure built until they both climaxed. Laughing, Calix carried her deeper into the water. He let his feet go out from under him and they both disappeared beneath the surface. Adelaide swam away from him, kicking water up with her feet, before standing and running to the shore.
