[2016] The Precious Amish Baby

by Faith Crawford

  After a tearful goodbye, Ray left Fairview, taking a lift again to Crescent Head. He knew there was a group of men leaving that very morning. The biggest worry for Ray was the group leaving without him. To his relief, he found them at the town’s square, checking to see they had everything they needed.

  Rather than using wagons and horses they could not spare, the men had opted to take a shortcut by walking across the plains and mountains. Ray possessed no guns and he hated to admit to anyone how the very thought of firing a shot made his blood run cold and sweat break out on his skin.

  Hope shone in the hearts of the more than ten men as they made their way through the paths in the prairie. Ray whistled, feeling the same hope and knowing that, if his luck held, he would walk the same path back a different man. The further away they got from the town, the longer the buffalo grass grew, so that eventually it was almost as tall as a man.

  That evening, after walking for more than six hours, Ray’s legs ached, as did every muscle on his body. They settled on a place to camp shaded by a huge rock, so that it was like a shelter lacking a wall on only one side. A man lit up a fire using buffalo chips collected along the way. Ray contributed his own collection of the chips and settled back against the rock to rest his body.

  The men quietly ate the food they had carried with them, after which they decided on guard duty. Ray was grateful to have the early morning watch, as he badly needed to sleep. He thought of Isabella before he drifted off to sleep, his coat and the fire keeping him warm.

  It took another ten days of walking, of which three were over treacherous mountain slopes, to reach the other side. There was a constant fear of toppling down the rocks. Ray coped by thinking of Isabella and envisioning what she was doing at that very moment.

  The mining camp had been christened Miner’s Creek and Ray wanted to weep with joy when he saw it. Some fifty men were camped there and, as it was evening, there were fires going with men warming their hands around the fires dotted over the fairly flat ground. Ray and his group picked out a spot and arranged their belongings around three stones that would make the fireplace. There were no curious stares or even a shift from what the others were doing.

  Prospectors were the same everywhere, Ray mused, as he stretched his body over the grassy ground. They all understood that everyone was out to better their lives or even to overhaul it for the better. Too tired to walk around and gather snippets of information, Ray promptly fell asleep and dreamt of fat grains of gold shimmering in his palms.

  When dawn broke, Ray woke up, confused at first by the direct warmth of the sun. He rubbed his eyes and it came to him where he was. He grinned and jumped to his feet. In the next few minutes, the camp came to life. Smells of delicious breakfast wafted towards Ray and he made his way towards their hearth and lit it.

  One of the others handed him a pot of water and Ray placed it on the fire. He returned to his canvas bag and fished out a chunk of bread, knowing that in another day or two the rest of his bread would become stale. His mind, though, was not on the discomforts he would suffer. He was used to that. His hands itched to get going to the site where he could start sifting through mud, his eyes aware of every change in color.

  Ray and a digger he knew from Fairview named William drew to each other like moths to a flame.

  “Shall we follow the creek?” William, a lean and stringy man with pale eyes, said.

  Ray understood at once. The rest of the diggers had plans to start digging around the rocks in the bottom of the mountains. He and Ray would go further up the mountain, following the creek, away from the horde. Ray nodded. Like every digger, he wanted to strike it lucky on his own or with one other person, and keep his secret for as long as he could.

  As they skirted the mountain, Ray saw diggings that had been started and then abandoned after the realization that there was no gold there. They started walking uphill and, as the ground became steeper, the bushes became thicker. They could hear the sound of water from the creek as it gently flowed down. The ground, too, became softer, as if they were walking on thick rugs that sunk in just a little as your boots stepped down.

  They began digging that very afternoon. Ray got his rhythm pretty fast. Each shovelful he lifted out of the ground, he knelt and sifted through it with his hands.

  “The blue clay must be down here, I can feel it,” William remarked, his face set in a hard line.

  He was not a talkative man and sometimes they went several hours before exchanging a word. Ray didn’t mind, though he was talkative by nature. He could, however, be quiet when his company or activity dictated that he be.

  Unlike William, Ray was a patient man and he did not feel himself get agitated when there were no quick results. He did not expect to strike it lucky so quickly and he worked at a good, sustainable pace, unlike William who swung his shovel on the wet mud with a mad fervor.

  As he worked, his mind returned to Isabella. He longed to hear her voice and watch her laugh. She had ingrained herself into his life so that now Ray could not remember how it had been to be alone. Marrying Isabella was the best decision he had ever made, he thought.

  Chapter Ten

  “His body was found lying in the blue mud,” a man with a wide square face was saying loudly to his companions while waiting for his order. “It’s said he had dug out a lump of gold the size of a cobblestone. He had a long blade sticking out from his stomach when they found him.” The men around him didn’t seem surprised; the life of a gold-digger was fraught with danger.

  A ball of vomit rose up Isabella’s throat and she whipped around and fled to the counter. In the last two weeks, she had heard horrifying tales of gold diggers, and now she was haunted by thoughts of Ray lying dead somewhere in a trench full of muddy water. She had listened to conversations about men drowning in the river and boulders falling on others.

  She wasn’t eating right and she barely made it through the day.

  Thank God for Martha and George, she now thought, leaning heavily on her hands. Her head ached constantly now and the joy of running a business had disappeared. She watched George carry plates of steaming vegetables and rice to the men she had been listening too.

  Now, Isabella could spot diggers a mile away. They were usually the ones who spoke in animated voices, their hands gesturing wildly and their eyes glistening with something only they could see. She waited for George to walk by her again and, as their eyes met, he shook his head. They hadn’t run into Ray.

  That evening, as Isabella locked up the restaurant for the night, the hairs on her neck rose. She turned around abruptly and squinted into the darkness. A tall form came towards her and, before she could scream, she recognized the figure.

  “Ray!” she half screamed and yelled. “Oh, Ray, you’re back, just like you said!”

  “Oh, sweetheart,” he said passionately. “You have no idea how much I thought of you and missed you.”

  “Come,” Isabella said, tugging at his hand. “Let’s go in, people might see us.”

  “What of it?” Ray retorted. “What’s wrong with a man rejoicing over seeing his beautiful wife?”

  Isabella’s body felt weightless as she floated up the stairs. She had gone from complete misery to feeling like dancing and spinning in circles. When they got to the living room, Isabella lit the lamp and then brought it to Ray’s face. His face was gaunt and he looked oh so tired.

  He grinned at her. “Did I pass the inspection?”

  “No, as a matter of fact you didn’t. You look so exhausted.”

  He sighed. “It’s hard physical work, sweetheart, but all worth it in the end. Don’t you want to know if I got anything?”

  The truth was that Isabella had been so glad to see him that she had completely forgotten about the gold. Ray reached into the pocket sewn into the inside of his coat and fished out a muddy handkerchief. He sat down and, wordlessly, Isabella sat next to him, and watched mesmerized as he gently unfolded the handkerchief.

  Between the layers of the
cloth lay a square-shaped gold lump, its color so yellow and beautiful that Isabella gasped.

  “It’s beautiful!” she said, in an awe-struck tone.

  “It is, isn’t it?” Ray said, staring at it in awe as he had done since he found it. “It’s not much, mind you, but it’s something.”

  “Well done,” Isabella said, the heartache and worry of the previous days gone.

  Ray looked up into her eyes. “It’s all because of you, sweetheart. My luck has changed for the better and all because you came into my life.”

  Ray spoke with passion and, though she did not understand what he meant, Isabella beamed at him, just happy that he was home. She would convince Ray to give up this gold digging business. She had learned a lot since he had left and she knew what a dangerous occupation it was.

  Surely they could make a comfortable living from the Inn?

  “Let me warm up some water for you and then I’ll nip back into the restaurant while you wash up and get something for you to eat,” Isabella said briskly.

  As she went to stand up, Ray pulled her back down onto his lap. He held her tightly, like someone who was drowning, and she clung to him too. Tears sprung into her eyes. She couldn’t bear losing Ray. She had to convince him to forget about digging. It was too dangerous.

  The conversation did not go as Isabella had envisioned.

  “We have a nice life here, Ray,” Isabella told him, as they relaxed in their bed after soaking in each other’s presence.

  “I know, Isabella, and I get what you’ve been trying to tell me in the last half an hour.”

  His lips were pressed tightly together and the fact that he had called her Isabella rather than his usual ‘sweetheart’ told her that he would be harder to convince than she had thought.

  “I don’t want to toil all my life surviving on false security,” Ray said solemnly.

  His eyes were blood red, but she knew it was from lack of sufficient sleep.

  “We have a business, Ray!” Isabella cried out. “How many people can say that?”

  “Yes but what if the landlord decides he wants the premises back, then what?”

  “Then we would get somewhere else to rent,” Isabella said quietly.

  “Listen to me, sweetheart, I’m not one of those men who are lured over and over again by gold. I just need to find my lucky break and that will be it for me. I’ll know that you and I and the children the Lord will bless us with will be safe.”

  She could not argue against such sound reasoning. Then something struck her.

  “You already have plans, don’t you?” she asked in an accusing voice.

  Ray grinned. “Yes, but this is not the time. Let’s just enjoy being together and we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Now, tell me everything’s that happened at the restaurant.”

  Isabella told him as much as she could remember, mostly the funny stories. She loved hearing Ray laugh. His whole body moved and shook when he laughed.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ray knew that he would stay away longer this time and he had warned Isabella. Despite the worry lines across her forehead, she had nodded and told him she would pray for him every day. Ray had bought a wagon and packed it with a tent and the supplies he would need. He expected to be away for a month and he had carried as much food as he needed.

  The wagon was pulled by two horses. The road that skirted the mountain was not lonely, as men on horseback and others in wagons like himself were making the journey to Southwest Rocks. As soon as word had reached Fairview that some diggers in Southwest Rock had struck a find so big that it had instantly made them rich men, all the diggers in Fairview had packed up to go there.

  It was a four-day ride by wagon and, with the summer coming to an end, a slight wind blew, making the temperature bearable, even pleasant. Southwest Rocks did not resemble a town. There were rows of tents arranged in no discernable pattern and deep, sticky mud that imprisoned one’s foot if you stepped on a particularly wet part.

  Ray picked a spot to set up camp near the men from Fairview. That way they would keep a watch on each other’s belongings. It was by the creek, away from the shadows of the mountains, which would make the tent too cold at night. Once settled, with the horses happily chewing on a patch of grass and sipping on the cool water from the creek, Ray went in search of the warden’s office.

  He bought his miner’s right, which entitled him to peg out a sixty-foot claim and work it for a period of six weeks. The next part would be deciding where to stake his claim. Ray walked past the campsite and the town until the Southwest Rocks minefield came into view.

  It resembled a remnant of a war, with felled trees lying on the ground, their stems mutilated as diggers sought planks and wood for making shafts. Men sat around staring off into space and sipping on mugs of tea. Unlike other diggers, Ray was not tormented by indecision when deciding where to peg out his claim.

  One thing he knew was that his claim needed to be near the river’s edge. He walked along the river, jumping over jutting rocks, his head lowered as he stared at the ground. Ray stopped abruptly and, after looking around and realizing he had gone further upstream than he had thought, he decided to peg his claim on that very spot.

  Just then, he heard voices and was pleased when he saw the familiar faces of his traveling companions.

  “Decided on a spot?” Charles, an older man with a receding hairline, asked him.

  “Yes, I reckon here should do very well,” Ray replied, with a grin.

  “You don’t mind if I peg my claim next to you, do you?” he continued.

  “Not at all,” Ray said, and stifled a chuckle.

  After his last discovery of the lump of gold, he was now seen as the one possessing luck. Men wanted their portions of land to be next to his. Ray did not blame them. One needed every bit of luck to strike it rich.

  He returned to the camp site and, that evening, he lay in his tent looking at the stars through open spaces in the canvas, and his mind went to Isabella. He had a feeling that, this time, he would strike it big. While the other men sat around the fire exchanging tales from their past digs, Ray allowed himself to fall asleep in readiness for his first day of work.

  The following day, Ray was up early, before dawn broke, and he worked quietly, gathering the tools and materials he needed. He made his way to the spot he had decided on the previous evening. Ray set down his tools and then went on to measure the spot he had chosen.

  He pegged the area, running a rope around his stake and, as he worked, he heard movement as the other men begun working on their pieces of land. Several huge boulders lay in the midst of his stake but they did not bother Ray. Half a day’s work and each would be out and, who knew, perhaps underneath them lay gold, just waiting to be dug out.

  That done, Ray looked at his work and then packed up his tools and returned to camp. The fire still had a few embers and he stoked them and added more pieces of wood, which were plentiful with all the trees that had been felled.

  He put a pot of water over the open fire and warmed his hands as he waited for the water to boil for his tea. When it was ready, he wrapped his hands around the mug. The tea tasted bitter and he longed for Isabella’s tea, which always tasted milky and sweet.

  Ray knew she worried about him, but he also reckoned being away from Isabella built her character. For all that she spoke tough and with confidence, he knew that his wife was a little on the timid side. Isabella needed taking care of and he had vowed to himself to ensure that he did his duty as her husband.

  Poverty was not something he ever wanted to revisit, Ray thought, thinking back to his own childhood in New York. His father had died when Ray was only six years old, the second-last born of six children. After the death of his father, life had taken on a terrible turn, with his mother taking every odd job that came her way.

  She took in the neighbors’ washing, she took up jobs digging people’s garden patches, but Ray saw what it took out of her. She died when Ray was thirteen and, three years
later, Ray took off for Montana, after hearing of how men’s lives were changed after finding gold.

  Six years later and he was still at it, but Ray had been lucky several times. He just needed to be patient as he searched for a big find. He reckoned his luck was as good as any man’s, including the men who had found the first gold here in Southwest Rocks.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ray’s body was weary but his spirit was not. The rain had been pounding for the last two days, so he and the others had not done much digging. Feeling morose sitting inside his tent, Ray decided to venture out. He wrapped himself up in a waterproof coat and stepped out.

  The whole area was flooded, and he and the others were lucky that the tent site was slightly above the ground. His head bowed low, he made for the hills and, as he slid and stumbled over the rocks, the rain came down harder. The month he had promised Isabella he would be away for was quickly coming to an end. He had been so sure that this time he would be lucky, but so far he had only garnered a few grains.

  Suddenly, something in the atmosphere changed. The clouds darkened and the wind howled louder. Ray listened for a while and what he heard frightened him. There was a swish underneath the ground and he knew that springs and pools of water were forming underneath. He fervently hoped that the water would not break out through the rocks.

  A cave, slightly obscured by bushes, sat on his right side and Ray decided to seek shelter there. It was damp and airless inside, but it was warm and he huddled against the wall. He thought hard about his predicament. Diggers were going further south after word had reached them that more gold had been found.

  He thought of his promise to Isabella and he knew he couldn’t go with them. Isabella would be too worried. Then, in the flick of a finger, the rain stopped and, from the entrance of the cave, a single ray made its way in, lighting up the cave. Ray stood up and stretched and looked around the cave. A taller man would have had to crawl in.