Camp Camel: The Heart of Texas

by Eaton, Rosemary

  Dallas asked, “And when it’s not? When it’s run it’s course and there is no more?”

  Gage said, “I’m not a doctor, but I’m guessing it would be like taking a poppy addict off his laudanum.”

  Lacy said, “Certainly would explain how she could scalp and mutilate people she knew so easily.”

  Gage swallowed, “Or go in there and do that to me. Milked me like some farm animal. At least she used a honey pot with Bryan. He never knew, just thought she was going for more honey.” Gage looked around at Dallas and Lacy looking at him thinking about their own time with Jenny’s feather like hands. Gage’s mouth twitched, “Sorry, it just came out. I was spying on them. For Pete’s sake Lacy, I was just trying to make sure they didn’t scalp him.”

  Dallas said what they were all thinking, “If she died. If her heart stops. You think he could find his way back out?”

  Lacy said, “Maybe. If he marked their way and he has light.”

  Gage replied, “I need to go back. Dallas. Sparrow Hawk, well, he’s going to give her my child, my son. You think it’s in her milk?”

  Dallas called out, “Captain Tyler!”

  Captain Tyler came over, “Sir?”

  Dallas said, “Change of plans. You escort out wounded, dead, and my wife back to the fort. Captain Travis is going with us to retrieve Captain Travers and Mrs. Travers. Tell Sergeant Major Vincent, I need to speak with him.”

  Captain Tyler saluted and the Sergeant Major appeared at Dallas’ side, “Sir?”

  Dallas asked, “Sergeant Major, are you aware of any antidote that will clean your blood of peyote. Especially if the person might be addicted like you told me?”

  The Sergeant Major replied, “Sweat. Sweat it out. Keeping it out is another thing. But that has been used to break it’s hold on someone.” Sergeant Major Vincent looked at Gage, “Captain Travis, you know you’ll have to hold her down. Most likely she will try to either kill herself or you before it’s over.”

  Gage asked, “You’ve seen this done?”

  Sergeant Major Vincent said, “Yes, once.”

  Dallas asked, “It was successful?”

  Sergeant Major Vincent said, “The Friar thought so. Said it saved the poor bastard’s soul. But right after he confessed, his heart gave out. Like I told you Major. Scared me straight. Never thought about trying it after seeing that.”

  Sergeant Major Vincent looked at the three of them, “Any of you still got cuts that aren’t clotting?”

  Dallas looked at his, “No. It’s clotted.”

  Gage unwrapped his bandage. The leaves Jenny had chewed brushed off the wound. Below was scabbed over skin, “I’m good.”

  Lacy looked at the scratches on her legs. They were scabbed. Dallas looked at her back, “Wow, that’s got to hurt.”

  Lacy said, “Yes, it hurts. So that’s good right?”

  Dallas replied, “Yes, that’s good. Looks like you broke them open, but I think it would have done that peyote or not. You probably didn’t have that much anyway. I was drinking from that canteen all day.

  Lacy retrieved the canteen from Daisy’s saddle, “You think you should take this, just in case?”

  Dallas took a deep breath, “JC didn’t drink from there did he?”

  Gage replied, “No, we were too busy running.”

  Dallas took the canteen and sniffed, “Shoot, I can’t tell. Smells like fish to me.”

  Gage grabbed the canteen and took a swig and swished it around in his mouth then spit it out, “We’ll take it, just in case.”

  Dallas looked at Gage, “Were you hoping it was? Shit, maybe you better join her Gage. You’re going to tell me about this child and just why he’s willing to give it up on the way.”

  What the Mind Wants

  Bryan built a small fire in the chamber they stopped in. He had to convince Jenny they didn’t need to go back to where more of the Conquistadors were sleeping next to the chest of coins. That could wait. He wanted to be close to water. It had taken longer to reach it than he remembered JC being gone, but the farther back the better. The cavern they were in had what looked like a hot spring. The water emitted steam into the cool air of the cave. The sound of the occasional bubbles rising in the water was enough noise to drown out the sounds of bats or other furry animals that might be scurrying around the caves which suited him fine. It was also far enough away that he didn’t think Jenny could give them up on purpose if she heard Sparrow Hawk’s voice call out to her.

  Maybe he was a little paranoid, but the realization that he had married Sparrow Hawk’s Knife without anyone actually telling him what that meant as far as his life expectancy seemed more than a little suspicious. Lacy should never have felt compelled to make that trip to warn him, but if she hadn’t he was pretty sure he would have run into Red Eagle out in the open. Surely Dallas knew. This was his home for goodness sake. Bryan would have been able to tell Dallas all about the Quapaw and Choctaw nations that lived in Arkansas if the roles had been reversed.

  Then there was Jenny herself. It didn’t take much for her to revert right back to Sparrow Hawk’s captive. Put her in front of him, and she didn’t speak a word. Not exactly like she considered herself white and safe enough to refuse anything he asked and wanted from her including doing what, purposely endangering the child and herself? Killing any chance of a live birth? Would he have gone that far to have an excuse to go to war? Make Albert Pike think he was leaving only to put the Knife right where they’d take the bait and watch her insert it right into Albert Pike’s back, or his if he was more realistic. He was right there in the shadows waiting to see if that baby died on him. He certainly would have had the perfect excuse if he hadn’t taken extraordinary measures that night. He might still have an excuse if Bryan was honest with himself about the baby’s chances. Very early, and with the Momma full of what? Then Bryan looked over to Jenny and tried to read her eyes. Was that love or the expectation of offering him up bar broiled to Sparrow Hawk? How could she have hurt like that full of peyote? The one thing they all said was it killed pain and yet she screamed to bloody hell.

  Jenny was pulling his shirt off and pushing him toward the edge, “Waarmm.”

  Bryan dug his heels in, “Not so fast there. Better safe than sorry Jenny.” Bryan moved over to the edge of the water and gingerly put a stick in the water to examined it, “Well it’s not acid like a volcanic lake.” He touched the stick and lightly placed his finger on his tongue. Bryan smiled. He had tasted water like this before at Hot Springs, “Mineral water.”

  Jenny nodded, “Yess.” There was hot spring water seeping up from the ground below.

  Bryan slipped the rest of his clothes off and dipped his toes into the water testing the temperature. Not so hot by the edge, just a nice warm bath. Bryan waded standing on a ledge that was covered with about two feet of water. About five feet out there was small drop off where he could sit and dangle his legs over the edge and let the warm water bath him up to his chest. Bryan slowly lowered as his feet touching the sandy bottom of the pool and started to carefully feel his way toward the center. The further he went, the deeper the pool became and the warmer. About ten feet out he was swimming in water over his head. The water was starting to get hot at twenty feet out where the bubbles and steam rose to the surface of the pool. It didn’t take long before his skin was starting to feel like it was cooking and Bryan realized that he had a cramp. He started sinking toward the bottom as he tried to work the cramp out of his calf. The water wasn’t scalding hot, but still too hot to stay in the deep end for long.

  There was a splash as Jenny dove in the pool’s deep end coming up behind Bryan and bringing her arm up over his chest and lower neck. She had him in what could easily turn into a strangle hold. Bryan fought to pull her off and his nails dug into her arm and Jenny let go. She dove down deeper, took hold of a bleached out leg bone, and came up in front of him. Bryan would have laughed at his situation if the air wasn’t so precious as they sank. He’d sent Lacy down in wate
r so hot it baked her. Now he found himself turning red as a beet and facing Sparrow Hawk’s Knife with what looked like a leg bone that had been boiled clean of the owner’s skin and muscles.

  Jenny considered her options. She could hold it out and hope the dog who declared undying love but didn’t trust her took the bone offered or she could try to knock him out and pull his dead weight to the surface. Jenny held out her hand hoping he would take it letting her know she wasn’t about to find herself in a life and death struggle. She wasn’t letting go of the bone while Bryan was looking at the bone like a dog calculating if he could use it against her. They were in a stand off but all Jenny had to do was swim away and he would drown. She had no doubt it wouldn’t take long for her to join him. She might be mute, but she was not deaf. She had heard too many faceless people say she should die or be sent away in both of their camps. The one who had taught her to be his knife might feel it pierce his heart before she died. If not for her loss, then for him. There was no doubt in their eyes who each of them valued most the night Chibitty was born. She needed to decide whether the green eyed monster would win or she would face her death with honor and glory. Jenny stretched out her hand once more urgently. Bryan held his hand out asking for the bone in hers. Jenny held it out and when he took it sinking down below where she paddled with her feet to keep from sinking further he looked up wondering if she was letting go. Jenny pulled on the bone and stroked toward the surface as Bryan fought for breath. It felt like his lungs would burst and he gasped for air sucking in water. Jenny let go of the bone and dove down taking him again from behind and pulled him up and quickly drug him to the side.

  He was not breathing when she got him on the ledge. Jenny turned him to his side and beat on his back urgently. She could feel eyes on her watching. Then Bryan coughed up the water and gasped air. Just as quickly as the eyes had been there, they were gone. Bryan coughed and collapsed back on the slab.

  Jenny put his head in her lap and gently stroked his hair and brow until his eyes opened looking up at her. Her skin was wet, but not from the water. Beads of sweat dripped from her skin and his as she reminded him of times his mother had made vapor tents to take the crud from his lungs as a boy and realized that they were under a homemade sweat lodge facing the deep end of the pool. He had no idea how long he had been out. Jenny smiled, “No colors?”

  Bryan blinked, “What?”

  Jenny said, “Bad vision? It is gone now?”

  Bryan looked down at his body for any evidence that he hadn’t dreamed this, then he saw her arm. There were the marks where he had dug his nails into her skin. Bryan lifted the tent off and looked at the steam coming off the water.

  Jenny pointed, “Only little bubbles, but too hot to swim there. Wokwave make you not feel heat and you can cook before you know what happens. Jenny pointed at the place she had tried to get him into the water, “Ledge is just warm and make your muscles relax. That is where braves goes and wives wash them. You need to wash sweat off. Go in and I will join you.”

  Bryan thought he’d found a little piece of heaven as he stretched out his tired doggies on the ledge. Jenny had removed her own clothes and quietly washed off her own sweat. Once she felt clean, she joined him. To his surprise, Jenny held a sponge in her hands and washed off the the strong smell of men’s sweat gently passing it over his back and moved to his front then took her hands and massaged his thighs and calves. Jenny put something in her hands and rubbed it through his hair then took the sponge and rinsed his hair clean.

  Jenny didn’t say a word, just tended to his needs. He could see the attraction Sparrow Hawk must have found. He didn’t have to talk, she anticipated his needs and wants like she had done this for him a thousand times before. There was a slate floor around the edge of the pool. Bryan rose and moved to the bed of slate as Jenny invited him to rest his head in her lap. Her hands gently ran through his wet strands as the air currents between the caverns blew gently over him drying his skin and hair. His eyes closed contented to be nothing more than in this moment. Then suddenly it dawned on Bryan. She had done this thousands of times, Well maybe not thousands, but enough. If he had wondered how she remembered where those hand holds were after so many years, he didn’t now. What was it Itsee had said? His father told him only grown men should enter the cave. Yes grown men being bathed by their women in the privacy of a cave.

  Bryan opened his eyes fully expecting to find Sparrow Hawk looking down on him laughing and saying something like, “Yes Wokwave, I was here with her too. You take my sponge and I’ll kill you.”

  Jenny smiled, “Good water?”

  Bryan sat up and said cautiously, “Yes. Perhaps we should dress.”

  Jenny pressed her hands into the frown on his temple, “Not stay?”

  Bryan was already finding his clothes and getting dressed. He tossed her buck skin dress and said, “Get dressed. Quickly.”

  Jenny caught it and slipped it over her head and found her moccasins, “No Aah Haa?”

  Bryan said without looking, “Oh there was an ‘aah ha’ moment there Jenny. He comes here. That’s his sponge and you’ve done this with him haven’t you?” Bryan had found his own moccasins and was loading up a skin a water, the rifles and strapped the pistols on his waist. He stuffed the haversack with some dried jerky and fish and put it out for her to take along with the water skin. We’re leaving now before that crafty son of a bitch comes back to see who won.”

  Out of the darkness a voice boomed out, “Wokwave, my brother. Come. We brought camel. You travel with us. You not shoot, we mean no harm. Come to rescue you.”

  Bryan replied, “Then why is my brave brother in the darkness where I can not see his face?”

  Sparrow Hawk laughed and held a baby boy over his heart as he stepped out, “Child sleep. Not want to wake. You look at him?”

  That was all it took and Jenny was on her knees in front of Bryan with head down and her hands held up to his hands. She didn’t have to speak. Bryan could feel her heart beating quickly and chest rising with each sob. If Sparrow Hawk was asking a white medicine man for help, her young son must be very ill.

  Bryan knew his natural instinct to comfort her would be seen as weakness so instead he dropped her hands like hot rocks and walked steadily toward Sparrow Hawk until Wolf stepped in front of his Chief, “Put rifles down first.”

  Bryan looked Wolf straight in the eyes, “I don’t think so. How do I know you wouldn’t borrow it like you borrowed my camel?”

  Wolf said, “You borrowed our teepee, we got it back.”

  Bryan said, “You left it for Red Eagle and I protected it until you came. You could have returned the camel.”

  Sparrow Hawk grinned, “Enough, let him pass. He will not kill me today I think.”

  Bryan replied, “Yes, maybe tomorrow, but not today.” With the rooster banter over, Sparrow Hawk held out the child to Bryan and he took the small boy in his hands.

  Bryan looked down surprised at the boy in his hands. If this was Chibitty, he had eaten like a hog and gained at least three pounds since he turned him over to Sparrow Hawk. The boy he delivered was sick and while this one was sick, there was a good amount of skin on his bones. Bryan asked, “He cries, squirms, will not nurse long, awake many times in the night and day?”

  Sparrow Hawk nodded, “There is no happiness in my teepee. It is as if one foot is in the spirit world and one trying to run.” Bryan was pretty sure the boy was a colicky baby, but maybe the Comanche didn’t suffer from colic that often. It had obviously been bad enough for Sparrow Hawk to seek him out. Bryan bounced the boy in his arms and put him to his shoulder muttering sounds softly until he felt a burp and praised the boy.

  Bryan asked, “Does his mother feed two babies?”

  Sparrow Hawk shook his head, “No only one now. It is not time to wean him.”

  Bryan asked, “So you’d be willing to do anything I ask to solve this? It may be that he will be this way until he’s a man. Common problem with white babies.”
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  Sparrow Hawk said, “Until grown? This can not be.” Sparrow Hawk was starting to like this game. It was clear his brother wanted to look like big man to his former wife but he had no children to know what to expect. He thought for sure he would give it cactus juice. Surely he knew this was not the same child yet he used him like Sparrow Hawk used him to get something he wanted.

  Bryan said, “You didn’t want to hear my advice when Chibitty was born. There were other things on your mind brother. If you want peace in your teepee, let me raise him as mine. I have no sons or other wives. I will attend him and eventually, he may realize his place is on the earth.”

  Little did Bryan realize that Sparrow Hawk had no objection to Wokwave raising the child. His father might object, but that was not his concern at the moment. A night of peaceful rest, that was his concern.

  Jenny kept her eyes turned down. She had never heard such bravery in her life to talk to Sparrow Hawk in a chiding voice, and who was she to say he wasn’t right. He had asked to let her see him and suckle him that night. It was Sparrow Hawk who refused to give her the child so that he could have her first milk to fill his belly. If he could get her son back into her arms, he would never want for anything she could give him.

  Sparrow Hawk scratched his head. The boy seemed better. Maybe if he did this patting on shoulder, the crying would stop. Sparrow Hawk held out his hands, “We see. Maybe all he needed was your shoulder trick.” Sparrow Hawk thought to himself, “Best to not look to eager to be shed of pest.”

  Bryan smiled, “Here. When he cries again, hold him like this.” Bryan showed Sparrow Hawk how to burp the boy. Bryan said, “He will cry again my brother. You will suffer much as will I for you if you give him to me.”

  Sparrow Hawk winced, that much was true. Anyone who took this abomination would suffer as he had. He should not have stolen his mother, but it was too much to resist her emerald green eyes and dark hair. After all, he didn’t expect to see Mouse Dog again in this life. He wasn’t going North. Plus there was the other matter yet to be discussed.