A moon after Cha’s surviving warriors joined the camp, He Watches and I sat by the fire outside Sons-ee-ah-ray’s tipi finishing our evening meal when we saw the boy Ish-key-nay lead Delgadito’s pony to Maria’s tipi and tie it there. I reached for my knife in its sheath behind my back. Smiling, He Watches put his hand on my arm and said, “Wait. Wait and watch. This will be good.” I stared at the horse beside the tipi for a few moments, and then relaxed, glanced at He Watches, and nodded.
It wasn’t long before Deer Woman stepped out of her mother’s tipi and, turning toward their woodpile, stared at the pony, and then stretched to look where Delgadito’s lodge stood. He Watches nodded and smiled and I did too. This was good to watch. Of course, Delgadito was nowhere in sight. Deer Woman disappeared back into the tipi not to be seen at all the following day.
Juanita appeared the next morning and did her normal chores helping Maria, but she ignored the pony tied by the tipi. Used to being offered water during the day, the pony, black and shiny and hot in the bright sunlight, hung its head with thirst. Still, Juanita ignored it. Dusk began to settle on the second night, and still the pony had not been watered. It still stood thirsty on the sunrise of the second day.
As the setting sun cast long shafts of light through the trees on the second day, the horizon streaked with purple and orange clouds, I watched Ish-kay-neh retrieve Delgadito’s pony and take it to the creek to drink in long thirsty swallows before leading it back to Delgadito’s wickiup.
The third evening, Ish-kay-neh led another pony, this time belonging to Kah, to Maria’s tipi and left it tied there. Ignored by Juanita, this pony also suffered through two days and nights without water before Ish-kay-neh retrieved it and took it to the creek.
The sixth evening, Ish-kay-neh led Ko-do’s best pony, a roan with glistening coat, and tied it at Maria’s tipi. It met the same fate as the ponies of Delgadito and Kah. He Watches and I sat on our blanket and smoked, enjoying our evening, and watching Ish-kay-neh lead Ko-do’s horse to water.
He Watches said, “See? I told you it would be good. Those fools never asked one of the old ones to speak with Maria to learn who had her favor, and Delgadito cannot go night crawling with Deer Woman again. At least he won’t if he doesn’t want his head broken with a rock by a woman he has deceived.”
I nodded. “Uhmmm. What will Maria want for her? The best bride price on the reservation, four ponies, I want to offer.”
“Four ponies for Juanita? She already knows you’re a good hunter and a powerful warrior. She already knows you’re respectful toward widows and a man of your word. Maria knows who she wants for a son-in-law; she knows who Juanita will accept. No, don’t offer four ponies. Offer Maria five ponies and at least two saddles.”
“Five ponies? I never heard of such a bride price on the reservation. Why five?”
“Maria wants you. Juanita wants you. She already knows you and your Power. Show her you’re generous. Show her how much you value her. She’s built to have many strong sons, and you know her courage and her skill with a sling as well as a cook pot and baskets, none better on the reservation, maybe in this territory. Offer Maria more than expected for Juanita, and she’ll fill your days with happy times.”
I smiled. “Your wisdom shows bright and clear, Grandfather.”
Three days after the rejection of Ko-do, I rode my paint pony into the creek and washed it, curried burrs out of its mane and tail, and brushed it until its coat glistened in the sun. I tied it in front of Socorro’s tipi and gave it water as often as it would drink. As the sun began to cast long shadows, I called Ish-kay-neh, put the paint’s bridle in his hand, and said, “Take my pony to Maria’s tipi. Let the reins fall to the ground, no need to tie him. He will not leave unless she picks up the reins. Go!”
I watched the boy lead the paint to Maria’s tipi, drop the reins, and walk away. I glanced toward the warrior wickiups and saw Delgadito, who was sitting with Beela-chezzi and cleaning his revolver, stretch to see what pony Ish-kay-neh now led. He looked away frowning.
The stars had made a quarter of a circle around the pole star when I lay down in Sons-ee-ah-ray’s tipi. My pony, a black and white pinto, still stood without water outside Maria’s dark tipi. The pony stood there all the next day, thirsty, but, unlike the ponies from Delgadito, Kah, and Ko-do, it didn’t snuffle and beg when the women walked by, but held its head high. When shadows from the falling sun filled the canyon and brilliant reds and oranges and purples covered the western sky, He Watches and I sat on our blanket smoking and drinking coffee, discussing Blazer’s wisdom for the People. We spoke of Blazer’s idea that the People should make this thing called money to trade for supplies and not face the failed promises of Indah support.
Although I kept feelings from my face and tried to appear relaxed, I kept glancing toward Maria’s tipi. He Watches smoked his cigarette and blew the smoke toward the tree limbs in the still, cool air. I saw Juanita’s little sister, Moon on the Water, playing hiding games in the falling light with the other children in the camp, but Juanita stayed out of sight. He Watches and I spoke until the night settled on us like a blanket on a child, until conversation went to sleep, and we slipped through the doors of the tipis of Socorro and Sons-ee-ah-ray for our sleeping pallets.
After a while, I rolled to my stomach and silently slid under the edge of the tipi, and, taking a cigarro to chew on unlit, moved to a stand of tall pines where, under their towering darkness, I could clearly see the fronts of Maria’s and Sons-ee-ah-ray’s tipis.
I watched the stars advance around the pole star until I grew tired of chewing the cigarro, threw it away, and made a big yawn to keep my brain clear. I saw the flap on Maria’s tipi rise slowly in the waning moonlight, and a figure step through the door with a large bundle. The moon was still low over the east side ridge of the canyon, but it didn’t take much light for me to recognize Juanita from the way she carried herself and to see the bundle was long sweet grass found in the high meadows. I smiled and wondered, How did she cut and hide the grass without me seeing her with it? Clever woman you are, Juanita.
Holding the grass bundle under one arm, she picked up the paint’s reins, held its nostrils to hers, and breathed in its breath and he hers. Its skin shuddered when she rubbed it with an understanding hand. She led it to the creek and invited it to drink. It drank in great long gulps, raising its head several times to look down the creek toward the tall pines where I sat. Juanita let it drink enough to satisfy its thirst but didn’t let it drink enough to founder. She led it to stand near Sons-ee-ah-ray’s tipi, where, after looking around the camp, she dropped its reins and opened the bundle to spread the grass before the nose of the pony. As it ate, she smoothed its mane and forelock. Near its withers, she platted a tight little rope in its mane. She finished, sliding her hand in a final rub down its back, and disappeared into Maria’s tipi.
Socorro told me her story and the story Maria told her of the day He Watches had negotiated Juanita’s bride price with Maria. These stories made my heart proud I had chosen Juanita and made me glad Maria was my mother-in-law.
Socorro said it was barely dawn when He Watches sat up on his blankets and yawned. She had already cooked a morning meal of baked mescal, one-seeded juniper bread, and locust tree flower soup. She said, “Get up, Old Man. You have work today. She chooses.”
He rubbed his palms against his eyes and asked, “Who chooses? What are you talking about, Old Woman?”
“The girl, Juanita, brought Yellow Boy’s pony back to Sons-ee-ah-ray’s tipi after she took him to water and then fed him. Now you must talk presents with Maria and learn what she wants for the girl. Pretty soon now, our grandson will know the pleasure a good woman brings to the fire when her man sleeps by it. You make Maria happy, and Yellow Boy will be happy.”
He Watches said, “Hmmm. I’ve spoken with Maria already. I know her price for Juanita, and Yellow Boy has agreed to give her more than what she wants. That boy is smart and generous. You’ll see.”
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br /> “Enjuh. Come eat this meal I fix for you, then put on your best clothes and go visit Maria.”
He replied, “Stop nagging, Old Woman. I know what I’m doing.”
Maria told Socorro she’d seen the dark outline of the figure leaning on a long, straight stick before her tipi door. She smiled, feeling pride and happiness for Juanita, and said, “Daughter, go outside to work and look after Moon on the Water playing down by the creek. A man has come. I have business to discuss with him.” Juanita stepped out the tipi door, nearly ran into old He Watches, and Maria heard her say, “I’m sorry, Grandfather. I didn’t expect you standing there.”
He replied, “Perhaps that’s so, my daughter. But, you hoped I might be.”
Maria said she waited a respectable time before saying, “Who stands at my door? What is your business?”
He said, “I come to speak for the man, Yellow Boy, my grandson, who asks for your daughter and offers presents to you.”
“Come. I have coffee with Indah sugar for us while we speak of this man and my daughter.”
Maria told Socorro He Watches drank two cups before they spoke of the business of joining me to her daughter. She said she knew a bride with a high price made a husband realize he had a woman of value and had decided to ask for four ponies, but to accept only two or three if He Watches and I had lost many of their ponies to vaquero raiders.
He Watches rolled a cigarette, lighted it with the bright yellow flame on a splinter pulled from wood in the fire, and blew smoke to the four directions before handing it to Maria, who also smoked to the four directions.
After the smoke curled out the top of the tipi, He Watches said, “My grandson is anxious to offer the mother of Juanita good presents to show the respect he has for her. What will her mother accept as a good present?”
Maria stared at the little fire beside them, stirred the coals with a little green stick, and thought for a while. She lifted her dark eyes to He Watches, who sipped another cup of coffee and watched her with a faraway stare as though he were watching from his perch high in the Guadalupes in happier years.
Seeing this, Maria decided to back off her original decision to ask for four ponies and said, “I’m happy to give my oldest daughter to your grandson for three ponies and a saddle.”
He Watches lowered his eyes and stared into the little orange and red flames in the fire pit.
“Hmmm, three ponies and a saddle? That is an expensive present for a bride.”
At that, she said her heart fell. She thought, a widow without three horses lives poorly. But, if she takes less, at least, her daughter will be nearby, and she and Moon on the Water would have a man to hunt for them.
Then He Watches said, “Mother of Juanita, I offer you a different present. Will you consider it?”
Maria nodded. “I’ll consider it.”
“My grandson’s gift to you is five ponies, two saddles, and cloth for their first tipi.”
Maria told Socorro she remembered covering her mouth as though to keep her spirit from flying away. She stared in his eyes a few moments to be sure she’d heard him correctly.
He Watches laughed and asked, “Has the mother of Juanita lost her voice?”
“No, Grandfather, my voice is still with me. I’m astonished that my daughter has chosen this man. I want him in our family even if he is too poor to offer a gift of one pony. Bring the cloth for their tipi today, and it will stand ready for them in two days. Now go, mi amigo. I and the other women in camp have much to tell my daughter about the care of husbands before she enters her tipi with your grandson.”
He said, “Yes, I’ll go. I have a glad heart for you, and you have much to do. I’ll bring the cloth soon and leave it by your door and send men up the canyon to cut lodge poles for Juanita’s tipi.”
“Enjuh!”
She followed him out the door and motioned for Juanita and Moon on the Water to come to her. Maria told Socorro she laughed when she heard a loud, “Enjuh!” after He Watches entered Socorro’s tipi. Despite all the losses and hard times of the past year, the great circle of life was beginning again.
CHAPTER 29
THE TIME OF NEW BEGINNING
* * *
Long shadows from tall pines fell across the canyon floor. The empty spaces between the branches let through bright yellow beams filled with myriad fluttering insects looking like specks of gold as they drifted through the fading sunlight into pallid darkness. From Maria’s tipi my adoptive grandmother walked with Juanita, quietly passing through golden beams and still shadows to the tipi of Sons-ee-ah-ray, where I stood straight and proud with He Watches at my side. Juanita’s crow’s-wing shiny-black hair glistened in the light and lay on her shoulders in long, full braids down the front of a fine, white-finished, beaded buckskin robe, soft as lamb’s wool and trimmed in long, thin fringe, each string ending with a little tin bell. Her moccasins had long, supple shafts, the curled toes distinctive of the Chiricahua People, and the beadwork on the toes and shafts were symbols of life and rain. Holding my rifle, the symbol of my Power, its brass receiver oiled and shiny in the crook of my left arm, I awaited her in a new white shirt and a black dress vest Joe Blazer had given me.
Socorro stopped before me, Juanita standing a respectful distance behind her.
“My grandson, I bring you your new wife. Treat her well. May your lives be filled with many children and lived in harmony with each other and with Ussen.” She took Juanita’s hand and placed it in mine.
Sons-ee-ah-ray laid a fine Pendleton blanket woven in black and red designs over our shoulders and led us to the place of honor for a feast for the entire camp and where later a long night of dancing would begin.
Before the moon began dropping into the western mountains, Juanita and I no longer sat among the others, but walked together with the black and red blanket around our shoulders toward our new tipi, which was back in the trees near Maria’s tipi. Custom dictated that Juanita live near her mother and that I must never see or be seen by Maria, even though I was now the only man in a family of two women and a little girl.
The moonlight falling through the trees splashed in little pools of light we silently passed through, hand-in-hand, to the chorus of fiddling crickets and smell of cedars and pines. In a whispery, throaty voice Juanita said, “I waited so long for you that I thought you had forgotten me.”
“I could never forget you, Fine Woman. I wanted to wait a little longer until I was certain I could support you, but Delgadito and the others forced my hand. I knew Delgadito never had a chance with you, but I wasn’t so sure about Kah or Kodo. I’m happy you chose me.”
She giggled. “I wanted a man. Kah and Ko-do are still boys. I have what I wanted. I hope you do, too.”
I stopped in the shadows, looked into her eyes, and took her gently by the shoulders. “I have wanted you since the night you chose me to dance with you. I wanted you even more after you showed me your courage and skill when we raided the vaquero camp. My heart has burned for you since I told you I wanted you and you said not to take a long time.” I embraced her and kissed her, feeling the desire I had long held for her rise from my heart like the morning mists in a high meadow against the morning sun.
She kissed me back, and I felt the cool night grow warm. I had kissed no one since my childhood days, and the shock of her warm lips pressing against mine lit a spark below my belly that became a hot fire. I loved the feel of her strong nubile body in my arms, the smell of her sweat mixed with that of cactus flowers and the pines around us, the warmth of her skin, the flow of her breath on my cheek, and strength of her arms around me. That first kiss lasted a long time, but it felt all too short.
When she pulled back from me and looked into my eyes, her face flushed and warm, she said, “Someone may see us. Let’s go in the tipi.”
I started to follow her inside, but she made me wait in the darkness for a few moments. I could hear her movements from outside, and I envisioned her in my mind as she sat down on the pallet by the
unlit fire pit, pulled off her moccasins, carefully folding them and laying them to one side, and rising to her knees to lift her robe over her head, folding it so the fringe was inside and the beadwork designs unbroken by a fold. I knew the chill of the night air would make her nipples hard and that stirred me more. After she slid under the blanket on our pallet, she called softly to me, “Come.”
I lifted the entry cover, slid under it, and stepped inside. It was so dark I could not even see my rifle barrel a few inches in front of my nose. I eased to my knees on top of the blanket, and sensing her form to my left under the blanket, I laid the rifle down. I sat down and pulled off my moccasins, unbuttoned my vest and folded it, and then my shirt, and then lay down beside her, but I stayed on top of the blanket.
She asked, “What are you doing, you-whom-I-have-chosen? A blanket separates us on our first night together?”
“I’ll wait on top of the blanket until you tell me you’re ready. You know what will happen then. If you want to wait a night or many days until you are used to me, I’ll understand.”
“I’ve waited for you too long already. Come to me that we can truly know each other.”
I finished undressing and slid under the blanket. I caressed her cheek and whispered, “Woman, your man lies beside you.”
“Husband, kiss me as you did under the trees and feel my body next to yours. Come to me as a stallion to his mares, as a buck to his does, for I’m your woman and long to give you sons and daughters.”
Kissing her, I felt the fire in my middle grow hot again as she pulled me to her, and I caressed her with gentle hands gliding smoothly over her skin, exploring the curves of her body.
All night, with the barest of breezes off the tall mountains to whisper through the trees over us, I found Maria’s daughter beyond my imaginings of the pleasures of having a wife. I marveled in her great hunger and eagerness for me, the way she gave herself with joy and pleasure, taking me as I needed, and when she wanted, so many times that we lost count of how often she received me that night.
Killer of Witches: The Life and Times of Yellow Boy Mescalero Apache Page 18
