Full Circle

by Rosanne Bittner

  “I have done nothing wrong!” she heard Black Hawk saying. “This woman needs help. I am taking her to the church.”

  “What the hell happened to her!” Desmond demanded. “And what is she doing with you!”

  “She came to teach me and my son. Someone shot her with an arrow.”

  “What!”

  Evelyn heard a thud, followed by a chilling grunt and the sound of someone hitting the ground.

  “Ate!” Little Fox cried out the Sioux word for father. “Leave my father alone!”

  “Shut up, you little vermin, or you’ll get the same!” Desmond yelled. “And stay on that horse if you know what’s good for you!”

  There came a pause. “Let him speak, Sergeant,” someone else said.

  “I’m in charge here! All of you know Black Hawk makes trouble wherever he goes.”

  Evelyn heard a kicking sound, followed by a grunt. “You goddamn savage!” Desmond shouted even louder. “What the hell is going on here! Miss Gibbons would never ride out alone to meet with the likes of you! And who shot her? You?”

  Evelyn could tell Black Hawk had been hurt by the pain she detected in his voice. She wished she could see, wished she could scream at the sergeant not to hurt him, that he was completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

  “If I had done it, why would I bring her here… for help?” Black Hawk questioned. “Someone else shot her while we… were talking at my camp. I do not know who it might be. There are many of my people who do not trust the white teacher and want to scare her away.”

  Evelyn knew that in spite of how angry he must be at Otter Woman, Black Hawk had decided to protect her. He might want to kill her himself, but he would still never turn one of his own over to soldiers.

  “You’re a goddamn liar, and you’re going to sit behind bars at the fort until we get this straightened out!” Desmond commanded. “When we get the story straight from Miss Gibbons, then we’ll decide what to do with you. You’d just better hope the lady doesn’t die!”

  “You are a fool!” Black Hawk responded. “Can you not see I was bringing her here for help? And if I had done something wrong, why would I have brought my son with me and put him in danger? What will happen to my son?”

  “We’ll take him to your sister and your grandmother. You just shed that knife of yours and any other weapons you’re carrying.”

  “Is all this really necessary, Sergeant?” another man asked. “He was bringing her to get help.”

  “Shut up, Foster! Get down off your horse and come tie his wrists! Clark, you see that the boy gets to his grandmother’s village. Henley, you and I will take Miss Gibbons to the reverend’s place. The rest of you be sure that Black Hawk is locked up good and tight at the fort until we can talk to Miss Gibbons and Agent McLaughlin and get this straightened out. And send the medic over to the reverend’s to have a look at Miss Gibbons.”

  There were several “Yes, sir’s,” and through it all Evelyn tried with all her strength to speak loudly enough for someone to pay attention; but no one seemed to notice or care.

  “I have done nothing wrong!” she heard Black Hawk protest again. She prayed he would not put up too much of a fight, sure that the sergeant would love any excuse to beat the man, or maybe even shoot him. How awful for Black Hawk to be imprisoned! This whole experience could only turn him against the whites and soldiers again. This would erase what little progress she had made with him in her two short visits. Night Hunter had predicted she was supposed to help him, yet here she lay not even able to speak up to defend him. Surely this was not the meaning of the vision … and wasn’t a white man supposed to die?

  Her mind reeled with visions and reality. “Help him back up on his horse!” someone demanded.

  “Ate! Ate!” Little Fox continued to shout. Evelyn could tell he was crying.

  “Go with the soldiers to Many Birds and Dancing Woman,” Black Hawk called back in the Sioux tongue. “Do not be afraid Little Fox. I will come back for you. Trust no one but Many Birds and Miss Gibbons. Tell Night Hunter what has happened! Tell him—”

  There came the sound of another blow.

  Black Hawk! Evelyn wanted to shout the name. What were they doing to him? He was innocent of any wrongdoing! This was all her fault. “Throw him over his horse!” Desmond was ordering. She could hear Little Fox crying. Why had she even come here? Why had she been so adamant that these people needed to go to school? Why had she so daringly gone out to meet Black Hawk alone without explaining to someone so there would be no misunderstandings if something like this happened? She had done a foolish thing, and not only would the reverend and the soldiers think less of her, but Agent McLaughlin and the reverend and the rest of them would probably be very upset, perhaps even ask her to leave the reservation. She could lose the grant that had been gifted to her to use for living here and for necessary supplies. She could be sent home, and then what? More and more she felt she belonged here, and she could not let herself die, nor could she go home without knowing the fulfillment of her vision… a vision she shared with Black Hawk.

  “God only knows what that wild sonofabitch did to that woman while she lay hurt and unconscious,” she heard Desmond say. His voice was closer now. She felt someone bend down near her. “Miss Gibbons? Can you hear me?”

  She opened her eyes to see Jubal Desmond staring down at her. “Black Hawk… innocent,” she whispered.

  “What?” The man scowled, callously pulling back the blankets that covered her and exposing the bandages wrapped around her left shoulder and breast. She prayed her breast was completely covered, hated the man for pulling her dress open even more than it already was in a pretense of seeing if she had other wounds. “Hell, he could have raped her,” he commented. How many were with him, watching her? “The state she’s in, she wouldn’t have known the difference.”

  “With a man like Black Hawk?” Someone actually laughed. “She would have known.” There came more laughter, and Desmond covered her up again.

  “We’d better get her to the reverend. It’s a good hour from here,” Desmond said.

  Evelyn wanted to call out to him, to demand that he listen to the truth. Wasn’t he even going to ask? He could bend close so she could whisper that he should let Black Hawk go. Desmond was only showing he was even more ignorant and intolerant than she had first suspected. Oh, how she hated him!

  There followed several days of fever and sickness, during which Evelyn sometimes did not even know where she was or if she was even still alive. Once she saw her mother reaching out for her, telling her to be true to herself and to not give up the fight. Faces. Wild Horse, Reverend Phillips, Anita, Sergeant Desmond, Night Hunter… Black Hawk. She imagined resting in Black Hawk’s arms, and she felt comforted.

  Finally, the moment came when she opened her eyes to full consciousness. She was lying in her own bedroom, in the little cabin she had come to call home. For the first time in… how long? She had no idea what day it was, had to think for a few minutes to realize how she had come to be here. She only knew that she was more aware of her surroundings again, felt more like herself. She was alive, and she didn’t feel sick. She moved slowly, realizing she could rest on her right arm and push herself up. There was still pain in her left shoulder and side, but now it was bearable. With much effort she scooted herself to a sitting position, took a moment to look around the room, think about all that had happened.

  “Black Hawk,” she whispered. “What have they done with you?” She touched her shoulder, realized it was still bandaged. She unbuttoned her nightgown and looked down at herself, but could see only the bandages. She remembered with anger the sergeant yanking her blankets away and jerking her dress aside. What had he seen? Why did it upset her that he might have seen something he shouldn’t, yet knowing that Black Hawk had seen and touched much more did not bother her at all.

  She took a deep breath, leaning against her pillows and pushing some of her hair behind her ear. She was hungr
y. She knew that was a good sign that she would be all right. She realized she must look terrible, but that was not important now. What was important was to help Black Hawk. Was he still incarcerated? Had anyone listened to his story? Had Otter Woman been arrested? She had to be careful what she said. If Black Hawk had not implicated Otter Woman, he had his reasons. She was not going to go against his wishes.

  She heard someone moving about in the main room of her little two-room cabin. “Anita? Reverend?” she called out. “Is anyone out there?”

  Janine quickly came through the curtain. “Evy! Oh, you look so much better!” She rushed to her side, bending over her and grasping her hand. “How do you feel? Are you really back with us? Your eyes are so much brighter. We thought we were going to lose you, Evy. What were you doing out there with Black Hawk? What happened? Black Hawk is sitting in jail, and the Sioux are getting restless. We fear there will be trouble if—”

  “Stop, Janine!” Evelyn lightly squeezed her hand. “Please… one thing at a time. Get your brother… please.”

  “Yes. Right away! Oh, he’ll be so glad to see how much better you are! Do you want some tea? Something to eat?”

  Evelyn smiled at the gentle Janine, realizing she had probably been nursing her faithfully. “Yes. That would be nice. How long have I been… lying here like this?”

  Janine straightened, dabbing at tears of joy. “It’s been five days since the soldiers found you with Black Hawk. You were delirious for part of that time with a high fever. The Army doctor didn’t quite know what to do other than to keep treating your wound with carbolic acid and have us bathe you in cool water. He said there was nothing to do but wait. He even had to lance your wound once. For a while we thought…” She sniffed. “I can see now that you’re going to be all right.”

  Evelyn wondered what kind of scars she would have—an arrow wound burned out by Black Hawk, lanced by the Army doctor, who probably didn’t know what he was doing. “They must release Black Hawk … right away, Janine. He did nothing wrong.”

  Janine looked almost disappointed. “Evelyn, he said you had come to his camp alone to teach him and Little Fox. That was a very dangerous thing to do, and it’s something some people won’t understand. If it’s true, we have to find a way to make this look good when we report it to Mission Service.”

  Evelyn frowned. “Just tell them that I was so dedicated to my work that I risked my life trying to convert … one of the most difficult men on the reservation.”

  Janine wiped at her eyes again. “Is that the whole truth?”

  Evelyn closed her eyes. No. I dreamed about Black Hawk. I am in love with him, in love with a Sioux warrior. “What difference does it make?” she asked aloud. “No one is going to understand the truth. Just please report this however you have to … in order for me to stay here. Many things have been left unfinished, Janine, and more children keep coming to school. Our work has just begun. I don’t want this … to change any of that.”

  Janine nodded. “I will get John.” As she left the room, Evelyn felt a sudden urge to cry. What was everyone thinking? It was obvious the horror she would see on their faces if she said she was in love with an Indian man. Why had God brought her here? Where was all of this taking her? She let out one gulping sob then fought the tears, breathing deeply to control them minutes later when she heard Reverend Phillips coming inside the cabin. He smiled with relief when he saw her sitting up.

  “Janine, go ahead and fix her that tea,” he told his sister.

  Janine looked at Evelyn sadly, then left to do his bidding. Evelyn pulled the covers up to her neck, self-conscious that Phillips was in her bedroom. The man pulled up a chair beside the bed. “Miss Gibbons, what happened?” In spite of how well the man now knew her, he continued to address her formally, although there was a strong hint of emotion and familiarity in the way he spoke her name today. “We’ve been so worried,” he added. “I have been praying night and day for your recovery. Thank God you look so much better today, and you’re coherent. Now maybe we can get to the truth of the matter, before trouble breaks out.”

  Evelyn touched her hair, embarrassed at how she must look, but there was no time for bathing and dressing. “You must ride to the agency and tell McLaughlin to go to Fort Yates and order Black Hawk to be released. He did nothing wrong, John.”

  The man frowned in curiosity. “But how—”

  “Black Hawk came to see me at the school the night of the dance. He doesn’t trust us enough as a group yet to allow Little Fox to come to the school, but he… trusted me alone. He asked if I would come to his camp and teach him and Little Fox to read and write. He wanted to learn himself just for protection against future treaties. He wants Little Fox to learn for the same reasons, to protect himself in the white man’s world. Because I understand the Sioux ways and their language, I guess he trusted me to teach his son without trying to destroy his Sioux beliefs and customs.”

  Phillips shook his head. “I don’t understand. Why you? All these months we have been here, and Black Hawk would never come in and talk to any of us. And why in God’s name did you agree to go out there alone, to meet with such an unpredictable, dangerous man?”

  “He is not dangerous, Reverend. He is extremely intelligent, and he is just cautious… and distrustful. He has good reason, considering what happened to his family at Wounded Knee… and what has happened to many of the Sioux children who were taken away to schools outside the reservation. Now with his arrest…”

  “Miss Gibbons, you went to a place none of us ever could have found and met alone with a Sioux Indian man who could have…” He closed his eyes. “I just don’t understand. Why didn’t you insist he come to the school instead? He could have accompanied his son, to see that nothing would happen to him.”

  Evelyn sighed. How could she tell him the whole truth, tell him about her dreams? “Reverend, if you want to make this look acceptable, just tell others it was my dedication to my work that made me do a foolish thing. I did what he asked, because I thought it was my only chance to get close to the very person who could influence the rest of the Sioux. If I showed him I could be trusted, perhaps then… he would start trusting more himself, bring Little Fox to school. I think I could have convinced him of it, but now… after this…” Her eyes teared. “Reverend, you have got to have him released just as fast as possible! Let him go to his son… go back to his own camp. Black Hawk shouldn’t be imprisoned! It will kill him.”

  The reverend rose, running a hand through his hair. “How did you get hurt?”

  “I was standing with Black Hawk near a stream when an arrow hit me from behind. I don’t know who might have done it,” she lied. “For all I know, they might have been shooting at Black Hawk for some reason… maybe it was someone who was angry that he was letting a white woman teach him; but I was most likely the target. We both know nearly every Sioux man and woman out there would probably like all of us to leave; but I am not going to let that stop me from what I came here to do, and I am not going to let Black Hawk sit in prison. You have to go to McLaughlin. Tell him that Black Hawk saved my life. He took out the arrow and burned out the wound. Can’t anyone see that if he had meant to hurt me, he wouldn’t have been bringing me back on his own? He would never hurt me… and he wasn’t running off with me.” She breathed deeply, already feeling tired. “What have they done with him, Reverend? Has he been hurt? I remember the day the soldiers found us… they were beating Black Hawk.”

  Phillips sighed eyeing her closely. “He was hurt pretty bad but he’ll be all right. Sergeant Desmond got a good reprimanding for beating him when he was defenseless and had his hands tied behind his back.”

  “The sergeant is the one who should be jailed! If there is any trouble around here it will be his fault, not any of the Indians’. The man looks for excuses to start something.”

  The reverend rubbed at the back of his neck in frustration. “What is really going on, Evelyn? Is there anything you aren’t
telling me?”

  She held his gaze boldly. “No. I was just doing what I came here to do. If I die doing it, then so be it. I am determined… and I saw my chance to win over the most important man on this reservation. Someone tried to hurt me, Reverend but it wasn’t Black Hawk. He saved my life.”

  Phillips folded his arms. “Rumor has it you visited old Night Hunter. Why?”

  She felt her cheeks flushing, but she forced a look of innocence. “I only wanted to ask him about Black Hawk… if he thought I could trust him. He told me I should not be afraid of him, that Black Hawk is a man of his word.”

  “And why didn’t you tell me and Janine what you were doing? Why did you lie and say you were visiting other families?”

  She blinked back tears, hating having to deceive these good people. “I was afraid you wouldn’t understand… and now I see I was right. You never would have let me go alone, but if I hadn’t, I would not have won Black Hawk’s trust. Now I fear, because of all that has happened, I’ve lost it again. God only knows when he’ll show his face around here again… once he is freed.”

  “That just shows you you went about this the wrong way, but I don’t hold it against you, and neither will the others once they understand your dedication.” He came closer and patted her arm. “I’ll take care of this.”

  She met his eyes. “Please tell Black Hawk that I’ll be all right, and that I’m sorry if my coming to his camp got him in trouble. I never meant for any of it to happen.”

  “It isn’t your fault. It’s Black Hawk’s, for insisting you come to him; and it’s the fault of whoever put that arrow in you. I cannot imagine anyone wanting to do such a vile thing.” He held her gaze for a moment. “Miss Gibbons, don’t get carried away by your dedication and your emotions. Remember your place.”