Luke looked the man up and down. He wore a buffalo robe and rawhide sandals. He had long gray hair and he looked like something from out of the Old Testament. “Who are you?”
The old man let go of Luke’s hands, raised his own hands as he turned in a circle. “Oh, Heavenly Father, thank you for answering my prayers.”
Adam said, “This is Orion.”
“What?” He had thought Adam was speaking of the constellation.
Orion took Luke’s hand. “Come, come; let us go into my abode.” He pulled Luke toward the large cave. “I haven’t talked to anyone except Adam that could talk good English in over fifty years.”
The cave was the size of a small house with a stone fireplace just under the outer ledge of the huge opening. Along the back wall were two beds made of logs with animal hides stretched across them. There was a table with benches just in front of it. There were chairs made of oak slats like Luke had made for his own cabin. On the table were clay plates and bowls. A crude desk sat between the beds.
Orion sat at the table. “You and Adam sit with me. Please do. Please do.”
Luke parked himself in one of the chairs and drew it up to the table. He examined the cave further. There was a large curtain against the cave wall made of sticks tied together with some type of vine or chord. Luke figured it was a wall to stretch over the huge opening during bad weather.
“I brought the man like Orion wished,” Adam said.
“You done good, Adam. You done real good.”
Adam smiled and nodded like a child.
Orion stared at Luke with a grin spread across his face.
The smile was contagious and Luke couldn’t help but smile back. “Mr. Orion, where are you from?”
“Oh, I love to hear the sweet sound of my own language.” Orion shook his head. “Music. Music, indeed.” He took a long breath. “I come from Alabama. And where you from?”
“Arkansas.”
“Another Southerner—I knew it. I knew it. You didn’t have no accent.”
The gears in Luke’s brain came to a screeching halt. His mind reached back for something scratching to get out. Where had he heard Orion and Alabama together? It hit him. “Selma! You’re from Selma, Alabama.”
“Why, yes. Nation! How did you guess that?”
“Your name is Orion Williamson.”
Orion slapped the table. “That’s me. You a medicine man or something?”
Luke tried to remember the rest of the story from the newspaper article.
“I ain’t good on guessing, so you’re gonna have to tell me who you are,” Orion said.
The wind dropped from Luke’s sails. He realized this wasn’t his way home. In fact, it was the nail that pinned the door shut. If Orion had really disappeared from that field in 1854, he had been here for a long time. But he only looked to be about eighty or so, not one hundred sixty.
“Well, man, you gonna tell me?”
Luke sighed. “Luke Morgan.”
“A fine name, a fine name, indeed.” Orion said.
“Luke, good name,” Adam said.
“Adam, get us wine from the shelf,” Orion said. “Please do fetch it.”
Adam retrieved a jug and three cups. They looked like something made in junior high art class. He placed the cups on the table and poured the wine all around. The sweet aroma was strong.
Orion raised his cup. “To Luke, my new friend.”
They all drank the wine in a few gulps. It was pretty good to Luke, but he would rather have had a good cup of coffee, maybe a little whiskey in it.
“Mr. Orion—”
“Just Orion, my new friend.”
“Okay then. Orion, how long have you been here?”
Orion got up from the table and walked to a wall. There were a good many chalk marks on it. “This is my crude calendar. I’ve been here about fifty-four years.” He looked at the marks and sat back down.
“Do you remember how you got here?” Luke said.
The smile finally left Orion’s face, and he looked down at his cup. “How could I ever forget?”
“I guess that was a stupid question,” Luke said.
“I had just stepped off my porch to go tell my overseer something when there kicked up a drumming sound and a swoosh of air.” He looked up. “The next thing I knew I was under a net and being beaten by these savages with big sticks. I was confused, to say the least.”
Luke nodded. “How did you get away?”
“In them years, the red-heads and the white-heads was in a war. I managed to get away before they could put me in that cage when the red-heads came a stormin’ through the village.”
“Have other people come in through that portal?”
“Through what?”
“The portal. You know, the way you got here.”
“I’ve snuck back to the white-head village several times when the drums was a beatin,’ hoping to get back home, but they ain’t no use; you can’t get out it. I’ve seen all kinds of animals come in, but no people. Mostly nothin’ comes in, just every now and then. I ain’t been back there in years. Damn near got caught the last time—too old now. I just don’t have the key to get out so why bother.”
Luke rubbed his face and nodded. Yeah, a key would be nice. He hadn’t heard anything yet that was encouraging. Everything was crazy. That portal must pluck things from different times. In this world it plucked Orion about fifty years ago; but back home, it was before the Civil War.
Luke placed his head in his hands and thought for a spell; something had to make sense. He looked up. “Are there other people besides the red-heads and the white-heads?”
“There are others.”
“Are they more modern? Do they have cars, planes, and such?”
Orion scratched his head. “Do they have what? You mean rail cars?”
Luke realized Orion had never seen such things. “Do they have guns? Do they have wagons?”
“Luke, the red-heads and the white-heads make their weapons from bone and wood. They don’t even use stone. Well, some, but not like the Indians back home. They ain’t even got a bow and arrow. And I ain’t showin’ ‘em either.”
“Why not?” Luke said.
“I don’t want to give them any advantage over me.” Orion pointed to a bow hanging from an outcropping on the cave wall.
“I guess I understand that,” Luke said.
Orion reached across the table and squeezed Luke’s arm. “It’s more to it than that. My adopted grandmother was a Creek Indian. She told me stories of when she was a little girl. White man changed all that. I want to leave these people as they have always been. This ain’t America, but The All Mighty created it all the same, and I ain’t gonna change it.”
Luke understood. But he was surprised to hear someone from Orion’s time being concerned about Native Americans. Luke had always suspected our understanding of all history was only a skeleton of the truth. Parts of history will always be lost.
Orion got up from the table. “Adam, let’s feast. Get two chickens from the pen and clean them. I will build up the fire.”
Luke wanted to know more about the others, but he would ask later.
Adam dutifully disappeared from the cave, and Orion stoked the coals in his round fireplace. After placing sticks on the fire, he soon had a blaze going.
After a time, Adam came in with two skinned creatures that resembled small dogs.
Luke looked at Orion. “Chickens?”
Orion laughed. “They’re possums. I’ve built a pen that I keep them in. Me and Adam catch ‘em and throw ‘em in there and keep ‘em like chickens. I purge ‘em out with persimmons or wild grapes, what have you. It sweetens ‘em up a bit.”
Soon the table was spread with roasted possum, roasted pecans, cattail stew, and some type of grain kernels in possum broth. It was all cooked over the fire with spits and soapstone pots. Luke not only found it edible, he found it all delicious. Who needed fast foods? The plates and bowls ranged from wooden to a red
clay. The forks and knives were made of ivory and bone, and they all functioned as good as any silverware.
Luke had lived off the land before back home in Arkansas, but he had still used modern knives, forks, and cast iron cookware. He knew if he didn’t find a way back home soon, the modern things he had with him now would soon be lost or used up. But he wasn’t afraid of that—other things, but not that. He found it comforting to know he could survive. He even found the thought exciting.
That night he lay in the cave listening to Orion snore. He listened to wolves and night critters off in the distance and thought of home. He missed his mother and sister, but he really had no one else back there. He had always been a loner. He was always shy and reclusive. But when he thought of his cousin locked up in the jailhouse, Luke knew he had to get back somehow if only to free him.
He got up from the bed and walked to the opening of the cave. The stars’ impact on him was immediate again. He just couldn’t get over how clear they were. They had never seemed so bright as here. They had never seemed... They had never seemed so relevant as now. They had never seemed so important.
He heard shuffling behind him; then Orion joined him. They stood there together for a time not saying anything.
Luke finally said, “These stars are not as bright in my world.”
Orion studied the stars. “What is your world, Luke?”
Luke thought about it and knew Orion wouldn’t understand. Luke was proud of his world, but ashamed too. Man had achieved so much, yet, wasted so much. He turned to Orion. “Same as yours. I reckon Arkansas ain’t much different from Alabama.
Orion looked at Luke, and Luke knew Orion didn’t believe him. They both just let it pass.
Orion looked back up to the heavens. “I think on home sometimes: my wife, daughter, my slaves. My daughter is grown now; my wife remarried, surely. My slaves all belong to someone else. I hope they are all happy. Actually, I hope my slaves have been freed. He looked at Luke. As a fellow Southerner, I reckon you find that strange. Living back here all these years has given me time to think on a lot of things.”
Luke shook his head. “No, Mr. Orion, I don’t think it strange at all. One of these days I bet all slaves in America will be free.”
They stood there silently for a time. A shooting star streamed across the sky like a flare. They both pointed at it and smiled.
“Adam tells me you showed up with his king’s lost daughter,” Orion said.
Luke turned to Orion and nodded.
Orion sat on the cave floor and Luke joined him. “I remember the girl disappearing, but everyone thought she was dead. She was captured by the white-heads.” He turned to Luke. “She must have found a way out through the gateway there.”
“Then, I must go back there to get out,” Luke said.
“They will kill you if they catch you.”
“Then they won’t catch me.”
Orion sighed. “Luke, I feel I should tell you a little about me. I took up with one of the red-haired women years ago. I’m gonna make this short because I don’t like talkin’ on it. While she was with me out on the prairie huntin’ buffalo, we was caught. What they did to her I will never talk about.” He turned to Luke and patted his arm. “Don’t let them catch you. They hate the red-heads, and by now, they know you have been among them.”
“How did you get away?”
“Me and the boy escaped when she allowed herself to be captured.” He looked toward Adam.
“Adam is your son?”
Orion nodded. “His mother sacrificed herself so we would live. We ran toward a herd of the big elephants.” He took one of Luke’s hands. “Remember, the red-heads and white-heads are afraid of the big elephants. They worship them. They collect their bones and tusks, but they are scared to death of the big beasts.”
As if on cue, Luke felt the vibration in his chest again as the low growls of the mammoths echoed through the mountains.
“They like to gather at the foothills and caves down there. It’s why I took up residence here. I’m as safe as if I was on the moon while they’re down there.”
Orion patted Luke’s arm again. “I’m turning in. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Luke nodded and watched Orion disappear back into the cave. Luke stood there for a spell, felt restless, wasn’t ready for sleep. He walked down the trail to the foothills. He came to a ledge, and he could see the vast prairie spread out before him. Though it was dark, he could still make out the silhouettes of about twenty big mammoths standing in the grass. The big beasts were extinct back home in his world for whatever reason. In this world they ruled. For some reason he couldn’t explain to himself, it brought a smile to his lips. This was now his world, for better or worse, and he was more and more coming to realize it.
He thought of Moon. She would wonder what had happened to him. He had been wrong to just strike out and not tell her. Besides all that, he missed her. Tomorrow he would consider getting Adam to lead him back to her.
He found a big rock to sit on. For now, he just sat and took in the night sounds. There were many, and many he didn’t know. Tomorrow he would change his focus. He would begin in earnest to learn his new world. He would study every advantage to survive in it. He knew Orion would be a big instrument in that study.
He had to respect a man such as Orion. He had learned to live in another world and had survived in it for a long time. Moon had known that when she shoved that paper about Orion in Luke’s hands back at the cabin. Luke suspected she knew even more than she had told.
Luke dusted his pants off and headed back to the cave. Tomorrow would be the first day in the rest of his life, a life so very different than he could have ever dreamed of only a few days ago.
Luke awoke to the smell of something inviting. He sat up. Orion and Adam were next to the fire. They had something brewing. It wasn’t coffee, but it still smelled good with a nutty aroma.
“Well, Luke, glad to see you awake,” Orion said. Adam nodded.
Luke rubbed his face and climbed out of the cot. “What you got brewing there?”
Orion poured a black brew from the clay pot. “I call it coffee.” He handed it to Luke. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know what the plant is, but the locals drink it; and it hasn’t killed them or me yet.”
Luke blew the steam off it and took a drink. It sure wasn’t coffee, had a taste somewhere between pecans, chocolate and mint. “Whew, they could make a killing off this at Starbucks.”
“What is Starbucks?” Orion said.
Luke grinned. “A store back home.”
Adam handed Luke a bowl containing dried fruit. “Good food.”
Luke bit into one. “Mmm. Dried persimmons. This honey on them?” Luke put a handful into his mouth.
While Luke was eating, Orion retrieved a handful of things from deep in the cave and spread them out before Luke on the floor. “I was looking at your hunting things and reckoned you could use some of this.
Luke finished his drink and examined the stuff on the floor. He found turkey feathers, pieces of cane, deer sinew, pieces of flint and flint tools. There were pieces of horns and antlers for knapping the flint. It was a toolbox for a primitive hunter.
“I looked your hunting equipment over while you slept,” Orion said. “But I could tell it was all built in a hurry. Your cane’s not dry good—arrows are too flimsy. Use whatever you want here until you can gather your own. I don’t know what your bowstring’s made out of, but it sure is tough.”
“Made from a strange plant we have back home.” Luke lied. He knew Orion wouldn’t understand about nylon.
Luke spent the rest of the morning building arrows. He tuned them until they flew as they should—correct spine, straight and true. He replaced the colorful feathers with good, stout turkey feathers. He tied them on with sinew and glue made from animal hides and used the antler tools to knock away flakes from his flint to make points. They were sharp enough to shave hair.
He found a ragged piece of
deerskin in the pile and fashioned a quiver to carry the arrows. When he finished, he walked down to the prairie and practiced shooting.
Orion and Adam had followed him down.
After a while Orion said, “You shoot better than anyone I ever saw. How did you learn to shoot so good?”
“These are the instruments I hunt with back home.” Luke shot again and hit a tuft of grass dead center.
Orion laughed. “They don’t have guns in Arkansas?”
Luke propped up on the bow and thought how amazed Orion would be at the modern guns—or compound bows, for that matter. He said, “I just choose to hunt this way for the challenge.”
Orion took the bow from Luke. “Well, you have no choice in the matter now.” He placed an arrow on the bow and let it fly. His arrow hit right beside Luke’s arrow. “My adopted Creek grandfather taught me to shoot.”
Luke spent the rest of the day with Orion and Adam, learning the ways of this new world. He learned new plants to eat. He learned what animals to hunt and the ones to avoid. He was told of the water courses. He was instructed where to find fruit trees, which fruits to eat, which not to eat.
Orion gave Luke a crude map. It was made from some sort of paint on an animal skin. “Luke, this is most of the world I know here.”
Luke stretched it out on the desk. He identified the Florian village and the village. He saw something strange written on a location beyond the mountains. Luke put his finger on the spot. “Does this say giants?”
Orion nodded.
“You don’t really mean giants, do you?”
“Of course.”
“Right,” Luke said as he folded the map and put it in his pack. He turned to Orion. “Did you see these giants?”
“I saw them.”
“How tall are they—twenty, thirty feet, big as an oak tree?”
Orion frowned. “You mock me, Luke.”
Luke patted Orion’s arm. “I’m sorry. It’s just so hard to believe…all of this.”
“I reckon I understand. But giants are in the Bible.” Orion closed his eyes and began to recite: “There were giants on the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Portal to the Forgotten Page 8
