by Sharon Sala
“Are you hurt? Talk to me, Eulis… can you move?”
He groaned. Hail was hitting him in the face so hard he didn’t dare open his eyes. He wanted to turn loose and get up, but he was afraid if he let go that the mules would bolt and leave him behind to be trampled.
“Are we dead yet?”
Letty laughed to keep from crying. “No, you crazy man, not yet. But you need to get up. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m goin’ blind as we speak from this dad-blamed hail. Other than that, I reckon I’ll keep.”
Letty crawled over him and grabbed the harness.
“I’ve got the mules, but hurry.”
Eulis let go and pulled himself upright. For a moment, he and Letty were standing face to face. He saw her wincing as the hail pelted against her sunburned face, and knew that if they lived, it would be bruised tomorrow.
“Leticia, pardon me for sayin’ this, but you look like hell,” then he jammed his hat on her head and shoved her toward the wagon. “Get in and hurry.”
The hat was instant shelter, and Letty knew he would suffer for his thoughtfulness.
“Eulis, I—”
“Get in, and grab hold of them reins. I got a feelin’ we’re in for a rough ride.”
Letty scrambled past him. As she did, Blackie stepped sideways and came down on the top of Letty’s foot.
“Oh… oh Lord, you stupid critter, get off! Get off!”
She slapped the mule hard on the rear and moments later as it stepped sideways again, she was free. She started to hobble across the hitch when suddenly she was airborne. She felt hands at her waist, lifting her over the harness, and all but throwing her into the wagon seat. She came down hard on all fours, then screamed as a sharp pain went up her arm and out of top of her head. Suddenly, the wagon started to move. In a panic, she scrambled around, grabbed the reins, and braced herself.
“Are you there?” she yelled.
“I’m here,” Eulis said. “And I need you to hang on. We’re gonna make a run for it.”
She peered through the space between the wagon and the seat and saw that he’d mounted Rosy, the lead mule. He leaned forward, about to give her a swift kick in the flanks, when a lightning bolt shattered what was left of the herd’s control.
One moment they were moving slowly, and the next few seconds, Eulis and Letty were caught up in the rush as the herd began to run.
“Jesus, have mercy,” Letty cried, and wrapped the reins so tight around her wrists that her fingers soon went numb.
Eulis gritted his teeth and hung on for dear life while they were bumped and buffeted by the motion of the moving mass. He wasn’t certain if they were actually moving on their own power, or if they were being swept along by the stampede itself. But there was just enough light left for Eulis to see, and with every ounce of strength he had in him, he angled the team against the tide of the stampede, and began slowly moving them upward.
It seemed, to Letty, as if they ran forever. She knew that the sounds of the storm—of the rain and hail—and the thunder of the buffalo stampede would be forever etched in her memory. Just when she thought they could not run any more, she realized the horizon was no longer dark with buffalo, and there was nothing in front of them but the storm and the distant mountains. And to double their relief, the hail had either stopped, or they’d outrun it. Either way, it was over.
She saw Eulis raise up on Rosy and start hauling back on the reins. As he did, she planted her feet against the wagon bed, gritted her teeth against the oncoming pain, and did the same.
They stopped, but Letty never knew it. She’d passed out. When Eulis finally crawled down off the mule and staggered back to the wagon, he found her flat on her back and unconscious. Shot through and through with new fear, he crawled up into the wagon bed and pulled Letty up into his arms.
“Letty! Letty! Talk to me, girl!”
She groaned. “Eulis?”
He rocked back on his heels and then started to shake. She was alive. Thank God she was alive.
“Leticia… talk to me. Where do you hurt?”
“My hands,” she mumbled.
He looked down, then winced when he saw the reins wound around her wrists. Her fingers were swollen and bloodless and when he started unwinding the reins, she cried out in pain.
“My wrist… I think it’s broken,” Letty mumbled, then threw an arm over her face, trying to shelter herself from the rain.
Eulis tossed the reins aside, and then pushed her beneath the overhang of the wagon seat. It was somewhat of a shelter, but not enough. He looked around, grabbed the rain-soaked bedroll and shook it out, then draped it over the seat. The bulk of it hung down into the wagon, forming a makeshift tent. It wasn’t much, but it was the only protection he could offer.
Once he had it secured, he lifted a corner and peered in. She was lying curled up on her side and cradling her wrist against her chest. He felt like he needed to touch her, but couldn’t bring himself to make the move. It seemed too personal, and personal was a bridge they had never managed to cross. Instead, he cleared his throat and muttered.
“You did real good, Sister Leticia. Real good.”
Letty heard him talking, but she couldn’t focus on what he said.
“Are we dead yet?” she asked, unintentionally mimicking what he’d asked earlier.
He looked up at the sky and the passing storm, then back down into the valley where the disappearing herd was barely visible. The mules were standing spraddle-legged with their heads down and their sides heaving. Everything Eulis and Letty owned was soaked through and through, but they were still alive and breathing.
“No, Letty, we ain’t dead yet.”
“Did you hear a whippoorwill? I’ve been listening and listening for the call.”
He sighed. She was out of her head and it was no wonder. He felt a little crazy, himself.
“Yeah, I heard the whippoorwill. Listen close, honey. You’ll hear it, too.”
Then he dropped the cover back in place, picked up the reins, and sat down on the seat. The mules felt the tug on the reins and actually turned their heads and looked back, as if to say, you’ve got to be kidding.
“I know, I know,” he said. “It’s been an awful day, but if you could see your way to goin’ just a little bit further, I can promise you won’t be sorry.”
This time when he flipped the reins on their rumps and clucked his tongue, they moved. Slowly. But they moved, and by the time true dark finally came, Eulis had found a good campsite with plenty of water, and enough grass for the trail-weary mules.
Letty woke up to the scent of wood smoke and cooking meat and rolled out from beneath the wagon seat. Her wrist was aching something awful, she smelled worse than she hurt, and she needed to pee. But when she started to push herself up, her wrist gave way.
“Ow,” she cried.
Almost instantly, Eulis appeared, peering over the side of the wagon.
“You’re awake.”
“It appears so,” she said. “Can you help me out? I need to go.”
Eulis hauled her out without fuss and set her on her feet, then pointed toward the woods.
“There’s a little clearing behind those bushes. When you’re done, I saved you some rabbit.”
Letty nodded, then stopped and watched Eulis as he walked away. When he bent over and tossed another stick on the fire, goose-bumps rose on the backs of her arms. She didn’t know this man. She’d known the drunk and had been perfectly comfortable with him. But she didn’t know her boundaries with this one.
At that moment, he turned around and caught her staring.
“Letty? You all right?”
She flinched. “Yeah, sure,” she said. “Be right back.”
She stomped off into the woods, unaware that Eulis was now watching her. Finally, he sighed and looked away. When she came back, he was cutting up what was left of the rabbit for her to eat.
“Here,” he said. “Since you hurt your wrist, thought I better
cut it up some for you.”
Letty didn’t bother to hide her surprise.
“How did you know it was hurt?” she asked.
“You told me,” he said.
“I did?”
He nodded.
She frowned. “What else did I tell you?”
He stared at her a bit and then grinned. “Don’t worry. I didn’t believe a word of it.”
She gasped.
He ignored that, too.
“Here. Sit down and eat. The rabbit needs salt, but what we had left dissolved in the storm.”
He handed her a tin plate and then poured her a cup of water.
Letty took the plate with her good hand, backed up to a rock and sat. Then she balanced the plate in her lap and began eating. After the first couple of bites, Letty realized how hungry she was, and soon finished off her share of the food.
“That was wonderful,” she said, and leaned back with a sigh.
“Yeah, it was good,” Eulis said, and then pointed into the darkness. “Thanks to the storm, there’s a pretty good run of water in that creek tonight. I reckon it’s safe enough to take a bath in, if you’re in a mind to take one.”
Letty groaned. “I would love one,” she said. “It will be wonderful to wash all over, again.”
Eulis squinted, and then looked away.
“I’ll walk you down. When you’re done, just holler and I’ll come back and get you.”
Letty set the plate aside and stood, still holding her wrist against her breast to keep from bumping it.
“Would you please get my blanket out of the wagon? I’m going to wash these stinking clothes, too.”
Eulis did as she asked, then cupped her elbow and walked her down to the creek. The water was running fast and high, and she could see foam on the current.
“It’s right cold,” he warned.
“After nearly dying of thirst, I will never complain about the temperature of water again.”
“Need any help?” he asked, pointing to her clothes.
“Maybe you could help me off with my shoes.”
“Lean on me,” he said, and bent down.
Letty grabbed onto his back, steadying herself as he untied first one shoe, then the other, and took them off her feet.
“Anything else?” he asked.
She shook her head.
He nodded, started to say something more, then shook his head and walked away.
“Call when you’re ready to come back,” he added.
“Yes, all right,” Letty said, and began untying her rope belt, then taking off the rest of her clothes.
She kicked the clothes to the edge of the creek so that she could rinse them out and stepped into the water.
Eulis had been right. It was, as her Daddy used to say, colder than a well-digger’s ass. Her toes instantly went into cramps and curled downward in spasms. She flinched once, then walked into the knee-high flow, found a half-submerged rock, and used it for a seat. With only one hand left to do her any good, she washed herself all over as best she could, then eased off the rock and all the way down into the water. It was almost up to her chin, but she didn’t care. She undid the piece of leather holding her hair away from her face, put it between her teeth to keep from losing it, and then dropped her head forward. It was awkward having only one hand with which to scrub, but she managed.
Finally, she lifted her head, tossing her hair away from her face as she did and then dragged herself up. It wasn’t until she was standing with the night air blowing against her skin that she realized how cold she really was, and she had yet to wash out her clothes. She took the strip of leather from her teeth and turned around. Eulis was standing on the creek bank with a blanket in his hands.
“Hurry on out,” he said, as matter of fact as if he’d asked her to hand him a spoon.
She stumbled once, then caught herself and climbed out, only to find herself immediately engulfed in a warm and surprisingly dry blanket.
“Ooh, that feels good,” she said.
Eulis grabbed her elbow.
“You need to get warm.”
“My clothes,” Letty said. “I’ve still got to wash out my clothes.”
“I’m gonna take me a bath,” Eulis said. “I’ll do it when I wash mine out.”
“Well, then… I thank you,” Letty said.
“No problem,” Eulis said, and hustled her back to the fire. “Get warm. I made up your bed in the wagon. When I come back, I’ll help you up.”
Letty didn’t know what to say. Before, she’d been the one more or less in charge, and Eulis had followed her suggestions and orders without much argument. Not only did she feel helpless, but with a broken wrist, also useless.
“I’m sorry about this,” she said, and held up her wrist.
“Need to wrap it up some,” he said briefly, then took some leather out of his pack and felt along both sides of her wrist to assure himself the break was clean and back in place. Once he was satisfied that all was as it should be, he wrapped it firmly and tied it off.
“Don’t be tryin’ to lift anything with that,” he said.
“Okay.”
“I’m gonna go take my bath now,” he muttered.
Letty nodded, but there was a pain in her heart as he turned away. Suddenly, she couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. She had to know.
“Eulis.”
He stopped, but didn’t turn around.
“What?”
“Are you mad at me?”
If her voice hadn’t been so damned shaky, he would have been all right, but when he heard that tremble and knew she was feeling pain, he could no more ignore her than he could have quit breathing. He turned around.
“Course not. We’re partners now, aren’t we?”
“I guess.”
“All right then. Now get on back to that fire and get warm. I won’t be long.”
“Yes… okay,” Letty said, and watched him walk away.
There was a funny pain in the pit of her stomach, which she chalked up to a salt-less rabbit and a broken wrist, and sat down by the fire. She didn’t mean to, but exhaustion soon claimed her.
When Eulis came back from the creek, she was slumped over, and sound asleep.
He stood for a few moments, watching the way her nostrils flared slightly as she breathed in and out, then picked her up and carried her to the wagon, taking great care not to bump her wrist.
She settled immediately, rolled over on her other side, and fell into an even deeper sleep.
Eulis pulled the covers closer to her and tucked them under before walking away. As soon as he’d strung their wet clothes on the surrounding tree limbs, he took off his own wet pants, hung them up, as well, and then wrapped up in his blanket.
He started to lie down beneath the wagon, and then thought to check on Letty one more time. She was curled up in the blanket. When he felt on her forehead, she moaned.
He frowned. He wasn’t sure, but she might be getting a fever, and he wouldn’t know it if he was under the wagon. Hesitating briefly, he got their rifle, crawled up into the wagon and then, wrapped up in his own blanket from toe to chin, lay down beside her. He fell asleep with his hand on the gun, dreaming of stampeding buffalo, and a woman who wouldn’t quit.
STANDING ON THE PROMISES
Five days had passed since the buffalo stampede. During those five days, Letty and Eulis had come closer and closer to their destination, but farther and farther apart. There was uneasiness between them that had never been there before. Letty found it difficult to look Eulis in the face when they were talking, and Eulis was having thoughts of Letty that were anything but proper. He couldn’t help but wonder if Preacher Howe’s weakness for women was rubbing off on him. He’d never had these problems before. It didn’t occur to him that the reason he’d been uninterested in women before, was because whiskey had captured his heart. But now that the whiskey was a thing of the past, his normal manly urges were resurrecting. And, added to that was his growing a
dmiration for Letty. Except for when they’d been caught in the buffalo herd, she’d never wavered in her belief that they would endure.
By Eulis’ best guess, they should reach the location of the gold strike within the week. He’d been told back in Dripping Springs that it was at a place called Cherry Creek, near the town of Denver City, and while he’d never been there, he’d been given some landmarks to look for, one of which they’d passed just this morning.
He glanced over at Letty, who sat beside him in the wagon seat with the rifle across her lap. With her wrist still too painful to drive the team, she was riding shotgun, and taking the job as seriously as she took everything else.
“How you doin’?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said, without looking at him.
“Need to take a break?”
“No.”
Eulis wanted to get a rise out of her. He didn’t like getting the silent treatment, and because he missed the old Letty and her fiery temper, he pushed.
“You don’t even need to pee?”
Letty flinched as if she’d been slapped. Before she could think to ignore him, she was already mad.
“No, I don’t need to pee! Is that what you think of when you look at me? Poor stupid woman… tips an outhouse over on herself cause she had to go. Causes a terrible fuss on the stagecoach because she has to pee again.”
She hit him on the arm and then hunched her shoulders and looked away.
If someone had stuck a knife in Eulis’s gut, he couldn’t have felt any worse. He’d only wanted to tease a smile onto her face, not hurt her. He pulled the mules to a stop and tied off the reins onto the brake, then got down out of the wagon.
When he started to walk away without speaking, Letty looked up and yelled at him.
“Where are you going?”
He turned around and grinned.
“To pee. You wouldn’t give me an excuse and I’m not tough enough to wait it out like you.”
“Oh.”
She sat and watched until he moved behind some bushes then she got down and walked a short distance in the other direction. Trees were absent and undergrowth was sparse. The only thing she could hide behind was a large rock, so she headed for it.
