The Amen Trail

by Sharon Sala

  She had her belt untied, and was holding her pants up as she moved to the other side of the rock. And because she was looking over her shoulder to check on Eulis, she missed the fact that she was no longer alone.

  “Lord, have mercy, I am saved.”

  Shocked by the sound of a man’s voice, Letty squealed, and grabbed the gun with both hands. As she did, her pants fell down around her ankles. Then she saw the man and her mouth went slack in disbelief.

  “Good God in heaven…”

  “Emory James at your service, ma’am. Excuse me if I don’t stand up, but as you can see, I am somewhat at a disadvantage.”

  “EEEuuullliiisss!”

  The scream brought Eulis out of the bushes on the run. He thought of the rifle and groaned. Letty had their only weapon, and if she was in dire straits, then they were for sure in trouble.

  When he didn’t see her at the wagon, his heart dropped. Then she screamed again. He turned, saw her running out of the trees, holding her pants up with one hand, and waving the rifle with the other, and started running.

  “Eulis! Eulis!”

  He caught her on the run, yanked the rifle out of her hand, and shoved her behind him.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “There’s a man behind that rock.”

  “Did he hurt you? Tell me, honey… did he hurt you?”

  She was tying her belt as fast as she could and shaking her head in denial.

  “No, no, I’m all right, but he’s… he’s…” she shuddered, unable to finish what she’d been going to say, grabbed Eulis’s hand, and started leading him back to the rock.

  Eulis came with her, but he wasn’t as sure of the urgency as he’d been before. As soon as they reached the rock, he stopped.

  “Wait. I’m goin’ in first,” Eulis said.

  “Okay… and, oh yeah… one other thing. He said his name was Emory James.”

  Eulis stared. “He introduced himself?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Then what in blazes is the problem?”

  She pointed. “You’ll see.”

  Eulis circled the rock with the rifle at the ready then staggered to a stop.

  “Oh God… oh man… Mister, Mister… how in blazes… what… who…”

  “I’d be real happy to tell you the details, but could we talk after you get me out of this hole?”

  Eulis pointed behind him. “The wagon. I got a shovel in the wagon. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

  Emory James would have grinned, but he was too miserable to make the effort. Instead, he chose sarcasm to cover the emotion of relief.

  “Wait here? Yeah, sure. No problem.”

  Eulis blinked, then sucked his lower lip into his mouth and bolted for the wagon, thrusting the gun in Letty’s hand as he went.

  Letty circled the rock again, squatted down in front of the man, and cradled the rifle across her lap.

  “Mister…”

  “Emory… please call me Emory.”

  “Emory. So how did you get this way?”

  Emory blew toward his nose then gave Letty a beseeching look.

  “I know we’ve just met, but could I ask you to do me a favor and brush that ant off my nose before it crawls up my nostril.”

  Letty hesitated a moment, then leaned forward and brushed the ant off the man’s nose.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked.

  “Where’s your man,” Emory asked. “I sure would like to get out of here.”

  Letty turned around to look. “He’s coming.”

  “Reckon y’all got yourselves a shovel?”

  “We got one,” she said, then eyed him closer. “How tall are you, anyway?”

  “Less than six feet.”

  Letty nodded. “Who did this to you? Why would someone want to bury you like this… up to your neck and all? He had to know that you’ll die. If he was that pissed, why didn’t he just out and out kill you?”

  The woman’s curiosity struck Emory’s funny bone, which somewhat surprised him, because if anyone had asked him, he would have said that Black Dog had broken the funny bone, and everything else Emory had, before he stuck in him in this hole, and buried him up to his neck.

  “Considering it takes twice as long to die like this, I’d say that Black Dog was using his best options to make me suffer before I kicked.”

  “What happens if we dig you up and Black Dog finds out?”

  “I’d advise you not to mention it around.”

  Letty shivered. She couldn’t imagine running into someone who was capable of this kind of torture.

  “What did you do to piss him off?” Letty asked.

  “I was about to poke his woman.”

  That was something Letty understood. She stared long and hard at him, and rocked back on her heels.

  “Then I reckon you’re lucky he didn’t cut off your dingus before he planted your ass.”

  Emory was still digesting that remark when Eulis came running around the rock. Letty moved aside to give them more room while eyeing Emory James closely. She’d known a thousand men like him, and not one of them had been worth saving. She couldn’t help but wonder if they were doing Black Dog an injustice, but it was too late to question that now. If they walked away from this man after finding him like this, then they would be the ones killing him, and that wasn’t something she took lightly.

  Eulis chunked the shovel into the earth a distance away from where the man’s shoulders should be, and took out the first shovel full of dirt.

  “He’s not quite six feet tall,” Letty offered.

  Eulis looked up, surprised that she’d had the sense to ask, and then smiled.

  “Good thinkin’, Sister Leticia.”

  Emory frowned as he looked at Letty, trying to figure out how an armed woman wearing man’s pants and burned brown as the earth in which he was buried, could have any religious connections.

  “Sister? So is he your brother, or are you one of them nun women… one of them Catholics?”

  “We’re digging you out. That’s all you need to know,” Letty said.

  Since Emory was in no position to argue, he didn’t push the issue.

  Time passed. Eulis dug with the shovel until he was forced to stop and dig with his hands to keep from injuring James more.

  They finally managed to move enough dirt to get a rope beneath his arms and around his chest. The ground around him was looser from the waist down, and Eulis figured they could hitch him to the mules and pull him out.

  Emory wasn’t as convinced it would work and spoke up to the fact.

  “You gonna do this all slow like, aren’t you? I don’t want to find myself pulled in half or nothin’.”

  “I’ll go slow,” Eulis promised.

  “It probably wouldn’t hurt to scare him some,” Letty muttered, as she grabbed the other end of the rope and started toward the mules.

  Emory’s eyes rolled until all that was visible were the whites of his eyes.

  “She’s not serious… is she?”

  Eulis didn’t answer.

  Emory panicked. “Mister! Mister! She ain’t serious is she?”

  Eulis frowned. “Letty? Yeah, she’s serious. She’s always serious. I don’t know what you said to her, but she’s taken a dislike to you, and nothin’ I got to say is gonna change that. However, don’t worry. I’m the one who’ll be workin’ the mules. Her wrist is broke.”

  Emory felt a warmth on the inside of his leg and knew that he’d just wet himself. But considering the day that he’d had, he considered himself lucky that he still had a dingus from which to pee.

  “I’m sure grateful to you both,” Emory said.

  Eulis finished tying off the rope under Emory’s armpits, and then stood up.

  “You’re not out yet,” Eulis said. “Better save your thanks for later.”

  At that moment, Emory felt a tug on the rope and knew that Letty was taking matters into her own hand.

  “Wait!” he screamed. “Lady,
wait!”

  Eulis grabbed the rope, catching the slack as he ran toward the wagon.

  “Letty! Wait!”

  She was standing by the mules with a smile on her face.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  Eulis was breathing heavy by the time he got to her.

  “What did you think you was doin’?”

  “Giving him something to think about.”

  Eulis frowned. “What did he do, anyway?”

  “Pissed off an Indian who calls himself Black Dog.”

  Eulis took a step backward, then grabbed onto the harness to steady himself.

  “The hell you say.”

  “You know him?”

  Eulis’s face turned pale. “Of him. He’s bad news.”

  “So what happens to us if Black Dog finds out we dug the man up?”

  “We don’t tell him,” Eulis said.

  “That what Emory James suggested, too.”

  “What did he do to Black Dog?” Eulis asked.

  “His words were, he was about to poke Black Dog’s woman, and got caught in the act.”

  Eulis looked up at the surrounding hills and then turned a complete circle, searching the horizon for signs that they were being watched.

  “What do you think we oughta do?” Eulis asked.

  “If we leave him planted, then we’re killing him, too,” Letty said.

  Eulis thought about it a minute and then nodded.

  “I’ve got to move the wagon some so that we’re pullin’ the sucker straight. It would be a shame to drag him into that big rock, wouldn’t it?”

  “A crying shame,” Letty said.

  They smiled at each other, then just to give Emory James a second reminder of why he was still up to his ass in dirt, they each grabbed a mule and began moving them backward.

  “Hey! Whoa! Goddamnit, you people! You’re killing me, here!”

  “Did you hear somethin’?” Eulis asked.

  “Might have,” Letty said.

  “Reckon we ought to go see who it was?”

  She shrugged. “It’s your call. If it was me, I don’t think I would have stopped until the bastard was buried, head and all.”

  Eulis looked at Letty and grinned.

  “It’s good to have you back,” he said.

  Letty frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do,” Eulis said. “We been tip-toein’ around each other like two virgins facin’ a troop of soldiers with permanent hard-ons.”

  Letty’s frown turned to a glare.

  “Well, it’s all your fault.”

  “Mine? Why is it mine?”

  “You started treating me nice, even taking care of me like I was something special. How else was I to act?”

  Eulis glared back. “Dang it, Letty, you are somethin’ special, whether you like it or not. Now are we gonna drag Emory James outta’ his grave, or leave him to it?”

  “You move the wagon. I’ll go tell the little bastard to stop yelling.”

  “All right then,” Eulis said.

  “All right then,” Letty echoed.

  She walked off while Eulis grabbed the reins and began leading the mules and wagon to get a better angle.

  Emory James was hanging onto the rope for dear life when Letty rounded the rock.

  “What the holy hell was you two tryin’ to do to me?” he asked.

  “There is not one damned thing about hell that is holy,” Letty said, and then kicked a little dirt back in the hole to punctuate her statement. “Eulis is moving the wagon to get a better angle to pull you out. And, if I was you, I wouldn’t be doing all that yelling. That Black Dog fella might have set himself up somewhere nearby just to watch you die.”

  Emory’s stomach knotted as he looked around in panic.

  “Why did you say that? Did you see him? Did you see sign of—”

  “Shut up, Mister. You talk too much,” Letty said.

  Emory shut his mouth.

  Eulis got the wagon in place.

  “You ready?” he called.

  “Let ’er rip,” Letty called back.

  Emory felt the first tug as the rope tightened around his chest.

  “Easy… easy,” he begged, as the pull tightened even more. His lower half was still planted where Black Dog had put him, and he couldn’t feel any give. “Wait! Wait!” he begged.

  “Ease up!” Letty called.

  Eulis halted the mules.

  Letty looked down at Emory.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t think this is gonna work,” Emory said. “I don’t feel any give below.”

  Letty picked up the shovel and dug a bit more from around his waist, apologizing every time she nicked his hips and his butt with the shovel.

  “Lord have mercy, woman,” Emory finally begged. “You’re gonna unman me with that shovel blade.”

  “I’m not trying to hurt you,” Letty said. “However, if it happened, it would certainly take care of your weakness for other men’s women, wouldn’t it?”

  Emory turned loose of the rope and started digging the dirt from around his waist, himself.

  “Get back! Get back, damn it! You’re a scary woman and that’s a fact!”

  “Are you ready?” Eulis called out.

  Letty looked down at Emory, who was frantically digging dirt from around his waist.

  “Yeah, he’s ready!” she yelled.

  Emory looked up in disbelief and grabbed the rope just as the mules gave him another tug.

  He screamed out in pain.

  “More!” Letty yelled.

  Emory’s scream intensified and then suddenly he was out and flopping on the ground like a fish out of water. He was out and from the waist down, as naked as the day he was born.

  “Whoa!” Letty called. “He’s out!”

  “Praise God,” Eulis said. He untied the rope and then drove the team and wagon up to the rock.

  “My pants! Where’s my pants?” Emory groaned.

  Letty looked at the man’s dirty bare ass, then leaned over and peered into the hole.

  “Would you look at this,” she said. “They’re still in the hole. We pulled you right out of your britches.”

  Eulis circled the rock and then stopped, taken aback by the man’s nudity.

  “What happened to your pants?” he asked.

  Letty pointed to the hole.

  “We pulled him right out of them.”

  Emory rolled over on his back then sat up, scrambling to get the rope from around his chest before this crazy pair decided to drag him behind the wagon just to see how much dust he could raise, then cupped his hands over his crotch.

  “Would someone please hand me my pants?”

  “You still got your legs,” Letty said. “Get ’em yourself.”

  Emory cursed beneath his breath and tried to stand up, only to find his legs were still too numb to bear weight. He stumbled and fell to his knees, baring his nude ass in an even more embarrassing pose. It occurred to him then how much he disliked this woman.

  “Here,” Eulis said. “I’ll get ’em for you.”

  “I would certainly appreciate it,” Emory said, and glared at Letty.

  Letty purposefully looked at what he could not hide and then grinned.

  “You sure must have a high opinion of yourself,” she said.

  Emory frowned. “What makes you say that?”

  She pointed to his dirty, shriveled dingus.

  “You oughta know that you can’t take a woman away from her man with something like that.”

  Eulis purposefully ignored them both, but Emory gasped. He’d never been insulted in such an intimate manner by anyone, let alone a woman. He stumbled to his feet just as Eulis pulled his pants from the hole, and yanked them out of Eulis’s hands. He stumbled to the wagon, leaning against it to steady himself as he put on his pants. When he was completely covered, he eyed Eulis.

  “You got yourself a real mean woman.”

&nbs
p; Eulis looked at Letty, who was rolling up the rope they’d used to pull him out of the hole, then grinned.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “How do you put up with her?” Emory asked.

  “Mostly I just let her have her way,” Eulis said.

  Letty snorted beneath her breath, and tossed the rope in the back of the wagon.

  “If you two are through talking bad about me, it’s time we got moving.”

  “You heard the woman,” Eulis said. “If you want a ride to Cherry Creek, you better get in.”

  Emory grabbed onto the wagon and started trying to climb in, but his arms and legs were still too weak.

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Letty said.

  She bent down, grabbed him by the ankles with her good arm, then both lifted and pushed as he was pulling, which catapulted him into the wagon bed, head first.

  He landed with a thud.

  Letty heard him curse. She leaned over the wagon and looked in.

  “I’m sorry. Were you talking to me?” she asked.

  Emory rolled over on his back and ran his fingers over his nose and chin. He was missing some hide, but it was a small price to pay for being out of that hole.

  “No, ma’am,” he said. “And thanks for the help in getting in.”

  “No problem,” Letty said, then felt Eulis’s hand was on her back.

  “Don’t you think you’ve helped him enough?”

  “I haven’t decided,” Letty said. “Where’s my rifle?”

  “On the wagon seat,” Eulis said. “Need some help gettin’ up?”

  “I can manage,” Letty said, and began climbing up into the wagon, only using one arm made it difficult.

  “You sure you don’t need some help?” Eulis asked.

  Letty turned around and glared. “If I do, I’ll ask for it.”

  “Fine then,” Eulis said, and turned away just as Letty slipped. She landed butt first in the dirt and knocked the wind from her lungs.

  Eulis sighed, then bent down and picked her up.

  Letty batted at his hands, but was lacking the air to speak.

  “Dang it, Leticia… can’t you just accept a little help without making a big fuss about it?”

  He plopped her in the seat, then shoved at her leg.

  “Scoot over,” he said. “I’m still driving.”

  She took the rifle as she scooted, pointed the barrel so that it was straight in Emory’s face as she turned around.