by Hunter Shea
My head swam from getting up too fast. “Teta, is that you?” I whispered.
Why would Teta knock on the door? No, it couldn’t be him. I calmed myself down, knowing he was across the way with whoever was at the door in his sights.
The knocks resumed. Two quick raps, then silence.
I crept to the door. The floor creaked loudly, potentially giving away my position. I stepped lightly to the right of the door.
Pulling the hammer back on my rifle, I reached out and slipped my hand over the doorknob. It was cold.
I didn’t hear a sound on the other side of the door. Not a breath, not a shuffled step. I waited.
Knock. A pause. Knock.
I twisted the knob and threw the door wide open. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.
Two small kids, a boy and a girl no older than ten, stood in the doorway, their faces downcast. The girl had curly, jet-black hair that hung past her shoulders. She wore a faded dress that came down to her ankles and her feet were bare. The boy was barefoot as well. He wore a hat that had seen better days. One of his suspenders was broken and hanging down by his knees.
I looked over their heads to see if anyone else was behind or around them.
It was just the two of them. What the hell were they doing here? Neither reacted to the fact that they’d been greeted by a man brandishing a rifle in their faces.
“You kids need help?” My words came out scratchy, strained. It was hard to talk. My mind was in such a state that it was having a hard time telling my body what to do.
“Do you have any food?” the girl asked. “We could use some water,” the boy added.
They kept their faces pointed at the floor. It was as if they were either afraid to look me in the eye or ashamed to be begging in the middle of the night.
“Come in before you catch your death.”
“We just need some food,” the girl said, “and water.”
They didn’t move. Something about them made me uneasy. I was a grown man with a rifle in his hands, and yet I was…frightened. But what was I frightened of?
I waved my arm so Teta could see everything was all right. I had to assume he did the same. It was too dark to see that far.
“Let me get some light on and I’ll fix you up something to eat. You sure you don’t want to come in, warm yourselves up? I’ve got a couple of thick blankets with your names on them.”
They shook their heads and the little girl’s curls waved back and forth.
I lit one of the lamps and dug around for some jerky and a canteen. Now that I could see them better, my consternation grew. They were filthy. It looked like they’d rolled in a pigpen and left themselves out to dry for a week.
Funny, there was no odor coming off them. Kids that dirty should stink to high heaven.
Of their skin, I could only see their hands and feet. They were pale as milk, at least in the parts not streaked with dirt.
“What are your names?”
The boy reached out and looped his pinky finger with hers.
“Do you know where you are? How did you get out here? Do you have folks nearby?”
I couldn’t stop with the rapid-fire questions. They could have been with a family that was attacked by thieves, but I doubted it. Something about them seemed off, unnatural. If only they’d show me their faces. What were they hiding?
And where the hell was Teta?
I poured some water in two tin cups and held them out to the kids. They didn’t move to take them.
“It’s only water. Nice and fresh. I’ve got some jerky too. I can start a fire, make you up something proper. Come on, there’s no need to be afraid. You came to me, remember? I just want to help. Let me see your faces, make sure you’re not hurt or anything.”
“Do you have some food?” the girl said again, her words falling to the floor. The boy followed with, “And some water.”
It was like they were one of those recordings on a phonograph that kept skipping back to the same note. Were they foreigners? Was that the only English they knew?
The hairs on my arms rose like cactus quills.
I put the cups down and knelt down to their level. The shadows in the room made it hard to see their faces, even from that angle.
“Were you two at the door last night? Was that you trying to get in? Where have you been staying?”
A nonsensical question popped into the back of my mind. In normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. There was nothing normal about these kids.
I took a breath, waited to see if they would move or speak again. When they didn’t, I asked, “You been up in those mines?”
The boy’s shoulders twitched and the girl let his pinky go. Then, as one, they raised their heads.
I stumbled onto my ass when they met my gaze. Their eyes were black as coal.
Chapter Fourteen
“Nat. Hey. Jefe!”
The pressure of Teta’s boot in my side woke me up. My back cried out in protest and I became aware of a dull chill in my bones.
“What are you doing sleeping on the floor like that?”
The lamp was still lit and the two cups of water lay beside it. I was in the middle of the floor, right where I’d been talking to the kids with the black eyes.
A shiver ran through me that shook me so hard my heart skipped several beats. Teta ran and got a blanket to throw over me.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did you pass out or something?” I looked at the cups.
“Where were you?”
“Across the street, watching the house.”
“Why didn’t you come when those kids were at the door?”
A sharp look of concern hardened his eyes. “Kids? What kids?”
“The ones who knocked on the goddamn door! Hell, I even waved you over.”
Teta put his hands on my shoulders. “Nat, I never took my eyes off the house. I didn’t see any kids. Why the hell would kids be out here in the first place? You’re not making any sense.”
My mind reeled and I pressed the palms of my hands into my eyes hard enough to hurt.
I needed the pain to straighten myself out.
“They kept on knocking. They wanted food and water. Said they were hungry. They…they wouldn’t look up from the ground. They wouldn’t answer me. Just kept asking for food and water.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know. I was trying to find out where they were from. Then, for some fool reason, I asked them if they’d come from the mine. I don’t know why. Maybe I was trying to throw something out crazy enough to get a reaction out of them. And it worked. They finally showed me their faces. Except it was bad. Real bad. Their eyes were solid black, Teta. No whites to them, nothing but the deepest black I’ve ever seen. It startled the shit out of me. Next thing I know, you’re here rousting me up.”
Teta lowered himself onto the floor and sat Indian-style in front of me. He said, softly, “You sure it wasn’t a dream?”
“There’s the water I poured for them.” I nodded toward the cups. “I lit the lamp to find them some food, see if they were hurt. I didn’t dream that. How could you not have seen them?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m not crazy.”
“I’d never say you are, Nat.”
I rubbed my head, chasing phantoms from my brain.
“The more I think about it, I’m not so sure I have your conviction.”
* * *
There hadn’t been much more to say, and after sharing a smoke, I took up my position for the rest of the night. Time went by without incident, though it seemed to take forever for the sun to rise.
Teta emerged when he smelled coffee. I could see by the heavy bags under his eyes that he didn’t get much sleep. I was feeling pretty wasted myself.
> He grabbed a cup and sat on the steps. “You want to ride into Laramie today, tell Teddy all’s clear?”
“I can’t tell him that.”
“Why not? I’ll give you that this place seems strange, but I don’t see why it should remain deserted. Not if there’s gold up there.”
I stretched my back and tilted my neck so the sun could warm my face. “There’re too many questions. I haven’t seen a trace of gold. We still don’t know what happened to the miners or troops. Teddy doesn’t just want us to find them. He wants us to make sure the place is safe. I couldn’t rightly say that at this point.”
The fact that I left out the strange kids with the black eyes hung heavily in the air between us. We both knew something was here. It was just a matter of finding out who, or what.
Teta held his hands out, palms up. “If you want to stay, look around some more, I’m with you. I just…I just don’t feel right here. And I know you don’t either.”
“I won’t argue with you on that. But I’ll bet that we get to the bottom of things soon. I’m getting that feeling you get just before a storm’s about to break. The air feels different, charged.”
“You want to ride around the hills, see what we find? I’m not tan feliz about wandering around the mines again.”
“That sounds like a good use of our time.”
We sopped up some beans with hard tack we’d let soak in their juices, finished our coffee and killed the fire. Teta got the horses saddled up.
It was another hot, though dry, day, and there was no sign of actual storm clouds. Hecla could use a good soak. Or, more like I’d heard a fair share of pastors say, a cleansing.
I was filling our canteens at the pump when Teta whistled. “Someone’s coming,” he shouted.
I dropped the canteens and jogged over to find him standing on the roof. I hoped he didn’t fall through.
“I saw dust kicking up about a mile out. It looks like a lone rider. Mierda, he sure is beating hell to get here.”
My tongue wanted to say, “Maybe it’s the father of those kids,” but I held it back. It wasn’t just their unnatural eyes that made me feel they weren’t what they appeared to be. It was the weird feeling I got the moment I saw them. I didn’t have much experience with children, but I’d never met ones that made me afraid.
“Can you make anything out?”
“Not yet. Toss me my rifle.”
Teta caught it with one hand and lay on his belly so our visitor couldn’t see him. There was no telling what was making its way to us. It was always best to err on the side of caution. I crept around the house to look. The rider was really taking his spurs to his horse. I looked to see if there were signs of any kind of pursuit, but it was just the one rider tearing across the chalky plain.
“This place is full of surprises,” Teta said.
“Who is it?”
“You’re not going to believe it.”
He jumped down from the roof and smiled. “You got your best bib and tucker on?” he said, mocking my old cowboy slang.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’ll see.”
Teta splashed some water on his face, slicked his hair back and adjusted his sombrero. Was it Teddy he’d seen riding in? That couldn’t be. Now that he was president, there was no way anyone would let him ride alone anymore. He was too important for that.
I held my hand over my eyes to block out the sun and saw what had Teta all worked up. It was a woman.
Chapter Fifteen
“I’ll be damned,” I said. “She bears a striking resemblance to Selma, old man McCallum’s daughter.”
“That’s because she is.”
Sure enough, when Selma saw us standing there, she eased up and came to a trot.
She was dressed in black from head to toe, cutting a fine, full figure of womanhood. A layer of dirt and dust hovered like a cloud around her. Her horse had worked up a good lather. If we hadn’t been so well hydrated, I would have sworn she was a mirage.
“Gentlemen,” she said, pulling back on the reins. “Do you have some water? Maria here has been working hard to get here.”
Maria? I couldn’t recall anyone naming a horse Maria. “Well, if it isn’t Selma McCallum,” I said.
“Smartwood,” she corrected me.
She got down from the horse and slapped the dust off herself as best she could. Teta wasn’t about to take Maria to the trough, so I volunteered.
“Thank you.” She smiled with dark lips plump enough to lay your head upon.
The moment I turned my back, Teta slipped into his Spanish accent just enough to add to his exotic appeal. I’d seen him do it countless times. The problem with Selma was that, being half-Mexican, I didn’t suppose it would have much effect on her, other than making her homesick for her momma.
Maria greedily nudged my horse from the trough and went to town.
I wondered why Selma had ridden so hard to get here. Could be she had word from Teddy. I hurried back to her before Teta really put the moves on her.
“What brings you out here?” I asked, a tad breathless.
Without her father around, I could really take her in. She was a stunner, with ample curves in all the right places and a face that could tame a wild horse. I could tell by the slight wrinkles at the edges of her eyes that she wasn’t as young as I’d first thought, though she was still a mite more youthful than me.
Teta said, “I got the feeling from the way your father shooed you off when we mentioned this place that it was off limits.”
Selma gave a nervous smile and clenched her bottom lip between her teeth. “You’d be right. If my father knew I was here, he’d skin me alive.”
“There must be a very good reason for you to risk a skinnin’,” I said, offering her a cup of water. She drank it down in one swig and handed the cup back to me.
“I came to ask you to leave. If it’s gold you’re looking for, you won’t find any. Those hills are just dead and empty mines. Whatever gold was found is long gone, along with everyone who’s come hungry for it.”
“See, now that’s a bit of a contradiction. I know that when folks find gold, they do everything they can to convince other folks that there’s nothing to see. Scaring them off a claim, even killing a man, is all right in the eyes of the Lord when gold is at stake,” I said.
“I…I…” Her eyes flicked back and forth between Teta and me.
The last thing I wanted to do was scare her, but that I did, in spades. I regretted the part about killing a man. After all, here was a woman, several hours’ ride from help of any sort, with two strange men who stank like weasels, looked rough around the edges and spent their time poking around a deserted mining town.
“Let me put it another way. We’re not here for gold. We wouldn’t even know how to find it. If you want me to rope a cow or break a horse, that I can do. I’m simply saying that it comes off strange, you coming out here to assure us there’s no gold and to tell us to vamoose.”
The tension in her shoulders eased a bit and they dropped slightly. “You talk a lot like my pa.”
“Us geezers have a language all our own,” I said, chuckling.
Teta drew in a breath to pump up his chest. “I’m here to make sure Grandpa doesn’t hurt himself.”
She laughed.
I said, “Now, you care to tell me why you’re really here.”
Selma sighed and walked to the embers of our fire. She lifted a stick off the ground and used it to poke around. She was a bundle of nervous energy.
“I really do want you to leave. Hecla isn’t safe. My father should have told you back at the ranch but he was too rattled to think straight.”
“We scouted the town and I agree, the places here aren’t safe, which is why we’re staying in the one solid house left standing. And we did have a tunnel colla
pse on us in the mine. Not fun,” Teta said.
She shook her head. “I’m talking about the land itself. It’s not good. It hasn’t been for years. People who come here vanish.”
“That’s partly why we’re here. Some United States troops came to Hecla on a scouting mission a few months back. No one’s heard or seen them since. You know anything about that?” I asked.
She paced back to the steps and sat down. “Yes. They stopped in Laramie, of course. It was all the talk for the one day they were there. It’d been a long time since we saw so many soldiers. They even brought their own horses with them. I saw a few in town when they stopped to eat. They never said where they were headed, so it didn’t seem strange that they didn’t come back to Laramie. Until now.”
“I suppose you’d met the miners and their families when the mines were operational,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Anyone say what happened to them?”
“No.” She got up suddenly and went back to pacing.
“You know of anyone else who said Hecla was in their intentions but never came back?”
“Yes. Once news about the gold got out, men would come by all the time, hoping to get rich. After the first fifty or so disappeared, I guess word got around and they stopped coming.”
“Fifty or so?” Teta said. “Plus an entire mining town and troops. What have we gotten into?”
“That’s why I came to warn you! I couldn’t let you stay here in good conscience. There’s something wrong with this place. Something…evil. I don’t know how to explain it. I just know that it’s no place fit for men.”
“Or women,” Teta said under his breath.
“Out of all the men that have come out here, why did you choose us as the ones to warn?”
She snapped a stick in two and threw it into the embers. “I don’t know. There’s something different about the two of you. A woman can see greed in a man from a mile away. It burns in their eyes like a sickness. You didn’t have that look. It didn’t seem right to leave you out here.”
