All Together in One Place (22 page)

“You dont listen to my words, but you read my chewed lips,” Mazy said and smiled but for a moment.

Pig ambled back and forth in front of them. Purple hills filled the distance. A herd of deer Charles pursued kicked up dust. The riders saw no signs of Mazy s mother. Time raced, and Mazy knew Jeremy would soon mention turning back, when Pigs short little ears alerted and he barked his low
gruff, gruff
‘warning.

“What is it, Pig?”

The dog stood planted, staring ahead. Mazy peered into the distance. Before long she saw a rider, maybe two, coming over a rise Her heart pounded. Something didnt look right. There wasn't a second rider, but something being dragged and snubbed up tight to the mount. Mazy put her hand to her mouth.

“Let's take this slow,” Jeremy said, pulling up next to her, “It's essential that we don't signal something that we don't intend.”

“Why have we stopped?” Tipton asked as Tyrell pulled at the lead oxen. The grinding and clattering of the wheels ceased. The wagons—minus the searchers—had moved out late and slow. They'd only gone five miles.

“Cullvers have stopped,” Tyrell told her as he moved the wagons side by side. The oxen stood swishing tails at the flies. A pale and drawn Bryce Cullver crouched beside the nigh ox and grabbed at his stomach, beads of sweat dotted his face.

“Something you ate, man?” Tyrell asked.

Bryce shook his head. His felt hat shoved low toward his eyes made his whole face look square and squashed. An acrid, wary scent seeped from his skin.

“I …you'll have to go around me. Feeling…need to head out for a bit. Suzanne Jane,” he called back over his shoulder. “You got to watch
Clayton.” He turned toward Tyrell then, and Tipton caught her breath with the look of agony that crossed his face Not waiting for his wife to answer, Bryce stood half-stooped and, still clutching his stomach, made toward the cover of the tall grass not far from the Platte where he collapsed on his knees.

“I'll check on Mrs. Cullver and the boy,” Tyrell said to Tipton. “You run on ahead and fetch Dr. Masters. Get someone to tell Antone to pull up.”

“I'll check on Mrs. Cullver,” Tipton argued. “No need for you to.”

“Tip.” Tyrell had already lifted himself into their wagon. “I've got to see to Bryce next. He's not good. Go now. Do as you're told.”

Tipton folded her arms across her breast and stared ahead When Tyrell failed to plead, and instead stuck his head inside the canvas, Tipton thought better of it. She grabbed at her skirts and began to run.

“Mercy,” she heard him say behind her. “Got two more sick ones in here.”

Something in the rider's pitch backwards in the saddle nudged at Mazy as she watched them approach.

“That's mother,” Mazy said and lifted her arm above her head, brushing her bonnet back away from her face as she did. Pig started to bark and ran toward the rider, causing what moved beside the mule to jerk outward, then back to the withers of the animal as though a yo-yo on a rope.

Mazy's heart pounded as she kicked her mule forward.

“Wait,” Jeremy said.

Mazy saw the rider wave in return; but she couldn't tell what was being dragged.

Jeremy signaled Charles with a shot from his cap-and-ball pistol, and Ruth and Charles moved toward them. Pig and Mazy reached her first with Ruth close behind
“A welcoming party,” Elizabeth said. “How thoughtful!” She sat astride Ink and looked fine.

“Mother! How could you?”

“Easy,” she said. “Well, not so easy. Didn't have enough to eat to be out all night. But then I hadn't planned to sleep on rocks. Time just scattered Almost as much as these antelope when they got my scent. You should have seen ‘em! Must have been two hundred. But I got me one. Walked right up to it lying there in the grass. Shivered when I touched him Now it thinks I'm his mother!”

“We thought you'd been lost,” Jeremy said, his words clipped.

“I knew where I was. Kept that rock in sight and figured I'd catch up with you by evening.”

“But what's the point, Mother?” Mazy asked. “Why spend a night out to bring back a what, an antelope?”

Elizabeth looked wounded, as if she were a child who'd offered up her precious drawing only to have an adult comment on how it might be improved. “Kids need a plaything,” Elizabeth said. “Something to surprise their days. That little Jessie's one.” Elizabeth nodded to Ruth. “She'll have a good time petting and tending it. All the kids will.”

“A pet. You have chosen to delay us over a pet,” Jeremy said. Pig sniffed at the antelope, circled around it.

“I don't see that I've dawdled anyone,” Elizabeth said. “You were all washing and such. Calm down. I went to bring medicine to Silver Bells and get some moccasins for your wife's feet

“You might have spoken of it before departing,” Jeremy said.

“People don't always say what they're planning now, do they?” Elizabeth said.

Mazy felt her face burn “I sat up all night, worrying over you, imagining the worst kind of fate. And now we've been riding for hours and have more time yet to get back.”

Elizabeth turned to her. “Sad you did, but I didn't ask it.”

“We're responsible for what we do that affects others,” Mazy
insisted. “You cant just ride in with an antelope at your side and expect everyone to cheer because you invited kindness but worry arrived.”

“She's right,” Ruth offered

“See,” Mazy said.

“Elizabeth is. We made our own decision about staying up and riding out. Just as Elizabeth did.”

“I wouldn't wish anyone to spend time in worrying, but I haven't caused anyone to do anything. I didn't bother anyone who didn't want to be bothered”

“You're not alone now, Mother. You are part of…us—this awkward dance we're doing with a dozen partners. And what you do does affect the rest of us.” Her face felt hot, and she wondered if she felt embarrassment for her mother's lack of contrition or her own feeling of foolishness for worrying, for not trusting a simple answer. She'd wallowed in unpleasant places. “I'd be grateful if before you have another escapade you let the rest of us know about it in advance,” Mazy said. “Some of us actually care about other people's feelings.” She straightened her bonnet, yanked at the strings beneath her chin

“Fair enough,” Elizabeth said. “But it spoils the surprise.”

At that moment, the small pronghorn jerked her arm and pulled Elizabeth from her mule. The woman landed on her bottom with a whoop, the rope still gripped in her hand. The small animal, not much bigger than Pig, nudged at her, made no attempt to run off. “See what fun 11 it'll be?” she said, smiling up at them.

The Schmidtkes’ teamster, Joe Pepin, rode up to meet the returning group, eyeing the antelope that trailed behind Elizabeth like a dog. “Several cases of illness,” he reported, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down “One death. Antone says we're holding up. Glad you made your way back then, Mrs. Mueller.” He tipped his hat at Elizabeth. “Who died?” Mazy asked.

Ruth kicked Koda past them, not waiting for an answer, not wanting to be told, in truth, who had passed on.

Ruth headed first toward her brothers wagon. Cattle ripped at low grass, and she noted that the land look ravaged of good pasture. Signs of people already passed dotted the area: cold cooking circles, human excrement not far from the water, empty tins of alum and salt.
Were a dirty lot
, Ruth thought.

“Hows Jessie?” She said, jumping off Koda and tying him to the side of the wagon as she spoke.

“Fine,” Betha said. “She's doing fine.” Betha pulled at her fingers, each one at a time “One of the Celestials is down with something, though. And you might ask over your brother.”

Relief, guilt, then worry churned in Ruth “Is he affected?”

Betha nodded, her lip trembling. She pulled a handkerchief from up her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes. “Just started. He moans so. IVe given him some laudanum. It may be what helped our Jessie. Someone in a new wagon saw me give it. Said I needed bismuth. Isn't that for cholera? This isn't cholera, surely. Is it, Ruthie?” She whispered the word. “We've no Asiatics here. Oh,” she said looking up, her fingers pressed to her lips. “The Celestials.” The last sounded like a wail

“It'll be all right,” Ruth said patting the woman's chubby shoulders. She looked around, still waiting to see the children.

Everything about Betha was soft and scented, Ruth decided, weaker than she'd hoped for.

“You think so?” Betha turned pooling eyes toward Ruth.

“We've got to keep our heads,” Ruth said. “Let's go tend to my big brother.”

Bryce Cullver had died just after noon. They wrapped him in a blanket and dug a shallow grave in the roadbed after a short service at dusk.
Sister Esthers brothers commented on Bryce's kindness. Prayers were said Then they drove wagons over the grave to keep the coyotes from digging—and any others that might think a treasure had been buried with this gentle man. Afterwards, people moved back to their wagons, the women avoiding each others eyes.

Dr. Masters described it as most likely mountain fever.

“He was just fine this morning,” Betha told Mazy. “He laughed and held his wife a moment before they rolled out. I saw them.”

He lay dead just hours later.