BECCA Season of Willows (11 page)

Opening the barn doors after milking the cow he looked at the sky not liking the blackness that was approaching. His instincts were screaming at him to protect and be on guard.
It had just begun raining lightly but River had lived around this area long enough to know it could turn ugly anytime.
He put on his duster and sprinted across the yard to the main house listening to his stomach growl. He was hungry and it was time to eat.
Breakfast was a somber affair now that River was back in his regular clothes forgetting courting, but he ate like a horse. Sipping his third cup of coffee he sighed at feeling full and he pushed from the table.

“River? You promised to show me your place today. Remember?”

Nola smiled at him. River nodded and frowned.
“We will wait Nola. It is not good day to ride too far. I feel…very bad weather coming.”
Nola shrugged at the rain that suddenly started coming in waves.
“Okay. Whenever you say. But it’s just a summer shower. It will pass.”

He rose and walked out the door thinking about the things he needed to do and headed for the barn. Over the next hour he was constantly watching the sky and waiting. He felt a great heaviness in the air.
Nola walked to the barn to watch him twist a lasso into shape when a crash of thunder and a strong wind slammed a barn door. The rain started pouring down in buckets.

Then as if the angry wind shook its head and growled, it got darker outside looking like any evening and then hail started. The size of the ice balls became big and River jumped up and looked to the sky.
The greenish clouds were rolling and churning angrily as the hail continued. He knew then what was coming. The wind reeked of it, the animals were jumpy and telling him but he had been too besotted with thinking of Becca and breakfast to listen.
Damn it! It will be very bad!
Covering Nola with his heavy duster he yanked her across the yard to the house. They entered the house with a bang of the door from the wind.

Becca ran to them.
“Are you alright? What is happening?”
River talked fast.
“No time! Go now to cellar! Now Becca!”

His eyes searched the room and he spotted Mac. River started shouting orders to him in Sioux and Mac ran for water and food to put in the cellar. He got candles and lamps and Mazie. River ordered Becca and Nola downstairs in the cellar as he quickly banked the fire in the stove.
As quickly as it started…it stopped. The air was thick and all became deadly quiet.
The air thickened more and River tasted the air knowing a tornado was being born without looking at the clouds becoming a ugly green color mixed with the dark.
Nola was smiling.
“Ah good it is over.”
River shook his head pushing them to the cellar.
“NO! Go NOW! Into cellar! Quick!”
His words seemed to anger the air. It was then they heard the horrible wail and the rumble of a twister hitting ground. River practically pushed them all downstairs.
“I go to try safe animals. Will return. Close door now!”
And he was gone.

Nola stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to run back in the house. Becca grabbed her arm.

“What are you doing? You heard River! Stay here Nola!”
Nola yanked her arm away.

“BECCA! My ring! I have to get my engagement ring! I can’t loose it! I have to go!”

She broke away from Becca’s grasp and went up the stairs with Becca grabbing at her skirts. Nola pulled her dress from Becca’s hands!
“NO! Becca! I have to! I can’t loose it!”
Nola ran into the kitchen hearing Becca scream her name over the wail of the wind. Becca screamed as the roof shook and heard the breaking of glass. She waited for Nola as Mac pulled on her skirts yelling for her to get in the cellar. She started to cry as she fought to close the door and bar it.

River made it to the barn releasing all the animals and ran back to the cellar kicking on the door. The doors swung open and he jumped in slamming the doors and setting the bar.
Becca was holding the children screaming at him. Then he understood as he looked in the lantern light for Nola. She was not there. Becca was screaming something about her saving something and had run out of the cellar. River began to panic.

Nola had run to get something she wanted to save? No! NO! NO!

Becca was screaming and River knew that if he left the cellar now, he would most likely die.
He rose and ran to the door opening it and fought with the wind already showing the anger of the wind. He felt Becca’s arms around his waist screaming for him to stay pulling on him.

“NO! You’re not going after her! She has to know to find cover! If you go for her…you’ll die! I couldn’t bear that! You can’t die, River! Don’t go! Don’t go River!”
 

River made his decision and fought with the wind to close the door and set the bar.
Becca was sobbing as she hung onto him with the grip of terror. And he pulled her into his arms and they held each other for dear life.
The angry wind roaring like a train at full speed passing by them. The rattle of the cellar door shook dust through the heavy wood planks. It sounded like the world was coming to an end.
Glass broke, wood was splintering and the roar of a giant funnel trying to kill all in its path was all you could hear. They clung together with the children as the cellar door continued to rattle and shake in the tornado’s fury.
It lasted for only a few minutes as Becca cried in River’s arms. Crying for her stubborn sister who was determined to save something precious to her.

The last thing they did was scream at each other in anger because Becca wanted her to stay and Nola was determined to go. Becca blamed herself that Nola hadn’t come back.
Mac and Mazie hung onto River and he comforted them with his touch. He finally sat on the ground as tears fell for the woman who was at one time to be his wife.
Nola. Stubborn, beautiful Nola. He knew she was dead.
 

The angry wind took no prisoners when he screamed his war cry. In an instant it was quiet.
An eerie silence hung in the air. Light could now be seen through the cracks in the cellar door. River stood and went to the door as the children followed him. He pushed them back.
“Wait till I say come. Mac? Comfort your mother and your sister. I will see what has happened here. I will call when it is safe to come out. It is very dangerous now.”

He opened the door and was confronted with boards and tree limbs across the cellar door. He pushed them away and stepped out to the floor of the laundry room. The walls were still standing, he could see pots of cooked food still on the stove. Plates were still on the table. But the windows and the doors were gone as well as the roof.
Becca showed her tear-stained face in the light looking up to him.

“Please be careful River! Please!”

River nodded.

“I will. Becca. You keep the children down there with you until I whistle.”

River started to make a search for Nola and the animals. He found no dead animals and…no Nola. There was no Nola! He looked under the beds and in the yard scanning the fields and trees for the burgundy dress she had on. He looked through the trees and around the barn which was still standing and solid. He looked through the barn and no Nola. He was getting the feeling that brother wind had taken her for himself. She wasn’t here.

He ran back to the cellar and gave the go ahead to come up with a warning to be careful of dangerous wood splinters and other things that could still kill. He brought Becca dry wood from the cellar to start a fire in the stove.
He and Mac started the clean up the part of the house that still had a roof. River left and was gone for about an hour. Becca was getting nervous as she stood scanning the horizon for him.

Becca knew he was searching for Nola.

She finally spotted him and watched him in his wagon carrying a tarp covering something.

He asked what was cooking for dinner and Becca stared at him like he was crazy.

“RIVER? Where is she? Where is my sister? We have to find her!”
Becca was screaming at him.

“Don’t you care? We have to find her! She’s out there somewhere!”

She broke into tears again as she called Mac and Mazie to her and hugged them close.
Becca glared at River until she saw the tears in his eyes and she was ashamed that she had screamed at him. She ran to him hugging him to her. River ran broad hands over her back saying soft little things to settle her.

“We do not know where she is Becca. I have searched our area. If she is…alive, she will return to us. If she is…gone from us, she will be brought to us.”
Becca nodded but she couldn’t stop from sobbing deeply.
Oh why wasn’t Harrison here? Why did he have to go on the cattle drive now? The house is ruined and the children need him!

River brushed her face of tears and looked into her eyes..
“You and Mazie stay in my room in the loft. The Barn and stables are untouched and solid. Mac and I will live in my parent’s tipi after I set it up.”
Becca nodded and started gathering things that had blown on the ground
 

River got busy and with Mac’s help they had the tipi set up in the yard quickly. River built the sleeping benches and set mats on top for sleeping. Blankets were brought in and soon River had a huge bed made and a snug little fire pit going.

Rebuilding the house would start tomorrow. Tonight they would grieve.

As Mac and River lay of the benches that made the huge bed, they heard the flap of the tipi and saw Mazie and Becca enter quietly and Mazie snuggled into Mac and he moved over to make room for her. River looked at Becca full of grief and he pulled back the blanket for her. She fell into the arms of Still River and he held her close as she wept. Becca poured out her sorrow at the loss of Nola and her fear of losing Harrison.
What else could happen now?
  
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Morning came and River found that the sleeping benches that made a huge bed for two had four bodies on them. Snuggled up to River on one side was Becca and the other had Mazie with Mac snuggled into him. River smiled, happy they could sleep. They would need the rest.
He pulled himself up and scooted down the bed to get out before waking everyone. He just finished dressing when the sound of a wagon was coming.
Turning back the flap of the tipi he walked out and spotted the Hendersons in a wagon coming into the yard. It was Frank Henderson and his oldest son Seth in the wagon. Seth. Nola’s love. He had the look on his face of a haunted soul.
Several of the horses that he released were tied to the wagon and as they approached their grim faces showing a hidden pain. River approached them as they nodded seeing Seth’s sickly pallor and sadness. Mr. Henderson wiped his face and nodded.

“River? We found Becca in the trees. She was dead, River. It ain’t a pretty sight. The tornado was hard on her.”

River placed a quick hand to his heart and felt a tear slide down his face and watched Seth’s face turn ashen. “It is not her is it? It is her twin sister Nola, River! Nola.”
The man choked a sob and walked around to lift the tarp to show River.
The pain on his face was raw. River saw the look of a man in pain and suddenly knew how much he loved Nola. He looked down and saw the ring on her finger. That’s what she went back for. She wanted the ring Seth gave her and let Father Sky have her wedding blanket.
River’s head fell back and he sang a death song for the woman that might have loved him but loved this quiet man instead. Becca came storming out of the tipi.
“Mr. Henderson! What? She saw the wagon and the body sized lump laying in the back.

“NO! NO! Nola? NOLA!”
She rushed to the wagon and River grabbed her.

“No do not look! She that you loved is gone. She is dead, Becca! Please do not look! Remember her alive!”

Becca started to scream in pain and felt like she was falling into the mud.

River held her before she fell. She screamed and beat on River’s chest and finally gave up. Her cries were head for miles in the quiet of the aftermath.

“Let me bury her in peace, Becca.”

Becca cried as she tried to gather her wits.
Nola! Gone! My twin is dead! Nola!
River turned to the Henderson men holding Becca.
“Frank? Seth? Your family is safe?”

Frank Henderson nodded his head. “Yeah. We are all spoken for and fine. A little worse for wear but fine. Thanks for  asking.”

River nodded.

“That is good. Have you eaten breakfast?”

Each man looked surprised but said no.
“Come then and eat with us. We still have a stove that works. Becca will you make coffee, please? Something to eat?”
Becca dazed automatically nodded. River let her go and followed the men as they walked towards Mac who had just walked out of the tipi. It was then they heard the screaming wail. River turned and saw Becca at the wagon with the tarp lifted.

“God damn it! Becca!” She turned and beat on him screaming after seeing the twisted broken body of her sister.