Black Angels (13 page)

“See,” she said, “I don tole you. Les go outside and wait. He gon have some terrible stomachache.”

“Good idea,” said Betty Strong Foot. “Y'all make too much noise. Go back there where the garden is. I can't think.” She picked up her pipe. “I'm gon have a smoke.”

Once they had gone to bed, Luke sat up on the dirt floor, and then rolled sideways and groaned. Daylily was about to burst with laughing, but she knew better than to wake Betty Strong Foot, who was snoring.

“Caswell.” She shook him. “You wake? Luke got a terrible stomachache, jus like I said. Now you got to give me them buttons.”

Caswell turned over and looked at her, and he didn't look happy. His forehead was all wrinkled up in a scowl.

“But I can't,” he said. “I can't, Daylily. My papa's a soldier. Maybe those were my papa's. Maybe he lost em. Those buttons . . . maybe . . .”

“It's OK,” she said. “Ain't no way I could use real gold buttons anyway.” She patted him on the arm. “You sleep tight now.” In a few minutes Daylily was asleep.

 

As the fire died down, Betty roused herself. She got up and checked the children to make sure they were sleeping well. She ate a small piece of leftover pie. Then she dressed and slipped out into the night.

CHAPTER 16

YONA

Once they settled on being there, the days went by one after the other as easy as stringing Betty's beads. Betty taught Daylily how to make a necklace of beads like her own mama had done back in Florida, like the the red and blue one Betty wore every day. Daylily reminded Luke how good it was to have food and a warm place to sleep, and most of all to be with somebody they could depend on. But Luke knew they were not going to stay with Betty forever. He never mentioned it, he just felt it. They had been with Betty for two weeks. Betty said October would be here tomorrow. Caswell had stopped staring at nothing, and Daylily was almost completely well. He couldn't figure it out, but he knew that one day their good time would be over. It just kept bothering him. After a while he pushed it out of his mind altogether. It was too much to worry about.

One night they went into the woods after supper to check the rabbit traps, and there was nothing in them. Betty said she'd have to take the dogs out tomorrow because they needed meat. As they got closer to their cabin, it began to rain. Betty said, “Stay put” and the dogs settled in as Betty tied them to their post in the lean-to.

By the time they reached the door of the cabin, it was raining hard, and there was a chill in the air. Betty restarted the fire so they could all get dry. She made them wrap up in quilts and blankets and made some chicory coffee. She put the pot right on the hot coals so it would boil. Luke could smell the wet leaves and mud all mixed up with the smell of chicory. But he liked it. It smelled like home to him now.

After tussling around about who was gonna sit closest to the fire, they got settled and quiet. Betty's hair was wet from the rain, so she took her hair down and let it hang out so it would dry. Luke noticed her hair was grayer when she took it down. He wondered how old she really was. She said nothing for a long while.

The fire and the rain made the only noise until Caswell said, “Miz Bet—”

“I know what you gonna ask, and it's comin. We goin to the dream lodge. That's what my papa would say when he told me stories. We goin to the dream lodge.”

They all squirmed around to get into the most comfortable position.

“That's where the bear lives,” Betty said. “Old Mother Bear live in caves in the winter. That's her dream lodge. She knows where to go to be safe. When the wind whistles and shakes the trees, and the rain blows cold, and the snow comes and covers the grass, the water starts to freeze, and she knows she gotta go to the cave to have her babies until it's safe to come out.

“I need to start at the beginning. A long time ago in the old time, it was a cold, cold day. Mother Bear Yona was fishin for dinner. She had to eat a whole lot so she could nurse her babies when they come. She had to eat most everything in sight, and get ready for the cold time. She needed berries and fish. She fished all day and she'd sleep at night.

“Finally she get fat enough. One real cold day, Yona saw a snowflake drop, and then another and then another. Soon the whole world be white, and the snow be thick and deep. Yona knew it was time to go to the dream lodge and sleep for the winter. Under the great mountain, she found a cave just right, and deep inside was a place for her to have her babies and take care of them until spring.

“So the babies come, and Yona nurses the babies, and then one day after a long, long winter in the cave they are ready to go outside. When she gets to the opening of the cave, she is very surprised, for there all by himself is a little boy standin in the shadows. He is scared when he sees Yona, and she asks him to stop cryin. She say, ‘Why you cryin, little boy?'

“‘Because I am afraid of you, and because my steppapa left me here to starve,' he said. Now this is very strange to Yona. She would never leave her baby bears to starve.

“‘Why he leave you?' she say.

“‘Because I have seven sisters and brothers and my papa can't feed us all.'

“Yona saw the little boy was startin to cry again. ‘Do not worry,' she say. ‘I gonna be your mother. You have a name?' Because he did not answer her, she said, ‘I will call you Nokosi.'

“All spring Nokosi slept in the cave with his bear mother Yona and his little bear brothers and sister. He thought of them as his own family. They played together and ate lots of fish and berries. Sometimes they had honey when Yona found a nest of bees.

“A whole year went by and Nokosi made friends with all the animals, the wolf, the eagle, the squirrel and the deer. Yona made blueberry cakes for Nokosi and his sister and his two brothers. He was very happy and he loved his bear family.

“But sometimes bad things happen in life, and one day something bad happened in the woods. This one day, Nokosi heard a sound in the woods he had never heard before. Suddenly, he heard his mother bear crashing through the trees.

“‘I heard a gun!' she cried. ‘Run! Run as fast as you can to our cave! They are hunters! Go! Go fast, and do not stop!'

“Nokosi and his bear family ran as fast as they could to the cave opening. Mother Bear was the last one to enter the cave. She heard the men coming closer and closer, for they wore boots, not moccasins, and they did not know how to run fast and be silent. There were many bear hunters, and Yona knew they could not run fast enough to escape.

“Sometimes there is no way for things to be happy, but the Great Spirit will tell you what is best for you to do if you listen.

“Yona knew how she could save her children, so she whispered to them in the cave, ‘I will go out to the men and make a big noise. When I do this, you must run out of the cave and hide. They will not see you, for they will be busy with me.'

“Just as Yona thought, the men did not see her children, because they were too busy shooting at her and trying to kill her with their guns.

“As his mother fell dead, Nokosi stepped out of the trees with the smallest bear, his little bear sister. Her name was Echo.

“‘Please do not kill my little sister Echo,' he said. ‘You have killed our mother, but we can do nothing to harm you.'

“The men were so amazed to see a human boy that they spared him and his bear sister Echo. Then Nokosi cried over Yona's body and he thanked her spirit for saving him and her other children. He promised he would never kill a mother bear when he grew up, for she had saved him from starving, and she had saved his life. And so he never did.

“The hunters remembered how brave the mother bear Yona was, and they sang praises to her forever. Until the end of their time, the whole village never killed another mother bear.”

Luke, Daylily and Caswell were very quiet. They all knew what it was like to lose your mother.

Daylily broke the silence. “But Betty, who looked after Nokosi until he was growed?” she asked.

“Well, his mean stepfather was punished for leavin Nokosi to starve. His mama was long dead, and his older sister looked after him until he was finished growin up. So you see, if you trust Great Spirit, He will always make sure you have somebody carin for you and you ain't never alone. His angels are with you all the time. You might not can see them, but they with you all the time. But you gotta do your job too. You gotta be carin for your brothers and sisters and your animal brothers and sisters, just like Nokosi.”

The fire burned slow, and it was close to bedtime.

“You carin for us, Betty,” said Daylily, “but who's carin for you?”

“Betty Strong Foot carin for Betty Strong Foot along with a whole passel of angels and spirit animals.”

Caswell's eyes opened wide when she said “animals.” “Can you tell us about the animals, Betty?”

“Another time I will. Time now for sleepin.” She stood up. “Still rainin,” she said, and they knew she was not in the dream lodge any more. Suddenly she wrinkled her forehead. Daylily noticed the change on her face.

“What's the matter, Betty?”

“Nothin, thought I heard something. Just the wind and rain, I reckon. C'mon, you young'uns, y'all need to get to bed.” As they all got bedded down, the rain kept up even louder on the tin roof, and they all fell asleep to the dance and drumbeat of the rain.

CHAPTER 17

MYSTERIES

Morning brought sunshine and an end to the rain, but it brought a shadow into their lives. Yaller Feet and Pretty Boy, the dogs, had disappeared into the rainy night. Betty went out to take them some fresh water, when she realized how quiet it was. She went to the lean-to shelter where the dogs slept, and there was no sign of them. Since the children had been with her, she had put the dogs out into the little lean-to her papa's dog used to stay in. She had never used it for dogs, only for storage. So she cleaned it out and let the dogs sleep there out of the rain, that is until this morning when they weren't there.

Luke was just stirring when she went back into the cabin. He was sitting up, rubbing his eyes. Betty looked at him. “Don't wake the others yet,” she said. “I got something to tell you. Come over here and sit at the table.”

Luke rubbed his eyes. He could tell something was wrong.

“You know, Luke, in wartimes folks do crazy things.”

Luke looked at Betty, wishing she'd just tell him whatever it was.

“Well, the dogs gone from the lean-to, and I afraid they been stolen.”

“But Miz Betty, you think maybe they just run away?” Luke got up and pulled on his jacket that Betty had made him. It was a chilly morning. They were both whispering so as not to wake the others.

“No, Luke, I heard something last night. And remember, I tied them up. I could kick myself!” she hissed. “I should have checked,” she said, putting another log on the fire.

“But they was our good
hunting
dogs,” said Luke, “and good friends too!”

Betty didn't have the heart to answer him. As she put the kettle on the fire, she said, “Wake the young ones. They have to know.”

Luke shook Daylily's shoulder gently. ‘Wake up,” he said. “We got something to tell you and Caswell. The dogs gone. Maybe stolen.”

“What you mean stolen?” she cried. “Who stole them?”

“How do
we
know?” Luke retorted.

This woke Caswell up. “What's wrong, Luke?” he said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“The dogs,” explained Luke. “Some thief took our dogs!”

Caswell was alarmed. “We gotta go find them then!”

“They stole!” Luke and Daylily said together.

Caswell began to cry and then Daylily's eyes filled up with tears. Betty put her arms around both of them.

“Now stop your cryin,” she said. “We got food and each other. That's a heap more'n most folks got durin wartimes.” Then she got busy trying to get their breakfast together. “Who knows,” she said, slamming down a pot for their morning mush. “Maybe they find their way home. Time for breakfast now. Day's a-wastin.”

 

Luke counted five days that Betty did not go out at night. He knew because he always woke up when she left. The sixth night she went out and returned just before dawn. Luke heard a whinny just before the door opened. Betty don't have no horse, he thought.

Before he could get scared, she brought in two boxes one at a time, struggling. They must weigh a lot, Luke thought. He had to lie very still to keep her from knowing she was being watched. He could have sworn he heard wagon wheels moving. There was almost no room now in the cabin with the four of them sleeping there, so it wasn't hard for him to see even in the shadows of first light where she stacked the boxes and covered them with a quilt. Luke decided then and there that he'd get into those boxes the next time she went out at night.