FAITH
FAITH (after an idea by Nesciri)
Everyone stood motionless not knowing what to say.
Ike thumped his chest loudly to get their attention. Buck had collapsed to the
ground. Jimmy ran over and helped Ike pick him up and carry him away from the
entrance to the burial ground. They managed to get him to his horse and helped
him mount. Everyone could tell he was barely hanging on to his overwrought emotions.
"Let's get away from here. The last thing we
need now is a war party comin' after us for being too close to their burial
ground," Jimmy said as he quickly mounted his horse. Kid climb on Lou's
horse and the two rode double away from the graveyard. Ike was relieved to see
that Buck could still ride on his own. The terrain was rocky and they had to
ride at an agonizingly slow pace. Buck felt like screaming and he had to grind
his teeth together to keep quiet. They had to hurry away from here as fast as
they could. The pace became even slower as night set in and it became too dark
to travel safely with the horses.
"We're gonna have to stop here." Jimmy
didn't like to say it. He had a deep desire to get home where Teaspoon and Rachel
were. Where there would be light and warmth. Where Rachel would have dinner
waiting for them. He would even settle for sitting around the bunkhouse listening
to Cody read one of his Wild West Stories. This place was not safe and all those
other things were.
"Someone please tell me what is going on. I've
been blinded and had my tongue near cut out. I've had about enough of this."
Cody said as he dismounted and untied his saddlebag and bedroll. He didn't like
stopping either but there was nothing else to do. He rubbed his face where the
skin was starting to heal and felt completely unprotected despite the presence
of his rifle that was strapped to his horse.
"It was Yellow Crane," Buck whispered.
"She's a Kiowa spirit woman." He had made no move to get off his horse,
and he was using every ounce of self-control to keep from spurring his horse
and galloping toward home.
"Spirit woman?" Cody echoed.
"A witch. She cursed us." Buck swung down
from his horse and started to pull several items from his saddlebag.
"What's this have to do with Red Bear?"
Kid asked as he watched Buck dump the items on the ground.
"I don't know," Buck paused. He hoped
with all his heart that his brother was safe. But he knew what he had to do
now. He hoped he could get the others to agree to help him, but it didn't really
matter if they did. He was going to do it anyway. "We have to hurry. We
have to make a prayer circle." He frantically scrambled to pick up rocks,
clawing at the ground to get some of them loose. He struggled to carry them
as quickly as he could and arrange them in a large circle.
The others weren't sure what to do. They had never
seen Buck act so strangely before. Ike tried to grab Buck to calm him down but
he shook Ike off him in a wild gesture. "No, no, no. We'll die if we don't."
"Buck," Lou's voice was soothing. "Nothing's
gonna hurt you. We're all here and it's just someone foolin' with us. It's probably
over now."
"You don't understand. That was Yellow Crane.
She's Kiowa. I don't know what happened but it must have been something awful."
He paused and looked at his friends. "She said she has my spirit."
Buck's voice trembled and Lou thought she could see tears starting to well up.
"Buck, how can someone have your spirit?"
Kid's voice was sensitive. "Your soul is part of you. No one can just take
it."
"Yes, yes they can. Your soul is given to you
when you're born. You don't own it. It can be taken just like it was given."
Buck's eyes were wide and wild uncontained fear was evident in his voice. "When
I was young, Red Bear told me the spirits would punish me for something I did.
I tried to make it right, but I didn't. I know I didn't." He was crying
now and he didn't care. Tears were streaming down his face and it was hard to
keep going. "I really tried. I did. I've failed almost everything in my
life and maybe that's why. Maybe that's why no one ever wanted me. I'm going
to try to make it right now. I'm not going to fail the only friends I've ever
had."
Everyone stopped what they were doing when Buck
started to speak. He didn't make complete sense to them but they knew he was
scared. They had seen Buck be a good many things before. They had seen him angry,
sad and resentful. They had seen him take cruel revenge against those that hurt
him and had seen him be the sweetest, most loving person to those he cared about.
Buck indeed was a strange mixture of pride and loyalty and wistfulness. This
was different. They could smell the fear emanating from him and it made them
reconsider their own personal feelings about Yellow Crane's Indian curse.
"We know you believe it and so we'll help.
Tell us what to do," Lou said. She may have been the only one who spoke
but she also spoke for them all. Jimmy bent over and picked up a rock he had
been resting his foot against. Ike, Cody, Kid and Lou did the same. No one stopped
until a large circle was built.
Buck nodded his head as he drew a ragged breath.
He was going to need help if he was going to try to lift the curse. "We
need to stay in this circle. We need to get something personal from each of
us. We'll put everything here and then I'll pray to the spirits to protect us.
Come on! Now…"
A few minutes later, a pair of wire-rimmed glasses,
a charcoal drawing pencil, a Colt revolver, some leather fringe, and a hat lay
in the circle. Buck stepped into the circle and knelt down before removing his
earring and placing it with the other items. He said a soft slow prayer over
the belongings and stood to face the others.
"Buck, are you sure? It don't make any sense
to me." Jimmy still wasn't sure what he had just witnessed or what it all
meant. To him, things were either one way or another. It bothered him that he
couldn't say for sure what was going on here, but he did know Buck was his friend
and it looked as if that friend might be unhinged. He briefly wondered if it
would be better if they just threw him on his horse and took him back to Sweetwater.
Teaspoon was there and he could talk Buck out of this whole spirit stealing
witch story. He changed his mind though when he saw Buck working to start a
fire with desperation evident in his every move.
Once the fire was going, he stripped off his jacket, shirt and vest and threw them on the ground outside the circle. Buck sat close by the fire and scraped together a handful of soft gray ash. He carefully rubbed the ash between his palms and smeared it across his body, including his face. He scooped up another handful and this he rubbed into his hair. Buck took a small log from the fire and peeled of a piece of blackened bark and used it to paint a circular design on his face and chest. When he looked up at the others he had been transformed. Lou thought she had never seen someone so ferocious and terrified at the same time. "Everyone sit inside the circle and I'll pray."
