Chapter Nineteen

When Adam awoke, the first thing he noticed was pain. He moved his hand to the back of his head and felt a distinct knot. Looking around him, he realized he was in what looked like a hut made from skins. Even the floor was covered in skins and Indian rugs. The hut was not the same as any teepees he had seen. It was bigger with a slant beginning about shoulder height leading to a hole in the roof under which the remnants of a fire sat on the only space in the floor that wasn’t covered. He wasn’t tied or bound in any way, so he slowly got to his feet and walked to the only opening other than the hole in the roof.

He stopped just inside and listened to the voices he heard. He was unable to understand what was being said, but he knew that one of those voices belonged to Mike. Assuming she had identified herself, and they weren’t captives, he stepped out of the hut. The other two voices belonged to an old woman wearing only a skirt and an old man wearing a breechcloth who Adam guessed was their medicine man based on the way he was adorned. Besides other colorful jewelry, he wore the necklace containing the two rattles and two snake heads Mike had made.

They squatted in a close circle near the door of the hut. He noticed that Mike and the old woman were both positioned so that the tassels of their skirts hung between their legs. He looked around him, and everywhere the women were dressed and sat the same, and all the men wore nothing but breechcloths as Mike had said.

“Hutsi’, daiboo’,” said Mike, motioning to Adam, “nappai Shoshoni. SodeN tsa’uhtu-monih demenge-nattahsun, ne demazai-da’oda-sokaN dai’zhi.”

The woman took Mike’s hand then looked at Adam’s. “Kuhma?”

“Haa’,” answered Mike, nodding. They all looked over at him.

“SodeN daiqwa-Shoshoni?” asked the old woman.

“Kai,” said Mike, shaking her head.

The old woman stood up and was followed by Mike and the medicine man. “Then we will speak the white man’s tongue. You have the medicine?”  Mike nodded and walked past Adam into the hut, taking five of the bottles out of a basket, and returning to the old woman. The medicine man took the bottles and left toward another hut.

“We will meet with the Shoshoni men when they return from the hunt. The mines are in the lands of the Aha macave. You will be guided to the edge of their lands, but we will go no further. You will sleep in my lodge. Then you will go when the sun rises again.”

Mike bowed her head. “Ose, hutsi’.” The old woman laid her hand on Mike’s head, looked up to the sky and said what Adam imagined was a prayer, then left. Mike stood next to Adam, and when the old woman was out of sight, she pulled Adam into the lodge.

“Who is she?” asked Adam.

“She is hutsi’, my grandmother.  Her name is Kimama.”

“What did she say?”

“I told her the money I will make for helping you save your half-brother pays for the medicine. When the men return, we will talk. They will take us toward the mines up to the land of the Aha macave. I do not think we will go far from there before the Aha macave find us.”

“So, we wait,” said Adam, tightening his lips and breathing heavily through his nose. He knew Joe could last for a time; he was healthy and strong. But if what Mike said was true about the conditions of the mine, the longer he was there, the more likely he would run into trouble, especially with his temper. “I never told you he was my half-brother.”

“If he is it is just as well. They would not believe we would be getting money for medicine if he was Shoshoni.” Mike emptied one of the baskets, gathering some small skins and oil cloth. “Come. We must prepare for our journey to the Aha macave. We will gather food. After the evening meal we will go to the water and bathe with my family. Then we will sleep here in the lodge of my grandmother. The men will want to leave before dawn.”

Adam followed her to the edge of a large creek. On the sunny banks across the creek stood rack upon rack of salmon meat drying in the sun. They waded to the other side, then Mike laid her basket down and took a spear from the side of one of the racks, handing it to Adam. She found another and beckoned for him to follow her back into the creek. At the bottom of a small fall, she pulled him behind her and stood patiently until one of the swimming salmon jumped out of the water heading up the fall. She speared it in the air, then motioned for Adam to do the same. He was successful with his first fish. They took the fish back to the bank and went back to the fall, each taking one more fish.

When the fish were on the bank, she reached up, touching his face. “White men are hairy. Wait here.” He watched her from a distance as she dug her knife deep into the heart of a cactus, pulling out a thick, translucent substance. When she came back, she dropped her skirt to the ground and walked into the water, her knife in one hand and the goo in the other. “Come,” she said motioning for him to follow her.

Adam removed his breechcloth and walked into the water, cocking his head and raising an eyebrow. “What is that?”

“It will make the blade move easy over your face.”

He chuckled nervously. “Uh…I…would…prefer to do that myself.”

“You have no mirror.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, accepting that she was right that he would never be able to shave without one. “May I see the knife?” She gave it to him, and he tested the blade, pulling his finger back quickly after making a small slice without any effort. He handed it back.

“Get down on your knees in the water.” He slowly lowered himself, so tense she thought he might snap in two. She laughed at him as she put the knife in her mouth, reached around his head and began to spread the goo over the shadow of his beard. Once she was done, she wrapped an arm around his head, holding him so tightly against her that he struggled. “Do not move unless you want me to cut your throat,” she said sternly. When he relaxed, she put the edge of the blade against his face and began to shave him. He had slowly relaxed until she got to his neck then he tensed again. “If I wanted you dead, you would be dead.”

“I’m not worried that you’ll kill me intentionally. I’m worried that you’ll kill me accidently.” He forced himself to relax, allowing her to continue. As she began shaving his neck, she said angrily, “Your words are too big.”

That was smart. She’s angry at me, and she’s shaving my neck.

When she was done, she let him go and turned away to clean the knife in the water while he rinsed his face. As he was washing away the remnants of the goo, he drew his fingers over his face and grunted in surprise. He couldn’t remember a time when his face had been this smooth after he had shaved with a razor.

“Where did you learn to shave a man?”

“Here. You are the first,” she answered offhandedly. Adam’s bottom jaw dropped, but he quickly recovered it, blowing and puffing his cheeks out. “Do you know how to prepare a fish…to remove the bones?”

Filleting a fish was something that he had done a hundred or more times, and he happily replied, “yes,” glad that there was something out here to do that he already knew.

Mike took four large pieces of already dried salmon meat off of one of the racks, rolled them in oil cloths and wrapped them tightly in a skin. Then she took their first fish to a flat rock and began to prepare it for the rack. Adam did the same, and soon, all four fish were filleted and hanging over the rack in place of the fish she had taken.

They dressed and went back to the lodge where Mike repacked the basket with the dried salmon. Then they waited and rested until they were called for the evening meal.

The Shoshoni men returned with a big horn sheep that they skinned, cut and began cooking over several fires. The big horn would be enough to feed the entire tribe, including the two visitors. The men sat cross-legged in a circle around the fire with the medicine man and Adam. Mike and her grandmother were the only two women seated in the circle. All the other women were either tending to the men or were sitting with a group away from them.

The medicine man addressed the men. “Mike nattahsun-keya. SodeN yaa monih nasukkuse nattahsun demazai’-Adam yaa dawi’ gahti kaitsaan-hooda.”

One of the men in the circle spoke, “Adam daiboo’?”

“Adam nappai daiboo’ nappai Shoshoni gahti kwinahai. Adam kuhma. Mike kwehe.”

Adam leaned over to Mike. “What are they saying?”

“Pohakanten,” she said, pointing to the medicine man, “tells them we bring medicine and can get money for more medicine if they help find the mines. He tells them you are half-breed and that we are husband and wife.”

The man in the circle spoke again. “Kimama meheN-nehwe?”

“Haa’,” answered Mike’s grandmother.

“They asked if Grandmother claims us as family. She said ‘yes’,” whispered Mike.

“SodeN daiqwa-Shoshoni?” asked the man.

“Kai,” said Kimama.

The men looked around the circle at one another discussing Adam among themselves. The man who had been speaking asked, “Your brother is Shoshoni?”

“No, my brother is a white man. He is my half-brother.” There was more discussion within the circle.

“We take you to land of Aha macave near mines. No more.” He clapped his hands and the women brought flat wood covered with chunks of meat, followed by flat bread and what Adam recognized as the fruit from the prickly-pear cactus. Mike and her grandmother left the circle. Adam stayed and ate with the men. He carefully watched what the men did before Mike brought food to him. He laid a smaller piece of wood on the ground in front of him, and stabbed a piece of meat with his knife while Mike placed a piece of the flat bread and chunks of the cactus fruit on the wood. Then she backed away, sitting with the women and eating after all the men had been served. Some of the men left the circle, each calling to a woman to sit with him. When Adam looked around for Mike, he found her sitting with her grandmother, eating a piece of meat with her hands, gnawing it, letting the grease drip down her chin. He didn’t allow his disgust to show on his face, thinking better of it when he observed the other women eating the same way, wiping their chins with the back of the arms.

Mike caught his eye and nodded him over. He got up, walking over to her. She sneered and motioned away. Adam stood for a moment, watching as another man called a woman to him. “Mike,” he said loudly, walking to a log near the entrance to her grandmother’s lodge.

The man that had been talking in the circle leaned over to the other men still sitting with him. “He does not know the way of the Shoshoni.”

Another man answered. “He is the family of Kimama. He stays this night. He will not be ours to feed when the sun rises, and the Aha macave woman will go back to her people.”