Starfish (3 page)

T
HE
C
OTTONWOODS
• S
NOW
• T
HE
L
ONG
N
IGHT
• M
ORNING
• A S
MALL
F
ARM

BEATRICE AND
Lionel rode hard through the day and into the night. They barely spoke, choosing instead to ride in silence, the events of the morning running feverishly through their heads. The snow started back up around dark, and they stopped at a small stream under a cluster of cottonwood trees.

“I guess we best lay up here” was all Beatrice said. She slipped down from Ulysses's back at the water's edge and started to gather the fallen pieces of cottonwood that lay scattered under the snow. Lionel did the same. Then Beatrice produced some matches from her tobacco pouch and lit a small fire.

They huddled next to each other for warmth for most of the night, the cold haunting them into the earliest hours of morning. Lionel stared into the fire, falling in and out of a shivering sleep on Beatrice's shoulder and listening to Ulysses, who stood over them in the darkness. Hunger gnawed at Lionel's stomach, and he thought about the meals they had missed by running away from the school. Lionel knew that Beatrice must be hungry too, but she hadn't said anything, so Lionel didn't say anything either.

The snow continued to fall, wet on their clothes, and Beatrice pointed out that this was a good sign, as the army men would have trouble following their tracks.

“Where are we going?” Lionel asked.

“I figured we'd head to Grandpa's, if I can find it.”

Lionel thought about the three hawks and the eagle that he and Beatrice had seen the only time he had ever been to his grandfather's house, near the northwest border of the reservation. Lionel could still see the great birds circling overhead, but had trouble picturing his grandfather's face.

“Do you remember going to Grandpa's?” Beatrice asked. She got up, found a rock, and cracked the ice on the small creek.

“Sort of,” Lionel answered.

Beatrice lay down in the snow and cupped water by the handful into her mouth. Lionel watched as she washed the dried blood that lined her face from her temple to her neck. Her forehead was cut, and Lionel wished that he had cracked the ice on the trough with his rock before Jenkins had had the chance to do so with Beatrice's head.

Beatrice smashed more ice, then led Ulysses to the hole so he could drink. Lionel joined them, and soon after, they were on the way, riding northwest toward the mountains.

They rode through the morning, Beatrice sitting tall on Ulysses's back, the snow falling around them. Lionel thought that Beatrice seemed different. She was quiet, which was not unusual, but her silence was stronger, almost as if she were more at ease out here on the open plain despite their troubles. He watched her as she scanned the horizon, looking back from time to time to make sure that they were not being followed.

About midmorning they came to a bluff that overlooked a small group of log cabins and a corral. This was the first time that Lionel and Beatrice had ever laid eyes on the two hundred forty acre plot of Big Bull Boss Ribs.

C
ORN
P
OE
B
OSS
R
IBS
• B
IG
B
ULL
• H
AM
H
OCK
• “T
HEY'LL HANG YA, ALRIGHT
.”

LIONEL SPOTTED
a small boy watching them as they passed. He was squatting out in the high grass that poked through the snow on the far edge of the bluff. Beatrice saw him too, but continued to ride toward the cabin. The boy pulled up his britches and ran after them.

“Hey, Pa, Pa!” the boy yelled as he ran. “Pa, some riders comin'! Pa, there's riders!”

Lionel could tell that this annoyed Beatrice, but she continued to ride toward the cabin, ignoring the trailing child and his yells. Then the largest man that Lionel had ever seen stepped from the door, bending to clear its low frame. He stood around six feet five and weighed up toward three hundred pounds. on his head sat a bowler derby with a cluster of goose feathers trailing off the back brim.

“My name is Corn Poe, if anyone's asking. That there's my pa, Big Bull Boss Ribs, and this here's his place.” The small boy, Corn Poe, panted as he ran up behind them. “Just as a word of caution—he's not real fond of trespassers.”

Corn Poe Boss Ribs was eleven, but looked to be about seven. He was the ninth of Big Bull's thirteen children and was considered the runt. He was small, had poor lungs, and had been born a month premature, which Big Bull considered to be a bad sign.

As Beatrice and Lionel rode closer to the door, Big Bull finished gnawing on an old ham bone then threw it to a couple of mangy dogs that circled his feet. Big Bull looked the great horse over, which made Lionel feel uncomfortable to say the least. He couldn't help but think that Big Bull might be capable of eating the horse, or maybe even them. Beatrice must have felt the same because she kept them just beyond the edge of Big Bull's reach.

“That's a good-lookin' horse you two be travelin' with there,” Big Bull said, scratching his enormous gut. “What'cha doin' way out here on a horse like that?”

“This horse or his origins is of no concern to you,” Beatrice replied.

Big Bull looked them over. “I think that you and that there horse would be bringin' trouble to the Boss Ribs, and that sure as hell concerns me.”

“We don't want no trouble. Just the way to the Milk River,” Beatrice said firmly.

“We're lookin' for our grandpa who lives up that ways,” Lionel added, drawing a glare from Beatrice that did not go unnoticed by Big Bull.

A woman Lionel assumed was Big Bull's wife and a few of his other children gathered in the doorway. Lionel was surprised to see that the woman Big Bull kept as his wife was white like the priest and Brothers back at the boarding school. He hoped that Beatrice would ask her for some food, maybe a blanket to drape around their shoulders as they rode.

“Yep, I think that the soldiers would be comin'. Comin' with troubles for the Boss Ribs. You best be movin' on, alright.”

Corn Poe reached up and stroked Ulysses's long mane. “Them soldiers come, I betcha they hang ya.”

“Hang us?” Lionel asked. “Why would they wanna hang us?”

“Why, for horse thievin'!” Big Bull bellowed. “I doubt that two mangy Injuns such as yerselves got legal claim to a horse like that one yer ridin' on!”

Big Bull's laugh startled Lionel. It sounded as though he might explode like one of the soldiers' cannons.

“They tryin' to break us Blackfeet from horse thievin'. They'll hang ya, alright,” Corn Poe chimed in.

“Who asked you anything?” Big Bull said, throwing a second salted ham hock at Corn Poe. It hit him in the head and fell to the snow. But Corn Poe eagerly picked it up and began to gnaw at it much like his father and the circle of dogs at their feet.

“‘Us Blackfeet,' he says, you little half-breeded idjit,” Big Bull added.

Lionel just looked at the bone.

“Hell, you two will freeze or starve before them soldier boys get ya, I'll bet,” Corn Poe said with the bone clutched in his teeth.

Lionel thought about the Frozen Man. He thought about his own feet and his cold, aching toes.

“None of that is of no worry to you,” Beatrice said with a gentle nudge to Ulysses's flank. The horse turned toward the side of the house, and Beatrice dug in her heels to continue their journey north.

“Well, you're headin' in the right direction. Just edge away from the sun till just passed midday and you'll hit the Milk. But you best be advised not to bring no troubles onto your grandfather, if he is truly kin to ya.”

Beatrice didn't look back.

“And when you're caught and strung up, you didn't hear none of that from me!” Big Bull laughed.

Lionel looked back to the cabin and the Boss Ribs. The whole family was now outside, standing in front of the house staring at them.

“Remember that you didn't hear none from me….” Big Bull's voice trailed off as the two rounded the back of the house. “And if them soldiers ask, I've got a family to worry about, so I'll be sure to tell 'em you were headin' to the Milk!”

Big Bull's laugh continued to echo from the house as they rode on and out of the Boss Ribs' little valley.

A F
OLLOWER
• K
NIFE
F
IGHT
• I
NTRODUCTIONS

BEATRICE AND
Lionel rode north for most of the afternoon, edging toward the west and the afternoon sun. Beatrice didn't say much, so they rode in silence, pondering what Big Bull had said about bringing trouble down onto their grandfather. Lionel knew that they hadn't eaten in over a day and a half now, and that Big Bull was right; another night or two out in the cold and they would more than likely end up like the Frozen Man.

Lionel noticed that Beatrice looked behind them more frequently than she had before.

“What is it, Beatrice?” Lionel asked, following her gaze to the deserted horizon.

“I think somebody is following us.” Beatrice pulled Ulysses around, and they made a wide circle back in the direction they had just come. They rode to a low depression in the rolling hills and were soon wading through the four feet of snow that the wind had swept into this little wash. Beatrice pulled up on the horse and slipped silently from his back.

“You stay here. If you hear anything, don't wait for me. You ride hard and don't stop till you hit the river. You understand?”

“Don't wait? where are you going, Beatrice?” But Beatrice was gone.

Lionel sat with his hands on the warmth of Ulysses's flanks. He felt like crying, but thought that Beatrice hadn't cried, and she was just as hungry, just as cold, and she sure hadn't cried when the man with the patch cracked her head on the ice or when the priest ripped her ear.

Lionel circled Ulysses around to face the mountains that loomed in the distance. They were so big they seemed to stand right before them, but Lionel knew better. If that was where they were going, they were in for a long ride.

Suddenly Ulysses's ears shot back. He flared his nostrils.

“What is it? You hear something?” Then Lionel heard it too. It sounded like someone or something was moving in the snow at the top of the gully.

“Beatrice? Beatrice, is that you?” Lionel was shivering.

He turned the horse and saw someone running straight at him. The movement startled Ulysses, who jumped sideways and out from underneath Lionel. Lionel landed in the snow. This time when he looked up to the top of the gully he could see Beatrice. She was closing in on the runner.

“Help! Help!” the runner screamed, but there was no one to come to his aid. Beatrice tackled the runner, and the two rolled to the bottom of the gully, landing in a heap next to Lionel.

“Get offa me you no-good lunatic!” the runner screamed.

Lionel got up and brushed the snow from his face. He recognized the voice. It belonged to Corn Poe Boss Ribs.

“Free my hands, I dare ya!” Corn Poe screeched. “Free my hands less'n you're afraid, afraid to get a whoopin' you'll be hard-pressed to ever forget!”

Beatrice rolled Corn Poe onto his stomach and shoved his face in the snow.

“What business do ya have followin' us?”

Beatrice demanded. “Get offa me you chicken-livered jack—” Beatrice interrupted Corn Poe by shoving his face deeper into the snow.

“You're gonna freeze me eyeballs right out of my head, you idjit!” Corn Poe's muffled cries continued. Beatrice rolled him back over. “Why are you following us?”

“I'll show you if ya just let me up.”

Corn Poe's face was red and pieces of ice dripped from his hair, mixing with the steady stream of tears that now poured from his eyes.

“Come on, let me up and I'll show ya,” he cried. Beatrice pulled him to sit in the snow. “Well, come on, then,” Beatrice said. Corn Poe reached into his jacket and dug around.

Lionel saw Corn Poe's hand flash from his pocket and watched as the little boy scrambled to his feet like a madman. He held a small knife out in front of him.

“I'll teach ya to mess with Corn Poe Boss Ribs,” he proclaimed and jabbed the knife at Beatrice. Beatrice moved slightly, and Corn Poe missed.

He stabbed with the knife again, and Beatrice caught his wrist. with little effort, Beatrice knocked the knife from Corn Poe's hand and shoved him back into the snow. Corn Poe collapsed in a pile of tears. He had trouble catching his breath.

“You're lucky I'm all wet and sluggish or you'd be dead!” Corn Poe carried on, reaching back into his coat.

This prompted Beatrice to kick him, but that didn't stop Corn Poe, and his hand now emerged holding the severed half of a large hambone. The boy is going to try to kill Beatrice with a hambone, Lionel thought. He couldn't kill her with a knife, and now he is going to try a hambone. Beatrice and Lionel stepped back, prepared for Corn Poe's next move, but it didn't come.

“I was just trying to help. I followed to give ya this here ham, and then I got lost and now I can't get back, and ya shoved me in the snow!”

Beatrice sat back on her legs, breathing heavily. “You best keep your voice down.”

“Why did ya shove me in the snow? why?” blubbered Corn Poe. “I'm freezing!”

“Hell, you was trying to kill us,” Lionel said.

“Not till this jackass tackled me in the snow!”

Beatrice stood up and offered her hand to Corn Poe. Corn Poe took it, and Beatrice pulled him to his feet.

“I'm sorry I tackled you in the snow,” Beatrice said.

Corn Poe caught his breath. “I'm sorry I tried to kill ya with my folding knife,” he said, holding the hambone out to Beatrice. “I brought this all that way for ya.”

Beatrice nodded toward Lionel, and Corn Poe handed him the hambone. “I figured you was hungry.”

Lionel bit into the salty cold pork and thought that he had never tasted anything so good in all his life. He took a few bites and then handed it to Beatrice, who did the same.

“Thank you,” Beatrice said.

The three stood in the snow passing the ham between them.

“What about you? Ya suddenly gone mute or something?” Corn Poe asked, ripping at the last bit of meat that clung to the now naked bone.

“My name is Lionel. Beatrice is my sister.”

“Beatrice? Your sister?” Corn Poe stopped chewing. “I'd never known that in all them clothes. I hope my pa don't get wind of it. Knocked down by a girl! He'll skin me alive!

“Well, girl or no girl, you got lucky on that go-round,” Corn Poe went on between his sporadic gnaws. “Like I was sayin', my name's Corn Poe Boss Ribs. That there was our place back in the valley. My father would kill me if he knew I gave you that ham hock. He hates Injuns, despitin' the fact that he is one.”

Corn Poe handed the bone back to Lionel. “But, I must confess, I don't care much how mad he gets. I felt like stretchin' my legs anyhow.”

“Well, thanks,” Beatrice said again as she walked over to calm Ulysses. “I guess for tonight, Corn Poe, you best be coming with us. otherwise you'll freeze.”

“Freeze? Hell, I'm half frozed as it is.”

Beatrice gave Corn Poe back his knife and helped him and Lionel up onto the horse. “Besides, I'd bet you'd be lost before we cleared the next hill,” Beatrice teased as she swung up behind them.

“Now, what's that supposed to mean?” Corn Poe shot back.

Beatrice ignored him, and the three rode out of the gully, resuming their course toward the river.