Desert Wake ✔

Ch. 5: In Place of the Gods

Havin' meat fryin' in the pan is a cause fer celebration if ever there was one. I send Ro out to give the girls a bit of extra grain cuz why not let 'em celebrate too. After that, he's gonna head back to that grove of dried up walnut trees. Says he's certain he spied a few nuts, and if they are there, then I may be a fool fer overlookin' that grove, but I still want them nuts.

While he's gone I set the squirrel to cookin' and then go into my parents' old room, the one I never sleep in even though their bed's five times more comfortable than the measly cot I use. In my ma's wardrobe, there's a flannel shirt with holes where the moths got at it, a tattered old skirt she used to wear on laundry day, and a sky blue dress, light and airy and perfect fer a summer evenin'. That's the one I'm lookin' fer. Right 'fore I put it on, I think maybe it won't fit cuz I'm not as broad-shouldered as my ma, but it's nearly perfect, shaped and gathered in just the right places. I twirl 'round in front of the cloudy mirror hanging on the back of the wardrobe's door, the dress fannin' out 'fore returnin' to its place, its hem ridin' just above my knees. Since my ma's dead, she won't mind me pilferin' from her meager stash of feminine items, so I take one more thing, a silver hair clip, and sweep as many of my curls back into it as I cain manage.

"There," I say to myself. I am my mother on her weddin' day, same dress, same hair clip, same dark curls. I just pray I have her same spirit too, that I cain get through my life without regrettin' that I have to get through it at all.

I go back and tend to supper and 'fore long, Ro is poundin' up the steps. I got just enough time to reach back and grip ma's silver clip, makin' sure it's still in place, when Ro bounds over the threshold.

"Someone's coming," he yell-whispers, and all thoughts of curled hair held back and bare legs under a dress the same color as his eyes falls away.

I rush over to the tiny window next to the front door. He's still a ways off, trudgin' down from the north. From town. But ain't no mistakin' him. He's carryin' his ridiculous family flag, wavin' red and yellow, like all town leaders do in these parts in order to announce themselves ahead of time, make sure folks cain make ready with the royal treatment 'fore they reach their front gate.

"That'd be Orin Longbow." An overwhelming urge to kick something floods through me. "Ain't good."

"Why... why isn't it good?" Ro is all nerves, which frankly, is how he should be.

"Cuz Orin, aside from bein' a son-of-a-bitch, and I mean that quite literally, is also the town leader's son." Orin Longbow. He would love one of them rolls in the hay all the young men show up hopin' to git. Thing about Orin is, he's about as despicable as he is plum stupid. Last I heard from him, he was tryin' to sweet talk me by comparin' my beauty to that of the women him and his father keep doped up at the tavern. Well, if that sort of flattery works on the town girls Orin normally chases after, I suppose it's cuz dumb attracts dumb. As it stands, I've declined his advances more times than I cain count.

"Git," I say to Ro. It won't do to have Orin find a strange man in my house. If word gits back to his father, Ro'll be in fer a world of trouble, and me with him.

Ro don't wanna go, but I don't got time fer his debatin'.

"You git now, Rordan. You want the lawfolk knowin' yer here? Cuz Orin's pa'll tell 'em right quick. Besides, I cain handle Orin."

Ro scans me up and down. I know he's takin' in my get-up fer the first time. "May, what is he coming here for. What does he want from you?"

Well I surely picked the wrong night to dress up purdy, but I don't tell this to Ro. "Git now, Rordan, or I'll revoke your house privileges. Go down to the shed and throw some hay on top of you. And do it now, 'fore he gits any closer."