It Was 2052, High Haven (6 page)

***

Cissy watched the back
end of Kevin and Bubba's horses kick up dust and race across the open
fields in front of her. She loped her horse along, turned in her
saddle to see if the rider several yards behind was catching up.
Taylor had no experience with riding, she knew he was growing more
comfortable but still not completely at ease on the back of the tall
rusty colored horse. She pushed back the western hat that shaded her
eyes,
he'll get here.

The past month, she had
nearly convinced herself that Kevin and his sidekick weren't really
going to leave the settlement. They talked big and they planned. The
family had worked with them on various skills, provisions and
precautions. Taylor had been very forthright with the two younger
men. He told them a lot about the town he'd left. Told them where
they might find a reasonably safe place to stay and work, told them
the areas of the city to avoid. He gave them warnings about places
and things to explore only very carefully. The bay now drew up
beside her and matched the slow gait of her horse.

“
Seen those
antelope today?” said Taylor.

“
No, looks like
they moved along,” Early summer now, the females seemed to
feel sheltered in the surrounding meadows and came to have their
fawns. Often, having two, the tiny spindly offspring were up within
hours and running beside their mothers. She enjoyed seeing them
popping around the tall grasses but knew they had to quickly be at
full speed to stay safe. The elders of the community called them
“speed goats” and that was a good description.

“
Looks like the
guys are getting pretty close to pulling out,” he said, looking
ahead at the distant forms.

“
You think so?”
she turned toward him, the hat brim hiding her eyes, “Have they
said that?...they tell you they were leaving?”

He didn't answer right
back, then looked over at her, “Cissy, I don't think they're
going to change their minds, they're set on this. They're prepared,
smarter than you probably think, going to be okay.”

She had nothing to say
back, they were caught up now to her brother and friend. The four of
them found the shade of huge boulder beside a pond. They dismounted
and let the horses drink. The water hole was quickly going away in
the dry summer climate, there was plenty for the horses. Water was a
pretty big issue here. Some years, it took a lot of effort to keep
the animals and themselves watered. There were a couple of wells,
they had never been without some water. Lakes and rivers were in the
area, but travel and hauling the necessary liquid wasn't always a
simple job. She took a drink from a canteen of fresh water and
passed it around.

Kevin took his share and
said, “Think Bubba and I are about ready to head for the city.”
He looked toward his sister, ready for her argument.

“
When?” said
Cissy.

“
Two or three days,
I think,” he said.

With uncharacteristic
seriousness, Bubba said, “We're going to need to outfit our
backpacks real carefully. You know, we'll be walking. The horses
would be good, but in the city, they would be another expense and
something to take care of.”

Taylor said, “I
think that's a good plan. You know that it's going to take three
days or more on foot. What about that old rusted out kid's wagon
that I saw in the shed? Couldn't you fix that up to carry your
gear?” He gave a chuckle and shook his head, “Even old
Peaches had to carry some of the load for me a time or two.”

“
That's a good idea
man,” said Kevin. “We'll drag that piece of junk out and
see what we can do with it.”

“
The thing that
bothers me the most, Kev,” she said, keeping her voice even,
“there will be no way to know what's going on, where you
are---no way to communicate with you.”

“
Maybe not,”
said Kevin. “Taylor said that---Taylor, tell her about the
letter travelers.”

“
There's an old
truck,” said Taylor, “that travels from somewhere up in
Wyoming down to the Colorado, New Mexico border on what's left of the
Interstate 25. It carries letters, stops at the towns right off the
highway.”

Kevin was excited now,
“Remember Cissy! Remember how Dad and I used to take letters
and try to get them to people where we traveled? Like that. I saw
some letters in the old post office in the town ruins, near the
interstate. There's just some old cubby holes, labeled A-Z and a bin
that says “out”. I went in there one day when we were
exploring around. It's dirty and dilapidated, but there were some
letters in the slots. I could send a letter and ya'll can check on
occasion. You can write to me.”

It had been a long time
ago, but she smiled at the memory, “I do remember, Kev. Down
in New Mexico, we found the old lady and delivered Dad's last letter.
She cried and cried. It was from her husband that she never knew what
happened to. That makes me feel a little better. We can write.”

To Cissy, it seemed that
from the time of the conversation in the meadow to the time that she
watched her brother and friend walk away, out of site, out of their
safe haven was no more than a blink. Things weren't going to be the
same here. Her heart knew that the comfortable blanket of security
she had wrapped herself in for all these past years was fraying
around the edges.

***

Taylor felt real bad for the family
and friends. It hadn't been easy on them to see their young men walk
away. He sure knew what loss felt like, seemed like he'd been
dealing with it his whole life. To the family, this felt very much
like they had lost the brothers and sons. Suzanne Bailey was
definitely sad to see Kevin leave, she talked quite a bit about
taking the ancient tractor and following the decayed highway to find
them. That wasn't going to happen. And Cissy---he knew she was
heartbroken, missed her brother but she was stoic.

Mostly
the young woman was unsmiling and worked around the houses,
took
care of
the horses, just
worked and read. Nearly every afternoon, when the heat built, she
had a library book and was engrossed. In one of the old chairs, in
the shade of a tree or on the porch, she seemed to be
completely
absorbed
in
the books. He wasn't
exactly experienced with women and she was a bit of a mystery to him.
He thought it was likely
that she wasn't even very fond of him. Of course, he had just walked
into this very tight family group.
He
thought it was
lucky t
hey hadn't asked him
to leave and frankly he didn't really want to know if they wanted him
here or not. He just tried to help out all he could and hope that he
was being accepted.
This was
a home and family unit that he had sorely missed out on for years.

Supper
was over, he sat on the weathered porch with Cissy and her parents.
The clouds smoked across a million lights in a huge
black
canopy and they did
n'
t
talk of Kevin. Peaches inched closer to the steps where the young
woman sat and she absently scratched
his
big head.
After some small
talk, Jeff and Emily said their good nights and left the porch. He
tried to think of something to talk to Cissy about without bringing
up the brother.

“
These old porch rockers are in
sad shape---thought I might try to do some repairs on them tomorrow.
Your parents seem to enjoy them,” he said.

“
That would be good, they do
like them,” she said. Peaches was making snoring noises, she
stopped petting him, stood and walked a few feet from the porch and
stared at the mountains which were just black outlines now. “Do
you see that?”

He moved up closer to where she stood,
“See what? Did you spot something?”

“
No....”

At
that moment the shrill cries of coyotes pierced the silence, distant
but sharp.
T
he
horses
could be heard
running,
a
pounding thud on the inky
landscape,
one of the
vigilant
donkeys brayed.
He followed
as she
jogged
toward the corral and sheds that
lay
behind the house. She swung open the gate and several of the horses
rushed inside, two donkeys close behind them. She climbed up on the
wooden rail
fence
,
perched there she rolled down the sleeves of her shirt. The evening
had thrown off the heat of the day's sun and now exhaled cool
breath
from the higher
elevations
.

Once again she looked in the direction
of the mountains. “I wasn't talking about the coyotes,”
she pointed. “See that far glow?”

He leaned against the rails and looked
where she directed. “You mean the last light?” he said.

“
It's
not the last light. It's coming from between those two peaks. You
know there is supposed to be a smaller mountain between those two
taller ones. They say you can't see it from our viewpoint.
The
light is coming from between those mountains. What do you think that
could be?” She jumped to the ground and started moving back
toward the house.

Seated side by side on the steps now,
he said, “I don't know. There's still lots of folks scattered
around. I'm assuming other small settlements.”

“
Um-m, I suppose. You know,
it's awfully rugged and remote over that way. I've ridden over in
the area with my Dad and Cody, looking for water sources. We never
saw any signs of communities or people.”

He studied the very dim and distant
light. Nature could be a very intriguing thing, could be just the
very last light reflecting off of something. “It's mysterious,
huh?”

She looked at him a moment, checking
that he wasn't making fun of her. “I've noticed it before.
I've read in a couple of the library books about the legend of
treasure right over in that area.” She was very animated now,
“You see, about a hundred years ago, there was this old guy. He
stumbled onto a long lost gold mine, one that had been found and then
abandoned way back in the 1800's. He actually showed up in one of
the towns at the base of the mountains with very high grade ore to be
assayed. Of course, he never told anyone the location of his
discovery. The story was that he had a cabin in the mountains and the
entrance to the mine was inside the cabin.”

“
You think that light is
treasure?” he said, his voice clearly doubtful this time.

For the first time in a while,
actually the first time ever that he heard, she laughed. She laughed
a full out, pleasant to hear laugh, “No---no-o!” she
gasped as she calmed and held her side. It was as if a release
button had been pushed and her excitement gushed out. “The
light doesn't have a damn thing to do with a treasure, you goof. It
just keeps drawing me to that place, makes me think I want to go
there, I want to see what's over the mountain. What if we could find
the old cabin, what if we could find treasure?”

“
We, did you say
WE
?”

Now she wasn't laughing, spoke
quieter, “I just thought that if you were going with me, if we
had some good reason to take a little trip---maybe hunting, searching
again for water---I don't know, some good excuse to be going on a
sort of exploration. With Kevin just leaving, I thought my parents
would take it a little better if you were going along. I think that
they and the rest of the family trusts you. I think they like you. If
we found the treasure, I would share with you.”

It was his turn to laugh and he spoke
with a thick sarcastic tone, “
Like
me? Well, that's
certainly reason for me to take off with their cherished daughter on
a dangerous journey.” He paced, “I mean, my stories have
already encouraged two of their young men away to unknown territory,
why not just get rid of
you
? That would endear me to the
family for good. And I thought you said the treasure wouldnt' be the
important thing. Share! That would be mighty generous of you, girl.”

He was stomping back and forth across
the hard ground so much that Peaches stood up and growled. Cissy
rose, too. He saw that quick temper of hers rise in the same
movement, “Well, fine, you---you weird old stranger. I don't
give a crap if you go. I don't need you!” She moved into the
house. He knew how bad she wanted to slam the front door, but she
didn't.

Peaches sidled up to him, this time
with a bit of a whimper. “Crazy woman,” he mumbled to
the dog. “Wants me to go on a treasure hunt, chase after a
light, piss off everybody around here.” He sat on the steps,
stared at the mountains and the glow that was still there, though
very faint.
I wonder if it will go away after a while.