Red Prophet Page 0,85
something awful from being near naked in the sun out here on the dunes, even though he tried to use a blanket to cover up. Strong but soft, that's what Ta-Kumsaw found when he studied Measure's body.
"The blow that would kill you," said Ta-Kumsaw, "it might bruise me."
"So you admit it ain't fair."
"Fair is when two men face the same pain. Courage is when two men face the same pain. You don't want fair, you want easy. You want safe. You're a coward. I knew you wouldn't do it."
"I'll do it," said Measure.
"And you!" cried Ta-Kumsaw, pointing at Alvin. "You touch nothing, you heal nothing, you cure nothing, you don't take away pain!"
Alvin didn't say a word, just looked at him. Measure knew that look. It was the expression Alvin got on his face whenever he had no intention of doing a thing you said.
"Al," said Measure. "You better promise me not to meddle. "
Al just set his lips and didn't speak.
"You better promise me not to meddle, Alvin Junior, or I just won't go home."
Alvin promised. Ta-Kumsaw nodded and walked away, talking in Shaw-Nee to his boys. Measure felt sick with fear.
"Why are you afraid, White man?" asked the Prophet.
"Cause I'm not stupid," said Measure. "Only a stupid man wouldn't be scared to run the gatlopp."
The Prophet just laughed and walked off.
Alvin was sitting in the sand again, writing or drawing or something with his finger.
"You ain't mad at me, are you, Alvin? Cause I got to tell you, you can't be half as mad at me as I am at you. You got no duty to these Reds, but you sure got a duty to your ma and pa. Things being how they are, I can't make you do nothing, but I can tell you I'm ashamed of you for siding with them against me and your kin."
Al looked up, and there was tears in his eyes. "Maybe I am siding with my kin, did you think of that?"
"Well you sure got a funny way of doing it, seeing as how you'll keep Ma and Pa worried sick for months, no doubt. "
"Don't you think about anything bigger than our family? Don't you think maybe the Prophet's working out a plan to save the lives of thousands of Reds and Whites?"
"That's where we're different," said Measure. "I don't believe there is anything bigger than our family."
Alvin was still writing as Measure walked away. It didn't even occur to Measure what Alvin wrote in the sand. He saw, but he didn't look, he didn't read it. Now, though, the words came to his mind. RUN AWAY NOW, that's what Al was writing. A message to him? Why didn't he say it with his mouth, then? Nothing made'sense. The writing probably wasn't for him. And he sure wasn't going to run away and have Ta-Kumsaw and all them Reds sure he was a coward forever. What difference would it make if he ran away now? The Reds'd catch him in a minute, there in the woods, and then he'd run the gatlopp anyway, only it'd even be worse for him.
The warriors formed two lines in the sand. They were carrying heavy branches fallen or cut from trees. Measure watched as an old man took the beads from around Ta-Kumsaw's neck, then pulled off his loincloth. Ta-Kumsaw turned to Measure and grinned. "White man is naked when he has no clothes. Red man is never naked in his own land. The wind is my clothing, the fire of the sun, the dust of the earth, the water of rain. I wear all these. I am the voice and the face of the land!"
"Just get on with it," said Measure.
"I know someone who says a man like you has no poetry in his soul," said Ta-Kumsaw.
"And I know plenty of people who say that a man like you has no soul at all."
Ta-Kumsaw glared at him, barked a few words to his men, and then stepped between the lines.
He walked slowly, his chin high and arrogant. The first Red struck him a blow across his thighs, using the skinny end of a branch. Ta-Kumsaw snatched the branch out of his hands, turned it around, and made him strike again, this time in the chest, a harsh blow that drove the air out of Ta-Kumsaw's lungs. Measure could hear the grunting sound from where he stood.
The lines ran up the face of a dune, so that progress up the hill was slow. Ta-Kumsaw