much motion too soon.
“Down. Down,” he begged.
She gently lowered his head back to the bed.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Did that make you sick?”
He blinked once for yes, and then closed his eyes.
“Want to eat any more soup?”
Unable to stand the sound of his own voice, he just mouthed the word, no.
Letty set the cup aside, and then went to get a pan of water and the wash rag. She pulled aside the covers and began to bathe his body, gently washing away the rotting skin and pus. And for the first time since she’d laid him in the bed, Eulis began to object.
“Pants… nekked butt…” he muttered, and tried to push away her hands.
Too weary to be delicate, Letty shoved them aside and continued her task.
“Be quiet, fool. I have been looking at your naked butt for more than a week and I haven’t passed out yet, so hush.”
He hushed, and while he was considering the indignity he was enduring, quietly passed out again.
As soon as Letty had him cleaned, she covered him back up and then tossed the water outside. She didn’t have the strength for another trip to the falls, so she laid another stick of wood on the fire, blotted his peeled and drying lips with a clean wet cloth, and then wrapped herself in a blanket and lay down on the floor beside his bed. Confident that the worst had passed, and knowing that if she didn’t get some rest, she would pass with it, she closed her eyes. Within seconds, she was asleep.
The Time Of Revelations
It was snowing the day Eulis stood up on his own. The wind was a constant wail, not unlike the howls of the wolf pack that visited them every night. The storm was a white-out of thick snow blowing horizontally from north to south. The wall beside the fireplace was stacked high with firewood, while a large hunk of elk roasted on a spit over the fire.
Letty sat on a stool near the hearth, stitching the soles to the tops on a pair of moccasins she was making for Eulis. She’d measured his feet while he’d been sleeping and was hoping to finish them up before he woke. Since Eulis had gotten sick, she’d lost track of time and wasn’t even sure what day of the week it was, but she figured Christmas wasn’t far away. The holiday had never meant a lot to her before, but considering their metamorphoses from drunk and whore, she thought it seemly to honor the day. She had yet to tell him about her encounter with the wolf, and thought it great fun to surprise him with shoes made from the hide of the deadly marauder.
She was almost through with the leather lacings when Eulis started to stir. She quickly gathered up the pieces and stuffed them in a box just as Eulis opened his eyes.
He hadn’t expected to see her watching him from the foot of the bed and was still sensitive to the way he looked. The pox was in the scab stage, the last stage of healing and looked disgusting. He raised up on his elbows and frowned.
“If you were plannin’ on givin’ me another bath, you better think again. I wash my own butt from here on in.”
Letty was so happy he was alive to complain, that she didn’t let his smart mouth get to her as she might have. Instead of arguing with him, she changed the subject.
“Are you hungry? I got a roast on the spit and some soup left over from yesterday.”
His indignation was replaced with shame. She’d just spent the past week keeping his sorry ass alive, and now here she was offering him some food, and all he could do was complain. He rolled over and then swung his feet off the side of the bed.
“I reckon I could eat a bite.”
Letty hurried to the fireplace, happy to be doing something productive. Before he’d gotten sick, she’d been in the habit of working outside for at least a part of the day, and being cooped up in the cabin was more than a little confining. She grabbed a plate, sliced off an outside piece of the roast, then ladled a cup full of soup and carried them to the table. But when she turned around to help him to the table, she was surprised to see that he’d started on his own.
He had wrapped himself in one of the blankets, and was unsteady on his