The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,230

someone to be more miserable than I was. I was terrible mean to you.”

Eulis laughed. It was the last thing she expected him to do.

“That makes you laugh?” she asked.

“No, no… you don’t understand. It’s right dear of you to be sorry like that, but you gotta know somethin’. Despite what I’ve said, I don’t remember even one time when you yelled at me. I was too drunk. Even when I wasn’t drunk, I was so hung-over I couldn’t focus on anything but my own misery.”

Letty sighed. “Still, I did it, and I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be. I haven’t been sorry for one day of my life since we left Lizard Flats together.”

Letty smiled as she fought back tears, holding the words close to her heart long after he’d gone outside.

Weeks passed.

Snow came again, then melted back some.

Days were getting longer, which meant their time left in the valley was becoming shorter.

The End Of The Trail

The wind came up in the night as Eulis and Letty slept. The sound alone wasn’t enough to awaken them to what was happening outside, although it blew and it blew in nerve-wracking gusts that never stopped, blasting from peak to peak and down into the valley, blowing all night long, rattling the door, and sucking air up the chimney so fast that the fire went completely out.

Eulis woke just before morning and needing to pee, but when his bare feet hit the cold floor, shock almost drove the notion from his mind. He looked toward the fireplace, surprised to see that not only had the fire gone out, but there were no live coals left either.

“What in blazes?”

Letty roused, and then rolled over, realizing Eulis was up.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something’s weird. The fire’s out,” he said shortly. Then he turned toward the door. “And the wind’s stopped blowing.”

She sat up and pulled the covers up to her chin.

“Oooh, it’s freezing in here,” she said.

“Like I said… fire’s out. Even the coals.”

Letty frowned as she threw back the covers.

“I’ll help. There’s some kindling in the corner.”

“We don’t have any more matches,” he said.

Letty panicked, but only for a moment. “We’ve got flint.”

Eulis turned and looked at her. “Why do we have flint, and why didn’t I know it?”

“I found it by the fireplace on our first day. My daddy used flint to make fire all the time, so I knew what it was. I just put it up.”

“Where is it?” he asked.

“On the shelf behind the pan you used to make coffee, when we still had some to drink.”

He shoved aside the pan, grabbed the flint, and hurried back to the fireplace. Within a few minutes, they had a small fire going. Letty sat on the stool by the fire, wrapped in a blanket from the bed, and slowly adding wood as needed, while Eulis went to get dressed.

The sun was just a wink away when he opened the door to go let the mules out of the shed.

“Letty! Look! Lord have mercy, would you look at that!”

She ran to the door, and then started to laugh.

“It’s gone! It’s gone! The snow is gone. What happened? How could it all melt this fast?”

“Chinook,” Eulis said. “I heard of ’em. Never saw what one could do, though.”

“What’s a Chinook?” Letty asked.

“It’s a warm wind… comes outa the south and melts the snow right down. I reckon this is our first sign of spring comin’.”

“Will it snow more?”

“Might, but probably nothin’ like it has before.”

“What do you think?” Letty asked.

Eulis knew what she meant. “I think we oughta make plans to leave.”

All of a sudden, the thought of the unknown was unsettling. Here, she knew what to do. Out there, every day was uncertain. Then she thought of the gold. Whatever they did they would be doing it in style.

“How are we gonna pack out the gold?” Letty asked.

Eulis looked toward the wagon. Melted snow was still dripping through the cracks in the wagon bed. The wheels were okay, but the hubs would be needing grease, especially with a heavy load. There was some still in what they’d packed from Fort Dodge, although when he thought about that time, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

“We’ll figure somethin’ out, but we will have to wait a couple of days until the ground freezes back or we’ll bog down in the wagon before we get across the meadow.”

“I’m scared,” Letty said, and then couldn’t believe she’d admitted to being weak.

Eulis put his arm around her.

“Yeah, so am I.”

The silence