Wild Whispers

“I knew you would not leave without saying good-bye,” Moon Glow said in her raspy, old voice.

“I thought you perhaps didn’t want to, since you did not come out right away,” Dawnmarie said, her gaze moving slowly over Moon Glow.

Her gray, thinning hair touched the ground in awkward wisps. She wore a shabby robe of white rabbit fur which she had surely had way back when she knew Dawnmarie’s mother. Her eyes were weary, their dark brown color now almost gray. But in them Dawnmarie saw a warmth and love.

“I was not sure if I should come out when you called my name,” Moon Glow said, looking quickly past Dawnmarie, to see if anyone saw them standing there, talking. “I was not sure if Fire Thunder would approve. I waited to see if he came to whisk you away.” She cackled as her eyes moved back to Dawnmarie. “Since he did not come, I had to believe that you succeeded at coming without him seeing you.”

“He is with my husband on horseback, enjoying the last hours he has with him as he shows him his land and longhorns,” Dawnmarie murmured.

“Yes, I have seen the longhorns and I have seen the land, but only in my dreams,” Moon Glow said, her voice taking on a melancholy hollowness. “I have only glimpsed the longhorns as they have been driven on the outskirts of the village toward their pasture. That was enough to give me cause to dream of them. I, before I became labeled the Trotter, knew the land as well as anyone. I, too, enjoyed taking walks, looking at and feeling the peacefulness of everything. It is so much different than Wisconsin, Illinois, or Indiana. Even Texas. I like this place. It is good that Fire Thunder’s leadership was strong enough to settle our people here.”

“Then you would not leave, even if it meant that you would no longer be forced to live in isolation?” Dawnmarie said, watching Moon Glow’s expression change to that of wonder.

“I have never been given the chance to leave,” Moon Glow said softly. “Even when I gave my people cause to label me as different than they, I was not banished. I was able to stay.”

“Then would you leave if given the chance since you have been forced into a life of isolation?” Dawnmarie asked, her voice and eyes anxious.

“Daughter of my friend Doe Eyes, what are you saying?” Moon Glow said warily.

The cat on Moon Glow’s arm leaped, hissing, when Dawnmarie reached for Moon Glow’s hands and took them.

“Moon Glow, come with me and White Wolf,” Dawnmarie blurted out, aware of the boniness of Moon Glow’s hands. “Live with us in our village many suns’ ride from here, in Wisconsin. There you will live a life free of disgrace. No one there will know of your past. You can begin life anew. Surely you can be happier there than here, where you are, in a sense, a prisoner.”

“You are your mother’s daughter,” Moon Glow said, her voice breaking. “Like Doe Eyes, you are a woman of a kind and generous heart. But I cannot go with you.”

“I don’t understand,” Dawnmarie said, stunned that Moon Glow would refuse this chance to leave her life of seclusion. “How could you want to stay here, where no one is allowed to talk to you?”

“Although I am living a sort of exiled life among my people here in the Mexican mountains, in truth I feel important,” Moon Glow tried to explain. “I have the power to absorb the sins of others so that those who have sinned can begin life anew, as though born again. If I leave, who then would my people look to for help?”

Dawnmarie choked back a sob to see this elderly woman who was once her mother’s very best friend think only of others. Her mother had been the same. She always put other people before herself. Dawnmarie had never wanted for anything that her mother could possibly get for her.

Dawnmarie took the frail, elderly woman within her gentle arms. “I will not say any more t

o you about leaving,” she murmured. “But even though I am leaving you behind, I will take a part of you with me inside my heart.”

“As your mother did those long years ago when she was stolen from her people,” Moon Glow said, her voice breaking. “I never forgot your mother, nor her goodness.” She cackled as she leaned away from Dawnmarie. “She and I differed in one respect. I could not love just one man. I loved them all.”

Dawnmarie laughed softly when she saw that that thought brought a look of satisfaction to Moon Glow’s eyes, as well as enough memories perhaps to content her until she walked the road to the hereafter.

“I imagine you were beautiful, so beautiful the men could not stay away from you,” Dawnmarie said, her eyes dancing.

“Your mother was as beautiful, but she knew how to turn her back on temptation,” Moon Glow said, cackling again. Then she grew somber. “And dear, sweet Running Fawn has the same restlessness as I did. But it was whose arms she chose to fill that was the difference. I never looked for loving elsewhere. The men I bedded were always Kickapoo!”

Then Dawnmarie heard horses arriving at the village, and thinking it might be Fire Thunder and White Wolf returning, she grabbed Moon Glow in her arms and gave her a last hug. “I truly must go now,” she whispered. She clung to Moon Glow, the same as she might her mother were she still alive. “I will never forget you.”

“Nor shall I you,” Moon Glow said, then broke away and hurried back inside her wigwam, her cats trailing along behind her.

Dawnmarie wiped tears from her eyes. She felt as though she was saying another good-bye to her mother. She then rushed away from the small wigwam nestled amidst the thick stand of trees.

When she stepped out into the sunshine, she smiled, for everything was finished and she had the rest of her life to fill with her children, and . . . grandchildren! Tomorrow she would begin her journey home, her true home.

Chapter 25

Brightest truth, purest truth in the universe,

All were for me

In the kiss of one girl.