Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

 

I wondered how I had managed to get sick out here around only two other people and some animals. By evening I was fine. 

Next morning I still couldn’t face a cup of coffee. Julia said she had spearmint teabags, so I settled on that. The heat of the tea with the clean flavor felt good. I finished with toast and a side of nothing. 

I remained sitting in the little kitchen with Julia after Jessie went out to feed chickens and spend time playing with Honda, who was still a pup after all.

“Beth, do you really not know why you have been sick,” she asked. Something astounding hit me when she said that. Something that I had never given a thought to for several years. I was stunned. I couldn’t think of what to say. I almost couldn’t get my breath.

“An old one, like me, can see life coming over the horizon. I was seeing it before you became ill. But this illness is a good thing. It means life is settling in well and that the Creator is looking upon you with love. Just rest more, eat a little of what you can handle for a while and be joyful honey,” said the old one. “I will cook for a while.”

I leapt up to my feet. “I have to talk to him,” I said. “Back later!”

Sickness forgotten, I ran out of the blue mobile home to find Jessie and Honda fooling around with sticks in the driveway.

“Jessie, Jessie, Jessie!” I said in a rush. “Guess what!”

“What Beth?” Jessie turned his attention to me. Honda sat and looked at us.

“Your Aunt and I think that a child is coming! That’s why I got sick yesterday! After all this time Jessie!”

I saw profound realization come upon him and he smiled his sweet old smile that I had known so well for so long.

“Beth, I can think of nothing better. Nothing but good has come to us here at my home place, but this is the best of all!

“Now I get to treat you like you are fragile and keep you from lifting anything,” he giggled. We stood with our arms around each other out there with the dog in the beautiful Arizona landscape, laughing and smooching like silly kids with a new and very precious gift.

I was only sick to my tummy in the mornings for a couple of weeks, then I felt fine. It had been a while since I had contacted my parents. They still thought we were up north living as usual. I had quite a lot to explain to them, which I did in a long letter. I swore them to secrecy about where we were and prayed for the best. It might have been a little rash, but I was feeling so blessed that I had no fear. I knew that they would really love this news.

There was really no one else who needed to be told just now. Soon we would present Jessie’s local relatives with the news. But not right away.

We kept spading up the garden. Jessie and I drove into Winthrop one day seeking appropriate seeds and a truckload of bags of compost to improve the quality of the soil in our little patch of spaded earth. This meant going to Walmart, the store with everything.

I felt shy about looking at baby items. These were things I had never concerned myself with. We decided that there would be plenty of time for that in the near future.

Honda, the pup, slept in the hogan with us and came into the mobile with us also, but he spent a lot of time outside too, by himself. I had a question for Aunt Julia. One night at dinner, I asked her “do you have any idea why that puma that comes around does not kill Honda or the chickens? I’m sure she could get inside their fence if she wanted to.”

She had made Indian tacos for dinner. They are like a rather mild taco, the usual stuff, but put into a flat piece of frybread. They are quite large, much bigger than a Mexican style street taco. She made four of them. Two for Jessie, and one for each of us women. 

She turned those black eyes towards me and was silent for a moment. She said, “I’m not sure how you will be able to take this. Do you want to hear it?” I nodded yes.

“Not everything you see is real. Not everything you don’t see is unreal. The cat in a way is not a cat. She means no harm. I know this. Chickens and dogs which live in her home will be sheltered. This I know also.” She smiled with her lips, not her eyes. Then she brought a little plain square lemon cake to the table and mysterious talk gave way to dessert time. I had regained my love of coffee.

That was all she said on the matter. I didn’t feel like I could ask further. But her riddle did puzzle me. I kept fidgeting with it. There was a real cat and there was also an unreal cat. Which did I see when I first came here or when I felt her brush past me in the mine shaft? I thought maybe the very land here is a different kind of place. Something odd in the air and in the minds of the people who lived here. How much does belief affect the land? Does it rise up to meet the stories they tell? Or does the enchantment of the place bring the stories to birth in the people’s minds?

I felt like a child assessing reality. I thought about my mind when I had been up north and how logical all things had seemed to me. Perhaps I was due some reconsideration.

Jessie had finished reading the old mining book. He also knew that most of the time dynamite was used to knock some gold containing rock down, but he didn’t feel ready to start blowing up dynamite. He thought maybe he would try a little manual mining with a big chisel and a heavy mallet. At least he would try it and see if he could make any progress. We thought perhaps the good news would elicit good fortune in the mine. We were still giddy. 

Therefore, one fine morning, he called Honda to come along with him, gathered up a battery powered lantern which he had purchased for this very reason and the required tools. They set out together to mine some gold if they could. I didn’t go because I was supposed to take it easy for a while.

Link for all of it so far; They haven't taken my phone yet.docx