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"Tales of the Monocacee" |
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"Ben's Adventure" Ben and Lay-ken-tow went hunting. It hadn't been a good year, and they expected to go well south, so they took two days supply of food. No one expected to see them for seven days. On the third day they got a rabbit. This pleased their bellies, and they could still smile two days later, having eaten nothing that didn't pass right next to them as they ambled generally southward, keeping the breeze ahead of them. Then they saw the doe. They froze. She was grazing in the middle of a small clearing. They slowly and silently notched arrows to their bows and spread apart slightly as they advanced on her. Just as they got within range she raised her head high. Her nose was twitching. They let fly. Lay-ken-tow's arrow struck in the middle of her neck, Ben's in the middle of her chest, just behind her right foreleg. The arrows, power spent by their travels, didn't penetrate very deeply. The deer launched in a beautiful two-legged spiral directly away from the strike. Ben and Lay-ken-tow followed immediately at a fast jog. Two minutes into the run Lay-ken-tow scooped his arrow from the forest floor. It would just need re-feathering, so he stuck it in Ben's quiver as they ran. A mile further they passed the shaft of Ben's arrow. It had broken off just below the head. They left it where it lay. After jogging briskly for a half hour, following the deer's trail through the forest, they came on her in another clearing, head lowered, front legs splayed, frantically trying to recuperate from her panic-stricken run. Her face pointed directly at them, she bolted, still gracefully and quickly, the instant they appeared. The wound in her neck had stopped bleeding, but they saw blood welling up from the one in her side as she lunged away from them. The arrowhead was still lodged in her chest, keeping the wound open. They continued their steady, relentless jog, occasionally changing lead to give each other a break. Three times in the next half-hour they surprised her heaving great gasps of air. Each time she bolted more feebly. The third time she stumbled and fell. They approached her very cautiously. Careless hunters had suffered from those razor-sharp hooves, approaching one in its death throes. But this doe had succumbed. Lay-ken-tow began field-dressing it while Ben prepared a fire. By the time the deer was dressed it was dark. They strung it up by firelight, then roasted the organ meats. Bellies full for the first time in five days, exhausted from an hour run in the late afternoon, they were soon fast asleep. The next morning they cut a sapling, strung the deer from it, and started the long trek home. They knew they had three days to go before they would pass anyone's house, but there was still plenty of roasted organ meat, placed in the animal's stomach cavity for storage, and they marched off in high spirits. They woke the third morning to surprising odors. Someone was cooking food, less than an hour away. They were still a full day's trek from old Saul's, where they were planning to spend the night, and his was the southernmost house in the area, so it couldn't be that. It might just be a campfire, they decided, but they ought to check it out. They loaded up and headed in the direction the smells came from. They entered a clearing with a small cabin in it. Heat was coming from the chimney. They approached with caution, Ben taking the lead, his red hair the only indication he was European. They circled around at a short distance, deer strung between them on the pole, 'til they reached the side with the door; they hallooed and waited, weapons shouldered. The door opened wide. Framed in it, a European woman, not tall, her waist wide as her hips, body fully covered with clothes, and behind her, almost a head taller, a much younger woman, Ben thought, maybe sixteen and thinner, from what he could see, with her mostly behind the shorter woman. They hallooed him back, and asked their business. Ben explained they were from the area, just curious to meet new neighbors. The lady introduced herself, Mrs. Wolcat, and her daughter Amanda, called Mandy, said her husband Seth was clearing some ground for wheat, and invited them in. Mandy'd been born in St. Mary's City, where they'd landed from England. When she turned thirteen, a year and a half ago, they'd sold out their business and come here, where they'd heard people lived more right. They hadn't wanted Mandy coming out to a society like the one they were living in. They'd planned to visit around and find their neighbors as soon as they felt settled in. Ben allowed as how they looked pretty settled in and proposed that they come up to the Tannens'', three days north by northeast, at the full moon, some two weeks away, where he'd for sure have many of the neighbors assembled, reasons for a party being taken up quickly in those parts. He didn't mention that he was struck by Miss Mandy, or that, being born and raised in the Monacacy, he was intrigued by the fact that they covered their breasts. He did, however, mention that he was an orphaned bachelor, that the natives in the area avoided Europeans they hadn't been introduced to, and that old Saul was their closest neighbor, being less than six hours walk east by northeast. He also said and that he and Lay-ken-tow planned to overnight at Saul's on their way home, which was another days journey north by north-northeast for Lay-ken-tow, leaving himself only a half days walk due west, or, from the Wolcat's, two long days north by north-northeast, to his lonely cabin. He didn't know why he called it a 'lonely' cabin, it had never seemed lonely before, any more than he understood why whenever he felt Mandy looking at him and turned toward her she was looking at the floor. Seth came in while they were talking, having heard the halloos, and insisted they be fed 'til their ears bulged, then produced some corn and spent so much time extracting information about the area they decided to spend the night and get an early start for old Saul's. When they left, the Wolcats were planning the trip to the Tannens'' at the full moon for a spring feast. They left a hindquarter at old Saul's, along with information about the Wolcats and the feast, and went on to Lay-ken-tow's house, which was attached to the house of his in-laws. There the tale was told again, and after the deer was fully dressed, one of the younger boys took some and the tale to neighbors east. Ben took a good deal of the meat and, after helping Lay-ken-tow begin preparation of the hide, left for the Tannens', intent on delivering meat and message throughout the area. He wanted this to be the best party ever. Time dragged for Ben. He was rarely home, stopping by his cabin only three times and spending just one night in it. He roamed the entire area, priming people, helping wherever work threatened to keep people away, but never had he seen a moon so slow to fill. Finally, the day came. He arrived at the Tannens' at daybreak, having walked all night, and immediately began tidying up the already tidy place. He was in and out, up and down, concerned about every detail. "Sit down, Ben," said Mrs. Tannen, "you're driving me to distraction." At noon the Plowthers arrived, with old Saul, and Mrs. Tannen assigned Saul the job of quieting Ben. He tackled it with relish. His jug of corn in one hand, he threw his free arm around Ben's shoulders, proclaimed his intent to "learn him a little about women," and sat down with him at the base of a tree, their backs against the trunk. Ben heard Mandy's laugh. He looked up. She was five feet away, her back to him, talking to Bettina. Zeke, almost three, stood naked next to his mother, one arm wrapped around her knee, bunching her skirt up, as he watched the strange woman with clothes all over her. The sun was far lower than it had been a moment ago, and Ben realized he'd slept soundly for at least three hours. There were people everywhere. Zeke saw Ben moving and left his mother to run to him, calling his name. He grabbed Ben's cheek in one hand, his hair in the other, and started jumping up and down, laughing. Ben laughed too, scooping the boy up in his arms as he stood up, Zeke still pulling on a fistful of hair as he found himself soaring up to the height of the adults. Bettina turned to him. "I've met your Mandy," she said, the words causing Ben to blush a livid red, "and I like her too." Mandy, who had turned to follow Zeke with her eyes which had then gone, smiling, to Ben's face, also blushed and turned her gaze to the ground at Ben's feet. Bettina reached for Zeke, making Ben close part of the gap between him and Mandy. "Come on, Zeke," she said, "let's go find some food." Ben watched her as she left, wanting to call her back. He felt tongue-tied, at a loss for words. Slowly he turned his gaze back to Mandy. She was still looking down, watching her foot roll a pebble around in the dirt. He continued to look at her, struck by her beauty, thrilled by her presence. She turned her eyes from her feet to his, then slowly drank in his body as her head straightened, until she was gazing directly into his. He felt that he was drowning in the depth of her soul when her hand slowly reached out to him. His hand, almost of its own volition, reached out to hers, and they touched. They were alone in a great white landscape. There was no sound, but existence was musical. The two of them stood, holding hands, looking at the assemblage. In the light of the full moon, high overhead, and the candles here and there throughout, people were laughing, dancing, talking. Someone was playing music. Ben thought it was fitting that there be joy throughout on the first day of his new life, and, as he stood there nude, his loincloth in his free hand, he felt completely fulfilled. Mandy had never taken her skirt off. It still hung from her hips, danced above her toes as she stood hand in hand with Ben, her shirtwaist in her free hand, and looked amongst the crowd for her mother. She saw her mothers arm as she was waving to them and smiled, stepping dreamily off, Ben gliding along with her, not entertaining the possibility of breaking this last connection. When they reached her parents, Mandy slipped her hand from Ben's and threw her arms around her mother. Ben said "Mrs. Wolcat, may I marry your daughter?" "I don't think I know you well enough to answer that question yet, young man, but if you want to live with us and help Seth with the farm this season, I'll have an answer by harvest." She turned to her husband. "That is, if Seth wants your help." "If we get right to work, son, we could double the land cleared for this year's crop," said Seth. He gestured to Ben's nudity with a grin. "But you'll have to cover yourself better than that or you'll get hurt in the field." Ben looked down and turned violently red for a second time when he realized Mrs. Wolcat may not know him yet, but she certainly knew what he looked like, head to toe. As he hastily began to cover himself, Mrs. Wolcat spoke. "It seems to me, Seth, that we're joinin' th' neighborhood." She began unfastening her shirtwaist, and revealed her fulsome breasts to the party. THE END :::::::::::: © John C. Hagerhorst |
