Chapter 1: The Mountain-5
995 Words
Summer was coming to an end. The leaves on the cottonwoods were yellow and falling. The sun, while still warm at midday, was not as strong. Nights were cold and the fire had to be kept going for warmth as there was only one blanket. Ranger was growing a thick coat of hair. All these signs made Lee uncomfortable. What would they do as winter got closer?
Lee came out of the trees with an armload of wood for the night fire. Tatanka sat cross-legged working on the finishing touches of a deerskin shirt. This was the second shirt he’d made. The Indian had insisted the first should be Lee’s, but Lee had adamantly refused. It was getting cold and Tatanka had no shirt. Lee at least had his cotton shirts. He had offered his Sunday shirt to Tatanka, but the brave had refused it. Lee thought it strange. He would take the white man deep within him and yet would not wear his clothing.
“Here, try on,” said Tatanka when he saw Lee coming toward him. “This keep you warm.”
Lee put the logs on the woodpile and took the shirt. It amazed him how adept the natives were at sustaining themselves on the bounty of nature. The shirt was tan in color and the sleeves had a fringe. It had a “V” neck and fit him perfectly. He turned around slowly in front of his partner; modeling with his arms outstretched.
“What?” He saw Tatanka was frowning.
“No beads need beads to show you fine man, good man. Wicasta was’te!”
Lee walked over to him. He put his arms around him and kissed him deeply.
“This shows me you think I am fine man, good man,” he said. “Wicasta was’te!”
Tatanka smiled, but Lee knew it was not enough. Tatanka was Dakota. His heritage and traditions were important to him. Over the weeks, now months, they had lived on the mountain, Lee had come to know this about his man. How it must have torn him apart to leave his people. Yet, his need to live as a man was stronger.
“Ah, this keep you warm, any ways?” “Or any hows?” Tatanka still struggled at times with the language, much to Lee’s amusement.
“Don’t much matter. You can say it either way.”
The cowboy got serious. “Tanka.”
“Hau?”
“We gotta talk.”
“More lesson?”
“No,” Lee smiled at his friend. “No, we gotta decide what we’re gonna do for winter?”
“Winter?”
“Waniyetu.”
Tatanka shrugged and turned away and walked to the lakeshore.
Lee followed him. “It’ll be real cold. We got no proper winter clothes and no real shelter.”
Tatanka turned to him and fingered the fringe on the new deerskin.
“Now, don’t get me wrong. This here’s great for now. But man it gets really cold.”
“We build tipi. Get robes. Make fuck.” Tatanka put his arm around Lee and smiled. “That make plenty warm.”
“Yeah, I know,” Lee took Tatanka in his arms, “But not warm enough. Tanka to build a tipi and get robes we need us a buffalo or two.”
Tatanka brightened. “We hunt. You got gun. We do it.”
Lee was not convinced. “What do your people do?”
Tatanka pulled away and walked farther toward the shoreline.
“Tanka?”
“They follow buffalo. Lee, you want leave here?”
Lee walked up behind the Indian, putting his arms around him and holding both of his forearms. He nestled his face in Tatanka’s neck.
“No, but winter. Tanka, it’s gonna freeze us.”
Tatanka considered his response and sighed.
“Ohaa, all right, But where we go?”
“I donno. South. Maybe Kansas, Oklahoma.” Then Lee remembered the conversation about Tatanka being a Winkte: a powerful, spiritual man who could sometimes see the future. “Can’t you use them Winkte powers to tell us where to go?”
Tatanka smiled. “I not know if I be Winkte or not. I not do any things that they can do except this.” He leaned in to kiss Lee.
“I’m thinkin’ that’s one hell of a good Winkte power,” Lee said smiling.
“I not know where to go but,” Tatanka set his jaw, breathed deeply and nodded, “I go where you go. To be where you be is caatewas’te…glad in my heart.”
Damn, Lee thought, fighting back tears. He enfolded Tatanka in his arms.
* * * *
Despite the decision to leave the mountain, neither man was in a rush to follow through on their agreement.
They continued as they had for most of the summer: hunting, fishing, loving. The only modification was water games were no longer on the agenda: the lake was too cold.
At night, they would build a huge fire and snuggle together under the single blanket for warmth.
Providence intervened, and on one hunting expedition, Lee brought down a moose while Tatanka killed an elk. There was rejoicing in the camp that night. The animals provided more food than they could want and the skins were quickly made into a shelter and robes to keep out the increasing cold.
Nevertheless, they couldn’t stay the advancing seasons. By the beginning of the fall, they knew they had to make good on their pact to find warmer climes. This decision was made clear when they awoke one morning to find themselves covered with snow.
“Where are your people now?”
“ItokaYata, kuwa tatanka: South, follow buffalo,” Tatanka said with a deep sigh as he packed the robes.
Ranger was already saddled. Lee was pretty sure he could carry both men and their meager belongings. If necessary they could take turns walking.
“Didn’t you have a horse?”
“Hau.”
“Well, why didn’t ya bring it? Sure coulda used it now.”
The Indian just shrugged.
The men stood side by side, Lee holding Ranger’s reins. They looked at the clearing by the lake, the forest, the place that had been their world for the past four months. Now they were to leave. What would the world outside make of a white man and an Indian? A white man and an Indian who were lovers?
“Well, let’s hit it,” said Lee. He mounted the horse and gave his arm to Running Buffalo, who swung up in the saddle behind him. Lee turned the horse to follow the lakeshore to pick up an elk trail that would lead south. He heard Tatanka snort. He had come to know Indians used that sound to express many things their culture may frown on expressing in words and other actions. This time, Lee knew, the snort suppressed tears.
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