A Land Remembered, Volume 1, page 18
The girl climbed down reluctantly, looking as if she might yet bolt and run. She was about twenty, two feet shorter than Skillit, and fifteen pounds overweight for her size. Her head was wrapped in a red bandanna, and a feed-sack dress came down to the top of an oversized pair of brogan shoes.
She managed a feeble smile, and then she said, “I’s glad to meet you, Missus Emma. Skillit done tole me all about you an’ Mistuh MacIvey an’ Zech an’ everbody else too. I’s glad to be here.”
Emma put her arm around the still frightened girl and said, “We’re glad to have you in the family, Pearlie Mae. Real glad. Let’s me and you go in the kitchen and have some woman talk and leave the men to themselves. I’ll fix us a fresh pot of coffee.”
Pearlie Mae seemed to relax as she followed Emma into the house. Skillit said, “Where’s the dogs? I wanted to show them to Pearlie Mae right off so they’d be friendly with her. I don’t want her comin’ on them sudden like and think they wolves.”
Tobias glanced at Zech, and then he said, “We’ll talk about that later, Skillit. The dogs ain’t here just now. We need to set out them trees. Ain’t good for them to be out of the ground too long, and I got all the holes dug.”
Zech spoke up and said, “While you’re doing that, could me and Ishmael go down in the woods, Pappa?”
“Sure, go on. We don’t need you with the planting.”
As Zech walked toward the barn Skillit said, “Zech don’t look too good, Mistuh Tobias. He been sick?”
“I’ll tell you about it while we plant the trees.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“The cows need salt, Mistuh Tobias,” Skillit said. “They looks poorly. Let’s take ’em to that river marsh up north of here where they’s salt grass.”
“I been thinking about that myself,” Tobias replied. “After we graze there for a while we can turn south and cross the river. Go and tell the others to turn north.”
The prairie was deep brown, burned by drought, and it would take thirty acres to feed just one cow. There were more than two thousand in the herd, all of them lanky after a winter in the swamps and woods. They moved faster than on past grazing drives, clipping the ground bare and ambling on, leaving behind a dust haze that made riding in the trailing wagon a constant annoyance. Both Emma and Pearlie Mae wore bandannas over their faces to gain what protection they could from the dust.
Sun rays bore down unmercifully from a cloudless sky, creating shimmering heat waves that looked like rolling ocean surf made of smoke. It played tricks on all of them, making distance judgment difficult, sometimes blocking out the horizon. Cypress stands ahead of them moved vertically and then horizontally, disappearing momentarily and then coming back like mystic ships with masts devoid of sails. The entire prairie seemed to be one giant vacuum just waiting to explode.
Men and horses were sapped of strength by mid-afternoon, and Tobias’ shirt was soaked with sweat when he rode to the wagon. He said to Emma, “There’s a pond fed by a spring at the stand over to the right. Pull on over there and we’ll stop for the day. I think everbody needs rest and water.”
The cows smelled the pond and turned to it without being herded, and when the wagon reached the stand the pond was already stomped brown with mud. Emma and Pearlie Mae filled buckets at the spring before the cattle desecrated it too.
Skillit tied his horse to a bush and said, “Lawd have mercy, I ain’t never knowed it to be so hot this time of year. That old sun puttin’ out heat like a wood stove full of hickory. Way I been sweatin’ today, I knows I must stink worse than any polecat ever been born.”
“I can smell you from here,” Pearlie Mae said, grinning. “You sho’ sleep by yoself tonight, else you go in the pond with the cows an’ wash up some.”
“I think I just do that. Move over cows, I’s comin’ in.”
“Flies seem to like this dry heat,” Emma said. “They’re as thick here as molasses. I don’t know how we’ll keep them out of the cooking pot.”
Tobias dismounted, took a dipper of water from one bucket and poured it over his head. “If I didn’t know better I’d swear the tops of them cabbage palms is smoking,” he said. “They look like they’re going to catch fire any minute. And if they do, with the prairie so dry, we’re all going to be fried blacker than coon meat.”
“You think we ought to turn back and put the cows in a swamp?” Skillit asked. “We do that, they could at least keep outen the sun.”
“No. We’ll move on. A couple days more and we’ll make the marsh flat. The grass is bound to be better there. I’ve never seen that flat go as dry as this place.”
Zech rode in and turned Ishmael lose at the spring. He dropped to the ground and put his head under water; then he filled his hat and came back to the wagon. He sat by Emma and put the hat back on, flooding his shirt and the top of his pants. “Feels good,” he said.
Tobias said to Zech, “Soon as you get done cooling off a bit, take a limb and keep the cows away from the spring. There’s water enough for them in the pond, and we don’t want the spring messed up too.”
The sinking sun brought no relief from the heat. Emma fixed a supper of beef stew, baked potatoes, and biscuits, and even Frog and Bonzo ate lightly. No one seemed interested in food.
Frog pushed his plate aside and said, “Is my eyes playing tricks on me, or is something peculiar goin’ on out yonder?”
“I don’t see nothin’ but cows an’ palmetto,” Skillit said.
Frog squinted. “Maybe it’s just sweat and dust in my eyes, but I swear I just seen some of them bushes pick up and move. There’s something out there besides cows.”
“I seen it too,” Zech said. “Over to the left, about a quarter mile.”
They all continued gazing, and then Zech said, “There. You see it then? It’s deer.”
A herd of a dozen deer stood alert, staring at the cypress stand, then darting behind palmetto clumps and coming out again.
“They act like they want to come to the wagon,” Frog said. “You reckon they smell Miz Emma’s biscuits?”
“Taint that,” Tobias said. “It’s the spring. I bet you we done blocked off the only watering hole around here that ain’t gone dry. If we have, every varmint on the prairie will be trying to come in here tonight for a drink.”
“If’n they do, we’ll have more wolves and bears and panthers than cows,” Skillit said. “Maybe we ought to move on away from here before it gets dark.”
“We could build a whole line of fires around the stand,” Frog said. “They sure won’t come through that to get in here.”
“That wouldn’t help the cows,” Tobias said. “We can’t cram two thousand cows inside a one-acre cypress stand. They’d still be out there in the open, fair game for whatever comes off the prairie.”
“If Nip and Tuck were here they could handle it,” Zech said.
“They’re sorely missed for sure,” Tobias said. “I never knew just how much of the work them dogs did till they were gone. But they’re not here now, and that’s a fact. We can sit here jawin’ all night and it won’t help matters one bit. We best decide what to do and then do it.”
Emma said, “You can’t blame the animals. They get thirsty too, and it’s their water, same as ours. We can fill the barrel and the buckets and leave. What difference does it make if we camp here or a few miles further on?”
“None at all,” Tobias said. “Sometimes you the only one makes sense, Emma. Let’s all saddle up and move on, and let them critters out there have their turn. Ain’t no use in us starting a war tonight over nothing.”
“I’d sure like to be here when all them critters come together at the pond,” Zech said. “That’ll be a sight to see. I’ll bet the fur’ll fly thicker than dandelions.”
“That’s their problem,” Tobias said. “Ours is the cows. We’ll go a few miles on and stop again.”
***
Just before midnight, when he was relieved from watch by Bonzo, Zech did not return to the camp. Instead, he rode south across the prairie, back toward the cypress stand they abandoned that afternoon.
There was a full moon glowing, and far in the west fingers of dry lightning cut the sky and were followed by dull rumblings. Tobias would be watching this too during his guard duty, watching with concern, hoping the slender fingers from above would not spark a fire in the tinder-dry grass. This was the most feared danger they faced on open prairie, fire that could move as swiftly as deer and destroy all in its path.
A full moon was always magical to Zech, bringing a time of enchantment when all the harshness of sun-burned prairie vanished and was replaced by soft outlines of palm and palmetto. He knew this to be a time of danger, when predators roamed and ruled the countryside, but this reality did not break his thoughts as Ishmael carried him slowly across the quiet plain.
There were many times back in the hammock when he slipped from the house unnoticed and walked alone through the woods and along the river during full moon, seeing and experiencing a totally different world from that of day. There was a warmness about it on winter nights, and a coolness in summer; and always it made him feel as if he were part and parcel of nature and its night creatures, a closeness that dissipated with the coming of the sun.
When he came to within a quarter mile of the stand, he tied Ishmael to a bush and walked on alone, moving slowly and without sound. Then he stopped a hundred yards short of the pond and dropped to the ground beside a palmetto.
The first forms that visited the stand were deer, and they were soon replaced by the smaller vague bodies of foxes and rabbits and raccoons. He lay there in the dry grass and watched a procession come in groups of their own kind: wolves, bears, a mother panther with a litter of cubs, all passing each other without comment, drinking and disappearing again into the night. There were no growls of anger, no warnings to move away, no snarling flashes of superiority—deadly natural enemies seemingly under a truce understood only by themselves, sharing equally a thing they all must have to survive.
Zech watched spellbound, wondering what would happen if Nip and Tuck were with him, if they too would understand and honor this truce, retreat from natural instincts and patiently await their turn; or if they would charge forward and engage in combat to run the others away without sharing. He was glad they were not present at this moment, for he did not want the scene challenged. He knew it was possible he would never again witness it.
Time passed swiftly as the strange parade continued, and he finally realized he should return to the camp lest his mother awaken and find him missing. He got up reluctantly and made his way back to Ishmael.
No one stirred as he tied the horse and unsaddled him. Off to the right, the herd stood motionless, not even the swish of a tail breaking the silence. He wondered if they somehow knew no danger would come their way this night, if they were aware of the ritual taking place a few miles to the south.
He lay on his blanket and used the saddle as a pillow, staring upward at the star-peppered sky, awed by what the night brought him. He was still awake when Tobias rode in from the herd at dawn.
***
Two days later they reached a low plain that stretched for five miles north and south and three miles eastward from the river. There were no trees here, only unbroken marsh, and the grass was taller than prairie grass and more wiry.
In times past when they brought herds to the salt marsh the ground was soggy, and the imprint of a cow’s hoof seeped brackish water. Now there were vast stretches of cracked mud that felt powdery to the step.
They made camp beneath a grove of cabbage palms on higher land overlooking the basin, then they drove the cows into the marsh. In spite of the dryness, the grass was bountiful, and Tobias knew the herd would get salt and minerals here that were unavailable on the prairie. He figured there was sufficient grazing for at least two weeks.
The days and nights settled into a dull routine of eating and sleeping and riding guard, but there was the diversion of going to the river and catching fish that Emma either fried or made into chowder. The river was three feet below its normal level and would be no problem to cross with the wagon when the time came to turn west.
***
At noon on the fourth day at the marsh, black clouds formed a solid wall in the west, and the wind quickened. Tobias watched hopefully as thunderheads inched upward and closer, and by mid-afternoon the marsh was turned a somber yellow by a sunless sky.
Lightning flashes were followed by sharp, crashing thunder, scattering the egrets and herons from their feeding grounds close by the river. All of the men not on watch cut poles and hurriedly fashioned lean-tos from palmetto fronds.
The wind increased until finally the marsh grass lay flat against the ground; then solid sheets of rain blew in vertically, slashing men, horses and cattle. From the camp the plain became invisible. When they could no longer see the herd, Tobias and Zech abandoned the watch and made their way back to the wagon.
Night came two hours earlier than usual, and the cooking fire hissed and went out before Emma could prepare food. They huddled beneath the lean-tos and ate beef jerky, and soon the pounding rain found its way through the palmetto roofs and drenched them.
The rain stopped just before dawn, and daybreak came once again to a cloudless sky. Tobias stirred and said, “We needed rain real bad, but that one was almost too much. I hope nobody floated away.”
He got out of the wagon and walked across the soggy ground, stopping at the rim of the basin. The herd was all there, standing in a sheet of water covering the marsh. It looked as if grass were growing from a lake.
Because the basin was low land and mucky rather than sandy, the water did not run off quickly or become absorbed. Instead, it dropped to a one-inch cover and remained that way, releasing millions upon millions of mosquito eggs attached to the grass,dormant eggs that would incubate quickly in the intense heat and turn into larvae. Each invisible larva would eat and breathe for four days, and after shedding its skin four times, become a pupa. At this stage it discontinued eating and changed rapidly, and in another two days its skin split, allowing an adult mosquito to pull itself out and dry its wings in preparation for flight. No one in the camp was aware of this natural chain of events taking place across the tranquil marsh.
Zech was at the river alone, fishing, when he felt the stinging on his neck and arms. He slapped vigorously, then he waved his hand back and forth across his face. “Skeeters,” he mumbled as he threw down the cane pole and then mounted Ishmael.
Tobias and Skillit were with the herd, puzzled by the faint humming sound drifting across the marsh from the north. Then they saw it, a solid black cloud extending from the ground thirty feet upward, moving toward them. As they watched, other clouds formed in the west and in the south.
Skillit said, “What is it, Mistuh Tobias? Is it locusts? I’ve heard of a locust swarm but I’ve never seen one.”
“Whatever it is, I got a feeling it ain’t good. We might need some help with the cows.”
Tobias glanced toward the river and saw Zech enter a cloud and disappear momentarily, then emerge in a full gallop. He said “I don’t know what’s happening, Skillit, but I think we best get out of here.”
Before they could turn the horses, the stinging came, setting their bodies on fire. Tobias looked down and his legs were covered solidly by mosquitoes. His horse bolted straight upward and crashed down on its side, struggling and kicking, trying to regain its footing.
Tobias felt the breath go out of his lungs, and for a moment he couldn’t move. He brushed feebly at his body as he heard Skillit’s horse whinny loudly and start bucking. He also heard frantic bellowing come from the herd.
Cows were bucking, kicking, and falling all around him as Zech raced across the marsh. As soon as a cow hit the ground mosquitoes swarmed over it and formed a solid mass in its mouth and nose, blocking air from its lungs, causing the cow’s eyes to pop out as it tried to bellow but could not do so.
Tobias finally jumped to his feet, grabbed the horse and mounted. The horse spun around and around, snorting, trying to force the obstruction from its nose; then it gained control if itself and ran blindly.
Emma and Pearlie Mae were frozen with fear as they looked out over the marsh and watched the cows running wildly in circles, jumping and falling, repeating the frenzied cycle again and again. Emma saw Tobias go down and become engulfed in blackness. She screamed at Frog, “What’s happening out there? What is it?”
Frog slapped his arms and legs, and then he said, “It’s skeeters, Miz Emma! Solid skeeters! We got to leave here right away! Run for the prairie! Go as fast as you can! I’ll bring the horses and the oxen!”
Zech pounded his boots into Ishmael’s side, forcing him to run through the swarming mass as swiftly as possible, feeling mosquitoes pound into his face like rain. He could not see ahead and only hoped he was heading in the direction of the prairie.
Skillit stopped briefly and looked back at the spot where Tobias went down, seeing nothing. He scooped a handful of the humming bodies from his left arm, crushed them and released them, and the bloody pulp poured downward like wild honey. His horse stumbled but didn’t go down; then he galloped full speed to the east.
Pearlie Mae fell constantly, her short, overweight body crashing into the bushes, and each time she could hear Emma scream, “Get up and run, Pearlie Mae! You have to!”
The mosquitoes followed them two miles into the prairie until a brisk east wind blew them back toward the marsh. No one was together except Emma and Pearlie Mae, and their bodies were stinging too badly for them to even wonder about the others. They sat on the ground rubbing themselves, scratching the welts and making them itch even worse. Emma’s eyes were almost swollen shut when she heard Tobias’ voice above her, “Emma. Are you all right? Have you seen any of the others?”
