A Man, a Dog, and Home, LUKE'S SAGA - PART II

Luke couldn’t take a chance on losing his first harvest so he waiting until his seedlings were established and thriving before he visited his new neighbors. He cut his stored root vegetables into eyes and planted those in rows beside his seedlings, cleaning and airing his storage tunnels as he planted. He built a separate smoking hut now and had expanded his living quarters by building a new room off of what become an entry and mud room area.  The entrance tunnel was still single file and doubled back for safety against man or beast.   

He and the doctor discussed resources in their respective valleys and Luke decided to take a gift of dried, smoked fish and dried berries as a gesture of friendship to his new neighbors.  He stripped the berry bushes after the bear was shot hoping the cubs would wander off and find a new home.  He tried pounding some of the nut like fruit of trees but only one tree produced a tasty nut to eat.   He was watching for a grain or something he could make into a flour type substance and he often wondered what could be made into soap for his clothes.  He was still washing them in erosion holes in the rocks at the creek and then letting them dry there on rocks in the sun.

His most prideful achievement was a large bunk in his new room.  Thick sapling rails along each side rested on a row of stumps at the foot and head forming the frame and young pliable branches and vines were cross woven on to the frame with a final layer of soft, fragrant plant material.  Soft and sturdy he thought as he sat on the side of his bed to remove his boots and sleep until daylight and his journey to what they all had started calling Left Fork,   Luke’s valley was Right Fork.

Luke climbed over the ridge instead of walking down his valley and up the left fork.  He took the high route because of a small threat of rain at the break of dawn, now the sun was hot and sure overhead.  He traveled four hours and he started smelling smoke.  Human habitation he decided.  Still the soldier he set his load down and reconnoitered the land locating the two cabins the brothers built. He watched and saw Ned set out with a large coyote.  It must be the mother dog, Luke decided.  She was wiry and probably had fine endurance as would her pups but she wasn’t very stocky, just as well for feeding purposes.  Did they have potential as sled dogs, he asked himself?  He was working on a pair of snowshoes for next winter, someday maybe a sled. 

The dog caught wind of him and he whistled and called out to Ned then hid in the brush.  Ned came running toward him with the dog, hollering back toward the cabins.  Nothing guarded about Ned’s behavior Luke thought.  He saw the doctor and another man come out of one of the cabins, neither had a rifle.  He stood and held his hand out for a shake as Ned reached him.  Ned would be gentle unless roused and then he was inordinately strong and had little control over his anger.  He could easily kill like an enraged bear if provoked enough. 

Luke shook Ned’s hand and clapped him on his back asking him about the pups.  He wanted Ned to think of the baby bear and pups when he thought of Luke.  He’d had men like Ned under his command and found them to be loyal and devoted but unable to improvise on their own.   Ned wanted to help Luke carry things so Luke gave him a load as they walked down to the cabin.  One man with his hands full and two others in full sight, hands empty.  Just the two women left unaccounted for. 

The doctor greeted Luke plainly glad to see him and asked about the amnesia right away. 

Luke laughed, “Been working too hard this spring to dream much at night,” he said honestly.

He handed a gunny sack of food to the doctor with his gifts and stood with his hand extended to the other man. 

The man took his hand but eyed him in a wary manner, “You have any Bible teaching?” the man asked.

Luke had more Bible memories than he was admitting but he told the man he didn’t remember and said he didn’t have any books.  The doctor had warned him that his brother was an ordained minister as he was a doctor. 

“Sorry about your injury”, the preacher said, “You read?” he asked.

Luke nodded yes and surveyed the area the brothers had settled.  Not much planting Luke thought, they must live mostly off the land and apparently didn’t do much farming.  They’d use up their valley in a generation if they didn’t stop harvesting without sowing Luke thought to himself.  Was that why they shot his bear or did she really pose a threat to them? 

The doctor led Luke to his house and the preacher told Luke that he’d see him at supper with his wife.  The cabin was makeshift but cozy.  You could see touches the girl brought to their life. 

“Hello, little mama,” Luke said as he ducked and entered the cabin. 

She nodded, coldly, eyes on the fireplace and she raised her chin with pride as she took the gunny her father handed to her and she emptied it on the hearth, deciding what would go with the bear stew she had bubbling.

Luke walked over and showed her a potato like starchy vegetable and some bulbs that tasted like onions that might be good in the stew.  She nodded and added them to the black pot hanging over the fire. 

He spotted the baby lying in a cradle and asked to see him but Ned intervened at this point and grabbed Luke’s hand to take him to the puppies. 

“Sure, Ned,” Luke said, “But we’re always polite to women,” he told Ned as he winked at the girl.

The puppies were near the wood pile in a boxed in area and Luke sat on the floor and picked up each puppy and studied it carefully.  Luckily, the mother had taken to him and stood guard but didn’t protest as Ned handed him the pups one by one.

“How many can you keep, Ned?” Luke asked.

“Dad says only the mother and one pup,” he said defiantly.

Luke considered, “Maybe I can take two if you’ll accept the quarter carcass as payment for both,” Luke said.

Ned smiled happily, “Good, that leaves two, maybe uncle will take them.”

Luke put his arm on Ned’s shoulder, “Neddie, you saved three, you did good,” he patted Ned’s shoulder.

Ned shook his head but Luke saw a deep sadness in his eyes and wondered what had caused him to be slow. 

The doctor took it all in and wondered if both his daughter and son might be better off with Luke than his stern brother who seemed to blame Martha for her rape and pregnancy and didn’t understand that he was a provider now and not a preacher with souls to save.  He was still sitting in his poorly constructed cabin writing sermons for a Sunday that would never come.

The baby began to cry and Luke patted Ned’s should again and rose to go see the little human.  He was being changed and Luke could see that he was a healthy baby boy. 

“Fine looking boy,” he said to the girl who had grown to love her son despite his beginnings. 

The girl turned to Luke and said something for the first time, “Uncle wanted to put him out to die,” she said. 

Luke’s face set hard, “Suffer the little children not,” he said, the first thing that came to his mind. 

She was surprised, “I remember that,” she said.

Ned watched them, happy with the results of the puppy inspection. 

That night he met the preacher’s wife, an attractive woman who looked bent and worn before her time.  He nodded to her and helped seat her at the table in the doctor’s cabin. 

The preacher said a long involved blessing before dinner and after dinner he presented Luke with a gift. 

It was a Bible, one of twenty the preacher had dragged with him on the journey west. 

 Luke was happy with the gift and the preacher could tell he was.  Luke had collected his second book and kept turning it over in his hands and opening it to certain pages.  It would occupy many winter evenings he thought and would fit in with the only other book he had found in some debris on his way to the valley.

“I can never repay you for this,” Luke said, “I have nothing like it.”

“Just read it,” the preacher said, pleased his gift had been a big event for Luke and had impressed his brother.

Luke sat by the fire with the preacher while he droned on about the Bible and Luke finally asked him, “Isn’t there a story about sour grapes eaten by the fathers’ not affecting the teeth of the children?” Luke asked.

We stick to the New Testament,” the preacher said.

Luke went to see the baby again when his mother put him down.  The baby grabbed his finger and seemed to hold on with twice his possible strength.  Luke smiled at the baby’s strength.  His mother had looked soft and gentle holding the baby and singing softly in the firelight.  He spent a little time with the puppies and Ned than grabbed his bedroll and headed for the woods to sleep.  Ned wanted to come with him but Luke told him he better stay with the pups and he went off into the night to a place he had already chosen. 

Ned was waiting for him in the morning when he came back to the cabins.

“You came back,” Ned said.

Luke stopped and said to Ned, “Neddie, when I promise you something I’ll always do it,” Luke raised his hand and pledged to Ned than shook Ned’s hand. 

“You too?” Luke asked Ned.

Ned raised his eyes to Luke and they seemed clear with understanding and then Ned raised his hand in a pledge gesture and said, “Yes, I promise,” shaking Luke’s hand and smiling.           

The girl fixed him something to eat and a lunch to take with him.       

Luke wished he had something for the girl.  She had been hurt by the soldiers and it made him angry but her boy was strong and would be a good worker. The boy might be a blessing someday Luke thought.

When Luke left Ned walked with him for about a mile to say good bye to his puppies and see Luke off. 

  Before they parted Luke turned to him, “Ned, if anything bad ever happens, you come and get me,” he said, “And look after you sister and your nephew,” Luke said.

“Who’s my nephew?” Ned asked.

“The baby’s your nephew, Ned, you must always protect him because he’s young, like the pups,” Luke told him. 

“Is that like a brother?” Ned asked.

“Almost, Neddie, he’s almost your brother,” Luke said.

That night a quiet Ned stood and watched while his sister put the baby down.

“What, Ned?” she asked.

“He’s my nephew,” Ned told her, proudly.

Tears stung her eyes as she thought of the quiet, hard man who had been a soldier but smiled at her baby.  He was kind to Ned too; she thought and hadn’t raped her when he captured her with the bear.  Her father hadn’t even asked because in his eyes she was already spoiled and according to her uncle she was a whore.

Luke was ready to go home when it was time, he had enjoyed the exchange but felt uneasy in the group.  They seemed to be judging each other all the time and finding each other wanting or blaming each other for something.  Luke couldn’t put his finger on it but it was discordant and he could feel the instability under the guise of good manners and civilized behavior.

He began to loosen up as he walked home and he laughed as the puppies squirmed around inside his shirt looking for mama, and then they fell asleep against his sides until they reached their new home.  Luke put the pups inside and blocked the entry with a small boulder while he checked out his garden and made sure nothing had disturbed his smoke house then he went back in and arranged a bed for the pups and fed them some minced bear meat.  They wined for their mother in the night but Luke knew they’d be weaned quickly.

Luke brought back tablets enough to last him for a lifetime while he learned to prepare the bark version of paper the doctor taught him.  It was a tedious, manufacturing process that he would perfect for the sake of his children and their children but held no intrinsic interest; although, he thought again of the white by product pooled near his experimental basins, the content was thick and might be usable as a color coat inside the cave.  He was going to have to move it anyway because he didn’t want it to get into his water supply and fishing hole.

Luke made grass and mud bricks and set them in the sun to dry.  He also cut blocks from a deposit he found in the ground that seemed organic in nature.   He tried braiding and weaving different grasses to use as building material and found he could make a closely woven basket that would hold water after being soaked and he threw in some fresh root vegetables and several hard shelled inhabitants of the pond that were clamped shut and then he threw in several hot rocks from the fire and cooked his first boiled dish.  It soon became his favorite dish and he ate from    the plant and animal life from the pools and creeks nearby as well as land plants and animals.

He had been thinking of the brothers since his visit and he decided he would keep his distance from the discord he sensed.  Ned was O.K. with all of his problems because he kept nothing hidden, he was predictable.  The girl hated most men because of her experience so Luke knew what to expect from her.  The men held grudges, envies, and jealousies from over the years hidden beneath a smooth surface.  People usually hid the danger they posed and he had to learn the art of camouflage if he was going to socialize much with them.  Probably being alone with his dogs was better Luke decided.    

The puppies grew and followed Luke everywhere, centering their lives on him and his approval.  They were soon cave broken and so used to him and his scent that he allowed them to come and go at as they pleased feeding them at dusk each day hoping they would settle on domestication.  They wandered off a couple of times but were back by the next day on both occasions, then one time they were gone one and then two days and Luke began to worry.  The next day the female came back limping but hungry and affectionate.  The male never showed up again and the female was never gone overnight again.   So be it, Luke thought.

It had been a great harvest this first full growing season on Right Fork.  Luke busied himself reaping and storing his abundant. The Bible came to mean much to him and he often thanked his creator for the favor he felt.  He had several projects lined up for the winter months and he had decided on a building material.  He made a very small, scale building to see how it withstood winter and he found the organic material he had dried was an excellent burning material for his fireplace.  He had enough for the whole winter stored in tunnels.  The white substance had withstood being applied to the wall in his new bedroom making in lighter and cheery in the daytime and easier to read at night, now he would find out how it survived the moisture of winter.

He spent a long, cozy winter with his female dog, reading, writing, weaving and whittling.  He enjoyed using his hands to make things and it was useful to divert excess energy when he was forced to stay indoors.  He even tried whittling a flute of sorts with various wood shapes he had found and finally made one to his liking with a hard reed and wooden holder. He would harvest more reeds in the summer. 

He ate very well that winter pleased with his garden and dried meat and berries.  He even found that the skin of the root vegetables were good when toasted near the fire.  He made boots with material from the bear and warm leggings from her thighs.  He still had clothes and original supplies cached around the area in case he ever needed a fresh start.

His memory improved, and he had been a pretty normal boy when he was taken away to boot camp and then the desert.  His father was a biologist and his mother had died when he was young but he had cousins in the neighborhood and home cooked meals at any one of their homes.  He’d been a fair student and avid reader, played team sports and he and his dad had camped and fished.   They stopped hunting when the government took away their guns.   

That night he came in late from reconnoitering the woods and checking some of the more distant parts of his valley.  Luke sat on a stump and whittled as his dinner cooked over a small fire in a cleared area at one side of his house.  Suddenly flashes of light from the south filled the distant sky.  He frowned and watched closely. 

More silent explosions reached higher above the horizon but it was all far away and almost appeared to be a miniature fireworks display.  It went on and on and Luke decided the whole world had gone mad and began destroying itself.  He could never hear or feel any of the explosions at this distance but they must be huge.   Soon it looked like whole cities were on fire and Luke sat through the night watching the folly.  The southern horizon remained red for months after the explosions ended.   Luke watched the red horizon each night and expected the brothers each day.  He was sure they could see it from their valley and the doctor would want to discuss what it meant to them. 

He was asleep in the woods with his dog when she nudged his side and whined quietly.  He sat up and listened.  He thought he heard someone yelling in the thin morning air.  He crawled to the ridge overlooking his cabin.  He thought it was Ned, with something in his arms. 

“Ned, wait,” he called, “its Luke, I’m coming, you rest.”

He found Ned sitting on his stump with the baby, crying. 

“Here I am, Ned,” Luke didn’t want to startle Ned; he looked like he’d been through hell.

Luke knelt and saw the baby looked fine but Ned appeared as if he had been running and falling in the brush for days.  Luke set the baby in a safe place and hugged Luke who was white and appeared to be in shock.  He rocked Ned and murmured to him so he could get some information from him. 

“You sister?” Luke asked, Ned, “Where’s your sister?”

He sobbed, “She told me to come and get you,” Ned finally got out.

“She alive?” Luke asked, somehow pleased. 

“She’s bleeding,” Luke said, “Uncle went in the bedroom and hurt her,” Ned said, eyes unbelieving. 

“He called her a whore and hurt her,” the boy/man sobbed.

“Where’s your dad, Ned?” 

  “Uncle shot him,” Ned said, shaking his head, “So I killed uncle and Martha sent me here with the baby.”

“What happened to your uncle’s wife?” Luke asked.

“Before the red lights he hit her until she died,” Ned told Luke, “Dad wouldn’t let him in our house anymore but he wanted Martha.”

Luke leaned back and sighed deeply, war had been raging both south and north of him.  Would he ever get away from all of it?  Should he move on and leave this valley to Ned and Martha?

“In the morning we’ll go after her Ned,” Luke told him.   The baby was dirty so he took him to an erosion hole in the rocks and washed him and his clothes and instructed Ned to clean himself and his clothes in the creek.  Luke didn’t want fleas in his house. 

Luke had clean clothes for Ned when he came in and Luke showed him the ledge where he would sleep and introduced him to Molly the dog.  Ned’s mood lightened as he played with the mutt and Luke fixed dinner.  Luke mashed some vegetables and fed them to the baby and then he and Ned sat at the table.  Luke said a short grace and they ate supper and Ned got quieter and yawned, exhausted from his mad rush to get Luke.  Luke sent him to bed without an argument.  Luke took the baby and dog into his room and rested quietly until morning.    

He fashion two-sling like devices for carrying the baby and gave one to Ned and started him off with the baby.  He fed everyone and packed some food and they took the high trail north for the clearing at Left Fork.  They reached the carnage by noon and found Martha in an outbuilding getting stronger but fearful and jumpy.  Luke sat on the ground near her and took the baby from his sling and held him out to her.  Tears came from her eyes as she held the little one close and tight bringing color to her cheeks and she began crooning to the baby. 

Luke got up and surveyed the cabins.  He pulled a few things out to transport to Right Fork and decided that he would come back and set the place on fire after he had Ned and Martha far enough away.  He asked both Ned and Martha if they wanted anything from the cabins and Martha had a trunk she wanted.  Luke went in and located it for her. 

Martha thanked him for the trunk and asked him about the cabins.  He expected an argument when he told her the truth, “Burn them,” he said. 

She seemed pleased with his answer.  Her life had been hell since the war Luke thought to himself.   He’d try to do better by her but he didn’t know much about girls, only the prostitutes he used.  And she didn’t know much about men except rapists he told himself. 

“Ned said you were bleeding,” Luke said, “Are you O.K. now?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “A little slow,” she answered more truthfully. 

“We’ll go easy,” Luke said. 

He looked at her with the baby, “He slept well last night,” Luke said.  She tried a tired smile through the fear she felt toward him but wasn’t too successful. 

Luke got the trip back started and set the cabins on fire not sparing anything.  There were three bodies inside, two brothers and one wife.  God awful price to pay for living, Luke thought. 

They made the trip back stopping to camp once in the woods.  Martha seemed afraid of everything.  Was she waiting to be raped again?  They got to Right Fork at about noon on the next day and Luke gave up his bedroom for Martha and the baby and he slept on the ledge again with Ned. 

She moved around the cabin like a waif listen to everything he showed her about cooking and where everything was stored.  He took her to the pool in late afternoon and told her it was her bathing time.  She was afraid but wanted to be clean so she washed quickly as he worked in a nearby part of the garden.  On the way back to the cabin he showed her the garden and they picked out some ripe plants for supper.  That night he showed her how to wrap different dried meat and vegetables minced together in leaves and cook them over the fire. 

       After supper Luke sat outside under the stars wondering if he should stay in his valley or leave.    

Martha came out to him.  “I know you’re a man,” she said.

“Yes,” he said. 

“What will happen with us?” she asked.

He turned toward her, “Marty, there’s no rush,” he paused, “when the boy is walking there will be plenty of time for us to have one or two,” he said. 

She was surprised and saw the falling star at the same time that he did.  They both pointed and when it had fallen and there were several more showers he was still holding her hand.