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Smelling the aroma of food being cooked in the other dwellings of the village, she only halfheartedly realized that she was hungry. Surely if she tried to eat anything before this terrible ordeal that lay ahead of her, she would not be able to hold it down.
Warm arms encircling her waist momentarily washed away Jolena's troubled thoughts, and when Spotted Eagle turned her around to face him, she was once again made aware of what was most important to her in life.
Spotted Eagle.
She knew that nothing would cause her to leave himnot even customs that were foreign and ugly to her!
"It will soon be tomorrow and all of this will be behind you," Spotted Eagle said softly. He lifted her chin with a finger, directing her eyes to his. "Tomorrow you will focus thoughts on the brother you have known as a brother all the winters and summers of your life. Not a brother who is buried today."
Tears of gratitude flooded Jolena's eyes to know that Spotted Eagle was so conscious of her feelings.
She leaned into his embrace and hugged him tightly, then turned and fled from the tepee, her knee-high moccasins warm against her flesh as the early morning's dampness enveloped her in a cold embrace.
With that first step outside the tepee, Jolena stopped and stared in disbelief at Moon Flower. Her eyes widened and she gasped as her gaze moved slowly over Moon Flower, seeing the lengths to which she had gone in her mourning for Two Ridges. Late last night, Moon Flower had left the camp and gone to a rise of ground near the village on which to release her sorrows for Two Ridges. There she had cried and lamented, calling Two Ridges' name over and over again.
Jolena had lain stiffly at Spotted Eagle's side, listening, unable to distinguish whether or not the way in which Moon Flower had spoken Two Ridges' name was a chant or a song. There was a certain tune to it, sung in a minor key and very doleful.
Jolena had soon surmised that this was a mourning song, the utterance of one in deep distress. It had been the sound of someone whose heart was broken.
Today Jolena saw just how much Moon Flower was distressed over Two Ridges' death! Her beautiful hair had been cut quite short, and she wore no moccasins today, standing barefoot and exposing the terribly scarred calves of her
legs, on which blood had dried to the wounds.
"Let us go now, Jolena, and ready my beloved for his travels alone on the road to the Sand Hills," Moon Flower said, her voice breaking. "We must give Two Ridges up to the Sun today."
Jolena wanted to cry out to Moon Flower that Two Ridges was not worthy of her undying devotion and love! To herself, she was cursing Two Ridges, thinking he deserved not a warrior's burial but that of a coward!
It was going to be harder than she had earlier thought to get through this day, for she was going to find it hard to stand by and watch Two Ridges being praised instead of condemned!
She knew one thing for certain. Even though they were of blood kin, she would never look on him as a brother!
She would not mourn him as a sister would mourn a dead brother!
She would proudly present herself to her Blackfoot people with her hair long and flowing, instead of cut off short, as one who mourns cuts one's hair.
She most certainly would not place a knife to her calves and scar herself!
She was certain no one would question this choice of hers. To everyone but Spotted Eagle, she was still a stranger who would not be expected to follow the set rules of her elders.
"I will do what I can," Jolena said, her voice drawn. "But you must know that I will need to be shown."
"I will be at your side at all times, directing you," Moon Flower said, taking Jolena by the elbow and ushering her away from Spotted Eagle's dwelling. "It is sad that you did not know Two Ridges as a sister knows a brother. It is sad that he did not know you as a brother knows a sister. His heart was warm and big. He would have drawn you into loving him, as he did everyone who knew him."
"I'm sure he would have," Jolena said, noting now the utter silence of the village. No children were running around playing. No elderly men were sitting outside, sharing smokes and gossip. No women were carrying wood from the river.
It was as though time had stood still in the Blackfoot village, perhaps waiting to resume once the burial rituals were over.
When Jolena and Moon Flower came to Two Ridges' tepee, Jolena hesitated, then walked inside with the beautiful, slight Blackfoot woman. The fire in the firepit had been allowed to die down to cold, gray ashes. Jolena shivered and hugged herself, feeling as though she had entered a tomb. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she focused them on a body that was lying on a couch of bear pelts.
Again she shivered, stunned to find that Two Ridges was lying there without clothes or any blankets to cover his nudity. When her gaze stopped at his face and saw how white and chalky it was, a feeling of light-headedness swept through Jolena. She grabbed at Moon Flower to steady herself.
"You have not seen many dead people before?" Moon Flower said, gazing at Jolena with sorrowful eyes. "You are finding it hard to look at your brother as he lies there with only his death mask?''
"No, I haven't experienced many deaths," Jolena whispered, fearing disturbing the dead if she spoke aloud. "But I have experienced one very painful loss. My mother."
She paused and glanced quickly at Moon Flower, feeling a need to explain which mother she was referring to, but she saw that was not necessary. Moon Flower's eyes, and it seemed her thoughts, were now solely on Two Ridges.
Jolena followed Moon Flower to Two Ridges' bed. She watched as Moon Flower went to one side of the tepee and gathered several robes up into her arms, then carried them back to Jolena.
