AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mother Earth’s bounty had provided a rich harvest again this year. The Crow people had plenty of geese, ducks, sage hens, deer, and antelope. Much game had been brought into camp and smoked, as well as fish from the nearby river. In the plum thickets and blueberry bushes, there had been plenty of sweetness.
The Crow people had worked hard to prepare for Mother Earth’s change of dress, when the hungry moon of winter would shine down on the breathless nights, when bears slept and the small buffalo herds would be pawing through the snow for grass after the downy snow fell from the sky.
Soon Mary Beth would wear a long robe of the softest, whitest doeskin which she had proudly sewn for herself.
But today, when the air smelled of the delicious scents of autumn, reminding Mary Beth of all of her autumns in Kentucky, she was not overseeing the making of new tepee poles, nor was she concerned about making certain their lodge skins were readied for the long months of winter which lay just ahead of them.
She was with Dancing Butterfly, acting as midwife with Pure Heart, as her friend readied herself for the second child that would soon be born to her and Night Horse.
Night Horse, who had not been arrested by the United States Government, who was free to live his life now with his Crow people and wife, could not even be near the birthing lodge. Dancing Butterfly moaned and groaned in heavy labor in the lodge, which was set far back from the others of the village. It had been built of bent willow branches and was to be used only for the birthing of this one child; then it would be dismantled, its willow branches never to be be used again for anything.
“
I wish my husband could be with me,” Dancing Butterfly said, grabbing at her huge belly when another sharp pain caused her to bear down. “My husband. Oh, my husband. Why cannot he be here with me? I wish so badly to be held by him.”
“This is your second child. You know the custom, Dancing Butterfly,” Pure Heart said as she bent to her knees and planted one stake into the ground at one corner of Dancing Butterfly’s pillow. Mary Beth knelt at the other corner and hammered the second stake there.
“Hurry, oh, please hurry,” Dancing Butterfly said as she tossed her head from side to side, her sweatwettened hair spraying moisture with each toss. “I feel it is time. I . . . feel . . . it. I know that the baby’s head is coming down. Soon. Oh, soon my child will be in my arms.”
“The stakes are planted,” Pure Heart said, settling down at the foot of the bed of pelts beside Mary Beth, who would assist in the childbirth in any way she could.
Mary Beth was proud to have been chosen as one of Dancing Butterfly’s midwives. It proved just how close their bonds were as friends.
She glanced over at Pure Heart, whose old eyes were filled with eagerness; she was going to be a grandmother for the second time in two years.
It made Mary Beth sad that Pure Heart’s first grandchild had not been Brave Wolf’s and Mary Beth’s, nor even her second.
Mary Beth had not been able to conceive. It was hard for her to understand, because on her very wedding night with Lloyd, she had become pregnant.
She had always believed she never got pregnant again because of the scarcity of times they had shared in lovemaking.
But she had been with her beloved Brave Wolf every night since their marriage except for that time of month when she had her weeps, and no Indian husband even came near his wife at that time.
Mary Beth had finally grown used to spending that time of month in the village menstrual hut, where all women went and sewed or did other handiwork to pass those days and nights away from their husbands.
Yes, it just did not seem right that Mary Beth had not gotten pregnant after all those wondrous moments in her husband’s arms. She could only conclude that it had to do with David not having been found, that she could not relax in the right way to become pregnant.
She didn’t understand, nor could she change anything. She had learned to take the bad with the good and be content for the moment.
What would make her happiness complete was to have a child born of her and Brave Wolf’s love. Although she hated to admit it, she had given up on ever seeing David again.
It had been too long now.
And after all the searches by not only Brave Wolf and his warriors, but also his Crow allies, as well as Colonel Anderson’s men, David had not been seen anywhere. Mary Beth had no choice but to accept that her son was lost to her forever.
Now if only she could get pregnant. Surely another child would fill that empty space in her heart left by David’s absence.
Her thoughts returned to the present when Dancing Butterfly screamed and gripped the stakes. Mary Beth listened to Dancing Butterfly say many rapid words in the Crow tongue, smiling when she recognized them; she now knew their language as well as her own.
Dancing Butterfly had just said many unpleasant words to express her frustration over being in labor for so long and having nothing to show for it!
If it were Mary Beth, she would say a few choice words under those conditions, but they would soon be followed by a prayer. On the other hand, she would give anything to be having those labor pains.
Surely she would not be as impatient as Dancing Butterfly or speak such words of frustration. Mary Beth’s frustration came from being childless.
Pure Heart sat beside Dancing Butterfly with a small vial that held a combination of ground roots and broth from a cooked horned toad.
“This will help your pain,” Pure Heart said as she slowly rubbed the liquid across Dancing Butterfly’s swollen abdomen. “Close your eyes. Breathe in . . . breathe out. Soon you will make me a very proud grandmother again.”
