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“You were so close, yet so far?” Mary Beth said.
“No, we were never close, not until recently,” Black Feather said. “My people are new to this land. We are a misplaced people now. We have been ordered onto a reservation. We were on our way there when we stopped just long enough for me and my warriors to hunt. That is when we came across Brave Wolf. He shared his meat with us. Then we shared talk.”
“Which led you to mention my son?” Mary Beth softly questioned.
“It was your husband who asked if I had seen in my recent travels a white boy living among any tribes I have been with,” Black Feather said. “Guessing he was referring to my white son, I hesitated to tell him, yet when he talked of a mother whose heart was hurting, I could not keep the truth about my white son to myself any longer.”
Tears flooded Mary Beth’s eyes. “Thank you, oh, thank you, for being honest and open with my husband,” she said. She bent to her knees and drew David into her arms once again. She gazed up at Black Feather. “But I know how hard this has to be for you, and for your wife. She will surely be as heartbroken as I was when I lost my son to those renegades.”
“At first she will be, but after she has had time to think about it, she will be happy that Lone Bear is finally reunited with his true mother,” he said thickly. “You see, you were always in his nightly prayers. I was there at his bedside with him. I heard them.”
Mary Beth was deeply touched that her son would use the Christian prayers that she had so devotedly taught
him. She was touched that this Cheyenne chief would allow him to, had even joined his nightly prayers.
All of this time, when she was so worried about her son, he was with a caring, wonderful family, instead of with the renegades being taught their evil ways, which meant that God had also answered her prayers.
“You say that you have been ordered onto a reservation,” Mary Beth said. “The Crow were also, but thus far we have been allowed to stay on land that was given to the Whistling Waters Clan by treaty. Were you not included in such a treaty?”
“We Cheyenne have signed many treaties with the white eyes, but the white eyes broke them all,” Black Feather said, his voice cold and flat. “We have been ordered to the reservation. If we do not comply, we will suffer because of it. My people have suffered enough. We go to the reservation. We will make our home there.”
“Stay with us,” Brave Wolf quickly said. “We can make room for you. We can ride together on the hunt. We can be as one people.”
Black Feather gazed over his shoulder at the many Crow people who were crowded together now, watching.
He turned his eyes back to Brave Wolf. “You are kind to offer, but that would seem to be the easy way out,” he said. “But what might appear easy for us would bring hardships on you.” He sighed. “My brother, I must return now to my people. I must go to my wife, who is in mourning as we speak . . . mourning for a son whom she can no longer call hers.”
David rushed to Black Feather and flung himself into his arms as Black Feather knelt and received him. David clung to him. “Ahte, father, I shall miss you so much,” he said with a sob. “I . . . shall . . . miss Ina.”
“I know,” Black Feather said, gently stroking the boy’s back. “In life, there are many things that one must face and deal with. This is just one more thing for you.”
“Yes, I know,” David said, slowly leaving the comfort of arms that had held him often these past winters.
He stepped away from Black Feather, then stood at Mary Beth’s side. Her hand took his, their fingers intertwining. “But I am so happy to be with my true mother,” he said. “Please tell my other mother that I shall always remember her and love her, but I must be with my true mother.”
David gazed up at Mary Beth. “She has been without me for much too long already,” he said with the voice of an adult. “She should not have to suffer such heartache any longer, or ever again.”
Mary Beth was touched by how grown up her son was being. He had not only grown in inches and in years, but also in his mind and heart.
“It is good to see a new sort of happiness in your eyes,” Black Feather said, reaching a gentle hand to David’s shoulder. “It is your true mother who has placed it there.”
Then he turned again toward Brave Wolf. “In time, surely we will meet again,” he said. “Until then, my brother, be happy with what you have, for it can be taken from you so quickly.”
He turned to David again. He bent down and gave him a fierce hug, then stood again. He gazed at the boy for a moment longer, then turned and walked to his horse.
He mounted his steed, then rode away without looking back.
Suddenly Mary Beth was aware of someone else at her side. She turned and saw that it was Brave Wolf’s mother, her weak, old eyes squinting as she gazed down at David.
“So this is your son,” Pure Heart said in a voice that was so weak she could hardly speak. She was being held up between two warriors. She had aged and often seemed at death’s door, yet stubbornly bounced back, smiling at how she had cheated death again.
“Yes, this is my David,” Mary Beth said proudly, bending to pull him into her arms. She smiled into his eyes. “I’m not sure I can get used to calling you anything but David.”
“Then do not,” he said. “You see, Mother, I always felt like a David, not a Lone Bear.”
“You are so dear,” she murmured, hugging him to her heart. “You are my David. My darling, sweet David.”
Then she stood. She gestured toward Brave Wolf’s mother. “David, this is Pure Heart,” she murmured. “She is Brave Wolf’s mother. She is now your grandmother.”
