Stormfeather Ch. 11

As they woke to mount up, Arn noticed that Amy was subdued. "I dreamt wanting to know about Maeve and she is getting better. I know that she'll live through this now, and I'm happy about that."

"Then what is the matter?" Arn asked, "You look a little cheerless this morning."

She sighed, "The people that we saw yesterday. I wanted to know about them." She looked up at her husband, "All that I see ahead of them is that they're riding into sadness where they're going. Late this year, the army will attack them there, and they'll be prisoners again -- those that will live through it. I -- I almost want to go back to warn them, but, ... I think they know it anyway, at least many of them."

He nodded, "There is not much that can be done. They are beaten in battle and sign treaties which are broken the same day. The one that we met told me that they were promised that whitemen would stop hunting buffalo if they signed the last treaty, but nothing changed and there are almost no more buffalo now. For Comanches, the buffalo means everything. They travel, hunting and gathering food, but with nothing to hunt for, there is not enough that can be gathered to keep them alive."

They saw no one that day and rode with not much conversation between them, since a lot of the way kept them strung out in single file. The morning of the third day, Amy and Sabrina were frying eggs and the sausages for their breakfast. With a good meal in them, they talked of where they were in relation to the progress that they might have expected had they taken the road.

"We are a day ahead of where we would be," Arn said, "We will come to Santa Fe this afternoon. You will see your home tonight, and I will know if I can help your aunt."

He looked off for a moment, "I do not know how to live among so many people. I will be like Winky there."

Amy looked at the two of them. She could see how he felt. "Listen," she said, "I know that you'll be feeling like a fish out of water for a while, Arn. I'm going to do my best to try to help. For right now, you just get us close, and then let me guide us around so that we come out near my aunt's home. She lives on the outskirts and beyond her property, there's open land where we can hunt and fish or just travel here and there for a day. I love traveling with you and Miss Winky loves being with us."

She thought for a moment, "I know! There's a guest house out back. It's not big, only a few rooms, but it'll be a cozy palace for us if you have trouble. I'd like to try to live in the house, but it's up to my great aunt. I'd never want to upset her, and me coming back married all of a sudden will be a shock anyway. If it becomes a problem, we'll live in the guest house. It's not far from the stables and the yard is huge with open land behind that, as I said."

"Your aunt will likely not be pleased that you have married a man like me," he said.

Amy shrugged, "Hard to tell beforehand no matter who I married -- especially now. Besides, she's very unpredictable sometimes as it is. She might just love you to death. But no matter what, Arn, you're my husband. If we have to, we'll just find a place to live somewhere else. I've got more than enough money to be able to afford it."

She put her arms around him, "It's only for a year."

He nodded and smiled, "And -- as you are about to tell me, I may grow to like it there."

Amy laughed, "You may need that long to get over what I'll do to you if you don't stop telling me my thoughts out loud before I have them myself. Will you do it?"

Arn nodded, "Yes. I already thought of it when you asked me to marry you. I knew that this would come. I can face this, Sheena. For you, I can face anything. I was only feeling a little uncertain today, but I do not anymore."

They didn't stop for lunch, and it was early afternoon when they arrived and rode up the long drive, under the trees next to the grand house and toward the stables out back. Arn and Sabrina looked around in a bit of wonder. "You live here, Amy? "Sabrina stared, "Holy Humphrey, ..."

Amy burst into laughter, "What? I've never heard that before."

"That's because I just made it up," Sabrina shrugged, "Nothing else seemed to fit."

The stableboy looked worried until Amy asked him who he was. The answer came in halting English until Amy shook her head and spoke to him in Spanish. "He's only been here for a week, "Amy said, "Juan took sick and Pablo here is his son. I told him who you are."

Arn introduced himself in Spanish and helped get the horses settled. The back door opened and Ximena flew across the long yard to them. Sabrina watched as she ran up to hug Amy. She had a thought that, if she'd had a chance, and been born with better looks, this was exactly the sort of woman that she'd have wanted to be and look like. There was beauty and grace everywhere on her.

"Oh thank God you're home," Ximena exclaimed. "What did you mean by 'Mrs. Amy Stormfeather'? Was there some hidden meaning there? I didn't understand that -- "

Ximena stopped and stared as Arn stepped out of the shadows in the stable and into the sunshine.

"Christos," she whispered, "The one from your dreams, Amy. He lives, ... I -- I thought it was only, ..."

She blinked, but Arn only smiled wider as he walked up and offered his hand. He looked confused after a moment, seeing that Ximena was not looking as though she was going to offer him hers. Amy grinned and took her friend's arm so that he could grasp her hand for a moment.

"Tell Ximena you're pleased to meet her," she grinned, Ximena, "this is my husband Arn."

"I am happy to meet you, Miss Sanchez," he said, "I have heard a lot about you."

"This is my friend, Sabrina de la Cruz," Amy said, as Ximena tore her eyes off Arn and tried to regain her composure. "She's going to stay with us and teach at the school."

Ximena had recovered by then and returned to a little of her normal gracious self as she smiled warmly at Sabrina, "Welcome and please forgive me if I seemed a little, ... " she rolled her eyes. "I should explain. Amy had dreams of him and she told me. I didn't believe that, ..."

She shook her head, "Amy, you should go and see Maeve, but be careful, she has trouble understanding if you speak quickly. Her left side was affected, but it is a little better now. I think that you ought to go see her while I show Sabrina to one of the spare bedrooms."

They walked to the house, and Arn was left alone in the kitchen for a minute as Amy went upstairs, and Ximena took Sabrina to the bedroom that she'd decided would be for Sabrina's use. "I'm very sorry for my bad manners," she said, "I meant nothing by it, but it was such a shock," she said as she opened the door for Sabrina, who didn't reply as walked inside looking around before she placed her wrapped dress on the chair.

Sabrina turned around and they smiled at each other, "Well, there's all of my clothing," she said, feeling a little foolish, "Amy convinced me that I ought to come along right then, so I don't have much of anything with me." She shrugged, "I guess I'll unpack later."

They returned to the kitchen and Ximena offered them coffee. After filling the kettle and placing it on the stove, she indicated the chairs to them and sat down herself.

"Stormfeather," she began cautiously, -

"I think that Sheena wishes that I use my other name," he said smiling, "I am Arn."

"Sheena?" Ximena was confused.

"I think I can help," Sabrina said, "Sheena is Amy's second name. Arn met Amy's father a day before he died, and he told Arn of his daughter, Sheena. He always liked that name better, so that was the name that he said to Arn then. I asked all of these questions the other day, so I know the whole story -- or enough for this, anyway. Arn is the name that his father gave him, and Stormfeather is the name that his mother named him. Have I got that right, Arn?"

"Yes," he smiled, "perfect. When we were to be married, Sheena told me that I must have two names, and so, ..."

Ximena leaned a little closer, "Please, " she asked, "I need to know, only because of Maeve." She struggled for a long moment and then looked at him, trying to keep her gaze centered on his eyes, "Are you a, - a nahual? I wish to know if you can help Maeve."

Sabrina was stunned, "What are you talking about?"

Arn smiled for a moment and looked down. He didn't know the best way to go in this situation and struggled with it. But he decided that since he wouldn't lie, that the truth was the only way that he could go. He opened his mouth, and Amy walked into the room.

"She's asleep," she shrugged.

Ximena ignored Amy for the moment, "Please, I need to know."

He sat back and looked at Amy. "Ximena asked me if I am what she knows as a nahual. I can see that Sabrina has at least a little idea of what that is, since she is sitting here with wide open eyes. If you can help, Sheena, I am afraid that anything that I say now will be wrong."

Amy held up her hand and closed the kitchen doors. "Before he answers, Ximena, I need you to understand something. If you're going to believe whatever craziness you might have been told, then no, he isn't."

They looked at Amy and then at Arn, and back. It would have been funny, Amy thought, in about any other situation. "Do you remember the night that I came back from burying my father and I told you and Maeve what I'd dreamed of?"

Ximena nodded, never taking her eyes from Arn as she listened. Whatever Amt had wanted to say left her head right then.

"Hey!" Amy said, as they looked at her, "I'm the one who's speaking. You could at least look at me when I talk to you."

"I'm sorry," the housekeeper said, "it's just -- "

Amy was furious. "It's just the superstitious nonsense that's about to get you fired from a pretty nice job if you can't stop acting like a frightened child."

Ximena blinked at Amy, who continued, "I mean it, Ximena. How long have I been home now? How long am I going to have to wait? I thought that you were my friend. I was married four days ago. I had my lawyer send you a telegram stating that fact. You might not have understood, so that's my own fault, I guess, but dammit, Ximena, you could at least put your superstitions aside long enough to congratulate us, couldn't you?"

Her eyes fell on the Western Union envelope there on the table. Amy snatched it up and pulled the sheet of flimsy paper out to read it aloud.

"This is to inform you that Amy Monaghan was married to Arn Stormfeather today outside Portales New Mexico Territory STOP Please care for Maeve STOP Amy will come home soonest STOP Has many sketches for you STOP Clayton Blake END"

There was silence around the table.

Amy pushed her chair back and stood up. "Please come and at least look at my Aunt Maeve while she's still alive, Arn."

She glared at Ximena, "When I come back, the very first thing that you say will determine whether you'll be here in this job or out on the street looking for a new one." She raised her hands above her head and waved them as she rolled her eyes in imitation of a lunatic, "Or maybe he'll eat you up for dinner, you never know with these nahual bogeymen things, right?"

She leaned on the edge of the table, "Do you really think that I would leave you alone with some terrible monster -- to hear you and my aunt tell of it --you, Ximena, the one that I thought was my best friend here in Santa Fe if I thought for a moment that you'd be in danger from him? Do you think that I'd leave my only childhood friend in any sort of danger as well?

What the hell would have happened if he'd have sneezed? Would you have run for the priest? You'd better get a hold of yourself pretty quick, Ximena."

She looked at Sabrina, "I'm sorry about this, and I'm very, very embarrassed right now, Sabrina. You must be wondering what you've fallen into here. I am too. I sure didn't think I'd be coming home to this."

She walked out of the room and Ximena burst into tears.

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There had been pain flaring across her body and then it was as though things were exploding in her mind. After that, there was only numbness in much of it. Maeve had welcomed it at first, but then, as the minutes passed and she'd felt nothing, she opened her eyes and found herself in her bed. She tried to move and a new horror began at that point. More than half of her body refused to answer to the commands sent from her damaged brain. That had happened a week ago. Since then, she'd been fighting back her despair. All these long years to be finally humbled like this.

But now as she lay there wondering whether she'd soiled herself again, she felt a tingling warmth in her hand. It was just a little thing, but she was certain that it was there. She wondered if this was just some sort of 'ghost' sensation, manufactured by her mind in response to her want to feel something there again. She opened her eyes.

There next to her bed, sat a man on a chair. He had his head down as though he was sitting there asleep. Maeve wondered about it for a moment, but she heard her name spoken by a familiar voice and she scanned around her field of view with her eyes until she saw Amy.

Maeve tried to speak, but her great niece held up her hand and shook her head, "Just rest, Aunt Maeve, just rest now. Don't try to move for a while. I'm here now."

Maeve's eyes swiveled back toward the man and she noticed that he held her hand, the dead one which refused to work anymore. The one which tingled now in such a strange way. The questions that she had now and the way that the warmth began to spread were too distracting, and so she gave up and just closed her eyes again, a little thankful that Amy was there at last.

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Sabrina felt very awkward sitting in the kitchen as Ximena cried. She didn't really know what she ought to do, so she did nothing for a few minutes. Looking around, she saw a wooden box of cloth napkins and stood up to get one.

"Here, Ximena," she said, placing her arm around Ximena's shoulders while offering the napkin in her other hand.

The housekeeper raised her head and took the proffered cloth with a little smiling nod to begin to wipe her tears.

Sabrina noticed something -- or thought that she did that was a little odd -- unless you were someone who would know a thing or two about it. She wasn't sure yet, but she was beginning to become a little certain that Ximena was squirming a little bit.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"That's alright," Sabrina said, "I don't really understand what it was, but I could see that something knocked you off your stride. You're not sixteen, so it can't be seeing a man like Arn - though that's exactly what it looked like to me. You took one look at him, and all of this began."

Ximena sighed, shaking her head a little, "Amy draws these wonderful scenes in her pictures often and before she left to go to her farm, she showed me pictures of him from her dreams. Sabrina, it's him - exactly as she drew him, but there were other drawings that she said were of him in another shape, and that's what spooked me, I guess. I don't know what to think now."

Sabrina heard the words, but she was also somewhat astounded. Her first impression of the housekeeper had spoken to her of a woman who bore a lot of inner self-confidence - and she obviously bore it well, running this huge house by herself. That impression was clearly at odds with the one that she drew at the moment. Because of her own past, there was a clear and ringing resonance that caused her a lot of wonder and just a little quiet and inner arousal.

"I'm very sorry," Ximena said, "Amy's right. I've been very rude to her and her husband and to you."

Sabrina wanted to say that it was alright and not to think about it, but she was fascinated, thinking that she was looking at a phenomenon that she'd never seen from this side of it before, so she chose her words a little differently.

"Well it was pretty rude of you, actually," she said, though not in a nasty way. "I mean, the whole time that I was on the way here, I kept hearing from Amy what a wonderful friend you were to her and how I wouldn't need to feel so lost in a big place like Santa Fe. I felt a lot more at ease to hear that, and I was hopeful to make a new friend as well."

She paused and saw that Ximena had her head lowered and was looking down at her hands on the table -- but that she was most definitely squirming.

You had to look hard for it, but it was there, she thought to herself, the same uncomfortable squirming that she herself had never been able to suppress if someone was mean to her.

Sabrina smiled to herself as she finished the thought, she did that herself then -- because it felt good to squeeze her thighs together a little then. She looked carefully and saw that Ximena's mouth was open just a little, so she continued in the same tone.

"I don't know what Amy's idea of a prospective friend might be now. I mean, I was standing there back at the stables and I was pretty much ignored, wasn't I?"

She turned her head and hissed into Ximena's hear softly, "Wasn't I, Ximena?"

Ximena didn't look up, but she nodded, and at that instant, Sabrina heard the other woman's tiny little sigh of repressed pleasure and she felt herself grow a little wet in response. This is all wrong, she thought, but it did feel good, she admitted to herself.

"I was a little hurt, you know," she said, forcing the edge into her voice that she'd normally never use on anyone, "I was hoping to meet this great friend of Amy's and I was forgotten in an instant while you almost fell over yourself over Arn."

Ximena sobbed once -- a tiny little thing that came out of her, and Sabrina knew that it was heartfelt, but that it was also an indicator of the housekeeper's arousal, since she'd been in that very same position thousands of times in her own life. She thought about it for a moment longer and wondered if she dared to go just a little further. Amy might be back at any instant, but she was beginning to feel as though she'd found someone so very special. Someone just like her.

"Really Ximena, it's alright," Sabrina said with a friendly smile, "I didn't really mean any of that. It's just that I noticed something about you just now, ... something in the way that you were sitting there squirming. I noticed that. I couldn't help it, really. I only saw it because you were reacting to what I said in the same way that I've always reacted."

She looked into Ximena's tearful eyes and forced herself onward. "If I were in your place right now, this is where my sister or brother would say you're not a very good housekeeper, are you, Sabrina?' And then I'd squirm even more, because it feels good to me to do that.

Then one or the other would pull my hair back and just tell me how bad I am at everything that I've ever done. They'd probably slap me then, too. I have a feeling that you've been in the same place as me before so you might know what I'm talking about."

Ximena nodded with a little sob that transfixed the smaller woman. She'd been right here - right at this point so often for all of her life.

"What happened when you were bad?"

Ximena began to whisper back so quietly that Sabrina had to stare at her lips to read them, "My mother slapped me," she said, her thighs refusing to stay still.

Sabrina gently pulled the long black hair away from Ximena's face as she stood up and leaned in close. "It's alright, Ximena, it's alright to feel like this. I am the same as you are, so I know just how you feel now. I want you to know that I forgive you."

Sabrina smiled as she watched Ximena stare at her, "If it were me in your place right now, I'd be dying to find a place where I could be alone, because at times like this, ... well, I couldn't wait to forgive myself."

Ximena gaped into Sabrina's eyes past her spectacles. She had no idea how she'd gotten herself into this, but she ached for it to continue -- at least a little. She shuddered for a moment and sighed.