Bitter Harvest by J. Bryant Ray (ereader for comics TXT) 📕

of the clan, food of every description had been prepared, the bride had a new dress made by the women and Billy wore his best suit and a new pair of boots. The celebration lasted all day and well into the night, as dancing demonstrations and singing of the old tribal songs were given by most all of the women. The men sat around the campfire, passing a pipe containing a smoke so potent that Billy was near intoxicated from only a few turns.

On the fourth day the couple bid farewell to the village and rode away toward the town of Sweetwater. In the weeks that followed, Billy set up his store while Wuti-Yoki provided assistance to their customers. Billy was amazed by her ability to help with the chores around the store. While she could neither read nor write she was quite adept at calculating measure and controlling the inventory so that they were not long without adequate supplies to meet the growing demand from customers in town.

There was a school in the town and with a bit of coaxing Wuti-Yoki agreed to attend long enough to learn how to read and write. It was then that Billy suggested she take a ‘Christian’ name. Wuti-Yoki agreed and the couple decided she should be called Sally; of course she would always remain ‘Wuti-Yoki’ to her village and her family. The following spring Sally became pregnant and immediately made plans for the arrival of their first child. It was early enough in her pregnancy that Sally made the ride out to her village to provide a prayer for the needed rainfall. As in years past, the rains came on the third day.

After a week or so Sally was making plans to return to Sweetwater when her mother asked whether she planned to have the baby at home. Discussing the plans her mother insisted that she return to the village to have the baby there; Sally feared this would not sit well with Billy and she and her mother quarreled about the decision.

Leaving her village Sally wondered if she should take her mother’s advice and plan to have the baby in the village; after all there was no doctor in Sweetwater and the nearest mid-wife was a good days’ ride to the West. She would discuss this with Billy when she returned.

As she suspected, Billy was not happy with any discussion about her having the baby in the village; no amount of pleading would change his mind. Sally told him that she had observed lots of births and not one time had a child been stillborn, or had the mother developed complications during childbirth.

The two argued for days with Billy insisting that he would ride to the next town and fetch the doctor in plenty of time; Sally reminding him that childbirth was quite un-predictable and that he could not foretell when the birth would be upon them. Billy also reminded her that she would not be able to make the trip to her village after she became 6-months pregnant and that he would forbid her to ride a horse all that distance.

Soon the time was near for the birth of their first child. In the middle of the night Sally went into labor; Billy was away on a trip acquiring additional inventory for the store. Sally would have to give birth alone; she labored for 6 hours with no result. Early the next morning, a neighbor came by their cabin. Finding Sally near exhaustion and in a lot of pain, the woman assisted Sally with the birth. The child, a girl, was stillborn, the result of a difficult labor; the child’s cord had become wrapped around its neck choking off the oxygen supply.

Sally was overcome with sadness, weeping and crying uncontrollably; throwing things around the cabin and cursing the very god that had once saved her own life. She began chanting the rain prayer over and over; the rains came with such fury that the town was flooded beyond anything in the past. The thunder and lightning so fierce that several buildings were set ablaze; Sally ran into the street looking skyward, cursing the death of her child. Again a bolt of lightning struck nearby, only this time it was so severe, so powerful that she was blinded by the flash, her hair singed and her flesh reddened.

Sally walked aimlessly for hours into the forest and across the fields, trudging thru mud and undergrowth. After 2-days of her wandering she finally came upon her village. The women and the elders rushed out to meet her. Taking her inside, they prayed for days over her shriveled and burned body as Sally, the one once known as Wuti-Yoki lay in a case of semi consciousness. The medicine man used all his powers, the woman of herbs applying all her skills but to no avail.

After a time Sally slowly grew stronger. Still blaming Billy, she refused to see him even though he tried repeatedly, begging her family but she would not even speak to him. Sally would never again be called Wuti-Yoki. Because of her actions that night, in her grievous state, she had lost the gift she had been given.

In the years that followed, famine and poor harvests beset the village, many moved away from the clan, taking refuge with other tribes far away. The remaining families struggled with their meager crops and little to no game for the harsh winters. Slowly they lived a meager existence, however never again would the great harvests or the abundant game come to their village.

To this day Sally resides in her village, a blind old woman, with no purpose in life but to provide the stories as told by the elders

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Publication Date: 09-17-2009

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