Sounds of the Prairie

Chapter 1 Essie

Death used to seem as though a faraway storm cloud, you knew about it, could talk about its coming, but distant and non-concerning in the big scheme of things. Now with the moisture from the ground seeping through the cloth of my dress, it was as if the storm was right above me. Hovering, just waiting on its moment to release a covering of rain and send me into a downpour of darkness. Just as I am afraid of storms, I am afraid of death.

I dug my nails into the earth in a desperate attempt to push myself up. If I could at least do that, just maybe, I could survive. My hands failed me, sinking into the soft supple earth and even my eyes would not open to allow me to pear up into the night sky one last time. My mind was certain our home was on fire from the smell of smoke that wafted into my nostrils, so strong it gave away hints of pine and sap.

I could recall that men had attacked us, coming out of nowhere with no warning besides the hairs that had stood erect on my arms. The same men we had met a day prior under different circumstances. They had at first seemed kind as they asked my Pa where they were and how to get to a close town, feigning to be lost and not from around here. To us this was not odd, the territory of Idaho still being found and settled by people long ways from their natural homes. When they had rode up to us and began speaking, anyone would have looked at them as we had, just strangers asking for help. Not rich but most certainly not out of sorts or poor. Decent grammar and kind enough with decent manners but also not family men in the way they acted in front of us women folk. Not one of us in my family had thought anything ill of them or had any inclination they may do us harm. Would do us harm. How naïve we had been I thought to myself as I dragged my limp hand up to my stomach. My fingers found their mark when I could feel my fingertips become wet with blood. I thought my body would radiate pain and yet I felt nothing, the only feeling I had been aware of was the tears that had slid their way down my face. My brain was awash with emotions, but it gave me the strength to open my eyes, the edge of my vision blurred like when you try to look through water. I picked up the night sky, running horses, smoke and fire. Everything I expected to see. I tried to yell out for my parents or my little brother but only a breath escaped my chapped lips and even when I would keep trying, I could not make more than a whisper.

At the edge of my vision, I caught something silver and sparkling as it moved near the edge of the house. It did not take me long to realize what it was, Pa's spurs. Only they were not actually moving, they were only being spun about by the wind, the same one that kept encouraging the fire to spread its caress around. I followed the spurs over and through all of the smoke and the blur of my vision; my eyes met my fathers and the emptiness they offered. Not far from him was Ma with my little brother Nicholas pinned beneath her battered body. Both had blood marring their foreheads and hands, closed eyes giving the appearance of sleep. My entire family had been murdered, their lives cast aside like leaves in the fall, scattered into the wind with little to no importance.

My mind slipped out of consciousness again and into memories of when we first came out here, so many hopes and dreams poured into this life from a family with so little to offer. Nights where I laid awake listening to my parents outside on the porch discussing plans for the new homestead, livestock we could bring with us, even the possibility of another babe after we all got settles and found our footing in the unknown west. All Nicholas would bring up was the chance to see real Indians and how he had hoped he could trade them, some of his wooden carvings for a headdress made out of feathers. We all had joked it would be too heavy for him to even walk but he still would pretend meeting someone and how their conversation would go. Nicholas had always been so imaginative.

All I had wanted was an adventure, maybe to fall in love, something I had never experienced before. It was only a few days into our trip out here that my family had a good laugh at my expense when they realized everyone was a fair shake older than I was and not in the least peaking of my taste. I decided I would settle for adventure instead of love. While we would be traveling, I would go off and explore, trying to find new and wonderful things. Now all of that was wasted and I was alone.