Weayaya: The Sunset Woman

Chapter 9

Yvonne
Down the water hole.

My breath rushed back into my body in a wave of electricity.

I awoke to the sun beating down on me; my body was dry, and the sound of insects assaulted my ears.

"The hell?" I pulled myself up.

I looked around but couldn't see anything or anyone in sight.

"Jonah!" I called, "Jonah!"

No answer.

"Hello!" I cried, "hello!"

I stood and found that I had lost my way.

My memory from the previous night was hazy, but I thought I could manage to find my way back to Aunt Lizzie's big old house...after all, it was the only one out that far.

I stared at the tree for a moment, and then looked down at the base. I tried to make sense of which way I had come from, but in the end, I just had to guess. I woke up laying on one side, so, I must have walked there from that side of the plains.

I began to walk back in the direction I believed I had come from.

I am not sure how long I walked before I realized I was lost once more.

I walked for what seemed like hours and still didn't see Aunt Lizzie's house...if I was going the right way, I would've seen it long before.

Her house was that big you could see it from miles on the plains...but from where I was, I couldn't see anything but grass.

"Hello!" I shouted, "hello!!!" I screamed out as loud as I could.

I walked in some direction until I tripped over my own feet. I fell flat on my face, but as I raised my body up, I realized I had tripped over big tracks in the ground. They seemed to be leading somewhere, but I didn't know which direction they went.

In the moment, I heard animals lowing. My head jerked and my body moved on it's own down the trail, avoiding the deep ruts which caused me to fall, and keeping to the even center ground.

My eyes widened and my heart stopped at the sight of an ox-pulled cart coming toward me.

I didn't know people still rode in them...and I had never seen one coming so close.

I had only see one ox pulled cart before, and that was in a museum.

"Come on, Betsy!" A strong male voice called out and one of the ox lowed. "Come on, Mimi!" He called. The other lower.

"H-hello!" I waved tentatively. "Hello!"

"Woahhh!" He pulled the ox to a stop. "Muriel! Nettie!"

Two women appeared from behind the cart.

My heart stopped.

The two women wore long calico dresses; their sleeves were down to their wrists and both wore bonnets and aprons.

"I-Uhm-I-," I began.

"Go fetch her then!" The man called.

The two women were quick to come to me, I hampered by their clothes.

They took a hold of my arms and lead me toward the ox-cart.

"Hello there doll," a teenage boy popped of the back.

"Gideon!" One of the women chided.

"Come on then!Get her up there! We got to get!" The driving man called as the boy called Gideon reached down and yanked me up into the cart. The two women joined us as the man drove the cart on.

My eyes gazed further in and saw two small children sitting.

"Your clothes look funny," the little girl called to me, pointing at my jeans.

"I-Uhm-I-," I started.

"Jean!" The older woman scolded the child.

"Forgive her," the younger woman scooted her body closer to me. "Jeanie doesn't mean no harm." The twang in her voice told me she was from the South.

"Uhm-okay?" I was confused.

"My name is Nettie," she held out her hand and I shook it. "That's my mother, Muriel," she pointed to the older woman, "my brother Gideon," she pointed to the teenage boy, "my two younger siblings, Jeanie and Paul," she gestured at the kids, " and that's my Pa, Jim." She pointed at the man in the front.

"Oh...well, that's nice but, where are we going?" I asked.

"Well don't you know?" She giggled at me.

"What do you mean?" I scrunched my eyebrows.

"You must've hit your head when you fell off your wagon!" She cackled, "we're on the trail to our new home out west silly!" She hit my arm a little.

"W-what?" I couldn't breathe. "We are going where?"

"Well didn't your family tell ya?" She smiled still, despite my intense confusion. "Don't worry! I bet they already caught up with the wagon trial we put together!" She smiled even wider as the cart- or wagon- trudged inward through the plains.

"W-Wagon train..." my ears rung as the cart pulled forward for what seemed like an age.

The sun was nearly setting by the time we reached a half finished circle of old timey wagons.

"You'll surely find your Ma and Pa here." Nettie smiled as her father pulled the wagon into the circle.

"Nettie!" He called, "get that girl back to her folks! We ain't got room for another mouth!"

"Yes, Pa," she answered him.

The back of the wagon popped open. Nettie's mothers solemn face was there, her hands outstretched for the young boy, Paul.

He scampered over to her, Jeanie crawled out of the wagon. Gideon jumped off the side. He held his hand out for Nettie and I. She waved him away, but fear caused me to grab ahold of him. Gideon smiled as he held onto me.

"Come on!" Nettie waved me over. Her calico dress was dull in the evening light.

"Anna!" Nettie's mother called, "don't forget that dang bonnet!"

"I've got it Ma!" She shouted back as I slowly walked up to her.

"So," she swung her hands behind her back, "do you see your folks?"

Confusion stalled me, I looked around the nearly full circle. Wagons were still coming and joining up. My heart sank as a realization creeped upon me...

Everyone around me dressed in old clothes and of every hue in the rainbow...not a phone, not a flashlight, not a trace of modernity...

"Aunt Lizzie!" I shouted, "Aunt Lizzie!" I cried in vain, knowing I probably wouldn't get an answer.

"Lizzie!" Nettie called out. "Come here!" She waved her arms in the air.

People looked. People stared. No one came.

Nettie looked at me with a worried look...

I knew I was alone.