Weayaya: The Sunset Woman

Chapter 16

Yvonne
1868?

My body felt heavy, my head ached, and yet it felt like I was moving and floating on air. A strong smell hit my nostrils and my eyes squeezed against themselves.

They creaked open and I felt the cool air of the evening. The sun was setting and I was moving. My heart leapt at the sight of myself on a horse, and it raced at the sight of two hands not my own holding the reigns.

I could hear my own breathing as I sat up a bit and I turned my head to the side. My breath hitched as my eyes glanced behind me.

It was the man from before. The man who had seemed familiar. In the fading light, his jet black hair was braided tightly and it danced on his shoulders as the horse walked on. His eyes were like coal, and his skin was bronzed by years in the sun. A feather hung from his hair and he seemed shocked to see me staring at him.

He clicked his tongue and the horse trotted onward. My head jerked forward to see more around us, also trotting on horseback.

They were all men, their hair in varying styles upon their backs. Each and every one was dark as the incoming night.

In the disappearing light of the sun, I caught sight of a distant illumination. Faint sounds of life hit my ears...sounds I did not fully understand. Chanting, singing, laughing, the crackling of a free fire. My heart raced as one of the men cried out loudly and the people stood and walked toward us.

I froze as the men whooped and hollered. The ones in front of us galloped forward and they were welcomed warmly  by the people before us.

This was the time I wished I paid more attention in history class. My knowledge was rudimentary, but I knew enough to figure out what tribe I was with. I'd always heard stories about different ones, maybe I could weed my way out of the situation I found myself in.

Not the fact I was stuck in a different time, but the fact that I was with Native Americans.

Suddenly, my train of thought was broken by a woman coming up and yanking the long skirt I wore. It was so strong that I fell straight from the horse and landed hard on the ground beneath their feet. My body screamed in pain at the contact with the hard ground. I yelped but no one cared. The woman who had yanked me from the horse began to shout and kick at me. Another woman joined her and she began to yank and pull at my clothes, skin, and hair. I screamed as more women joined in, punching, kicking, ripping, and yanking at me.

An old man appeared and shouted out. I could not comprehend the words he said as he pulled the women from me and shooed away the rest. He held his hands out as I stared up in the firelight.

Leave this woman be. He called out. She is Akecheta's property. He found her and he will decide what to do with her. Do not touch her. He pointed to the woman who had started the beating on me.

I could only stare up at them, but suddenly the man whose horse I rode in on yanked me up from the ground. He dragged me toward what I could only call a teepee. It was circular at the base and seemed to go up into a point at the top. In the firelight I could see there were these beams that seemed to be supporting the structure.

As he shoved me into the "doorway" I landed face first in dirt. I tried to pull myself up, but I was too slow. The man grabbed me by my waist and lifted me up. He carried me toward the fire and dropped me onto a mat.
I yelped at the contact with the floor.

He growled a bit at me as he threw his hands up and then turned around and left. I could hear raucous merriment out side...singing and chanting. I could even seen the shadows of the dancing and I could smell the cooking food.

I sat frozen for a moment, staring at the "doorway", the embers of the fire caught my eyes and I was drawn back to reality.

The "doorway" was a circular hole in the fabric- like wall of the structure.

I could easily sneak away...but where would I go?

I fell off a wagon...for real...and I had passed out. There was no telling how long or in what direction they rode in. I would again be lost...and I doubted my ability to ride a horse better than a toddler could ride a bike.

Just then a woman appeared, her bronze skin was wrinkled with age and her hair was gray with age. She stared at me for a moment before she walked across the structure. She turned and looked back at me before she left out of the "doorway."

Then, a younger person came in.

He carried a plate with something in it.

"You," he spoke.

I felt my heart leap.

"Eat." He gestured to the plate and placed it in front of me.

My mouth gaped. I couldn't believe he spoke English.

"You speak English?" I spoke more apprehensively than I meant too.

"Yes. You eat." He pushed the plate more toward me with his foot.

I looked down at it. I didn't know what it was and I dare not ask. I was starving and my head ached. I picked up the plate and ate the mystery meat.

"W-Who are you?" I asked him.

"Mahpee." He spoke swiftly. "You, who?"

"Yvonne." I finished the meat and out the plate on the ground.

He cocked his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"Uhm-Mahpee, why am I-?" I tried to ask, but as the doorway flapped open, his eyes shot forward.

Mahpee, come! Leave the white whore! The woman who had beaten on me before shouted at the boy, wagging her finger.

Akecheta said to bring her food!! What do you want me to do? His voice seemed annoyed.

Akecheta! Hah! Come now! She snarled at the boy.

He groaned as he rose and followed her out.

Akecheta.

A name I had heard before...

The man from the picture!

Like a lighting had struck me, memory rushed back to me. The man from before, the man whose horse I rode in on...I knew his face because I had seen him before, not just when I was with Nettie and her family.

It was the man from the picture in the heritage museum that had fallen and I had picked up.

It was the man with dark eyes and beautiful skin...the man that the old woman at the front desk called Akecheta.

Akecheta was his name...

The sound of the rusting doorway broke my trance.
The man who I greatly assume was Akecheta slid inside the structure. In the light of the fire, it was even more clear to me.

It was the same man.

His face was somewhat squared but also skinny; his eyes were large and like the night sky. His hair was the same, and it was tightly braided and tied up at the base of his skull. His skin was a light tawny color and as he stood up straight, I immediately backed away. He tall, probably around 5'10, and he was thin yet muscular. He stalked closer to me and I tried to back away faster but was hampered by the cumbersome dress Nettie had forced me into.

The old woman who had been sitting in the corner vanished from my sight.

Akecheta sank to the ground and crept toward me. My back hit something and my breath hitched.

He reached out and touched my ankle. He did not make a sound, he did not display emotion.

He wrapped his hand around my ankle and yanked me closer to him.

I shrieked as he climbed over me.

He bent down over me, closer and closer and closer. I tried to avoid him, I didn't know if he wanted to kill me or maim me. I moved my head from side to side, but he caught my chin in his long fingers. His strong hands gripped me so tight I couldn't move. He pulled me toward him, and he didn't kill or maim me...

He kissed me.