Weayaya: The Sunset Woman

Chapter 27

Yvonne
1868?

I woke up before Akecheta, my body aching from head to toe. I had used muscles I didn't know existed. He was turned on his side, breathing deeply, and seemingly deeply asleep.

Somehow, I managed to pull myself up from the rough ground.

The fire near us was smoldering...but it was chilly.

Half of me wanted to wake Akecheta, and the other half didn't. I knew he could fix the fire, but my womanly independence also told me I could fix it. Even though I ached and my body moaned, I was able to get a basket and push open the door of the teepee. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be, the wind kept it shut, and I had to push against the wind. I managed to shove my head out of the door.

The sun was inching its way above the clouds, trying its best to warm the cool earth. There were other women around, just waking up most of them, getting on with their daily tasks before most of their men woke up. As I yanked the rest of myself out of the teepee, I nearly ran into Kimimela.

"Oh!" She smiled, hugging onto me. "How you?!" She panicked a bit, drawing back and looking me over in the light of the early dawn.

"I-I'm alright." I tried to calm her. "Just sore."

"You face?!" She gasped a bit. "Why you here?" She rushed, realizing it was early as heck.

"It was cold..." I began. "I was going to try and get stuff to add to the smoldering fire." I shrugged.

"Oh, you want for fire?" She smiled again.

I nodded at her as she gently took my arm.

"You come!" She beamed as she led me a little ways from the teepees. "Here!" She pointed to brown chunks on the ground, mixed with what seemed to be dry grass. "Use for fire. Last long time."

"What if it rains??" I asked, realizing that the stuff was in the open.

"Oh it cover." She assured me, "just open because of morning." She continued, "we use." She bent down and picked up a couple, placing them in my basket, then grabbed some more and placed them in her own.
"Ready!" She took my arm again and pulled me back into the teepees.

"How do I-?" I tried to ask.

"You take," she held up the brown chunk with some dry grass on it. "You put in fire." She continued, "you put more dry grass. You blow blow until flame." She finalized, excitement filling her eyes.

"What if it doesn't work?" I wondered, realizing what I called smoldering might have been a term she didn't understand, and only pretended to know for my sake.

"Will work. If no work, use this," she pulled two stones from her pocket that I didn't know she had. "You hit together, hard. It make spark, then fire." She explained simple and then pushed me back toward the teepee I had come from....I thought.

I pulled open the door and hurled myself inside with my basket of brown chunks and dry grass. Akecheta was still asleep as I went toward the fire. The embers were still lite, albeit lowly.

I took a deep breath and laid the brown chunks and dry grass on the smoldering embers as carefully as I could. I tried to follow Kimimela's words exactly, but one could never be sure. I leaned over and blew on the embers. Some tried to catch light, but they would barely spark. I didn't want to wake Akecheta...too much had happened the night before...

I had gotten into an unwanted fight with Nawaji of all people....I had allowed myself to lay beside Akecheta and let him hug me to sleep.....I was now bending over what I could only call a hearth blowing on the embers of a near dead fire.

If I had asked myself a few days ago whether or not I was going to believe that I was in 1868-ish somewhere in middle America in a Native American village blowing on a fire with a grown man behind me...I would've thought I was out of my mind....I would've even laughed out loud if you would've said the grown man at my back was drop dead gorgeous.

As the embers began to die beneath the brown chunks and dry grass, my head hung. I knew I'd have to bring out the stones Kimimela had shoved at me. I didn't want to wake Akecheta...but now I had no choice. I was getting colder and colder.

I took a deep breath as I took the stones in my hands. I had watched Kimimela strike her stones fast and hard, causing a spark that cough onto the dry grass. I positioned the stones over the dry grass that poked out the most. My eyes peered at the heavily sleeping Akecheta one last time before I brought the stones together just as Kimimela had...fast and hard.

Immediately the sound they made as they scraped together reverberated through the teepee and the sparks flung down onto the dry grass. I felt a smile form on my face as the sparked started to smolder. I rushed to lean over and blow on the dry grass.

The smoldering embers turned into small flames on the dry grass. Everything in me wanted to shout "HELL YES" as loud as I could, but then I remembered where I was, when I was...and who was at my back. Instead, I allowed myself to smile widely and clap my hands together lightly, but quickly.

I pulled myself to my feet and released an excited gasp.   I had made a fire, and done it on my own.

Just then, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around me, and I was unable to contain a yelp.

"What you do?" Akecheta's deep, sleepy voice hit my ears.

At least he was trying to speak English...

"Uhm...the-the fire!" I tried to break free of his grasp, to no avail.

He was lean, sure, but also muscular.

"You do fire?" He turned me to face him, suddenly wide awake.

"Uh-Yeah?" I nodded my head at him as his eyes seemed to fill with life.

"So good!" He pulled me into his arms, nearly crushing me in a hug.

My body froze, unsure of how to respond to him...but it was only for a minute...

Unknowingly to myself, I allowed my arms to wrap around his back, and return his hug.