Sabella's Journey

Chapter 5

One week. That was how long it had been since Pa died. One long week. Just a few more days, and we'll be in, ten being the most.

I lay by myself on the grass by the side of the steadily flowing river where we had stopped for a short rest and to get fresh water. Ava had hardly spoken to me and Joseph since Pa died; she spent most of her time with David.

Joseph also kept more to himself. As I lay there thinking about my family and all the things we had been through, in the end, we had always managed to come back as one. But this time... this time it felt different. I feel like I don't even know who they are anymore. Our family and everything we've stood for are practically falling apart right in front of our very eyes, and nobody seems to care.

I turned to face the sun a little bit, closing my eyes, taking in the bright radiant light of the sun on my face, and feeling the cool breeze calmly blow by. It was a beautiful day indeed.

I was waiting for the rest of the girls to finish bathing. I wanted to bathe alone; after all, it's been weeks since I've had a decent bath.

It took them what felt like forever to finish. I got up, grabbed my towel, undergarments, and the old cream-colored dress that I had laid out on the grass and headed for the river. Finally. Some personal time alone.

I made my way just at the edge of the river and sat down in the shallow water, closing my eyes as the warm water enveloped me. Since I can't swim, I didn't want to go in too deep before the current carried me away to my death.

I've only been there for a few minutes, and for some reason, I felt as if someone was watching me. Then it hit me: what if there were Indians here, living in the forest? They could kill us.

I turned around and scanned the forest to see if there was anyone, and to my relief, I was alone. It's probably my mind playing games on me. I turned back, facing the river, closed my eyes once again, and let the freshwater take hold of me.

After finishing bathing, I dried off my skin and slipped on clean undergarments and the dress, then made my way to the wagons as they were saddling up the horses for us to leave.

"Sabella!" Anna came running up to me.

"Jane's sick," she told me, finally catching up and sounding a little worried.

"What? How? Is it anything serious?" I asked her, squeezing the wet dress I had in my hand, now fully worried.

"We don't know for sure, but the doctor thinks it could be cholera."

Now, I'm starting to panic. If it's cholera, we all could get infected and die.

We made it back to all the wagons as a crowd of people was talking, not too far from them I saw the doctor coming out from a wagon; that's probably where Jane is. I and Anna squeezed into the crowd to hear what they were talking about.

"We should leave her here before everyone else gets infected!" a tall man with a mustache said to everyone.

"And if her family wants to stay with her, so be it!" another man joined in saying.

Seems to me like none of them have a heart. I'm sure if we spared some time staying here so the doctor can look after her, with proper care, she'll be just fine.

"Now folks, that won't be necessary!" Mr. Bonne interrupted.

"We'll stay here for a day or two, give it some time, and then we can get on our way!" he continued.

"Bonne, if you really care about these people, we should get going; she'll be dead in two days, and what if there are Indians in these forests," a young man said with a soft kind voice, unlike the others.

More people were mumbling to each other as I walked away to sit by a boulder not too far from them. I didn't want to go see Jane; we never really talked, and I'm scared I'll get infected. Maybe I sound selfish, but I don't want to die.

Night had fallen, and Jane doesn't sound like she's getting any better. The men had all decided we'll have to leave tomorrow, without Jane. If we stay here, there's a possibility we'll all get infected or worse yet, Indians could kill us. Besides, we had to salvage our rations; we barely have any left after that storm hit us a week ago when Pa died.

"Is everything okay?" I turned around after hearing a familiar voice behind me; it was Anna. She had a worried expression on her face.

"Everything's fine, just a little worried," I told her with a concerned voice.

"I heard her husband is going to stay behind with her, but her sister refuses to," she told me while taking a seat beside me.

"Please," I had cut her off, "I don't want to talk about that," I said, turning to look at her.

"You're right. We should be positive," she told me, forcing a smile on her face.

We sat there for hours talking about our families, how life might be like in Kansas, and many more past stories as the long night went by. No one seemed to want to sleep tonight; everyone was up, talking, eating, and some even resorted to playing card games. Maybe they were trying to distract themselves from what's going on; only the children were snuggled asleep in the wagons.

Eventually, sleep took over me, and I said good night to Anna and headed towards the wagon. When I got there, it was empty, so I jumped in and pulled out a blanket from one of the wooden boxes that were inside. I waited for Ava, but she never came, neither did Joseph. I sighed and lay down, covering up with my blanket, thinking about what might happen tomorrow. If we'll even make it to see tomorrow.