The Unbound Horizon

Colton's wife

"Your wife? Oh no, no no no!" Evelyn exclaimed pacing back and forth, "I'm not doing this again, how could this happen? Your married? Why is everyone who wants me already married?"

"Please Evelyn let me explain." Colton pleaded trying to get her to stay still.

"No Colton, I can't believe this, have you not? I mean I just thought that." She said, and then stopped.

"What? Evelyn please complete your thoughts. I'm in the dark."

"You're in the dark? I just found out that the second man in my life that has meant more to me than my brothers or father is once again like the other one, married. So where is she Colton? Are you hiding from her too? Or does she live somewhere close? And how in the world have you been able to hide her this whole time?" 

"You have every right to be upset, but I didn't know how to tell you before, and I thought I should tell you before anything got to serious." He said,

"Before anything got to serious? You should have told me about her from the beginning, this thing between you and me should have never happened? Why are you doing this to me? You know everything I have been through, and you have helped me throught it, and now, you expect me to go through the same thing with you? No, just no!" She was screaming now, tears rushing down, her face.

"Stop it Evelyn it's not what you think, let me explain." 

"Explain what?" She said cutting him off. "Let me guess, you guys aren't happy anymore, you thought it was working but it just isn't, she isn't in love with you anymore, you're not in love with her anymore. She doesn't respect you the way you want her too."

"Stop it!" Colton yelled, grabbing her shoulders and holding her tight. "She's dead!"

"What?" Evelyn instantly stopped, and saw the pain that was deep in his eyes.

"She's dead, I never told you about her because I didn't know how to, I've been trying to supress my feelings for you for a long time because I thought that if I liked you or wanted you it would be disrespectful to her and her memory." 

"Oh," Evelyn said, feeling so embarrassed she wanted to dig herself into a hole and never come out. 

"I know what it's like to have someone in the back of your mind, but I knew that no matter what my wife would want me to be happy. And when I'm with you I'm happy."

"Colton, I'm so sorry," She said, with her head down, she leaned in to hug him, all she wanted was to feel his arms around her again. She felt so foolish, and all she wanted was his forgiveness. 

"It's ok, I know you're scared, but you need to know that I'm not Mason, and I'm not going to do what he did to you."

"Colton?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask about her?"

"You can ask me whatever you want."

"How did you meet her?"

"We grew up together, we were childhood friends." Colton said.

"And you were from Kansas right? what town did you grow up in?" Evelyn asked, realizing that this was the first time she had ever really asked about Colton's personal life, or life growing up.

"Well I was actually raised by Indians."

"Really? How? I mean you don't look like an Indian to me."

"I guess the short story is I don't know who my real parents are. Apparently I was left behind, and my parents, or the people who raised me found me close to their camp. They said they waited for a couple of days to see if anyone came looking for me. They even went into the towns and asked around to see if I belonged to anyone. Well anyway they took me in, made me a part of their tribe."

"Where was your tribe exactly?"

"We lived in the upper northwest corner of Kansas."

"Is that where the comanche live? Are you a comanche?"

"Don't worry I'm not I promise, the Comanche's live in the bottom corner of Kansas. I am Arapahoe."

"And are Arapahoe nice?"

"Haha, yes we are, we can go to town and trade with people, we aren't worried about going into towns, and generally the towns are not scared or worried about us either."

"So you don't go around killing, and scalping and stuff right?"

"No we don't. Not generally anyway."

"What?!"

"What do you want to hear? If our village ever got attacked we fought back, is that ok?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Of course you would. Sorry Indians just scare me, I feel like everything I hear about them is bad."

"Well it's probably all Comanche."

"So you knew your wife as a kid. I guess she was Arapahoe?"

"Yes she was, and she was my first friend, as you pointed out earlier I don't really look like an indian, and she was the first one who didn't care, and was nice to me as a kid. After that we just looked out for each other."

"She sounds like a strong girl."

"She was."

"What happened to her?" Evelyn asked, and immediately regretted it. There was a look in Colton's eye's in that moment showing an immense amount or hurt, heartache and loss, that she had also seen in her brothers eyes when they came back from the war. 

"She was killed, along with my tribe. I left to go to town and when I came back, everything and everyone was gone, or dead. They were ambushed by the confederate army. They took everything, and I looked everywhere for her, and when I finally found her she was in bad shape, so i took her back into town to find a doctor. When I found one he said she had lost to much blood and there wasn't anything he could do for her, but that he would try to save the baby."

"She was pregnant?" Evelyn said, he heart becoming so heavy in her chest it felt like a brick, and that it was pulling her whole body down. 

"Yeah, with a little girl. We didn't officially have a name for her, but I've always thought of her as Ollie. I don't really know why, I guess I just thought it was cute. Anyways Ollie didn't want to stay with me, and so she went to be with her mom. After that I had no where to go and no one to look after so I joined the army."

"I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry."

"You don't have to say anything. Everyone has gone through hardship mainly becasue of the war. I know you've had your own hardships that you dealt with during the war as well."

"I know, but I was very lucky, that I never lost anybody. I mean I did, family friends, but non of my immediate family."

"That is definatly a miracle, and you should be very thankful."

"I am, so much so, and I'm thankful to you, because I know you were the one who brought my family back home."