ONE
Ike McSwain stood by the door to the barn watching to make sure no one walked in as Buck removed his clothing to tend to his bandages.

*You need to let someone look at it,* Ike said as Buck made the final adjustments to the makeshift bandage on his hip.

“I’ll be fine,” said Buck. “I just need to figure a way to rest up for a few days.”

Ike shook his head, *No! It’s starting to look bad. You need to let someone who can help look at it!*

Buck turned from his task to face Ike, “What do I tell them happened? I can’t very well tell them the truth now, can I? You think they’d let us stay if they knew?”

Ike shook his head again. He sighed as he let his mind drift back to the evening three days earlier . . .

He’d made it back from his run ahead of schedule and managed to catch up with Buck at the river. As Buck was finishing up bathing, Ike joined him in the water. Ike used his strong hands to work out the tension in Buck’s back. Buck returned the favor by scrubbing Ike’s back. As he was completing the final rinse of Ike’s back, Buck let his hands roam to Ike’s chest and then work their way down between Ike’s legs. His own desire was building, pulsing against Ike’s lower back. Buck began to nibble on Ike’s neck as he stroked him. Ike leaned back into Buck and reached around to take Buck’s manhood in his hands. He began to match Buck stroke for stroke. As the neared the time of release, Ike turned to face Buck. The found each other’s mouths and kissed deeply. They continued to kiss and stroke until they finally released into the water, together. They continued the passionate kiss - not yet ready to give up the oneness being together this way gave them.

Finally, they separated. Ike reached up and ran his hand along the side of Buck’s face, stroking his jawbone. They had so few opportunities to truly express their love for each other. *I wish we didn’t have to steal time together,* he signed. *It’s never enough.*

Buck nodded his agreement.  “I know,” he mumbled. “Maybe someday we can be together, but for now this will have to do.” As he moved to kiss Ike for what could possibly be the last time for a few days, it happened. From somewhere upstream, a log floated to where they were standing, lost in each other’s embrace. It bumped into them; knocking them into the water as it continued on its way down stream. Buck fell onto Ike, pushing him under the water. A jagged branch on the log torn into Buck’s side, and pulled him so that his head was now above Ike’s feet. Then the branch tore down his leg, leaving a deep gash.

Ike recovered quickly and dragged Buck ashore. *Are you alright? Let me see,* he said.

“I’ll be fine,” Buck answered. “We just need to stop the bleeding.” Somehow they managed to do that. Then Buck used his undershirt to make a bandage.

*You need to let Emma, or Teaspoon check you out when we get back,* Ike said.

“No,” said Buck. “I’ll take care of it. I don’t want them to know. It will be fine. I just need to put some medicine on it.”

*I’m not so sure,” Ike started.

“I’ll be fine,” Buck said. “Besides what do I say happened?”

Ike shrugged. He realized that unless they lied, there wasn’t a way to explain what had happened. He also knew that Buck felt very strongly about telling the truth. In fact, neither one of them wanted to lie to their new friends, so it was decided that they would say nothing about this accident.

As they finished doctoring Buck’s wound, Ike noticed the old scar. Once again he asked, *What happened to cause this?*

This time he was surprised when Buck replied with a sigh, “A bear cub got hold of me once when I was younger. I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s not good medicine to relive past misfortunes.”

Ike nodded and they made their way back to the station.
 

Ike shook his head to clear his thinking. He’d had time to come up with a response for that argument, *You could just leave out the part about me being there.*

It was Buck’s turn to sigh, “Alright. If it doesn’t look better in the morning, I’ll ask about going to Doc’s.”

Ike nodded. *What will you tell him?*

“Just what you suggested,” Buck answered as he shrugged on his shirt. “I was cleaning up in the river and the log floated into me. It knocked me down, spun me around, and a broken branch scratched my back. I tried doctoring it myself, but I didn’t have the right medicine. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better.”

Ike grinned.

Buck returned the smile, “Now, let’s get over to the bunk house before someone comes searching for us.”

Ike nodded and they headed across the yard. As they walked, Ike noticed that Buck was working at hiding the pain he was in. He also decided that Buck was probably running a fever. Ike offered up a quick prayer that waiting wouldn’t turn out to be a fatal mistake.
 

TWO
The evening meal was uneventful, and no one, except Emma, seemed to notice that Buck was even quieter than usual. He excused himself as quickly as possible and made his way to bed. 

When she finished clearing away the dishes, Emma made her way over to the part of the room where the boys slept. There must be something bothering Buck if he was going to bed this early. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t ill. The cooler weather had brought with it an illness that was attacking many of the citizens of Sweetwater. She felt it was her job to keep these boys as healthy as possible.

“Buck?” she said as she approached his bed.

There was no response.

When she reached his bedside, she noticed that he appeared feverish. She moved to touch his head. As she did, his eyes fluttered open and he attempted to crawl away from her. The look of fear in his eyes froze Emma to the floor. She slowly brought her hand back to her side, “It’s alright. You’re safe,” she said. Buck stared at her for a few seconds, and then his eyes closed and his head dropped to the side.

Emma quickly bent down and felt Buck’s forehead. He was very hot and even in this state tried to pull away from her touch. Emma quietly moved back to the table, “Someone needs to go get Doc Barnes. Buck is burning up, I’m afraid he’s caught the sickness going through town.”

*It’s not that,* Ike said. *He hurt his hip the other day at the river. He’s been trying to take care of it himself because he didn’t want to bother anyone.*

“We still need the doctor and some bandages,” said Teaspoon as he stood to go check on Buck. “Someone better get going. Ike, you come with me.”

Cody raced out the door toward the barn as Emma and Lou went to the main house to gather supplies. Ike, Kid, and Jimmy joined Teaspoon at Buck’s bedside. They watched as he tried to get comfortable in his sleep.

“Where’s the wound?” asked Teaspoon.

Ike carefully sat next to Buck and attempted to pull up his shirt to expose the gash on his right hip. When he touched Buck, Buck opened his eyes and feebly tried to push Ike’s hands away. “No, please don’t” Buck mumbled.

Teaspoon put his hand on Ike’s shoulder. “Go ahead, Son,” he said.

Ike nodded and once again moved to lift Buck’s shirt. This time there was no resistance even when Ike continued to expose the gash by pulling down the waistband of Buck’s long johns.

Teaspoon noticed that the wound made its way onto Buck’s back. “Can you turn him over?”

Ike shrugged and gently pulled Buck towards him to expose his backside to Teaspoon’s inspection.

“Good Lord,” said Emma as she and Lou rejoined the group. “What ever caused those scars?”

The group stood and stared in amazement at the remains of an old wound that ran from Buck’s waist down his backside and onto his upper leg. They were so mesmerized by the scar and the new gash that they didn’t notice the glazed look that flickered over Teaspoon’s face. 

Ike glanced up at them before answering, *a bear*. When he released Buck to answer Emma’s question, Buck woke up enough to gather some strength and push himself off the bed and onto the floor. Once there he rolled himself under the nearest bunk and huddled against the wall.

“What do we do now?” asked Lou. “We can’t reach him under there.”

“We could try lifting the bed,” said Jimmy.

“What if we accidentally drop it?” asked Kid.

“I see your point,” replied Jimmy. “Maybe we could just drag it.”

They began to debate the best way to get Buck from under the bed; in fact, they had been discussing it for quite a while before they realized that Teaspoon wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was on the ground next to the bed trying to coax Buck out. They started to join him, but he stopped them. “Just go away,” Teaspoon said.

As they moved away and sat down, they were surprised at the tenderness they heard in Teaspoon’s voice as he once again addressed Buck. “It’s alright, Son. No one here wants to hurt you. We just want to help you. Give me your hand and I’ll get you out here where the pretty lady can help you.” He never tried to grab Buck. He just kept repeating this same thing over and over. Finally, Buck gave Teaspoon his hand and allowed himself to be gently pulled from under the bed. As soon as he had Buck from under the bunk, Teaspoon wrapped his arms around Buck and cradled him as one would a child. He sat and gently rocked him while singing softly. While he sat there holding Buck, a far away look came into his eyes as he listened to the boy’s mumbling about being sorry and deserving to be punished.

When Buck relaxed, Teaspoon had Emma come and assist in getting him back to bed. While they removed his clothing the rest of the way, Teaspoon kept talking to Buck in the same reassuring tone. Finally, he allowed Emma to begin cleaning the wound. Whenever Buck tried to pull away, Teaspoon would hold him and talk or sing to him until he relaxed. After a while, the doctor arrived. While he checked Emma’s handiwork, Teaspoon stood by mumbling to himself, “I can’t believe it’s him. I always felt like I should know him, but for it to be him. . .” 

The doctor quickly decided Emma had done a first-rate job; he left some medicine that he hoped would work, and promised to check back as soon as possible. He wasn’t sure when that would be due to all the sick people in town.

After the doctor left, Teaspoon turned to Ike. “Can you find that village where Buck’s half-brother lives?”

Ike nodded.

“Good. I need you to go get help from him. They’ll have some type of medicine to use for this; we need it and someone to show us what to do. Get going - take a white flag and no weapons.”

Ike nodded and left.

Kid watched him go and then started after him. “I can help him locate the village,” he said. “I’ll wait outside like I did before, but I want to be sure they don’t hurt him.”

Teaspoon nodded and Kid left to join Ike.

Teaspoon glanced at Buck and then back at the other riders. “We’re going to have to keep an eye on him to be sure he doesn’t try to leave. The fever has him confused, he’s not aware of where - or even who - he is even when he appears to be awake. If I’m right, he’s a six - maybe seven - year old boy who has recently been attacked by a bear. He’s been found by a newly wed couple. They’re an older man and a young Indian woman. He’s hurting, frightened, and alone. He wants nothing more than to get home to where there’s someone to take care of him.

“Our job is to keep him in that bed until Ike gets back with help. You need to figure out who’s going first, second, etc. He’s not to be left alone for anything. Understand?”

The others nodded. 

“Teaspoon, how do you know that?” asked Lou. 

“I was the older man,” said Teaspoon. When no one said anything he added, “Now, I’m going to go get some rest because I think I’ll be needed again later on this evening.” 
Then Teaspoon left the bunkhouse and went back to his room. Once there, he opened up his box of memories. He carefully took each item out and set them on his bed. He eventually reached the one he was searching for, a wedding picture of a man a few years younger than he was now and his Indian wife. She did not look happy, but she did look beautiful. As he sat looking at the tin type, Emma came in and joined him.

“Want to talk about it?” she asked him.
 

THREE
Teaspoon looked from the picture to Emma. “We’d only been married a few months. She was going to have a baby so I was busy building a better house. We’d gotten married in the spring so a temporary shelter had been fine, besides we weren’t sure how long we were going to stay in the area. But now, winter was approaching, and it wouldn’t do for the baby to be born in a teepee. 

“I was away working on the house. I came back home for lunch and she met me outside the shelter. She had something important to tell me. She began explaining in her newly learned English . . .

“I heard something when I went for water. I went to see what and found a young bear harming a young boy. The bear was little so I chased it off. The boy was injured so I bring him home. He resting inside. He is not doing good, needs medicine man. Nearest village is Kiowa Village over hills. I think he from there. Only few days hike. I go now.”

She turned to leave. “Wait,” Teaspoon said. “I’ll go. You’re in no condition to travel that far.”

“I fine. Beside,how you talk to them? How you make understand?”

“Alright, you go. But you be careful and don’t push too hard, and first show me what to do for him.”

She nodded. “Yes, must show.” They went inside the teepee. The boy was indeed small. Teaspoon was amazed that he had survived an attack from any kind of bear - even a small one. She moved to his side. “Keep cool. If get upset, sing baby song.” She picked up a necklace that lay by the boy. “I take this to show. Maybe help them know.” With that, she was gone.
 

Teaspoon stopped talking and looked again at his tin type. After a few minutes he continued his story. “It was a good thing she mentioned that part about the baby song. Not too long after she left, the boy woke up. Until I started singing that song I was sure he’d kill himself trying to get away. 

Emma interrupted, “Is that what you were doing in the bunkhouse?”

Teaspoon nodded, “It’s an old Shoshone lullaby. I was learning it for the baby. It was the only thing that worked for me. A few days later, she returned with a Kiowa warrior and shaman. They tended the boy for a few days. As soon as he was strong enough to travel they left. We figured that was that, and went back to building our house.”

Again Teaspoon stopped talking and gazed at his picture. “I finished the house a week before the first snowfall. We settled in and prepared for the birth of our baby. One day, a young Kiowa boy showed up with some meat . . .
 

“My family sends this to thank you for tending me in my illness. I too wish to thank you, and warn you. You may offend spirits by helping. They put me by river to punish for being bad. The darkness brings out the evil. Must be kept clean,” the boy said. He knew he wasn’t getting it right, but had no other tongue to speak. This man didn’t know sign and this wasn’t something to talk to a woman about.

“Thank your family for their kindness,” Teaspoon said. He asked the woman to be sure the boy understood. He decided to see if she could make sense of the other gibberish the boy was speaking. He told her about it after the boy left. She said, “He warning you that we be in danger.”

“For what? Helping him?” Teaspoon had laughed.

“It not wise to laugh at spirits. If they put him there to punish him, and we interfered with punishment, we could be made suffer.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Teaspoon said. “What kind of spirits punish a small child?”

“Ones that wish prevent evil from spreading,” she replied and left as her foolish husband refused to listen.
 

Yet again, Teaspoon took a break from his story. “I should have been more respectful.”

“Why?” asked Emma. “What happened?”

Teaspoon set aside his picture. “It was a hard winter. My wife took sick and lost the baby. She recovered physically, but not spiritually. She would talk about the spirits punishing us because we had saved that Kiowa boy. He must be from the devil. We must have angered them greatly because we had interfered with his punishment.

“I told her not to be silly and did my best to get her back to doing things around the house; to get her interested in doing anything.”

He paused. “We ran low on food. I had to start leaving to go hunt some. I hated to go, but we’d starve if I didn’t. One day, I returned from hunting to find her gone. I followed her tracks. They led to the Kiowa village. There was a lot of activity in the village; it seems the youngest son of the wife of the war chief was missing. When I saw the warrior organizing the search party, I knew who had taken him. I had an idea where she’d gone so I headed there.

“I got there in time to stop her from hurting him too badly; unfortunately, I couldn’t do that without hurting her. The others arrived as I was trying to free him. They thought I was attempting to harm him; the leader of the party came after me. . .
 

Teaspoon froze as the warrior approached. He dropped the knife he had been using to cut the boy free. “I mean no harm,” he said.

“You will pay for this,” the warrior snarled. He prepared to attack. As he jumped towards Teaspoon, the boy got in his way. “Stop,” he said. “This one not hurt me. He save me from crazy woman. He kill her to stop her. She his woman, and he kill her to save me.” He pointed to the still form of the woman by the tree.

The warrior looked at the body and back at the man. He took the boy by the hand. “We go,” he said as they turned and left.

Teaspoon watched them leave then he gathered up the body of his lovely wife and put it across the back of his horse. He returned to their home, prepared her body for rest the best he knew how, laid her on the bed of skins they shared, and burned the house to the ground. As the ashes smoldered behind him, he turned his back on this place and went to rejoin the world.
 

“I haven’t thought about her in a really long time,” Teaspoon said as he again picked up the picture.

“You think Buck is your young Kiowa?” Emma asked.

Teaspoon nodded. “That would explain him having the same scars and why my old lullaby calms him down - it must somehow get through and remind him of before.”

“Do you think he remembers?” Emma asked.

Teaspoon shrugged, “I doubt it. It was a long time ago, he was very young. I just hope he recovers as well this time.”

Emma nodded her agreement as she stood. “I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as Ike gets back. See you in the morning, Mr. Spoon. Good night.”

“Good night, Emma,” Teaspoon answered as he turned to packing away his memories once more. Before he put away the picture, Teaspoon spoke to the young lady in it, “I told you he would grow up to be a fine young man if he was given the chance.” Then he put it on top of the rest of the items in his box and closed the lid. As he prepared for bed, Teaspoon Hunter decided that when the past met the present it was nice to know that the decision you made all those years ago had been the right one.