Chapter 6: Miri’s Triumph

What a tremendous burden to have to deal with as an adult, it would be exponentially more for an eight year old child. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Miri is not ordinary, that indeed she is extraordinary, her reasoning skills rival those of Sir Isaac Newton’s, with the intelligence to match. Her dogged determination rivaled that of a pit bull. Now if she can only find the strength to get the job finished in time.

All day Miri worked, as long as the wagon was moving she was scraping and scratching at the wood. Blisters developed, then broke on her fingertips, still she worked on. All of the chips and fibers went out the hole, along with some blood. Now a dilemma, how to hide, or explain her fingertips. Once again her quick intellect came up with a plausible answer. She ran her fingers over the boards the lid closed on, the amount of the opening was just right, it put pressure on the fingers. Making sure to liberally coat the top edge of the board with her blood, enough to drip down both the inside and outside of the box front on either side of the hasp. When the monster finds the blood he would want to know why she felt she had to hurt herself like that. Her explanation would be that it became stiflingly hot inside the box, when she discovered that there was enough of a gap to allow the heat to escape and cool air to enter the box she had to use this to avoid being baked like a potato. It wasn’t a problem when the wagon wasn’t moving, but when it started to move and bounce the sharp edges cut into her fingers. As soon as the wagon stopped she slipped her right hand back into her binding. And waited for the monster to appear. It didn’t take long, and as predicted, he was shocked at the condition of her fingers. He, again as predicted, asked how it happened, and she gave him the explanation she had prepared. After saying some rough words she had never heard before, he stormed out of the wagon and was gone for about half an hour. When he returned he had a wedge of wood that he had shaped, and handed it to her. He shut the lid and relatched it. Then he told her to insert the wedge and see if it would hold up the lid. It worked, not only did he accept her explanation, she received another tool that would let out the heat and more importantly let in the light so that she could better see what she was working on.

He pulled her out of the box and held her as she used the pot, then he fed her himself so she didn’t hurt her fingers more than they already were hurt. He held the canteen as she drank. He was much more pleasant and even nice to her. After being put back in the box, she began to think about his reaction and subsequent actions. What if she could get him to like, or even love her. Would or could that prevent him from causing harm? Her conclusion was that it was a definite maybe, but she wouldn’t want to stake her life on it. She fell asleep with the new wedge pushed firmly into the gap and for the first time she really needed the blanket to stay warm.

The next morning brought more changes, he gently lifted her out of the box, he didn’t leer at her body as she used the pot. He once again fed her and held the canteen as she drank. He even made Willow bark tea to help with the pain. Before putting her back in the box, he wrapped her fingers in some strips of cloth after putting some liniment on them.she smiled at him before he put the gag back in her mouth.

The bandages helped deaden the pain, the extra light allowed her to more accurately make cuts in the same location, she removed twice as much wood from around the hole as the first day. She found that by first making a groove in the wood, then using the nail head as the base of a pry bar, she could remove chunks of wood. She felt more confident that she would finish in time. She quickly got her hand back into her restraint and was laying down pretending to sleep when the monster opened the lid. He was deferential as he held her, then proceeded to feed and water her. Then he changed her bandages and applied more liniment. Sleep cam easy and she slept better than she had been.

The morning routine was unchanged; she did well at clearing and expanding the hole. She had removed over half of the wood all the way through the thickness of the wood when she hit a snag, or rather two of them. She hit two nails, one was loose and she thought she could work it out. The other was really stuck, what’s more the pointed end was exposed in the opening, the sharp end. If she couldn’t move it she would never be able to get her hand through the hole. Getting her hand through the hole enough to wave and draw attention to herself was the purpose of the entire exercise.

She continued through the day and then the next. She managed to remove the one nail. But the other wasn’t budging, she did remove all of the wood and test to see if her hand would fit in the hole. It did, or rather would if not for the nail. She wasn’t strong enough to bend it with her fingers, and she didn’t have a lever to bend it. She believed that she would be able to get her arm through the hole all the way to her elbow, if the nail wasn’t there.

That night the monster had a visitor and a nagging question was answered. The visitor was Buck Allen, the Wagonmaster, the question was whether or not the Wagonmaster was involved in this sordid affair along with the monster. Both men came into the wagon box, with the wedge in place Mimi could hear what was said.

Buck said, “Are you ready to end this latest fiasco on Saturday? You should never have brought her to your wagon! I’ve hidden your activities before and even participated when the girl was old enough, but eight years old is too young!”

The monster replied, “Buck you’re my brother, you know why I like them young, every time I’m doing them, I see her face, the terrible things she did to me, the horrible things she said! I’m getting back at her by doing these things to those girls! No one except the Indians cared when I took the Indian girls and I didn’t have to kill them first so I could enjoy their screams for a long time. It was just bad luck that Running Buffalo heard the screams of his sister. Besides, you do like the older girls and you enjoy making them scream too!”

Buck said, “I miss those days, but you have to stop before you’re caught. Miri has to be the last girl, I think I’ll come with you and make sure everything goes well, maybe we can take her far enough away that we both can take turns and listen to her screams. I’ll send Jim out to scout in the opposite direction that we take the girl. She is a beautiful girl, I’d love to get her mother!”

The monster responded, “Being together will be like old times! Maybe we should take her mother too! You could say that you found Miri and she asked for her mother. Then we could party with both of them.”

“That sounds doable as long as I can isolate her from other people so they don’t see me talking to her, or hear what I tell her. Getting her would be worth the risk. I’ll do it! Isn’t this the area where you found a cave a couple of miles south of here?”

“You’re right, it’s more like three miles. That would be perfect. I’ll make some torches and get together some fun items to enhance our fun. Any screaming will be muffled by the cave, perfect! Now I can’t wait! I’ll have the mule packed and ready to go.”

Miri shuttered, they are brothers, two monsters! And now they are going to kidnap and rape and probably kill her mother too. Not only that, now they are going to torture and rape her before she’s dead, she’ll just wish she was! Miri needs to think. She has to get the nail removed! She has to call attention to herself and her blight. Both monsters have to be caught. What if she dies before she can tell what she knows? She finally fell asleep, but fitfully.

The monster woke her up and lifted her from the box. He had returned to his callus self, the tenuous bond that had been developing was gone. He was too engrossed with anticipating what he and his brother was going to be doing the next morning. He definitely was watching her as she used the chamber pot. He gave her the food and the canteen, he didn’t even change her bandages. Today was the only and last chance to save herself and her mother, as well as all the other girls and women they would torture and rape in the future. She had to do this, even if she died trying. There, she said it, she made a choice and a commitment to do whatever needed to be done even if it cost her her life. As many faults the species of homo sapien have, the vast majority of them have shown a remarkable ability to sacrifice themselves for the greater good without regard for their own well being.

As soon as the lid closed she slipped her hand from her bonds, this time she removed the piggen strips from both hands. If she was to die she would die free from the bonds imposed on her by a monster, she would die free! It was still dark, the rest of the camp was slowly beginning to stir. The women were getting breakfast ready, the men and older boys were feeding and putting the harnesses and tack on the mules. They were totally unaware of the drama about to unfold in their midst. If it went horribly wrong they would never know.

The sun began to break over the distant horizon as it had been doing for millions and millions of years. The light of the new day was not blocked by any clouds or fog. Fortuitously the sunlight showed under the bed of the monster’s wagon and would highlight the event about to occur. Miri realized from the intensity of the light that her best chance of being seen was now. Placing her hand at the hole, with the back of it toward the nail, she tucked her thumb into the palm and brought all of her fingers together, she thrust downward with every ounce of power available to her. The scream could not have been heard by someone three feet away, but the primal sound burst forth nonetheless as the nail’s pointed end tore through the flesh and tendons on the back of her hand and up her arm over ten inches. The furrow was almost a half inch deep, blood seeped from this rather than spurted, that was good, but there was a great deal of it flowing down her arm and hand, then dripping from her fingers onto the ground below. She forced herself to move her hand and finger back and forth repeatedly, knowing that something moving would attract attention better than one that was unmoving. She kept it up as long as she could but was becoming weaker as more and more of her life’s blood spilled on the ground.

Suddenly she remembered that she had to leave a message in case she didn’t live through this. Picking up the nail she had used to excavate the hole, she gouged an incision into her upper arm. Then she as carefully as she could wrote;

GRADY AND BUCK R BROTHERS BOTH ARE KILLERS OF GIRLS MOM NEXT

The blood applied with her finger soaked into the unfinished oak wood staining it forever. Just as she finished writing those words in a shaky barely legible script, Miri passed out. The blood flow had almost stopped as the blood began to clot and congeal. Now if only someone would notice...