Chapter 35

Indian Territory June 15, 1884:

“Eli, look at all them dark clouds down yonder south of here. I sure hope we don’t run into any bad weather on the way home,” Duncan said as they rode on into the late afternoon after getting Joe patched up.

“I’ve been watching them too, Duncan. I hope they’re between us and home, I’d hate to know our place was being hammered by storms.”

By nightfall, the dark storm clouds had moved east of where they were heading, but the air was still damp and heavy like it could rain any minute.

“Eli, did you ever see one of them cyclones?”

“Only the one we saw that night we were holed up in that cave and it went by in the dark. You ever see one in daylight?”

“I seen one once when I was a kid. It came roaring out of a dark cloud and hit the barn. The house was just a little ways from the barn and it never touched it, but it tore up trees and killed cows and horses alike. The old black man and woman I was workin’ for had lots of chickens and we never found a one of them chickens, not even a feather, after that thing fuzzed up and came rompin’ and stompin’ through there.”

“I heard tell of calves and dogs bein’ picked up and throwed up in the trees, but never seen it. Hope I never do either.”

“Eli, you reckon we can ride on into the night? I feel like we need to be home right now. You gettin’ the same feelin’?”

“I am, Duncan. Maybe we should cut Jeb’s mules loose and put everything in them dynamite wagons so we could make better time.”

“Eli, remember they said we didn’t need to have them caps and dynamite in the same place, we might blow our ownselves up.”

“Then we’ll put Jeb on Joe’s horse and Ruby in one wagon with Joe. Kit can ride in the other wagon with Moses. Put them spools of fuse in Joe’s saddlebags and I’ll put the blasting caps in my saddlebags,” Eli said as they made plans to make better time.

They gathered around to slide the heavy loaded trunks with gold, into the back of one of the dynamite wagons.

Duncan took the reins of Joe’s horse and led him, so Jeb wouldn’t have to worry about guiding him.

They turned the mules loose, abandoning the old wagon of Jeb’s, and headed out. They drove the work horses at a good fast walking pace until they got them loosened up, then they pushed them into a gallop as they rode south.

They rode most of the night, stopping to rest the horses twice.

The next morning, about an hour after daybreak, they met an old Indian and his squaw riding double as they headed north. Eli rode out ahead to meet them, away from the others. He had an ill feeling for some reason when he saw the old man’s face.

The Indian told him of some terrible storms that had blown houses and barns away, down across the river from Tulsey.

Duncan and the slow wagons caught up to him, just as the Indian and his woman rode on north. Duncan saw Eli’s face drawn and worried, as he looked to the south.

“Eli, I made out some of what that Indian said. I sure hope our place didn’t get blowed away,” Duncan said as they rode on.

“Duncan, it’s got me worried too.”

After another hour of pushing their horses, they were getting close to Tulsa and Crow lands. They saw some broken tree limbs lying along the trail, and some chicken feathers and pieces of boards scattered about.

“ELI!” Duncan yelled as he stopped, pulling Joe’s horse back with Jeb on him.

Eli rode up to see one of their young kid goats lying under a tree limb. It had a sharp stick through its ribcage, it was covered in blood.

“This is not good, Duncan. Tie Joe’s horse to a wagon and we’ll go on ahead.

“Moses, you and Joe bring them wagons on as soon as you can, I got a bad feelin’!”

“Eli, hurry and get down there. I’m afraid for the family now,” Joe said, his eyes full of tears as he popped the leather reins on the horses haunches with his right hand, to kick them up to a full gallop.

Duncan and Eli rode for an hour as fast as their horses could run. Scraps of twisted, torn tin from barn roofs, and broken boards and fence rails were scattered over the land.

When they came to the Barkley brother’s home place, the house was gone. There was nothing left but the foundation blocks it had been built on. The outhouse was still standing off to itself with no visible damage except the top hinge was loose and the door leaning out. The corral fence was scattered all over, dead horses lying in the path of the storm. The barn looked as if it hadn’t been in a storm, not a scratch on it.

Eli was about to kick his horse in its flanks, when William and Ben Barkley walked out with the three pregnant wives.

“ELI!” William screamed and ran to him.

“William, are all of you alright?”

“All but George, he’s got a bad place on his head and he’s bleedin from his mouth and ear, Eli. We ain’t got a horse left to even get him down to Doc’s place,” William cried as he looked up at Eli.

“There’s wagons coming up behind us, William. Flag Joe and Moses down and get George on a wagon. Y’all come on down too, William. I don’t reckon you know if our place was hit, do you?”

“Eli, I think your place may have got hit first. We saw two twisters spinnin on the ground back that way. They didn’t look no bigger than a big dust devil though. One went east, with the other one comin’ toward us from down your way. There was some chickens and barn tin flying up. I saw some buckskins that belonged to the young’uns and we all hoped they’d been hanging on the clothesline. The noise was so loud though, we never saw the big twister that come across the river toward our house until it was right on us.

“We all ran over to that deep draw over there, then George ran back to get his wife’s little dog, when he was hit by a big board.”

“We gotta go, William. Moses and the rest will be here soon. Joe’s got a shot up arm, you take over that wagon and get on down there as soon as you can,” Eli yelled as he whirled his big horse and kicked him hard in his flanks for the first time ever.

He and Duncan were riding all out, dodging tree limbs and pieces of debris scattered on the ground, as the horses raced south.

“ELI! Look over yonder. There’s Juni walking this way ... I don’t see Isaac, Eli!

“OH GOD NO!” Duncan yelled as they raced to where Juni had fallen to the ground.

“JUNI!” Duncan yelled as they slid their horses to a stop next to her.

“Duncan, we got blowed away!” she cried and grabbed onto him.

“Juni, where’s all the others?” Eli screamed at her.

“Eli, we’ve all been scattered out since daylight, looking for Isaac, Lilly Beth and Little Eli. Lilly Beth got blowed right out of Clarissa’s arms as we all ran to the storm cellar. Little Eli and Isaac ran to grab her and they all got sucked up in the long black spinning cyclone that swept them away. OH GOD, Duncan. We lost our boys and our little girl,” she sobbed and screamed as she told them what had happened.

“Where’s the others at? I don’t see nobody else. Was them three all that was swept off? Was anybody else hurt bad?” Eli yelled in fear.

“Lilly Beth and the boys were all that got blowed away. We all got cuts and scratches. Rose, Miranda and Pike have broke arms, but we’re all alright. Jefferson, Mr. Howard, Lorene, Corinne and all the oil well men have been looking over toward Cherokee Lands all this time. One twister went that a way. Us women have been walking back and forth over here, looking for our kids. The twister that hit our place was just a little one and it came right up through here,” she sobbed and fell to the ground crying. Duncan reached down and picked her up, then put her on his horse.

“Duncan, you and Juni come as soon as you can, I gotta go find our young’uns and the rest of the family!” Eli yelled as he lashed his horse with the ends of his leather reins, digging his heels into his flanks hard.

The ground became wet and slippery as he rode east through this part of the land, and mud was flying up from the horse’s hooves. Eli wiped the mud and tears from his eyes and looked over to his left to see Clarissa walking in the mud, off in the distance. He could see her red hair blowing back as she held her long skirts up and started to run toward the north.

Eli turned his horse toward her, racing through the mud and puddles of water. He looked past Clarissa and saw Rose running toward Clarissa; one arm was bandaged and in a sling as she held it to her body with her other hand while she ran. Eli looked further north to see what they were running to.

He saw Little Eli staggering toward the women ... Eli raced his horse right at him. He was carrying Lilly Beth and she was hanging lifeless in his arms. Isaac was over a hundred yards behind Little Eli, using a crooked tree limb for a crutch as he limped through the mud. The women were running across the wet ground, falling in the mud, then getting up to run again.

Eli slid his horse to a stop right in front of Little Eli and grabbed him and Lilly Beth in his arms.

“DADDY. I just knew you’d come, I just knew you would. Lilly Beth’s hurt bad, Daddy, she’s hurt real bad. Isaac’s got a broken arm and foot, but he told me to go on ahead and get Lilly Beth down to Doc.”

“Let me hold her, Son,” Eli said. Taking his daughter in his arms, he held her limp body to his chest and cried.

“ELI,” Clarissa screamed as she fell in the mud just a few feet from where he stood. She was too tired and too weak to even get up, and crawled through the mud to Eli. He reached his hand down to help her as she pulled herself up by his legs, crying and screaming as she looked at Lilly Beth’s motionless body.

Rose ran to them, stumbling and tripping on her long, muddy skirts as she tried to reach out to Eli. He grabbed his sister and pulled her to her feet as she and Clarissa held onto him, both crying and sobbing until they could hardly talk or even breathe.

“Eli, is she alive?” Rose asked.

“PLEASE, OH GOD DON’T TAKE OUR LITTLE GIRL!” Clarissa cried and touched Lilly Beth’s bruised, bloody, mud covered face with her own muddy fingers. She wiped her fingers on her dress, then licked her fingertips to wipe the mud from Lilly Beth’s eyes. Her eyes fluttered briefly and Clarissa fell to the ground sobbing and praying.

“She’s alive, she just talked to me back there a little ways. She was talking crazy though, mumbling about driving cows to Texas, then talking about seeing Little Duck and her other grandmother,” Little Eli told them.

Duncan and Juni raced past them on his horse to where Isaac had staggered and fell when his crutch slipped in the mud. Duncan stepped from the stirrup and stumbled, then fell to the ground on his knees. Isaac staggered into his arms as Juni jumped from the saddle. Duncan and Juni hugged him and they all cried as they knelt in the mud.

“Isaac, you alright?” Duncan asked, wiping the mud from his son’s bruised and bloody face. Juni wiped her hands through his long hair, pulling mud and straw from his matted hair.

“My leg hurts bad, Daddy, and my arm hurts a little bit, but I’m alright. Lilly Beth got hurt real bad though. Eli found her this morning. She fell back down way off from us. We all got sucked up in the air, Daddy, and we held onto each other until she was hit by a board and knocked away from us. Little Eli grabbed me and held onto me when a tree limb hit my legs and knocked me backwards. We fell to the ground three times and rolled and tumbled, then it picked us back up. That thing finally turned us loose, slamming us down in the mud and water hard.

“Little Eli carried me on his back for a long ways, calling out for Lilly Beth. We slept next to each other last night to stay warm. Little Eli kept telling me we’d find her and that she’d be alright. We didn’t see Lilly Beth again until this morning. He carried me a long ways after daylight and when he saw her, he told me to wait and he’d go get her and bring her back.”

The boys and Lilly Beth were covered in mud. They were scratched, with dried blood and mud caked all over their faces and hands. Little Eli’s shirt was ripped off with nothing but the sleeves left. He was cut and scratched all over his face, back and chest.

He was bleeding from a deep cut over his right eye and a cut on his neck. Rose picked her skirt up and found a clean place to wipe the blood off his face to see how bad he was hurt. She knew he’d need stitches the way he was still bleeding.

Moses pulled up with the first wagon and the horses were in a sweaty lather as they slid in the mud and stopped. The horses, wagon and riders were all covered in mud. Steam was rising from the horses as they stood shaking their heads and necks, stomping their hooves in the mud. Jeb, Kit, and Ruby were with him, as the girls looked at this family that been hit by the bad storm. They described to their Gramps what was going on and what all had happened.

When William pulled his wagon up right beside Moses, Joe was sitting on the tarp with the Barkley brother’s wives. They held George across their laps as they cried and worried over him.

“Clarissa, you and Rose come get on this wagon so you can hold Lilly Beth. We got to get her, Eli, Isaac, and George down to Doc’s as soon as we can. Where are all the others?”

“Catt, Eva, and Tin Yu are back at the house with the rest of the kids, some are cut and bruised. The rest of us grownups are scattered out all over, Eli. We been looking for the young’uns since late yesterday, hoping and praying we’d find them alive.”

“We’re all alive then? No one got killed?”

“Miss Rose, is Sissy alright?” Joe asked. No one had spoken of her and he was worried.

“She’s back at the house, Joe. We think she may have lost the baby though. She was bleeding a lot, but told us to go on and find the young’uns, that she’d be alright,” Rose told him and reached for him as he fell forward.

“AWWWWW NOOOOOOOO,” Joe yelled.

“Joe, Sissy will be alright. Y’all can have more babies if she did lose this one. At least we’re all alive,” Rose told him as she held his head against her bosom and let him cry.

“Rose, is Suh and Pike alright?” Moses asked, fearing the worst.

“They’re both scratched up, bruised and cut. Pike may have a broken arm, but they’re alright, Moses,” she told him and he fell to his knees in the mud and cried out of sheer relief that his wife and son were alive.

“Rose, is Miranda alright? I don’t see her anywhere,” Eli said.

“She was way over to the east from me, Eli. Toward Cherokee lands, last I saw of her. She’s got a broken arm too, but Doc put splints on both of us with these slings, so we could help look for the kids.”

“Get Lilly Beth and the others on down to Doc and Lettie as soon as you can. I gotta go find Miranda,” Eli sobbed as he spoke, and climbed on his horse.

He raced across the wide open muddy land, looking all around for Miranda. He saw the new windmill spinning slowly in the distance, where they planned to drill for oil. As he came closer, he saw her at the big water tank, next to the windmill.

She was sitting with her head down on her knees, her bandaged arm held to her buckskin shirt when Eli rode up and slid to a stop. Miranda looked up to see Eli and thought she was dreaming. She had just prayed he would come home, and now he was here.

“ELI,” she screamed and lunged at him as she came off the ground to grab him with her good arm.

“Miranda, are you alright? Are you hurt bad? Is our baby alright?”

“Eli, I knew you’d come. I just knew you’d be here to help. Yes, I’m alright. I’ve got a broken arm, but I’m alright now that you’re here. Sissy got hit in the belly by a fence rail and Rose thinks she may lose her baby, she was bleeding bad. I think our baby is fine, my stomach doesn’t hurt.

“Eli, did you know Little Eli, Lilly Beth, and Isaac were swept away by the storm? We tried to grab them but they were just sucked right up into the air by one of the twisters. We searched until dark yesterday, then started looking for them again at daylight this morning.”

“We found them awhile ago, just as we all got back, Miranda. Little Eli is gonna be alright, but Lilly Beth is hurt bad and she’s not moving. Isaac’s got a broken arm and foot, Little Eli said. The others have taken them on down to see Doc and Lettie. George Barkley was hit hard on his head; he’s bleedin’ from his mouth and one ear. We got them all headed down toward home now. Do we have anything at all left down there, Miranda?”

“Eli, the big house is still there, but the roofing is blown up on the west side. The roofs of the smaller houses are damaged but not as bad as it is. The front of the big barn doesn’t even have a piece of tin gone from the roof. The back end of the barn is gone and one of the Paint horses is dead. I don’t know where the others have scattered off to. I saw one dead goat and two young calves dead. We’ve seen horses wandering all across the place, but they are all so skittish we can’t catch them.”

“Come on, Miranda. I’ll help you on my horse and we’ll get on down to help tend to the others and get that arm cleaned up and fixed again. We can build more houses and barns.”

Eli lifted her in his arms and raised her over his head. She threw her right leg over the saddle and he mounted up behind her.

“Hold me, Eli. I needed you and I missed you so much when you left. I cried all night the first night, I felt so alone. The second night Eva and Catt made me sleep with them. We talked all night about you. I never knew I could love anyone as much as I love you, Eli. I also know those two Cherokee sisters love you as much as I ever will. Tin Yu doesn’t just love you, Eli, she worships you.

“Oh Eli, put your arms around me and hold me. I feel so blessed to be here with all of you. Even with this terrible storm and all the destruction, I love it here. I am amazed at the strength of Rose, Clarissa, and all the other women in a time like this.

“I’m so happy none of our family lost their lives. I’ll be so happy when my parents get here and we can be married.” Miranda was talking fast and she was shaking at the same time.

“Miranda, are you alright?” Eli asked when she stopped talking.

“Eli, I’m alright now. I was so afraid when Little Eli and Isaac tried to save Lilly Beth and they were all sucked up into that funnel cloud so fast. We thought they were gone forever. Clarissa and Juni were running after them as we watched them go higher and higher, and round and round. Rose yelled at all of us and made us count heads of those left. Then she told us and the men where to go as we followed the path of that storm. Eli, Rose and I think it may have been two small twisters that came through. One went east and one came up this way. We never even saw or heard them until they were right on us.

“I never even felt my arm hurting until now, but it hurts like hell, Eli, and I wanted to be strong like Rose and the others.”

“You are strong, Miranda, and I’m proud of you. You’ve been out here yesterday and today with a broken arm, just like Rose. You worried over Little Eli, Lilly Beth, and Isaac just like they were your kids and it makes me proud of you. Now, if you need to cry before we get to the house, you just go ahead and cry. I’m here with you now and it’s all over but the hurtin’. We can all hurt inside while we’re healin’ and gettin’ over all this.”

“I’m not going to cry, Eli. I almost did though. I was afraid for a while that I wasn’t as strong as the others. Now that you’re holding me and talking to me, I know I’m strong and we’ll all fight our way back and be even stronger because of this.”

“Now you’re talkin’ like the pretty young Cherokee woman who come here to teach school, then messed up and fell for me.”

“I didn’t mess up, Eli. When I get my arm to where I can use it without it hurting, I’m going to love you so hard you’ll wish that storm would come pull you away from me,” she laughed and Eli knew she’d be alright now.

“I see Jefferson and the others coming in from the east. I thought for a minute he was riding one of Iron Hammer’s horses. He’s on the Walking Horse mare with the young colt, Cheyenne, alongside.”

“Then we didn’t lose all our horses. I see two more of the gaited mares down by the river and another one with its foal by the barn,” Miranda said as they rode along the top of the ridge toward the house.