Chapter 63

As his sisters and brothers sat around in a circle in the barn, Eli told them each detail, each thought and each incident that happened on his trip. They asked many questions and he took the time to answer and explain it to them.

The Young Bucks and the six Crow girls laughed as he told them about his Grandma and how she helped him take out the kidnappers. They knew too, as they watched their brother talk; this was what had changed him. He had killed four men and a woman.

Then he told them about his Grandma dying and what his Grandpa told him about her waking him in the night and what he’d heard her say. The Bucks and the girls cried when they heard that part of his story, of how he lost his Grandma.

“I’ve brought this book out here for one reason and I think you know what it is. We’ve all read this book of tribal lore taken from two tribes of Northern Plains Indians; even you girls have read this book until we’ve worn the cover bare. It’s the story of two sets of brothers from different tribes who become close friends. Their love for one another becoming so strong, they want to become blood brothers.

“Today, I want us to become blood brothers, just as it is described in this book.”

“Eli, are y’all really going to do this?” Kit asked, excited by what was about to happen as the six girls and six Young Bucks sat in the barn.

“Yes, we’ve all read this book Grandmother ordered for us from the Kansas City library about the six young men of one tribe becoming blood brothers with six brothers from another tribe. Today, we’re going to become Blood Brothers, even though some of us are already blood brothers from our Dad.

“I was so alone at times on my trip and I missed my brothers and sisters being near me for the first time in my life. I want us to be even closer now that we’ve told each other of our love for one another.”

“Eli, we want to be blood sisters too!” Lee Yu said as the girls gathered around when Eli knelt in a circle with the other boys, each with their knife in hand.

“Isaac, what do you, Ezra, Micah, Caleb, and Pike think about them becoming blood sisters?”

“Eli, I think they should. Two are already blood sisters by birth, two were adopted and Kit and Ruby were told by your dad that they could call him dad also,” Isaac answered.

“I agree, Eli. They deserve to be blood sisters just as much as we deserve to be blood brothers,” Pike said.

“You know this will burn like hell when you make the cut on your wrist, don’t you?” Eli asked the girls.

“We can take a small cut to become blood sisters. We already know we will not only be best friends, but blood sisters forever and we want to swear to the same oath you Bucks swear to,” Lilly Beth told him firmly.

“Isaac and I will go first. I’ll make a small cut high on my right wrist and he will make one on his. We’ll clasp each other’s arms above our wrists, letting our cuts come together and our blood mix. I will put my fingers on his medicine chain and he will put his on mine. His blood will flow through my veins just as my blood will flow through his.

“The rest of you brothers will make a small cut high on your wrists and each of us will clasp arms in the circle as our blood mingles, one with the other, each time touching the medicine chain of your brother as you do.

“We have all read the oath. We will recite the oath at the beginning, then each time we clasp arms we’ll repeat, “We Are One” over and over until all six of us have clasped our arms together in a show of Brotherhood. From this day forward, we will be even closer, sworn to protect each other with our lives if necessary. If one of us should ever be killed or even wounded, the rest of us will have revenge upon those who harmed our brother or sister. Does everyone know what this means and agree to live our lives being bound by blood, even closer than the family of brothers and sisters we are now?” Eli spoke and held his clenched fist out to the center of the circle where the six Young Bucks knelt.

“We are one!” The six Young Bucks chanted six times, once for each of them, as they put their knuckles together then raised their fists above the circle.

The six girls gathered quickly and knelt in a circle near the Young Bucks, each with her knife ready. Lee Yu and Lilly Beth were across from each other, as were Isaac and Eli.

The girls put their fists in the circle and pressed their knuckles together, chanting,

“WE ARE ONE!”

“Let us swear to this oath together. Sisters, you’ll make your own cut, and you’ll recite the same oath we do, substituting sisters for brothers in the oath. Remember we chant, “We Are One“ at the beginning, then again each time we clasp wrists until the end. Is everyone ready?”

“WE ARE ONE!” The twelve chanted.

“Hear me call out to you, O Spirits of my ancestors resting in the Earth, the Rivers, and the Skies—bear witness this day as I let the blood of my body flow through my heart to mix with the blood of my brothers. Let it be known to all creatures here on earth and in the heavens above: From this day until the end of time—we are one—Sworn by Oath—Bound by the blood our Spirits—Blood Brothers Forever.”

The six Crow Girls and the six Young Bucks chanted the oath in unison as they clasped their bleeding wrists one against the other around the circle in somber concentration.

“WE ARE ONE!” They each chanted as they clasped wrists around the circle, one after the other.

“I feel like I’m about to fly off into the sky, my body is so excited. Do any of you feel that way?” Lee Yu said as she looked at the others with tears in her eyes.

“I feel the same way. That was very powerful, what we just did. I feel so different and my belly is fluttering I feel so good,” Michi told them.

“My belly is fluttering too and I feel really good all over. Was that a magic chant we just did?” Ruby said.

“It’s called euphoric stimulation,” Eli told them as they all stood now.

“I’ve read those words, but I’ve forgotten what they mean,” Lilly Beth said.

“It means a feeling of complete control and confidence, in extreme happiness and even in the face of extreme danger,” Eli told them.

“How did you know that?” Kit asked.

“Aunt Clarissa explained it to me.”

“I feel like I did when we swam naked together in the river. It was like I loved being naked outdoors, but didn’t want to be seen naked, yet I was wishing I was being seen. Does that make sense?” Lee Yu told them.

“Lee Yu, that is exactly the way I felt that day at the river, and I feel the same way now. Like you, I felt that way the first time we all agreed to swim naked and made a pact that we’d respect each other before we did. I was so happy to be naked, even if I was in the water and no one could see me. I was even wondering if adults ever swim naked when they love each other,” Kia told them.

“I think we may be growing up and some of those feelings are a part of what adults feel. Sometimes when Kit and I are together, we have to make ourselves stop and walk away from each other, the feelings are so strong,” Eli told them as they all looked at him.

“Eli, sometimes you seem to know a lot more than the rest of us, and how to express your feelings better. How do you know so much about what adults feel?” Michi asked as she grinned at her brother.

“I have seen and heard some things that have helped me understand it all better.

“I was in that hay barn over on the river by the Barkley brothers’ place one day last winter throwing some hay down for the cows when I heard a man and woman laughing and talking outside. I stopped throwing hay down and stepped over to look down and see who it was when the door opened.”

“Who was it?” Lilly Beth asked quickly, as they all gathered closer in front of him while he talked.

“It was Smitty and Corinne. They were laughing as she ran into the little barn in front of him. She was already taking her clothes off, throwing her blouse in the hay when she entered. She was giggling and acting silly like you girls did when you were younger. It was cold and there were cows milling all around the back of the barn where I had been throwing hay down into the hay racks.”

“I bet they did it right there in the hay, didn’t they?” Lee Yu asked excitedly, and they laughed at her.

“They did, and I couldn’t get out of the barn without being seen. I didn’t want to embarrass them so I stayed hid up there.”

“You watched them do it, didn’t you?” Kit asked, grinning at him.

“Yes, and there’s not a one of you here that wouldn’t have watched if it had been you. At least I told you about it and owned up to watching them frolicking naked together.”

“Are you saying they were frolicking with euphoric stimulation?” Kia asked and they laughed at the way she put it.

“They were very euphorically stimulated while they frolicked in the hay and they kept telling each other how they felt so naughty, sneaking off to play naked in the hay barn in the cold of winter.”

“But they did more than play, right?” Ruby asked.

“Yes and I know all of you girls have peeked on Dad and the others too, you can’t tell me you haven’t.”

“We have and we felt the same way, Eli. We didn’t want to be seen, but we wanted to see them love each other, yet we were SO scared that we were peeking,” Lilly Beth answered.

“Isaac told me he saw his dad and momma naked in bed one day when they thought he was gone. Didn’t you, Isaac?” Ruby said, hooking her arm in his to pull him close as he blushed.

“Yeah, I felt like I was doing wrong by watching, but I couldn’t leave without them seeing me and I couldn’t look away either when I stayed.”

“Micah–Pike–Ezra–Caleb?” Lilly Beth looked around at them.

Each of them smiled with red faces as they looked at the others.

“So, we’ve all seen the adults being adults and loving each other. I know how I felt when I saw Dad and Momma. I felt just like I do now. My knees were shaking and my belly was acting so crazy, I raised my shirt to see what was wrong with it. I felt like I could just fly off and sail high into the sky,” Lee Yu told them as she raised her arms, making her hands like birds, swooping them overhead.

“Let’s saddle up and take a long ride. It’s been over a week since I’ve been in a saddle and I need to get out in the open again. Maybe that will make us feel like we’re flying and we can stop talking about the grownups getting euphorically stimulated while naked,” Eli told them.

The next morning when Little Eli came down stairs, his dad was sitting at the table.

“Well, Son. I reckon you got a good night’s sleep in your own bed after being gone a week.”

“I sure did, Dad. I was asleep by the time I laid my head on my pillow.”

“Let’s go saddle up. I know you want tell me about your trip and I want to know all about it.”

They were in the saddle in a matter of minutes, and both father and son felt good about being together.

“I sure am glad I got to go up there when I did, but there were a lot of things happened that I never would have expected, Dad.”

“Like what, Eli?”

“Well by the time the train arrived at Vinita, I had already seen two young men being suspicious and later my suspicions were proven to be right. I saw a man there in Vinita who I recognized, or thought I did at the time anyway. He and three other younger men were together with his niece and they came to Boones Crossing the second day I was there.

“I was watching them on the train the whole time like you taught us and made note of the red leather traveling bag the young woman was carrying. She tried to get me to talk and after I wouldn’t, she left me alone the rest of the way to Parsons.”

“Do I know them? Were they after you because of me?”

“Yes. It was Ol’ Turkey and his kin, Dad. I really think it just happened that they saw me, they sure didn’t know I’d be on that train.”

“You killed him, didn’t you, Eli?” Eli asked his son.

“Him, his youngest son who was castrated, two of his nephews and his niece.”

“Eli! You killed five of them? The woman too? How did all that happen?” Eli asked as he pulled his horse closer to hear his son’s story.

“We had a big thunderstorm building up in the west the first night I was there and Grandpa and I got up early the next morning. The back door was blown open by the wind actually, and it woke us up. We stayed up and drank coffee and talked until I went over to the hotel to meet Marshal Hopkins for breakfast.

“He and I sat and talked as we ate, and he told me the story of how he first met you. He sure thinks a lot of you, Dad.”

“He’s a good man, Eli. I reckon you found that out yourself.”

“I sure did. He told me a lot of things he remembered about you. He talked some about his son who was killed. He told me that he felt like he had done for me, what he did for you years ago. Like he would have done for his own son - if he had lived. Like you said, Dad, he’s a good man.

“When I left him at the hotel, I went back to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s store.

“Grandpa was standing behind the counter looking down and I knew something was different. He never turned around when I came in. I looked toward the doorway to the storeroom and living quarters and there was that red leather traveling bag I told you about, on the floor by the curtains. I knew right then that my suspicions were right, and the people on the train had caught up to me.

“Turkey was hidden behind the counter where Grandpa stood. He was waiting for me to come back. I knew there was someone there from the way Grandpa was acting. I grabbed a glass jar of pickles off the counter and threw it right where the opening is at the end of the counter. As soon as I did, I leaped over the counter and saw Turkey.

“He yelled at me like he thought I was you, Dad; asking me how in the hell I got up there.”

“You killed him right there, didn’t you, Son?” Eli asked, his voice filled with both excitement and emotion at his son’s story.

“I did and I knew the others had Grandma in the back rooms too. I told Grandpa to take Turkey’s shotgun and shoot whoever came through those curtains.”

“You went in after them right then, didn’t you?” Eli asked. He already knew he did. His son was that much like him.

“Yes. I ran right at the curtain and dived into the room. As I rolled over and saw the oldest nephew and the niece in a corner. I killed the boy and shot the girl in her hand.