Chapter 5

With the lights of the cabin lanterns behind us, Opal Anne and I began our trip upriver. It seemed a lot shorter this time, mostly because we’d been there before, and we weren’t looking forward into unknown territory. The river wound around a bit and as the sun crested over the mountain behind us the path became even easier.

We came to the rough, rocky and debris strewn patch that my brother’s wives didn’t ever want to walk or ride past and kept going. We dismounted and led our horses and the mule on foot through the rocks and scrabble. We would have taken the riverbed, but, as we had found from previous trips with the rest of our group, it was too deep to ford.

The horses balked a bit, the mule seemed more like a cat. He ignored us and just kept going. Once we had cleared the obstacles of rocks and various pieces of dead trees and brush, we remounted and continued our journey. The area around the river was beautiful, no doubt because the area had been swept clear in the Spring floods. That made me stop to think about access to the area during the Spring.

I wondered how wide and fast the river became. There were sizable trees in the debris field and that bode for a powerful current. Regardless, while we pressed on, I had too many wonders to occupy my mind. The trees here were tall and strong, there were many deer. That reminded me that where there were deer there were usually mountain lions and bears.

The trees were full of birds, many I had never seen before. Their songs filled me with joy. Several times I’d turn in my saddle and look back at Opal Anne. She always seemed to be smiling. I stopped, like I had a few times already, and waited for her to ride up next to me.

“Paul, is something wrong?”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen your face or kissed you in a very long time.”

“Paul O’Dell! You have looked back at me every two or three minutes...”

“It hasn’t been that often!”

“ ... and I gave you a kiss this morning before we left the cabin.”

“And you expect me to live all day on one kiss in the early morning? Gads woman! What sort of saint do you take me for?”

Opal Anne smiled and leaned over to give me the kiss I was fishing for. She pulled back and sat upright in her saddle and smiled at me. I was about to say something when we both heard the loud snap of a breaking branch. Her head snapped around to find the source of the sound. There, in the brush, a dozen or so yards away from us, frozen in its’ tracks, was a young mountain lion, stalking its lunch.

I reached to pull my rifle out of its’ scabbard, but Opal Anne put her hand on mine to stop me.

“It’s not hunting us,” she whispered.

Her eyes pointed my attention to a direction off in the brush and, as we watched, the young mountain lion pounced and the shriek of a soon to be dead peccary filled the air. Our horses were well trained from years in the military and didn’t flinch. The mule was a tad bit more concerned and let out a bellow. I was off my horse and had my arms around his head, calming him, in an instant.

“Easy there. Relax. You’re safe here with us.” I whispered to him and finally calmed him.

The mountain lion trotted off in the opposite direction with the dead wild pig in his jaws. A proud kill by a proud animal. With the mule calmed and with me back in the saddle, Opal Anne and I continued our journey.

We saw no more lions and never any bears, but we did see a huge menagerie of other animals. The river had a few otters and when the trees overhead thinned out, ducks and geese of all sorts. Opal Anne and I were not going to get skinny living here. I kept looking ahead to see if the rock face could be seen and it was nowhere in sight. Any visitors coming this way would not see what I hoped would be our new home.

We rode on, stopping whenever the mule or horses wanted a drink or to munch on the greens along the riverbed. Almost three hours beyond the debris field, we came to the split in the river.

“Opal Anne what do you think? Should we ride back down river and see if there is a cut back towards the wall that we didn’t see the first time or follow the path we did before?”

“I was looking for any side paths or signs of old trails, Paul, and I didn’t see a thing. Let’s go the way we did before, set up a camp by the pool and then try to find a way to the top.”

“OK.”

I dismounted and went to the pack mule. I undid one of the big satchels and took out two old pairs of chaps. After strapping them on I offered the other pair to Opal Anne. She put them on, with some help from me. They were my size and she looked funny in them. We remounted our horses and I heeled mine around towards the path off to the right of the wall face. When we got to the end of the wall, I led us to the left again, around the corner of it.

This time I was smart enough to not let the low tree branches do any damage to my face and head, Opal Anne was smart enough to not let it happen to her the first time. The chaps kept Opal Anne and I from any damage from the thorns in the brush. The horses and the mule didn’t like it a whole bunch, but after we made camp, I had some salve that would help any cuts they had gathered during the trip.

We arrived at the clearing near the pool and I began to unpack the mule while Opal Anne unsaddled the horses. She led the animals to the edge of the pool and then hobbled them so they wouldn’t wander off. We unpacked, set up the tent, set up the makings for a campfire and had a bite to eat.

“I’m thinking that we may need to walk around to the other side of the pool to find a way up top. I know this side of the falls doesn’t have any easy portion to climb.”

“OK. Paul, do you think there might be any fish in the pool?”

“Could be. Do you want to set out a trotline before we head out?”

“Can’t hurt,” Opal Anne said before she began to wash out plates and cups in the pool.

I put some food and our refilled canteens in a satchel, along with a coil of rope and a few small tools. Opal Anne set out her trotline and baited the hooks with worms from the soil around the pool. She tied one end of the line to a small tree and tied a thick piece of dead wood to the other end. She threw the dead wood as far out into the pool as she could and watched as the baited hooks sank.

“Paul, I’m done. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, do you want chaps, Opal Anne?”

“No, I can ride in those long things, but I don’t think I could walk or climb much wearing them.”

“Well then, let’s go and see what we can find.”

I reached out for Opal Anne’s hand and we walked around the pool together.

The pool had to be about a hundred feet across, with the waterfall cascading down the rock face of the cliff and hitting the water without a lot of force. The area around the pool was free of brush and a couple of places there was sand along the shore. The far side of the pool didn’t have a clearing like where we had made camp, but it did have something amazing.

“Paul? Are those steps?”

“It sure looks like it.”

We walked the last couple of dozen steps and sure enough, there were rocks lined up like steps. We looked around and noticed that even with the spray from the falls we could see our campsite. I walked to the steps and looked up as far as I could see. The steps rose and turned towards the falls.

“I can’t see where these steps lead. I’m going to scout ahead and take a look around. Stay here. I don’t know if there are Indians up there or what. These steps aren’t natural.”

“OK. Be careful, Paul. I love you.”

“I love you too, Wife.”

I kissed her and turned back to the steps. As I climbed, I took note that the steps were well worn and seemed to have been cut out of the natural rocks, rather that placed there. Every few steps I would look back to check on Opal Anne. She always smiled and waved. I must have been up about thirty feet when the steps turned.

I was going to yell at Opal Anne to let her know, but then I thought about who might be at the top. I looked back at her and pointed in the directions the steps had turned. In return she nodded and waved. I took the next few steps and stopped to listen for any sounds above me. Hearing nothing, I took a few more. Repeating these actions, I soon came to a point where there was light coming from above.

The steps had never been especially dark, so I figured that between the light from below and the light from above it had been enough to keep the pathway out of darkness. When I saw the full opening above me, I quickly stepped back and listened again for the sounds of people. Except for the sound of running water and various birds, there was no noise at all.

I took a deep breath and pulled out my revolver. The next fifteen steps were slow and filled me with the type of fear or caution I had lived with so many times in the war. I took the last step that would clear my head into the open air and stopped to look around.

“Betty Mae, I wonder if we should have gone with Opal Anne and Paul,” Raylene said when she came out of the outhouse.

“Why? We’ve got our claim, our men, our silver and gold. No, her and Paul were just wanting to get away from us for a while. I’ll bet you that they’ll be back in a month.”

“I don’t know. Paul doesn’t seem like one to turn back and you know Opal Anne won’t ever back away from a challenge. I just hope we see them before the baby comes.”

“Raylene, do you really think she’s got a baby coming?”

“Well I never saw her washing out any rubbers, so I’m guessing that Paul wasn’t using them or any skins for that matter. Yeah, I’m thinking she’s in the family way.”

“It must be nice,” Betty Mae said quietly.

“What must be nice?” Mick asked as he walked into the cabin that used to be Paul and Opal Anne’s.

“We were talking about Opal Anne,” Betty Mae said. “She told us before they left that she thought she was having a baby.”

“Really!? Paul never said a thing to me or Rory.”

“Well, Mick, you know he wasn’t exactly happy with the way we are handling our marriages. I’m surprised he talked to us at all,” Raylene added.

“Yeah. We’re hoping that she will come back before she has the baby. She still might, since Raylene and I have helped the whores at the brothel deliver babies in the past. If she doesn’t come back, she and Paul are gonna have to deliver the baby alone.”

“That worries me. Maybe Rory or I should go find them and tell them to come back until the baby is born.”

The two women looked at each other and then to the ground.

“Mick, that might not be a good idea,” Betty Mae said.

“And why exactly is that?”

“Well, Raylene and me kind of asked Opal Anne to swap with us. You and Rory would get to fuck Opal Anne and we would get to fuck Paul. I mean it would have all been in the family so we thought it would be alright if we all got the full set.”

Mick O’Dell looked at his wife and then at Betty Mae.

“You did what? Do you realize that you probably just cost Rory and me a brother?” Mick raised his voice in anger.