Chapter 4: Language Lessons

Judy spent the time from when they'd started towards the river, watching and listening. Tuck had to worry about all of them, so she didn't fault him for spending his time talking to Gamelin. He was obviously trying to learn everything he could. She wanted to do what she could do to help and didn't want to add even a feather to the burden he had to carry.

Judy faulted Mrs. Flowers for being inert. It was like she'd been turned into spaghetti, limp and unresisting, requiring a push to move even the smallest amount. Even then she moved no more than she absolutely had to.

Her friends also seemed to be shell-shocked. The term had never made sense to Judy before, but it did now. Becky and Lydia were more active than Mrs. Flowers, but only just barely. Sarah was even more lethargic than her mother. Only Elspeth seemed able to deal with things. Even then, Elspeth did what Judy told her, without demur or resistance. Judy was sure that had things been different, Elspeth would have put up more resistance to doing what a thirteen-year-old told her to do.

They didn't move far, perhaps two miles, into a clump of trees near the river. The soldiers went about tasks that took Judy a while to figure out. The words were strange, the patterns stranger yet. And yet, as she watched, not that strange.

They were setting up a camp; she'd seen that often enough herself. Horses and gear were unpacked, the men had small pieces of canvas that had buttons along two edges, and button holes along the other two. They could be joined together into larger pieces. Right now they had tied a large number of them into a very large canvas fly, providing shade for men and horses.

Judy went to Tuck, who was sitting on a rock talking to Gamelin. "Should we put up our tents or your big one?" Judy asked him.

Tuck looked around and made a quick decision. "The big one. It'll be hot in the tent, but it'll be out of the sun. Water shouldn't be a problem. Save your own gear for the future."

Judy nodded and started away, but Tuck bounced up. His big tent had been packed on a horse, and then pulled off when they stopped. Tuck picked it up one-handed again, walked over to Gamelin, Judy still trailing along.

"Zohn shutz," Tuck told Gamelin, hefting the tent bag. "Wo?"

Judy smiled with satisfaction. Zohn was sun. Wo had to be where. Shutz? Keep the sun off. She could understand him! She realized the same thing Tuck must have earlier, that having even a few words in common helps enormously to make yourself understood, not to mention gave you confidence that when you learned the language, you'd be able to understand just fine.

Gamelin asked a question of Tuck and at first it was not understood. Finally Gamelin held his arms out, first small, then larger, and then as wide apart as he could. Tuck picked up on it then, and paced three steps, made a right angle turn, paced three more.

Gamelin pointed then to a flat and sandy area, partly shaded by a few straggly trees. Tuck walked that way, Judy turned and waved to Elspeth, waved at the tent, then to Becky and Lydia. Elspeth nodded, moved to get the other two.

"Let's get the tent up again," Judy told them.

Tuck put the bag down and opened it.

Judy and Elspeth tugged on the heavy canvas, getting it out. Somewhere along the line Tuck had managed to slip the hammer inside the bag. Elspeth hefted the hammer, and then looked at Tuck, standing to one side, watching them. So too, Judy noted, was Gamelin. In fact, practically everyone in the camp was watching them.

"You're pretty strong," Elspeth told Tuck.

Tuck grinned. "You try holding onto a stallion's snub rope when the vet is running a plastic worming tube down his throat via his nose. "Taxing, that's the word I use. Taxing."

Judy lifted both eyebrows. Oh! She wouldn't like that! A stallion? She'd done the horse thing a few years before, so had Becky and Lydia, but they hadn't even had to saddle their horses.

When you're ten, a horse seems like a majestic animal, wonderful and strong. It didn't take long though, before you found out that the word "stupid" had been invented to describe horses. They were indeed strong, but a horse did what it pleased, pretty much ignoring the puny efforts of ten-year-olds who thought they could ride. And they'd ridden placid older mares, not even geldings. Geldings were reserved for a few of the older girls who knew what they were doing.

Still, there was a job to do, and Judy slammed a few blows with the hammer, setting one of the corners. Becky and Lydia made only a half-hearted attempt to help. It ended up that Judy and Elspeth tugged the tent tight themselves, then Elspeth held one of the stakes, while Judy hammered it home.

Judy brushed a wisp of hair from her face, noticing that Gamelin was watching her intently. From the corner of her eye, she could see Tuck standing quietly a few feet away, also making no motion to help. Not very gallant of them, Judy thought.

There was a reason for what the two men were doing, or maybe not doing, she was sure. Elspeth had moved on to the next corner and jerked it savagely. She didn't need to help get it tight this time! Instead, Judy pounded the next stake in, and looked up once more. There was a frown on Gamelin's face that hadn't been there before.

What had Tuck said? That Gamelin had thought they were slaves? That Tuck was a slave trader, hauling them to new masters, maybe?

Judy stood up, turned a little to Elspeth. "Enough with the attitude! You're making the natives restless!"

Elspeth sniffed and gestured at Tuck and Gamelin. "The fuckers could at least help!"

"Elspeth, they thought Tuck had taken us captive. Slaves, Elspeth, would have a shitty attitude; they would dog the work. On the other hand, girls with a teacher who are in a bad situation, why, they'd be eager to help."

Hey girl! I can cuss, too! Judy thought.

Elspeth fixed Judy with a hard stare; Judy was sure she was going to hear about the age difference.

Instead, Elspeth called to Tuck. "Hey, if you think we're going to put on a show for these shit heads after this, go fuck yourself!" Except Elspeth was laughing.

Tuck stuck his tongue out at her and even Becky and Lydia smiled.

In a few minutes, the four girls were working together, pretty much like the night before, although this time it was Judy who got to pound in all the stakes for the ropes.

Tuck called them all over once the tent was up. "Ladies, this isn't the Ritz, not by a long shot. Still, it's better than sitting in the sun. Mrs. Flowers, you're going to need to be careful here, you're getting the start on a pretty bad burn there."

Mrs. Flowers and Sarah went in the tent and sat down. Becky and Lydia joined them, leaving Elspeth and Judy outside.

"You're not going to go in the shade?" Elspeth asked Judy.

Judy shook her head. "I have a built in tan."

Elspeth looked Judy up and down, then turned and looked at the quiet camp. Tuck was sitting a few feet away, in the shade of a bush; it looked like he was dozing, his hat was down over his eyes again. Gamelin was leaning against a rock; he also looked like he was asleep. There were two guards by the horses, two more down by the river, the rest of the men looked to be dozing too. Siesta time!

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Elspeth asked quietly.

"I don't think this is Kansas. It looks like Arizona, but where did these men come from?" Judy responded.

"Sure as hell can't confuse it with St. Paul, Minnesota!" Elspeth agreed. Then she went on to say, "They sure act like they own the fucking place."

Elspeth looked at Judy for a second. "My cussing bothers you, doesn't it?"

"My brother is a Marine, my father was in the Navy. It just seems... unnecessary."

"I'm just blowing off steam," Elspeth told Judy.

Judy shrugged.

Elspeth chuckled, "Different strokes, girl. Get used to it."

"Like I said, I have a brother and a father."

"Well, I have a mother and a father, but no brother."

Judy couldn't think of a polite way to change the subject. "My mother died of cancer."

Elspeth hawked and spat. "I got home one day from school when I was little and got off the school bus. My dog was across the street, peeing on the neighbor's roses. He saw me and ran like the dickens to jump up on me, like he'd done every day since I first went to school. Truck got him half way across; mashed him flat, right in front of me."

Judy sighed. "I'm sorry, Elspeth."

The other girl shook her head. "You missed the point; shit happens. You try to put it off, you wish it on your worst enemies and pray your friends and family will miss it. It just happens."

Judy started to reply and then decided that there was no point. For one thing, Elspeth was right, mostly. "I don't wish it on anyone," was all Judy could manage.

Elspeth's face turned bleak. "That just means you haven't met the right people." She turned and stalked away, heading down towards the river.

Judy watched Elspeth swing her canteen off her shoulder, then dip it in the water to fill it. Judy was a little shocked at that, but then stopped herself. This wasn't home. There weren't a lot of people living upstream; at least Judy didn't think there were. Drinking water from the river should be safe.

Judy turned back and stuck her head into the tent. "I'm going down to the river to fill my canteen. Anyone need a refill?"

That, of course, brought forth a handful of canteens. Judy walked down to where Elspeth had gone. Elspeth was now a few feet away, taking a swig from her canteen. Judy filled the ones she'd picked up; full, they were a much more awkward load than they had been a minute before.

"Next time you do that," Elspeth spoke out of the blue, "you might want to kneel, then dip. Leaning over..." Elspeth glanced meaningfully towards the camp. Judy turned and saw a dozen sets of eyes were looking at her. "Let's just say, odds are the women here wear skirts, not tight jeans."

"You watch my back, and I'll watch yours," Judy told her, not wanting to blush.

Elspeth giggled. "It wasn't your back they were watching! You do have a cute butt! And wiggling it like that!" Elspeth paused for drama, "You sure had their attention riveted."

"Like I said," Judy told her with as much aplomb as she could muster, "you watch my back, and I'll watch yours. If I make a mistake like this again, let me know. And I'll tell you if you mess up."

Elspeth simply looked at Judy with a faint smile. "Whatever." Then Elspeth turned and went back towards the tent.

Judy took the canteens up and dropped them off; Mrs. Flowers nearly emptied hers in one quick series of swallows as soon as Judy handed it to her. Mrs. Flowers didn't utter so much as a single word of thanks! Judy shook her head and went back outside.

She looked around. Tuck hadn't moved, Gamelin hadn't moved. The one older man who accompanied the men bringing the canvas fly, when Tuck and Gamelin were talking, was awake and keeping an eye on her.

She needed to learn the language. What would happen if she walked up to a man older than her father and tried to learn a few new words? Odds are, Judy was sure, she'd be making a mistake.

It was something that niggled. That was the word for it, Judy thought. A niggle. She looked around her, not sure what was bothering her.

It was faint, tiny, and almost imperceptible. A bush on the horizon changed shape. Not much, just the least bit. She wasn't watching it directly, in fact, it was just in the corner of her eye. She turned and looked directly to the south. She wasn't sure if it was a tree or bush; it was just a dark spot on the horizon.

Imagination, she thought after a second. That's all; it was her imagination. She couldn't see anything move where before she had seen movement. Judy smiled. Now I'm seeing things! She looked over at Tuck, still where he was. It looked uncomfortable; he was squatting on his legs, his hat down over his eyes. Yet, he'd been sitting like that for ten or fifteen minutes.

Another niggle. The shape on the edge of her vision changed again. She looked at it directly once more. Before, Judy thought, it was three bumps against the sky. Now there were two lower bumps and a taller one. She printed the shape on her mind, determined to catch any change. The middle bump seemed bigger after a minute. Judy tried closing her eyes for a sixty count. She opened them up and looked again. She was sure the bush on the horizon was changing shape.

She walked towards Tuck; sure she was going to be sorry. "Tuck."

He unfolded himself before she reached him, looked at her. "Judy."

"There's something odd." She looked behind her, at the shapes she'd seen. Even moving five feet, the bush wasn't visible any more. She walked back to where she'd been. One of the two small lobes on the bottom of the bush was larger; the other was now distinctly separate.

"There," Judy pointed, "just on the horizon."

Tuck looked, and of course, couldn't see what had caught her attention. Judy got more and more frustrated. "I was looking at the camp," Judy told him, not explaining why. "I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to look, I couldn't see it. It's only when I look away, then back, does it change shape."

She was unprepared for Tuck to nod. "Mac taught me that in the jungle. I don't have a clue why, but your eye can see movement better when you're not looking directly at what's moving."

He took a few steps and dug into his pack, pulling out his binoculars. He moved a few feet, climbing a rock that was ten or twelve feet high, now looking towards the south.

Judy had ample proof of what Tuck said, a second later. The older man, a sergeant, she thought, was watching Tuck. When Tuck got very interested in what was going on to the south, the man grabbed one of the soldiers, and sent him to Gamelin, to wake him.

He's a sergeant, Judy thought. My brother says it's always your sergeant who knows things you don't.

The sergeant glanced at Tuck and then spoke a few words to Gamelin when he arrived. Then Gamelin went up the rock, but not nearly as lithely as Tuck had.

As Judy watched, she saw the sergeant move next to her. "Was?" He gestured at Gamelin and Tuck on the rock.

Judy pointed south, moved her hand upwards, wiggling it, trying to look like smoke, which is what she'd decided she was seeing. Smoke or dust. It was awfully dark to be dust, though. "Smoke."

The sergeant scanned the southern horizon, obviously trying to see what Judy had. Judy pointed to the spot on the horizon. Now the center part was four or five times taller than the rest, and the part to the left was now completely separate.

If she hadn't have seen the changes, Judy couldn't have seen what she was looking at.

"Vas?" the sergeant repeated his question.

Judy looked around. Some of the men had lit a small fire, had something that looked like a coffee pot on it. There was a small fire, but virtually no smoke. Judy touched the older man's arm, pointed at the fire. "Smoke!" She wiggled her hand upwards again, and then pointed south.

The sergeant surprised her. He looked up at Gamelin and called, "'E Mad'ken, e' zieht Rauck nach Sud."

Gamelin had been looking through Tuck's binoculars. He turned to the sergeant. "Ik zeh owk. Stant auf! Ruhig!"

The sergeant reached inside his shirt, pulled out what looked like a simple brass whistle. He blew a long note, then two pips at the end, but not terribly loudly.

There was a rattle of equipment; Judy turned to look, and saw the men were grabbing weapons, then going to ground, taking cover as best they could.

It had taken just seconds.

Gamelin slid down, and started talking and waving at the sergeant. Tuck slid down as well and stood a bit off to one side, watching the two men talk.

It was pretty clear they were discussing what they were going to do. Judy looked at Tuck, a few feet away. He, in turn, was watching Gamelin and his sergeant intently. Watching Tuck made her miss something new.

There was another simple pip! pip! on the sergeant's whistle. At once the men were up and moving. The sunshade was undone, packed; things were going onto the horses.

Judy met Tuck's eyes, jerked her head at the tent. He nodded.

Judy walked the two dozen steps; everyone else was asleep inside the tent. The heat inside the tent was stifling; it didn't seem to matter, everyone was drowsing.

"Up!" Judy called, "They're going to move and we have to, too! Please get up!"

Elspeth's eyes opened at once and she grimaced and stood up. It took shaking Mrs. Flowers to get her going, but finally everyone was outside.

This time Tuck was there, a small piece of rope in his hand. With quick jerks, he used it to pull up stakes. Elspeth realized the urgency, and she was inside dealing with the poles; the others were grumpy and angry, reluctant to do hardly anything. Still, less than ten minutes later, the tent was in its bag.

The horses were being brought up. Tuck had been talking to Gamelin, now he returned.

"This is a military patrol. As near as I can tell, a border patrol."

Mrs. Flowers had recovered enough to be dubious. "We're in the middle of Arizona."

"This might look like Arizona, but I have to think it's not. Here, this is a border; these are border patrolmen. There is a very large fire to the south. As Smokey the Bear would tell you, most fires are caused by men. These guys are concerned. So, we're going to move across the river.

"How many of you can ride a horse?"

Judy raised her hand. After a second Becky and Lydia did too. The grimace on Tuck's face wasn't hidden. "Well, what you do is sit up straight, hold tight and don't fall off."

In a few minutes, Judy found herself on a horse, a gelding. She smiled to herself, remembering her earlier thoughts about the horses she'd been given to ride. Of course, a very fierce-looking young man had his hand on the reins and was leading. The horse moved docilely enough.

Once they were mounted, they moved quickly. They were arranged in a column of twos that headed north for about a half mile before crossing the Verde River. It didn't take long before Judy realized that she wasn't in much shape to be riding. She could feel hot spots on her thighs; experience told her that it wouldn't take much more before she would have raw spots on her bottom, too.

When they were at the river, Judy slipped off the horse, even if the others, including Tuck, stayed up. Gamelin was on his horse too, although most of his people were leading their horses.

The man leading Judy's horse seemed to be mildly scandalized that she waded across the river, keeping a safe distance between her and the horse's hooves. The river was only waist deep; the current wasn't that strong except in a few places and those were the shallower spots.

On the other side, the man leading her horse gestured for Judy to get up again. Not! Not with wet jeans!

She shook her head, and said, "Not with wet clothes." The young man shook his head, obviously not understanding.

Judy pointed at the river. "Water."

He brightened. "Wasser."

Judy nodded, and pointed to her jeans. "Wet. No ride."

Judy thought Tuck was talking to her. "Nass?" He was pointing at her jeans. The young soldier nodded.

"Nicht ritt nass." Tuck stood up in his saddle, rubbing his bottom.

About half the man laughed aloud -- all of the men who were wet and those who were leading horses. Men riding mostly grinned. It was pretty clear they'd had no trouble understanding Tuck.

They moved across the desert, towards the mountains ahead of them. The soldiers were looking around them, their weapons ready.

As they crossed the flat river plain Judy realized she had a captive audience, the young man leading the horse. She would point to things and ask him what it was. He would give the word. Judy couldn't stop to draw in the sand like Tuck had, so she was reduced to simple charades.

Still, in the two hours they walked, she learned dozens of words, a few more verbs.

They reached the point where the horse trail they'd been following started up the mountain. They stopped then, for a short break.

Elspeth was off her horse, standing in the shade of a tree before you could say "fast." She was also rubbing the insides of her thighs, where they would be chafed. The others were slower and also in obvious pain. Judy's feet were a little sore, her calves ached from the rapid pace they'd walked at, but her bottom and thighs were in much better shape than they had been. Horse-riding experience or not, Judy thought, she'd have been as crippled as the rest if she'd stayed in the saddle.

Tuck joined the group of women. "Near as I can tell, they measure time by finger and palm widths; how long it takes the sun to go the width of an index finger, or a palm. A finger-width is about ten minutes, at this time of day, that's how long they are stopping now. Rest, stay calm, stay out of the sun. A palm-width you can think of as an hour."

"How far are we going?" Elspeth asked.

Tuck waved ahead of them. "I talked to their boss, I think they are headed for a place I know, called Willow Spring. That's about another hour, but uphill for about half of that, then contouring around the hills and then a short piece downhill. It's a nice spring in a well-sheltered valley. At this time of year, there's probably a stream as well."