Chapter 31

I made a try at sneaking some brisket out of a cooker but it was a no go. As soon as I raised the lid on one the smoke caught Nancy's attention and before I could even let it back down there were three little Injuns on the warpath.

"We eat soon, you no starve," Louise said, scolding me.

"Ok, ok, I was just checking on it."

"Check on something else, check on trash cans," Helen said.

"Just try to hang in there Bill, we'll get a shot at the food soon enough," Randy said.

"I know, and I'm not that hungry. Maybe I just need something to do," I said, and Louise heard me.

"Good. I have something you do," she said, and told me all about it.

It seemed she and the girls had some party favors for our guests, and Randy and I were fetching them in no time flat. Louise had even explored in the trailers already and located them.

According to Louise there were about forty-seven members of George's tribe that were grown enough to use a lawn chair properly and our job was to get them out and set up. We also needed to fetch an equal number of the twenty-ounce plastic insulated drinking mugs with tops and twelve of the smaller mugs to match, for children that were still pretty young.

"We give lawn chairs, present. Cups we trade for help. Everyone get cup today, work later when need," Louise said.

"You know them best, but it doesn't seem like we'll get much work for a cup," I said.

"Cup not all. Everyone work get knife. Men work hardest get hatchet. Other things too," she said.

"I see. You know how you want to do it. If you need me to nod or shake my head just call me and give the signal," I said.

"See Nancy. Bill smart. Do what I say," Louise said, and the women, including Marilyn, had a good laugh.

Randy and I managed to get all the empty bean cans and the cut off lids into one trashcan, and we left the other there for them to keep using. We took the one full of cans over near the first spring that had appeared one night and filled it with water.

"What the hell are we doing this for Bill?" he asked, as we did it.

"If we keep them soaking a day or so they'll be easy to clean out. Remember, we won't have any more metal coming from anywhere, so there's no sense in wasting this. We may never find a use for it, and it isn't much to start with, but you never know."

"I guess you're right at that," he said.

"In fact, we can probably get them all washed out spic and span for a coffee mug, or something like it. They used that new kind of can opener that cuts around the outside of the rim, so neither the cans nor the tops are likely to cut anybody. Hell, a kid could clean them out."

"Yeh, and they might be handy to put loose nuts, bolts, and nails into," he said.

Louise yelled for us to come back about then, and it brought our dreams of usefulness for the empty tin cans to a close. When we got back, she sent me into the trailer to put on cleaner boots and a straw cowboy hat and Marilyn gave Randy similar instructions. I noticed that Louise, Nancy, and Helen had changed into nearly new jeans, cowboy boots, and one of their new Rodeo shirts. They hadn't gone so far as to put on hats though, and I actually wondered what this was all about.

George and the others were filing in and sitting in the lawn chairs by the time I got back out. Some of the women were helping Marilyn and my girls distribute the new coffee cups with coffee installed. It was the first time I'd noticed the giant cafe size coffee maker. Hell, it looked like it would make six or eight gallons at a time. Everyone waited until all were served before taking the first sip. Then the feed was on.

Marilyn, Louise, Nancy, and Helen were loading plates with beef, ham, beans, and cornbread and the Caddo women were serving the men, children, and boys. Louise noticed me and took me to a chair beside George that had been left vacant for me, there was another empty one beside me for Randy and I saw that Jr was right beside George with the Medicine man beside Jr.

When Helen arrived with my plate there was a knife, fork, and spoon on it and I started eating. It only took a few mouthfuls for me to see that George had reached down to the ground to pick up his allotment of the eating utensils and was now doing a passable imitation of eating as I was. This was spreading down the line of seated men. Apparently they hadn't realized what the cutlery was for and had been eating with their fingers.

Randy had joined me and Marilyn had served him. After a couple of bites he took a swig of his coffee and I could almost feel him about to ask Marilyn to bring him a beer.

"Remember Randy, no firewater with guests about," I said, in as offhand a manner as I could.

"Why, now that you mention it, this coffee is great, isn't it," he said, and smiled at me.

"Yes, it is, and it's become sort of a ceremonial thing with our guests. I don't know if the cowboy movies were right about firewater, and I don't have any intention of finding out."

"I'll have to say Bill, that seems like an excellent plan. I heartily approve," he said.

All went well during the meal, and we enticed them to eat all we could get them to. There was still plenty after everyone had given up for now, but Louise told George's woman that she should encourage everyone to come by as soon as they thought they could hold another bite.

Randy and I took, George, Jr, and medicine man on a tour of the animals next, with Louise along for translation. Of course I would point something out and say a few words and then let Louise fill in the details. George was impressed, but seemed to be especially happy that the young buffalo were doing so well.

Finally he must have gotten around to asking if any of the meat we'd had today had been from the horses. No doubt Louise explained that the horses were for carrying riders and helping with work, because after something he said to her was obviously a question, she turned to me with one.

"Can you show them that the horses will let you ride?" she asked me.

"Sure, we'd be glad to," I said, and Randy and I saddled up the two we'd ridden earlier this morning.

We didn't do anything fancy, just got aboard after we had them ready to go and then rode them around a little, letting everyone see us. Finally, I had Randy take his down the road toward where we were moving and let it run. He came back after maybe a quarter of a mile, and all our guests were very impressed.

Apparently Caddo Indians had much better manners than any humans I'd ever met before, because George didn't ask one damned question about where all this had come from. I could tell he was interested in a horse for himself and at least some of his men, and by and by I intended for him to have some. He didn't bring it up now though.

He said something to Louise and she turned to me to translate.

"He says he is amazed by the horses and that they look very useful. Ask him if he can send six braves to stay with us for maybe as long as a moon and help us with things. I will make a deal with him but you will need to pay attention and watch for my signals," she said.

Louise led George, George's woman, and I into our camper then and we all sat at the small kitchen table, and then the bargaining was on. This was the first time I noticed that the talking was mostly between George's woman and Louise.

Louise made her request for help, and then George's woman must have been mentioning things that would be acceptable as payment. I was called on for a nod or shake of my head every now and then and I finally noticed that George's woman was doing the same to George. I didn't know how she was prompting him, but it became obvious that she was.

The realization nearly caused me to laugh out, but I kept control. The same thing must have been happening when we'd had previous meetings in George's hut, but I hadn't noticed. Hell, the women were running things; George and I both were just there for show. After the bargaining was done I understood at least one of the reasons that it was mostly left to the women. Hell, they made better deals.

Sky and five other braves were going to stay here with us and help, for one moon. In addition, two females would be staying with us to be educated in the use of the wonderful new cooking method Louise, Helen, and Nancy had displayed. The shocker was that Jr was also going to stay with us, though I didn't understand why, and Louise didn't bother to explain right away. In fact, I was pretty sure that there were other things to be exchanged also but I didn't get any word about them either.

By the time we got the business tended to and got back outside, most of George's flock had flown. It was getting near dusk. Louise asked me if we could drive George and the rest back to his camp and before long we were in the truck and headed that way.

At George's camp, after we'd unassed the truck, he started shouting some instructions and before long Sky and five other braves showed up with their sleeping furs, spears, bows, and arrows. George's woman had gone off right away and in a few minutes I knew she'd been handing out a few instructions of her own.

Jr came strutting back toward the truck followed by three young girls instead of two as I'd expected. I'd gone along about as far as I could in the dark and I tugged Louise off to the side.

"Ok, my dusky temptress, spill it?"

"What?" she asked.

"That's it exactly. What? What are we going to keep Jr for and why are those girls carrying his luggage. And that's another thing, why are there three of them, instead of two?" I asked.

"Jr must learn how to use some of the things we brought back. We will also teach him how to ride horse," she said, and I knew damned well she wanted to let that be the end of it.

I might not be the smartest guy around, and no one could say I knew everything about how to handle women unless they were lying through their teeth. I was a pretty fair hand at bargaining though, even though I hadn't had time to prove it on my recent buying expedition. I just kept my mouth shut waiting for Louise to finish the explaining. She realized it after about two minutes of us staring at each other in silence.

"The young two girls be Jr's mates soon. You teach him how make them squeal like Nancy, Helen, and me," she said, and then blushed.

At once I was very glad I hadn't noticed that part of the bargaining while it had been going on. I mean I didn't mind showing Jr how to do the nasty, or I didn't think I would; I was glad that I hadn't been in on that trade though. It wouldn't be any skin off my ass to show him how to lick a pussy or do one of the youngsters dogstyle, hell I might like it. I didn't intend to actually give him a demo on his prospective mates though.

"What is the other girl coming for, if she isn't going to be one of his mates?" I asked, after I realized that she hadn't been accounted for yet.

"We trade for her. She ours. Her mate killed before you come, no other man take her yet, so we trade," Louise said, and shocked me to my bones.

It sounded almost like Louise meant that we owned the girl now. Hell, I might be a Texan, but even most Texans didn't hold with owning people, not lately anyway. It didn't really matter right now though. She could come with us and she could stay, she just wasn't going to be owned, no matter what Louise, Helen, and Nancy might think.

I wasn't going to let this carrying for Jr shit go much farther either. I didn't care how they did it at George's camp, but he was going to carry his own weight around my place, and that's where we were headed.

I didn't want to start any shit up here though, so I just went to the two young girls and the slightly older one and commandeered their loads, all of them. Then I carried it all to the truck and put it in the back. Jr looked at me a little funny at first but didn't say anything. We all piled into the truck after that, and headed back to our place.