The Odd Things that Wont Leave

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“Get up kids!”

The well rounded ring of a pan, a scalding snarl of the woman the tool belongs to.

“Major, I swear-”

Sarah mumbled softly, snuggling deeper into her quilt. The young girl was unwilling to arise from her nest as the morning began to unwind itself. Her grandparents beginning their loving dance of biting remarks and over reaction to each other’s antics.

It about lulled her back to sleep, she had been having the most wonderful…Warm dream…Her eyelids were heavy and the scent of the old wood and leather only worsened the issue. 

“Sarah, honeysuckle you gotta start waking up.” Rough calloused hands brushed her shoulder, the old nightgown catching on the paws of the old man. He must have lost pan rights, he did so often. It was her Poppa’s favorite way to wake up the visiting paid folk, making a menace of himself. Sarah always loved it. “No..” Muttering and squirming the small girl didn’t get far, the low laugh from her grandfather rumbling through her as she felt herself being scooped up to his chest. Sarah fought back with an angry hum as she was lifted, the cool morning air flooding her blankets. 

“Paaa! Nooooooo…” She snatched at her quilt as the old man chuckled, a warm smile behind his coal black whiskers marred with silver. Bright grey eyes twinkled as the rest of the tired bodies in the bunkhouse groaned and bunks creaked. Kaleb laid in a heap beside the old man sitting upright with the girl, still in the bunk he and Sarah had shared that night. His red hair a halo of discontent at the nipping air on his bare feet and overall sour disposition, typical of a morning.

Kaleb had begged to go sleep in the bunkhouse with the hired hands, and his young cousin had of course followed him without a second thought. Not going to think of the many things she was supposed to be doing that next morning. Much to the dismay of their grandmother whose black eyes spied the young girl in her cocoon as she paid half a good morning to the Riders, her gait was worried and tired. 

Not that the sleepy Sarah noticed.

“In the bunkhouse Sarah??” She dropped a load of blankets on a nearby Saurboy’s bed, who jumped at the woman’s sharp snap. Sarah, who was far too sleepy to be fearful just yet, distractedly watched the gruff looking woman Rider almost fall off the bunk. In the arms of her grandfather she didn’t even try to quiet her giggle. It was always fun to see a woman Rider, especially one who had such a gruff face.  Gran however could not have been further from amused, or seemed to notice the mannish woman on the bed. “Sarah Vass, I did not say you could come in here and sleep! That along with skipping helping out this morning! You naughty thing, wicked lazy girl.”

Sarah winced at the abuse, tunneling into her blanket with hardly a peep to defend herself. She had seen the Saurboys come in with her Poppa, badges shining and their mounts the prettiest of colors. Kaleb and come riding in as well, proud as a young bull to be able to talk to the Riders of their work.  Sarah had been stuck at home, sorting ammunition and helping clean some of the rifles. All in all very boring work, she would have rather gone along. Rode with her Poppa, get to hear what all the scarred men with unshaved faces had to say. Ask the mannish girl how fun it was to shoot and run fast, though she never got to hear it from her cousin. Kaleb only wanted to talk of the men. They had been washing their faces before supper and Kaleb had rambled on and on about the Saurboys. How amazing they were, how brave they must be. Sarah had listened on with starry eyes, water still dripping off her chin. Kaleb was always one to meander when he was excited, it never bothered Sarah. But Poppa would later gently hush the boy at supper, murmuring that the Riders were tired. Not to harass them too much.

 Supper had been wonderful and exciting with the hired men. Gran had firmly snatched her older sons into the kitchen around midday to help pull together some vittles for the road weary bunch coming in. Uncle Wirey and Thomas took to the skillets and let Sarah mix the cornbread. She liked helping them, Sarah even got to sit in Uncle Wire’s lap while everyone ate. The curly haired blonde had settled amongst the Saurboys like they were kin folk, the big game hunter sweet enough to allow Sarah to steal off his plate and eavesdrop. 

Kaleb had been firmly seated by Poppa and the head of the Saurboy party, he would whisper to Sarah much later that night that the older grizzled man had given him a wood carving. Fun and exciting, loud and bright. Sarah got to hear about Tyrants, cold blizzards, and raging rapids. Long journeys.

 Till the mood dipped, Gran having poked her head up and slipped off from the bench where she had been seated talking amiably with a woman Rider. Leaning and about perching on Poppa’s shoulder, and a map being laid out on the now half cleared table. Uncle Wirey had quietened, and hugged Sarah close. Then she was shooed, Kaleb too. Voices had grown low, eyes had gotten steely. Talk of tyrants and a concerning way they moved. “Greif ridden” had been a term Sarah caught, before her Granny gave her a kiss and her cousin a cake of cornbread to split. 

“Go lay down, don’t be going out to play with the mounts or wandering off into the thicket. Stay in the yard if you have to be disobedient.”

So she had gone with Kaleb to claim a bunk and listen after a few minutes of back and forth between the two. Sarah initially worried that her Gran would worry, and Kaleb slickly whispered in response that they may get more stories if they go to the bunkhouse. Who knows when they will get that chance again? So the girl gave in, because her curiosity and overall nosiness was not sated by supper and a brief glimpse. Kaleb was also very smart, he wouldn’t be wrong.

Now however, it felt like she had committed a crime. She pressed into herself and silently begged her Poppa to make her Granny see reason. See that talking to the Saurboys was better than helping with biscuits. They even had a lady Rider. So she glanced up pleadingly, the man holding her watching with a well oiled gaze of placidity. The look all his friends and family got when they invoked Gran’s wrath. She was on her own, made her own bed as it were. Sarah whined, turning back to the tall old woman, “Oh but Gran, Gran I didn’t wanna help! I wanted to talk!” Her grandmother narrowed her eyes, obviously unimpressed.

Sarah knew how to fix that, “They even have a Missus Rider! I couldn’t…Make…Coffee…” Gran bared her teeth, sparks flying in her eyes, Poppa decided it was then time to intervene. Shifting himself, knees popping, “Darlin, give the girl a bit of lead. She is just excited, no excuse to run off when chores are to be done.. Or to be snakey..” His voice carried like a rush of cool water, smooth and a slow drawl that erased any tension stamped into the air. “But still, we have work to do. A Pair  won’t get themselves handled. How about you throw her in the creek later?” Warm eyed and squeezing the little girl the man winked, a flash of silvery eyelashes. Some of the hired help glanced with a keen sort of fondness for the old man and his bundle of a wild child. Even the rougher of the group softened as the little girl peeked out, those were the grumpy sort that had almost kicked the children out. But when food was hot and the morning cool, spirits felt a little more at ease with children being what they were.

Dorathy, a red hot iron of a woman let out a sharp breath of air, her hair having once matched that legendary temper now gray and almost limp with nerves. Scrunching her sharp hawkish nose she finally let the tension loose from her shoulders. “Allright…Allright Major..”  Kaleb, being the stupid young boy he was, chose that time to slowly, cautiously sit up.  As if the storm had passed. As if he was safe

The iron sights were set immediately, nostrils flared like a raptor on blood,  “Get out of that bunk right now Kaleb, go get presentable and start helping out before I send you off as bait!” She snarled it, Kaleb wisely bolting before the threat was airborne and avoiding a swat as he went. He would later blush and be in a mood over being hanged, drawn and quartered in front of who he so deeply wanted to impress. 

But Sarah could barely be embarrassed as she sat still firmly planted in her Pop’s lap, who was laughing. “Go on, go get dressed and start making it up to your Granny. Hightail it young’in.” She was gentle pushed at and let out an unhappy sigh, before doing as she was told. Almost boltingm before turning and making sure to hug her grandmother’s skirt who could only frown at her. Petting her grandaughter’s curls and letting loose a breath,  “Alright, get moving. Get out of the way…Go straight for the house and get dressed.”

Sarah bobbed her head and quickly started for the door, avoiding boots and heavy people. Glancing back as her grandmother called, 

“Coffee is hot everyone!”

It was deep.

That sound of the sky and her voice.

Sarah held in her giggles as the winds rumbled and cooed along the heavy stones, the trees swaying in long groans. Music of the greenery, of the earth. That’s what her great grandmother said anyway, it was Freyda’s low throated humming that swept the forest. Sarah herself never wanted to take much stock in such whispers by the glowing coals, squatting by her aged elder and listening intently. It was better than laying in the dark, or trying to sleep while Freyda seemingly hummed.

Which to Sarah felt more like screaming as the storms flew by. 

But, the idea of something so large being able to make such a racket from humming. Well, that was unnerving. Like so many things were to the young girl. Even now as she lightheartedly bounced over a log, dwelling on the thought spooked her.

So she instead called out, “Kaleb! Kaleeeee??” Sing songy and wild haired she rapidly flicked her eyes along the trees, having to crawl over her next wooden obstacle instead of jumping. She perched on top of the bark and held her hands out from her sides, mimicking a flier as she almost lost her balance. The girl hummed, biting her lip as she felt herself wilt. Grey stormy eyes almost turning to worry when no call answered her.

Another soft hum.

“Kale..?” 

Her grandfather’s words echoed in the back of her mind, his scruffy streaked beard scratching her face as she was warned to never wander too far alone.

What if Kaleb hadn’t stormed off this way? Sarah suddenly felt small, a bob in her throat as she tucked her arms closer. She had seen her uncles shoot down large beasts that could just-

“You know there could be a snake under there, right?”

She yelped and promptly fell off the log, glancing under her once perch and scrambling back. A good sized hole was nestled under there- “C’mon Yoti seriously? You that fucking jumpy?” Wincing at the curse and now dirty from her fall Sarah shyly glanced up. Her cousin had stood to her right, now in a firm even stride across the fallen log. His not yet broad shoulders back, and frown firm as he scowled down at her. “What are you even doing out here? Poppa is gonna skin you for wandering out by yourself.”

His face set in that scowl, and hands now resting on the loops of his pants.

Sarah hummed weakly, before smiling a soft sweet smile. “I’m not by myself, you’re out here.” Her cousin blinked for a moment at that, opening his mouth before closing it again. Something swam there in his eyes, something Sarah knew meant that Kaleb wasn’t actually mad. He wasn’t actually angry when his cheeks were still so shiny, his voice wavering.   She took that moment to try and stand, still happily smiling at her much larger cousin. The mud, due to the recent storms that had the girl scared stiff, however felt no need to release her. Not fully. She slipped and landed with a wet splat, Kaleb finally looking at her again. Eyebrows shooting up, “Oh hey hold on!” Finally, he hopped off the log to tend to the small girl, helping her up and ignoring the mud on her fingers as he squatted down to her level.

“Damn honey, you got mud all over.” Sarah huffed and flicked her eyes down her skirt and promptly ignored it. Kaleb however did not, his eyebrows knitting together as the young girl wrapped an arm around his neck with a sweet giggle. “ It’s ok. I found you, that’s all that matters.” She chirped it as she snuggled close, Kaleb smelling of gunpowder and sweat. But she couldn’t care, not when one of his strong arms wrapped around her lean frame and he pressed into the hug. It always felt good to hug Kaleb, he made everything feel less scary. So for Sarah that felt like the only right thing to give him, especially when his eyes are so red rimmed and hair all knotted from him probably running his scarred fingers through it.

Sarah could maybe…Make things less scary.

Kaleb, at the grown up age of fourteen sniffed as he cuddled his eight year old cousin. Pressing his sharp nose into her sun bleached curls and gulping. They sat that way for a moment, the two of them. Sarah the usually meek minnow in Kaleb’s raging uproar of rapids. She patted his back with a small and already calloused hand, which made the boy who felt like he should already be a man clear his throat. “Ok pipsqueak c’mon, we gotta get you washed off before Gran sees you and pitches a whole nine yard,” he scooped her up very close to roughly as he stood, making the little girl gasp, “ever loving fit.” 

Sarah blinked and glanced down at her dress, a calico thing that’s barely too short for her. She had hit a growth spurt recently, something she was rather proud of. Biting her lip with a new anxiety she glanced at the boy. His earlier mood starting to flee her mind, his tearful stomp away from their Poppa. The angry embarrassed flush of his cheeks when him and the hunting party got back. “....You think she’ll…Be that mad?” Kaleb smiled his mean smile, which made Sarah rub at the dirt on her sleeve as her nerves spiked. “Oh yeah, teeth breaking horsewhipping mad.” Suddenly the dirt looked worse, darker and uglier, and Kaleb was being mean.

 Tears burned the young girl’s eyes as she bit her lip, and then the boy quickly back tracked. His eyes widening and a curt sort of guilt tugged his mouth into a frown. “Hey! No cryin! Shoot Yoti, gotta be such a worrywort all the damn time.” He adjusted his grip and began to walk, carrying the girl who turned on a dime and bared her teeth. She slapped his shoulder and sniffed, “I aint no worrywort! I don’t wanna be horsewhipped!” Her anger, much to Kaleb’s dismay, quickly melted into worried whines and a break to the last word. “No- Aw Yoti. I was messing with ya. We’ll go down to the creek bed, it should still be running a little. Get your dress scrubbed a little, yeah?” She glanced up, eyes still glassy but now intrigued. He smiled a wide smile, not his mean spirited grin but a real gentle one. That was the one he wore when he let Sarah sit in his lap when they rode their duckbill. That smile that he let slip when Sarah kissed his cheek and told him he looked handsome in his new hat.

It was the best smile. So Sarah smiled back, Kaleb’s rough thumb catching any stray tears like he didn’t even want them in his sight. Didn’t want the memory to linger more than necessary, that he made the little girl, the only one who is never really mad at him, cry. 

“Yeah! You could puddle around a little, get home quick as a raptor before Gran even knows what bit ‘er!” Soft giggles slipped from the girl as Kaleb bopped their heads, his red hair hanging in her face. 

Quick as a raptor, she couldn’t argue. Not when Kaleb was so happy, not when he was so right all the time.