Chapter 14 - Love in Autumn
Chapter 14
Love in Autumn
Sunday
Bear taped a note on his shop before lunch Friday saying he was going to market in Dallas. No one ever asked questions. Apparently, folks assumed there were really mechanic conventions and he just went with it. No one knew this one week was the best of the year for him. He’d learned a long time ago that it’s not where you go but who you go with that mattered.
He left by noon, telling everyone he didn’t want to be late. No one asked for details.
Ten minutes later he’d turned off West Road and headed up to Holly Rim Farm.
Time stopped. They had their last autumn picnic as they watched the fall leaves change. Bear knew nature was changing them too. His fairy was aging and lately he’d felt time stiffening his bones, but when they were together, they might not be young again but something better, something far sweeter. They were all ages. He saw her young when she laughed and strong as she stood her ground. When he touched her, the beauty hadn’t faded. And the love just grew like a huge tree in his heart and every leaf a moment he’d never forget.
The first touch of her breast. A kiss so sweet she cried. They talked all night and made love at dawn. Their first fight that made her cry, and he was so angry he couldn’t get out a word. The morning he forgot to kiss her goodbye and he drove back for just one kiss.
There was no memory of realizing they loved one another because both had always held the other in their heart.
As Bear Buchanan did before every change of season, he stayed over a whole weekend at Eliza’s farm and helped get the place ready for the upcoming weather. They worked together and slept holding each other until dawn. They were alone in their own world.
Today, like every morning they woke up, he acted as if he was still sleeping as she slipped out of bed. She cooked him breakfast and served it wearing only a blanket. He loved knowing she enjoyed taking care of him, and he’d do anything for her. Only when the mornings grew cold and the sun took its time rising, Bear loved holding her while the world seemed to stop and there was no one but them. They talked and teased each other, then they made love. He thought she was the most beautiful in bright sunshine.
Their bodies were wrinkled now and spotted with scars from life, but he didn’t see that. Their love was easily given and returned, which made it priceless.
This fall weekend was his favorite of all. They’d made love the first time in autumn. It was almost as if they were married over many ages. His small fairy was with him. At dawn they’d saddle her two old horses and ride along a worn path that she’d known about for years. At the top, they’d relax and watch the sunrise in all its glory and spread over the land. He’d tell her what he’d told her all those years ago. “You fill my heart.”
Every year he’d say the same words when they reached the rim where the whole world seemed wild. “You think you can find your way home?”
And she’d always answer, “Does it matter?”
“Nope, as long as I’m with you. I’ll starve but I’ll never leave you.”
She smiled. “I know the trail down. I see the gold coins. I always have since I was a kid. They guide me home when I ride near the rim.”
“Well, I don’t see them so I’ll have to stay close to you. I’ve never seen any coins or heard any legend about them in town. I guess only fairies see those coins, and your ancestors remember the facts.”
Bear believed her stories. He’d heard a few Apache tales that one of the Apache elders wrote down. One of Eliza’s grandfathers had the stories printed. Years later a preacher said they were “of the devil” and demanded they be burned.
But a few stories remained in Eliza’s mind. Bear’s fairy knew about the cursed gold coins and the secret passage. She told her stories only to him.
The oldest legend was about a trail the Apache followed to a tiny cave no one knew led out of the valley. When the tribes were warring, they’d ride up to the rim and escape through that passage. Years later a few elders sold the secret path to outlaws who wanted to escape a posse. Maybe that part of her story was true, but the part about the outlaws killing their guides might not be. Some folks said the ghosts of the guides still haunt the rim.
But the story of a foreman of a big ranch and his wife killing each other, or the legend of a bag of dripping coins along the climb, Bear wasn’t sure about but he loved listening to her tell it. Eliza would make the husband’s words hard and frightening and the wife was always shown as the victim.
What he loved was she believed the story. Her words flowed like frost on the wind.
She always started by shaking her head and saying, “I once heard a sad, sad story of a man and wife who hated one another. He’d beaten her every day for years. A slap if she didn’t move fast enough. Kicked her if she talked back. And now and then he’d whip her until her back bled if she asked a question. When bruises healed, he’d beat her again to make sure that she’d never tell that he was stealing a few gold coins every payday from the rancher who hired him.
“The husband figured the boss would never know; after all, he was a rich man. The husband was sure his wife would never tell on him. After all, the husband thought he controlled her.”
Eliza always stopped the story and giggled, then added, “Any man who thinks he is in control of a woman is a fool.”
Bear would agree and she’d continue her story.
Over the years the bag of gold coins grew bigger and bigger. Some said he planned to kill his wife, bury her in one of the caves near the rim and say she’d stolen the coins and vanished. But he ran out of time. The boss found out before the foreman could carry out his plan.
The foreman saddled one horse, with the saddlebags of gold strapped to his wife’s back. When she climbed on behind him, he figured if the boss caught up to them, he wouldn’t shoot with the wife between them.
When they reached the path to the escape tunnel, it was too steep for two to ride.
He knew the boss was about to catch up. He had to lighten the load. It was either the gold or the wife.
When the wife began to cry not to be left, the husband pulled his huge hunting knife.
But this time she decided to fight with a tiny kitchen knife she’d brought along.
He stabbed her and pushed her off the horse as he grabbed the bag of gold coins from her back.
As she tumbled, she swung her little blade and wished him dead. Her knife poked a hole in the bag of gold big enough for one coin to pass through at a time.
Riders found her dead halfway up to the rim. The husband made it to the top, but he couldn’t find the passage in the dark. When the posse found his horse and the husband dead from a fall on the rocky mountainside, the bag was still in his hands but only two coins remained inside.
Some folks who’ve climbed near the rim swear they can hear the husband screaming for his wife to come save him.
A dozen men went hunting for the gold the next spring. Eight came back. For years when men rode near the paths, some swore they heard a horse running but no gold was found.
Everyone who knew the dead couple also knew they hated each other so completely they probably followed each other into hell. Some say the Devil took the gold for having to put up with them.
The story was written in the book of legends and then lost after the books were burned. And as sometimes stories do, they shift and bend in the retelling.
Bear had heard Eliza tell the story a dozen times. She always ended with, “Now and then a hiker gets lost in the hills. Some say they see a blink of gold in the dirt guiding them. When they walk toward it, the gold disappears a moment before the hiker sees a way out.”
Bear loved listening to her as they lay next to each other. A few weekends a year they were the only two people in the world.
Sometimes he’d surprise her with a visit in the middle of the week when the ache was too much. Or he’d bring dinner and they’d just talk.
No one was aware of their love, but if she died first, he’d never smile again.
If she left him, she’d take his heart with her.
In the morning before the sun rose, he whispered, “Marry me.”
And she answered, “I can’t. We can’t change paradise.”
Then he made love to her again, like it might be the last.