Upon This Waste

Chapter 15

"You know, we really should be going," Isaiah said across the table.

"One last meal here can't hurt can it?" the old man replied.

"Actually..."

"Just eat the food and talk to me, Isaiah."

Isaiah bowed his head and looked at his hands on the table. He wasn't hungry though he had barely touched his food. He lifted his cup to drink and his hand shook and the water jumped inside the vessel.

"How's Red-Owl doing?" the old man asked.

"She's fine, just anxious to go."

Running-Bird paused for a moment and looked around them room. Looking back at Isaiah, he asked, "Did you know that she used to have a sister?"

"A sister?" Isaiah asked and he lifted his head to look at the old man.

Running-Bird nodded his head slowly in the low light of the room. "She was only a year or two younger than Red-Owl."

"She's never mentioned her," Isaiah said. He almost felt offended that he hadn't known about her.

"Why such surprise?" Running-Bird asked. "You aren't the only one with secrets."

Isaiah bowed his head again and for a fleeting moment he saw the burning carriage before he pushed it from his thoughts. "Why wouldn't she have told me about her?"

"She doesn't like to talk about it. It's a hard memory. Of course that doesn't mean I think she should bottle it up, but it isn't up to me to force it from her, now is it?"

"It isn't," Isaiah agreed. "But still, I'd like to know about her. I've known Red-Owl for so long," he stopped.

"Do you know how long we've known each other?" the old man asked Isaiah.

Isaiah looked away from the table and Running-Bird could hear him breathing deliberately. "Since you were just young. I remember when I first saw you. Can you remember that? The day we first met?"

Isaiah kept his head turned from the table and his mind wandered back through many years. "Just barely, like a blur. I do remember seeing you though, when they brought me to you."

Running-Bird chuckled softly. "I didn't know what to think, to tell you the truth. Here you came in through my door, I can't even remember who brought you, and you just stood there looking at me for the longest time." The old man took a drink and shifted in his seat. "For about a month we all thought you were mute. Who was it you talked to first, can you remember?"

"Little-Cub," he answered after thinking. "He was determined to get me to say something. He didn't believe for a second that I couldn't talk and he pestered me every day trying to get one word out of me."

"Little-Cub never had a problem talking to people. He never much minded pushing them to their limits either." Running-Bird laughed filled with memories. But his face grew suddenly solemn and he pushed his chin in slightly. "They told me later that they had found you walking through a field. I could barely believe it." He shook his head. "Imagine, someone as young as you walking around alone out there."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Isaiah said, hanging his head again. His breaths became even heavier.

"I've seen a lot of things, Isaiah. I've been uprooted. I've walked over the Great Mountains. I've seen many die. But still, it's hard to imagine how a child got to be in place like that."