Weayaya: The Sunset Woman

Chapter 11

Yvonne
Don't know where...don't know when...

Nettie woke me before the sun even rose. She shook me awake and I could barely make out her face in the smoldering fire.

I felt the wind blowing and I could see Gideon sitting and covering himself with a thin blanket. He yawned loudly as he messed with the weak flames. There were others waking or who had just woken. They were huddled around fires. I could smell faint whiffs of food.

"Come on Evie!" She whispered at me as she pulled me up by my arms.

The name Evie rang in my ears and I felt my heart suddenly feel a little heavier. Aunt Lizzie was the only one who had called me Evie....

Nettie noticed my sudden silence, "oh sorry! Do you mind if I call you Evie? It's just, Yvonne is all fancy like, and well, I think you look better as an Evie." She spoke faster than I could register.

"I-I don't mind," My dress felt heavy against my body as I tried to move against the grass.

Nettie flowed so easily against the wind and grass. "Evie, come help me!" She called out, waving me over.

I hiked the dress up a bit and followed after her.

She was trying to pull a black pot from the back of the wagon. I leaned in and grabbed one end while she grabbed the other. It was at once I felt the weight of it.

Cast iron.

I'd only ever see cast iron in the form of a pan, and even then, it was a heavy pan.

I'd never seen cast iron made in such a way...as such a deep pot, such a big pot, with a handle on it.

I followed Nettie's lead as she carried it over toward the fire. We dropped it on the ground, it made a slight clanging sound. I felt myself out of breath as Nettie giggled at me and trotted off back to the wagon. I was hunkered over as she brought over more cast iron things and what looked like a mason jar and a package.

Just then I heard another person rousing, my eyes shifted to see her mother pulling herself up from the ground. She dusted herself off and then came straight toward me and Nettie.

Nettie narrowly avoided her swatting hand as she ducked low and placed the contents in her hands on the ground next to the pot. "Evie," she called as she set up two iron sticks on the ground over the fire. She took a longer iron stick and laced it through the handle on the pot. She lifted it with some struggle before she started to pass it to me.

"W-What are you doing?" I began to panic.

"Go on and put this over the fire." She somewhat struggled to lift it to me.

The moment she placed it in my hands I nearly buckled under its weight. I tried to call out to Nettie but she had disappeared.

I heard a chuckled from nearby and saw Gideon smiling at me.

"What?" He called, "Too posh to know what to do?" He couldn't contain his laughter at me as he stood up, strode over, and yanked the iron bar and pit from me. He quickly placed it in the duvets of the other two bars at either side of the fire. At once, I could see the cast iron begin to heat up.

Nettie returned, passing me another mason jar before she reached for the mason jar and package she'd left on the ground. She tossed something in the pot before she ripped open the package and emptied its contents. I could smell the uncooked bacon. She pried open the mason jar in her hands and I copied her. She dumped her into the pot and I inched closer to her.

"Go on," she urged me.

I dumped it into the pot and she began to stir. The food began to sizzle and it was at that moment her father awoke.

"Gideon!" He called, "come on boy! Let's get them horses fed before breakfast!"

"Yes Pa!" The young man called and was quick to follow his fathers heels.

I could hear others around us waking and stirring as the sun was breaking through the horizon. More and more appeared out of wagons, crowing around fires.

The two smaller children in Nettie's family appeared with her mother. They were clinging to her skirt.

"Useless Wretch!" I heard Nettie's mother spit at me under her breath as she and the two smaller children passed me by.

"Ma!" Nettie chided, "she's my only friend..." she tried to whisper under her breath, but the wind caught her words.

"Some friend, looks as worthless as a man in childbirth." Her mother spat at me again.

I will admit to feeling a harsh blush form on my cheeks. It was utter embarrassment for me to stand around and load around...

I didn't know what to do, or how to act, or how to speak, I barely even knew how to carry myself in whatever place...or time I was in. I could make out that we were somewhere on the plains...but I didn't know exactly where...or the better question is when.

From the dresses and the wagons and the low technology...I could have hazarded a guess at the mid-1800s...but when exactly?

My brain racked against itself trying pull up all the facts I could about the mid-1800s in America.

The Civil War was the only thing that popped into my head...had it started, was it being fought as I stood blankly staring into the dawn, or had it ended? Was the President dead? Who was President now? Where are these people going? And why are they taking me along for the ride?

At that thought, a memory fizzled in my mind,
"You must've hit your head when you fell off your wagon!" Nettie cackled, "we're on the trail to our new home out west silly!" Nettie hit my arm a little.

Based on what she had said, it was safe to assume that the family that had taken me on their wagon assumed I'd called off of another...or got lost...or something. It was also safe to say that they were going west...and she said we were going to join a wagon train.

I let my feet cross further into the center of the circle of wagons.

The image seemed familiar in my mind...as if I had seen it somewhere before...in a history class...when my teacher had been discussing something called Manifest Destiny...she had shown us a painting of wagons like the ones I was seeing circled up together...for protection.

The wagons were going to start their journey west...toward new lands...new hopes...and new freedoms...

"Evie!!" Nettie screamed, waving her hand at me.

My body jerked toward her.

Just then, the wind whipped by me, the bonnet on my head falling down to my back. The frigid ness caught me off guard.

My brain turned its wheels as the stark truth set in.

I was stranded in time...somewhere in the mid-1800s...with no home, no family, no knowledge of anything outside of school knowledge...and no one I truly knew.

I had to figure out exactly when I was...and where...I had to try and survive...to find my way back home...to my aunt, and to my mother.

I had to survive...even if I had no idea how.