Love to Water My Soul (Dreamcatcher) by Kirkpatrick Jane

Author:Kirkpatrick, Jane [Kirkpatrick, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307569141
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2009-11-11T05:00:00+00:00

THE FOURTEENTH KNOT

PASSAGE

The small, reddish-brown dog with pointy ears advanced with hair standing, head lowered, mouth still. It stopped and stared. Behind him, on the ridge we shared, I detected men. Sounds of chopping reached my ears, though no trees broke the view. Voices carried over the ravines like straight arrows in still air.

I did not wish to encounter others as I did not believe this was the place that Sunmiet said. I wanted to move on.

More voices. I saw one or two men with rugged tools of iron like those brought back in raids by Oytes and Stink Bug. Men, through the mist of rabbit brush and sage, emerged from around the bend. Others followed, moving like beetles, slowly but with purpose. Some stopped and chopped at sagebrush; some pulled at roots and stacked the pale green in piles. For a brief moment I stood with Grey Doe and the time of my passage.

Behind them, I heard the whistles and shouts of encouragement said to horses and mules pulling wagons of rocks and dirt. I thought I heard a jumble of English, something else. A steamy warmth rose off the road as the men put their backs to their work, their shoulders glistening with sweat. Bodies of dark colors and light bent to tasks together, laying rocks to make the road wider, give it a place to go, or so it seemed.

A low growl rising from the dog regained my attention. Though not large, he wore a fierce look. He rolled his lips back to reveal black gums and large teeth. A short-legged dog compared to Flake, he almost crept on his belly toward me, wary, as though uncertain of my smell, my being.

“Here dog,” I said.

His ears perked forward and he stopped, twisted his head and sat, panting in the heat, watching me. Two tan spots like thumbprints marked areas above his eyes. The same light color lined his muzzle and throat, his chest, the insides of his squat legs. He had an unusual nabawici but appeared neither frightened nor lost. I promised myself to behave the same.

I walked toward him and he stood, tongue hanging. He let me put my hand out to his nose, smelled the back of my fingers, and then he lowered his bony head and invited me to run my palm between his ears. His soft fur brought with it a piercing ache of what I missed.

The dog tolerated me for just a moment, then shook as though I were a fly. He trotted toward the men and looked back as if to see if I would follow.

I looked over the side of the road, seeking a way to keep on going but still avoid the men. Too steep. They had picked a strange place for a road, carving out deer tracks, through sparse grass and sage, around exposed ridges. It seemed to go nowhere, circle dance with the river. I looked behind me. I had to go forward, just keep going and hope they let me pass.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.