Shaman by Noah Gordon

Author:Noah Gordon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780316903981
Publisher: Signet
Published: 1992-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

39

TEACHERS

That January Rob J. put extra blankets in the dugout room because runaways from the deep South suffered grievously from the cold. There was less snow than usual, but enough to cover the cultivated fields and make them look like prairie in winter. Sometimes as he traveled home from a house call in the middle of the night he would pretend that at any moment he’d be able to look up and see a long file of red men riding good horses across the white glitter of unbroken plains, following their shaman and chiefs; or massive humpbacked creatures moving out of the darkness at him, hoarfrost clinging to their shaggy brown fur and the moon gleaming on curved horns with wicked silvered tips. But he never saw anything, because he believed in ghosts even less than he believed in God.

When spring came, the runoff was light and the rivers and streams kept to their banks. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he treated less fever that season; but for some reason, more of the people who came down with fever died. One of the patients he lost was Matilda Cowan, whose husband, Simeon, raised half a section of corn in the northern township, very good land even if slightly dry. They had three small daughters. When a young woman died leaving children, it was expected her husband would remarry quickly, but when Cowan proposed to Dorothy Burnham, the schoolteacher, it surprised a lot of people. He was accepted at once.

At the breakfast table one morning, Rob J. chuckled as he told Sarah that the school board was upset. “We thought we could count on Dorothy being a spinster forever. Cowan’s smart. She’ll be a good wife.”

“She’s a fortunate woman,” Sarah said dryly. “Considerably older than he is.”

“Oh, Simeon Cowan’s but three or four years younger than Dorothy,” Rob J. said, buttering a biscuit. “That’s not such a difference.” And he grinned in astonishment to see his son Shaman nodding in agreement, joining in on the gossip about his teacher.

On Miss Burnham’s last day at the academy, Shaman lingered until the others had left for the day and then went to say good-bye.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you around the town. I’m glad you didn’t decide to go to some other place to get married.”

“I’m glad too, that I’ll be living in Holden’s Crossing, Robert.”

“Want to thank you,” he said clumsily. He knew what this warm and homely woman had meant to his life.

“You’re welcome, my dear.” She had informed his parents that she wouldn’t be working on his speech anymore, what with the farm and a new husband and three children to see for. “I’m sure you and Rachel will be able to do wonderfully without me. Besides, you’ve reached the point where voice drills might be dispensed with.”

“You think I sound like other people when I talk?”

“Well …” She treated the question seriously. “Not exactly. When you’re tired, you’re still guttural. You have become very aware of how words should sound, so you don’t slur your speech as much as some people.

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