The Legend of the Barefoot Mailman by John Henry Fleming

Author:John Henry Fleming [Fleming, John Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A novel.
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2014-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

WHEN THE ELDERS returned in the morning, they brought with them two braves who carried bows and arrows. Josef was led out of his hut, and the group traveled down a damp path out of the village and through the swamp to a cleared plot of high ground. Josef’s legs trembled as he walked; he thought he was being taken to his death. And what a terrible way to die! he thought. His body would be thrown into the swamp by these red men, and he’d never be heard from again. The mail would go undelivered and his wife and aunt back in Brooklyn would never get word of him. His great plans would go unrealized, the small progress he’d made thus far would be forgotten. He’d not even warrant a footnote in the great struggle to rebuild Paradise.

When they came to a stop on the island, the elders spoke and the two braves loaded their bows. Josef’s heart raced and his hands shook. He tasted the black drink returning to his throat. He closed his eyes, waiting for the end. But nothing happened. When he opened them again, he saw an opossum emerge from beside a mangrove some sixty feet away. The braves took careful aim, and an instant later the opossum was on its side, two arrows side by side in its neck.

The braves congratulated each other with a clasp. Josef wondered if this was to be his last supper—a filthy opossum eaten in the company of Indians.

Instead, one of the braves handed him his bow and an arrow, and the other brave tried to demonstrate how to use them. The elders observed gravely.

Somehow, Josef got the arrow loaded properly on the bow. His hands shook wildly. He knew his performance could mean the difference between life and death. Yet he didn’t know whether he preferred life as a captive to these Indians or an inglorious death at their hands. He didn’t have time to think about it, for now another opossum showed its pink nose. Josef couldn’t help but think this animal, too, had the heart of Satan, and he prayed that the opossum, along with the boar, would be excluded from Paradise, just as they’d done all in their power to exclude him from his role in its construction.

Josef pulled the bow back as far as he could, which wasn’t even half as far as the braves had done. The bow shuddered in his hands. He closed his eyes, and a moment later something hit him in the back of the head. He thought he’d felt his last earthly sensation.

But again, he opened his eyes and knew he was alive. He lay on the spongy earth, the bow resting on his chest, looking straight up into a tree, where the arrow he’d fired hung loosely from a branch.

The braves couldn’t keep from laughing as they helped him to his feet. The elders thought, Very convincing white man’s behavior, even for Yaha-Chatee. But it could be Emathla, since he disappeared while he was still too young to know the Way of the Arrow.

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