American Copper by Shann Ray

Author:Shann Ray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Published: 2015-10-21T04:00:00+00:00

37.

On a rise above the Yellowstone River outside Billings, they laid their bedrolls on dry grass beneath the shade of a large splayed cottonwood among a few others that grew up from the river. In early release the trees hung small tails of cotton in the leaves, and the seed floated on the air like a slow flurry of snow along the river. William and Raymond unsaddled, watering the horses before letting them loose to graze. They filled their water pouches and took a long draft, then lay down in the shade, their hats over their faces as they slept.

The hats were well used, of brown wool felt that kept the skull warm.

William’s hat still had a little stiffness to the brim.

Raymond’s was beaten all to hell.

The sun bled the afternoon through as they lay with their arms crossed at the chest, their legs straight out like dead men. Near dusk they rose under the westward burn of a cloudless sky and gathered a store of old sagebrush roots and pies of cow dung, setting a flame that fired quickly with a rich scent.

They had done well, winning in Billings to the delight of a crowd of whites, quite a few Crow, and some Cheyenne.

“Home,” William said as he fed the fire and gazed at the river, a blue-brown, big-bodied flow that churned among rim rocks, winding itself east. Cotton drifted overhead. “Good life, rodeoing,” he said. Raymond sat on a tree root, looking out. William wondered if Raymond thought of his father, Bull. “Always pretty much good eating,” William continued, “and a little money to bring home and help.”

Raymond nodded, smiling. “Hard riding,” he said. “More than our fair share of wins.”

William remembered a time when their winning had been threatened, when his horse had gone ill of a long wound to the flank from a fence at the Assiniboine and Sioux rodeo in Poplar. At home he’d taken the horse to the old man who had a sack of medicine for horse-curing. The animal’s head was low. Film covered its eyes. In the gray light the old man faced the horse east and put some of the medicine, made of small leafy plants, into his own mouth before he came close and spit into the palm of his right hand. He touched the animal’s nose with the paste, rubbing it around the nostrils as he shook and pulled the right ear, then the left. The old man walked around to the right side, spitting more medicine into his hand, then rubbing it on the shoulder and the hip, over the bloody wound on the flank, then to the shoulder and hip on the other side the same way before going clear around again to the tail. He pulled the tail four times as the horse lifted its head and snorted. The animal took its time but healed even stronger than before.

William gathered a large flat rock from the river, let it dry, and placed it over the outer coals.

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