Desert Rainbow by Scott Bowman

Author:Scott Bowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scott Bowman
Published: 2022-04-08T20:38:51+00:00

Chapter 36

By mid-January, Chooli’s anxiety over the next mail delivery and of receiving more of Roy’s letters became nearly more than she could bear. Tophat had not yet arrived on his monthly delivery schedule. Chooli wanted to read more about Roy’s flying lessons, whether the filming of the moving picture had started, and when it would be finished. She especially wanted to know when she might expect Roy to return to the trading post.

Since a marginally celebrated Christmas and New Year’s had passed with a continually declining Luther, Chooli spent more and more time each day looking out the window, hoping to see or hear Begay and Paco clomping up the road to the trading post. She pictured the mail satchel bulging with letters from Roy. And each day Begay did not appear, she was set upon by an aching uneasiness, and fears that had Roy crashed an airplane and perished in the crash. Was everything in his last letters too good to be true? She had even taken to having a very short glass of whiskey with Luther in the evenings as they passed the time reading and talking. By now, Chooli had practically memorized Roy’s last set of letters, and yet she continued to read them nightly. However, there seemed to be no cure for her fears.

Finally, toward the end of January, when not a soul had visited the trading post in nearly a month, she heard Shadi woof several times and had run out onto the porch. It was a bitterly cold day with temperatures well below freezing as she ran onto the porch without a jacket. Under the dismal gray skies, she saw a lone rider approaching through the snow that covered the landscape. With her less than stellar eyesight, she struggled to determine if it was the mail carrier. Rubbing at her shoulders and muttering to herself, she ran into the trading post and slipped on her winter jacket, tying a wool scarf over her head. She stepped into her winter moccasins and then hurried back out to the porch.

The rider had moved closer. Shadi was growling softly, which indicated to Chooli that the rider was a stranger. Within a moment or two it was clear to Chooli that the mount upon which the rider was huddled was too large to be Paco, the mule. With great disappointment, she walked dejectedly into the trading post to stay warm while she awaited the rider.

Luther called from the back room, where he rested on a bed, pillows stacked up behind him and a thick book on his lap.

“Is that Begay?

“No, it’s not. I don’t know who it is.”

“Damn, that’s too bad I was hoping it was him and you wouldn’t continue to drive me crazy pacing the floor every afternoon and evening.”

“He should be here by now. He’s two weeks late,” Chooli whined.

“You’re forgetting, Chooli, it’s always been this way in the winter. Sometimes he’s just not able to deliver because of the snow or cold.”

“Well, he should be delivering to me.

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