Ginger & Honey

The wind came from the west and brought with it a welcome wetness the men had gone long without.

“It’ll be raining by morning,” said one.
“Maybe we’ll have a break,” said another.
“Why’s that?” asked the third.
“Can’t dig dirt when it’s mud,” said the other.
“We can still blow rock,” said the first.
“Not with wet sticks we can’t,” said the second.
“We could keep ‘em dry?” asked the third.
“You three come with me,” ordered a new man on horseback, “and bring the girl.”

Slight-eyed and raven-haired she was kept in a cage.

“Better move fast we’ll want cover before the night falls,” said the first man.
“There’s got to be cover in those hills up ahead. I see green trees,” claimed the second.”
“Isn’t much cover in desert leaves,” said the first.
“I don’t want no prickly pine rubbing against me tonight,” worried the third.
“There’ll be caves in the hills,” said the first.
“Let’s keep moving we’re losing light fast,” said the horsebacked man.

She stayed closed-lipped but her eyes moved wide, taking in the world outside.

“These cliffs are cold and there isn’t much cover,” said the first.
“We got a big fire for the night,” said the second.
“Do you think we’ve got enough wood?” asked the third.
“You three take turns on watch tonight it’s time for me to turn in,” said the man who traded his horse for a tent.

She slide to her side with her palms pressed together and laid her head to rest.

“I don’t know ‘bout this setup, you making the tiredest man take the first turn at keeping up,” said the second man.
“I can go first?” asked the third.
“You get your rest and keep your questions for the day,” ordered the first.
“But why should I have to stay up if he’s volunteering for the job?” thumbed the second.
“Fine,” said the first.

And as the rest slept, the third man kept count of the stars and made names for the gods who were shooting them off.

“The stars are going dark and the smoke’s starting to flutter. I hope I can keep dry,” wondered the third man.
“Take this tarp and hang it from the branch coming out from the rock over there,” said the first man startling the third.
“I thought I was the only one awake,” said the third.
“Don’t mind that now, just get yourself set it’ll be raining soon enough,” assured the first. “I’ll watch from here on.”
“Thank you,” nodded the third.

The last of the twinkling stars went as the sheets of rain came and covered the cliffs.

“I should get more wood before it is all soaking and the coals have washed out,” thought the first man. He went about breaking branches and dragging them back to the fire. And then a whispering voice he had not heard in days.

“Blanket?” asked the raven-haired woman.
The first man moved his eyes around the camp before making his way to the cage. “What did you say?” he asked.
“Blanket?” repeated the raven-haired woman.
“I supposed I could do that,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said the second man.
“You’re not getting paid to think and what are you doing awake anyhow, tired man?” asked the first.
“The rain woke me and now I can’t sleep so I might as well stay up and keep watch with you,” suggested the second man.
“That’s a waste. We need as many fresh in the morning as we can have. Get her a blanket and start watch. I’ll turn in,” said the first.
“Alright, but if she doesn’t make good company I’m likely to be grumpy in the morning. Isn’t that right you ginger-eyed treat? Maybe I should crawl into that cage and be your blanket.”
“You leave her be. Get her a blanket and leave her be. Understood?” ordered the first man.
“I do. I was just teasing.”
“Well then don’t just. Just do,” said the first making his way back to bed.
“Alright, alright.,” nodded the second man. “Now you don’t go getting any ideas when I open your cage to give you this blanket. You just sit there still.”

Just as the cage lock clicked open a flash of lightning lit the sky and thunder clapped against the cliff walls. The second man was kept in his skin only by the clutching hand on his upper arm pulling him in and butting his head on the bars of the cage.

“There’s white water beyond the horizon and so that must be my goal,” she told herself. The clouds were breaking but there was no one there to see her silhouette upon horseback riding off and into the moonrise. The hooves stuck in the mud and the yellow horse moved like honey in the night.

“How did this happen?” asked the man without a horse. The second man still lay unconscious locked in the cage.
“She asked for a blanket so I told him to give her one was the last thing I know before I went back to bed,” said the first man.
“She was in that cage for a reason and she’s no use to me dead or disappeared, so what good was a blanket?” asked the man without his woman.
“A sick body is less than a dead body so that’s the good we were doing,” clarified the first man.
“We could follow her muddy tracks, they couldn’t have gotten far,” suggested the third man.
“And so we will,” ordered the man who was left with two men to pull an unconscious caged man through the mud. “Better hope we make enough progress to her than before the rapids. Otherwise you two are with me for some more time to come.” In their haste no one noticed the glycerin vials dangling from the cart.

The mud-soaked trail hardened in the mid-day sun and lost time was made up on horseback. The roaring whitewater would wash her from the men and she could return to her previous work with the train company.

“Is he awake yet? I’m likely to leave the cart and him in it if he doesn’t get up soon,” declared the man in charge although he had lost much of his power.
“Why don’t we try and wake him?” asked the third man.
“If we wake him too soon he’s more likely to be in a fouler mood than if we let it come natural. He’s breathing and so he is fine,” said the first man a moment too soon.
“I’m awake but what am I doing in this cage?” asked the second man as he rattled the bars.
“You put yourself in there and it’s a good thing you’re up cause I was about damn ready to leave you be.” The man reached for his keys and upon finding them realized something was missing but he wasn’t sure what. “Here, take these and let yourself out. I’m going to wash up.”

She swung off the horse, pet its neck and whispered, “Thank you my sweet-skinned friend. You have served me well but now I must leave you behind. I feel we will meet again.” As she went to place a gentle kiss on the horse’s nose a loud burst was heard in the not too far distance. “They are closer than I expected ,” she realized.

As the cage door swung open it crashed and with it the vials too. The caged man was free from the bars and returned to the stars.

“But how did they end up on the cage?” questioned the man who was losing too much.
“I don’t know,” said the first man for the first time anyone could recall. He walked to the third man, who stood still clutching his ears. “The ringing will stop,” he pulled the man’s arms down.
“What are we supposed to do now?” he yelled.
“Lower your voice, everything will be alright,” said the first man. “She must’ve put them there.”
“But there’s no way she could have gotten them from me without…,”
“I don’t think she is who you thought she was. We have to be more careful moving forward.”

The surf and spray from the rocks was going to make it difficult to cross and she couldn’t even fathom a raft worthy to run the rapids. She paused to take a breath and in an instant was floating over the fog and foam like an open sail gliding across the water. She was quick yet subtle and her arms and legs swayed back and forth gathering a force projecting her not only forward but seeming slightly lifted above the surface. Like a bullet from a barrel she was there and then gone.

“Damnit! It’s too deep to cross here,” said the losing man.
“We’ll go downstream a bit and make a chain across the rocks,” answered the answering man.
“How will we make a chain?” the third man asked.
“We’ll link arms, like this, “he took his arm around the others’. “I’ll go first and you go last, “he told the man who was not used to taking orders.
“This had better work or we’ll all be washed up.” Getting skeptical he stepped forward, “And I’ll lead,” he declared.
“Don’t break the chain.” But it was too late. The third man slipped and slid down a rock just as he was let go.” The first man caught a glimpse of the disappearing face that seemed to plead “why,” a final question for which he had no answer.
“We’re better off the two of us. He won’t hold us back anymore,” said the man taking his latest loss too lightly. The first man just stared straight across the current and made no comment.

The previous night’s rain had left the bridgework abandoned. The town had sought an alternate route for years but until the proper people were brought in the engineering was never quite right. Currently a quarter-circle made an arch stretching half-across the canyon fading into waterfalls bellow.

“My work here will delay what they call progress,” she whispered to herself. “Just a few more vials to fix in place.” She somersaulted from structured beam to beam, bouncing between the concentric circles putting the substance in all the right corners. “They’ll be here soon enough to see the spectacle for themselves and soon after no one will walk the town but ghosts.”

“There were five but now there’s only two of us. We have to be careful moving forward. We should…”
“I’ll make the decisions around here, remember whose working for who.” 
“But if we don’t watch our steps it’ll be one of us taking a fall.”
“I still own your steps. So get them moving to the bridge.”

She sat cross-armed with her head in her knees at the edge of the bridge sensing their approach. The owned man sensed something too. She leapt in the air as their heads came over the edge to see.

“There she is! Come on, let’s get her. She can’t get anywhere from the bridge.”
“Wait!” But it was too late. The man forgot he had someone else’s steps to take for him and now he was running out of his own.

“Stop! You have nowhere to go. If you stop now we’ll be kind. I promise.” She stopped close to the bridge’s end. He approached her and extended his hand. As she went for it he twisted capturing her in front. ”There! We’ve got you now. You won’t be getting away again so easily.”
“Yes. But you won’t be getting away at all,” she whispered as she ducked out and from his arms. In a motion she swept her leg around taking his out from under him, reached out, grabbed him at the collar and tilted his head to give a better view of the fall beneath him.
“Please! Don’t let me go,” he begged.
”If you let him back we’ll leave you be!” exclaimed the man on land.
“You may, but the rest of your people will never leave us be, “ she yelled back. “I am simply giving mine some time.”
“Please! I’ll give you anything,” said the held man.
“No. I am taking this from you,” she said as she sparked a flame from the tip of her fingers and placed it upon a line tied to the bridge. She let him drop on a beam and took off running. At the end of the arch she dove into the air then down into the abyss below.

As she became a disappearing dot in the distance the blasts began. Like secondary stars in the mid-day sun, they set the half-bridge a-burst. The body of the man who once sat on a horse sank in an invisible saddle. And the first man was now the last.