hapter 19It was midday when Kid, Lou and Winnie climbed into the buckboard. Ike had managed to get the girl to understand that she was going to see her uncle. Dressed in one of Lou's shirts and an altered skirt, Winnie sat between Lou and Kid watching the surroundings as they headed into town. Secure in a basket in Winnie's lap the kitten turned and now and then rose its head, softly mewing at the unusual situation.
"I'm Lou." Lou sounded her name as good as she could, and once Winnie had got it right she smiled. "And now Kid," she continued, as Winnie repeated the name correctly in one attempt. Then Winnie repeated her Kiowa name, only to giggle at Lou's first attempt. Even Kid felt the smile lurk in the corner of his mouth, but wisely hold his tongue.
"It's not that easy," Lou mumbled, and turned to Winnie. "I'll think I'll stick to Winnie if it's all right," she smiled.
Winnie smiled back, and placing her hand on her chest she repeated her new name and nodded.
"Winnie."
"That's right, Winnie."
The outskirts of the town became visible and Winnie lost all interest in Kid and Lou as she watched wide-eyed as they approached the buildings. Suddenly Lou felt a small hand gripping her arm tightly and she looked down into the scared dark eyes of Winnie.
The girl asked her something and Lou hugged her tightly.
"It's nothing to be scared of, I promise," she said gently. "We're going to see Buck, all right?"
"She doesn't understand, Lou," Kid said. "Maybe we should turn back?"
"She's gonna be OK," Lou said and watched the girl. "I'll be right here, all right?"
Kid looked at them and shook his head. The girl didn't speak English, so why didn't Lou see that she didn't understand? To his surprise the girl looked at Lou for a moment and then she nodded. But she didn't let go of Lou's hand, and she tried to hide behind Kid and Lou, until her natural curiosity took over and she peeked out behind Lou and Kid with wide eyes, holding on to the basket with the kitten with one hand and Lou's hand with the other. Luckily, Doc's office wasn't far away and soon they were there. Lou jumped off the buckboard, and then Kid helped Winnie down.
"Hi Doc." Lou walked into the office with Winnie still holding her hand.
"Well, hello! What do we have here?" Doc said smilingly as he saw the girl behind Lou. "And up and running too?"
"It's a bit early for running, I think," Lou smiled. Doc was the only one in town that knew she was a girl, and she liked the older man. "Rachel thought you'd take a look at her, and we thought that we could see Buck. Can we?"
"Sure, but he gets tired very fast, and he needs every ounce of strength right now."
"He's worse?"
"No, but he's got a slight fever, and he'll have to stay here for another day."
Kid walked into the office to hear the last words.
"Is Buck worse?" he asked with a frown.
"No, he's gonna be fine," Lou replied and crouched to the girl. "Wanna see your uncle Buck, Winnie?"
Winnie nodded and grabbed the basket tightly.
"It's OK, Doc?"
"Walk right on in," Doc nodded, "I can see to the girl afterward." Doc lead the way over to the door to what originally had been a guestroom, but now turned into a patient's recovery room.
"You've got visitors," Doc said to the boy in the bed only to quickly turn to Lou and Kid who was waiting outside.
"Wait a moment," he said and closed the door behind him. Lou looked at Kid with a frown in her face.
"You think something's wrong?" she asked a bit worried as Winnie clamped her hand. Lou looked down at her and smiled. She took her over to Doc's chair and helped her to sit down before she brought her the kitten from the basket. Kid looked at them and when he realised they were occupied he slowly walked over to the door and quietly entered.
"Doc," he said quietly, is something wrong?"
Doc turned and looked at him with a worried face before rising and walking over to him.
"Maybe you should come back later?" he said and led Kid out of the room. Kid shook his hand of.
"What's wrong, Doc?" he asked sternly in a low voice. "You said he was OK!"
"I know, but, he needs to rest," Doc said avoidingly, opening the door to let them out. But Kid refused to leave.
"I want to know what's wrong," he said, "and I ain't leaving until you tell me."
"Wait for me outside, Kid, and I'll talk to you later."
"Doc --"
"Outside Kid," Doc said tiredly, get out." Hesitantly Kid left the room, only to meet the questioning eyes of Lou.
"What's wrong?" she whispered.
"I don't know." Kid removed his had and let his fingers run through his hair. "Doc told us to wait."
Winnie looked at them with wondering eyes, slowly caressing the kitten, but as none of them moved, she lost interest and starting to look at everything in the office, where most of the items where unknown to her.
Doc closed the door on Kid and walked back to the bed with a sigh. He placed his head on the Buck's forehead on which pearls of sweat was showing. At his touch the boy moaned and opened his eyes.
"Doc?"
"That's right. How are you feeling?"
"I heard somebody here --"
"Don't worry about that. Is your chest hurting? Have you any trouble breathing?" Doc's voice was filled with concern.
Buck took a deep trembling breath.
"It feels strange Doc," he mumbled.
"How strange?" Doc asked urgently as Buck closed his eyes again. "Come on, Buck, tell me!"
But apparently Buck was slowly slipping into unconsciousness again and Doc cursed under his breath. He slowly begun to remove the bandages, hoping that he might see what was faltering since Buck couldn't tell him. The only thing he could think of was an infection in the wound, and he hoped it wouldn't be something wrong with the boy's lungs. As he unwrapped the last of the bandages he saw that the wound after the operation was swollen and red. Doc sighed. This he knew how to handle. He'd have to open the wound again, clean it properly and probably leave it unbandaged. The only dilemma was that opening up the wound would mean more blood loss and he wasn't sure Buck could handle that. He was still thinking about his options when Buck opened his eyes again.
"Sorry, Doc," he mumbled. "I'm just so tired."
"You're feeling tired?"
Buck tried to smile.
"Never felt so tired in my life." He chilled and Doc made his decision. With the fever and the blood loss it was better to leave the wound as it was. The boy seemed to be fighting the infection and maybe he was worried over nothing. Buck might just have a hard time staying awake 'cause of the blood loss. Doc shook his head. Buck seemed to be all right again. I'm too old for this, Doc thought, knowing that the operation he'd performed was something he'd never done before and he'd only read about it in a book. He hoped that the riders never would found that out, or the townspeople for that matter.
"Think you can manage some visitors?" Doc asked smiling, seeing as there was no immediate danger for the boy. The fever was a bit higher than before that's all.
Buck nodded; eager for news from the station.
"All right, but only a short visit." Doc rose. Ever since the riders had moved in at Emma's place almost a year ago, he'd been forced to test his medical knowledge. These young boys and girl had a way of getting into trouble, but they were also fighting every injury and every illness with the fierceness of youth, refusing to give up. He'd seen wounds and damages that he would have deemed untreatable, but being forced to witness a complete recovery. He just never learned.
Kid turned when they heard the door open and Doc reappeared.
"Doc?"
"I'm sorry I scared you, but for a moment I thought ---" Doc shook his head, "never mind. You may see him, but he's got a fever so I want it to be a very short - five minutes, nothing more, OK?"
"That's OK," Lou smiled and helped Winnie down from the chair.
Buck looked over at the door as Lou entered.
"Lou?" he asked with some surprise. He'd expected Ike.
"Hi Buck. How are you feeling?"
"Tired, but otherwise fine." Buck smiled faintly, realising that Lou probably didn't believe a single word.
"Well, Doc told us we couldn't stay long, but we brought somebody that wanted to see you", Lou said with big smile as Kid walked into the room. He raised his hand in a greeting, only to receive an accepting nod from Buck, nothing more. But before Buck could ask who it was that wanted to see him, Winnie appeared behind Lou and smiled hesitantly at him before she simply let go of Lou's hand and run up to him. Buck tried to rise and managed to get into a sitting position as Winnie reached up to give him a hug.
Buck didn't know what he felt. First he was relieved that Wun-oan-te-mee seemed all right, although she was very thin and pale, secondly he was worried over her being in town and he wasn't sure to which feeling he should give into. He threw a glance over Wun-oan-te-mee's shoulder at Lou and Kid, wondering if it had been their idea. Wun-oan-te-mee sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled at him, and he forgot about Lou and Kid for a moment.
"How are you?" he asked her in Kiowa looking her over. She was dressed in an old shirt that he could have sworn he'd seen on Lou once, and an altered skirt.
"I sleep a lot," she replied with a frown on her face, "because I'm tired. And sometimes I'm very hungry, but then sometimes I feel sick."
"But you're not sick?"
"Not any more." She protruded her lips as if he'd asked a stupid question. "Do you know what I have?"
"No." Buck looked questionably at her when she jumped down from the bed and walked over to Lou. Lou bent down and handed her the kitten, which she proudly returned with to the bed.
"It's called 'cat'", she said as she handed Buck the small kitten. Buck shook his head and smiled at her.
"No, it is a 'cat'. You have to give it a name."
"Oh."
"That's all right, you don't have to name it right now. How are you doing at the station?"
"I miss you." Her lip trembled slightly. "And I miss father --- and---"
"I know." Buck hugged her. "But as soon as you can eat without feeling sick, we'll go back."
"But the one that speaks with his hands said you were sick?"
"I'll take you back when you're well enough, don't worry." Buck assured her.
"The one who doesn't speak, I like him. He's got a kind smile."
"He's name is Ike, and he's like a brother to me," Buck smiled.
"And I like Black Hair and Yellow Hair and Fast Riding Girl---"
"Hold it." Buck raised an eyebrow. "Who are you talking about?"
"They have such strange names," Wun-oan-te-mee explained, "so I named them myself. But I don't know Black Hair's name, but Yellow Hair's name is very difficult." She frowned.
"Rachel," Buck said, trying to keep up with her talk, not wanting to disappoint her. He tried to think of whom she called Black Hair, but his tired brain refused to co-operate.
"And Fast Riding Girl's name is Lou, that I can say."
"Who's Black Hair?"
"He got the same hair as I", Wun-oan-te-mee continued happily, "and when you left he sat with me. He told me a story and I didn't understand but I think it was a sad story because he looked so sad. First I thought he had paint in his face, but it didn't come off."
"Noah," Buck mumbled.
"It's his name? What tribe is he?"
"He's not---" Buck hesitated, then change his mind. "He's from a special tribe."
"I like him, but he's not there now."
"He'll come back," Buck said, sending a note of thank you to Noah, suddenly realising that he felt extremely tired. Not wanting Wun-oan-te-mee to see how tired he was he looked over to where Lou was standing.
Lou watched happily how Buck and Winnie talked in their own language and she nudged Kid in the side, when she noticed that Buck was looking at her. Understanding she walked over to the bed.
"Buck, I think Doc should take a look at her now. Can you tell her that?"
Buck nodded and quickly explained to Wun-oan-te-mee that she had to return but that she had to see the doctor first. Reluctantly Wun-oan-te-mee took the kitten and followed Lou out the door, leaving Kid and Buck alone in the room.
As soon as the door closed, an awkward silence settled in it. Kid hesitantly took a step towards the bed.
"So how are you doing?"
"Fine."
Kid sighed silently. Buck was still angry, so much was obvious. The question was if he would be able to make things right.
"We thought we take Winnie to the store so she could see the town --" he begun when Buck interrupted him.
"Who?" he asked sternly.
"What do you mean---," Kid begun, when he realised that Buck never heard the nickname they've given Wun-oan-te-mee. "We call your niece Winnie. It was Cody's idea, since we had a hard time pronouncing her Kiowa name."
Buck looked away, not certain of how he felt. He was still angry with Kid for what he had done, and even if he knew it was unfair, he didn't like the idea of the name change. But more than this he didn't want Wun-oan-te-mee to be seen in town. He didn't want her to meet the suspicious and even perhaps hateful eyes of the townspeople. He didn't want for her to feel strange and less worthy. She might discoverer that one day, but if he could avoid it she wouldn't have to discover it now. He also feared that the townspeople would let the army know that an Indian girl was staying at the station, which might endanger the Kiowa.
"You're gonna take her to the store?"
"Well, yes --" Kid said hesitantly, not liking the harsh tone in Buck's voice.
"Don't. Take her back to the station as soon as Doc seen to her."
"I think she wants to see the town," Kid replied defiantly.
"It was your idea, wasn't it," Buck replied angrily, "not thinking at usual. Just take her home."
Kid just looked at him.
"What's the matter with you? So, I made one mistake, and now you're gonna hold it against me. For how long? A month? More? Well, that's fine with me, but don't let it go out over anybody else!"
"You don't understand, do you? That's the trouble with you - always trying to be a do-gooder, but you don't think about the consequences now do you?" was the biting reply, when the door opened and Lou entered.
"What are you doing?" she asked sensing the tension in the room,
"It's nothing Lou," Kid replied, "Buck just wants us to take Winnie directly home."
Lou looked at Buck.
"Why --" she started.
"I don't think Buck is willing to tell us, since we won't understand anyway. Come on, Lou, let's take Winnie home." Kid walked out the room without looking back.
"Buck?" Lou asked, hoping to get some answers.
"Just take her directly home, Lou," Buck replied tiredly.
Lou closed the door behind her.
"Where's Kid, Doc?" she asked the doctor who was showing Winnie how to listen to the heart.
"I think he went out to see to your horses. All right, Winnie, I think it's time for you to go back."
Lou and Winnie walked out from the office, and Lou saw Kid standing by their horses. She feared that her idea hadn't worked as she had hoped. There still seemed to be bad blood between Kid and Buck and she couldn't understand it. She only hoped it would get better.
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