William had changed little over all these years.
"I'm so happy to see you again, Michaela!" He exclaimed , smiling broadly.
"I've read your article about plastic surgery. That engineer should feel very lucky that he met you."
"I did this once more." Michaela said, " Lisa, Matthew's wife had a scar on her cheek, almost like
Ellen's, even larger. Now, two years later, it is barely visible ."
"I didn't know that Matthew got married. Mrs Quinn told me once,that his fiancÈe died."
"Yes, and he was grieving for Ingrid for a very long time. Fortunately, he met Lisa two years ago,
they have a son."
"I remember your wonderful children", William said, " I hope all of them are fine."
"Colleen and her husband Andrew live in Philadelphia, they both are physicians and started their own
clinic there. So, we have two lady doctors in our family."
"That's wonderful! " William grinned, " How about your younger son, Brian, I remember he liked
candies and ice cream so much!"
"He and his wife Sara live with us, they own the town newspaper. But it's not enough for Brian, he
released two books of his own stories last year, and a NY publisher promised to release the third
one next month".
"I'd be glad to read them."
"I'll send them to you. I think he's a very good writer…but I'm afraid he still likes candies and ice
cream, although he's a grown man, taller than you. Our younger daughter, Katie, goes to school,
she's 10, and she looks a lot like her father. She's "her father's girl", as I was once. And this is Joe,
our youngest." She pointed at Josef, who was playing with his stuffed toys on a carpet.
"Yes…" William tried to hide his wonderment, looking at the black haired and swarthy child.
Michaela, he's…
"He's the youngest." Michaela smiled politely, but her tone showed William that it was time to
change the subject "He's two."
"Yes, of course…" William lowered his eyes.
"Michaela," Claudette inquired, " I can't remember, what Mr. Sully is occupied with now? He was
an Indian Agent once…"
"Yes, but long ago. Now he's a town commissioner, and he's working for the Interior Department.
He's created the Mountain Rock National Park in Colorado. He has a prestigious job now, if this is
what you want to know, Claudette."
William cleared his throat: "I think it's time to see our patient, what do you think, Michaela? " He
didn't want two sisters to quarrel.
"You're right , William." Michaela stood up.
"Don't worry," Claudette told her, " Mary will take care of your…" she paused, " of your son."
Kaiie struck one match after another, trying to build a campfire, and finally she did it.
The girl returned to the stagecoach, and took their bedrolls. Then she noticed Sully's rawhide bag.
Sighing with relief, she withdrew the small pack signed "Willow Bark" and the roll of bandages.
She bandaged Sully's wound and threw the contents of the pack into the tin cup with boiling water.
When the tea cooled , she carefully lifted Sully's head and put the cup to his lips.
"Poppy," she pleaded, " please drink this…please, it will help you."
Sully's eyes fluttered open: "Michaela…" he whispered hoarsely
"It's me, Katie…" the girl said, fighting back tears. "Please, drink this."
Sully managed several sips, then his eyes closed again.
Katie slipped under the blanket near Sully. She felt his body shivering , and hugged him carefully,
trying to keep him warm…
Some voices awakened her. Momentarily Katie seemed that she was somewhere during their trip ,
and this accident was all just a bad dream…She lifted her head, looking at the gray October sky.
Then she turned her head to Sully….It was not a dream. Sully was badly hurt, and nobody could
help them here.
Sully didn't stir. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and he definitely had a fever.
Katie unbuttoned his blood stained shirt, and looked at his wound. The bleeding had stopped, but all
his right side looked like one large bruise..
Katie dampened the cloth with her canteen, and placed the wet rag across Sully's forehead. She had
seen Michaela do this many times.
Meanwhile , the voices became louder. There were some men near the stagecoach.. At first, Katie
thought they were soldiers, because some of them were in army uniforms. But their horses were
bareback, and finally she realized that they were Indians. Any other girl would hide deeper in the
woods. But not Katie Sully. She knew from her early childhood that Indians are friends. So she let
them notice her…
And soon she was noticed.
One of the Indians approached and silently gazed at her. "Tok'ha'wo? " asked the second brave,
trying to look above his friend's shoulder.
"Wa'shi'chu " the first brave answered.
Katie couldn't understand them, so she decided to use sign language:
"I'm not an enemy. My father and I need help."
The Indians (there were three or four of them now) looked surprised " the little white girl used the
prairie language like an Indian."
"Help us." Katie repeated.
One of the Indians said something, addressing her, and she shook her head.
"I don't know your language, I can speak Cheyenne."
"Sha'hiyela" the brave said, and pointed at the tall man in a tight army jacket.
The Cheyenne brave looked at Katie with hostility, then, pushing Katie out of his way, approached
Sully and withdrew his revolver. Katie rushed to him, shielding her father with her hands.
"NO! " she screamed in Cheyenne, " Don't kill him! First you must kill me!"
Then she added contemptuously: "Since when are the brave Dog Soldiers fighting with their own
people? Look at this!"
She grabbed Sully's beads and medicine pouch: Look! He walks the path of Tse"tse"staetse, the
Black Kettle's tribe adopted him. His Cheyenne name is Ho'neosovaestse.
"Black Kettle was a wise chief." the Cheyenne said reluctantly, lowering his revolver, " You both will
go with us."
"My father needs a doctor. He's hurt badly. Would you take us to the nearest town?"
"No." he said, " We're not going there. Lame Bear will take care of your father. He's a medicine
man."
Anyway, that was better than just sitting there helplessly, and a hour later Sully was placed on the
travois attached to Cheyenne's horse. For all this time he didn't regain consciousness.
The camp was hidden deep in the woods. There were neither women and children, nor even dogs.
Just about a dozen young and middle aged men. They were Dog Soldiers, like Sully told her about,
Katie guessed.
There were no teepees, just several lean-tos and a jagged army tent, where the Indians settled Sully
and Katie.
Most of the braves belonged to Sioux tribe, and the tall Indian was the only one Cheyenne among
them. They didn't speak English (perhaps, they just didn't want to speak the white man's language),
but, anyway, Katie had to ask the Cheyenne to be her interpreter.
Later, in evening, the Lame bear, medicine man, visited them. He brought some herbs, and brewed a
strong smelling tea. Then, he lifted Sully's head and forced him to swallow few sips.
The medicine man removed the bloodstained bandage and checked on Sully's injuries.
The Cheyenne brave (his name was White Wolf) took Katie out of the tent, in spite of her protests:
"I'll stay with him! " she insisted, " My Ma is a doctor, a medicine woman, I'm not afraid of blood!"
White Wolf shook his head: "Nobody must disturb Lame Bear during the ceremony."
Soon, she had heard a muffled moan from the tent, and tried to get free, but the Indian put his hands
on her shoulders:
"He removed the bullet. He will tell us when he's finished."
Finally, she was allowed to enter the tent. Sully lay on a blanket, his eyes half open. He looked
exhausted.
"Katie…how are you? " he said with effort.
"I'm fine." Katie said, " This medicine man will help you, and we'll go home soon."
Michaela…she will worry…" Sully whispered barely audible, his eyes closing again.
Katie touched his hand, but he drifted back to unconsciousness, and didn't respond.
"Lame Bear said, your father has a strong will, and good health." the Cheyenne translated the
medicine man's words to Katie, " he's struggling, but his condition is dire. Only the Great Spirit
knows if he will live."
"No. .I don't want him to die…" Katie whispered helplessly. She covered her face with her palms,
and the tears dropped through her clenched fingers.
"Lame Bear will try more medicine. We must hope." White Wolf told her uncertainly.
Katie still cried, and the brave silently stood there, looking at her. Then, unexpectedly for himself, he
reached up his hand and slightly stroked her golden brown disheveled locks.
"I believe the surgery was successful." Michaela told her sister. They had just operated on Ellen in
William's clinic.
"Thank you so much, Michaela!" now Claudette was candid, " Thank you, William. Would you
please join us for dinner?"
"Sure, thank you, Mrs. Stanley." William answered, and then both women left the clinic.
"Did you notice that?" Claudette hissed into Michaela's ear as she closed the door behind her.
"Notice what?"
"How he looked at you. Don't let him go."
"You're crazy, Claudette! " Michaela raised her voice, " Sully and I have been happily married for
more than 10 years, and I'm not interested in William except as a good physician and a friend.
Please, don't start this again!"
"Just understand, Michaela, you can teach Mr.Sully the best manners, make him wear the fanciest
suits, but you can't change him totally, and one day you will be annoyed with this. So, you need
someone from your circle…Sure, you can live with Mr.Sully, if you want to, but you just need to
visit Boston more often.. alone."
Michaela stopped, furiously fingering her gloves:
"Claudette!!! " she almost yelled, "Do you want me to betray Sully?!"
"Michaela…a lot of Bostonian ladies have…hm..gentleman friends, and nobody look at this as at
betrayal."
"I do! " Michaela said, " If all the Bostonian ladies behave like this, I'm very happy that I'm not one
of them anymore!!!" Suddenly, she turned pale and squeezed her temples.
"Michaela, what's wrong? " Claudette asked worryingly, " I'm sorry, if I…"
"It's not you, " Michaela muttered, " Sully …he's in danger."
"Why do you think that he's in danger?" Claudette wondered.
Michaela just shook her head: "Please, give my apologies to Mother and Rebecca, but I need to go
back home today. William will take care of Ellen…"
Sully slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't see anything but darkness, so he tried to stir and moaned
as the pain pierced his chest and right side.
Then, a man appeared from the darkness. Sully's sight was bleary with pain and fever, but he could
recognize the man as Cheyenne.
"Lie still." The Indian said, " you're safe here."
"My daughter…" Sully whispered, " Where is she?"
"She's sleeping right here." The Cheyenne pointed behind him, " She's safe too."
"Who…are you? " Sully asked
"I'm White Wolf." Tthe Indian answered, " I've heard about you, Ho'neosovaestse, from my wife.
She was from Black Kettle's camp."
Sully tried to speak again, but a fit of coughing suddenly doubled him over, and his sight darkened
from the pain. White Wolf shook his head with sympathy, and gave Sully some sips of herbal tea.
Slipping back into unconsciousness, Sully weakly whispered: "Thank you…brother."
White Wolf sat near Sully, deep in his thoughts. He'd heard about this man from Seven Roads
Woman, his first wife. She told that the white man who was adopted by her tribe, did a lot of good
things to his Indian family. He brought them food, when they were starving, helped as interpreter in
negotiations with the Army. He was honest with Cheyenne people, not like other whites.
Seven Roads Woman survived the Washita massacre, when she was 12, but died of smallpox five
years later in the southern reservation. They lived together just five months.
His second wife, Turtle Woman, was from the Northern Cheyenne, just like White Wolf. When the
tribe decided to leave the reservation on the Missouri river, she was pregnant with their first baby.
White Wolf's son was born in November, 1879, on their way to Montana.
The trip was long and exhausting, and the tribe finally split in half. The old chief Dull Knife led the
women, children and old men to the Oglala Agency of Red Cloud. But the reservation was closed,
and they asked for shelter in nearest fort Robinson.
The rest of the tribe believed that their wives and kids are finally safe, but knew almost nothing about
them, while the boy Yellow Bird had found them and told the truth…the awful truth. White Wolf
didn't know exactly how his family died. They died from thirst , cold and starvation in old barracks
where were locked for a week without any food, water and firewood, or were killed by soldiers
with a cold blood. Anyway, whites took his family away from him again.
Since that day hate and fury filled White Wolf's heart. In his opinion, all whites must be killed without
any pity, like rabid dogs.
He joined a small group of braves, who were still pursued by the army. There were braves from
different tribes, but that didn't matter anymore, they all were united by grief for their friends and
families, and hatred for the whites.
White Wolf, like all of them didn't care about his own life, and the army couldn't stop him…
But he was stopped by a little white girl, who defended her injured father with so much courage.
The Cheyenne remembered famous warriors of his tribe, who rooted their blankets to the ground in
a battle, showing their enemies that they would not retreat a step. The same look of bravery and
resolve he'd seen in the blue eyes of the girl who barely was taller than his waist. She yelled at him,
in spite of the fact he was armed, and there was no fear in her eyes.
Besides that, she yelled at him in Cheyenne, as if she was raised in an Indian teepee.
Her father taught her well, and White Wolf felt respect for him. But he could barely describe even to
himself his feelings for the girl, the feelings that forced him to forget his vow and help whites.
Perhaps, that was the kind of love he couldn't give his own children.
The small hand touched his shoulder.
"I'm here. Thank you for looking after Pa. Did he wake up?"
"Yes, but not for long. He asked about you."
"What do you think? Is he better, just a little?" Katie asked, almost pleadingly.
White Wolf lowered his eyes:
"I believe he's strong enough to make it. He'll fight for his life." he answered uncertainly.
Katie sighed and sat on the blanket near Sully, trying to strain the remains of her skirt on her knees.
White Wolf approached and wrapped her shoulders with another blanket.
He gazed at Katie few more seconds, then turned away and left.
He came to his lean-to and withdrew from a rawhide bag a thin leather shirt, with beautiful
beadwork on its shoulders and chest. The small glass beads and dyed porcupine quills were still
bright.
That was his wedding shirt, and his wife Turtle Woman spent two months, preparing the gift for her
beloved husband.
He looked at the shirt for some time, and his mind was far away from here, then put it aside. White
Wolf dug in the bag and found a needle and the bundle of sinew, than placed his shirt on the ground
and fixed its sides with four small stones.
Sewing is not men's business, and the stitches were large and crippled. But, anyway, the dress for
Katie was ready by dawn.
"White Wolf, is that for me?!" Katie was excited, " So beautiful!!! Thank you!"
Within a few minutes she ran to the bush and returned back in her new dress. Her golden brown
wavy hair was braided, like the Indian women did.
"So beautiful!" she said again, her blue eyes shining
The Cheyenne smiled a bit, trying to find his feelings.
"I think Pa would like this dress too." She glanced at Sully, still unconscious, and sighed gravely, her
eyes filled with tears.
"I hope he'll see you in this dress soon." White Wolf said.
"Thank you." Katie answered, " You're very good friend. I'm so glad that we met."