Evergreen - Chapter 9

The air was chilly but the sun emitted some warmth and as Johnny rode along he admired the pine forest. There were deer tracks all over the place, but nothing to indicate anyone had walked or ridden in or out of the town except for his own footsteps coming and going.

Johnny hadn't gone far when a small figure came out of the woods, heading in his direction. It was the little boy, Anton, who stopped as soon as he saw the man on horseback. The kid wore snowshoes and was carrying something that looked like it was intended for the cook pot.

"What've you got there?" asked Johnny, indicating some small, limp animals strung together and held in Anton's gloved hand.

Anton said begrudgingly, "Rabbits." The boy wrapped his arms around his middle and scowled at Johnny.

"What's the matter, you got a belly ache?"

"No. It's all your fault. Mama forced me to take some kinda medicine to stop me from getting the chuma and she said it was your fault."

Johnny threw back his head and laughed. "Well, I guess you can blame me for that. Me and my brother, too. We wanted you to have some medicine so you wouldn't get sick."

"But your brother got sick," the child reasoned.

Johnny nodded. "Yup." He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the pommel of the saddle. "But that's because he didn't take his medicine."

It took a moment for the boy to digest that information, then he changed the subject. "Where're ya going?"

"Just looking around." Johnny scanned the area and pointed to a couple of cabins nestled in a thick stand of evergreens. "Does anyone live there?"

Anton craned his neck in the direction Johnny was looking. "Not now. They went down to the valley for the winter. My Papa, he'll be back soon even if he can't bring the wagon back." Johnny must have looked dubious because Anton added, "Papa walked thirty miles in snowshoes once, just to come and see Mama and me when we were living over the other side of the mountain."

"He did, huh?"

The boy nodded vigorously. "Uhuh. He wasn't always my Papa. We got married. I mean he married Mama."

"And you think he'll make his way back to Evergreen, do you?"

"If he says he'll be back then he'll be back. If he can't ride the mule he'll walk. My Papa's a man of his word," Anton said proudly.

Johnny laughed. "I'll bet he is." It would take quite a man to climb up the mountain to Evergreen in thigh-deep snow. He wondered if Mr. Petrov had been able to get the Harrington family to a doctor, and if their little boy had pulled through.

He looked down at Anton, whose knitted cap didn't hide his unruly blond curls, and uncertain if the kid knew that his friend - his only friend, it appeared - might not return. When Johnny was his age he'd been running around barefoot in the hot, dusty streets of Hermosillo, carrying stolen bread under his serape, knowing it was the only food he and his Mama would have to eat that day. He wondered where that memory had come from, but smiled to himself. After all, he'd told Scott he didn't steal. Well, it was the truth. He didn't steal any more and besides, he'd only done it to survive.

"Can I come with you? I can show you the best place to hunt," Anton offered.

"No thanks, kid. Not today. Where's your dog?"

As if on cue, the tall shaggy hound bounded towards out of the woods, frolicking in circles in the snow, chasing invisible rabbits. Anton yelled, "Pistol!"

Johnny started and almost went for his gun, having forgotten that Pistol was the name of the dog.

The dog went obediently to Anton's side. The boy greeted the dog with a hearty pat on its back. "Pistol's not very good at hunting, but he can run fast." The dog sat and panted with his tongue hanging out, and eyed Johnny, as if to say he knew how to hunt but just didn't choose to.

Johnny laughed at the dog's expression of disdain, said goodbye to the boy and rode on his way. He guided the horse through the woods where the snow wasn't as deep as out in the open, and pulled up at the deserted cabins. The first one wasn't hard to get in, as the door was halfway open. It was a mess inside; the roof had partially collapsed under the weight of the snow. Johnny poked around a bit but found nothing more than a couple of tins of beans. But they were rusty and not worth the risk.

The cabin next door wasn't locked, but the snow was piled up to the front door and he had to scrape it away with a board in order to gain entrance. Inside it was in good shape and the pantry was pretty well stocked. Johnny found an empty flour sack and filled it with some canned goods, half a can of coffee and some dried fruit, then left some coins on the counter as payment. If he and Scott ended up staying in Evergreen much longer he might have to raid the cabin again for more supplies. He'd go hunting for deer once he'd checked out the trail on the other side of town, and they'd be set for a while. If only he had some tequila he'd almost be happy.

When Johnny mounted up his eye caught something moving just to his left, and he had to unbutton his coat in order to draw his gun. Luckily, by the time it was out he'd realized it was only the boy, who had followed him. Pistol was by Anton's side, and he gave a friendly bark. Johnny called out, "Curiosity killed the cat, don't ya know that?"

"He ain't no cat!" Anton scurried away in the direction of his home, looking disgruntled as he pulled the dog along by its collar.

Johnny urged his horse through the heavy snow until he got back onto the road to town. He had the feeling people were watching him as he rode slowly through Evergreen, but nobody made an appearance.

There was evidence that people had traversed Evergreen's small main street. The snow was trodden flat up a narrow track to some snowy-roofed shacks that perched on the rocky hillside. The entrances to the mining tunnels, with chutes for sliding ore down to a contraption that appeared to be for sorting the findings, were visible. Johnny looked from the general store, which was closed up despite it being in the middle of the day, to the saloon. Nobody was in sight, but Johnny wasn't planning any visit with his new friends right then.

He peered at the cliff face that veered up behind the town, and caught sight of some activity. Shielding his eyes against the glare, Johnny made out a couple of the men he'd met at the saloon, using pickaxes on the rocky ledge. The sound of their efforts rang loudly in the sharp, cold air. Johnny called out a hello that echoed and they turned and waved in reply, then went back to work.

Johnny left the town behind and directed his mount through heavy, untouched snow for about a mile until his horse began to founder in its depth. The road, or what he assumed was the road, headed down an incline and wound around a rocky hillside and out of sight, but it was obviously impassable on horseback. Johnny's heart sank. There was no way he and Scott were going to be riding out of Evergreen any time soon.

Johnny dismounted, leaving his horse behind, and waded through the snow until he came to where the land dropped away. Above him and to one side was a rocky, pine tree-covered cliff. There was snow stuck to every surface, causing some of the trees to bed away from their precarious perch. The only sound breaking the dead silence was the cawing of a single crow sitting on a bare tree limb above and the creaking of the snow under his boots. Johnny eyed the bird but shook off the superstitious feeling it brought and turned to look at the view below.

It was dazzling in the brilliant sunshine, and he used a gloved hand to shield his eyes against the blinding glare. The whole valley spread out below, a dazzling white carpet of frozen snow. As far as the eye could see, the land was white with the occasional darker area where trees grew in small forests. There were some outcrops of rock, gleaming with ice, and way below a dark blue ribbon of river meandering through the flatlands.

When he squinted Johnny could just about make out a greenish area in the distance, below the snow line. It had to be forty miles or more but it might as well have been a thousand. There was no sign of life, no movement in the vast solitude, and

Johnny took in a deep breath of the invigoratingly cold air and couldn't help smiling up at the cloudless blue sky. The flakes sparkled on the trees like little diamonds. Wind had formed patterns on the surface of the drifts that looked like the sand in the desert, and everything, even the icy air, had a purity about it that was simply exhilarating. He realized that he liked the snow and the frigid temperature, although it would be a lot different if he didn't have a warm cabin to return to.

He felt someone watching him. He pivoted and saw the boy, Anton, standing way back on the snow-covered roadway. The kid shouted something at him, sounding angry, but Johnny couldn't catch what the small voice was saying.

"C'mon over and look at this view," Johnny called out, hailing the boy with a sweep of his arm.

"Don't-," shouted the small boy, his voice carried away on the wind.

Johnny stepped closer to the edge and looked down. It wasn't that steep, but the slope was very long and the untouched snow was smooth. Johnny looked back over his shoulder at Anton, who was struggling towards him, trying to wade through the deep snow. He raised his voice to the boy and said, "We need one of those toboggans and we could sle-." The snow shifted slightly under Johnny's boots, and he looked down as he spoke, only to see his feet sinking deeper. He took a step to get away from the edge of the incline, and another couple of steps back in haste, but suddenly the ground gave way.

The snow Johnny was standing on dropped away so abruptly he didn't even have time to yell. Anton's scream was the last thing he heard before being totally engulfed in a mountain of shifting snow. The roar was deafening as the entire side of the mountain came down on top of him.

~ • ~

Johnny tumbled head over heels as the avalanche of snow churned around him. His body was swept down the hill, colliding with hard objects as he went. He tried to grab something - anything - but his arms and legs were as limp as a rag doll's. His valiant struggles were useless against the churning mass of snow and debris. His face smacked into the snow, his gloves were torn away, and for a second he saw a flash of brilliant blue sky when his body rolled, but then he was face down again with icy snow shoved up his nose, a tree limb scraping his face. He tried to get a grip on something to stop the train wreck, to keep his head up and out of the rushing avalanche of frozen death. Just as he thought he was making headway, he was struck from behind with a powerful blow and he blacked out.

~ • ~

Johnny awoke with a start. At first he had no idea of what had occurred or where he was. All he knew was that there was something sharp sticking in his ribs, his face was on fire, there was something cold up his nostrils and in his ears and his whole body was freezing. He opened his eyes and blinked several times. It was dark except for a slight glimmer of light, above and far away. It took Johnny a few moments to understand what was going on - the enormity of his situation - and when it sunk in he panicked.

He wanted to claw his way out but he couldn't raise his arms. He struggled but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move more than an inch in any direction. That's when Johnny realized that the snow all around him was packed as hard as a rock. He was under a ton of snow, entombed and helpless, and he was going to die unless someone found him soon and dug him out. Johnny took a deep breath, made difficult by the snowpack wedged hard against his chest, and yelled at the top of his lungs.

*** TBC