Man of Justice

Chapter Sixteen

Jarrod again stood in the wigwam he'd awakened in. He knew the man who he'd been given too expected him to get outside and work alongside the other boys, but today he was dragging his feet. He hated going outside in only the loincloth and moccasins. He'd have looked for his other clothes, but where on earth could one hide them in such a structure as this? He'd slowly accepted the fact that the items had been thrown away or used for something else.

As he looked out the entrancerway, Jarrod could see the men, women and children moving around. He sighed; in the two weeks he'd been living and working in the village he'd seen a few white traders off in the distance, but every time he'd seen them Jarrod had found himself being hurried off in the opposite direction. Since he didn't understand the words being spoken to him, he didn't understand that Straight Arrow only feared for the boy's life. After all, the Shoshone brave had seen how the white man treated not only his people but the whites who had lived among the Shoshone and other tribes. That fact, along with not knowing the travelers had not seen him, made it so Jarrod was left to confusion, anger, pain, homesickness and a feeling of abandonment.

"Nick was right." Jarrod sighed as he stepped out his new home, "I should have listened. We all should have listened. Now I'm stuck in a Shoshone Village miles away from home." Shoshone; it was a word that had only been a name in a book until he'd heard one of the travelers say the word just before Straight Arrow had hurried him off in the other direction.

"Mad-zat-tim-ma!" Jarrod jumped when he heard Straight Arrow bark firmly, though his tone held no harshness in it. He looked at the man and to where he was pointing. The front "door" was open. "Mad-zat-tim-ma!" the man spoke again as he looked from Jarrod to the opened "door". The "door" on his Shoshone Father's home was simply a flap of cloth that could be pulled to one side…in order to cover the entrance way.

In his state of mind, Jarrod had left it opened. "Guess he wants the flap down." He mumbled, and then turned around and laid the cloth over opening. When he had that done, Straight Arrow led him to a broken fishing net and pointed to it speaking other words that Jarrod wished he understood. He took a guess at what the man wanted and started working on fixing the item. The guess must have been a good one as he was left to work on it alone.

When he heard footsteps approaching, Jarrod looked up. It was one of a young man by the name of Raging River's Friend. The lad had been polite to Jarrod from the beginning, unlike some of the other boys who had pointed and called out various words while laughing and mocking him. In fact, the young man was taking Jarrod under his wing and doing what he could to help him learn the Shoshone language. The two were becoming fast friends.

"Hob-by-we-he." Jarrod's friend pointed to the small pocket knife Jarrod had with him, it was one thing that had not disappeared when his clothes had. His friend had said the word more than once and then looked at Jarrod.

Jarrod had remained silent when the boy talked before, only now he was getting the idea. Hob-by-we-he must be the Shoshone word for pocket knife. "Hob-by-we-he." Jarrod tried to say the word, but it came out sounding funny. It didn't matter though, his new friend simply repeated the word, and then repeated it as Jarrod tried to say it. Jarrod didn't know if it was because he was tired of not being able to understand what was being said around him or what, all he knew was he found himself wanting, really wanting, to learn the language. That being the case, while Jarrod worked his friend would point to various things, say the name, and then Jarrod would repeat it.

By the time he'd finished with the net, Jarrod's friend had had to leave. Again, Jarrod was left alone. Not knowing exactly what he was supposed to do with the net, Jarrod picked it up and headed for the only person he could think of who could help him, Straight Arrow. He might not know the man by that name yet, but he still knew his face.

Jarrod was more than relieved when he saw Straight Arrow heading for him as Jarrod was, for the hundredth time, feeling more than uneasy at the young Indian maidens who would look his way point and whisper. He wasn't some foreign object to be stared at and studied. None of it might have been that bad if only he could get on a horse and ride around, but that was something he wasn't being given. In his state of mind, Jarrod assumed it was because he was being held captive and the Shoshone did not want him to escape. The truth was far from that; Straight Arrow simply feared the boy would get lost and be found by one of their enemies. If that happened, he feared for the boy's life and, worse yet, what would be done to him before the enemy killed him. Unfortunately, it would be months before Jarrod understood this, so Jarrod remained guarded and self conscious around many in the village.

When Straight Arrow reached his son, he motioned for the boy to follow him, and Jarrod obeyed. He wasn't surprised when they wound back up in the area he'd been fixing the net in. Once Straight Arrow showed him where to put the net, he handed Jarrod another net and had him go to work on it. The rest of the day Jarrod worked on nets, doing his best to keep his mind off the people in the village who continued to look at him as if he was participating in some carnival freak side show. Any tears that wanted to come were saved until later, until he lay under his blanket late at night, wondering just how long he was going to be away from his family.

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Mad-zat-tim-ma=Shut the door

Hob-by-we-he = Pocket Knife