Chapter Four –Bunny

It was still early afternoon when Jack looked out the jailhouse window and saw the students hurrying out of the mercantile classroom, chasing each other and laughing. When he looked at his watch, he was surprised to see that it was too late for lunch recess and too early for the end of the school day.

Setting down his pencil, Jack retrieved his hat and walked the short distance home.

"What's with all the students running out of here?" he greeted Elizabeth.

"We were discussing portmanteaus and things got a little out of hand. I ended up just dismissing them early", Elizabeth said in exasperation as she gathered up school books.

"I'd sympathize with you. Or maybe with your students. Except I have no idea what a portmanteau is", Jack replied with a grin as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"It's a linguistic blend of words."

"I still don't know what it is. But I'm already sympathizing with your students", he said with a snicker.

"It's putting two words together but not as if they would follow each other in a sentence. It's taking two words to make a new word which describes something", Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth continued explaining when Jack gave her a blank look.

"Like 'spork'. It's a utensil that's a spoon and a fork. It's a spork! Or like 'brunch'. It's a meal that's both breakfast and lunch. Or like smog. That's what they have in London - a mixture of smoke and fog."

"So how does an English lesson get out of hand?" Jack asked as he followed Elizabeth to the kitchen.

"The children made up portmanteaus and they each stood up to read theirs. Things were getting a little silly. And then Jacob said, 'Mrs. Thornton is a preacher' – a pregnant teacher. . . which isn't exactly a portmanteau but all the kids thought it was very funny. The idea of you married to a lady preacher. And I finally had the class under control when, well . . . then . . . "

"What?"

"Poor Lisa Anne. She's so shy and we've been working on that. This was the first time that she's said a whole sentence without stuttering. She was trying so hard", Elizabeth said as she poured them each a glass of lemonade and handed one to Jack.

"What did she say?"

"She was trying to make a portmanteau about where we live. The students find it very interesting that we live in the old mercantile. Our home is a combination of a house and a store."

"So?"

"She had no idea what she was saying! She's not even six."

"What did she say?"

"She said 'I saw Sergeant Thornton standing by his hore.'"

Jack sputtered and lemonade spewed out of his mouth.

"I had to excuse them for the rest of the day. There was no getting them under control after that. Even the ones that usually only speak French were in peals of laughter", Elizabeth admitted with a smile.

Elizabeth had fallen asleep after Jack went back to work. It happened to her more often than not after school let out for the day, even though today it was earlier than usual. The summer heat, the pregnancy, the long days teaching or preparing the home and unpacking newly arriving crates of supplies, had all taken their toll.

She had put the chicken in the oven, intending to grade a few papers while it cooked, but her eyelids had grown heavy and the words on the pages had danced around until she finally succumbed to sleep.

The bubbling hot juices from the chicken ran over the shallow pain and landed on the hot inside surface of the oven, causing a sizzling sound. If she had been awake, Elizabeth would have scowled just thinking about having to clean the inside of the oven. But she slept through the juices dripping, searing onto the hot iron surface.

Elizabeth's 15 minute napped turned into 20 minutes. Then into 40 minutes. And then into more than an hour. The chicken juices evaporated leaving a dry tough piece of inedible fowl. There were no longer white and dark pieces of the bird. They were all just black.

The wisps of smoke began seeping out of the edges of the oven door.

Initially attracted to the smell of the cooking chicken, Comet's delicate cat nose now found the burning smell offensive. She jumped up on the open window sill and then, with a backward glance at the sleeping Elizabeth, she leaped onto the porch outside and sauntered down the street.

"Wake up".

The voice was a soft whisper.

Elizabeth heard it in her dream. The sweet sound of a woman's voice telling her to wake up. She stirred slightly but chose to remain in her dream of wandering in a flowershop.

"You have to wake up", the voice repeated more urgently this time.

Elizabeth grumbled and turned sleepily onto her other side, knocking one of the couch's throw pillows to the floor where it landed on her students' papers.

She felt a nudge to her shoulder and swatted away the bothersome presence which was trying to interrupt her sleep.

"I said you have to wake up!"

The harshness of the words caused Elizabeth to open her eyes. She looked around, expecting to see someone and was surprised that no one was there. Momentarily startled, she realized that she must have been dreaming.

She sat up and brushed the hair from her face.

What is that smell?

Smoke!

Racing to the oven, Elizabeth grabbed a dishtowel and opened the iron door, releasing clouds of smoke that stung her eyes.

Coughing and turning her head away from the heat and acrid billowing haze, she took hold of the pan containing the dead fowl and carried it to the front door.

She set it down to open the door, and then used her foot to kick the smoking pan outside, waving the dishtowel to clear the air.

"Elizabeth!"

Jack had finished work for the day and was crossing the street when he saw her. He took one look at his coughing wife, her hair askew, standing in the doorway waving a towel in cloud of smoke, and he quickened his pace.

"What happened?!" he asked as he glanced at the pan of burnt chicken and tried to decipher what it had once been.

"Dinner" she responded simply as he put his arm around her and walked her back into the house.

Jack left the door open, and took the towel from her hand. "Sit down", he instructed as he went the bedroom and opened the window.

"Why weren't you watching the oven?!" he asked as he tried to clear the air.

Jack looked at her worriedly as Elizabeth explained that she must have fallen asleep on the couch while grading papers.

"Thank goodness you woke up in time."

"I was having a dream and I heard someone tell me to wake up. And then someone nudged me."

"Someone nudged you?"

"It was just a dream. But it felt so real. Like someone was really touching my shoulder."

"It could have been Rip. Or maybe Comet. You know how she always likes to crawl on me when I'm sleeping", Jack said as he poured her glass of water.

"Yeah. I suppose. But that's you. She doesn't do that as much with me."

"I suppose it could have been her", Elizabeth added hesitantly as she took the glass from Jack.

Elizabeth lightly touched her shoulder with her other hand, which she left there for a moment as she remembered the feeling of the nudge.

"I guess you're right. Well, then I owe Comet a big thank you for waking me up. She saved my life."

Ten minutes later, as she poured dry cereal flakes into bowls for dinner and Jack took the milk from the ice box, neither one of them bothered to think that they hadn't seen Comet in the house.

Elizabeth was reminded of the burned chicken when she unpinned her hair as she got ready for bed. As her long tresses fell down past her shoulders, she noticed the smell. She brought a handful of hair to her nose and sniffed, crinkling her nose in repulsion. I can't sleep with this.

"Jack, I'm going to shampoo my hair!" she called out to him in the front room. "I'll just do it in the kitchen sink. I'm too tired to take a bath."

Elizabeth gathered a towel and her shampoo and was heading into the kitchen when Jack approached her with a smile. "How about I help?"

The warm water felt wonderful and relaxing. Elizabeth sat on a chair with her back to the sink, her head tilted back so that her long hair hung down into the porcelain basin. It reminded her of when she used to get her hair washed at the fancy hair salon in Hamilton except instead of the young girl, Marguerite, lathering up her curls, Elizabeth had the strong masculine hands of Jack.

Elizabeth kept her eyes closed as she enjoyed the feel of his fingers massaging her scalp. She found herself almost nodding off to sleep as Jack hummed a tune and rinsed the bubbles from her hair.

Elizabeth was disappointed when Jack turned off the water and placed a towel on her hair. It had been so calming that she didn't want the experience to end.

Even when Elizabeth felt Jack move from her side to the front of her, she kept her eyes closed, savoring the relaxed moment.

Jack straddled the chair in which Elizabeth was sitting. Before she was quite knew what he was doing, he had moved her nightdress over her thighs, lifted her hips, and positioned himself so that he was now sitting on the seat of the chair which she occupied. He moved her again and inched forward so that she sat on his lap, her leg straddling him as they faced each other.

As Jack moved his mouth along her upper body, Elizabeth gasped and then smiled. This is certainly not like the hair salon, she thought before everything was pushed out of her mind except the taste of Jack's mouth on hers.

He took his time with the kiss, making it long and warm at first.

Then, exciting her to the point where she was hurriedly undressing him.

Later, when Elizabeth was gathering their discarded clothes from the kitchen floor, she felt it again. The strange presence.

Something hovering around her.

Watching her.

Waiting for something to happen to her.

Waiting for something to happen to her and Jack's unborn baby.

Elizabeth shuddered before hurriedly throwing the clothes in the laundry hamper and joining Jack in bed.

By the next afternoon, Elizabeth had forgotten about the burnt chicken, the shampooing of her hair, and Jack's attention. She was more concerned about how to get home.

Where am I? How did I get so turned around?

It had started off as a simple walk to enjoy the weather and pick some berries. Elizabeth had been grateful to be in the woods where it was at least 10 degrees cooler than in town.

Somehow Elizabeth had paid more attention to finding the plumpest berries than to where she was wandering. By the time her basket was full of fruit and she looked around, Elizabeth realized she had no idea where she was.

She pushed aside the nervousness that was creeping up on her. I'm just fine. I just have to start moving in the right direction. I can't be far off the path.

But what's the right direction?!

Elizabeth stood up straight with her shoulders pushed back and then wiped the sweat from her brow. With a firm grasp on her basket, she chose what she thought was the correct direction of town and began walking

After just a few minutes, she was starting to feel nervous.

What if this isn't the right direction? I don't recognize anything. Every tree and bush looks the same.

Elizabeth stopped and looked around, straining on her tiptoes to see over the shrubs and through the trees for some detail of town. But she couldn't see or hear anything of the civilization she had left 40 minutes earlier.

She naively looked to the sky but it was too hot outside for chimneys to be spewing clouds of grey smoke.

There was no clue as to the location of the town.

Even the town children had grown hot and tired after a short time in the heat and had ceased their games of running and shouting in play, returning indoors for lemonade and leaving the pastures surrounding the town as quiet sleepy fields of grass.

The rustle of the leaves caused Elizabeth to jump.

She looked quickly to her right and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was only a squirrel that had made the noise.

Elizabeth began walking again but quickened her pace.

She had walked another 10 minutes in one direction before she finally admitted it couldn't be the way to town. I should have been there by now.

Her eyes began to feel the sting of tears as she realized she had made a mistake.

She was lost.

Hopelessly lost.

A movement to her left caused her to drop her drop her basket, spilling the berries onto the ground. She chided herself for being so timid as she crouched down and picking up the berries, putting them back into the simple basket.

It was probably just another squirrel. Or maybe a fox making the noise. That's all. Stop being a ninny, she told herself. I'm probably really close to town. I just can't see it.

When she stood up, she glanced to her left and was startled to see a woman standing approximately 60 feet away. The woman, whose long black hair hung down past her shoulders, smiled and motioned with hand for Elizabeth to follow her.

"Hello! I'm coming. Wait for me" Elizabeth called out as she made her way towards the woman. "I'm so glad to run into you. I'm afraid I was a little lost!"

Elizabeth hurried to catch up the woman, who kept moving, nimbly crossing over fallen trees and past bushes, even though she herself appeared to be pregnant. Every time Elizabeth thought she had lost track of the woman, she caught another glimpse of her up ahead.

"I'm coming!" Elizabeth yelled again as she yanked her skirt loose from a thorny branch and hurried in the woman's direction.

When she came to an open field, Elizabeth looked around but the woman had disappeared from view. Elizabeth paused to catch her breath and smiled when she saw the town across the field, less than a two minute walk.

"This pie is delicious, Elizabeth."

"Thanks. Abigail, the friend I told you about, taught me how to bake. It took her a while, but I eventually learned how to make a few things", Elizabeth responded with a smile as she refilled Lucy's water glass.

"I should have gone berry picking with you. Michael loves a good pie."

Elizabeth served them each another slice of pie as she explained to Lucy about how she had become lost in the woods.

"Oh, you mean Bunny", Lucy said as Elizabeth finished telling her what happened and describing the woman.

"Bunny? Who's she?"

"She's a native. An Indian. Cree. She likes to help the woman around here. Especially pregnant women. She has a soft spot for us. She knows a lot about childbirth and pregnancy."

"I'd like to meet her sometime"

Lucy laughed. "That's a little hard to arrange. You only see Bunny when she wants you to see her."

Before Elizabeth could ask any more questions, the small clock on the sideboard chimed.

"Oh my goodness. Look at the time!" Lucy exclaimed. "I've got to get home and get dinner started. Thanks for the pie!"

It wasn't until later that evening that Elizabeth noticed that the clock was wrong. It was an hour too fast. Lucy could have stayed longer. Oh well, Elizabeth thought as she turned the clock hands, resetting it to the correct time.

"Jack, have you ever met a Cree woman around here?" Elizabeth asked the next day over breakfast.

"Can't say I have", he responded as he took a sip of coffee and set the cup down on the table. "Why? Who is she?"

"Remember when I told you I was picking berries and I got lost in the woods and followed that woman?"

"Yes. You know, you worry me entirely too much. Do you think you can just stay close to home while we live here?" he asked.

Elizabeth ignored his question as she took a forkful of scrambled eggs.

"I think her name is Bunny. Lucy told me that she's a Cree woman living in the area. I'd like to meet her but I've never seen her in town."

"If I see her, I'll thank her for helping you out. By the way, these are delicious eggs."

"They're from Ernestine."

"Well we better hurry up and eat because your students will be here any minute", Jack said as he took a sip of juice. "That reminds me, the mayor wants to talk to you about writing a proposal to the province to get money for a new school."

Two weeks later, Jack didn't know how to tell Elizabeth what he had found out about Bunny.

Or whether to tell her anything at all.

Jack had initially forgotten to ask anyone about the Cree woman, but when one of the local men had given him given him some jars of preserves which his wife had made as a welcome gift for the Thorntons, Jack was reminded of Elizabeth getting lost in the woods when berry picking.

The local man's odd look and curt response that he didn't know anyone named Bunny caused Jack's barely casual interest in the woman to increase.

It was another married man who finally told Jack what his own wife had told him about Bunny.

Now, Jack just didn't know what to do with the information.

The last thing he wanted was for Elizabeth to be upset during her pregnancy, and he wasn't sure how she'd react to the news.

He wished he had never asked around about the pregnant Indian woman. But he had. And now he knew what had happened to her. Jack finally decided that unless Elizabeth asked him, he wasn't going to bring up the subject.

If he could keep the information to himself until after their own baby was born, it would be much better for Elizabeth, he reasoned. He just hoped that she didn't ask any of the other women in town.

Two days later as they were getting ready for dinner, Elizabeth asked.

"Jack, did you ever find out where Bunny lives? I'd like to stop by and introduce myself. I told you that I think she's pregnant too. Although, she looked a lot farther along than me. She's probably due any day now. I want to offer to help if she needs anything. Maybe make her and her husband a meal when the baby's born."

"Elizabeth –" Jack's voice trailed off and he took a deep breath.

"What?"

"Are you sure you saw this woman? In the woods?"

Elizabeth gave Jack a puzzled look as she put the silverware on the table for dinner. "Of course, I saw her. I saw her again last week. When I was down by the creek with my students. She was picking some lavender. I called out to her but she must not have heard me over the sound of the water."

"I don't want you to think about Bunny. Let's just concentrate on you and our baby and us. How are your students doing? Did they enjoy your idea for putting on a play?"

"Jack, she's pregnant. Like me. She can probably use some help. What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing. I just don't want you concerning yourself with things that don't affect us. Here, let me get the plates for you", Jack said as he opened the cupboard and took out two plates.

"What is going on? What did you find out about Bunny?"

Jack set the plates on the table, and kept his back to Elizabeth for a moment before finally turning to her and speaking.

"She died in childbirth."

"Oh my god, no!" Elizabeth gasped as she brought her hand to her mouth in surprise, and slumped into a chair.

"The baby too?"

"What?" Jack's voice sounded distracted. "Oh, yeah, the baby died too."

"I never got to thank her for helping me in the woods" Elizabeth cried as her eyes welled up with tears.

"What if something like that happens to me? To the baby?", she asked worriedly as she put her hands on her stomach and tears began running down her cheeks.

Jack bent down and reached into Elizabeth's skirt pocket, taking out her handkerchief for her.

"Shhh, sweetie. Nothing's going to happen to you. You're perfectly healthy and you and the baby will be just fine." Jack assured her as he handed her the handkerchief to wipe her tears.

"Bunny looked perfectly healthy. These things happen" , Elizabeth said between quiet sobs.

"Let's just put Bunny out of our minds. Okay?"

"No, it's not okay. She died in childbirth", Elizabeth said between tears. "I could too."

"You're not going to die in childbirth. Stop thinking that way."

"When did it happen?"

"That's what bothers me", Jack responded. He stood up and furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Why? When did she die?" Elizabeth looked up at him.

When Jack didn't answer, she asked again.

"When did she die? Jack, answer me", she ordered.

Jack paused and gave her a strange look before answering.

"40 years ago."

Up next - Chapter 5 - Stories