Encountering Old Bones
At first I thought he was dead, lying there in the desert, his legs and extended arms protruding from behind one of the sparse cactus plants. Then I realised he was consciously holding up his rosary.
‘Well,’ I said to myself, ‘looks like I’m the answer to a freaking prayer! How about that?’
I got one of the team to give him some water, slowly at first, then lay him across the saddle of the pack-horse and make him secure (moving some of the baggage to our mounts). He was damn near collapsing, and couldn’t seem to talk but only gasp and grunt, yet he still clutched that rosary with fierce persistence.
We couldn’t tell what he was doing out there, apparently travelling on foot. Sure he needed help pronto, but did he also need jail when we got back to town? Was he running from the law, or escaping some desperado? He’d have to have a guard on him, either way.
We knew the way to the springs, which our guest obviously didn’t. We camped there overnight. We did our best to make him comfortable, but when we tried to get food into him, it dribbled back out of his mouth. He was barely conscious. Tom tried to gently take the rosary out of his hand to settle him on the blanket, but he half-roused then, muttered something that sounded angry or desperate or both, and clutched it tighter. We figured he was delirious, but not much we could do apart from give him another drink before we bedded down, and more when we woke.
We got under way again early. We shielded him from the sun as best we could and stopped now and then to give him a drink, which he could only just manage to gulp. We took him straight to the doc in the little hospital when we arrived. He was unconscious by then, but even in that state his fingers seemed glued around his rosary.
The doc found us in the saloon later, to tell us the poor man was so far gone he couldn’t save him. Then he told us a curious thing: the rosary was carved from human bone.
To be continued.
369 words written in response to Weekly Scribblings #42: About Those Bones at Poets and Storytellers United.
(Episode 2 is here.)
Wait! I want to know more!
ReplyDeleteOh good! Tune in on Sunday.
DeleteBrilliant, a series! The opening is so intriguing, Rosemary, and the mystery kept me hooked. Next instalment please!
ReplyDeleteCool set up! I and my tea shall be ready to take in the next portion of this tale on Sunday!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for Sundays! If not, I might have to gently strangle you--that's a monsters of a cliffhanger. I can't wait to see where the bones came from and why they affect him so.
ReplyDeleteMe too – though I do have some idea.
DeleteReady for the next chapter! Love the wariness of the narrator, the willingness to help but the refusal to trust.
ReplyDeleteOMG that end is so intriguing. I quite passed tge resonance of him beeing to far gone to quickly be held in awe if that human bone rosary
ReplyDeleteHappy Wednesday
Thanks for dropping by to read mine
Much❤love
ReplyDeleteAnxiously awaiting the "rest of the story"! Great mystery, leaving us in limbo!
ReplyDeleteThe anticipation of next weeks chapter is overwhelming. Writing serials is a lot of fun isn't it!
ReplyDeleteWhat am great read. No doubt the police would do their best to identify him but unless he is on a mising persons list that might be hard especially if his absence has not been noticed anywhere. Australia is just the place for such a situation to occur.
ReplyDeleteYes, Australia would be a good place for that – but I was imagining this in the American' wild West'.
DeleteA chill passed through my body as I read the final line .... brava.
ReplyDeleteWow! You took a few of my words and wove a suspenseful story--and there's more! I can hardly wait!
ReplyDeleteWell, you snagged me from the get go and now I am looking froward to Part II!
ReplyDeleteThis is an exciting story so far. I'll be back to read the next part on Sunday. :D
ReplyDeleteRosemary, have you postef more of this before ot is it the beginning.
ReplyDeleteThis is a suitable ending for me,
THE GUY DIED.
Do you remember the long time ago song with the words, "Now I don't know who she was or where she came from, I only know she had ringlets in her hair. She was a nice girl, a ____??__ girl, ...."
I liked coming to the "little hospital" part, that was the climax for me, ending the trsvelers' responsibilities .
..
This is episode 1, Jim. And it still doesn't explain the rosary.
DeleteI don't know about the ringlets, but perhaps you mean, 'She was a nice girl, a proper girl but one of the rovin' kind'? And indeed, that's somewhat where episode 2 will be heading.
Oh, I just looked up the song and it does include the line, 'her hair hung down in ringlets'. I remember it as a Guy Mitchell song, but apparently The Weavers did it too.
DeleteIntriguing.... Now off to part two!
ReplyDeleteSo intriguing, Rosemary. Looking forward to more of this tale.
ReplyDelete