The Handsome Stranger, Part 2
The Handsome Stranger stayed with Miss Wind for some time. They did not come around Rabbit’s place much, and that led to a fair amount of speculation and gossip.
Copperhead of course, made as much of it as possible, sneaking around and spying on the couple and adding such flourishes to the telling as to make for good gossip. Some even speculated that the couple would be married soon. But, as is often the case, after awhile folks went back to minding their own business and living their own lives.
As summer faded into fall, everyone prepared for the harvest. The weather that year was close to perfect for the growing of corn, and the people expected that the fall harvest would be one of the best in many years.
Needless to say, the harvest and the ceremonies associated with it were looked forward to with eager anticipation. In those days, the harvest was a time of communal effort, with each clan and household helping their neighbor to bring in the crop while the weather was good. Old friendships and kinships were renewed and solidified, as well as new friends made and new relatives adopted.
It was during the harvest celebration that we discovered that The Handsome Stranger had taken his leave of Miss Wind and returned to his own place. But no one it seemed was prepared to say where his place was. Miss Wind and her mother were silent on the matter and refused to speak on it at all. This led to a new round of gossip and speculation as to exactly who the stranger was and where he was from. On this, we had no knowledge and the only ones who knew for sure, Miss Wind and her family, were not talking.
So as before we eventually went back to minding our own business until early the next spring when Miss Wind’s mother announced that her family welcomed a new grandson.
The Handsome Stranger it seemed stayed with Miss Wind long enough for nature to take its course and she welcomed a son as strong and handsome as his father. But even then, her family remained silent as to who the stranger was or where he was from. Meanwhile the young boy grew, and his family prospered, but he always seemed to be just a little stronger and faster then his contemporaries. That is the way it was until his 12th birthday.
The spring he turned 12 the boy developed a terrible skin condition. His mother took him to every Medicine Person she could find, not only in our town, but in the neighboring towns as well. No one could help. It was at this time that his mother understood that she must tell him the secret of his father, a secret she had sworn not to tell; but if she did not, it would mean her son’s life.
She took him to the river and told it all. She told him the secret that his father was in not a man at all but a spirit in the form of a man, and that only his father would have the medicine to cure his disease. She instructed her son that he would need to travel far to the west, to the place where his father lived, and endure many trials before he could receive the medicine, but if he could do this he would be cured.
The young boy, raised as a Cherokee to value courage and to never countenance fear or give in to pain, took all of this in stride, reassuring his mother that he understood and that he would return. It was an impressive show of courage for a young boy, even if he was Cherokee.
The next morning as the moon was setting, the boy gathered up his traveling bundle, bid his mother farewell and started off on the path that led to the western mountains. Copperhead watched as the boy started his journey and smiled, knowing he would have much to gossip about at Rabbit’s place.
Join us here next week for part three of “The Handsome Stranger.”