THE CHAPEL • GRIDIRON • BEATRICE STANDS • AN EAGLE & THREE HAWKS • EXPULSION
THE CHILDREN were restless through Mass, craning their necks to look out the thick stained-glass windows, trying to get a glimpse of the Frozen Man. From where he sat, Lionel could see the soldiers. They passed the Frozen Man’s bottle of corn liquor between them, each taking a swig. Lumpkin sat in the snow with his arm around the Frozen Man and held the bottle up before drinking. Then, the men tried, as best they could, to lift the man. But the Frozen Man remained kneeling, his arm outstretched, and this made it difficult.
The priest joined Brother Finn at the altar. They droned on in Latin while Lionel and the rest of the children listened, not really having a clue what they said.
Lionel glanced at Beatrice, who stared silently at the crucifix that hung above the altar. Beatrice once told Lionel that she admired Christ and said that he must have been a great man to be able to face death with such conviction. Lionel saw that Delores Ground was also looking at Beatrice and then at him. He quickly dropped his head and stared down at his shoes.
Lionel and Delores had been partners once when the captain’s wife had gathered the children and tried to teach them a dance from the East that she called the Virginia Reel. Lionel thought that he would someday take Delores as his wife, but that was before Barney Little Plume, from the school down by Heart Butte, gave Delores some rock candy in exchange for a kiss.
The children from Heart Butte had come up for a day of athletic competition, and that afternoon, Chalk Bluff played Heart Butte in a game of gridiron football. Beatrice, despite being two years too young to play and a girl, ran with the ball to score on four different occasions. She also, on one of her many tackles, forced Barney to leave the game by breaking his leg. No one could stop Beatrice on that day. Chalk Bluff beat Heart Butte 32–0. After the game, the older men on the tribal council said that if Beatrice had been born a boy, she would have been a great warrior and horseman like her father and grandfather.
The Brothers and soldiers of Chalk Bluff were also impressed with Beatrice’s athleticism. They’d even gone so far as to hide from the Brothers who ran the Heart Butte School that Beatrice was a girl. They listed her as “Bill” on the team roster and tied her braids up, hiding them under a leather helmet. They knew that Chalk Bluff could always count on Beatrice. And they were right. In every competition, no matter what it was or who it was against, Beatrice won. That, and the fact that she got so sick, is why Lionel thought Beatrice received different treatment from the Brothers and soldiers than the rest of the students did.
The day of the Heart Butte football game was the last time that Lionel had held Delores Ground’s hand. Lionel eyed Delores across the chapel and once again thought that they would not be married after all.
“Now, if everyone will please bow your heads.”
Brother Finn broke from his Latin for a moment as the priest prepared the Eucharist for Communion. “Yes, bow your heads and say a prayer for the poor soul whose unfortunate demise was discovered this morning before Mass.”
The children did as they were told, some of them pulling out their rosaries and murmuring their way down the many beads. Lionel stole a glance at Beatrice who had begun her prayer, which also started as a low murmur but slowly grew to a chant, then a song. She held her head low, but would occasionally raise her eyes toward the paint-peeled ceiling, her song becoming more and more audible as she went. The priest had asked the children to pray, and as far as Lionel was concerned, he couldn’t tell the difference between Brother Finn’s prayers in Latin and what Beatrice was singing. He didn’t fully understand either of them, so he joined Beatrice.
Lionel’s song also started low, but soon grew. As he imitated Beatrice, he began to think about the great green pasture that stood before their grandfather’s house and the mountain that towered in the distance above his tiny cabin. He also thought of an eagle and the three hawks that he and Beatrice had seen circling overhead one day. They had watched them until they were only black dots in the bluest of blue skies.
Lionel heard a bell ring and no longer saw the sky. He looked toward the altar where Brother Finn stood glaring at him and Beatrice.
As their singing grew louder, Brother Finn urged them with his eyes to stop, then glanced with apprehension toward the priest, who looked around like an eagle, trying to determine where the song originated. A moment later, the priest was down from the altar and looming above Lionel.
Beatrice continued to sing. So Lionel continued to sing.
“And that will be enough of that there, Miss Beatrice, Mr. Lionel,” the priest announced. But the song continued.
Lionel looked out the window at Ulysses pacing restlessly in his corral and then stared down at the cracked, worn leather of his shoes. He continued to sing with Beatrice as Brother Finn tried to continue in Latin. The priest shot a glare at Brother Finn, who grew immediately silent.
“Miss Beatrice, Mr. Lionel, I said that is enough!”
The song stopped.
“I’m trying to pray,” Beatrice said firmly.
“Trying to pray by mumbling gibberish to the wind? I most certainly think not.” And this the priest punctuated by grabbing Beatrice and Lionel by their ears and yanking them to their feet, as if pulling a pair of jackrabbits from a hole.
And then Beatrice said it.
“What’s the difference from whatever the hell you’ve been mumblin’?”
A collective gasp came from the Brothers and children. Lionel thought that the priest’s face would explode. It turned red, then almost purple. The priest jerked them sideways toward the back of the chapel.
“I will not have you disrespecting the Lord with some half-cocked pagan philosophies in His house—or anywhere else, for that matter.”
The rest of the children were now on their feet trying to get a clear view. Another Brother, Brother Thomas, stood to make his way toward the priest, who was struggling to get Lionel and Beatrice down the aisle. Brother Thomas reached out as they passed, but missed, tripping over one of the other children and spilling into the aisle with a thud. The entire church erupted with laughter.
Brother Thomas scrambled back to his feet. “Eyes to the front!” he instructed the congregation in a tightened whisper.
“You are in the House of the Lord,” the priest continued. “You and your brother, Lionel, will act accordingly or prepare yourself to face the consequence of your actions.” The priest shoved them toward the door, but Beatrice suddenly stopped.
“You’ll leave my brother alone,” she said, as more a matter of fact than anything else.
The priest pulled Beatrice closer. “Is that right, young Beatrice? You’re quite bold today, aren’t ya? well, let me tell you something, my young friend, I will not have you disrupting these Holiest of the blessed sacraments.”
“Well, they ain’t mine,” Beatrice replied.
With this, the priest slapped Beatrice across the face. “And I will not have you comparing your heathen rituals to the direct word of our Savior.”
The priest pushed Beatrice out the double doors. Lionel tried to follow, but was grabbed by Brother Thomas. Jenkins, Lumpkin, and the other men scrambled to attention, hiding the green glass bottle in the snow.
The priest stood on the top step of the church, his heavy black robes engulfing Beatrice like the wings of a raven. “Sergeant, see to it that Miss Beatrice finds her way to the barber,” he said, releasing Beatrice’s ear and practically throwing her down the stairs, “and then to the quartermaster. I do not want to see her out of uniform again!”
The priest turned his back on Beatrice. He stepped inside the chapel, shut the doors behind him, then glared at Lionel and the other children as he stormed up the aisle to the altar.
Brother Thomas pulled Lionel down into the pew beside him. “If you’re smart, you won’t follow your sister’s arrogant ways!” he snapped.
Through the stained glass of the windows, Lionel saw the soldiers moving toward Beatrice.