“Calamity.”
Mrs. Jerrine Reed stood center stage at the opera house. Even more homesteaders had left when the truly heavy winter snows began. The town’s population had shrunk by a quarter from the last time they’d all been here, when Mrs. Reed read out women’s triumphs from around the world.
This made the already empty plains feel even lonelier. Even with all of the remaining population of Big Sandy in attendance, the opera house only sat less than one-third full. The bell clanged outside even though the show had begun. Considering the state of the weather, some folks might be lost in the night if they didn’t have that sound, and the pilot light, to draw them into town.
“I’d hoped to hold tonight’s meeting as we’d done before,” Mrs. Reed continued. “Read off some inspiring bits of news, hand out newspapers, greet one another as neighbors. But tonight will be different. Nevertheless, on behalf of the local chapter of the Busy Bees, I welcome all of you here.”
She looked toward the curtains, where the other Busy Bees were gathered.
“Our small community is no stranger to hardship,” Mrs. Reed began. Though she’d said she wasn’t going along with the usual program, two copies of the Mountaineer lay on the stage, by her feet. “None of us trekked to this grand land expecting to put up our feet and rest.”
Mrs. Reed looked down into the floor seats, to the faces there.
“But even for us, these past weeks have been a test.”
Mrs. Reed looked to the side of the stage again. Now there were two men standing with the Busy Bees. The pair were expected. She turned back to the audience.
“Chouteau County is named for a pair of fur traders,” Mrs. Reed said, “Augusta and Pierre, who owned the trading post out of Fort Benton. When Mr. Reed and I first came here, we stayed at the fort, but soon enough we got out to Big Sandy.
“If you can believe it, there weren’t enough people here to fill the stage I’m standing on. When it’s as empty as all that, you make friends wherever you can. That’s how we came to know Rocky Boy, the Chippewa chief. We even had him into our home.
“He explained that his people had come to Montana because of a prophecy. Westward from Pennsylvania until they reached this land about twenty-five years ago. Along the way his people faced hardship and rejection from settlers and red men alike. Their only kindred turned out to be the Cree, led by another chief, Little Bear.
“In 1902 Rocky Boy asked President Roosevelt to establish a reservation for his people. He was rejected. In 1904 he tried again, but met the same response. In 1909 Rocky Boy and his people were thrown on trains and moved like steerage to the Blackfeet Reservation, but conditions for them there were so poor they had to fashion an escape past the armed guards who surrounded the reservation.
“They hope that President Wilson will finally grant their petition. It hasn’t happened this year, but perhaps it will come to be in 1916. It would be a great gift if Rocky Boy were able to do what even Moses wasn’t. To walk his people into the promised land and prosper with them there.”
Mrs. Reed walked along the edge of the stage as she spoke, looking into the shadowed upper tier, then down to the seats on the floor. The upper tier sat empty.
“One of the stories Rocky Boy told me was about Old Snowbird and Lady Snowbird, a pair of wolves they say are the mother and father of all the wolves on this continent. He said they were majestic, but fierce. And always hungry. Rocky Boy’s people believed that when a Chippewa died on their long journey west, it was Old Snowbird and Lady Snowbird who had caught up to them on the trail and snatched them away to the Realm Eternal.”
Mrs. Reed put her hand up to the audience as if to wave off any skepticism.
“I know,” she said. “I thought the same when Rocky Boy spoke of such things. Magic wolves. The kind of story one loves from such people, but hardly to be taken seriously. Local color, as they say.”
Mrs. Reed looked back toward the curtain, waved once.
“But recently, as our town has been thrown under a cloak of fear and lethality, I was visited by two men with a story I wanted all of you to hear.”
Out from the curtains walked Finn Kirby.
A moment later Matthew Kirby appeared.