The Holy Road

Chapter LIV

Two days later, Kicking Bird and Lawrie Tatum boarded a westbound train, and, though he had made a full recovery and had not been damaged physically, the Comanche was still shaken when he took his seat.

Having no idea how he had been spared made the entire episode impossible to reconcile. How was it that his nose had found and pressed itself into a crack in the wood that provided enough oxygen to keep his body from succumbing to the gas? How was it that he had been found and pulled from the room with what the whites said were minutes to live?

How could it be that Ten Bears' body lay on the floor of a coach a few behind his own, his remains enclosed in one of the white man's death boxes? How could it be that an old man's humble wish to die on the prairie had not been granted? How could the Mystery let it come to this?

Kicking Bird had never felt more helpless. He could not exist in his present state, yet he was powerless to change it. The past was gone, the future was overwhelming, and his life, as he sat inert and shattered, was being measured out minute by minute.

The train jerked ahead and, with each revolution of its wheels, a healing miracle began as well. Knowing that he was moving west drove Kicking Bird's soul forward, and by the time they crossed the span over the Mississippi River, the far-seeing Comanche realized that he was nearly whole again.

Perhaps he was intact once more because he was also feeling a new, exhilarating sense of purpose. The Comanches, whether they knew it or not, had their greatest protector in the man Kicking Bird. It was Kicking Bird who was best qualified to see them through the struggle of change, and this he was resolved to do even if it meant the sacrifice of all he possessed, even his life.

Now he was ready to lay himself down and let his people cross over to the future with all the security his body and spirit could provide.