Saving Alice chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Out of a black fog Matthew’s senses started to return to him. Throbbing pain was prodding him awake. Slowly he opened his eyes just a crack. The sun seemed to stab at his eyes, making them pucker in defense. Turning his head away from the sun, a wave of pain washed over his muddled brain. Instinctively he tried to bring his hand to his head for comfort, but he found that his hand refused to move. After a short moment of allowing the pain to settle, he put some concentrated effort to moving his hand. This time it moved with his will, but not without a new wave of pain emanating from his shoulder. When he touched his head he felt something sticky. He pulled his hand to within his line of sight and he could clearly see the crimson blood smeared on his fingers.

The sight of blood called him further back into reality and helped to clear the lingering stupor from his mind. In a flash he remembered everything from the sound of the scar-faced thief to the falling from his horse. And though his mind had risen out further from the blackness, his heart now sank into it. He closed his eyes again and remembered what he had said to his wife back at the stagecoach office.

Matthew and Alice had packed their few belongings into two stout bags, and traveled to St. Louis, the gateway to the west. After a night in a hotel, the young couple went down to the stagecoach office to buy two tickets for Denver City, which had turned into the main hub of the Colorado territory. Hanging on the wall of the stagecoach office hung a sign with an ominous warning: YOU WILL BE TRAVELING THROUGH INDIAN COUNTRY AND THE SAFETY OF YOUR PERSON CANNOT BE VOUCHSAFED BY ANYONE BUT GOD.

“Matthew,” said Alice as she read the disclaimer, “are you sure this is a good idea?” Concerned showed on her oval face.

Matthew followed the gaze of Alice and read the sign for himself. After he had been convinced that God was leading them, he had become unshakable on their mission. When roadblocks popped up, he always found it as an opportunity for God to shine through. Alice on the other hand, like so many others, had slowly become less convinced the further they traveled from home, from the familiar routine of everyday predictable life.

 “Sweetheart, it’ll be okay. Like the sign says, God will take care of us.”

God will take care of us… The thought rolled around in his mind a couple of times. It seemed as though it was mocking, rather than comforting him.

“Why? God, why!?” He spoke softly in a harsh whisper as he opened his eyes. He could see the tall grass gently moving in the soft breeze. “You’re supposed to take care of us.”  Since his conversion to Christianity four years earlier he had never questioned God- he had been unsure of God’s leading, or God’s intentions, but he had never questioned God’s goodness. The question came now with a biting pain, gnawing on his faith like a dog with a bone. He felt the firmness of his faith start to crack under the crushing teeth of doubt.

Discouraged, he rolled to his left and pushed himself wearily up to a sitting position. The effort made his muscles and ligaments radiate pain in seemingly every inch of his body causing a horse grunt to slip from his lips. Taking a deep breath and then slowly letting it escape, he started to run his hand over his body. His poking, prodding, and pressing told him that his bones, though rattled, were still intact.

Looking back towards the sun he saw that it was still sitting pretty low in the sky and there was still a morning chill in the air. He figured that he couldn’t have been laying there for too awfully long because the coach had been robed right at sunrise- that whole exchanged couldn’t have taken more than ten to twenty minutes. And then the wild run after the bandits, though that part was all a blur, couldn’t have taken that long either. I must’ve been out for an hour or so, he thought to himself.

A wave of realization washed over him as he started to look around- he couldn’t see a living soul in any direction. He was all alone. Furthermore, he had no idea where he was. The driver had mentioned that town wasn’t too far off- that is if he was still on the coach. He didn’t even know which way he had come and which way he had been going, it had all been a mad dash when he went after the gang. Had he gone west, east, or some other direction? He hadn’t paid attention to landmarks or anything.

I don’t even know which way Alice went! This new thought spurred him to get to his feet and get moving after her somehow.

Gathering his feet beneath him and with his back creaking all the way up, he pushed himself up from the dirt. With a deep breath escaping from his chest he stood for a short while gaining an uneasy balance. Scanning the horizon he slowly turned in a full circle looking for a clue as to which way to go. Nothing inspired him to start heading in any direction.

O, God! I am lost. What am I supposed to do now? It was a prayer sprouting more from the soils of discouragement than from faith. Turning again in the opposite direction, his eyes settled on something that moved. On his first perusal his brain had defined a small mound in the grass as being a rock, which was far from the truth. About a hundred yards away he saw the brown head of a horse come up from grazing and look towards him. His horse hadn’t kept on running after he had fallen off!

Slowly Matthew started to head towards the horse, hoping that it wouldn’t run at his approach. “Easy horse. Easy.” He spoke softly as he neared the horse, slowing his already stiff pace towards the horse, and all the while pleading within, Please, Lord! Please.  But the horse just stood there with its reins hanging to the ground and its eyes fixed on Matthew. To his amazement, he was able to walk right up to horse. Picking up its reins Matthew patted the horse on its neck while he kept up his soft chant of “Easy horse. Easy.” And then, “Thank You, Lord.”

Something of hope that all was not lost was beginning to rise in heart. He still didn’t know which way he ought to go, but at least now he wasn’t restricted to foot traveling, and more importantly, even though his new partner was covered in fur, he wasn’t alone.

Looking around again, he noticed the path he had taken to get the horse was clearly marked in the high grass he had just come through. As he pondered it he noticed that the grass was pointing towards him. Each step he took had laid the grass down in a specific direction- it was pointing in the direction he had traveled. A dawning light rose in his head, Of course! I left a trail. Just follow the path in the grass: go in the direction that the grass is pointing. Hope had fully dawned within.

With new vigor he turned to his horse to climb on. Remembering his last attempt, he gave the mounting process a little more thought. Putting the reins on both sides of the horse’s neck while standing on the right side of the creature, he reached up and took hold of the saddle horn with his right hand and put his left foot into the stirrup. Though a bit painful, he was surprised at the relative ease in which he was able to get settled in the saddle.

Now came the dilemma of how to steer the thing and how to start it moving. The last time didn’t require any steering- the horse just took off on the correct course while Matthew held on. But now he needed to both point it in the right direction and control its speed. Not wanting to put the horse into a full run again he decided that kicking its sides should be avoided. So instead, taking a reign in each hand, he gave the reins a jiggle and said, “Walk.”

The horse swished his tail and remained standing.

“Come on- lets go,” he urged while giving the reins another shake. Nothing. Perhaps an experimental kick would help, he thought. So being careful to hold on to the saddle horn, he gave the horse a gentle kick. Quite calmly the horse stepped out with an easy pace.

Pleased with the progress, Matthew now put his attention toward the directing of the animal. With one reign in each hand and keeping his right hand firmly in place on the saddle horn, he put his left hand out wide from his side and pulled back on the reign. The horse turned its head and started to champ on its bit, but it also turned its body to follow a new direction. Matthew was thrilled with his success, now all he had to do was follow the trail left in the grass.

He followed his own path back from where he had fallen off the horse. Stopping the horse was no problem- he simply pulled back hard on both reins and told the horse whoa. The horse immediately stopped heading forward and started to step backwards. “No,” said Matthew as he let up on his pull. To his relief, the horse stopped moving backwards and stood still with its tail making a swishing sound as it moved it back and forth.
Looking closely at the grass to see how it was laying, Matthew could see that the grass was pointing to his right. “South,” he mused softly to himself while looking back up to the sun to gain his bearings. He stood up in his stirrups and looked around behind him and to the north. Something didn’t seem right, but looking back to the grass he spoke to the horse, “Well, the grass doesn’t lie, does it.” With that he gave a soft kick to his mount’s sides and pulled the horses head to the right. The horse moved out while his head shook in protest to the rough tugging on its bit.