Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Abish had only seen the woman a few times around town. Her and Red Feather went on their daily walk with their dog Turnip, Young Elk in tow. She was tall, her rather expensive looking pants draping statuesque legs. Her blonde hair was messily done up, a style that Abish personally favored when she needed to see through her long locks. While she was new, she seemed kind nonetheless, as she smiled politely and waved to Young Elk as they passed by.

The place she called home, a modest one story flat, had been on sale for the past three months, the previous owners leaving in search of a new life. A new life with a new religion, a new purpose, a new homeland to find. Abish had once understood their drive. She was different now. She didn’t respect it as much as she once did.

Red Feather answered the door late in the afternoon, and both Abish and Young Elk peered from their kitchen window, snooping (very inconspicuously) as they always did when someone knocked. The woman was at the door with a boy who looked far older than Young Elk.

“Hi! My name is Sara Rowell, and this is my son, Devin. We are your new across the street neighbors. I just wanted to introduce myself to you and your wife,” she smiled, not brightly enough to mask her anxiety, but Abish credited her for her effort.

“It’s good to meet you, Mrs. Rowell. I am Red Feather, and those two are Abish and Young Elk. I hope you settle in well, if you need any help please just ask,” Red Feather said, and Abish revealed herself at his side with a wave.

Sara retreated back to her house with her son.

“She’s an odd woman,” Red Feather pointed out.

“She’ll fit in with the rest of us.”

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Sara couldn’t help but be intrigued by the other residents of her little neighborhood.

There was Red Feather and Abish and their son, Young Elk. They were kind to both Sara and Devin, Devin having taken a liking to Young Elk. It turns out Young Elk wasn’t as young as Sara had thought, only about 5 years younger than Devin. They played together sometimes, with Young Elk reportedly having an impressive dinosaur collection. Devin loved learning about dinosaurs in school.

The mayor, Jim Bridger, was as relaxed as could be. He maintained his reputation as a fair leader of the town, and his ability to resolve conflicts seemed unparalleled. Sara supposed that since Fort Bridger had a mayor then it was technically a city, but it was barely 5 miles from border to border, so it was a pretty tight community. Everyone knew everyone. Maybe that’s how Bridger was able to operate so smoothly. He could handle any conflict with enough alcohol, maybe a gun if necessary, but it rarely was.

There was a man a minute or two down the road. He didn’t show his face that much, but he was the local carpenter. Or, that was his formal job at least. He could fix just about anything that needed fixing, whether it be a wack AC unit, a busted up roof, or a leaking pipe system. The labor diversity in Fort Bridger was terrible, so he had to wear multiple hats, or that’s how Abish explained it to Sara. His name was Isaac Reed, and his assistant was a teenage girl named Two Moons. She was orphaned at a young age and travelled to Fort Bridger by herself a few years prior. Isaac took her in out of pity really, but they seemed to work well together, even though Two Moons didn’t speak often. Devin waved to her sometimes as she crossed the road to the grocery store on Tuesdays.

What an odd little town. Still, it was safer than the other one.

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Friday nights were popular at the local tavern, Sara soon learned. Most of the residents, adult or child, was off of work, and if they weren’t off of work they left work to enjoy a drink at the California Springs Inn. Kids couldn’t get alcohol, but they could get free hash browns. Sometimes people would volunteer to work the bar for a little extra cash. Sara did a few times, but she much preferred her small accounting job at the local bank.

Her and Devin sat by themselves, not far from Abish, Young Elk, and Red Feather. The family had taken to monitoring the duo, as they knew what it was like to me new in Fort Bridger. Getting your bearings could be… challenging to say the least. Read Feather had already fended off some unwanted attention.

Devin enjoyed his hash browns while Sara picked at her burger. The sauce served with the fries was by far the best part. Devin’s head perked up as he waved across the room. A girl his age waved back. Sara guessed that she was Two Moons. Sure enough, a grizzly looking man sat across from her. He cast a dirty glance in Devin’s direction, eyes blazing with ‘back off’ clear in his expression. Sara bristled, but didn’t do anything.

She was used to rude men.

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Two Moons waved back to the boy across the bar. She saw the look Isaac sent him, and she saw how it made the boy cower a little. She lightly tapped the table, gaining his attention. She shrugged her hands in confusion.

“There’s something weird about them. Don’t get involved.”

Two Moons did not like that one bit. But she needed her job and home with Isaac, so she couldn’t make him so angry that he’d let her go. That meant she’d have to get creative.

Two Moons was so bored of Fort Bridger. She wanted to make new friends, see new things, create beauty and find beauty in nature. But she was far too scared to venture out past the borders of Fort Bridger. There were dangerous men in Fort Bridger, but they were at least predictable after her 8 years of living there. And besides, if anything went bad she always had her knife and Isaac. What would happen if she met the wrong man and she couldn’t fall back on just her knife?

She knew what could happen. What inevitably would happen with the men around here. She didn’t like it one bit.

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Sara sat outside Winter Bird’s home in pleasant silence, soaking in the warmth of the sun. The older woman was a prominent figure in Fort Bridger, acting as a secondary Mayor at times, or the primary mayor when Jim was too hungover to take care of business. She was the head of the local historical society, a member of the county school board, and was a passionate gardener. She was a leader as much as she was a mother to any and all that were new or lost in Fort Bridger.

She was also a talented artist. She taught Sara how to crochet, starting simple with a little circle, then moving on to a hat for Devin and some gloves for herself. It was the summer, but Winter Bird informed her that the winters in Fort Bridger could be quite harsh, even in their relatively isolated location. Not much snow (sometimes buckets if they were unlucky), but bitter cold wind and rain.

Most Sunday nights Abish and Red Feather would go on a little outing in the next town over, and Young Elk was dropped off at his grandmother’s house. Winter Bird had offered to look after Devin as well, maybe teach him to cook, show them how to play chess, or watch Food Network. It would be good for Sara to have some time to herself and socialize with the rest of Fort Bridger as an independent adult before returning to work. Sara reluctantly agreed, but after a week or two Devin seemed to look forward to it, and Winter Bird clearly loved to teach her wonderful recipes and cooking techniques. She had so much knowledge to pass on.

Maybe Sara could be happy here.

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Sara watched Isaac Reed work across the street. Abish and Red Feather’s front porch had finally collapsed after a solid three years. Abish gathered the materials, but she didn’t have the knowledge to assist him, and Red Feather had to go on a “trip for work” (that’s what she was told to say, but she knew he was a bounty hunter, a fact that had set her on edge ever since she moved to Bridger). So Isaac and Two Moons were employed to fix it.

Two Moons carried some paint cans over to the house before moving to cut some of the planks into thinner pieces. She was a lot stronger than her scrawny frame made her look. She hummed a tune to herself has she worked. Isaac worked on laying the foundation of the porch, thick concrete blocks in a frame that would be more supportive than whatever the last sorry attempt at a porch had. His pale skin glistened with sweat in the morning sun. He had pulled back his unruly hair with a hair tie.

Sara could see some bruises and scars where his shirt didn’t cover his skin, even from across the street. The muscles in his shoulders flexed, distracting her before she could think about how odd that was. He was beautiful in his own way, she thought, rough, tough, and masculine. His face, usually twisted in a neutral snarl, softened a bit as he helped Two Moons paint the finished porch deep blue.

She could appreciate that.

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Isaac could feel her eyes on him. Why couldn’t she just leave him be? He passed Two Moons a protein bar. He hated the way that they tasted, but Two Moons seemed to like them, so he kept putting them on their meager shopping list. Anything to get her a little more bulked up. Stupid kid, he thought. She never ate enough.

His paintbrush dragged across the wood in front of him, pausing only to get waterboarded by the thick house paint ocean. A grim analogy, but a true one. Winter Bird used to tell him to be more positive. She eventually realized she was wasting her time. Isaac glanced over his shoulder (inconspicuously, of course) to see if that woman was still watching. She was, but her son had started a conversation with her.

Isaac found the whole situation suspicious. Fort Bridger was very slow with news, so nobody really knew what was going on in the rest of the country. But what Isaac did know was there was some triple murder stir out East. Sara and Devin, for all their obvious inexperience, seemed capable. The timing was off, was all Isaac had to say. No accusations, just an observation.

And if he happened to keep it hidden from Red Feather, that was his business, and his business only.

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Two Moons liked to hang out with Devin and Sara when she could. Devin could cook pretty well, and Sara was trying to teach her how to crochet, though she wasn’t perfect herself. Instead of crocheting, Sara had tried to play to her own strengths to keep things interesting. In another life she would have been a fashion designer.

Two Moons often found herself dressed in dark flowing pants and a contrasting blouse, some simple faux-gold jewelry adorning her neck and wrists. Sometimes sun hats and sun dresses were involved. She was far too short, but Sara still smiled every time and told her she looked beautiful. Two Moons almost believed it, even as she looked over herself in the mirror and found herself. Nothing special. Not like Sara or Abish or Winter Bird. Not like Red Feather or Isaac.

Speaking of Isaac…

He almost definitely knew about her afternoon activities during her downtime. Why he hadn’t spoken up about it was beyond her, but she didn’t mind as long as it meant she could keep meeting up at the Rowell home promptly at 4:30pm when she could. Isaac never asked where she went, but Two Moons could basically taste his disapproval after he picked up their dinner for the night.

Occasionally, the women of the town would meet at Winter Bird’s house to do fun things, or at least plan to do fun things. Abish would usually be there, as well as Sara and some of Winter Bird’s. Sara invited Two Moons (and by invited, Two Moons means she was smuggled into the house to avoid her grumpy housemate).

She had tea and cake for the first time in years. She brought a few cookies home, as well as an almost completed wooden horse toy that Abish had started to help her make. Two Moons wanted to sell it for some extra cash. She took the cookies to the bedroom after setting the toy horse on her couch bed. She put the bundle of sugar dusted treats on the dresser, then left, feigning being asleep when Isaac returned from whatever out of town job he was doing that day.

Two Moons pretended not to hear him walk back into the small living room to thank her gruffly. She smiled to herself after he left. There would be more hang outs in her future.

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He almost forgot what day it was when he woke up. His morning was as it normally was, nothing special. He changed into a different pair of jeans and a shirt in a different color before the sun had even begun to rise. He grimaced as his sore muscles pulled in ways that they shouldn’t, and in the dark he walked into his own bedroom door, bumping right into a bruise on his side. Ok, so maybe a little special. Exceptionally aggravating.

Isaac stared down the sun as he made breakfast and boring coffee for himself and for Two Moons, giving her significantly more and covering it with a plate to keep the bugs off. She wasn’t eating as much as she should be, but she was doing better. He wondered why he cared as much as he did. It wasn’t like she was his kid.

That’s when it hit him.

That’s what day it was.

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Abish hadn’t been around Fort Bridger long enough to have witnessed the tragedy first hand. Red Feather had, luckily far before Young Elk was born. It was a multi-stage crisis, a double arson, a rape, and a triple murder, all in one night. The details were a bit fuzzy (trauma can do that to you, can’t it?), but Red Feather’s memories of it sounded almost too grim to be true. Abish knew better than that.

(She hated to say it, and she’d never say it to anyone’s face of course, but she’d heard of worse things.)

(Maybe that’s because she wasn’t there to witness it.)

(She wasn’t around for the death of Red Feather’s sister, nephew, and the soul of his brother-in-law. Nor for the burning of the botanist’s home, and the gruesome sight of their body hanging from a lamppost.)

All she knew was that today was the anniversary, and she had prepared some offerings in the form of food to set at the altar. There would be mourning and optional prayers until 11:30, and then business would start up again as usual. Abish and Young Elk sat with Devin and Sara in the bar for drinks, saying a little “amen” after every toast (more out of habit than anything) and playing with the dinosaur Young Elk gifted her as emotional support.

(She had experienced the same, if not worse, tragedies in her lifetime. And yet she couldn’t look Isaac in the eyes that night.)

Red Feather had a T-Rex and Stegosaurus in his back pocket.