“Protector” Part 3
Morgan stood at the bank of the river ringing out his shirt. They had crossed the river six days ago after meeting their new friend Willow, and had been following it downstream since. Rowena taught Willow how to play hide and seek, and they were running about the woods at the edge of the river, ducking behind bushes and trees. Another restless, uncomfortable night had passed on a hastily-made bed of leaves and grass, with mosquitoes buzzing in their ears.
They tried spreading mud on their arms and legs to keep from getting bitten in their sleep, but that only helped a little. Morgan had been itching all night long, and was glad to be bathing in the warm morning sunlight. He was relieved to be washing the dirt and grime out of his hair, which was turning from golden blond to a dusty light brown.
Willow always seemed to know where she was taking them, and led them to food as soon as they started getting hungry. She always knew where the berries and the wild onions grew, and what to avoid. She saved them from disaster in the evening of the third day they had been traveling. They had come to the edge of a marsh when Willow stopped them in their tracks. They were tired and wanted to travel as much as possible before the sun went down, so they were moving at a quick pace.
“Willow, why are we stopping?” asked Rowena, even though Willow had not said a word since they met her. The dark-haired, fragile girl stooped down and picked up a heavy rock the size of her head. She hurled the rock about seven feet in front of them. They stood and watched the rock swiftly sink into the ground. Willow turned to them and motioned for them to follow her. She led them safely around the marsh and back to the edge of the river, where they arrived the next day. Morgan wanted to know how she knew the bog was there, but he knew she wouldn’t answer.
Willow found some quail eggs and helped Morgan to make a fire. Rowena found a thin, flat rock and they managed to cook the quail eggs on the slab of rock like a frying pan. They enjoyed this meal very much and decided that this was the best they had eaten since before their mother died.
While they were eating, Willow started to go off into another one of her spells. She would seem to go very far away, even though she was sitting right next to them. She began to hum and sing softly in her language. They waited until she stood and began to walk along the edge of the river.
“Morgan, I’m starting to wonder if we will ever find a home.” said Rowena after finishing the last bit of her scrambled quail eggs. “I’m getting tired of walking all day and sleeping on the ground. Maybe we should have stayed with Carl until we could find another place to live.”
Morgan sighed. This was not the first time Rowena had expressed regret about leaving that dirty house with that awful man. “I was afraid he was going to hurt us bad, Ro. Do you remember the time he almost attacked you? I couldn’t let that happen while we were trying to find somewhere else to go. I remember the look on his face when he got mad…” Morgan felt his blood heat a little at the thought of someone hurting his little sister.
It was evening when Willow led them to some more wild onions, which seemed to be her favorite. Not far from there, they came to an opening in the trees and the edge of a huge field of beans.
“This is a farmer’s field. We’d better not take anything from here.” said Morgan. The thought was tempting, but they turned to the left and made their way along a trail between the edge of the field and the river. The trail was well-beaten, with just a little grass and weeds sprouting up along the middle.
“I hope we don’t get shot if this is a farmer’s land.” said Ro, apprehensively. “I heard Billy Jenson got shot in the leg because he tried to steal some of Old Man Roberts’ crops.”
It was starting to get dark, so they gathered up their beds for the night in a soft patch of grass surrounded by small saplings. Rowena soon found out that there weren’t many soft leaves and weeds in this area to make a comfortable bed. She threw down the few that she had gathered and put her face in her hands.
“I can’t do this anymore, Morgan!” she wailed. “I need a bed and a home!” she sat down and began to cry.
Morgan didn’t know what to do. He leaned against a tree and laid his head back in desperation. Willow sat down next to Rowena and looked at her with a concerned but distant look on her face. Suddenly Rowena got up and began running down the trail.
“Ro!” Morgan chased after his sister into the night. Willow tried to catch up with Rowena, who was running toward a light not far up in the distance. It was a campfire and they could hear voices. Ro stopped when came to the edge of the light, and the small group of men looked up at her in surprise. They were all dirty-looking and had a gleam in their eyes that gave her a sick feeling in her stomach.
“Who is this little lady?” slurred the brown-haired man on the left. He was missing his two front teeth. Morgan was by his sister’s side in that instant.
“Sorry to bother you, we were just leaving…” said Morgan as he grabbed his sister’s arm to lead her away.
“No, we were just thinking we needed some company.” said one of the men on the right. He stood up and pulled a jagged knife out of his pockets.
“We’ll be taking both of you along with us. We don’t need the farmer knowing we was here.”
Suddenly a huge black dog jumped out of the bushes and rushed the men. With the screaming chaos that followed, Morgan and Rowena ran back to the trail to grab Willow and run from the men and the dog. The dog was probably the farmer’s attack dog. They couldn’t find Willow, so they huddled under a bush to hide until morning.
When morning came, they opened their eyes to see Willow sitting next to the bush. Morgan and Rowena crawled out from the bush and found that they had made it to the edge of the woods once again, but this time they could see the farmhouse, and a woman out walking with a small white dog. The dog ran up to them and barked, and the woman was soon standing right in front of them.
“Where did you poor dears come from?” asked the woman. She was rather short, with wisps of light blond hair curled around her face and neck. “Did you spend the night out here?” she bent down and helped the children up.
“Yes, ma’am, but we didn’t steal anything, we promise! said Ro. “We did want some beans but we didn’t take any.”
Morgan was afraid the woman would think she was lying, but she only smiled. “You two come inside and we’ll see about some breakfast. You can tell me why you’ve spent the night out here and why you both look so ragged.”
Rowena looked over and saw that Willow was no where to be seen. “Ma’am, did you see a little girl sitting next to us?”
“No, all I saw were you two. There’s another little girl with you?”
The three of them searched the woods but never found Willow. The farmer and the farmer’s wife turned out to be wonderful people who were trying desperately to have children. They had been praying for children and felt like Morgan and Rowena were the answer to their prayers. As the two children grew, they often thought about the little girl they had called “Willow” and how she had protected them on their journey to their new life. They both agreed, years later, that Willow was the spirit of a little girl who had wanted to help them before she made it to the afterlife. They wished they could have thanked her before she vanished, but they knew she with them, watching over them.
