NOIR-vember_INTO MYTH

 

Actual photograph of OLD ABE (in public domain)

INTO MYTH



It was April 21st 1865.

Ahgamahwegezhiglooked at me huddled behind the mound of rubble.  He had been my father'sbest Ojibwe student.

Icalled him Chief Sky because every time I tried to pronouncehis Ojibwe name, I sounded like I was a cat heaving up a furball.

Hegrunted, “They also serve who only stand and wait, but the pay is shit.”

He, CorporalDanvers, and I were all that was left of the Wisconsin 8th Infantry.

Well,there was Old Abe, the eagle mascot, of the company.  CaptainPerkins named him after the President.

Whoam I? 

 I’m Jim McGinnis, the last of a long line of teachers,and the idiot who volunteered to take care of Old Abe.

InAugust 1861, John C. Perkins, assisted by Seth Pierce, Frank McGuire, andVictor Wolf recruited a company of volunteers from Eau Claire and ChippewaCounties.

Thiscompany was called 

the "Eau Claire Badgers.”

ChiefSky had come along to make war on whites and because Old Abe belonged tohim.  

Why didn’t he take care of Old Abe? 

The eagle liked to ride on myleather-shod shoulder.

Andhis talons hurt like hell.

OnMarch 25th, the Claywater Meteorite  exploded justbefore reaching ground level, delivering a cluster-bomb effect asfragments of its enormous mass showered Vernon County.

At least, folks thought it hadexploded. 

 

Then, the huge Tripods startedwalking about, killing everything living in their paths. 

The remnants of the Eau Claire Badgers were called back from Mansura,Louisiana to help fight 

the Star Fallers.

We didn’t fare toowell.  But then, I had taken an oath.  I meant to live upto it.

And to repay the debt of the dead… with interest.

Ipeeked over the mound.  The giant Tripod was still too close eventhough it was clanking along to the east.

Danverslicked his dry lips.  

“Lieutenant, we got to get us some watersoon.  We’ve been three days without it.”

Isaid low, “If I were a creek, where would I be?”

ChiefSky looked at me.  “If I were a creek, I would be where the groundslopes.”

“Riiiight.”  Sometimesit was good to have an Indian scout.

OldAbe was where I told him to go.  Up high in thatcottonwood.  The tripod finally noticed him and swiveled slowly, itsturret aiming at him.

Fromthe bloody past, we had learned those Star-Fallers took three secondsto blow something apart. 

Up until then, they had some sort ofinvisible barrier around them.  I raised my already loaded Sharpesrifle.

The smooth, steady movement of myarms raised a shiver of panic in the rational man whose advice I was ignoring.

I aimed down that turret’sbarrel, counted to two, and fired.

Allof us flew to the ground, even Old Abe.

Bitsof smoking metal rained down all around us.  

They were sizzlinghot.  

Old Abe squawked as he flew down beside me. 

Chief Sky wasn’t any happier with me.

“Justlike a white man to kill himself along with his enemy.”

“We’restill alive,” I said.

“Notfor much longer if you follow this way of attack.”

Danversran his fingers through his red hair.  

“We ain’t gonna make it home,are we, sir?”

Isaid low, “There’s still a chance.  We’ll get there.”

Danverslooked to Chief Sky.  “What do you think?”

Thelast of the Ojibwe shrugged his shoulders and smiled crooked atme. 

  “As your trusted Indian scout, I must warn youthat you are now on very thin ice.”

“Which is?” I asked.

“Hope.  You will starveto death 

if you insist on living on it.”

Danvers looked on his lastnerve.  I glared at Chief Sky who flicked flat black eyes at theCorporal.  

He grunted a laugh.

“I will tell you a secret,Danvers.”

“What?” the Corporal asked, hisvoice sounding like a too-stretched skin on a drum.

“I believe that the heart isstronger than knowledge. 

That myth wins over history. 

That dreams beat facts.

That hope triumphs over experience. 

That laughter is the only cure forgrief. 

And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

I sometimes forgot about howspiritual 

Chief Sky was. 

I had been raised as a Methodist where the highestsacrament was the bake sale.

He turned amused eyes tome.  

“I would also say the depths of the lieutenant’s stupidity haveyet to be plumbed,

and ours is coming up fast for we follow him.”

Danvers made aface.  

“I was feeling better until that last.”

Chief Sky smiled like awolf.  “Come, Danvers.  

As Eagle Walker says: 

‘Wehave oaths to keep and debts to repay.’”

And so with Old Abe flyingoverhead, 

did the last of the  "Eau Claire Badgers”

  walk into myth.