Sunflower Read Online Free PDF Page B

dressed in the ragged pants and oversize shirt, although she now wore a blue calico dress. Her back was turned to him as she stood before the stove, lifting the lids from simmering pots and stoking the oven with buffalo chips. She opened the oven door to peer inside, and Caleb admired the view of her firm, shapely backside. Now and again when she moved to work at the kitchen bench, he could just see her profile, a pert nose tilted slightly upward at the end, the thick wing of eyelashes, the soft, lush swell of her lower lip. He could see from where he lay that she worked without a smile, and for a moment he wondered what it would take to make her smile.
    The room was empty save for the two of them, and Caleb began to wonder if the woman lived alone. He could not remember seeing anyone else earlier. After watching her silently for a few more moments, Caleb was about to speak when the door opened. For some unknown reason, he felt compelled to close his eyes once more, feigning sleep while he watched from beneath his lashes to see who had entered. It was a small boy whose dark head was barely visible above the end of the bed.
    The boy ran toward his mother and threw his sturdy arms around her knees. Caleb did not understand any of the words the boy said except one, “Mama,” and that one word was enough to add a vivid detail to the picture he was forming in his mind. He knew he had no right to feel disappointed upon learning the woman had a child. If anything, he should have been glad to learn that she did not live alone so far from a settlement, yet he knew that if she had a child she most assuredly also had a husband, and that knowledge strangely gave him a feeling of loss.
    The woman laughed down into the boy’s upturned face and stopped her work long enough to bend over and squeeze him tenderly. With a motherly gesture, she arranged his hair with her fingers, then turned back to her work. Dismissed, the boy crossed the room toward Caleb, who closed his eyes completely when he realized the child was standing next to the bed. The little boy was so close that Caleb could hear his soft, even breathing.
    “Kase, come to the table. Where is Opa?” This time the woman spoke in English, her voice as softly accented as he remembered it earlier. Who was Opa? Caleb wondered. Could it be the boy’s father?
    Tired of his game, Caleb slowly opened his eyes and met a pair of blue ones level with his own. As he studied the boy, Caleb felt as if he were gazing into a mirror, a mirror in which one could look backward through time. He was very sure of one fact: This child’s father was either an Indian or a half-breed like himself.
    Caleb and the boy exchanged silent stares, studying each other. The boy seemed to be weighing the man’s worth. Caleb noted that the only feature which claimed him as the woman’s son was his eyes, which were wide and blue, fringed by silky black lashes. The youngster’s hair was neatly trimmed in a fashion the likes of which Caleb had never seen before. It looked as if the boy’s mother had inverted a bowl on the child’s head and trimmed around it. Though it was unusual, Caleb thought the haircut an appealing one, allowing the straight, dark hair to frame the boy’s round face.
    A wide smile appeared on the child’s face when he realized Caleb was awake at last. Without moving, he turned and called out to his mother, speaking English this time.
    “Mama! The stranger is awake! I may talk to him now?”
    A pan clattered against the stove, drawing Caleb’s eyes away from the child’s to lock with the woman’s. She stood frozen at the other end of the room, watching Caleb warily. What had he done to instill such fright in a woman he’d spoken to only briefly? Aware of her fear, Caleb smiled, trying to put her at ease. She did not move, nor did she return his smile as she wiped her hands nervously on her white apron. He wished she would walk toward him and lessen the distance between