"Where could she be, Teaspoon?" Cody asked, pushing his long blond hair out of his eyes and straightening the fringe on his buckskin jacket. Noah, the African American, looked around at their surroundings. They had ridden all night and had camped out in a ravine. They had started out again that morning. It was now late afternoon. The sun was as low as the boys' spirits. They hadn't found a thing. Not a hoof print, not a horse, not a thing. It was like she had just up and disappeared. Teaspoon shook his head. "I don't know boys, I just don't know." He sighed. John cleared his throat; "We'd best just give up. I'll send men out later on to continue the search. She clearly doesn't want to be found so we'd be better off just letting her go. She gets dangerous when she's crossed." "I suppose you're right. If she needs us she'll know where to find us. Let's go." Teaspoon said with worry tainting his every word. The boys all looked at each other and nodded. As they turned to go no one saw Ike drop his hat on the ground. He wasn't going to leave her out here all alone.

**********

That night Ike suddenly realized he had lost his hat. Teaspoon and the others looked a little suspicious when he told them, but they didn't confront him with anything. He rode hard for a good half-hour before he came to the place where he had dropped his hat. Jackpot. He saw fire flickering against the walls of the small ravine down off to his left. Staying close to the ground he peered over the edge. Callie was seated in front of a campfire talking to someone. The other person was in the shadows, but he could hear every word that they were saying.

"They're looking for you, Callie. You need to move on." The person told her. It was a man.

"I know. I'm leaving here in the morning. Just show me where you want me to go and I'm gone. The shorter the time that I'm here, the less of a chance anyone has of finding out my little secret. No one else knows do they? If anyone finds out I'm as good as in my grave. But before I go I have a question to ask you. What was I doing at the Express Station house?" She asked him.

"No, Callie. No one else knows about it. And as to your other question, Holloway thought to dump you off on them when Van Dahl showed up looking for you. Real friend huh, Callie? You have hard times and he leaves you high and dry."


Ike heard the bitter laugh that she gave at that statement. He also heard a pebble go rattling past him. Apparently Callie and her friend hadn't because they gave no sign of it. Staying low to the ground Ike swung around and aimed his gun in the direction of the noise. He was staring face to face with Cody. Looking over Cody's shoulder Ike saw all of the other riders looking at him. He lowered his gun and scowled.

He signed to Buck.

Buck just smiled and motioned back towards where Ike had tied his horse. He saw that all of the others had tied their horses there too.

Ike told him.

Buck frowned. He walked over to where Teaspoon had mounted and was waiting on them. Buck whispered what Ike had just told him into his ear. Teaspoon frowned. He motioned Ike over to where he was.

"Did you recognize the voice?" Teaspoon asked him in a whisper. Ike shook his head no.

Teaspoon signed for Ike to follow him back to the ledge. When they looked over the edge Callie was gone. Her friend still sat looking into the campfire's dying embers. Ike looked over at Teaspoon in confusion.

Ike signed.

Teaspoon shrugged his shoulders.

As Ike was getting up he felt the cold iron muzzle of a gun placed right between his shoulder blades. He had the feeling that they had just found Callie.

**********

"I'm sorry about the gun, Ike, but you can't be sneaking around like that. If I didn't know Teaspoon's voice you'd probably be dead right about now." Callie said, walking around behind Ike. He turned, craning his neck to keep his eyes on her. He could see that she had obviously been practicing hard at living life normally even though she was blind. She moved with an ease that no other blind person that he'd ever seen had had. The man that she had been speaking with was seated on the other side of the fire from Ike. He hadn't introduced himself and Callie hadn't bothered to either, so he obviously wasn't someone she wanted them to know. The other riders were standing or sitting around the ravine. Callie would take a walk around the rim of the ravine and out to where the horses were every few minutes. Her jaw was twitching and her sightless eyes were scanning the area. Ike noticed that Teaspoon had his eyes on her as well. Callie was pacing back and forth nervously fingering her gun. She suddenly came to a complete and total stop. Pulling her gun out of her holster she motioned to the man seated by the fire. He motioned for them all to be quiet and kicked dirt over the last of the fire, plunging them all into complete darkness. When his eyes adjusted to the moonlight Ike could see Callie standing tensely against the ravine wall. Her gun was raised and pointed at the rim. Ike didn't understand why she had put out the fire and pulled her gun. Then he heard the hoof beats. Men's voices were shouting out unintelligible words. Then he heard one phrase that sent chills down his spine. "FIND HER AND KILL HER!"

Suddenly shots rang out; he looked around to see Callie and her friend firing on the intruders. But there were more men falling than could have been taken down by just Callie, her friend and the riders. Where were the other bullets coming from? Sliding across the ground he moved until he was next to Callie. She was reloading her guns. He touched her lightly on the shoulder.

"Who's there?" She whispered tensely. He took her hand and wrote his name on her palm with his finger.

"Ike?" She asked. He put her hand up to his face so that she could feel him nodding yes. She smiled at him.

He stood up and began firing while she reloaded. When he ran out and needed to reload she took his place. Callie, the riders, and the mysterious gunfighters finally beat the intruders into retreat. Then the hidden gunmen began to show themselves. Men and boys from 13 or so to what looked like almost 70 emerged from the shadows and walked to Callie. Some were bleeding. She told her mysterious friend, who she called James, to get the wounded to a doctor and then she told all of the others to go home. When all of them were gone the toll that the fight had taken on her was more visible. Ike was standing next to her when she collapsed. At Teaspoon's order Ike picked her up and put her on his horse. "You take her back to Rachel and keep a lookout at the house. We'll finish up here. This time she won't be leaving." Teaspoon said.

More Coming Soon!

© 2001

Love is Blind - Prologue
Love is Blind - Chapter One
Fan Fiction