Gabe tossed a log onto the fire. “Gotta get more wood,” he said, and disappeared in the brush.
The sun set beyond the Wasatch Mountains. Ashley poked the fire and looked at the landscape. She was high up. Not like Reno. Keeping the fire lit was a trick. Suddenly there was a voice behind her. “Keep the little wood on bottom. That’ll warm up the big wood. Make it all burn.”
She turned to see a man. He was dressed in a long, dark coat, with a dark hat. His sky-blue eyes seemed to glow in the dark. He approached, and sat beside her, stirring the wood on the fire. The fire invigorated. Ashley was a bit taken aback by his forward manner, but that manner, in and by itself set her ill at ease. About this time Gabe came back.
“You took your time,” the stranger said.
“You ever look for tinder this high up?” Gabe returned.
The stranger lit a twig on the fire, and then transferred the flame to a cigar he held between his teeth. Holding the cigar out to Ashley, she shook her head. The stranger, and Gabe both laughed. “Where you taking her?” the stranger asked.
“East coast,” Gabe said. “Palmyra.”
“Joseph?” The stranger reached and lifted Ashley’s chin. “She from the seer?” He asked.
“Not by blood. But by spirit. Michelle’s adopted granddaughter. Blood of the woman who walks on stones.”
“Crazy, that one, “the stranger said.
“You just don’t like cats,” Gabe said.
“She’s anglo,” the stranger said.
“Look at the nose. She’s Semitic.”
He forcibly turned her head to look at her nose.
Ashley’s eyes darted from one man to the other. “Whoa! You guys are talking way over my head. What’s a seer?” she asked. She searched the faces for a sign, but there was none. “You’re scaring. me.”
“Why?” the stranger asked.
She pointed to his coat, “The gun,” she said. Hidden beneath his long coat was a revolver.
The stranger sat beside her. “You gotta believe. I did. Even when it don’t make no sense, you gotta believe. You had it rough?” He relit his cigar. “All I ever wanted was to be a farmer. My best friend, Joseph, he was the dreamer. He wrote a book. I never read it because I didn’t read back then, but he did. He read it to me. And all the time I was growing up he told me stories from the book. I worked my fields during the day and did work at night. I gave him my extra money to pay to publish the book. Then the wolf packs came. They killed my friend, but they didn’t kill me. I was born to save the life of the prophet of the lamb, but I was too late. Now I protect you. And I’ve been living my friend’s dream all these many years.”
“When was that?” She asked.
“1844.”
Ashley drew back. Her years at the Wellington had taught her about psychology. People claiming impossible things were normal for her. “1844? That makes you eligible for social security.”
The stranger laughed. He drew his gun. It was a big gun. Revolver. Pointing it up he pulled the hammer back. The four clicks resounded in the desert air. “This is my social security. And my age? Gotta do time. Pay for my sins.”
Ashley calmly accepted his words. More to not set off his psychosis than actually believing him. The stranger was from another time. She put him in the sixties. . His long black hair fell below his shoulders. Longer than hers, but, she didn’t understand the meaning of the hair. The stranger saw her looking at his hair.
“Joseph told me that as long as I never cut my hair or shaved my beard no blade or bullet will ever pierce my hide. He was right.”
“Magic hair?” Ashley asked.
He drew from his smoke, “No. Not magic. Faith. My hair means I believe. The faith protected me. Protected me because Joseph was a prophet of God. If he hadn’t been I’d have been killed right off. I lived my life, and now I am here. To protect another prophet.”
“Who?” Ashley asked.
Looking at Gabe, he asked, “She the best we can we got?”
“Woah woah woah, hold up, are y’all tryna sell me?” Ashley lived in a world of sex traffickers. Was this Gabe’s plan?
‘’Sharon says she’s the one,” Gabe said.
The stranger dropped his cigar into the fire. “Gotta work with what you got, I guess.” The stranger lifted Ashley’s chin. “Born to save the life of the Prophet of the Lamb.” He laughed out loud, and, with that he rose, turned, and disappeared into the brush.
“Who was that?” Ashley asked Gabe.
“Someday . . .”
“I know, I’ll understand.” The smell of the cigar drifted through the air.
