Russell Banks - Cloudsplitter

The Old Man studied the glowering sky and said, “Mister Epps, I believe it will soon snow.”

“Probably no more than some rain will fall down in the valleys,” Mr. Epps said. “But you are right, Mister Brown; going to snow up here. Might amount to nothing, might turn out a real blizzard. Never can tell this time of year. You want to wait it out?” he asked Father. “Can hole up in them trees yonder” he said, pointing out a nearby grove of tall pines backed and partially sheltered by a high, rocky outcropping. The dark cliffs were close enough to the trail so that we could reach their protection easily with the wagon and make a safe overnight camp there.

Several large, wet flakes of snow brushed past my face. Father asked Mary how she felt. “I’m fine,” she said. “Don’t do anything strictly on my account.” But she did not look well: her face was gray and pinched with discomfort, if not pain, and she was shivering.

“I’m concerned somewhat for the livestock,” Father said to Mr. Epps. “If we’re out here all night in a snowstorm, we’ll do fine, but we might lose a few of the sheep. The animals are pureblood and aren’t yet bred for winter exposure, and they have been kept inside since November.” He asked if there was a farm between this spot and the valley ahead, where the tiny village of Keene was located.

Mr. Epps answered that we would not see a house or barn until we got down off these heights, but we were closer to the Keene valley now than to Elizabethtown, so we should not go back. He remembered that there was a large farm located down in the valley a mile or so this side of the village. We might be able to put up there if this turned into a real storm.

Father removed his hat, and with his hands against his thighs, he lowered his head and prayed silently for a moment, while we stood by and watched. Then he turned to us and said, “Let us keep on, children. Our heavenly Father will protect us.”

“Well, yes, but we better cut us a brake while we got good trees for it,” Mr. Epps said. “A few miles yonder, them big wheels going to need a spoke pole for getting this load downhill.” I quickly pulled the axes from the wagon and took Watson into the trees a ways, and in short order we had cut and trimmed a spruce pole that was long enough to pass through the rear wheels of the wagon.

By the time we resumed our journey, the snow was falling heavily. The mountain ridges on either side had disappeared from view, and as we plodded ahead we could see only a few feet in front of us and to the sides. We were all now shrouded in blankets, except for the Old Man in his greatcoat. The snow was wet and stuck to us, turning us white, even Mr. Epps. Father and I stumbled along in front, searching out the trail a few feet at a time, waving Mr. Epps and the team on as we found it. Hours passed like this, until finally the ground under our feet began to tip and fall away, and we realized that we had reached the beginning of the descent to the valley.

Mary and Sarah got down from the wagon to walk behind it, and Mr. Epps drove the animals now by walking beside them at their heads, talking to them in a quiet, calm voice. Father instructed Ruth to carry Sarah on her back and told Oliver not to let go of Annie’s hand. Watson and Salmon were to hold the livestock back from the wagon a good ways, but keep them moving, he said, don’t let them huddle up and stall, especially the sheep. Then he and I attached a length of rope to each end of the brake pole. I walked on one side of the wagon, and Father walked at the other, ready for me to shove the pole across to him, under the wagon bed and through the spokes, whenever the wagon threatened to rush the horses.

It was a slow, nasty business, coming down that long, rocky trail ten and fifteen feet at a time all the way to the valley. At first, the slope was a gentle incline, and Father and I were able to hold the wagon off the horses by tying the driver’s brake back and pushing uphill against the box from the front, our feet skidding and slipping clumsily in the snow. But soon the descent quickened, and the wagon started to break loose. I grabbed the spruce pole out of the wagon box and slung it across to Father, and we each raced to a tree beside the trail and lashed the rope around it, locking the wheels. Then we let the lines out slowly and inched the wagon down the rough trail, skidding it like a sledge, until the ropes had run nearly all the way out, when we each tied the end to the tree and scrambled down to the wagon and chocked the wheels with rocks. Then we stumbled back uphill to the trees, untied the slack ropes, and walked them forward a ways, where we wound them around a nearer pair of trees. We drew them taut again, reached down with our free hand and removed the chocks, and let the wagon slide another few feet. Over and over, endlessly, it seemed, we followed in the blinding snow the same elaborate, painful procedure, and somewhere out there in front Mr. Epps calmed the snow-covered horses and kept them moving together on the nearly invisible trail. My face froze, and the rope burned my hands raw, and the rocks tore at the tender, exposed skin of my palms and fingers, while slowly, bit by bit, we lowered the wagon through the storm to the valley floor — where, as we descended, the clouds seemed to rise, and the snow gradually turned to sleet, then to cold rain.

By the time we got to level ground, it was almost dark, but we could see again. There were maple trees with fresh buds glistening on wet limbs, a meandering river, cleared, flat meadows covered with new grass, and steep mountains rising swiftly from the plain and disappearing in low, dark gray clouds.

In spite of our ordeal, we appeared to be in good shape. The team of Morgans that Mr. Epps had advised the Old Man to buy looked positively heroic to me now. Mr. Epps seemed as shrewd to me as he did to himself. I grinned at him, and to my surprise he smiled modestly, almost shyly, back.

My hands and Father’s were raw and blistered, and our clothes were soaked through. Poor Mary and Ruth and the children came trudging along behind us, looking miserable, wet, and cold, but immensely relieved to be down from the mountain. And further back came the red Devon cattle and Father’s precious long-faced merino sheep and the pigs, with Salmon and Oliver, using the collies, dutifully keeping them together, hollering and chasing after the stragglers, beating them back into line with their sticks. A short ways ahead, I saw a white, two-storey farmhouse with a long porch facing the road and a large, unpainted barn and several ramshackle outbuildings behind it, and when I pointed the place out to the Old Man, he merely nodded, as if he had known it would be there and did not need me to show it to him.

Finally, when we had all come up and were gathered together beside the wagon, Father removed his hat and prepared again to pray. This time, however, he ordered us to do likewise. “Let us give thanks, children,” he said, and we each uncovered our heads, every one of us, even Mr. Epps.

In his clear, thin voice, Father said, “Heavenly Father, we humbly thank thee for bringing thy children one more time safely through the storm. We thank thee, O Lord, for protecting us and our worldly goods against the travails and terrors of the mountain fastness and the fury of the storm. We who are wholly undeserving of thy boundless care and protection, O Lord, we humbly thank thee. Amen.”

Mr. Epps said his “A-men!” and quickly snapped his hat back on. I followed, and the others did also, except for Father, who remained bareheaded, face screwed up and eyes tightly shut. Uneasily, because of Mr. Epps’s presence, perhaps, we all walked a few steps away and did not look at the Old Man, and a moment later, as if wakened abruptly from sleep, he re-joined us, seeming somewhat distracted, if not downright dazed. This was his usual manner following prayer, however, and we were all quite used to it and never remarked on it, even amongst ourselves. From our viewpoint, simply, the Old Man prayed with greater intensity than the rest of us. From our viewpoint, the Old Man did everything with greater intensity than the rest of us.