EPISODE TWENTY - MANNY AND BEAR
When Bear woke up, Manny was still asleep. The towel was dry and he could tell that some of the swelling had gone down during the night. She was as beautiful in the morning as she was the night before. Bear had fought the Delaware before and remembered the Mohawk elders calling them the “grandfathers”. He wasn’t sure why but he thought it had to do with being the first to come into the north Atlantic lands. He was sure they had bloodlines that converge if you went back far enough. He began to think of what he would say to her when she woke up to ensure that she stay with him. There wasn’t time for any type of courtship so he decided to tell her he was going back to Pennsylvania reasonably soon and she could travel with him if she liked. He couldn’t think of anything else that would work any better, so he waited for her to wake up.
Mid-morning, she opened her eyes and looked around the room somewhat startled by the lack of familiar surroundings. She saw Bear smiling slightly, an unfamiliar pose for him to say the least. She said she was grateful for rescuing her from the two men the night before, then as she was sitting up her head started to throb from the swollen knot that still took up half her face. She got up to wash her face and see the damage that had been done. She cursed as she saw what the man had done. Bear said that his name was Big Bear, War Chief of the Mohawk Nation and leader of the Bear Clan. He went on to tell her he had killed both men involved, after they refused to release her. She thanked him again and said her name was Manniakuni of the Lenni Lenapi tribe turtles, descendents of the Canaanites, Berbers, Lapplanders, and blood brothers to dozens of tribes from California to Ontario. Her father was a tribal chief and had sent many braves to rescue her from the Dutch unsuccessfully years earlier. He then told her he would return her to her father if she wished and would make sure no man would strike her again as long as she stayed by his side. She sat on the bed and looked into Bear’s eyes for a long time before she said that she would consider an offer such as that to be the same as a promise of marriage and she would have to think on the matter before giving her answer. She knew the Mohawks were enemies of her people and she couldn’t see how she could return to her father’s home on the arm of a Mohawk, much less one that had taken many lives in battle. Still the offer did come at the end of years of abuse suffered at the hands of dozens of men and still her money to pay for the voyage home was not nearly enough. Many of the rich in Paris were sadistic in the bed and she hated them for it. Then there was the matter of the two men last night. If any of their friends had known they were going to attack her in the alley, they would looking for her by now and may not make it through another day without Bear’s protection. The more she thought about it, the fewer alternatives she could think of. Even if she left Paris without any of her things there would still be the matter of money to get by and how she would save to a voyage back home on top of living costs. She then asked him if he knew how she paid her way in life. He said he saw her go behind the curtains at the Palace several times during the evening and figured she provided men pleasure for money. He went on to say that life is a series of circumstances, some beyond a person’s control that do not determine a destiny, but simply forms part of the life. A princess abducted into slavery can be a princess again or wife to a Chief. This time when he smiled, she blushed slightly. How could I live with a man that could end up killing my father or other family members. I would give you necklaces to give them so I would know to pass over them in battle and I would wear one as well so they do not make you a widow. This seemed a simple but effective solution and she was free to consider other things. Finally she told him she would give him an answer by tomorrow’s sunset. This satisfied Bear for the moment and he asked if she was hungry.
The café was busy and they waited for a table. Standing there next to Bear made her feel safe like never before. She had never seen a man willing to get injured or killed to save a woman before and Bear seemed bigger than life which is quite a trick for a man that’s already bigger than life to begin with. Since Bear had to keep his head bent over inside the small café, when he saw a couple finishing up their meal and just sitting there talking, he moved over to the table and asked if they were done yet. The couple got up immediately and Bear and Manny sat down quickly before any other men crowded in front of them like that was a possibility. Manny noticed that men and to some extent women watched Bear from the time they first saw him until the last moment they were in eye shot when departing. At first this was a novel experience and she liked it, but by the time she had finished her meal she found it unsettling because not all the looks were friendly. He saw the discomfort in her face and said not to bother with the stares, that she will get used to it in time and any unusual person has to put up with the same thing everywhere they go as well. The difference being there will be no attacks for money or to humiliate them. He deliberately left out the challenges that occur when men feel insecure and try to kill the thing that has them so upset about their manhood.
Before they were finished with their meal, the owner came out and walked over to them asking if everything was to their liking. Bear said it was up to his usual expectations and then the owner asked if Bear would be competing in the weekend activities on pier seven. Manny’s eyes went wide as she watched Bear’s icy response of dismissal. She had heard of pier seven and how they rolled the dead losers out the back of the cage into the river where the currents carried them well down the Seine before their bodies came to the surface. She felt fear for Bear’s life in what was the deadliest arena in Europe to her knowledge. There had been talk of gunshots to ensure the win of the combatant with the longest odds to maximize the winnings of the wealthy men that ran the cage. Everything she had heard of the pier was bad, and no man lived long enough to make any real winnings and the guards that everyone paid for were under the orders of the cage bosses to see to it the money came back but not the winners. She was afraid that even a man like Bear had no chance against the criminals that ran the cage, with dozens of well armed men to see to it that there were no winners but the cage bosses. She told Bear the word around town was there had never been a winner that lived to spend his money or tell about his win, not one – ever. Bear sat there, thinking about the pier he had seen the day before. He wondered why the café owner was so anxious that he competes, was he one of the cage bosses? Bear got up from the table, said he’d be right back, and went into the kitchen area of the café and asked for the owner. The cook pointed to the back of the building and Bear pushed the door open to see the owner and two other men sitting at a small table drinking wine. Bear ducked under the door frame and stood with his head bowed forward asked the owner why he was so interested in Bear going to the cage to fight.
The owner nodded his head and the two men quickly vanished into the café without a word. He the admitted that he wasn’t going to make this offer to Bear unless Bear had shown up at the cage. Because of Bear’s size he figured the odds would run up to as high as 100 to 1 against a normal sized man. Then the bets would be placed, so if Bear after being wounded enough to appear dazed or near unconsciousness would fall to the floor of the cage and not get up the winnings would be split 50/50 later when no one was around. Bear looked at the owner with a smile on his face and said he’d let him know his decision by Friday the first night of fighting on the weekend still three days away. The owner smiled back and said this can only work one maybe two times then no one will bet against you and all chances of big odds go away for good. Even a second time would have to be months later or the fix will be suspected unless a definite period of healing has occurred between fights. Bear asked how much could be split between them. The owner said there were men there rich enough to cover and pay 100,000 ducats between all of them, it was just a matter of how to get each of them to agree to cover at those odds. Bear thought it was a shame that the cage is rigged, he could use another 50,000 ducats in the bank. Bear left the way he came, quickly and without a word.
Back in the room, he told Manny about the owners offer. She told him how they shoot the better fighter to cash in on the long odds fighter. Bear said that it made good sense to kill the better, even better to kill the partner that would have wanted half to take the fall. She watched Bear thinking as if he was working on a plan to get the money without getting killed in the process. Manny reminded him of the simple fact that no one had ever collected on a big bet or beat these men at what they do. Bear couldn’t come up with a plan to place a bet and collect on it. Maybe if he went along with the café owner and after they shoot him lying on the ground and toss him into the river he could go back and collect his money from the owner. They must use a muffler of some sort to shoot the man where others can’t see or hear the shot or they wouldn’t get anyone to fight in the cage. He couldn’t be sure he could collect from the owner either, or whether the owner would be honest as to how much he received from the money men there the night Bear fought. The rest of Tuesday was spent thinking how to bet and how to collect from criminals. Manny had her own thoughts of whether to go with Bear or try to get back to the Delawares on her own. At one point they were both on the bed and she was able to see the sawed off arrow shafts in his back and marveled at the sheer endurance of this Mohawk. Then there was the matter of gunshots where the ball was still inside him, like the fresh wound from Monday night when he saved her from the two men. The wound was not oozing blood any longer, but the hole was no less obvious. It was ¼ inch wide and deep enough to have entered his heart muscle without a doubt. The inside was pinkish and only an inch or so deep. It was unsettling to look at and she tried not to notice the other holes where healing had already reduced there diameter and depth to appear like shallow depressions, although there was no doubt they were gun shot wounds. There were sawed off arrow shafts in his chest too, about eight or so. It was hard to tell because there were so many crease and scar tissue patches where knives and swords and spears had sliced sections off his chest in battle. She couldn’t believe that a man could live through so many wounds and still be walking the earth. The more she thought about her youth, the more she could remember stories when she was younger of a Mohawk warrior that could not die. A phantom that would fly into a battle from the sky and slaughter a dozen braves at a time with a hatchet that was bigger than a man and could drop a tree when it came through the air. Mostly these stories were told to children of the village but she didn’t remember any of the braves laughing when the children would jump up and run to their mothers when the stories got gory. She was sure that phantom was Big Bear, the man that wanted her to go with him for now. As it got dark she thought about only having another day to decide whether she would be gong with Bear. Bear asked her if she wanted to go get her things at the Pleasure Palace and collect any pay that was due. When she looked apprehensive at the thought of returning to the Palace, he told her that she could just not go back and he would give her enough money to buy what she needed for clothes and he would make sure she didn’t go hungry. Her clothes were nothing special and actually rather gaudy to fit her work, but there was the personal box of keep sakes she had under her bed upstairs that she didn’t want to part with. She said she had to go back for her personal things and that it wouldn’t take her long to grab the box. The clothes were working clothes and she never wanted to see them again anyway. Bear thought the way she was talking indicated that she wasn’t going to go back to her old life in the Palace and therefore she was deciding to go with him or at least away from Paris. She had to leave Paris because there would be too many men that knew her for her to start over again in the city. He figured that a guaranteed passage back to her father’s village would be impossible for her to say no to.
The walk to the Palace was a quick one. She said that no men were allowed upstairs in the employee quarters, but wanted him to stand at the bottom of the stairs for when she came out of her room with the box. She wasn’t going to bother asking for Monday night’s pay since she was paid through Sunday night already. That way she wouldn’t have to speak to the bosses at all and would not have to put with all the arguing about them giving her a chance to make good money and how she owed them still for that chance. They might get rough and demand she get back downstairs and into the backrooms with customers right away. She told him there could be old customers that might pull her to the back rooms, bosses that don’t want to let her go, or even friends of the two men that want to question her about how their friends died. The authorities might even want to detain her for questioning about the murders of the night before. Not that they would think she killed two of the most dangerous men in Paris but who did kill them. She said she would try to get one of the other girls to get the box for her but doubted that they would want to get involved with a murder investigation even with such a little thing as fetching a box for her. The girls played the game pretty much as you look after yourself only and let everyone else do the same. She said she didn’t have a best friend that she could count on at the Palace. Bear said it will be safe with him there beside her, there was a good chance no one will try anything at all. He didn’t believe that, but she needed some encouragement right then and he was determined to provide whatever she needed whenever she needed it.
They stopped at the first window they came to and she looked in. She saw one of the girls right away and motioned for her to come outside to talk. The girl looked away as she thought she would. The same happened with the next three girls as well. Only two more girls to go but they were in the back rooms at the moment so there was a pause in the plan as they stood there watching men go in. The next thing Bear knew one of the bosses was standing in the alleyway calling out her name. Bear turned and three other men were there with clubs in hand, one of them also had a pistol out of its holster. Bear said he wanted no trouble and once she gets her belongings they will be on their way. The boss laughed then his men laughed like that was a funny thing Bear said. The boss told Manny to get back to work and there wouldn’t be any penalties for being gone the night before without permission. Bear then asked what would happen if she didn’t go back to work. The boss said that they would beat her till she couldn’t walk right and beat him till she couldn’t recognize him. The man with the pistol started laughing and said what an ugly man Bear was and how having his face smashed in would improve his features. They seemed quite comfortable with talking about what they’re going to do and began to form a circle around Bear and Manny. Bear raised his hatchet and they stopped making a circle. Then one of them swung a club at Bear’s head from behind. Bear let the hatchet swing down and carried on through the arc until it sunk into the man’s groin area with the expected howl of pain briefly then he collapsed to the ground silent and still on the stone surface. The pistol fired and Bear screamed his war cry which sent the hair on Manny’s neck straight out and paralyzed her instantly from fear. Bear swung the hatchet a second time and the top half of the shooter toppled off the one side, the eyes of shock staring at his waist and legs still standing as his torso hit the ground and his arms grasped at his legs for support. Bear laughed at the man trying to save himself after he was dead. The third man ran back down the alley. The boss said you two will not live through the night and charged into the street and down the sidewalk to the main door of the Palace.
Bear followed right after the boss with Manny in tow. Bear continued on to the stairway and sent Manny upstairs to get her personal belongings. He stayed at the bottom of the stairs in full view of all the customers in the Palace. Soon, six large men were following the boss towards Bear standing with his hatchet raised half way in the air. The front two lunged at Bear in an attempt to grab each arm and subdue him. He backed up far enough to allow a full swing in front of his body from left to right ending back up in the high position. Four arms lay on the floor writhing and twitching while pumping blood onto the wooden floorboards. The two men with eyes wide open in shock and terror screamed at their loss, helplessly sitting on the floor next to their arms, their shoulders squirting blood onto the growing pools of blood already large enough to engulf the whole area. The other four men stopped dead in their tracks. All had pistols and reached for them, after seeing that brute force was useless against this Indian. Suddenly even killing him was in question as they fumbled to cock their guns. Bear pulled all six of his throwing knives out of his belt and began to throw them one by one in a systematic rotation of targets. Only one was left and five men, counting the boss, had handles sticking out of some part of their chest or back, depending on whether they were facing him or running away when the knife sunk deep in its victim. Between the five of them there were two shots fired. One missed Bear completely, but the other landed at the edge of his right eye, taking out continuing through the temple and blowing off the top of his right ear. Bear was surprised that part of his body had actually been blown off. The blood was running down into his eye as he squinted to keep the left eye working to see with. Manny came flying down the stairs at that point and as she ran past Bear she was saying that they should go now. She didn’t even notice Bear face was covered in blood and his chest as well. She slipped on the giant pool of blood and went down hard, lading on one of the first two men that had passed out from the loss of blood at that point. She quickly got to her feet and carefully stepped over the remaining men on her way out, followed by a bloody Indian that no one in the Palace was about to stop from leaving.
Two sheriffs arrived just as Manny and Bear walked through the doors of the Palace. Both knew Manny well and let her go on by. But when Bear started to pass they both got ready to grab him. Manny said he was with her and was a victim of the violence inside. They were glad to let him go. No man wants to detain a wounded giant if there’s any way to avoid it. By the time they got back to the room the bleeding had already slowed to a trickle. She washed the wound and cleaned up before falling on the bed exhausted. He spent most of the evening feeling his ear. He couldn’t get over that part of him was missing. It wasn’t going to grow back, it wasn’t going to heal up – it was gone. For the first time in his life Bear felt vulnerable and he didn’t like it at all. He wondered if this new vulnerability would affect the way he went into battle in the future.
This new Bear was different from the Mohawk she had gotten to know. Bear seemed more human, less a phantom. She was drawn to Bear like a mother to a injured child. She held him in her arms as best she could, considering she couldn’t actually get her arms around him. He let her hold him and for the first time, thought of a simpler life with children at his feet and a women at his side in a quiet village tucked safely away in the woods.
TO BE CONTINUED