Written for Steemit: A love story occurs during a time anomaly. A woman from today somehow steps into an anomaly and meets a cowboy asleep on his ranch, in his bed, in the 1850's. ©Jeff Kubitz 2016 - All Rights Reserved.

Song of Angels - Chapter 3

Mindy Woczlewski courtesy of Nastya Muratokova

Mindy sat in her jeep for a very long while. She waited hoping someone would come. She had not noticed how the road had suddenly changed from tended, graded, gravel road to what she sat parked on now. She wondered how long she drove before the road changed and knew she must have driven past the turn.

The distance back to the turn could not be that far at all. Since no one came, she decided to try and walk back to the turn, walk into the plant for help. She had to do something. The jeep was beginning to cool even though the day was warm for January. Her phone still had no signal.

Mindy thought there might be something wrong with the signal indicator and tried a couple of calls – nothing.
She exited the jeep, her cell phone with her and purse. She looked around and saw nothing but desert, hills, then mountains off in the distance on both the east and west sides of the valley. She was about to walk back the way she came, when she heard something off in the distance.

The day in March was very windy when the angels were first heard to sing. Mindy walked in an open field in the desert in what city people call the wastes of Utah where sage and dead perennials left from last year are the only plants on the prairie just before the birth of spring. There was nothing else out here she could see but open miles of desert with far away mountains all around the valley in which she stood. Though the open range teemed with life, since she was a new sight to most of the creatures that watched her, the animals and varmints, birds, and bug hid in wary watchfulness.

In the wind, which washed over the land like a moving flood of air and drowned all other sounds to her ears, she heard the first pure musical note and stopped to listen. She looked around for the source of the sound of the note but saw nothing. Mindy saw nothing at all but what was there and had always been there on the open range. The note stopped.

Mindy said humph to herself as she walked further and further away from where she had left her blue jeep wrangler on the dirt road. She felt an odd sense of inner strength building within her as she inhaled the chilled air. She felt invigorated somehow as the wind occasionally staggered her steps from the force of the gale shoving her upon her shoulder.

She really did not know why she had come out here. Gas was so expensive. Her life was a mess, though not as bad as some. She just wanted to be alone. She just wanted to go for a drive to get away from Salt Lake City. After driving for three hours, she did not know why she had stopped here or why she chose to walk in this direction on the flat of the valley. She heard another note. Mindy stopped to listen. The note was made by a voice. She was sure of it. A voice of what she did not know. It the wind, it sounded like an “Ahh” of a pleasant higher pitch. The source of the sound seemed to come from in front of her to the right just a bit. The sound was so beautiful and relaxing. She felt filled with light as note was sung. With curiosity and without fear she moved in the direction of where she thought the source of the sound emanated.

As she took more and more steps, the voice seemed to grow in volume. Then it stopped. Mindy stopped, looked back at her jeep and realized she had moved more than a mile from where she had parked. A bit a fear began to creep into her because she had only meant to stretch her legs, and she realized she was unprepared for even a moderate hike in the desert. She started to turn back to walk toward her wrangler when the voice began to sing again. A song by one female voice began.

“We are together in the word of the lord.
We are together in the word of our lord.
Joy is our portion in the word of the lord.
Joy is our portion in the word of our lord.”

Another voice, then more voices joined with the first voice and she could swear that she heard a chorus of people sing the word alleluia. With the recognition of the word, all her fear fell from her. She sang fairly well and she tried to join in the song of thanks as the clouds covered the valley and blocked obscured the sun but those who sang were able to hold their notes so long and with such purity as she had never heard she had to stop and breathe while whoever sang continued to sing the same word.

Mindy was astonished and out of breathe. The music seemed to come from not very far in front of her. She decided to move forward toward the inexpressible beauty of the song. The song grew in volume and was sung in the round by a choir of many voices.

“These are the prayers in the word of the Lord our God.
These are the prayers in the word of our Lord our God.”

The word ‘our’ was nearly washed over as men sang, ‘Most High’ as it was sung.
As she walked, she began to realize she was walking down a slight slope. What she had thought was a completely flat prairie as she had looked out from the jeep hid an even smaller valley within the great valley she trod. And the hidden valley was at least five miles across and at least a hundred feet deep. She saw tamarisk trees not more than a mile or so ahead in a sort of line and knew she approached water. There were some cottonwoods as well. The source of the music came from somewhere in front of her but behind the trees, she was now certain. She moved toward where the chorus seemed to be centered. She expected to see a great sound stage with speakers and lighting, an audience. They could all be behind the trees she thought and continued forward. With each step, her worldly cares and worries seemed to move further from her as she concentrated on the song.

“This is the joy of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the joy of the word of our Lord our God.
This is the love of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the love of the word of our Lord our God.
This is the time of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the time of the word of our Lord our God.
This is the freedom of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the freedom of the word of our Lord our God.
This is the wage of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the wage of the word of our Lord our God.
This is the light of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the light of the word of our Lord our God.
This is the truth of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the truth of the word of our Lord our God.”

The song was so powerful. Each verse was sung over and over again then the next verse would start. The voices grew in strength and volume. The number of voices in the choir seemed to grow into a multitude of alleluias sung in the round along with the voices of the song but all was clear.

“Be thou healed in the world of the word of the Lord our God.
Be thou healed in the world of the word of our Lord our God.
Be thou seen in the world of the word of the Lord our God.
Be thou seen in the world of the word of our Lord our God.
Be thou heard in the world of the word of the Lord our God.
Be thou heard in the world of the word of our Lord our God.
Be thou whole in the world of the word of the Lord our God.
Be thou whole in the world of the word of our Lord our God.
Be thou clean in the world of the word of the Lord our God.
Be thou clean in the world of the word of our Lord our God.”

As she walked she felt more and more strength flow into her so that the closer she walked to the stream, or what she thought was a stream at the bottom of the dell the more pull she felt toward the center of the chorus. She moved faster and faster until now she was almost at a run. Something she normally did not do. Mindy had to see what was happening on the other side of those trees, on the other side of the creek. And the angels continued to sing.

“This is the reign of the word of the Lord our God.
This is the reign of the word of our Lord our God.
Truth is the light of the word of the Lord our God.
Truth is the light of the word of our Lord our God.
His way is truth in the word of the Lord our God.
His way is truth in the word of our Lord our God.
Soon is the justice of the word of the Lord our God.
Soon is the justice of the word of our Lord our God.
These words praise the word of the Lord our God.
These words praise the word of our Lord our God.
This is the day of love to the earth of the Lord our God.
This is the day of love to the earth of our Lord our God.
This is the way of love to the earth of the Lord our God.
This is the way of love to the earth of our Lord our God.”

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, she reached the bank of the creek where water should have been. She had walked over five miles. Ran the last mile but she was not out of breath. The cottonwoods were thick enough she could not see on the other side of the dry creek. The song sang on drawing Mindy across the sand of the wash and up the other bank.

She was now tired as she moved through the trees and brush to see absolutely nothing but what had always been there. The plants, sand, and sage of the desert were all she saw before her.

“Our God is great in his word.”

The chorus stopped. Mindy bent over attempting to catch her breath with her hands on her knees. Her feet spread, her legs stiff she took breath after breath. The altitude here was over a mile high.

After a minute or two, she decided to sit beneath the shelter of the cottonwood trees and rest from the buffet of the wind. She leaned up against the trunk of a great bole. Oh no, Mindy thought to herself I have gone crazy. I have an absolutely long walk in the high wind back to my jeep. The afternoon is getting late.

The wash of dry desert streams that course water only during the heaviest rains and only after the melt of the snow starts are never straight for very long. The gully of the waterless creek was about eight feet deep. Filled with sand and bends, pockets of snow that stayed in the shadows a long time after all around melted, Mindy observed a small clear pool about a hundred feet to her left, almost invisible at a bend.

Thirsty she rose and descended into the creek bed. Walking toward the water, she could see it clear as crystal as she approached. A layer of snow turned to ice filled the little pool and she bent down to drink.

The pure water was delicious in the shelter of the roar of the wind that passed over her head. After greedily swallowing several handfuls of water, Mindy looked up ahead of her as saw a horse drinking from another pool of water no more than fifty feet in front of her. The horse was saddled and the reins of its bridle were on the ground as it drank through the bit in its mouth.

The chestnut horse had fancy tack. Mindy had never seen a horse so beautiful attired with polished silver that gleamed like mirrors but there was not a rider to be seen.

Mindy called hello several times to see if someone was there near the horse. Someone she could not see, nor hear over the chug of the wind. The horse lifted its head and came toward her. As she rose to walk toward the horse, the horse stopped. When she moved forward the horse turned and moved down the gully away from her.

Mindy said to herself that she could not follow a horse and had to go back to her jeep. So she stopped and started to turn away. As she did, the horse stopped and started to turn toward her. The horse walked toward her. Mindy walked toward the horse breaking her most recent resolve. A few paces away, the horse turned and walked from her down the creek. Mindy stopped. The horse stopped turning its head to look at her.

Mindy did not know much about horses. She did not know what kind of horse this was and she had not bothered to look at the sex but she knew that a horse could keep up a game like this out here in the desert for the rest of its life while she would die from following it.

Mindy said, that is it I have to go back to my jeep now or I may not be able to find it when it gets dark. She began to turn away and the horse walked almost to her, reins dragging the ground. She saw the white star on the forehead, the brown eyes, the soft pinkish-white muzzle, and she reached for the reins. As soon as her hand went forward to the rein, the horse backed up. It kept her hand just away from taking the rein as if leading a child. Mindy stopped to give up. The low of cattle sounded just around a bend in the creek. The horse walked forward to Mindy. Its muzzle was no more than two feet from her face. The reins dangled right in front of her.

Mindy snatched the rein with her hand. The horse did not move or startle but stood. She took the reins in both hands with a firm grip. Then she walked to the left side of the horse. As she did so the horse backed up so that she was pulled by the horse but gently. The horse slowly turned and started to pull Mindy down the creek toward where the sound of the cattle had come.

Mindy tugged on the reins hard but the horse would not stop though it did not pull hard enough to drag her to the ground even after she tried to plant her feet several times.

After a few minutes of tugging, the horse had led Mindy down the streambed, around a bend to a place where the gully of the creek bed opened into a wide flat. The horse pulled so hard Mindy stumbled and almost fell. She had to drop the reins or be pulled down and dragged. The horse ran away from her to some cottonwoods to the left, just up the sandy shallow bank. It stopped in the trees in front of what appeared to be an old dilapidated shack or maybe even a small house. The once white paint was gone on most of the planks that made the siding. The wood had turned a dark color of gray.

Mindy walked up to the house. The horse stood at the door and did not move. The horse stood looking into the open door of the house as if directing Mindy to enter.

The house as it appears today. Photograph by @jeff-kubitz

Cautiously, she looked into the open door and could see there were at least two rooms with one behind the door at the far wall from where she stood at the entrance. The cattle lowed again from somewhere behind the house. Mindy called out several times announcing herself. She heard no response. The horse stamped the ground with its right fore-hoof several times and sighed.

The horse looked at Mindy and decided to enter. The room was filled with cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. There was a small kitchen counter with a sink to the right. An old black potbelly stove sat in the corner to the left of the front door. There was a dusty lounge chair and an end table in the far left corner. The place appeared dirty but not so dirty that someone had not been in the place fairly recently. She called out again and waited for a response. When none came she walked toward the door at the back of the room in which she stood.

When she stood in the doorway, she turned to her left and saw a bed with someone, a man, asleep on the top of the double bed. His hands were folded down on his chest. His black cowboy hat was leaned so it covered his face so that Mindy could not determine his age. Though, she could see a brown beard and longer blond hair shadowed by the hat.

Mindy asked several times, sir, are you all right? When there was no response from him she thought he was dead and moved closer expecting to have discovered the corpse of someone perished in sleep. Then she saw his chest rise as he breathed. He was asleep and not dead.

Mindy touched his hand to see if it was warm to the touch when he suddenly sat up, his hat flew, and screamed, “What the Hell!”

Mindy screamed in fright she was so startled. Then she said she was sorry over and over that she had thought him dead.

He introduced himself as Cyrus Weeks and asked who she was and why was she in his house. Then Cyrus said,
“You are very lovely, Mindy. And I am rude to a visitor as pretty as yourself.”

Mindy saw as he moved off the bed to stand that he was very tall, well built and certainly no more than thirty to forty years old. Cyrus Weeks continued.

“I have not had a visitor out here in so very long that I expected no one to come by and never do so that when I sleep I sleep so soundly that I am not sure that you are real or a dream.” In the dim light of this shuttered room, Cyrus looked handsome if not ruggedly so, lean and strong.

“Oh I am no dream.” Mindy stated matter of fact, “I walked out here and found your horse who led me here in such a strange way that I thought something had happened or the person in here needed help.”

“Cutter led you here?” Cyrus asked. “From where? This must be a dream you are so lovely and where could you have come from?”

“Well, I thank you for your compliment, your compliments of me very much, but I walked here from my jeep which is out on the road over that way.” Mindy pointed at the direction in which she thought her jeep was parked.

“Your jeep?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes, it should be over that way by the road.” Mindy said again pointing through the wall of the bedroom.

“Are you alone out here?” Cyrus asked looking puzzled.

“Yes, I am alone. I went for a drive and then a walk.”

“Well that was some drive and some walk the road in the direction you are talking about is miles away from here. I just simply cannot believe a woman came all the way out here all by herself.” Cyrus muttered, “Why in tar nation, that is unbelievable.”

“I don’t know why it is so unbelievable,” Mindy thought it not a good idea to mention the singing of the angels to such a handsome obviously practical cowboy, “After all, I am here. I do need to get back to my jeep.”

“Well, if it is all right with you Miss,” Cyrus said. “I should like to invite you stay and set a bit, chat, while I find out what your jeep is exactly.”

“Well, I don’t know, umm standing here in your bedroom…” Mindy muttered.

“Oh,” Cyrus flustered. “Let’s move into the parlor and I’ll fix some coffee for us while I here your story of how you came to be out here by yourself.”

“Yes, that would be fine.” Mindy said. Since she stood between Cyrus and the door to his parlor Mindy turned and walked through the doorway first. As Cyrus entered the parlor he said,

“Oh it looks like the door blew open while I slept and brought in a mess of dust. I do hate when that happens.” Cyrus closed the front door. He took a rag from the counter and wiped the overstuffed chair with the rag until almost all the dust was gone. Then he turned to Mindy and beckoned with his hand to the chair, “You can sit here if it’s all right.”

Mindy took a seat in the chair while Cyrus moved to the potbelly stove. He lifted a burner lid and checked inside the stove.

Photograph by @jeff-kubitz

“Still lit thankfully.” He said with a smile to Mindy. Then, he Cyrus some wood into the stove. “That should do it.” He said replacing the lid.

Cyrus moved to the sink and picked the coffee pot out. Filled it full of water from a pitcher. Then placed it upon the stove. He turned to Mindy and said, “Make yourself comfortable Miss Mindy. I have to get Cutter’s saddle and tack put away for the night and him in his corral. I will be right back.”

“Do you have a restroom I could use?” Mindy asked. Strangely, she did feel comfortable. She could hear the fire in the stove roaring to life and with the door closed the room was becoming very comfortable and warm very quickly.

“A restroom?” Cyrus asked. “I do wonder how you came to be out here with me and can’t wait to hear your story. Since it is winter, I do have a pot in the bedroom there, which is empty…next to the basin.” He pointed through the doorway. “Or if you would prefer the stall is just out the door, to the left and back a bit.” He pointed through the wall. Then turned to leave. Mindy asked,

“An outhouse hmmm.”

“Why yes ma’am. Though it might be getting cold as the dark is setting in.”

“I’ll use the pot.” Mindy stated.

“I’ll be right back,” Cyrus said. “Yours is going to be a great story to hear.” Then he was out the door closed behind him.

Mindy thought Cyrus was so very handsome. ‘He looks so very strong.’ She said to herself. He was certainly one of the strongest looking men she had ever met. He moved gracefully in spite of all his obvious strength. She rose from the chair, a little stiff from her long walk and proceeded into the bedroom. In the far corner to her right was a shelf with a basin on it and a pitcher next to it. A bucket made of wood with a lid was below the shelf. She thought that might be the pot Cyrus has said he had. She lifted the lid to investigate. Though it was clean looking her nose told her this was the pot intended for her use.

She pulled out the pot to a more comfortable location from under the shelf and dropped her jeans. Her legs were not used to squatting over a bucket. She found it hard to balance while she relieved herself. When she was finished, still squatting she looked around for toilet paper and saw none. There was a dirty rag hanging on a peg. She managed to use that but messed her hands in the process.

When she finished wiping herself clean, she pulled her pants up careful of the dirt on her hands and turned to use the pitcher and the basin to clean her hands. She thought to herself, Cyrus sure lives a very rudimentary lifestyle almost like a pioneer.

Except for the overstuffed chair and the stove, everything in the house seemed to be antique and she was not sure about the stove and the chair. There was not paint or lighting of any kind. There seemed to be no electricity. Mindy poured the contents of the basin into the pot and put on the lid.

She could not resist approaching the bed to press to see if the bed had box springs and a real mattress. The bed did not. It was obviously a featherbed on a steel frame. Then she bent to look under and saw the frame to be wood and some sort of material, maybe leather stretched tight upon which rested the mattress.

This bed has to be ancient, Mindy said to herself, but it looks nearly new. She thought Cyrus must not make much money or he just liked old things. But she decided to sit next to the stove until Cyrus returned. She was so comfortable wrapped in the heat of the stove she almost began to doze. The door opened and Cyrus stepped into the room in draft of freezing air. Quickly he shut the door behind him. He stepped to the stove with his hands out to warm them. He said with a shiver in his voice,

“I should have put on a coat. It has become cold out there real quick. Goodness you came along and woke me Miss Mindy or I could have froze to death if I had stayed asleep.”

“Is it that cold out there?” Mindy asked.

“Cold? It is about to snow deep I think,” Cyrus stated.

“Snow!” Mindy exclaimed as she jumped from her chair, “Deep? I have to get back to my jeep and to Salt Lake.”
“It is already at least two inches on the ground and coming down good and fast. We can’t get out of here until at least tomorrow if not longer.” Cyrus said as a matter of fact.

“What?” Mindy said jumping to the door and throwing it open to look out into the night at the swirling snow falling in huge flakes. It was a blizzard. The cold hit her hard. “I don’t believe this is happening.” She stood in the doorway and began to shiver. She closed the door. She stood next to Cyrus at the stove with her hands over it shaking, taking in the warmth. “It is cold out there.”

“Is there someone with your team?”

“My jeep?”

“No, your wagon out there.”

“I don’t have a wagon.”

“No horses?”

“No horses, of course not.”

“Of course not?”

“It runs on gas.”

“Gas?” Cyrus pondered a moment. “You have a horseless carriage?”

“Yes, a jeep.” Mindy pondered a moment. “Don’t you have a truck?”

“I heard a tale they would be coming soon awhiles back but I did not know someone finally invented one. No, I have a wagon but only Cutter and he won’t be enough in this weather.”

“I don’t believe this. I thought all cowboys had trucks.”

“Maybe they do in Salt Lake Now but no one has one out here yet. Not that I have ever seen or heard of.”

“So there are other people out here then?”

“Not nearby the closest people are the Stafford’s and they are more than twenty miles away.”

“Can’t you call them?”

“I could but they would not hear from here.”
“Use the phone.”
“Phone? I have no phone. There is a telegraph line in I do not know how far ma’am.”

“Well, I do have a cell phone. Let me try it.”

Cyrus looked at the thing in Mindy’s hand and gawked as she flipped it open.

“There is no signal here.” Mindy said frustrated.

“What is that?” Cyrus asked.

“This is a cell phone haven’t you ever seen one?” Mindy asked.

“My, things are changing in Salt Lake faster than I thought.” Cyrus said.

“It is really dark in here do you have a light?” Mindy asked.

“I do but I never use it except in emergencies because carrying in the kerosene is just too much.” Cyrus said.

“Well, what do you do in the winter for supplies?” Mindy asked.

“I stock up and wait the winter out of course.” Cyrus answered.

“You are joking right?”

“No the nearest store is fifty miles away at least. I have plenty to last until spring.” Cyrus looked at Mindy very strangely. "Did you fall Ma'am? Hit your head?"

Mindy’s voice stuttered each word and each sentence in response.
“No. I have to leave. I must return to Salt Lake. You do not understand. I must go. I can’t be here with you.”

“We are held here by nature. Nothing can be done.”

“I must get back, Now.”

“You are very beautiful Miss Mindy.” Cyrus said with a glazed look in his eye.

“Thank you.” Mindy stuttered with cold shivers then said, “You are a handsome man your self.”

Cyrus put his arms around Mindy and she turned to look up at him. Mindy whispered,
“No.”

Cyrus kissed Mindy with a most passionate kiss.

Please read and vote for the previous chapters:

Song of Angels - Chapter 1

Song of Angels - Chapter 2

Follow Me: I Follow You. We Upvote. We Reblog. Win! Win! @jeff-kubitz