Viola’s Find

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”Bones!  Star!  Look what I found!” a jubilant Viola screeched as she entered her sons home.  She was beaming and holding up a wooden vial with a double notched stopper on top.  “Isn’t this what the Elders were lookin’ for?” She was the picture of triumph; head held high, her back so straight you’d have thought it was wired to the ceiling. 

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Bones reached for it and squinting his eyes, looked it over carefully, holding it with thumb and forefinger, remembering that what was most likely inside was poisonous.  He looked down at his grinning mother with some concern   “Where did you find it Mother?”

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“Well” she started, ready to fire off a ramble of words so fast she thought she was going to burst. ”Well.  It was buried in back of the house, in the sand.  I saw some sand’d been messed with recent like, and I got to bein’ curious, so I dug down and there it was!” There would be no stopping her now.  Bones sighed. “I’m sure as sure can be that it’s that foxglove Fern’s lookin’ for.”  She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, hold down her excitement.  Straightening her acorn hat and smoothing down her tunic, brushing off some errant crumbs she continued.  “Bet that Mus girl hid it there.  Be jus’ like her. I’m takin’ this to the Elders Council right now!  Hmmmff.” She grabbed it back from her son, grabbed a scarf and barked at her boy “Comin’ Bones?” He dutifully grabbed a cloak against the morning chill.

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They headed for the Lodge just as Mus was leaving, looking furiously at the ground at her feet, not noticing them as she tramped away.  Viola’s eyes followed her in a disapproving stare, with lips curled, her eyes like slits.  Then she returned her focus to Bones, looked him square in the eyes and said “Ready?  I’ll do the talkin’” and they headed into the dim smoky lodge.  The Elders were deep in discussion so Bones went over to Oak and tapped gently on his shoulder and whispered into his ear, showing him the vial which he had purloined from his mother’s grasp.

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“Excuse me!” Oak said with an urgency that caught the attention of the other Elders.  Soon the lodge was as quiet as a mouse and all eyes were on Oak.  “Seems Bones’ mother has found this vial buried out back of their place.  Bones, Viola.  You want to tell us about it?”

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Viola grabbed at the vial, holding it in front of her.  Pushing her son aside she placed herself in the perfect spot so as not to be missed by any of the Elders.  She looked at them with a smug stare.  This was the imposing company of which she was sure she would soon be a part of.  “Well, I’m stayin’ with my son Bones here.  So is Mus an’ her kids, and I got to thinkin’ how it coulda been her stole that foxglove after what she did to her poor husband ‘fore he set out on that there search party.  Then I thought; if’n she was goin’ to hide it, she’d want it close by, but not too close as to ‘criminate herself.  That got me thinkin’ about outside an’ I found it buried out back in the sand!  This is it, isn’t it?  Wooden vial with two notches on each part?” She fixed her gaze on Fern. “It’s the foxglove, Fern, isn’t it?” she passed the vial to her in a precise, steady manner unlike her usual sloppy movements.

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 Fern received it and looked thoughtfully at it.  Her eyes looked suspiciously from Viola to Bob, then returned to Viola.  “Yes, this is it” she said in a flat voice.

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Viola stood tall, adjusted her hat and wrap and stated as if fact “So, you’ll be wantin’ me now?”

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Fern looked confused.  “Wanting you?  For what?”

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“As an Elder of course!  Look how helpful I’ve been to you bunch!”  She looked at Fern as if it was obvious to all.

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Fern marinated on that question for a few moments, her head nodding from side to side not knowing what to say.  My Gawd, she thought.  The woman has the intelligence of a skunk cabbage and she thought she was fit to be an Elder?  She swallowed her outrage and turned to the incredulous faces of the other Elders.  Sidestepping Viola’s question she asked her “This is indeed the vial, but I still have a few questions to put to you if I may?”  She was answered with a nodding heads.

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She looked intently at the strange little woman in front of them.  “Viola, how did you know it was foxglove, and how did you know about the two notches?  We kept that information private amongst the Elders.”  Fern looked hard and quizzically at her.

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“Well, um,” Violas’ mouth seemed drained of saliva, but she rallied.  “Well, isn’t that what you’ve been askin’ everyone to look out for?  Ocean’s medicine?”  Her stomach fluttered like it was full of butterflies not sure where to migrate to this year.

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“Well, yes” Fern answered. “But how did you know his medicine was foxglove?  And even more unlikely, how did you know the vial had two notches on it.  That was known to a very few.”  She looked Viola square in the eye.

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Viola’s eyes darted from her son to the Elders like a frantic seagull.  Her heart thundered and her mouth was dry. Licking her thirsty lips she yelled in anger “It was Mus!  She’s not a good mother an’ she hates Daisy!  She put poison all over her poor husban’ ‘fore he went out on that there search.  You all know that!  What’s to stop her from usin’ poison next time?  She wants Cranberry.  Always has.  It was her hid it to maybe use on Daisy? I dunno.”  She wiped her eyes to clear the smoke from the peat fire.

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“I repeat “said Fern, as abrupt as falling off a cliff in the dark of night. “How did you know about the two notches?”  She thought for a moment, glancing at Bob and added “and where were you the first evening of the Gathering?”

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Bones came up, confused by the question and put his arm around his now crumpled up mother and looked defensively at Fern. ”She was nowhere near the healing hut.  She said she wanted to check out the Great Lodge, isn’t that right mother?”  He looked down at his obviously distraught mother. “A little while after dinner you left. You spent the evening there and then came home. Right?  We were in our furs, but we heard you come in and bed down for the night.”  What could they be thinking, talking to his poor mother like this?  She may be a thorn to bear but she was still his mother.

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Fern and Bob exchanged glances, then Fern carefully opened the vial to check its contents.  “It’s not all here!” she exclaimed in alarm. “At least a quarter of it is missing!”  Her eyes darted back to Viola.  “Did you open it?  Did you spill any?”

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Viola regrouped and started on. “That Mus, she musta took some out an’ hid it somewhere.  Probably trying to poison Daisy right now while you’re askin’ me all these stupid questions!”  She was getting angry now, her face reddening. “She probably hid it somewhere in Bones’ place.  Check her baskets.  Bet you’ll find it.”  She looked smugly back at them.

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The Elders looked around at each other and Raven stood facing Bones, ignoring Viola as if she were part of the furniture. “Bones, will you stay with your mother here while a few of us go and visit Mus?  Won’t be long.  Just make sure she stays put, OK?”  He didn’t wait on an answer.  He left with Fern and Bob leaving the sound of urgent muttering in his wake.

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Bones took his mother by the arm and set her down on the far side of the lodge.  “What’s going Mother?  How did you know about the notches, and are you sure you didn’t spill any?  Because I know you.  You would look to see what was inside.”

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She whimpered “It was Mus I tell ya.  She’s the evil one.  Do you see what a bad mother she is an’ so messy?  ‘An she was a real hussy in her day.  You’ve heard the stories!”  She was warming up to her narrative. “You just wait.  They’ll find that poison in her baskets.  Then they’ll know!”

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He was getting angry now and trying hard to rein it in; not having the time to reflect on the irony of his mother calling anyone else messy. “I’m not asking you about her.  I’m asking about you!  If they do find the poison in her baskets, how is it you’d know about it?  Are you sure YOU didn’t put it there?”  He looked her straight, his brown eyes boring into her cloudy blue eyes.

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Viola looked at her son, lowered her face into her hands and burst into tears, deep mournful sobbing, snuffling into her sleeve, Things weren’t going as planned.  She was sure that instead of crying in the corner, she’d be sitting tall with the Elders at this point. She could see the tall felted hat of office disappearing before her eyes.  It was all going wrong.

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It wasn’t long after that the three Elders returned.  They had found the foxglove wrapped in a dried skunk cabbage leaf. The coincidence of it being just where Viola had said was not lost on them.  Mus had been furious that someone would have planted that on her, and so near her children.  Any of them could have mistook it for food.  They may be brats, but they were her and Perri’s brats and she wasn’t about to see them hurt.  The Elders had apologized for the intrusion and asked if they’d like to stay elsewhere.  They sure would, she’d said.  Didn’t want to be anywhere near that old devious bat anymore.  So Bob stayed to help them relocate while the other two returned to the Lodge.

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The Elders conferred and then turned back to Bones and Viola. Bones was asked to keep watch on his mother.  She was to stay at his house, accompanied at all times until the Elders had decided what to do, and so Bones, tired as a sack of old the bones he was named for, whisked his mother back into the house, Viola whimpering and muttering the whole time.  He sat back, exhausted and angry, with no patience left in for his mother turned to her and said “Give it a rest mother.  Just shut up!”

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Star looked at them both incredulously and said”Can someone please tell me what’s going on?”