MARY A tale of the wild west of long ago
My name is Mary Faraday Huntington and I was born in 1834 at Independence, Missouri. My mother died when I was 9 months old and an Indian woman working at a whorehouse was the only one Christian enough to take me in. Don’t know who my father was but he must have been big, strong, and sharp as a whip. Probably an army man having a little fun. Sure they call me a bastard, but they learned quick enough not to do that to my face.
Jennie is a Blackfoot Spirit Woman and a real good mother who cooks and cleans at Polly’s Paradise. We have a little room in the basement. Her real name is Aokii’aki, Water Woman. She taught me sign and Blackfoot, how to live off the land, and how to fight with my hands and feet and knife. And she is teaching me the ways of a Spirit Woman.
She calls me Wind Woman. Sopo'aki, because I move so quick. She introduced me to Osgar, one of her spirit helpers. He’s a little, round man with red hair, bright blue eyes, and a big, big grin. A very horny little man. She doesn’t know if I’ll ever get a helper.
Osgar plays tricks on me sometimes and I play tricks right back. Not bad tricks. Just fun tricks when nobody’s around. Like once just as I opened my mouth for a big spoon full of beans, he used his spirit feather to turn them into little rabbit turds. I figured out the switch just in time. Oh my, how he did jump up and down and screech. Not for long. I threw the smelly turds straight into his wide open mouth.
Polly was also real nice and showed me how to shoot a Colt, read, write and do sums, and lent me any book I wanted. Some had the mark of a finishing school for young ladies in Philadelphia. Maybe that’s why she never wants to talk about her past, just gets real sad when she’s drinks too much. Then she comes down and spends the night with me and Jennie. Jennie makes a calm, quiet place for her, where time goes slow.
I can jump back and forth between Jennie’s world and Polly’s world. White folks mostly just know the surface of the water. Jennie knows what’s underneath. A man knows a little what’s underneath when he beds a woman, dances, hunts, fights, and gets drunk. Only lasts for a little while. Women know much more because we give nourishment and know every moontime that we give life.
When I started to blossom Jennie took me to a little pond not far away and we gathered a big bunch of cattails for my moontime. And she taught me how to use my body with a man and how to stop babies. Osgar kindly demonstrated how to drive a man crazy. The big, smelly apes can be a lot of fun but most are pretty dumb.
The horny guys coming to Polly’s Paradise pretty much left me alone unless I invited them because they’re afraid of Polly and Jennie. But one night a guy from out of town didn’t know no better and pushed me into the alley next to Polly’s. The fat idiot died quick. I got a fine pocket watch, two gold rings, and cleaned out his pockets.
Jennie took me quick down to the creek to wash out the blood.
There was hell to pay the next day. He was a banker, carrying funds from a number of clients. They searched and searched but never found all that money or his killer. I watched with a gentle smile.
Jennie and Polly didn’t want me to go but it’s time. A wagon train was assembling south of town and Polly found a nice Christian couple who agreed to take me on to help with the two kids, cooking and washing. Polly told them my mother died and there was nobody to look after me. She gave me a pretty little gold crucifix to hang around my neck and I put on my best prim and proper when Mr. and Mrs. O’Sullivan looked me over.
It was real hard hugging Polly and Jennie goodbye but there's no life for me at Polly’s Paradise. A bastard living in a whorehouse don’t break much bread with those gentlefolk the other side of the tracks, and I’d be upstairs in my own little room soon enough if I stayed.
My name is Mary Faraday Huntington and I was born in 1834 at Independence, Missouri. My mother died when I was 9 months old and an Indian woman working at a whorehouse was the only one Christian enough to take me in. Don’t know who my father was but he must have been big, strong, and sharp as a whip. Probably an army man having a little fun. Sure they call me a bastard, but they learned quick enough not to do that to my face.
Jennie is a Blackfoot Spirit Woman and a real good mother who cooks and cleans at Polly’s Paradise. We have a little room in the basement. Her real name is Aokii’aki, Water Woman. She taught me sign and Blackfoot, how to live off the land, and how to fight with my hands and feet and knife. And she is teaching me the ways of a Spirit Woman.
She calls me Wind Woman. Sopo'aki, because I move so quick. She introduced me to Osgar, one of her spirit helpers. He’s a little, round man with red hair, bright blue eyes, and a big, big grin. A very horny little man. She doesn’t know if I’ll ever get a helper.
Osgar plays tricks on me sometimes and I play tricks right back. Not bad tricks. Just fun tricks when nobody’s around. Like once just as I opened my mouth for a big spoon full of beans, he used his spirit feather to turn them into little rabbit turds. I figured out the switch just in time. Oh my, how he did jump up and down and screech. Not for long. I threw the smelly turds straight into his wide open mouth.
Polly was also real nice and showed me how to shoot a Colt, read, write and do sums, and lent me any book I wanted. Some had the mark of a finishing school for young ladies in Philadelphia. Maybe that’s why she never wants to talk about her past, just gets real sad when she’s drinks too much. Then she comes down and spends the night with me and Jennie. Jennie makes a calm, quiet place for her, where time goes slow.
I can jump back and forth between Jennie’s world and Polly’s world. White folks mostly just know the surface of the water. Jennie knows what’s underneath. A man knows a little what’s underneath when he beds a woman, dances, hunts, fights, and gets drunk. Only lasts for a little while. Women know much more because we give nourishment and know every moontime that we give life.
When I started to blossom Jennie took me to a little pond not far away and we gathered a big bunch of cattails for my moontime. And she taught me how to use my body with a man and how to stop babies. Osgar kindly demonstrated how to drive a man crazy. The big, smelly apes can be a lot of fun but most are pretty dumb.
The horny guys coming to Polly’s Paradise pretty much left me alone unless I invited them because they’re afraid of Polly and Jennie. But one night a guy from out of town didn’t know no better and pushed me into the alley next to Polly’s. The fat idiot died quick. I got a fine pocket watch, two gold rings, and cleaned out his pockets.
Jennie took me quick down to the creek to wash out the blood.
There was hell to pay the next day. He was a banker, carrying funds from a number of clients. They searched and searched but never found all that money or his killer. I watched with a gentle smile.
Jennie and Polly didn’t want me to go but it’s time. A wagon train was assembling south of town and Polly found a nice Christian couple who agreed to take me on to help with the two kids, cooking and washing. Polly told them my mother died and there was nobody to look after me. She gave me a pretty little gold crucifix to hang around my neck and I put on my best prim and proper when Mr. and Mrs. O’Sullivan looked me over.
It was real hard hugging Polly and Jennie goodbye but there's no life for me at Polly’s Paradise. A bastard living in a whorehouse don’t break much bread with those gentlefolk the other side of the tracks, and I’d be upstairs in my own little room soon enough if I stayed.
