Beyond the Horizon Read Free

woman actually pled of him. ‘Sent him to scout out the hill a mile away from here. Figured we shouldnt send him away all together. Not like hes actually dangerous. Little unhinged, maybe.’
    He rested his hand on her belly, the belly button sticking out like a nose. ‘Says he can help birth the baby.’
    The woman’s eyes widened and she leaned in close to the man, gripping his arm ever tighter. ‘No quiero que esté cerca del bebé.’
    The man used his free hand to loosen her grip. He rubbed her womb. ‘You neednt get worked up,’ he said. ‘You’ll catch a hysteria.’
    Some nights the stranger still ate with the man and the woman. Other nights, most nights now, he dined by himself, eating solitary in places unknown. When he did arrive for mealtime, he brought small game with him—some bird, a rabbit, stray rodents he dried into sinewy strips.
    The woman cared not for the conversation when the stranger visited. She ate quickly, refusing his contributions to the meal. Then, with an uttered pardon, she excused herself. The men repeated the word hysteria lowly and they silently and secretly studied her. Once she exited the hovel, they spoke freely.
    â€˜How she seem to you?’ the stranger asked.
    â€˜Fine most of the time,’ the man said. ‘She gets real strange when you come round.’
    â€˜Hysteria can make people suspicious of outsiders; it heightens the part of the mind where superstition is formed. Women can see things that arent there.’
    The man shook his head. ‘Hard to think of her like that—like shes goin crazy.’
    â€˜That baby inside of her,’ the stranger said. ‘Hes got a mind too. Having two minds in one body creates chaos. If shes hearing voices, could well be the baby’s voice.’
    â€˜Dont really make sense,’ the man said.
    â€˜If it made sense, we wouldnt call it crazy.’ The stranger smiled as if he had just told a joke. The man mulled on a string of meat, his eyes focusing on something distant. After a minute he asked if the stranger’s home was coming along all right.
    â€˜Best I can get it,’ the stranger said. ‘Be better if I could get some of this oilcloth you got yourself here.’ He stretched out his arm and ran his fingertips down the tented wall. ‘Real tough material, it is. Be good for bracing the dirt wall.’
    â€˜If you want some, I got some extra,’ the man said.
    The stranger didnt seem particularly surprised by the offer, even in this spartan place. He sat cross-legged, arms resting on his knees. He craned his head all around, examining the way the cloth draped and wrapped over the ragged frame of the hovel. ‘I’d take some cloth, if you could spare it.’
    The man crawled over to a chest that served as a table and cleared the top of it. He opened it up and shuffled some of the contents about and pulled out a folded square of cloth.
    As he held it, the stranger noted the seams along the edges, how thick the fabric felt, how it textured closer to canvas.
    â€˜It’s a sail,’ the man said. ‘An old boat sail.’
    This sparked some amusement on the stranger’s face. ‘Strange place for a boat sail to end up.’
    The man nodded, said it was his father’s doing and went outside in search of his woman.
iv
    The stranger’s abode progressed surprisingly quickly. In a matter of weeks he dug out what he said would be the porch and most of the inner room. He began reinforcing the walls with branches and saplings when the man came to visit.
    â€˜Comin along real well,’ he said.
    The stranger draped the oilcloth over the exposed dirt and braced it with the poles. ‘Should be a real fine piece once I’m done here.’
    The man nodded in agreement. He dismounted the mule and pretended to show a detailed interest in what the stranger was building.
    â€˜Had a question about that registerin