Saved Girl sent me Chapter 8 of "Andi Lost." Here it is. If you haven't read Chapters 1-6 yet, click here: CHAPTER ONE. When the entire story is completed I'll post it in its entirety without all this commentary at the top.

Andi--Lost!

Chapter 8

    "Once, many, many seasons ago, I was a young Indian girl in a Yokut village. I was the chieftain's daughter and very pretty," said Talise. "One day when I was sixteen, a man stumbled into our village. He was white man. The other girls and I were weaving baskets and talking when he stumbled in. His face was white as death and there was blood all over his chest. He muttered something, held out his hands to us, and fell.

     "Our cries brought the men who picked him up and took him to the healer. As I helped the healer, Makera, I went into the hut and helped her clean his wound. He had been shot in the chest, close to his heart. We did all we could. He stayed asleep for several days.

      "The day he woke I was sitting beside him, bathing his hot forehead with water. Suddenly his eyes opened and looked straight into mine. We stared at each other in shock for a few moments until I finally had gathered my senses enough to call for Makera. He was very weak for a long time but would live.

      "Surprisingly he could speak our language very well. As the chieftain's daughter I was expected to entertain the young man--Matthew Fells was his name--while he was recovering. We spent many happy hours together.

      "He talked to me about his God and helped me understand what a sinner I was. And he told me about how God sent His Son to die for my sins. I then asked Jesus to forgive my sins and make me clean.

       "Many weeks later he was fully recovered. I knew he would be leaving soon and something in me just . . .well . . . it is hard to describe, but I felt as though part of me would go with him when he went.

       "Then one day when we were sitting together alone, he asked me if I would marry him. I surprised both of us by saying yes.

        "We went immediately to my father and asked his permission. He refused. You have to understand that, although my father as a Yokut, he had a duty of hospitality to a helpless man, having a white man marry his daughter was a different matter.           

       "This was at a time when the white people were starting to increase their violence against the Yokuts. Villages were being attacked and burned, men and women slaughtered, and our crops destroyed.

       "My father was a man of great pride. To have a poor white hunter marry his daughter would be a terrible wound.

        "When he refused his consent, though, something in me snapped. I had inherited his headstrong personality, you see. I told my father that I was going to marry Matt. I see now that I should have obeyed my father, no matter what the cost." Talise sighed regretfully.Then she continued her story. 

      "That afternoon Matt and I left my home. We went to a missionary's house, and the man of God there married us the white man's way. We then journeyed to his family's home. They wouldn't even let me in the house. When they learned that he had married me, his father turned him out, too. I can still remember the set of his jaw and the wounded expression on his face. He never spoke about them again.

       "After that we went and lived in the woods, in this very house. Matt built it himself. He devoted himself to hunting and teaching me English. He said I might have need of it one day.

       "Later, our little girl, Aiyana, was born. Then four years ago, Matt became sick and died." Talise's voice broke, and a tear made its way down her cheek. With an effort she lifted her head and continued. "I was very upset but I was not going to let my little girl die. I set out with her to find my people and rejoin them. We found the village, but no one was there. They had been killed, murdered by the white people. What could we do? I was not about to beg for help from Matt's parents. I knew the reception I would find there. So we returned here. But it is not the same without Matt.

       "There is not much more to tell. Aiyana and I have struggled through these past four years. We are so reduced that we don't know where our next meal is coming from."

       Andi stared at Talise in shock. She had never heard such a tale in her whole life. What blew her away most was that these poor starving "savages" had taken Cory and her in and fed them. Her world was being turned upside down.

[Chapter 9 coming soon]