An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [79]
"Don't forget the Wilderness!"
"Three cheers for the Twentieth Maine!"
The sun was hot already. I trudged along. My train would leave at ten o'clock. I stopped and asked a dignified mustached man what time it was. He drew out a pocket watch. "Nine-fifteen," he said.
I had time to rest. But where? Then I saw my place. On the nearby green lawns that sloped down to the Capitol building in the distance. The slope was crowded with schoolchildren and their teachers. But there was also a man there selling lemonade. I was parched.
I set my portmanteau, basket, and shawl under a tree. I purchased a cup of cold lemonade and took it back under the tree to watch the goings-on. The band music was bright and sassy. They were playing "The Girl I Left Behind Me." A group of schoolgirls dressed in white and wearing red, white, and blue ribbons rushed forward up the slope carrying a long garland made of flowers.
"There he is. There he is."
Who? I craned my neck and went up the slope to see. A gallant-looking officer with long yellow curls and a wavy mustache was leading the next contingent on a high-stepping horse.
"General Custer, General Custer! Hurray for General Custer!" the girls yelled while they ran right to the curb of Pennsylvania Avenue. Then they threw the flower garland at Custer.
Everything happened at once. Custer's gloved hand went to his hat. Just as he was about to raise it, his beautiful horse got hit in the face with the flowers. It reared and neighed in terror.
Caught off balance, Custer did his best to reign his mount in. But the frightened girls screamed even more, adding to the horse's fear. At the same time a gigantic snare drum boomed. The horse was out of control. He came charging right at the schoolgirls, down the slope. I saw Custer's hat fly off, his blond curls whipping in the breeze. I saw the girls run. All but one.
She stood there, paralyzed, and the horse was coming right at her.
"Out of the way!" Custer was yelling. He mouthed the words, but the brass band drowned them out. I saw the wild look in his horse's eyes and, without thinking, rushed forward and dived at the dumbstruck girl who stood there with her mouth open staring into certain death.
As my body hit hers I felt the wind knocked out of me. Together we rolled over on sweet spring grass, a tangle of dresses, arms, and legs. I felt a pain in my left wrist as I landed on it. Then I rolled over and my head reverberated like a snare drum as the back of it hit the ground, hard.
For a moment I couldn't think. Everything went black. Then I was looking up into a bright blue sky through the leaves of a tree and all kinds of faces were peering down at me.
"Is she all right? Who is she? Did you see what she did? If it hadn't been for her, Elvira would have been stomped to death."
"Where is Custer? Does he even know what he almost caused?"
"He's gone back to the head of his column. He's a wild one. They say it's typical of him. Did somebody send for a doctor?"
"Yes. Miss Chauncy went." It was the girl I'd pushed aside. She stood over me. "I'm beholden to you," she said. "You saved my life. My teacher has gone for a doctor."
"Are you all right?" I asked.
She nodded. She was white-faced and tear-streaked, but all right.
I sat up, with difficulty. My head hurt. My wrist hurt. "I don't want a doctor. I've got a train to catch."
"I've found a doctor! Would you believe it! He was right over there on the edge of the slope. He has a bag and everything!" A woman in a white lawn dress with red, white, and blue streamers that made her look like a sailboat was coming toward us. I felt my face go as white as her dress. She was pulling someone along by the hand.
"I don't want a doctor," I said again. I started to get up