Moon Shadows - One

Yes, I am being followed by a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow

Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow



And if I ever lose my hands

Lose my plow, lose my land

Oh, if I ever lose my hands

Oh if - I won’t have to work no more



And if I ever lose my eyes

If my colors all run dry

Yes, if I ever lose my eyes

Oh if - I won’t have to cry no more



Yes, I am being followed by a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow

Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow



And if I ever lose my legs

All my teeth, north and south

Yes, if I ever lose my mouth

Oh if - I won’t have to talk-



Did it take long to find me?

I ask the faithful light

Oh, did it take long to find me?

And, are you going to stay the night?



Yes, I am being followed by a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow

Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow



Moonshadow, moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow



Songwriter: Cat Stevens





























ONE



Black Sunday 14 April 1935, Liberal, Kansas

         She heard the wind outside the small white church, and knew what it meant.  It had been the same for the past three years.  She looked over at her pa who stood tall beside her, his tanned long square shaped lined leathery face turned toward her a grim look in the hazel eyes and the set of his mouth as he nodded toward the hymnbook in his hands.  His dark brown suit jacket hung on his slight frame, and he had a white shirt over which his suspenders were seen under the jacket holding his pants in lieu of a belt, and on the seat behind him was the battered gray felt Fedora hat he wore everywhere he went, and only took off in church and other official functions, such as the Cattlemen’s Association meetings he went to.

         She looked down at the words of Amazing Grace and started singing, but her mind churned with the wind outside.  She was so sick and tired of the wind, the dirt, the dust that got into everything.  It clung to her skin, her clothes, she spat it out of her mouth, and she felt grimy all the time.  No amount of soap and water was able to wash away the tiny particles of dust, because the moment it was free of it, more would take its place.

         She had to wear a mask over her mouth and nose whenever she was outside, everyone did.  It was the only way anyone could hope to keep the dust out of their mouth, though it wasn’t a hundred percent guarantee that you wouldn’t get dust in your mouth, nothing was.  Add to that the bonnet that covered her hair, hers was black to go with everything she had to wear which wasn’t much, just a couple dresses and jumpers she mix and matched with some blouses for Sunday, and her everyday dresses.

         She looked up when the minister started to talk.  “This will be the last time we meet as a congregation until the drought is over.  The dust is getting into everything making it hard to keep the church open.”

         Her eyes wandered again to the other members of the congregation.  It was a picture of poverty mixed with obvious affluence seen in the wide brim hats and colorful dresses.  It didn’t matter how much they had lost since the drought started they still put on their best for church and social functions.

         Her eyes fell on the one person who had bothered her all her life and caused anger and resentment to build until she wanted to make him eat his words as much as the dust that blew through the air.  He was the biggest tease, and because of him, other kids in her class also made fun of her.  It wasn’t her fault she was thin, or that her chest was almost flat.  Her eyes burned with anger as she looked at him beside his father, and then their eyes locked, and he looked like he made a pig snort without sound, followed by a smug look before his father nudged him to pay attention.

         Her angry look took in his devastatingly attractive good looks.  His athletic magnetism drew all the girls to his side, or at least it seemed that way whenever she saw him.  He had wavy brown hair that fell onto his forehead, every strand in place.  He was slim, but not too slim.  He looked good in the dark blue suit pants and lighter shade sweater, but she knew what he was, and had stayed as far from him as possible, though he always found her and taunted her every chance he got.

         She dragged her gaze from him and looked for him.  She saw him three rows ahead.  He was so tall, and handsome in his dark suit.  He had dark wavy hair, eyes the color of toffee, with a heart-melting smile.  He was the athletic type.  He muscled bales of hay, cows, and horses, and it showed in every sinew of his arms and legs, and her heart skipped a beat every time she saw him.  Two years older than her, a junior, she tagged along with her brothers whenever they went to his parent’s farm.  She was in ninth grade, and should have been at high school the following year, but dust storms closed the schools and no one knew when they would open again.  She made it a point to be around, listening, and paying attention to everything he did.

         “Rose Marie Bradley, keep your eyes on the minister,” her pa said.

         Rose looked up at him.  “Yes Pa.”

         “Herbert, you’re drawing attention from the others,” his wife said.

         She was a slight woman with honey gold hair, crimped around her face and small heart shaped face, high delicate cheekbones, straight nose, and blue gray eyes that missed nothing.  He sighed and looked at his hymnbook with a last look at Rose.

         The song finished and again Rose tried to pay attention to the minister.  “I can see your faces, and I can only say one thing.  Trust God.  The drought won’t last forever.  We’ll see the rain again, and the church doors will open again.  We aren’t going to let these storms stop us from our Christian duty.  Though the devil may think he’s won, he hasn’t.  I will stop by your homes from time to time to instruct your children so they will be ready for confirmation when we open the church doors again.  In the meantime plant your crops.  Well that’s all I have for today, or we might not get to our homes.  I can hear the wind picking up.  We’ll have our annual bazaar, weather permitting in the school gym next door on Saturday.  By the sound of the wind we better get to our homes.  Bow your heads for the benediction.”  He paused as heads bowed.  “The Lord bless thee and keep thee.  The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.  The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”  He made the sign of the cross down his torso and across his chest.  “Amen.”

         “Amen,” everyone said.

         The organist played the recessional hymn as everyone made their way from the church.  Someone came up behind Rose and touched her on the shoulder.  She turned to see the boy she didn’t like.  “What do you want Bobby Baldwin?”

         “Saw you making eyes at me in church.”

         “You’re mistaken as usual, Bobby Baldwin.  You are the last person I would make eyes at.”

         “My name’s Robert.  Don’t call me Bobby.”

         “I’ll call you whatever I want to.  What do you want?”

         He looked over his shoulder for a quick second and saw his father talking with the minister and turned back to her.  “Just this,” Bobby whispered chicken sounds.  “Chicken legs.”

         “Go away, Bobby Baldwin, I don’t have anything to do with pests.”

         He rushed past her making chicken sounds as he opened the door and a blast of wind and dust rushed at them.

         Rose’s burnt orange skirt whipped around her legs.  Her dark blue coat barely kept her skirt in place as they made their way out the door and bent nearly double as they made their way to the school parking lot next door, and their car.

         Rose saw the black dust cloud as it blew debris all around them, and bent her head low to keep the dust from her eyes, though it caked in her auburn hair despite the bonnet she wore.  She would wash out the dust the moment she got home.  It wasn’t just in her hair or all over her skin and clothes, a layer of dust formed on everything.  The cars were already covered with it, and the cloud that rolled their way wasn’t even on top of them yet, yet it blotted out the sun, and made everything eerie in the dimmed light of noonday.

         She watched it come toward them as it rolled their way just like those huge billowy white clouds she gazed at for long moments, never getting tired of the shapes they turned into, only this was black and it did more than move across the sky, it moved with all the power of a steam locomotive across the plains, burying everything in its path.  Not just a week ago another storm similar to the one that came their way blew a car down the road before it completely engulfed both car and driver.  It had been after the storm was over that they found the car and driver still alive inside, pushed onto a barren field.

         “Pa are we gonna get home okay?  That dust cloud is taking up the whole sky and rolling our way fast.  We’ll be covered in it before we get far,” Rose said.

         “Don’t worry Rose.  Dad will get us home, right Pa?”

         He looked at his oldest son and the cloud that rolled their way.  “That’s right, Joe. 

         “Do you remember where you parked?” Rose said.

         “I always remember where I park, the car is this way.”

         They fought their way against the wind as he led them to the school parking lot next to the church where they would hold the church bazaar if the weather was good the following week.  Rose doubted they would have the bazaar again before the drought ended.  Every day she heard more about the drought, and the more she heard the more she wanted it to go away and never return to the plain states where the winds took the topsoil and lifted it in the wind, causing the black cloud that came their way.

         “If you don’t think we’re going to make it home we can always find a place in town to stay,” her mother said.

         “We’ll make it home if we can get out ahead of that storm.  At least it will be behind us all the way,” Pa said.

         As they entered the parking lot Rose saw a truck laden with all a family’s belongings.  “Pa, someone is moving away.”

         “That would be us.  We’re leaving,” a voice spoke behind them.  “We can’t plan on anything these days without these dust storms coming up out of nowhere and ruining our lives.  And what is the government doing about it?  Nothing!  They sit on their fat behinds, smoking their cigars and don’t care what’s happening out here.”

“I’ve heard all about what Washington isn’t doing.  What we need is someone to step forward and make them see the trouble we’re facing here,” Herb said.

         “So you agree with me.  We need to ban together and do something,” the man said.

         “Just what do you propose?” Herb said.

         “There has to be something.  I’ve lost crops for the last three years.  I don’t want to think about what this storm is doing to my farm, and I’m not going to worry about it after today.  My mind is set.”

         “We’ve all lost crops and cattle.  I’ve lost my share, but I ain’t backing out or moving out.  I believe God will take care of me,” her father said.

         “You’re a fool,” the man said.

         “You don’t want to do that.  It will rain again, and the crops will grow again, and everything will be the way it was before all this happened,” her father said.

         “And when will that be Mr. Bradley.  Tell me!  Tell me when I’m going to eat something besides all this dust!  Just look at my kids.  My wife can’t even get them clean.  Do you think I like being seen like this, all grubby and looking like I don’t have a dollar to my name?”

         “We all look the same.  That isn’t going to change until we get some rain,” her father said.

         “Rain.  The last time it rained was thirty-one.  I look out at the sky every day, if I can see it, and only see a ball in the sky.  I don’t even see any birds flying.  You know why I don’t see any birds flying?  Because they can’t with all these dust storms taking them out of the sky,” the man said.

         “Now don’t you get surly with Mr. Bradley, he’s right.  This drought won’t last forever,” his wife said.

         Rose stood by and listened to the exchange wondering the same thing.  She saw the two little girls, younger than her youngest sister, and his wife looked like she would have her baby soon.

         “No, we are leaving as soon as we can.  I will not have our baby born here with this storm and drought.  It’s not right.  We’re leaving, and heading to California, where I understand they have clear skies and crops that don’t get blown away or withered by lack of rain.”

         “I’m sorry to hear you’re leaving.  Did you let the bank know about your house?” Pa said.

         “The bank let me know they were foreclosing on it.  I don’t have any crops to keep it.”  They had come to his truck with their furniture piled high in the back.  He opened the door and helped the children in, and then his wife.  “You can stay if you want to Mr. Bradley, but we’re leaving, and the sooner the better with that dust cloud barreling down on us.”  He got in the truck, slammed it in gear and turned the truck out of the driveway.  “I wish you a lot of luck if you plan to stick this out.”

         “We aren’t going anywhere,” Pa said.

         Rose watched the truck leave the parking lot before she caught up with her family.  She was the oldest daughter with two older brothers and one younger plus two younger sisters.  She had looked forward to the church bazaar and really hoped they would be able to have it the following week, but everyday got worse.  She didn’t blame the family for leaving the way they did.  She felt the same way too.  She wanted to take off the mask and bonnet in the worst way and let her hair fly with wild abandon in a soft breeze free of dust.

         “Well if we aren’t going to have the bazaar today, we’ll have plenty of pie to eat over the next couple days,” Ma said.

         “We should have given a pie to that family that just left,” Rose said.

         “Oh, I feel so bad, I really should have,” Ma said.

         “Now don’t go feeling guilty of something you didn’t think of before they left.  From the look of things they didn’t have an ounce of room for anything else,” Pa said.

         Footsteps pounded behind them and Rose looked around and saw him.  Her heart gave a weird flutter as her stomach did summersaults, and she could feel her face blush at the sight of him.

         “Joe, hold up a moment, I need to talk to you,” he said.

         “Sure Jim, what can I help you with?”

         “The election of officers is coming up soon, and I wanted to talk strategy with you.”

         “Sure, we can get together at your house as soon as this storm is over.  I know one of the issues you’ve been working on, is Soil Conservation.  Do you have any others?” Joe said.

         “That’s my main issue, and Mr. Blakeslee said I don’t need to focus on anything else because that’s all anybody talks about these days, even the men in Congress.”

         Joe looked at the cloud.  “You and I both have cattle to take care of if we aren’t going to lose them, if this has cleared up by tomorrow, I’ll come over then and we can talk.”

         “I’ll see you then.”  Jim hurried off after his parents and family.  He was the oldest with three brothers and a sister.

         “Rose Marie, stop your dawdling or we’ll never get home,” Ma said.

         “She’s mooning over Jim Koelling again,” her younger brother said.

         “Now that’s enough of that, Charles,” Ma said.

         Rose blushed and ran after them, the last to get in the car.  “We will get home?”

         “We’ll get home,” Pa said.

         “We wouldn’t if you had stayed there mooning over Jim,” Charles said.

         “I said that’s enough.  We have more things to worry about right now,” Ma said.

         “Listen to your Ma.  All set?”  Pa put the car, a 1931 green Model A Tudor, in gear and started out of the parking lot.

         The wind whipped around the car, pushing it from side to side.  Debris flew in front of the windows, which made it hard to see out.  Fear rose up in Rose as she swallowed the bile that formed in her throat.  She would be glad to get out of that storm, even as she remembered another from the time she was ten years old.

         They had been on a vacation to the Grand Canyon with the Baldwin’s, and Bobby Baldwin had talked her into exploring while their parents were gone off on their own.  She knew she shouldn’t have, but she wanted to prove once and for all to Bobby Baldwin that she wasn’t a baby.

         “Okay, what did you want to show me?”

         “It’s this way.”

         Rose followed by his side.  When they came to a steep climb, Rose hesitated, afraid of heights.  “We should go back.”

         “So you are a baby after all.”

         “No.  We’ve been gone long enough.”

         “It’s just a little ways from here, just follow me, you’ll be all right, I promise.  It’s the neatest place in the whole canyon.”

         Against her better judgment she followed close behind him, not daring to look down in some places that weren’t wide enough for two people side by side.  “Is this really a trail?”

         “Yes, come on, we’re almost there.”

         They reached their destination and Robert led her into a cave.  “Come here and look out, the scene is spectacular.”

         She followed him to the entrance of the cave on the far end, but stepped away immediately as it was a sheer drop to the canyon floor.  “We should get back.”

         “In a few minutes, I saw something outside when we came in, I’ll be right back.”

         “Hurry.”

         Bobby left the cave and Rose looked out at the picturesque scene in front of her.  She would have a lot to tell the class when she returned.

         She went to sit down against the wall of the cave to wait.  It soon became apparent that he wasn’t coming back, and she was frightened.  She would not go back the way they had come.  He would return and say he was sorry, and she would follow him back to the hotel.  She was certain their parents were back.

         Rose looked out the entrance they came through, but didn’t see him.  It would be dark in a few hours, and she was getting hungry.  He wouldn’t forget her.

         Dark descended and the cave got real eerie.  She huddled against the wall when she heard wings flapping and bats squealing.  She was afraid to move.  “What if there’s snakes too?”  She didn’t hear anything on the cave floor, but still she didn’t have anything to lay down on, so she laid on the floor of the cave, in the dirt, but she didn’t feel safe, so sat against the wall instead, determined to keep her eyes open.

         She screamed as she was startled awake by a loud crash followed by a streak of lightning.  “This can’t be happening.  I’m in bed at the hotel.”

         She watched it start to rain, some of it coming into the cave and soon found herself wet.  She screamed when streaks of lightning cracked the sky followed by thunder so loud she thought it bounced off the walls of the cave.  She went to the farthest corner of the cave where the rain hadn’t penetrated and once again heard the bats flapping their wings and squealing.  She put her head between her drawn up legs as tears rushed down her cheeks.  She didn’t care if Bobby called her a baby, she wanted to go back by her parents, and brothers and sisters.  She stared at the storm, shaking from head to foot, terrified.  “I bet he’s having a good laugh right now.  Why doesn’t anybody come find me?”  The sound of her voice echoed off the walls of the cave and joined the crash of thunder.  She jumped when a streak of lightning hit close to the cave, screaming and crying, hoping and praying someone would come find her.  She put her hands over her ears to shut out the noise of the storm as she huddled against the wall of the cave and squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t see the lightning.

         The noise stopped.  She woke again, and realized she had fallen asleep and was laying on the floor of the cave.  It was still raining, and the scene outside was eerie.  There was a black cloud or cloudbank that obscured her vision and frightened her even more.  “Why did I let him talk me into showing me this place?”

         She tried to sleep.  The storm was almost over though it was still black out.  Maybe it was night again.  She didn’t know how long she had been in the cave.  She woke later to sounds and looked at the entrance.  Someone found me, but it was only the bats when she realized they were flying around the cave flapping of their wings.  Rose put her head between her drawn up knees and prayed with all her might.

         She was startled awake.  “Oh sweet Jesus, Rose darling, are you all right?”

         Rose thought it was a dream before her mother put her arms around her and hugged her.  Her father picked her up in his arms and let her cry against her chest.  “Are you all right, no scratches, or bruises?”

         Rose buried her face in her father’s neck as tears raced down her cheeks.  “I didn’t think anyone was coming or that you would find me.”

         She shook the memories away and looked into Joe’s knowing eyes.

         “We’re going to get home safe.  Pa will make sure of it.”

         “The Lord will make sure of it,” Pa said.

         Their farm was east of Liberal, Kansas, near the only lake in the whole area.  The Baldwin’s ranch was also near them, as well as the Koelling’s farm.  Everyone depended on the lake for their livestock, but it had gone low since the drought, and was almost a dry lake bed.  The little rain they had gotten wasn’t enough to raise it very much.

         They pulled into the drive just as the dust cloud hit them.  Rose was out of the car and in the house before anyone could stop her as she rushed to her room and huddled on her bed her knees drawn up to her chest.  Her other two sisters shared the other bed in the room.

         Rose could see the dust cloud out her window as it closed the house in and everything became black.  Dust clouds blew the curtains from the window, and she pulled the covers of her bed over her, shutting out the storm with its eerie darkness.

         The door opened and she heard footsteps come near the bed and someone sit on it.  She knew it was Ma by the gentle hand on the covers over her.

         “Rose, it’s going to be all right.  We’re all here together.  No one is going to harm you.”

         She pulled the covers off her face and looked at Ma.  Tears streaked her face as she rushed into her mother’s arms and cried.  “I hate these storms.  Why can’t we leave just like that family at church?”

         “This is our home, and just like your Pa said, the rain will come and the farm will prosper again.  You’ll see, and you’ll forget all about these storms.”

         “I’ll never forget these storms, not as long as I live.”

         The wind shook the house with such ferocity that the electricity went out and everything went completely black inside.  Rose held tighter to Ma and squeezed her eyes shut even as she wanted to cover her ears, but Ma stroked her back and held her, and calmed her fears.  “I wish that day were today.”

         “Everyone wishes for that day to be now, but only God knows when that will be.  Do you think you can come down and help me with dinner?”

         She shook her head even as Ma pulled the covers from her and helped her out of bed.  She had no choice but to go with Ma downstairs to the kitchen.

         Pa had the kerosene lanterns lit around the house, and everywhere they cast an eerie glow.

         “Let’s gather around and pray that this storm gets over soon,” Pa said.

         They all stood in a circle in the living room and took each other’s hands while Pa began to pray for the end of the storm.