Alone on the Oregon Trail by Vanessa Carvo Page A

wider than those I was on, so I knew I still had some ways to go. Now, I would be staring face to face with crossing a river alone. As I was riding along one morning, I was following a small stream and as I came around a curve my eyes could see that ahead was a substantial river and I would have to find the best place to cross for the horses, wagon and me.
    Nathaniel had explained to me to watch for the whirlpools and not to cross there and to go on down further to cross where it would not pull us in. He taught me so much as we traveled along talking and sometimes I wonder now if God was speaking through him so that I would be told all these things if I had to make it alone.
    So, as I came around that curve and saw the wide river ahead, I pulled off to the side and studied the water. Slowly I followed alongside it and I got a view of the whirlpool he was talking about and it looked so wicked as it was going in circles and taking things down with it.
    I followed down further and was able to see a much calmer scene and decided that this must be where I was supposed to cross. So, I motioned the horses to go down near the bank and we edged our way in. The horses seemed as if they did not want to go in and I found that odd because Nathaniel had not had trouble with them in rivers before.
    I paused for a moment and then started them down further into the water. We had gotten nearly half way into the river’s width when I felt a hard jolt and it jerked the wagon back and forth very quickly. We were not in that deep of water because I had checked it and I had gone far down from the whirlpool, so I wasn’t sure what was happening.
    As it jerked the wagon it also jerked the horses and they began to panic, trying to rear up on their hind legs. I knew that the wagon was going to tip over so I reached out very quickly and tried untying the horses from the wagon because I could see they were fighting against something I could not see.
    I was able to get one horse, Bailey, untied, but I could not get Brittany untied and when I could tell the wagon was going under, I jumped out of the wagon and grabbed hold of Bailey’s tail and as he was fighting and trying to swim, I was able to crawl upon his back.
    There was an undercurrent that was trying to pull us under and he was fighting to stay above water. I turned my head screaming for Brittany and as I held on tightly to Bailey, I had to watch as Brittany was spinning in circles and was finally taken under the water and I could no longer see her.
    The wagon was being thrown in circles and as I looked on in horror, the wagon dipped down front first and sunk into the raging pool. Bailey and I managed to get on across the water but the horse stopped at the shoreline and shook himself and then turned around to see that Brittany was no longer with us.
    If anyone thinks animals do not feel pain for losses, how wrong you are. I hopped off Bailey and stood and grabbed him by the mane and held his head in my arms for some time. He knew at that moment that we had not only lost our wagon, but we lost our beloved Brittany.
    Now we both had suffered the loss of Nathaniel and Brittany. As I stood there holding Bailey’s head in my hands I realized that we also lost our wagon that had almost everything in it.
    All I had left was what was in my saddle bag. I fell to the ground crying out at God because this was the last straw for me. I had tried to muster up faith after I lost Nathaniel, but it had never returned, and now here I was standing with a horse, a saddle bag of things and a long travel ahead of me.
    I was sure that we both were doomed and that I would die out there in a matter of a week. My faith was nothing and I was now angrier at God than ever. I felt like He had turned His back on me and didn’t care if I made it or not.
    I sat there crying by the river bank for quite some time. Then as the darkness began to creep in behind me I knew I had better get my bed roll off of Bailey and figure out