Alone

By: Amanda Grace

It's a fascinating thing to find what sort of first-hand accounts providence will decide to preserve through the clutches of the destruction of time through the power of the written word. Often it is in the form of a journal hidden in a trunk to be found in a forgotten attic countless years later after the author has passed on. Or it could be in the form of letters saved by the receiver to be read generations later. Narratives of a notable event can also be discovered in old newspapers hidden underneath flooring of age-old homes or even after being used to insulate walls and or ceilings. It is unknown how Janette Riker's story had been preserved or who had written it down, but a short account of her survival alone in the Rocky Mountains throughout a winter appeared in a history book at some point and has now fallen into my imagination to be woven into a story in the form of a novel. No account of the names of Janette's father or two brothers were ever recorded, nor where their journey had begun. All that had been preserved was a brief statement of Janette Riker. During a long journey in a covered wagon, she was left alone to fend for herself throughout an entire winter in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains when her men folk had decided to go out on a hunting trip for a buffalo but never returned. Janette constructed a hut of poles and small logs, stuffing dried grass into the cracks and banking up earth around it, then covered it with the large canvas wagon covering. To extend her food provisions, she slaughtered one of the two oxen, salted the meat and stored it in her dwelling. She faired moderately well throughout the harsh winter, evading the prowling of wolves and mountain lions that were attracted to the smell of the fresh meat, and endured the many months of solitude in the solid mindset of survival. Her most perilous hardships came during the springtime thaw which flooded her dwelling. Salvaging what little she could from her hut, she moved to the wagon where she lived without any means of a fire for two weeks; living on nothing but raw, rancid meat and uncooked, soured cornmeal. In late April she was discovered in the last stages of exhaustion by a band of Indians. Moved by admiration for the hardy, young woman, they took her and what was left of her earthy possessions to the Walla Walla Station, (possibly Fort Perce). The fate of her father and brothers was never resolved. When I began this book, I was writing it from a blurred memory of the accounts of Janette Riker that I'd read in a history book many years prior. It wasn't until the near completion of my writings that I was finally able to find the story once again. However, by then details of my novel would have been incredibly difficult to alter, so I kept to my own narrative. The only difference between the historical account and the mine was that Janette had not turned the wagon over to live under. And of course, the story was embellished to fill in the many gaps in the historical account.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DFTTFLDT
• ISBN13: 9798326688651
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 143 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"