That was it, they thought, and removed themselves from those Cherokee who signed the treaty, inorder to retire into the forest and await the end of the world. The disease they suffered now was amere inconvenience compared to the devastation they remembered. Still, they protected each otheras best they could. The healthy were sent some miles away; the sick stayed behind with the dead— to survive or join them.
The prisoners from Alfred, Georgia, sat down in semicircle near the encampment. No one cameand still they sat. Hours passed and the rain turned soft. Finally a woman stuck her head out of herhouse. Night and nothing happened. At dawn two men with barnacles covering theirbeautifulskinappro(came) ached them. No one spoke for a moment, then Hi Man raised his hand. TheCherokee saw the chains and went away. When they returned each carried a handful of small axes. Two children followed with a pot of mush cooling and thinning in the rain.
Buffalo men, they called them, and talked slowly to the prisoners scooping mush and tapping awayat their chains. Nobody from a box in Alfred, Georgia, cared about the illness the Cherokee warnedthem about, so they stayed, all forty-six, resting, planning their next move. Paul D had no idea ofwhat to do and knew less than anybody, it seemed. He heard his co-convicts talk knowledgeably ofrivers and states, towns and territories. Heard Cherokee men describe the beginning of the worldand its end. Listened to tales of other Buffalo men they knew — three of whom were in the healthycamp a few miles away. Hi Man wanted to join them; others wanted to join him. Some wanted toleave; some to stay on. Weeks later Paul D was the only Buffalo man left — without a plan. All hecould think of was tracking dogs, although Hi Man said the rain they left in gave that no chance ofsuccess. Alone, the last man with buffalo hair among the ailing Cherokee, Paul D finally woke upand, admitting his ignorance, asked how he might get North. Free North. Magical North. Welcoming, benevolent North. The Cherokee smiled and looked around. The flood rains of amonth ago had turned everything to steam and blossoms.
"That way," he said, pointing. "Follow the tree flowers," he said. "Only the tree flowers. As they go, you go. You will be where you want to be when they aregone."