People of the Lightning(121)

Through the horror, she could hear Diver calling her. Calling and calling, but she could not find the strength to answer. Monsters were chasing her and she had to run … runrunrun …





I lie on my side before my small fire, shivering, watching the ruby-eyed coals blink in the cold breeze blowing across the swamp. It smells of peat and reeds. My heart aches. I tucked my blanket around Musselwhite to keep her warm, and came over here to sleep. The Shining People shimmer in the indigo spaces between the dark overarching branches. My eyelids are very heavy.

I spent a full hand of time dragging away the men I murdered. I carried them into the swamp and buried them beneath the pale green water, facing north. I did not know what Songs their clans might have Sung for them, or who their Spirit Helpers might have been, so I Sang Heartwood’s death Song, and asked Alligator to guide them on their long journey. I pray with all my heart that they find their ways to the Village of Wounded Souls. I still cannot bear to look at the places where they fell—clots of blood cover the forest floor, shining in the starlight.

In a very soft voice, I start to Sing, begging Sun Mother to help Musselwhite. She has been thrashing weakly and moaning in her sleep. I do not know what else I can do for her. I am very frightened. When I grow too tired, I Sing the words in my dreams … .

“She’s dying. And you, stupid boy, are lying there like a brainless catfish doing nothing.”

I gasp and flop to my back. Turtle Bone Doll perches on the twisted oak branch over my head. Her tunic is even more tattered than last time; it clings to her bone body like a rotting tangle of threads. Almost all of her hair has been ripped off. Four or five strands glint in the starlight. That is all.

I leap up, stumbling through the darkness. Terror has gripped me. “What do you mean she’s dying? She can’t be dying!”

But when I kneel, and peer down at Musselwhite’s starlit face, my own good sense will not permit me to believe anything else. Her skin is pasty and pale against the blanket. I grab up her wrist and feel the weak flutter of her heartbeat. My voice is quaking. “Blessed Spirits,” I whisper. “What can I do? Tell me how to save her!”

Turtle Bone Doll does not move. “I already have.”

“What … ? When? Was I asleep?”

“I have come to the conclusion that you are always sleeping when I am revealing great truths, boy. I told you that you had to learn to Dance with the Lightning Bird’s soul. But have you even tried? No! So, naturally, she’s dying.”

I jump up with my fists clenched to stand directly beneath the oak limb. I can barely breathe. Turtle Bone Doll tilts to look down on me. “But you never taught me how to Dance with the Lightning Bird’s soul! How can I do it if you won’t teach me? You can’t expect me to just know things by myself!”

Turtle Bone Doll lifts lightly off the branch and floats toward me like a dandelion seed borne on a warm updraft. She settles on my left shoulder.

“Not only are you brainless, your memory is going. I taught you everything you need to know about the Dance. Give up your human feet, I said. Learn to soar and flash and thunder.”

I feel frantic; my eyes are swimming with tears. “How?” I plead. “Please. Tell me how to give up my human feet?”

“Leap into the air, Pondwader. And keep leaping, don’t stop for an instant, until your feet forget what the ground feels like. You have to let go of earth and air and water. Then, the next time that baby Lightning Bird flashes, you’ll be able to grab hold of his blinding tailfeathers and soar away in a deafening roar.”

“Keep leaping? Into the air?”

“That’s right.”

“But how will ‘leaping’ allow me to save Musselwhite? This is all gibberish! I don’t understand!” I shout. “I haven’t much time and you’re spouting gibberish!”

Turtle Bone Doll somersaults from my shoulder and lazily floats upward, going higher and higher until she seems one of the Shining People. “You are right about one thing,” her little girl voice calls, “You haven’t much time.”

“Come back here!” I shout. “You can’t leave me! Not now. I need you!”

She vanishes, trailing glimmers of stardust behind her.

Lonely and frightened, I look at my wife. Her breathing has dropped to swift shallow gasps. I feel as if a huge, gaping hole has replaced my chest. There is nothing there. Nothing! No Lightning Bird. No thunder. No hope. I long to smash my fists into something!

I stalk to my fire. The coals cast a crimson gleam over the tree trunks. I wish … I wish Musselwhite could speak to me. I would not be so afraid.