The Back is Turned
Walks Like Bear stopped where the path forked, and crouched down to see if there were any signs of man leading either way. He did not expect to find any, since the gray sky had been weeping a cold drizzle all morning, and he did not spend much time looking. He took the path on the right hand—the path that led up—and followed it, and as he went he defied his name, and crept slowly and carefully. Several times he smelled deer, and more than once he was within easy shot before they noticed him and fled, but he had come for something that today was more important than game.
The path forked several more times as he went, and always he took the path that seemed to go higher. At last he saw movement ahead, the kind he was interested in that day: human.
He stopped and watched carefully; he was getting near the strangers who lived north of the People, so it could have been one of them, or it could have been one of the handful of white men who were known to roam the area. Walks Like Bear crept forward with that skill where his prey would think he was standing still when he was in fact moving up to them.
The man he watched moved with deliberate carefulness. He had his back to Walks Like Bear, and from behind only his clothing and the long graying hair was visible. Now that Walks With Bear could see him clearly, he held his place, waiting for the man to turn so that he could identify him.
The man stopped along the path. Walks Like Bear could see him turn his head from side to side, and then the man took out something and waved it in front of him.
The need to sneeze came so suddenly on Walks Like Bear that he could not stop himself in time, and he had only enough time to catch his breath before he sneezed again, and again, and so many more times that he lost count. When he had stopped sneezing he looked up to see the man he had been following, standing before him.
The man was not one of the white men. He was dressed like the People, with a shirt leggings and shoes of buckskin, with no decoration. His most striking feature, however, was his eyes; pink scarred skin marked where the eyes had once been.
"Who are you?" the blind man asked.
"I am Walks Like Bear."
"Why are you following me?"
"We need your help," Walks Like Bear replied, wiping his eyes.
"Who has sent you?"
"Red Hand, my father."
"And what is the message from Chief Red Hand?"
"The white man is pushing even farther into our land. It is now less than a day's walk to the nearest village of the white man, and their hunters and warriors come ever closer to our village. And our people are fewer now. A strange illness has come upon us, and only one out of five survives it. And among the white men are those with powers like yours, so that our battles are lost. If you do not bring your powers to our aid, our people shall soon be no more."
"Tell Red Hand that he should turn to Sees Far for guidance to survive the coming of the white man."
"But Sees Far has no powers, and he suffers from the new sickness," Walks Like Bear replied. "And he tells us that if we are to live, we must join the white man and live by his ways. We need your powers if we are to survive as a people."
The blind man stood quietly, holding himself as if he were looking intently at Walks With Bear, who felt the nagging sensation that in spite of the missing eyes, this man could see him quite clearly.
"Is that all of Red Hand's message?"
"Yes."
"Then I cannot come."
"You cannot help us? But we will surely die!"
"Sees Far has shown you the way to live," the old man said. "If there is a way that you can keep to your ways, and still live, I will not help you find it."
"Why?"
"Has Red Hand not told you why I am up here alone, blind and without wife, away from my people?"
"No."
The old man shifted from one foot to another. He seemed less angry, and Walks Like Bear realized that he had not noticed the rising anger in the man.
"Then it may be that though you have done Red Hand's bidding, you are still a good man."
"What do you mean?"
"A good man, knowing how I came to live as I do now, would not do the bidding of Red Hand, for he and Sees Far have done me a great wrong."
Walks Like Bear felt anger rising in himself. "What are you talking about?"
"I once lived with the people," the blind man said. "My father was Gets the Fish. Even when I was young, younger than you are now, I knew that I had powers; but I did not know how to use them. I did not merely know the land and the ways of the birds and the fish and the beasts, like all of the people, but I could use my powers to do things that I wanted, that other people cannot. And so it was that the people began to turn away from Sees Far and turned to me when they needed to understand things, and Red Hand began to think that I would use my powers to make him do my bidding, to make myself chief in his place. I could see in their faces that they meant evil against me, but they were afraid to do anything unless they could unite all of the people against me.
"Then came the day that the sun became dark. The people became frightened, and both Red Hand and Sees Far told them that I had stolen the sun, and Sees Far said that to get the sun back, they must put out my eyes. And so they took coals from the fire and thrust them into my eyes, and the sun must have become light again, because Sees Far said 'look, we have gotten the sun back from him,' though I had told them many times that the darkening of the sun was not my doing. Then Red Hand said that my children would steal the sun also, and so they did this to me." He threw open his robe and pushed down his trousers so that Walks Like Bear could see what had been done to him.
He redressed himself and continued. "At that moment, my agony gave strength to my power, so that in the blink of an eye I found myself not far from where you and I now stand. I swore that day that you are no longer my people. I have lived here ever since."
Walks Like Bear bowed his head. "I had not known this." He looked up again. "But the white man has powers like yours," Walks Like Bear pleaded. "They will surely destroy us if you do not help us."
"It is true, there are white men with powers like mine. I have spoken with them. Where your people were cruel, they have been kind. They have taught me much, and I have taught them some. But they have not made war upon you. They have kept themselves from this war between the white man and you. They, and not the people over whom Red Hand is chief, are my people now. My back is turned upon you."
With that, the old man turned and began to make his way back up the trail.