Chapter 7

"Well, you were right.:" Buffy told Frank "We should not have gone. Feel free to tell me 'I told you sol.'"

Frank grinned. "I won't And no serious harm was done. And now we have the perfect excuse never to meet them again."

"They guy is crazy. He should be put away before he does something really dumb."


"Jake insists what it would work between us." Tammy told Barnabas.

"And you believe it?"

"I... I feel like I owe him. Or that I owe it to somebody. To all the others in that ship that I denied."

"Not to marry a honky? How that is going to fix anything?"

"I do not know. But I feel I owe it to them.. And then Jake helped me."

"It is his job. I had to twist his arm to have him take your case. And he wants to be a therapist., and you were his chance. He owes you for it, not the other way around."

"Still..."

"Jake is a good therapist, but his anger gets the better of him too often. Specially when it comes to race relations. He had been hurt it the past... all black people carry scars, but that is something that I do not have to tell you. The problem is that his pain works itself in anger. And you make a too tempting target. The woman traitor to her race who slept with a white man without being forced do. You are a potential abuse victim with him.. I do not want to read a police report when he beat you half to death. Or killed you."

"I know, but he keeps on droning on..."

"Well, I am going to go to him and explain professional ethics to him. I will tell him that his future as a therapist instead of an orderly hinges on leaving you alone."

"That's extortion."

"No. He crossed the line. I am giving him the chance to retreat and save his career. If he is smart, he will take it."

Tammy sank her head in her hands. "What future would Joe and I have. It is a mixed marriage, and what guarantees are there..."

"What guarantees are in any marriage? Do not look at me. My own experience of marriage ended disastrously, so I tell you that marrying within one's race is no guarantee of anything. Some mixed marriages work, some don't, and there are good and bad reasons for both... I guarantee that Joe will not try to poison, or stab you, or shoot you, and that you won't put any curse on him. Apart from that, there are no guarantees. If I ever learned anything it is that. You love Joe. He loves you. Get married, and hope for the best."


Redwolf stared at the object up in the sky. He had seen it before and he was curious about it. He had a familiar feeling about it, but from where? For some reason there was this constriction in his throat when he looked at it.

He wanted to see it again. It was important. He could not explain how he came to feel so.

Maybe he should ask Munsungan. He'll probably have the answer.

But he would not go to Munsungan. The old man was a thorn in his side. And it was worse since his own involvement with Laura's schemes. His own prestige had taken a nosedive since them, and Musungan's had risen. All he needed now was to approach Munsungan as another supplicant.

He could rebuilt his stock. After all, he was the one who dealt with Davenport and other white men.. The benefits to the tribe from that relationship kept flowing. People remembered that. With time he would be back on top.

Give it time, and he would challenge the old fool again. And this time, without supernatural help...

But in the meantime, what was up there in the sky?

Why should he care about it? It was another supernatural element. Much help those had been to his political career. He had finally learned hiss lesson with Laura. Munsungan did the supernatural stuff best. He had his own weapons, and those he knew how to handle.

No, no spaceships or whatever it was for him. Let another fool deal with it.

"You called me, Harry Redwolf." the spaceship said.

"I did not." He did not stop to consider how a spaceship could speak, or how could it know its name. But he knew that he had to run.

He tripped and fell. It was a man's foot that he had tripped on. And he was looking at the barrel of a gun.

"It wants to talk to you." Zeb said.

He had come deliver the handkerchief as soon as Jessica had fallen asleep so that she could not ask him what he was doing. He had seen Redwolf. He did not know why the spaceship wanted him, but want him it did, and so he was to deliver him.

Redwolf stared numbly at him. "What do you want?"

"I want what it wants. And it wants to talk to you. You have unfinished business.. And it has much to offer you."

Redwolf shook his head. "I am not going."

Zeb prodded him with the gun "I'll shoot you in the leg and carry you. if you don't come along."

"Don't be a fool. You do not know what it is, How can you trust it.?

Zeb prodded him with the gun. "Move!"

Redwolf did not react.

Zeb prodded him again. Redwolf caught his foot and him trip. Zeb fell down, his unloaded gun by his side, and Redwolf was on top of him.

"You should not play with these toys." he admonished Zeb. "A doctor like you should leave these alone." He forced Zeb to get up. "Now we go, and you will explain to me what you were trying to do."

He twisted Zeb's arm behind his back and made him move. "Or maybe I should take you to Old Munsungan. You cannot lie to him. And I think that this is something that he should know about."

His back was turned to the spaceship. And then it happened. There was a ray of light coming out of the spaceship and it hit Redwolf between the shoulder blades.

He screamed first dropping to his knees, then collapsing completely on the ground. His clothes had caught fire.

Zeb looked at him stupidly, not moving.

Should he put out the fire and drag him to the spaceship? Or should he let him die?

He pocketed the gun. And, as he tried to make up his mind, he was this bat sweep down, turn into Megan, and then saw her trying to put out the fire.

"You dimwit." she shouted at him. "Didn't you learn first aid?"

The spaceship had disappeared.

"It is a good thing that I was around." Megan said "With the kind of help you are giving him. Well, the fire is out. We have to take him to the hospital. You take the feet. I'll take the shoulders. Where's your car?

Zeb told her. He was not sure of what to do next. He could not hope to overpower Megan or talk her out of it. At least Redwolf was unconscious. It was up to the spaceship now to stop Megan. He could not do it.

"What were you two doing at this hour? I did not think that you had any business around the Indian reservation."

"Even Indian politicians get VD."

"Did he have?"

"I thought that's why he wanted to meet me. Maybe he did not want anyone to see him with me."

"And then you saw the U.F.O.?"

"Yes."

'You better tell your story to the sheriff. And to Davenport afterwards."


Had he been right in brining Comet to Old Munsungan? Barnabas felt the doubt stirring in him.

If only he had been convinced that there was no other way. If he had tried everything else. But he knew that was no true. He did it to stop George's complaining.

Now if it had gone wrong.

But why should it go wrong? He had submitted himself to Munsungan, and had survived the experience, and come out stronger. The same had happened to Tammy...

... But they had been ready for it...

On the other hand, to continue as he was meant risking his crossing the line with Nunez, again and again. The temptation was too great... He had caught himself a couple of times when subjecting Comet to a verbal lashing, one that was not deserved but that relieved his tension...

It was a gamble, like so many others that he took.

The home of the shaman was there, welcoming him inside. He crossed the threshold, feeling a shiver as he did so.

Munsungan was sitting on the ground, with Comet lying at his feet. Munsungan did not stir. Neither did the dog.

"You wish to know of the dog." Munsungan said, without preamble.

"Yes. I wish to know how he fared with you."

"The windows of his soul were opened and he could peer within. He has seen himself. "

There was mournfulness in Munsungan's voice. Barnabas looked down at Comet, so meek and quiet, and shuddered involuntarily. "Was it bad?" he asked. Not the question he had meant to ask.

"You believed that he had no conscience. Yet he had. He had hid it, and fed it lies. Now for the first time he learned the truth. And it hurt him. It hurts him still."

Barnabas knelt down and stroked the dog. The dog did not lift his head, but whimpered.

"Can I take him home?"

"Yes. There is no more for me do to with him."