CHAPTER 41
Paw leaps to his feet. He looks behind him.
"THAT IS WHERE MY SPIRIT WIFE SITS!"
"I'm so sorry, Onendah. I thought you wanted me to sit there."
"If I had a bear rug here, I think my wife's spirit would be so happy to rest upon it," Onendah says with a wrinkled smile that shows his cracked yellow teeth.
"Hmmm…" Paw humphs. He walks over to the door, puts his moccasins on, and departs immediately.
Kiowa greets him with a broad smile. "Everything is ready for the sun dance. The pole is deep in the earth. The buffalo-calf hides have been nailed by their lips all the way up to the top. A heap of elk horns circle the base. Eagle wings are tied at the very top, but I am not certain how they got them up there. The sweat lodge is ready. What is wrong?"
"He wants a bear hide."
Kiowa's smile drops to a frown.
"And it had better not be a little bear. We are going to need to hunt the biggest bear we can find. It is a large empty space." Paw emphasizes this by opening his hands as wide as his arms can stretch.
Will the flame in your heart even burn as bright, Anoki? Or has the sun of love dimmed to a star? Maybe her father will force her to marry another, he thinks. His fear causes his heart to rage with jealousy.
In the coming week, Paw and Kiowa trap and kill a grizzly bear. As Kiowa pulls bloody meat from the bear hide, he imagines scalping some poor fool who steals his "little woman."
Though the bear hunt is much faster than the mink hunt, the tanning of the hide and the prepping of the fur take just as long.
"Now the tribe waits for Onendah. Let us drop off these gifts before the dance begins," Paw says, interrupting his thoughts and pulling him back to reality.
"If this is the only way to happiness, Uncle, then why am I so miserable?" Kiowa informs his uncle as they wrap the bear fur.
"You are on the path for certain, Nephew. This is how you get there. Did you not have to cross a dreary dry desert to get to the beautiful Havasupai falls?"
Kiowa and Paw come to Onendah with their fourth offering. When Onendah sees his gift, he welcomes Paw with open arms. Paw struggles to get the bear hide through the opening, while Onendah gleefully tugs on it. He pulls and pulls until it disappears like a mouse in a snake's mouth.
"Wait here," Paw tells Kiowa as he enters the tepee.
After adjusting the fur every way possible, Onendah finally finds a place that suits the hide and himself.
"I would ask you to stay," said the wise medicine man, "but my wife's spirit has just arrived, and we would like some privacy. Tell the tribe we will begin the dance soon."
Not wanting to be rude or to offend the great medicine man, Paw hides his frustration and leaves the tepee just as he has the previous times.
When Kiowa sees the same disappointed look on Paw's face, his rage explodes. "You tell that crazy old man that I am going to have a meeting with him! You tell him right now!" Kiowa shouts, making a scene.
Paw holds up his hands and tries to calm his nephew down, but the lovestruck warrior cannot be soothed.
"Let him meet with his wife, and he will be in a better place when we come back tomorrow. Trust me, you will understand when you are married how sacred alone time is."
"I am getting my tomahawk and my scalping knife. If that old fool thinks he can make a mockery of me, he is gravely mistaken."
Kiowa keeps his word, storming off to his tepee. He promptly returns with both weapons in hand.
"Let us come back tomorrow, Nephew. Come follow me. You are tired and hungry, and this crime will only make things worse for you." Paw puts his hands up and pushes Kiowa back. "Think of Anoki," he whispers under his breath.
The sound of her name calms the young man. The fighting fires are almost immediately extinguished, but for one last spark, "We meet with him tomorrow! Or else…"
"Yes! Tomorrow."
The following morning, Kiowa stomps over to Onendah's tepee. He slaps his hand on the buffalo-hide flap and shakes the whole tepee.
"Kiowa, what a surprise. How nice it is to see you. Please come in."
Shocked by the old man's hospitality, Kiowa ducks down and nearly dives into the medicine man's tepee. One of the first things he notices is the strong scent of cedar.
"Leave your knife and tomahawk outside," Onendah orders.
"Why? In the presence of so many captive souls, do my weapons intimidate you?" Kiowa sassily responds.
"We use the knife, the arrow, and the tomahawk to raid. When you bring them into my tepee, I think you are not done raiding. However brave you think you are, you are no match for my magic."
The two stare each other down. When Kiowa sees that Onendah is as firm as stone, he turns and sets his weapons at the door.
Behind Kiowa, Paw gently taps on the door and is invited in as well.
Onendah wears a big smile on his face and invites his guests to sit down by the fire he has just lit. The early-morning light passes through an opening in the tepee and illuminates every lash of time on the medicine man's wrinkled face.
"Your uncle has been helping me improve my home. He brought me those soft furs. What do you think of them?"
Kiowa had never thought to stack so many furs on top of each other, placing the softest ones on top. "It feels really comfortable," he answers, looking about.
"Yes, your uncle brought me a bear hide as well, which we used to cover the cold earth. My wife came and visited me last night. She told me that I needed new stories to tell her. She was bored with the ones I had and went to some other fire, where they tell better stories." After a brief pause, Onendah continues. "Kiowa, you have become a great warrior. Many feathers fill your war bonnet. Tell me, will you soon marry a woman and replenish the warriors that have fallen?"
"Yes, tell us, Kiowa, who do you favor for a bride?" Paw asks with his hand stretched out and waving over the fire.
Losing all his bluster, Kiowa hesitates. He blushes and stutters. "The—the-r-e is a woman I fav-o-r."
Onendah's smile broadens. "What is her name?"
"She is the sun in my heart. I feel the warmth of her rays resting upon my face and passing into my mind. I truly desire her more than any other woman."
Onendah looks at Paw. His smile begins to fade.
"Like me, this woman will be eager to hear you utter her name. Tell me, Kiowa, few things make good stories. But love is a magic that still excites me. It will certainly excite my wife. Who is this woman you speak of?"
"Her eyes twinkle like the stars, and when she speaks, it is as larks upon my ears…"
Onendah reaches for Kiowa and pats him on the leg. "Yes, Kiowa, I understand that you favor her, but what is her name?"
"I feel afraid and at peace when I am around her. I am on fire, then cold as ice…"
Losing interest, Onendah motions toward the door and begins to speak. "Ahem…"
"Her name is Anoki. She is the Hopi princess," Paw interjects.
Onendah gasps. He sits upright and adjusts his folded legs. "The tribe will never allow you to marry a Hopi," Onendah says sternly.
Kiowa's shoulders slump, and the excitement rushes out of him.
Onendah laughs. "Oh, stop acting like a child! Is this why you have brought me all of these furs?"
Paw and Kiowa look at each other with blank expressions.
"I can see plainly that it is!" The old man pats his knee and picks up a long wooden pipe. Raven feathers hang off the end. Carvings of his wife and children tell his story. He uses a scrap of wood to light the tip. When he holds the pipe up to his mouth, he puffs on it and gets the tobacco glowing red-hot.
"If you wanted to know my thoughts on the girl, all you had to do was ask."
Kiowa shoots a death glare at his uncle. Now Paw's shoulders slump.
"Of course, I cannot refuse you now that you have helped me so much and made me and my spirit wife so happy. But there is a matter you must consider. Our people are free. We roam these plains and travel the earth and mountains acting out of necessity. When hunger causes us pain, we kill our four-legged brothers and sisters. We do this to sustain ourselves. We seek rivers because our mouths are dry and our thirst will do anything for water. We kill our enemies because they have planted hate in our hearts. But what we do for ourselves, we do out of our own desires. Neither you nor I can force another Indian to accept what nature tells him he cannot."
"Neither nature nor necessity can make me control my desire. I am telling you, Onendah, I need Anoki as the eagle needs long wings!"
Onendah draws a deep breath and exhales a plume of smoke. He hands the peace pipe to Kiowa, who takes a puff and then passes it to his uncle.
"Sudden joy has a small and dull flame, and is easy to blow out. Fire is always the victor since whatever it touches it will eat. Wouldn't you rather love hot, like fire, than cool like rain?" Onendah tempts Kiowa.
"Ah, that is what you said about lightning. I told her this and she was not happy," Kiowa confesses with regret. "Now I am not certain if I misunderstood you, but I do not want to make her sad. My heart cannot bear it."
Onendah sits up and folds his legs. "Let me say it this way. The more honey you eat, the happier you will be. Are you sure you wouldn't rather be with a few of our Kiowa women first? Looking on their pretty faces and lying in their beds might change your mind." Onendah raises a brow, testing Kiowa's devotion.
"I would rather stab my eyes out with a rock." Kiowa grimaces.
"Ha! Ha! Look there, he speaks true. I can see it in his eyes."
Paw smiles and nods in agreement, even though to him Kiowa's eyes look the same.
"Okay, Kiowa, I will consent to the sun dance. I see your wisdom now in getting it started early. Let us ask Taime what his will is concerning this forbidden love. If he favors you, then I will seek a vision. If not, there will be no vision and you will marry whoever the tribe decides."
Kiowa accepts this answer with a nod.
"Even if that is Kida?" Onendah inquires, tilting his head to the side in a way that makes Kiowa grit his teeth.
"I do not come to you because I have the answer. I come to you because I do not have any answers!" Kiowa seethes through his clenched teeth.
"Did you tell her that our love for our tribe is like a bolt of lightning? It eats everything it touches?"
Kiowa thinks back on what he said. How can I tell these men, who think so highly of men, that I'm all made up of leaves?
Kiowa detours the conversation back to his original concern. "My magic isn't strong enough to see what I should do next."
"You are talking about magic, and I think Onendah speaks of how we love," Paw corrects his nephew.
Kiowa's face goes numb. All of his features paralyze at once. Where are Makes Trouble's wise thoughts when I need them? Why did Moon Beam not leave one crafty ember before he abandoned me?
Onendah lifts his hands. "Our love consumes with a spark anything it touches. You know this. It is a beautiful violence, with passionate ends. But it is better to be the bolt than the tree. At least the lightning gets to decide which tree and how many strikes! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Finally, a thought leaps into Kiowa's head like a prancing pony. But it appears as a question. "Is that what happened with your little woman?"
Onendah stops laughing. His face grows as serious as Kiowa's.
"He could curse you, Kiowa," Paw whispers.
Author's note: Don't you hate when you want something and someone stands in the way of you getting it?