CHAPTER 44
Paw takes the sage out of Kiowa's hand and replaces it with Kiowa's bow. Two Moons replaces the sage in Kiowa's other hand with a medicine bag.
Kiowa's chest is on fire and his flesh is tugged so tight it feels as though it is going to tear from his body. He wishes it would. Instead, it stays intact and suspends him in torment. He spreads his arms and cries out, "WHO AM I?"
As the drum picks up, Onendah shouts, "Though it is not my time to go back to you, Naukolahe, I ask special permission to meet with you face-to-face and discuss a matter of importance. When the fire is lit and burns with the white flame of love and I am found worthy, I will ask you in that special place if you will permit me to enter." While saying this prayer, Onendah pauses periodically to hear Kiowa's shouts. "What more could he offer? If he is ready, I am ready!" Onendah whispers, carefully searching his heart for any doubts.
The tribe responds by beating on the drums, shaking their rattles, pounding on their tom-toms, and blowing their flutes.
Gushing women sympathize with him. They cry out, "Kiowa!"
The rest of the tribe chants, dances, sings, and praises Kiowa's courage. Two Moons and Paw push on Kiowa's feet to spin his body around.
Children outside of the medicine man's sweat lodge spread word to their parents, who tell their neighbors, who run and tell Paw. Whispers escalate to soft voices. Imaginations begin to wonder whom he seeks and what the reward will be. When the excitement dies down, time idles. Each Indian imagines receiving a gift. Paw wishes for a wife. Makes Trouble wishes for many wives. Kida wishes for Kiowa as a husband. Women wish for more children. Children wish for more food. Everyone wishes for more and more. Nothing less.
Having fasted for many days before the sweat lodge, Onendah's body is completely empty of food and waste. As Kiowa hangs in the medicine lodge and the sun sets, Onendah feels it is the right time to light the sacred fire.
"It gives me comfort to know that the warrior who has asked me to suffer suffers with me."
A smile lifts his wrinkled cheeks.
"Help me. Help me, Mink Woman. Send your spirit wife. You are the harvester of love, and I need your spirit and strength to find the answers that this young couple seek."
As he leans in to light the fire, the pile of moist wood explodes into flames that burn orange at first. He chants, "Way ah hey, ah, hey."
The tribe circles his wicker hut and watches smoke plume out from underneath. They lock hands and sway, repeating his words.
All day long, Kiowa hangs and stares into the sun. Once the sun sets, Two Moons gives the order to drop Kiowa.
The ropes release. Kiowa's limp body falls. Instead of hitting earth, his spirit passes through his body and splashes into water.
Kida rushes to him and hoists up his head. She pours water down his open mouth and wets his face with her tears.
"Now you see! You see that it is me who will catch you!"
Outside, a red cloud of smoke plumes out the top of Onendah's sweat lodge. It grows thick, then changes through all the colors of the rainbow and crackles in sparks like the stars before it completely disappears.
Children run about shouting, "Onendah has vanished. We must not hurt any animals or any people till he returns."
Though the adults ignore this nonsense, one of the largest warriors, whom they call Bull, stands where Onendah's door once was. He holds a whip and lets the onlookers know that no one will trespass on these sacred grounds.
Inside the sweat lodge, the fire fades from blue to celestial sun-kissed orange. Onendah reaches out with his wand and touches the flames. Instead of burning hot, the flames freeze ice cold.
"There you are, Water Boy. Now send your brother."
Sparks fly off his wand as he thrusts it into the frozen flames. They change the flames from ice to blinding white starlight.
Inside the medicine lodge, Paw kneels down by Kida and hands her a bowl of broth. "Pour this down his throat and see that he drinks all of it." Makes Trouble kneels down by his sister. He pats Kiowa's hand and chants Kida's prayer. "Courage of the cougar, strength of the bear."
He helps her keep Kiowa's mouth open as the elder tribesmen sway their old bodies back and forth. Their leader, Two Moons, beats on a drum and keeps a steady rhythm throughout the night. He slowly blows on his eagle flute.
"Please, Naukolahe, hear my prayer," Kida prays, sensing a surreal vibe from Kiowa's body. "Bless Kiowa that he will see my love for him. Show him how true it is. Show him that I will do anything for him. I will give him the greatest gift a woman can offer. Life!"
Paw answers her with a smile and then a shrug when he sees her patting his hand. Her tears fall on Kiowa's face, mixing with his tears and trickling down his cheeks.
In his friends' and family's arms, Kiowa's body is safe, but his spirit is sinking. He exhales and sees air bubbles plume and break apart as they travel to the surface.
Down, down, down he goes, until light begins to fade. Before he ascends into infinite darkness, his spirit stops and suspends between both worlds.
Looking up at the sun, he knows he has Naukolahe's attention.
"Forgive me for doubting my magic," he begins, and sees his words written in symbols on air bubbles as they travel up toward the sky. Ah, so that is how they reach you. Feeling himself run out of air, he panics, but then he draws a breath underwater as easily as if he were a fish.
"I have not failed in heart or in strength. Now I humbly ask only a few things. If my love is true for a woman I am not supposed to have, let that love travel as freely as a seed in the wind. Bless it that it will find fertile soil and let this bud of love blossom into a flower."
As the bubbles travel up, Kiowa sees the sky turn amber orange, like someone lit a fire. Within seconds, the flames spread across the entire sky. He feels comforted that his spirit is under the water, but then, he feels himself rising and moving toward the flames. He turns toward the darkness but cannot force himself to sink into the depths. He tilts his head back and stretches his arms, accepting his fate. His body continues to ascend toward the fire in the sky.
Across the village, Kida has abandoned Kiowa to his uncle and her brother. She grabs her bow and arrow and disappears into the forest. No one sees her slip away, so no one can stop her. Had the law enforcer seen her, he would have whipped her. Kida's skill in clandestine escapes is equal to the men.
"You are not a medicine man. You don't have the magic to do as Onendah does," Paw tells his unconscious nephew. "Come back to us. Do not go to the heavens, Nephew. Your place is here with your family and me. Look, there is your pretend brother, Makes Trouble. You belong with us."
Inside the sweat lodge, the medicine man's silver hair lays wet against his skin. A pool of sweat drenches the earth around him. His skin glistens. His chants become whispers. He transfixes on the coals as he shakes a rattlesnake's tail with one hand and waves an owl's wing with the other. With each breath, he seems to grow weaker. With one whooshing thrust, he tames the white flame down to a candlelight flicker. Before it can go out, he leans over it and inhales, sucking it up into his mouth. His mouth explodes with light like he's caught a star. It illuminates his face and his eyes. He uses both of his hands to push his jaw shut and keep the starlight trapped in his mouth. As the light begins to fade, he undoes the leather strings and opens the door. Instead of people, he sees stars. Instead of sky, he sees space.
As he stands up, his body is weightless. He moves slowly, because if he moves quickly, his spirit will float away. The walk in the spirit world is a walk of reverence. Onendah looks around at all the beauty the creator has made. He sees the divine's hand in everything. It humbles him.
"We truly are nothing." He sighs.
He rubs his old wrinkled eyes as thousands of stars sparkle around him. He moves forward, careful not to step on any of them. When he moves too close, they startle and fly away. Their glittering trails can be seen way off into the distant black horizon, where Onendah wonders if they reunite with their mothers.
Looking behind him, he sees Earth close enough to touch but far enough away to be seen in its glorious sphere. He looks at the moon and sees it hiding in the Earth's shadow. Beyond the moon, he sees many planets and watches all of these celestial bodies revolve around the sun. When the sun finally touches the moon, the pale light passes to him and causes his body to glow.
"Thank you, wife. I could not have done it without you. Now let us go and see what Naukolahe has in store for us."
The stars that remember him from his last visit aren't afraid of him. They draw near him and twinkle bright enough to light his way to the sun.
Onendah holds his hand up and looks away from the fireball sun.
"Great creator, I have come for wisdom. Do not be angry with me. I do not wish to stay."
Outside of the light, little children with rabbit heads and human bodies hop all around him. They stop, perk up, and use their human hands to wipe their faces clean.
"Hello, dreams. My brain is not idle tonight, so I will not play with you. I am here for a vision."
"Come play," the bunny children beg. They use their hands to bend space into playful forms like squirrels, otters, and mountain goats.
Past the rabbit people, images start to form in the Milky Way.
"Ah, there is the lake of time I have been searching for," Onendah says. He sits and folds his legs. The medicine man sees nothing but ripples.
"I will sit and wait for the waters to calm down," he decides. When the ripples of time finally settle, he sees a clear image of Kiowa marrying Anoki. He watches the tribe's response. At first they grow angry. But then their anger is amplified by a blurry-faced woman who Onendah presumes to be Kida, but this woman has no heart. Only a hole in her chest that howls with words like, "I have been wronged. I must be made right." The hole is so deep that nothing can ever fill it. The blurry-faced woman leads the tribe in persecuting Anoki.
"Come on, little woman, show me your face," he says, but the image doesn't form. He watches as the woman greets Kida with kisses and gifts. She's especially happy when Kida brings Anoki bound in ropes. The woman punishes Anoki with beatings and stabbings. When Kiowa tries to protect his love, the tribe seizes him and binds him. They force him to watch as the blurry-faced woman slowly and painfully severs Anoki's scalp while she's still alive. They chant and rejoice in her suffering. Their ferociousness offends Onendah, but it sickens him when he sees the blurry-face woman tie Anoki to a post and start a slow fire with wet bark. He shudders when the woman quickly puts out the flames and starts them again. The medicine man watches the flames scorch the Hopi princess, but what the tribe cannot see is that when they burn her, the flames burn Kiowa as well. First in his eyes, then his lips and hands, and finally his heart. His whole soul turns to ash with Anoki's body.
A cloud of darkness swirls about him. The rabbit children dance around the darkness and chant, "Avenge her! Avenge your love."
Then they hop over to Kida and hiss, "It is she! It is Mother! Mothers should not hate. Mothers should love. She has robbed herself. Robbed us all."
Kiowa seeks revenge.
When the blurry-faced woman comes into focus, it is not Kida, but Grass Woman's spirit inside Kida's body. That is where the vision stops. Onendah is not allowed to see Kiowa's revenge, only his suffering. But knowing the warrior's power, he is certain that nothing short of a massacre will come from this. With a heavy heart, the old man whispers, "Love is rough. Is this salt settled? Or can it be shaken and savored? Stirred and smoothed?"
A word: which vision is to be believed? Are none to be believed?