by D. J. Holmes
* * *
“Brother, where are you?”
“I’m over here.”
“All I see is a blip of light.”
“It’s me, Gray Wolf, I swear. Do you feel anything?”
“Yes, Running Deer. All of the ashes of my body are collecting around my serge of energy, my little light.”
“I can see your feet, Gray Wolf, where is the rest of you?”
“I can feel it coming, Running Deer, but I can’t even see your feet. What’s with that my Brother?”
“I’m a little behind you. I can feel it coming though. I can feel that my energy is attracting my ashes.”
“I hope our ashes don’t get mixed up.”
“Ha ha,ha, wouldn’t that be funny? What if I had your foot and you had mine? Or you had one of my arms and I had one of yours? How would we know?”
“Thinking about it, my Brother, I truly feel that if our ashes are collecting around our energy, then each ash knows who it belongs to.”
“I think that you’re right, Gray Wolf. Just think, my younger brother is smarter than I am.”
“Only in some things, Brother….”
Smiling, Running Deer and Gray Wolf, continue to watch each other as their bodies fill in, making them look like they did in life.
“Ah, my Brother, Running Deer… once you were a sparkle of light. Now I can see you.
“I can see you also, Gray Wolf. We are handsome devils, aren’t we?”
“Come on, boys,” the guide beckons. “Your bodies have assembled themselves, so it’s time for us to go.”
“Where are we going?”
“Yes, can’t we go back to mother and father?” Gray Wolf asks.
“Your mother will be coming soon.”
“If mother is coming, why can’t we wait for her?”
“…Because I’m your guide. We didn’t know that she was coming until just a little while ago. She’s been assigned another guide.”
“Why can’t we wait and all go together?”
“We have a certain time that we have to check in. We can’t wait another minute. Please come with me now. You’ll see your mother soon.”
Following the guide, Running Deer and Gray Wolf quietly talk to each other.
“Gray Wolf, I don’t like this guy that we’re with. He seems a little strange I mean, look at the way that he’s dressed.”
“I know. What’s that all about? I’ve never seen anyone dressed like that before.”
“Boys, there are a few things that you need to know.”
“Yes,” the boys chorus.
“From here on out, we won’t be able to walk until we get to our destination. The way that we will travel to our destination is by swimming.”
“Oh, we know how to swim,” Gray Wolf says in an excited voice.
“Good, that will make it easier to show you how to move. Watch me and do what I do. Don’t worry, you won’t fall down. You’ll feel like you’re floating.”
“Floating?” the boys question.
“Now, retract your legs…then push them out spreading them apart, and keeping them straight. Then bring them back together again. As soon as your legs close…push your arms straight out in front of you and then make a half circle, out to each arm’s side pulling them down to shoulder height.”
“Take turns with both of your arms and legs, retracting and pushing out, over and over again.”
“Gray Wolf, what are the words that he is using? I don’t understand anything that he is saying.”
“I don’t either, Running Deer. But, somehow within my head I hear everything, and in my heart, I understand what he means. Listen with your heart my brother.”
“Show me what he was telling us.”
“Pull your legs in, and then push them out, spreading them apart. Pull your legs together as your arms get ready to push out above your head. Keeping them spread out circle them down to shoulder height and then pull them in putting your palms together, ready to push out again. Watch me…. See… take turns with your feet and your arms.”
“Ok.” Gray Wolf shouts, “I’m floating. My Brother you’re floating also, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m floating.”
“Great job, boys. That’s the way that we are going to move around until we get into our assigned dimension. Keep going. The more you do it, the easier it will be. You see, we’ll be going through gravitational waves. With its vibrations of compression and expansion, you’ll need to know how to swim as I have taught you. Just think of it this way, it is how some people swim in the ocean.”
“Gray Wolf, there he goes with his big words again.”
“With your heart my Brother…. Listen with your heart.”
“What is an ocean?”
“Now that one I don’t know. But I do understand what he is saying about swimming.”
“Ok boys, you know how to move. Let’s be on our way. Don’t worry. We’re going to swim through some gravitational waves. Keep moving like I showed you and everything will be fine. And, don’t worry as we go faster and faster. Stay by me, ok?”
“You bet.”
“Running Deer, what are all those strange lights that we’re moving toward?” Gray Wolf asks.
“I don’t know. Have you noticed how fast we have been traveling? Even on a horse we never went as fast as we are going now,” Running Deer says with a smile.
“First we were swimming just like we use to, down by the falls. But, now we’re not wet. We’re just free to go wherever we want to go, just like a bird in the air. But there’s no air. Do you think that we’ll fall?” Gray Wolf began to wonder.
“I don’t think so. It feels like this light is holding us up.”
“Look at me.” proud of himself, Gray Wolf begins to swim in all different directions on his back, finally hitting into Running Deer.
“What are you doing, Gray Wolf?”
“Sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going. I was having so much fun swimming on my back, and not drowning, like I use to at the falls.”
“That’s right. Your head use to go under the water all of the time. The same thing use to happen to me when I would swim on my side. So, if you can swim on your back, then I’m going to try swimming on my side.”
For several minutes, Running Deer and Gray Wolf swim and play around in a new atmosphere, where it seems that they can do almost anything. They can go as fast or as slow as they choose.
“Gray Wolf, this all seems so strange. Yet on the other hand it seems so familiar.”
“I know, Running Deer. I feel like I’ve played here before.”
“Gray Wolf, what are we swimming toward?”
“I don’t know. But I can’t stop. Can you?”
“No, it’s like we’re being sucked into that light.”
“Yes, it is at the end of this tunnel Running Deer, that extremely bright light. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know, Gray Wolf. But, we’re going to be there soon.”
“I don’t want to go, Brother. Remember the bright lights on the night of the loud thunder? Well, this light scares me like that loud thunder did.”
“Do you think that Grandfather is here trying to scare us again?”
“Well. If he is, I’m not going in that direction.”
“Me neither! Look Gray Wolf, there’s another direction.
Hold my hand, Brother. Together we will have more strength.” Grabbing his brother’s hand, he continues to give instructions. “Continue holding my hand. Let’s spread both of our hands out to the side. Hold them there and then spread your feet out. This will slow down the momentum.”
“How did you know that would work, Brother?”
“I don’t know. But I know what it means and how it works.”
“I do, too. The minute you said it, I could feel the meaning of that strange word.”
“Quick, there’s a bend in the tunnel. Pull your feet in… get ready to push your feet against the wall…bend your back and lean back t
oward the bend of the wall…push your feet into the wall as hard as you can, so that we have enough strength to change direction. NOW! PUSH!” Running Deer and Gray Wolf quickly thrust themselves into another tunnel, losing their guide.
“Whoa, Running Deer, this tube is skinnier than the other one. I can reach out my hands and feel both sides at the same time.”
“Pretend that you are going down the rock slide by the falls.”
“It kind of feels like that, doesn’t it, Brother?” Finally, the end of the tube drops them into a great openness.
“What do we do now, Older Brother?”
“Let’s try swimming and see how it works here”
“I’ll swim on my back again.”
“That’s fine,” Running Deer states, but laughingly warns, “Just don’t bump into me again. I’m going to try to swim on my side, and I can’t see you from behind.”
Returning the joke, Gray Wolf, shouts, “Watch out, Brother, here I come!”
Turning over to be able to see Gray Wolf, Running Deer notices something that neither one of them had seen before.
“What’s that over there?” he questions.
“…Where?”
“Over there…that wavy bright golden light.”
“Let’s swim over to it and see what it is,” Gray Wolf suggests. Approaching the twisted and folded refracted waves of light, both boys stop.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Do you think that it will hurt us to touch it?”
“Don’t look at me. I’m not going to be the first one to touch it.”
“Running Deer, you always do everything first. You were the first one to be born.”
“Well, I’m not going to be the first one to touch this thing.”
“I will.”
Cautiously, Gray Wolf reaches out his hand and touches the wavy folds of light with his fingers, “It doesn’t hurt, Running Deer. I’m going to put my hand through it.” Feeling a strange sense of freedom, his curiosity takes over and he puts his head through the waves.
“What are you doing, Brother?”
“Try it, Running Deer. It doesn’t hurt!”
Very slowly, Running Deer puts his head through the waves. Looking over toward Gray Wolf, they smile at each other.
“Look at that strange object down there. There’s a lot of water around it and there are strange people walking on the ground. I want to go and see this thing.”
“That sounds great Running Deer. Let’s go see it.”
Once their whole bodies pass through the folded waves, they feel like they are flying. It seems natural and, best of all no one seems to be able to see them.
Once on the ground, they notice a door that everyone seems to be using.
“Hurry, Gray Wolf, the door is open.”
Quickly walking through the door, they see a hall with rooms along each side.
“Look over here, Gray Wolf, the Hall of Corridors.”
“How did you know what that said?”
“I don’t know. I saw the words and it just came to my mind”
“No one seems to be walking down it now, so let’s see what it is all about.”
“…Sounds good.”
Quickly walking over they slip through the hall door.