“How’ll you find us?” MacLaughlin asked.
“A man’d have to be blind, deaf, and have no sense of smell, to miss twenty mounted Englishmen out in that country, Mate.”
Nathaniel found Tunggaree sitting cross legged on a large flat rock, by the pool they’d been swimming in.
“You’ve done well to find me, Nathaniel.”
“Tarrapaldi showed me the signs you left on the ground for me to follow.” Nathaniel grimaced while lowering himself to sit on the ground. “It was easy once I knew what to look for.”
“Everything is easy after you’ve been taught how to do it, Nathaniel,” Tunggaree said. “But why are you here?”
“I’ve come to ask you to teach me.”
“You must pass the test of manhood first.” Tunggaree looked pointedly at Nathaniel’s naked crotch.
“How do I do that?”
Tunggaree laughed. “The first step is to ask that question, my boy. The second step is to listen carefully to what you’re told. Normally you would be a lot younger than you are. You would have your father, or one of your uncles with you. And they would hold you to the ground, with their arms holding your arms, and their legs wrapped around yours, while the Koradji removed your foreskin.”
“You said this wouldn’t hurt,” Nathaniel interrupted.
“I didn’t say that. I said if you have faith that I can heal you, the pain would be short lived.”
“Then why do you hold the boys down?”
“Nathaniel, we want the boys to pass this test into manhood. We don’t want them to fail. So we help them.”
“But you’re not going to help me?”
“We will help each other. You will stand against this tree with your arms out straight and hold the branch on either side.” Tunggaree indicated a stunted tree behind him with branches coming out of each side that made it look like a cross. “I will tie your arms to the branches, and your legs to the trunk. This will help you remain still while I remove your foreskin and then heal the wound.” Tunggaree said.
Nathaniel shook his head while facing the tree Tunggaree had indicated. “I do not like the idea of being tied to what looks like a cross. It reminds me too much of the way Jesus died. And I think to do this thing, tied to a cross, would be a blasphemy. I’m a man, Tunggaree, not a boy. I believe you would not do this thing to me if it were to do irreparable damage. I will stand, untied, while you cut and then heal me. Keep in mind though.” Nathaniel raised his fist in warning. “If you do not heal me. Before I bleed to death. I will beat you to a pulp.”
Tunggaree’s facial expression didn’t change. He continued to return Nathaniel’s intense gaze for several seconds before, without a sound, he rose and walked over to a fallen tree. He carefully selected a large stick with an ugly lump on its end. Returning to Nathaniel with the same slow, silent movements, he gestured for Nathaniel to rise. Then carefully placed the club in both of Nathaniel’s hands, at chest height.
Nathaniel shifted his grip on the club to hold it as though it was an ax. Tunggaree turned without a sound and walked to his spears. Selecting one with a long slender flint tip, Tunggaree gripped the spear around the sinew bindings that secured the tip to the shaft. Dragging the butt of the spear shaft on the ground, he walked back to where Nathaniel stood.
“This is the third step, Nathaniel,” Tunggaree said. “I will now take your foreskin in my fingers, and pull it over your third leg. I will place the blade of my spear against the skin, and with one quick slice, I will remove the skin. I will then drop the skin, and the spear, and take hold of your third leg with both hands.
“If you believe you can be healed, then when I take you in my hands, you will be healed. If you do not believe, then I will be clubbed to death. I have already put my life in your hands, Nathaniel.”
Tunggaree pinched Nathaniel’s foreskin between his finger tips. Stretching the skin as far as he could, he placed the razor sharp spear tip against the taut skin that was clear of the sensitive gland. “Take a fresh grip on the club and –”
When Nathaniel moved his fingers to get a fresh grip, Tunggaree sliced.
Nathaniel instinctively flinched his hips backwards and sucked in a sudden gasp.
With the speed of a striking snake, Tunggaree dropped the spear and severed skin, before pinching Nathaniel’s exposed gland with the fingers of one hand while wrapping his other hand around Nathaniel’s shaft to prevent any bleeding.
“Please, Son,” Tunggaree said in the native language Nathaniel couldn’t understand. “Have faith. Believe in yourself that you will be healed, and you will be healed.”
Nathaniel heard the words as only a murmur on the edge of his consciousness. Over Tunggaree’s shoulder, Nathaniel saw the tree he’d thought of as a cross, burst into flames. The tree burned with an intensity of light beyond anything he’d seen before. But it radiated no heat.
“You believe.” The voice Nathaniel heard in his mind was one he’d never heard before. It rumbled from deep within, like the sound of distant thunder. “Therefore, you are healed.”
Tunggaree saw Nathaniel’s eyes shift their focus to something behind him. Over the next few seconds, Nathaniel’s features relaxed from a look of extreme pain, to one of serenity.
Releasing the organ he’d felt repairing itself, Tunggaree stepped back and waited with his hands by his side.
Nathaniel opened his hands, and the club fell to the ground. With trembling fingers, he slowly reached down to hold himself before he lowered his eyes to look.
“Good lord, Tunggaree.” Nathaniel lifted his eyes to look at the tall black-man standing in front of him. “Are you God?”
“Nathaniel, I’m not your god. I’m a Koradji like you. I breathe and bleed. I laugh and I cry. I’m a man.”
“You said I’m a Koradji. Does that mean I can heal people like you just did?”
Tunggaree nodded. “Yes you can. Or at least, you will. You just haven’t been taught how to yet, that’s all.”
“When will you teach me?” Nathaniel asked.
Tunggaree laughed, “Ah, the impatience of youth. Only this time I’m going to have to indulge it. Come, Nathaniel.” Tunggaree turned, strode to the pools edge and dived into the water, “Come with me to the cave. There’s a lot I must show you in the time we have left.”
Running to catch up, Nathaniel launched himself headfirst into the water, and powered after Tunggaree in the over-arm style he’d recently learnt. When he was over the entrance to the cave, he duck dived and swam through the tunnel like a frog.
Nathaniel laughed when he surfaced, blowing water from his nose, and wiping loose strands of hair from his face.
“Tunggaree, if I tell anyone I can do this. They’ll think I’ve gone mad.”
“That is one of the reasons you must keep what I’m teaching you a secret. Another, and far more important reason, is because if the Goobahs find out that you’ve seen what I’m about to show you. They’ll kill you.”
Nathaniel felt a chill run through him.
Tunggaree lifted himself out of the water and went to where a small fire had almost burned out. “I was in here earlier, to prepare for what I was hoping would happen.” Tunggaree added twigs and sticks to the fireplace. Blowing on the embers, he coaxed a small smokeless flame into being.
In the dim flickering light that filled the cave, Nathaniel saw the walls were covered with dozens of art scenes. Moving over to exam them, he recognized most as hunting scenes. The animals and birds were easily recognizable.
But the newer scenes puzzled him.
“What you’re looking at is the future,” Tunggaree said from where he was sitting cross-legged beside the fire. “Since the Dreamtime, some special people have been able to leave their bodies, and go into the bodies of the other creatures in this world. The Goobahs never learned how to do this. But they’re smart. They’ve lea
rned to make machines that will do the things they want to do. And what they have now is only the beginning.
“In the near future, the Goobahs will have machines that will roll along the ground faster than any animal can run. They will have boats that will skim across the water faster than a bird can fly, and others that will go below the water like whales.
“The Goobahs will also have machines that will allow them to fly. Not as a bird, but as a man.” Tunggaree laughed at the look on his students face. “It’s true. They’ll be able to lift weights into the sky that no bird could ever hope to lift. And then, they’ll travel as fast as sound.”
“Are you crazy, Tunggaree? You told me to be careful of how much time I spent in the sun. But what about you? And how crazy do you think I am, if you expect me to believe this?”
“Exactly my point. If you tell a Goobah these things, Nathaniel, he will think you have lost your mind.”
“I’m not at all sure I’m not losing my mind,” Nathaniel said. “You’re asking me to believe some people can leave their bodies and go into the bodies of birds?”
“Not just birds. Any animal, once you know how. Come.” Tunggaree beckoned Nathaniel to join him on the floor. “Sit here opposite me. Put your hands up and place them against mine. Close your eyes and clear your mind of any self thoughts. Think only about the life giving energy you can feel flowing between us.”
Nathaniel sat facing Tunggaree with his palms pressed against the older man’s palms. With his eyes closed, he felt the force seeping into his body, and then receding before it pulsed back into him with even greater force. Back and forth, the power surged, building in intensity. He felt himself rising, and the feeling was so marvelous, he willed himself to go with it.
“Yes! You are by far the best student I’ve ever had, Nathaniel. When you open your eyes, you will see you are free of your body. You are floating in the cave above your body. Do not be afraid. I am with you.”
Nathaniel opened his eyes and looked down on himself and Tunggaree with their hands pressed together. A blue thread of light extended from each of the bodies below him. When he followed them up, he saw another thread of light connecting him to a ball of light that shimmered beside him.
“Oh my God,” Nathaniel said. “What have you done to me?”
“I haven’t done anything other than connect with your inner spirit, and guide you free of your body,” Tunggaree said. “I told you the cave is the doorway to Bullima, the sky camp of the spirits. From here, Nathaniel, we can travel through the gaps in the rock above. We can go anywhere, and do anything we want. But with this gift, comes a great responsibility.
“Nothing is ever free, Nathaniel. There’s a price to pay. And more often than not, the price is painful beyond anything you’ve ever imagined.”
“What could be more painful than being lashed with the cat?” Nathaniel asked.
“Knowing how and when the people I love are going to die, is far more painful than anything you could ever do to my body, Nathaniel.”
“But if you know how and when, then you can do what it takes to avoid it.”
“I love my family, Nathaniel. But I don’t have the power to protect them from the Goobah’s filthy diseases. Only Tarrapaldi and Muchuka are left. All the others have died.” The pain and sorrow in Tunggaree’s words hit Nathaniel like a physical blow. “Everybody has a mind of their own, and the freedom to choose what they will do. What we can’t do though, is choose or control what other people will do. When the Goobahs chose to give the people blankets infected with the disease you call smallpox, there was nothing we could do to stop it.”
“You could have not taken the blankets.” Nathaniel said.
Nathaniel felt the mental groan of anguish that accompanied Tunggaree’s words. “The people were already infected with a disease that chilled them and made mucus run from their noses. How can you make a mother not wrap her children in blankets that will keep them warm?”
“You tell her the blanket will kill her child.”
“And when she doesn’t believe you, Nathaniel. Then what do you do.”
Nathaniel frowned. “I should think you’d get the hell out of there.”
“And that’s exactly what I did,” Tunggaree said. “I brought my family up here, to the Valley of Wonggaroa. But the diseases followed. Out of the 20 people who came here with me, only 3 of us are left. We won’t run anymore. And there’s no point in hoping the Goobahs and their diseases will go away. Because they won’t.”
“So how do you win, Tunggaree?” Nathaniel asked. “Surely your not going to just give up?”
“We’re going to be like water. We’ll give no resistance to the Goobahs. But we will survive. And that’s where you are going to play such a big part, my son. Through you, we will give Tarrapaldi’s children a lighter skin color, and immunity to the more common diseases that plague anyone who comes in contact with the Goobahs. We’ll mate your daughters with white-men. Your sons will be mated with women of the Koori clans that live on this side of the mountains.
“Your grand daughters will be mated with white-men, while your grandsons will mate with black women,” Tunggaree said. “There will be two lines of descendants. One white, the other black. But they will be cousins. The white descendants will cover up their relationship to their black cousins, and then, from within the white establishment, the white cousins will work to bring about justice. It will take a long time to do this, Nathaniel. And you and I will not be here to see it finished. But we must begin the process.”
“While we’re out of our bodies like this,” Nathaniel asked, “can we go to America?”
“America? Is that the place you were born?” Tunggaree asked.
“Sure is.” Nathaniel felt himself swell with pride. “Land of the free. Home of the brave. Where no man bows down before another man.”
“I haven’t been there, Nathaniel. I heard during a dreaming though, that what you’re saying is almost true. But only if your skin is white.”
Nathaniel felt himself cringe mentally. “Well, yes. There aren’t too many free blacks in America.”
“Then why would I choose to go there?” Tunggaree asked.
“Because it’s a beautiful land. Covered with magnificent trees, edible plants, and teeming with wildlife for the taking.”
“So is the Valley of Wonggaroa. But tell me, Nathaniel. The people who lived in your America before the Goobahs came to that land. Where do they live now?”
“They’ve mainly moved out west.” Nathaniel said.
“And the land they left. The land that was stolen from them, Nathaniel. Is any of it yours?” Tunggaree asked.
“Not likely. But there’s any amount there for anyone with enough courage to go west and take it.”
“Just how far west would you have to go, Nathaniel, before you’d find anything to steal that compares to what’s being offered, for free, right here in the Valley of Wonggaroa?”
In the silence that followed, Tunggaree felt the young man beginning to grin.
“You cunning old dog,” Nathaniel said. “You’re leading me to accept staying here, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’d like you to stay. But it’s your decision, my son. Before you decide though, I’ll take you for a look see at what we have to offer. I want you to concentrate on keeping the light line between us as short as you can. That way you’ll stay close to me, and I’ll be able to explain what it is we’re going over.”
Concentrating on keeping the line of blue light connecting him to Tunggaree as short as possible, Nathaniel felt himself begin to accelerate after the shimmering ball of light he knew to be Tunggaree’s spirit.
Tunggaree’s light raced towards a gap in the ceiling at an impossible speed. Just prior to impact, Tunggaree’s light thinned out and streaked through the gap.
“Oh, Jesus,” Nathaniel screamed in his mind when he th
inned out also and, still right on Tunggaree’s tail, shot through the twisting, turning gap that led to a light so bright, it hurt.
Erupting into the searing brightness, Nathaniel felt Tunggaree steadying him.
“The eagles, Nathaniel, can you see them. They’re waiting for us.”
“Tunggaree, I can’t see anything. This light is too bright. Good God, man. How the hell did I let you talk me into this madness?”
“It’s all right, son. You’ll get used to it after a few times. For the moment, concentrate on my presence, keep your mind’s eye closed, and I’ll lead you to them.”
Nathaniel felt Tunggaree guiding him with slight pressure. He felt the pulsing force, surging back and forth again, that he’d felt as Tunggaree lifted him out of his body. Only this time, when he opened his eyes on the older man’s command, he could see for miles with a clarity that was beyond description.
Blinking his eyes twice, Nathaniel turned his head and almost fainted. A huge, wedge-tailed eagle sat 6 feet away on the same branch, 80 feet above the ground.
“Relax, Son. It’s only me.” Tunggaree transmitted.
“Thank God for that.” Nathaniel felt a shudder run through him. “You frightened me so bad, I think I messed my pants.”
“You’re not wearing pants,” Tunggaree said with a chuckle. “But don’t worry. The birds often void their bowels when they’re startled.”
Nathaniel blinked twice more, then swiveled his head to look at his body. “Oh, my God. You’ve turned us into eagles. Oh, mother of God. Now what am I supposed to do?”
“Relax, Nathaniel. I haven’t turned us into anything. We’re just borrowing the eagles’ bodies for a while. We’ll go for a flight, and I’ll point out the things of interest in your new home.”
“Not me, God dammit. I’m not letting go of this branch. You can go to hell. Put me back in my own body. I’m not doing this –”
Tunggaree spread his 7 foot wingspan, ruffled his feathers, and struck at Nathaniel with his wicked beak.
“Fly, Nathaniel.”
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