by Rada, J. R.
Sarah put her clay pot on the table and rushed to her grandfather’s side. She tried to help him to his feet, but he weakly pushed her away.
“I’ll be all right. I just need to rest for a time,” Adam told her.
Sarah went to the table and poured a cup of water from the pitcher. She carried it to Adam. He held it between his shaking hands and drank it greedily.
“I’ve had nothing to eat or drink since early this morning,” he said when he had drained the cup.
Sarah knew as much, but she said nothing. Adam’s visions diminished his appetite until he ate no more than a pakwa, a frog, might have eaten even on the days he did not go to the kiva.
Turning up the flame on the oil lamp, Sarah leaned close to her grandfather. His eyes had sunk so far into his head that they seemed to be two hollow holes. His skin had tightened so that many of his wrinkles had disappeared. If he had not been so ill, he would have appeared thirty years younger. As it was, he looked like a corpse dead five days.
“This is not right, Grandfather. You haven’t slept in four nights. You eat barely enough to live. You stagger like a drunk as you walk down the street. People now truly believe you are crazy.”
Adam raised his left hand and rested it on Sarah’s shoulder. His sad eyes, looking larger than usual, met hers. “Do you believe I am crazy?”
“No,” she said without hesitation.
“Then that is enough for now.”
Sarah’s voice trembled and a tear slipped from her eye. “But your visions are killing you. Why must you continually seek them out?”
Adam frowned. “The visions are finished. I have seen what I needed to see.”
“What did you need to see?”
Adam nodded toward the bedroom. “Help me to the bed first. It’s time for me to sleep finally.”
Adam’s body trembled under Sarah’s arms as she tried to help him stand. He would not have been able to do it under his own power. Sarah slung his right arm over her shoulder and half-walked, half-carried him into the bedroom, the second of the three rooms they lived in. It was not difficult to carry her grandfather. At five-feet six-inches tall and one-hundred-and-ten pounds, he was scarcely bigger than Sarah.
Adam fell back onto the thin mattress on the bed and smiled. He moaned contently and then lay silent.
Sarah thought he had gone to sleep until he said, “I must find this white man who has visited Kuskurza. We must talk together, he and I, of how we can aid the Sun Clan.”
“The Sun Clan? Your clan?” Sarah asked.
“This Sun Clan is not the same as our clan. The Sun Clan that I must help is the children of Ma´saw, the guardian of Kuskurza. They are his children by ideals, not blood. Among the members of the Bow Clan, there are still some who believe in the teachings of So´tuknang. These people have humbled themselves hoping to find favor in the eyes of Taiowa so that Pahana might lead them to freedom. They follow Ma´saw and help him fight the Bow Clan in order to keep the dark kachinas imprisoned,” Adam explained.
Sarah wasn’t sure what he was talking about so she focused on the part that she did. “How will you find the white man?”
“To find a white man, you must use the white man’s ways.” Adam took Sarah’s hand in his. “Find me a newspaper. Someone in Oraibi must have one. I need to borrow it for a day. If you cannot find one in Oraibi, go to Hotevilla and Bacabi. Someone will have one. When you have found one, wake me. Then we will find the white man.”
Adam closed his eyes and sighed.
It took Sarah over two hours to find a newspaper somewhere in the village. She went from room to room throughout Oraibi asking at each home if those inside had a newspaper she might borrow. Each person would shake his head “no.” Sarah would thank him and move onto the next door. After knocking on over sixty doors, Ethan Ta´bo, a young Hopi who had yet to take a wife, told her he had a newspaper. He had found it on a bench in Winslow when he went to sell some pieces of jewelry he had made.
“Is this for Adam and his visions?” Ethan asked as he handed the newspaper to Sarah.
She glanced at the date. It was a two-week-old copy of The Arizona Republic, but it would have to do. No one else in Oraibi seemed to have another newspaper, let alone one more recent.
“This is for Adam only. He wants information on a white man,” Sarah told Ethan.
Ethan smiled at her. Sarah tried not to feel uncomfortable as he stared at her.
“I hope he gets better soon,” Ethan said after a moment. Sarah thanked him and turned to go back to her own rooms. “Wait. I have something else. Please come in while I find it.”
Ethan was Sarah’s age and a full-blooded Hopi. He had the typical round face of Hopis and black hair and eyes. Ethan always seemed to have a smile, and his wide, friendly smile made his face not look so round. Slightly taller than Sarah, he had muscular shoulders and powerful legs. Ethan was a skilled silversmith who sold most of the jewelry he made to shops in Winslow and Tuba City. In fact, from what Sarah had been told, his work was in high demand throughout Arizona.
Sarah stepped into a larger room than the main room she and her grandfather shared. Ethan disappeared into another room - he had four - to get what he wanted to give to Sarah. He returned in a moment holding a silver-and-turquoise bracelet.
Sarah took it and studied the intricate details Ethan had carved into the silver. Birds flying over tall stalks of corn. The turquoise had a deep color showing its high quality. It was cut with extreme precision to fit into small areas. Looking at the bracelet, Sarah understood why his work was in such demand. Ethan watched Sarah as she turned the bracelet over to look at it from every angle.
Then she handed it back to a surprised Ethan.
“It’s beautiful, but I can’t accept this. You could get three-hundred dollars or more for this in the city.”
Ethan nodded. He stepped closer to Sarah and slid the bracelet onto her arm. “I did not make this bracelet for money. I made it for love and for you.”
Sarah shook her head. “Then I know I can’t accept this. I like you, Ethan. I have since you defended me against that man in Hotevilla who called me a white man’s folly. But friendship and love are not the same.” Ethan’s head tilted forward so he would not have to look at her. “It’s not you, Ethan. You are a handsome man. It’s not just me speaking, either. I have heard the girls in the village speak of you. One of them should receive this bracelet.”
Ethan slid the bracelet onto Sarah’s arm again. She started to protest, but he said, “This bracelet was made to be worn by only you. For anyone else to wear it would be a lie. I shaped the silver and turquoise with an image of you in my mind. My hands worked according to what would best suit you.”
“I have never seen anything so lovely.”
Ethan smiled. “Take it, please. It is still a symbol of my love. Perhaps, one day you will feel the same. I am not in a rush.”
Sarah ran her finger around the edges of the turquoise. She had not lied when she had said she hadn’t seen anything quite so beautiful. It did seem to have a special appeal to her. “Thank you. I will cherish it as I do you.” She kissed him on the cheek before she left with the bracelet and the newspaper.
Adam was sleeping so peacefully when Sarah got back to the rooms, she decided to let him sleep until morning. She set the newspaper on the chest of drawers in the far corner of the room and lay down on her own bed to sleep.
She laid her arm near her head so that she could look at the bracelet as she went to sleep. Although she hoped Ethan would find someone who would return all the love that he had to offer, she did not think it would be her. Perhaps she would give Ethan’s bride this bracelet as a wedding gift.
Sarah wasn’t sure when she awoke, but the first thing she realized was that it was still dark outside. The room was lit be a flame from an oil lamp, not sunlight. A drawer shut behind her. She rolled over and saw her grandfather stuffing his clothes into a canvas bag.
“Grandfather, what are you doing?” she
asked.
Adam stopped working. “I asked you to wake me when you returned.”
His voice was weak but agitated. He still looked tired, but he acted like he had more energy.
“But you needed the sleep. You couldn’t even stand when you came home from the kiva.”
“My health is not for you to judge.”
He tossed the newspaper onto her bed. Sarah lit the oil lamp next to her bed to add to the light in the room. She picked up the newspaper and leaned close to the light. Scanning each story’s headline, she finally found the one that had undoubtedly caught her grandfather’s attention: Rescue Team Cannot Find Man Lost in Cavern. The story explained that the search-and-rescue team had been searching for David Purcell for three weeks. It had been assumed they would find him near the hole he fell into, but that had not been the case. Now as they widened their search, they were also exploring a new, large, cave system. They didn’t hold much hope of finding him alive.
“Is this the man your visions told you about?” she asked when she finished the article.
Adam nodded.
“They say they think he is dead.” She glanced at the paper again. There was a picture of David Purcell. His hair was blond. It had been a long time since she had seen anyone with blond hair. She tended to stay indoors when there were tourists in town, and no Hopi had blond hair.
“Yes, he’s the man, but he is not dead. He accidentally found the Third World. My visions have shown me the search team has found him now and have taken him out of the caverns, but he is not yet out of danger. The dark kachinas want him dead.” Adam had started filling the bag again.
“How will you get to him? He is in Utah,” Sarah wanted to know as she stood up from her bed.
“Paul agreed to let me use his truck. I’ve promised him my crops this season.”
“Your entire crop?”
“Yes, if someone does not tend the fields, they will die anyway. Paul has agreed to tend my crops and lend me his truck. In exchange, whatever he harvests from my fields he may have.”
“But what will we do for food this winter?”
“We have a full supply to carry us easily through the winter. We won’t starve, but if I don’t go north to talk to David Purcell, we may not need any food.”
Sarah climbed out of bed and walked over next to her grandfather. “I’m going with you. You are in no shape to drive.”
Adam did not argue. He simply said, “Then help me prepare what we will need. Pack enough food for two, and I will pack your clothes.”
“How long will we be gone?”
“A week, maybe two. There is much David Purcell and I must talk about.”
CHAPTER 6
Smack!
David closed his eyes, unsuccessfully keeping them from tearing. The blow felt like it had knocked his head from his shoulders. As the pain in his right cheek faded, he opened his eyes. His cheek still stung from the slap, but the pain was not nearly as intense as it had been the time before or the time before that.
Smack!
David slapped himself across the left cheek this time. Pain rushed to his brain, but it was not enough. He was falling asleep.
He wondered if he should pinch himself again. Until an hour ago, he had kept himself awake with sharp pinches that nearly drew blood. He had pinched his arms so many times that they were both covered with small, red welts. Anyone looking at his arms would have thought he was a junkie.
His body had deadened itself to that pain just as it was deadening itself to his slaps now. Sleep was creeping up on him, and it was getting too close. His eyelids drooped lower and lower no matter how much he fought to keep them open.
David wasn’t sure why he was afraid to fall asleep. All he knew was that he would be in danger if he did. Anytime he thought about sleeping or felt sleepy a black wave of fear washed over him.
But why? he asked himself once again.
Bed rest would help him recuperate faster. His joints and muscles ached with exhaustion. He must have pushed himself to his limits while he was in the cave. Not that he remembered to what limits he had been pushed or what had caused him to push them. He only knew his body needed time to rest. He was so tired. If he could just close his eyes for a little bit.
David shook his head. No! He couldn’t sleep.
Could he really have been lost in a cave, in total darkness, for over a month? David sluggishly shook his head. How could he simply forget about five weeks of his life no matter how horrible they had been? It was impossible. The memories were in his head. He was just too tired to think about them. Every time he tried to recall the missing time, a massive headache formed at his temples and he saw nothing. Was his body telling him not to try and remember?
No, he was just tired. He needed to sleep.
Anything but that. He couldn’t let himself sleep. He couldn’t...
His eyelids began to slide closed despite his efforts to force them open. David tried to raise his hand to a bare spot on his arm so he could pinch himself, but his body was too relaxed. His arms felt like they were buried in cement. It took a deep, focused concentration for him to even wiggle his fingers. His body was too exhausted to fight off his fatigue anymore.
He managed to raise his left arm a few inches off his bed, and he reached for his right arm. His concentration broke and his hand fell limp on his stomach.
He tried once again to will his eyelids to open wide. The opposite happened and the bright light of the room became a thin, white line.
No. The lights couldn’t go out again. Dr. Haskell said he wouldn’t lose his eyesight. David didn’t want to be in the dark. He had to open his eyes.
He had to...
David tried to remember if his eyes had closed completely or not. His head felt fuzzy, and he couldn’t think clearly. Something massaged his brain. That couldn’t be, could it? His brain was stored safely inside his skull. So what was he feeling inside his head?
Ko´pavi. The foreign word filled his mind and then vanished.
Suddenly, his field of vision exploded into a bright, yellow light. The light was so bright that David squinted as well as threw his arms up to shield his face. Even through his arms and eyelids, he still saw the blinding brightness. He felt no heat from the light, which surprised him. Anything that could generate that bright a light should be throwing out a lot of heat.
The light slowly faded. David lowered his arms, but he still squinted at the light. He tried to turn away from the light, but there was no source for it. It came from everywhere at once. No matter where he looked he was blinded by the brightness.
Was there something out there? And where was “there”?
There seemed to be an area where the light wasn’t as bright. He stared at the area because it didn’t hurt his eyes as much to look in that direction. The light continued to dim and eventually David opened his eyes fully without too much pain.
As the light faded, David saw a massive mountain of stone. It resembled an Egyptian pyramid, but this was more ornate. There were steep steps carved into the side, which led to doorways at the very top of the pyramid. Surrounding the larger pyramid were four smaller pyramids, one on each side.
The light seemed to be fading faster now.
The larger pyramid shook slightly and David thought he heard thunder. One of the stones on the side of the pyramid edged out of place disturbing the smooth face of the pyramid.
It was no brighter than nightfall now and still growing dimmer.
The pyramid shook fiercely. One of the stones on the side popped out like a cork being shot from a champagne bottle. Others shifted out of place.
Only a faint hint of light remained. As it faded, David saw the large pyramid explode without making any noise. Stones flew in all directions, many of them toward him. Before he could shield himself from flying debris, darkness filled his vision. The final bit of lit faded, and David saw nothing.
He knew he had dreamed the incident, but it seemed so real that he couldn’t help but rea
ct to it. He tried to outrun the darkness. At least he tried to run from it in his dreams. He didn’t know if his body physically reacted while he was asleep, though.
His head throbbed, and then burned. If this kept up, he would need an aspirin tablet the size of a golf ball.
David saw a stone wall in front of him. It was smooth and straight as if it had been chiseled. On the wall, he saw paintings. There were heads painted on the wall. He counted them. Seventy-three intricate paintings. Each painting was about a foot tall. The faces were painted with much attention to detail. Each one portrayed a different face with its own unique personality. Some of the faces seemed solemn, others smiled, two looked bored, and one was laughing. They all shared two distinguishing characteristics, though. They all had white hair and their skins were pale white.
David reached out to touch the nearest face, but as his hand neared the wall, a pale-skinned hand came from behind him and grabbed his wrist. David screamed and the memory went black.
He woke up breathing hard. The blackness from his dream faded to gray as the light from his room tried to penetrate his sleep. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then released it slowly through pursed lips. He did it again and then again until he had calmed down.
David sat up straight in his bed. He had had enough sleep for tonight. In fact, he’d had enough sleep to last him for a while. He didn’t think he would be going back to sleep any time soon.
As he raised the head of the bed so that he would have some support for his back, he had the nagging thought that he needed to do something but he couldn’t remember what. It must have something to do with the five weeks he couldn’t remember. It was lost in that big, black hole of a memory he had.
CHAPTER 7
Gary Morse watched the white police sedan pull off Highway 191 in front of him. He steered the large Winnebago he was driving off the road following the police car. Sheriff Harding of the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department was leading the way to Gary’s next job site. Gary and his team had been hired by the state of Utah to map out a new cave system and make recommendations as to the commercial possibilities of the caverns. He was so excited about this opportunity that he had taken a leave of absence from the University of Tennessee where he taught geology.