by Rada, J. R.
That was when Adam noticed the other Bow Clansman floating on a saucer outside the window. The Clansman who had attacked David climbed onto another saucer, and the two pale-skinned men flew off into the night.
Adam hurried to the window to watch them go. It was hard to believe that people such as these had given birth to the Hopi. When the Bow Clansmen had disappeared in the darkness, he mumbled to himself, “Pa´tuwvotas.”
He turned back to face David Purcell. The man who Adam had seen in Kuskurza was sitting up rubbing his throat.
“Thank you. He caught me while I was asleep.” David paused. “Was his skin really as white as I thought it was or was that just the sleep affecting my senses?”
Adam shook his head. “No, his skin was white.”
David stared at Adam. “You’re that Indian who was in here this morning.”
Adam nodded. “I came back because we need to talk.”
“I told you this morning. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t remember anything that happened in the cave.”
Adam moved closer to the bed. “You’re right. You know, but you can’t remember. I’m sure of it now. If you will talk with me, I can help you. I can explain who those men were.” He waved his hand toward the window.
David stared out the window.
A nurse opened the door. She glanced from David to Adam and started to back out of the room. “Excuse me. I thought I heard a noise and wondered if you had fallen,” she said.
David smiled. “I guess you thought I was like that old woman in those commercials for the personal emergency-call boxes; the one who says, ‘Help me, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.’“ The nurse laughed. “I’m fine as you can see, but thank you for being concerned.”
The young nurse blushed and looked at Adam. “Is this your room, sir?”
David answered before Adam could say anything. “He’s a friend of mine who was admitted to the hospital this afternoon. When he found out I was here too, he came down to see me.” Adam nodded his agreement.
“Okay, but don’t stay here long, sir. I’m sure you both need rest.” The nurse turned and left the room leaving Adam and David alone.
David turned to Adam. “Okay. Pull up a chair. Let’s talk.”
CHAPTER 17
David swung his legs over the side of the bed so that he could look at the old Indian without straining his still-stiff neck. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what Adam had to tell him. Sitting up uncovered David’s legs, and he pulled the blanket over them because for some reason he felt embarrassed having Adam see his naked legs. The Indian couldn’t ever see him more exposed than when that...that man had tried to strangle him.
What was happening to him? What had he gotten himself into?
If only he could remember what had happened to him during the forgotten five weeks in the cave then he wouldn’t feel quite so defenseless. He hoped that this Indian he had never met might somehow be able to fill in the blank spots in his memory.
Adam repositioned the orange-plastic chair near the window so that when he sat down in it, his back wouldn’t be toward the window. David wondered if Adam thought the pale men would return again.
Adam stared at David with a poker face a Las Vegas dealer couldn’t have read. He didn’t look nervous, but David knew he would have been as jumpy as a cat in a roomful of rockers if he had even been sitting near the window. What if those pale-skinned men decided to make a second attack? The one who had attacked David had been very strong, and neither David or Adam was in the best of shape right now.
“Obviously you know something about what just happened to me. You probably know more than I do coming in here in time to save me from whoever or whatever tried to choke me. That was more than I could do.” David rubbed his throat. The skin was tender, but at least his throat seemed undamaged. It was painful to touch, but he felt sure it would be even worse tomorrow. “That guy looked like the type of alien you might see on Star Trek. I’ve never seen anything like him before.”
“He’s a person,” Adam said simply.
“But his skin was that pale-white color like a piece of paper or a bed sheet.” David grabbed a handful of the bed sheet and shook it. “People don’t have skin that white, not even albinos.”
“Your skin is white.”
“Not that white.”
“Your skin is cream colored, then. Mine is red. Others have yellow skin or brown. Because my skin is not the color of your skin, does that make me something other than a person?”
David sighed. That last thing he felt like was being lectured to by an Indian who wanted to wax philosophical. He wanted to know why he had been attacked and who had attacked him.
“Cream, red, brown, and yellow are skins tones that are expected. The world has been explored and no one has ever reported a race of people with white skin. Albinos are still an oddity in the world.”
Adam nodded. “He is not of this world. He is as my people once were and maybe your people, too. He’s one of the Bow Clan,” Adam explained.
Adam seemed to expect the title “Bow Clan” to evoke some sort of response from David, but David had never heard of the Bow Clan before. The words meant nothing to him.
“Does he have something to do with my being lost in the caverns?” David asked.
Adam considered his response, and David began to doubt. He wondered if the Indian knew what was going on or if he was making up things as he went along.
But Adam hadn’t made up those pale-skinned men, had he? And Adam hadn’t invented those floating saucers they had flown away on either. Those saucers were another good reason that David thought those men had been aliens. No technology like that existed on earth.
Adam finally answered. “He and his people live underground. For some reason, he feels that killing you is important enough for him and his companion to come to Tu´waqachi.”
“Tu´waqachi?”
“It’s a Hopi word. It means the Fourth World.”
David hoped Adam didn’t use many Hopi words. He had barely passed English a couple of semesters in high school and that was his native language. How well could he be expected to understand Hopi?
“The Hopi believe this is not the first world in which we have lived. There have been three others. Tokpela was the First World. It is where life was created by Taiowa the Creator, and his nephew, So´tuknang. Men and animals lived in peace together in Tokpela. They could communicate with each other without speaking. It was a perfect world.”
“It sounds like the Garden of Eden,” David commented. In fact, Taiowa and So´tuknang sounded suspiciously like God and Jesus Christ. David wondered if the Hopi were Christians without even knowing it.
Adam shrugged. “I haven’t heard of that place.”
“It is part of Christian religion.”
“It’s not surprising they are similar then. Truth may be disguised, but it is always recognized no matter what disguise is used.
“The First World became evil when Mochni, the bird, talked to the people and the animals about the differences between them. The people gradually grew away from each other and from the animals. Then came Ka´to´ya, the snake with the big head. He also talked and created an even greater division between men and animals.”
David thought Ka´to´ya sounded an awful lot like the serpent who had beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden. Maybe Adam was right about truth taking on many disguises. David wondered if anyone had ever tried to compare the Hopi beliefs to Christian beliefs.
Adam continued talking, “However, there were still those who tried to follow the teachings of Taiowa and So´tuknang. These people followed their ko´pavis through a sipapu...”
“An emergence hole,” David blurted out happy to have recognized a word. Saying it caused him only a twinge of pain this time.
Adam nodded and smiled. “Yes, they left the First World by going through an emergence hole into Tokpa, the Second World. Because the Fire Clan had been the leaders of the troublemakers
in the First World, So´tuknang destroyed Tokpela by fire.
“Tokpa was also a beautiful world, but So´tuknang kept animals and man apart in this world. Men prospered and began to barter and trade for things. This created greed and pride among the people, and again, they drew away from the teachings of Taiowa. Not all the people were evil. The good were led through another sipapu to the Third World, Kuskurza, and the Second World was destroyed with earthquakes and an ice age.
“In Kuskurza, the people again prospered until they began to forget Taiowa’s teachings as they had done before. The Bow Clan, in particular, became greedy and war-like, which was not the way of our people. We are a peaceful people. This has always been and will always be. Instead of following the teachings of Taiowa, the Bow Clan heeded the talk of a group of kachinas. The dark kachinas.”
David interrupted once more. He felt like a small child who kept interrupting his father during a bedtime story. “What are kachinas? Another Hopi word?”
Adam nodded. “They are spirits. Each kachina performs a special duty for our people. One brings rain, one makes a woman fertile, and one causes the corn to grow. There are over two-hundred-and-fifty different kachinas, and they are all more or less good. However, the kachinas the Bow Clan chose to follow were evil. Before Taiowa and So´tuknang destroyed Kuskurza, they imprisoned the dark kachinas in a great mountain of stone. They gave a powerful man named Ma´saw the duty of guarding the dark kachinas and keeping them imprisoned in the stone mountain.”
A mountain of stone. A pyramid! Just like he had seen in his dreams. But that pyramid had exploded. What did that mean? Had Ma´saw failed in his duty? Had the dark kachinas escaped?
“Why didn’t Taiowa just destroy the kachinas instead of the whole world?” David asked.
“Spirits cannot be killed. Only with the aid of the bright light in Kuskurza were Taiowa and So´tuknang able to imprison the dark kachinas. The bright light subdues them and makes them hide within the darkness of the stone mountains.
“The people who continued to believe in Taiowa were once again led by So´tuknang through a sipapu into this world, and Kuskurza was destroyed by a great flood.
“For many centuries, my people have believed that all of Kuskurza was destroyed by flood. I now know this is not so. I’ve seen the truth in visions I’ve had in the sacred kiva. Most of Kuskurza was destroyed, but the flood waters did not totally cover Kuskurza. The top of the stone mountain remained dry. A handful of Bow Clansmen were able to find safety there until the waters receded enough for them to begin rebuilding their world.”
“Why wasn’t the world totally flooded?”
“I don’t know. Either Taiowa did not want to risk extinguishing the bright light and destroying the stone mountain, or the dark kachinas had enough power to save themselves and their followers from the flood.”
Recalling the exploding mountain of stone, David said, “There’s a problem down there now, isn’t there? The light that’s keeping the dark kachinas imprisoned is fading, and when it dims enough, the dark kachinas will be able to escape their prisons.”
Adam nodded. “That’s what I have seen in my visions.”
“It’s what I have dreamed.” David paused. “What would happen if the dark kachinas were freed?”
“This world would be lost, and my people do not believe there would be another to replace it. For the Bow Clan to fear you enough to try and kill you at a time when the dark kachinas are continually growing stronger, means you must threaten them somehow,” Adam explained.
“You said the white guy who attacked me was one of the Bow Clan. Is he still living in that little portion of Kuskurza that wasn’t flooded?” David wanted to know.
Adam nodded. “The Bow Clan serves the dark kachinas. They act as the eyes, ears, voice, and hands of the dark kachinas. However, I’ve seen others who fight the Bow Clan. They look like the Bow Clan, but they are not evil.”
“The Sun Clan,” David said without pause.
Adam stared amazed at David, his poker face dissolved. David suddenly realized what he had said and that there was more to say.
“They are called the Sun Clan because they still follow the teachings of Taiowa. They want to live in the Fourth World in the sun,” he added.
Adam nodded numbly.
David was overjoyed that he had remembered something. After all the energy he had expended trying to remember, he had recalled something without trying at all. Was that the key? Would he not remember unless he allowed to it come naturally?
Adam said, “My clan is also the Sun Clan. It is my clan’s duty to guard the sipapu we know of and keep it sealed.”
“Then you should feel a kinship to those people in Kuskurza.”
Adam nodded slowly.
“Can you help me remember everything that happened?” David asked.
Adam shook his head. “I don’t know why you have forgotten your memories to know how to make you remember them. As you recall bits and pieces, I may be able to interpret them for you. Together, we can understand what is happening in Kuskurza and how you are connected to it,” Adam offered.
David felt no immediate danger from the Bow Clan. They might attack again but not tonight. There was another danger, though, and he was not sure how much time remained to prevent this one. If the dark kachinas escaped from the stone mountain, the world, his world, would be destroyed. David knew it was going to happen if something didn’t change to stop it.
Adam had said David had somehow threatened the Bow Clan and the dark kachinas. If that was so, didn’t he have a responsibility to try and stop the dark kachinas from escaping if he could? After all, it was his world the dark kachinas would destroy if they escaped. If he could ever remember how to do it, he had to stop the Bow Clan.
CHAPTER 18
David wondered if he had dreamed everything that had happened the previous night when he woke up in the morning. Maybe the pale men and the old Indian had all been a part of another one of the weird dreams he had been having lately. Then he saw the torn screen in his window and knew everything had really happened.
He decided it was time for him to get out of bed before he got bedsores. Holding onto the side rail to keep from falling, he stood up from the bed. David thought he could feel himself swaying when he stood still. When he finally stopped rocking, he felt like he was standing on stilts and the unsteady sensation that went with it. This was the first time he had been on his feet in at least two days, but judging by the unstable feeling he had standing on his own two legs, it could just as easily have been two months.
Feeling like a feeble old man, he slowly shuffled to the closet and took out the clothes his mother had brought him. A pair of blue jeans and a Brigham Young University T-shirt hung on a pair of hangers.
Halfway across the room, he stopped. His legs ached. Sharp pains pinched his thighs and calves. He fell to his knees, which only caused him more pain to hit the floor, but he managed to keep from falling on his face by putting out his hands to catch himself.
What was wrong with his legs? Why couldn’t he walk like a normal person? Had he hurt his legs in his fall into the cave?
David crawled to the bed and used it to support his weight as he struggled to his feet. Sitting down on the edge of his bed, he tried to keep himself from shaking.
He slammed his hand onto the bed. If he could only remember what had happened to him, he might know what other surprises to expect from the Bow Clan. What else would happen to him? Would he go blind while he was driving and send his car off the road and into a building or telephone pole? Would his arms fail to move the next time he was attacked by one of the Bow Clan? David didn’t like the unexpected especially when it came from his own body. He had enough things to worry about now without wondering if his body would work when he needed it to.
He dressed himself, happy that nothing more happened to him. When he finished, he stared at the torn window screen through the closed window. It was the only testament that he hadn’t dreamed eve
rything that had happened last night. The Bow Clan had been real and they had tried to attack him. Adam wasn’t around to reassure David, and thankfully, the Bow Clan wasn’t around to attack him.
Someone from another world wanted to kill him and he didn’t know why.
“Davey, you look so much better.”
David turned from the window and saw his mother walking into the room. For a second, David thought she might be alone. Then she was through the door and moving off to the side toward him. David had a moment to see his father dressed in a short-sleeved, white shirt and blue tie before his mother filled his vision.
Marcy hugged her son tightly. “You look so thin. I could get you back up to a decent weight if you would come home and let me feed you. I could even find a place that sells gyro meat if you want.”
David sighed. Now she was trying to tempt him with his favorite foods. He had been through this same conversation with her yesterday. Why couldn’t she just let him grow up?
“Marcy, let the boy be. You can’t baby him anymore. He’s a man, now,” Lewis said echoing David’s thoughts. He had opened the small overnight bag he had carried into the room and was filling it with the few things David had accumulated during his stay in the hospital.
Marcy turned to face her husband. “I know he’s a man. But he’s also very sick. He’s just spent two days in the hospital. He needs someone to help him until he feels like himself again. He needs his mother,” Marcy argued.
“But Mom! I can take care of myself,” David insisted.
Marcy put her hands on her hips. “Oh, really?”
“Yes, I’ll manage. I’ve been on my own for eight years now,” David said quietly avoiding his mother’s stare.
“Marcy, leave him alone. He’s over twenty-one. He can make his own decisions,” Lewis said as he zipped the overnight bag shut. David was glad that at least his father seemed to understand him.