Kachina

by Rada, J. R.

  David started the car and backed out of the driveway as quickly as he could. Brad Harrison, who owned the house and lived on the ground floor, opened his window yelling at David. The Bow Clansman climbed on his saucer and flew off in the opposite direction from David. David wondered if Brad had seen the pale-skinned man, but he doubted it. Brad didn’t even look in the direction of the Bow Clansman.

  David ignored Brad’s yells and backed out of the driveway. He turned onto Center Street and headed for the highway. Someone was bound to call the police. What would Sheriff Harding think when he saw David’s messed up bedroom? Would he think David had been attacked or would he continue thinking the worst of him?

  David pulled onto the highway heading south towards Blanding, but where was he going? Should he drive to Provo? He didn’t want to risk putting his parents in danger. Besides, that was the first place Sheriff Harding would look for him.

  There was only one place he could go where he had felt safe. There was only one place where there was someone who understood what he was going through.

  An hour later, he passed through Blanding heading south toward Mexican Hat. He would pick up Highway 163 there and head into Arizona. He just hoped he wasn’t taking his trouble to Oraibi.

  CHAPTER 41

  David drove into Oraibi around sunrise. Already some of the one-hundred- and-fifty-odd people who still lived in the pueblos were beginning to stir. He saw a trio of men walking toward the edge of the mesa to take the trail to the fields below where they managed to make fruits and vegetables sprout from the desert. Smoke poured from a dozen different chimneys as women prepared the morning meals. A group of young children walked across the road holding full buckets of water in each hand. Sarah had told David that water had to be drawn from a spring that was a mile away.

  David climbed out of his car and stood still as if absorbing the atmosphere of the town. Why did he feel so safe here? The fact that the Bow Clan couldn’t seem to find him here was only a part of the reason. The other part had to be because these people knew of the secrets beneath the earth. They could return to him what he could not remember.

  David felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around. “I wasn’t sure you would return here, David,” Ethan said.

  “I finished my business in Blanding.”

  “Ah, the funeral.” David was surprised word had gotten around as to why he had left, but then again Oraibi was a small town. “Sarah will be happy to see you back. With Adam gone, she has been alone too much. She needs a man.”

  David shook his head. “It’s hard to imagine Sarah needing anyone. She seems too independent.”

  “She has a strong will and a smart mind, but that doesn’t mean she can’t love. Her soul seeks its mate just as anyone else’s. I thought at one time I might be that mate, but she rejected me. Kindly, of course, but she still rejected me. I think now she may have found that mate, but perhaps, neither of them knows it.”

  David touched his hand to his chest. “Me?”

  Ethan smiled. “You could do much worse, but I doubt you could do better. I love her, David. I may always love her or my soul may find its own mate someday. Either way, I wish to see her happy. If not with me, then with the one she has chosen. If I’m right, and it is you, I congratulate you. Come by my rooms tonight and we’ll drink to your happiness and to mine.”

  “I’d love to, Ethan, but I don’t drink. I’m Mormon,” David said.

  Ethan laughed. It was a deep belly laugh that reminded David of someone playing Santa Claus.

  “We’ll drink pop. I have Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Sprite.” He patted his trim stomach. “It is better for the body. But alcohol? I would never drink it. My father drove his truck off the mesa and killed himself while he was drunk. I treasure my life more than that.”

  “Then I would be happy to come by,” David said.

  Ethan slapped David on the shoulder. “Good. I will see you tonight. I have to go into Winslow now.”

  “You don’t work in the fields?” David said.

  Ethan shook his head. “I make jewelry. I can’t sell it in the fields. I sell some at the Cultural Center. The rest I sell in nearby cities. Each person works at what he is best at.”

  Ethan started to walk off. He waved goodbye to David. “Tonight then after the meal time.”

  David returned the wave. When Ethan had gone, David walked over to the pueblo where Sarah lived. He knocked on the door to Sarah’s rooms.

  “Come in,” he heard Sarah say from inside.

  He opened to the door. Sarah was kneeling in front of the fireplace prodding the logs to encourage the flame to grow. She looked over her shoulder and saw David.

  She jumped to her feet and ran over and hugged David. “David! I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

  “Something happened to me in Monticello.”

  Sarah let go of him and stepped back. “What?”

  David thought she looked tired. Then he remembered she had been up all night watching her grandfather’s body.

  “The Bow Clansman attacked me. I got away, but he made a mess of my apartment.” David sighed. “Sheriff Harding already thinks I killed Terrie, and now this. I don’t think I’m going to be very welcome in town when I go back.”

  Sarah gasped. “How did it happen?”

  “He crashed through my bedroom window on that flying-saucer thing of his. I managed to get away, but trying to figure out what happened won’t make the sheriff happy.”

  Sarah sat down on the ground next to the fire. “Will you try to outrun the Bow Clan for the rest of your life?”

  David wondered if that was possible. They would eventually track him down if they wanted to bad enough. He had no doubt of that. “Is it possible?” he asked.

  Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t really believe in the old legends until those men attacked our camp and killed my grandfather.”

  “Is there anyone else in town who may know about the Bow Clan?”

  “Everyone knows something. Perhaps Peter would know the most. He’s a medicine man, but much of my grandfather’s knowledge came from his visions he received in the kiva. They may have told him a different story than the legends.”

  Adam had seemed to place a lot of faith in his visions. Maybe that was the place for David to start looking for answers.

  “Can I go to this kiva that Adam went to? Since I seem to be psychic, maybe I can receive a vision there that will tell me more about the Bow Clan and what to do.”

  Sarah shook her head. “This is a special kiva. Only the elders ever go there. No women or whites are allowed inside.”

  David sat down next to Sarah. “But this is important.”

  “I agree, but I can’t change the rules of the village.”

  “Then who can?”

  “Peter could, but you would have to convince him that there is no other way to learn what you need to know.”

  “Can you take me to meet him?”

  Sarah nodded.

  Sarah knocked on the door to Peter Kwa´ni’s rooms. A man, David assumed it was Peter, opened the door. He was a short, heavyset man. If he had been white, David might have thought he was a snowman. He wore a fancily embroidered vest over a white shirt. His pepper-gray hair was held back with a blue bandeau. The man’s eyes focused on Sarah and then quickly darted to David. David thought he saw the man barely nod his head. David smiled.

  Peter stepped back from the doorway. “Come in. It’s not often my wife and I have guests. Have you eaten?”

  “Yes,” Sarah said a bit too quickly.

  Peter cocked his head slightly to the side. “I see this is not a social visit then. Is someone sick?”

  Sarah shook her head. “No one is sick, Peter. We’ve come to speak with you.”

  Peter motioned to the chairs in the room. “Sit, and we will talk.”

  Peter waited until Sarah and David had sat down before he took his own seat.

  “This is David Purcell,” Sarah said. Peter’s f
ace showed no signs of recognition. “He is a man who was lost in a cave in Utah for five weeks. He was recently found, but he has no memory of the time he was lost.”

  “You believe this man is the man Adam saw in his visions?” Peter asked as he stared at David.

  “No, he is the man. My grandfather said so himself. My grandfather’s visions were correct, Peter. He wasn’t crazy,” Sarah said.

  Peter sighed. “I wish I could believe that, but Kuskurza has long been a dead world, and with it the Bow Clan and the dark kachinas.”

  Sarah leaned forward in her chair. “But they aren’t dead. I have seen them myself. The Bow Clan wants to kill David, and they are just as my grandfather described them.” Peter still looked skeptical. “And they are flying on pa´tuwvotas.”

  Peter was silent for a long time. He rubbed his hands together in his lap. When he finally spoke, he said, “This is serious.” Peter looked at David. “Adam feared for your life. He thought you would know how to keep the dark kachinas and the Bow Clan in Kuskurza. The fact that they have tried to kill you supports this.” He looked at Sarah. “And Adam? Was he killed by the Bow Clan?”

  Sarah nodded. “David knows he needs to remember what happened to him in the cave. With your permission, he would like to go into the sacred kiva to see if he will receive the same visions my grandfather received there.”

  Peter’s face showed his surprise at the request. “But no white man has ever been there. If too many people were to know its secrets, we would be in great danger.”

  David decided to break his silence to speak on his own behalf. “I can understand how you feel, sir. My people also have sacred temples where only a select few are allowed to go. I won’t make you believe that going into the kiva is the only way I’ll remember. I may remember in the next hour what I have forgotten, or I may never recall it. But I’m afraid that the Bow Clan will find me before I can remember. The Bow Clan has already killed three people trying to find me. I can’t fight what I don’t know. If I do know something that will stop them, then what happens if I die before I remember?”

  CHAPTER 42

  David looked up from the dark hole at Peter. The middle-aged Indian motioned for him to descend. David climbed onto the ladder and slowly started down. It looked dark inside the kiva, and it reminded him too much of descending into the cave.

  Sarah moved toward the ladder, but Peter held out his hand to stop her.

  “Only David. This is still a sacred kiva. I cannot violate all our traditions,” Peter said.

  Sarah nodded and stepped back.

  “Be careful,” she told David.

  David smiled and continued down until he reached the bottom. The kiva was dark, but not nearly as dark as the cave. Not only was there was still light coming from the opening, there was a small fire burning. Peter stepped off the ladder and stood beside David.

  “You are the first white man to be inside this kiva. We don’t place such strong restrictions on other kivas, but this one is a special place,” Peter explained.

  “How so?” David asked.

  Peter took hold of David’s elbow and led him across the room past the fire. He stopped in front of what looked to David to be a hole plugged by a large rock or it might have simply been a rock partially exposed by digging.

  “This is why we hold this kiva so sacred. Other kivas have ceremonial sipapus, but it is said this is the true sipapu. Through this hole, our ancestors emerged into the Fourth World. It is not a shallow hole as a ceremonial sipapu would be. Beneath this stone is the path to Kuskurza.”

  “Why is it plugged up?”

  “Long ago, my people lived in fear that the dark kachinas might return and destroy their new world as they had caused the destruction of Kuskurza. Because of this, the old Hopis sealed the sipapu so the dark kachinas could not escape. This kiva was built as a watchtower. From here, the Sun Clan can watch the sipapu in privacy. The kiva is kept especially sacred to keep out the curious. Only elders who know and respect the legends are allowed entrance here.

  “Our population was long ago decimated by smallpox and then the white man’s technology. The first took many of our people away physically. The second took them away spiritually. Very few now remain to tend this kiva and make sure the sipapu remains closed.”

  “Was Adam one of those who watched the sipapu?” David asked.

  Peter nodded. “Once he began to receive his visions, he feared what was beneath this stone. He would always put his foot on the stone to make sure it was still solidly embedded in the earth whenever he entered the kiva.” Peter paused. “Sit on the bench and we will meditate and see if Taiowa will favor you with a vision.”

  David sat on the wooden bench and leaned back against the cool stone wall. Peter sat down next to him and did the same.

  “Close your eyes,” Peter told him. “Do not try to focus your thoughts on any one thing. Taiowa will show you what he will show you.”

  David closed his eyes and concentrated on relaxing his body. The heat from the fire lulled him into semi-consciousness. The top of his head itched, but he did not scratch it. At first, he saw hazy images in his mind. After a few minutes, the images focused and he saw a world within a cave. It was nothing more than a large chamber. Along the edges of the chamber, he saw numerous pueblos. However, it was the pyramids in the center that captured his attention. There were five of them. One large one in the center, and a smaller one on each side.

  The focus tightened on a group of people working in one of the many fields nearby the pyramids. David saw himself standing in the middle of one of the fields. He was dirty and his suit was in tatters. He was holding some sort of weapon that looked like a metal rod with a large bulb on one end. A Sun Clansman stood on either side of him. He could see two other pale-skinned men. Both of them were dead. One was dressed in the black-and-red tunic of the Bow Clan. The other dead man was a Sun Clansman. He had a gaping black hole in his chest just like the man David had seen in the cave when he was younger.

  David watched himself lower the muzzle of the weapon as he stared at the empty spot between one of the pale man’s legs. The first Sun Clansman lowered his tunic, which seemed to break the trance David was in.

  “You are just like Masani,” David said motioning to the dead Sun Clansman. Masani was the Sun Clansman who had found him in the cave after he had fallen. He had healed David with Kuskurzan medicine and brought him back to the Third World only to be killed himself by a Bow Clansman. Seeing the murder of his savior, David had managed to kill the Bow Clansman.

  Nearly all the slave men are like this, the stranger said in David’s mind. He waved his hand. Come we must leave now. The Bow Clan will come.

  With the weapon, David motioned the man to start walking. “You lead. I’ll follow. If this is a trap, you’ll be the first to die.”

  Do not speak with your mouth. We do not understand your words. Think what you want to say. We can understand that. The pale man turned away and started walking.

  David looked at the second man and thought, I want both of you in front of me.

  I will not be commanded by an Outlander, the man told David.

  He took a step toward David. David held his ground in front of the stranger. He held his arm straight out and pointed the metal rod at the stranger. The man did not stop, but continued forward. He lunged forward and yanked the weapon from David’s hands. The stranger flipped the rod over and placed it in David’s hands so that the bulbous end was closer to David’s body. The narrow end of the rod was pointed at the stranger.

  If you are going to threaten me with a langher, then make sure you know how to use it, or you will kill yourself. David blushed but tried not to let his thoughts betray his humiliation. To use it, you must twist the heavy end, and flip the switch.

  David looked at the weapon, then at the pale-skinned man. He was tempted to fire the weapon at the stranger, but he wondered if that was what the stranger was hoping he would do. What he wouldn’t have given for one of the M
-16s he used during his training exercises in the Army Reserves at that moment. He tried to remember how the Bow Clansman had held the weapon when he killed Masani, but he couldn’t. David’s attention had been focused on the spear he had thrown at Masani’s killer.

  Come now, or we will leave you here to die, the stranger said. Then he turned and began walking toward the edge of the huge chamber.

  The stranger ran until he had caught up with the first man who had not stopped walking even when David threatened the second pale man. The two men mumbled to each other and laughed. David knew they were laughing at him and he felt foolish.

  He ran to catch up with the two strangers.

  I am David, he said when he stopped running. Masani found me in the caves. He rescued me from the Bow Clan and helped heal my legs. He wanted to take me to meet someone named Ma´saw.

  The second man spoke without turning to face David. We know who you are. Masani sent us his thoughts as soon as he entered Kuskurza. We were coming to meet you, but we were too late to stop the Bow Clansman. I am Polanque. The other is Scinaro.

  They walked without pause to the edge of the huge chamber. David guessed that it would have taken a morning to walk the same distance on the surface. The Sun Clansmen didn’t seem to tire. David did and his legs ached. Apparently, they still weren’t totally healed from his fall, but he didn’t allow the pale men the satisfaction of seeing him show any weakness.

  Nestled in among the small alcoves in the walls were huge pueblos much like those the Anasazi had abandoned in the mountain caves many centuries ago. David wondered if these people were related to the Anasazi.

  At the pueblo they were walking toward, four ladders led up to the first level of rooms. However, instead of climbing the ladder to enter the pueblo, they walked around to the side and into a small canyon with high walls. David silently followed.

  A short distance into the canyon, it ended. David looked around wondering what would happen now. His hand tightened around the langher in case he had been led into a trap.