“His wife had to go pick up their daughter from county jail. That girl is nothing but trouble for him. The sheriff said that next time, the girl will get two months minimum. He was pretty upset and sent his wife to go get her because he knew he would make a scene if he went.”
“So what did you do about it?”
“Well, Jared wants her to behave, you know he’s wanting her to enroll in junior college. We consulted his ancestors and with their blessing I placed a hex on her group of friends. I don’t think they will be wanting to spend another night with her because she is a lying, thieving maggot. She didn’t need them anyway, they were holding her back. With them gone, she will fall into school because it will be the only way to ditch mom and dad. Remember Todd, it is a whole lot easier to make someone look bad rather than make ‘em a saint.” She lit her pipe.
“Is that how he paid?” Todd indicated with his eyes to the hickey. Annette puffed on her pipe, smiled and looked at the smoke in the air “He brought some ground deer meat and his litter of kittens that were ready to leave their momma. Enough of that. Why are you here Todd?”
Todd told her about the dream.
Like the night Annette was quiet, he shared her pipe and waited, just comforted to be in her kitchen. Annette looked exhausted, from the stress of losing Kalara to endlessly serving the tribe with her special medicine, it had been a long day.
Annette got up and fixed him a stiff White Russian that she warmed in the microwave. She handed it to him “Go to sleep Todd, I’m tired, we’ll consult your ancestors in the morning.” She went on to bed, Todd found his old bed and he fell fast asleep. The mere fact that Annette was never in a hurry made him feel better.
The following morning Todd closed the door to the sweat lodge and prepared the ceremony as fire keeper. As the steam built up they shared the Ancestors Pipe, he let his mind go and hovered near the ceiling. Annette chanted and then meditated, listening to all that Todd’s ancestors had to say. The ancestors knew of his vision quest and they knew the path that his spirit guide had set before him. Annette began to speak to Todd. She told him of a great task that would soon fall on him. He needed to be ready, it would be an enjoyable task for him, but tiring – he needed strength and endurance. Although the ancestors were silent on exactly what the task was, they did say that he would know what to do when the task presented itself. As he was now, he couldn’t handle the great quest that the bull was asking of him. She opened her glassy eyes and took her stepson’s hands in hers, then Annette told him what the ancestors needed him to do to prepare himself.
After the ceremony, Annette and Todd went out to the chicken coop. The chickens’ long wing feathers were already growing back from the last clipping, soon they’d have to be clipped again to keep them from flying away. But for now, the chickens were easy to handle. Annette took the meanest of her three roosters, placed him under a five-gallon bucket with his head sticking out, she sat on it to kill him fast and clean. After the thumping stopped Annette plucked the bird and saved the meat for a stew. All the innards would go to the compost, but she took the rooster’s gonads and handed them to Todd.
He knew what the ancestors had instructed, he asked her “Can I have a drink with them?”
“We don’t question the ancestors.” Annette chuckled. “It’s your vision quest, your dream. I know if it were me I’d strictly obey to get the purest blessing. I wouldn’t water down the gift for fear that it would make it less powerful. And I would hurry, the ancestors did say fresh with no rot.”
It was a hard thing to do, with each passing minute, the bloody pieces were drying and flies were hovering – Todd kept shooing them away. He’d take a breath, get ready...and then exhale with a small chuckle and huff of doubt.
Annette could see the hardship on his face, she said “On the count of three. Ready?”
Todd held them in his palm, they were slightly cold to the touch but warm inside still and the fringes of the blood puddle were drying in the creases of his fingers. He locked eyes with his step-mom.
“One, two..... three.”
He poured them into his mouth, not chewing, just letting them slide down his throat as the spirits said fighting the gag reflex. He swallowed and grimaced in disgust. It was over, he did it.
Suddenly an unexpected, quick, sharp pain cut across the back of his tongue, he grabbed at his neck, it felt like there was a knife in there cutting his throat from the inside out. The pain made him want to scream out but he didn’t want to disappoint Annette who seemed oblivious to what was happening to him. If he screamed out now he would surely be sick and he must keep them down, no matter what. He didn’t know what was happening to him but it hurt like hell. His body wanted to gag so bad he was sweating and breathing heavy. He was panting strongly and started to bend over but Annette went to him and held him tight, trying to keep him from gagging.
As quickly as the pain came on, it went away. Annette seemed to sense it also, perhaps she felt his tensed shoulders relax a little, she patted his back softly, “Hold it down Todd. Hold it down. Don’t throw up, not yet. Wait, it’ll heal.” He could hardly breathe, his stomach was twisting and his eyes were tearing up. A warm feeling came over his tongue and throat, it was the warmth of healing. He couldn’t hold it any longer, he was trying, but they were coming back up, he started to heave. He had failed her and the spirits because he wasn’t strong enough to keep them down. His muscles lurched, it was coming up, the bloody balls of meat rose to the back of his tongue and he emptied his stomach. His eyes caught the contents on the ground. Amidst his partially digested breakfast, the balls were slightly bigger and they looked different than before. “That is not what I swallowed! What are those?” he gasped.
Annette grimaced as she took a stick and poked at them. “Your tonsils. You didn’t need them anyway, toss ‘em in the bucket.” She smiled, happy with the transplant.
“But there was nothing wrong with them!” Todd protested.
“Wouldn’t you rather please your ancestors and the Great Spirit? You’ll do better with those than with useless tonsils.”
“I thought I was supposed to eat them!”
“Now that would be a waste. Consider them a gift from Mother Earth you did good. Now let’s go rinse your mouth and get you some steak to eat. You’ll need to keep your protein up so you can make plenty of muscle, you need to be healthy and strong – like the bull.”
Todd was insulted “I didn’t think I needed help down there.”
“Don’t be so touchy, there was nothing wrong with you, but now you’ll be even better. The tonsils are plumbed directly to the blood so you’ll feel the new boost of hormones from their replacements almost immediately. Let me look.....” Todd opened his mouth wide and Annette peered in. “They look like they belong there, no one will notice anything different.”
Todd made a sour face, afraid that everyone was going to know that he had done the most disgusting thing ever.
“Oh, come on already, was it that bad?” Annette guffawed. “Besides, until we find Kalara and discover who that man was, I’m going to need a guardian while I sleep and I’ll be turning in early from now on. Don’t you want to be big and strong as possible to protect you mother?”
From her words Todd knew his step-mom was done talking about it, to her it was no big deal and she went inside to go make some lunch.
Annette pushed her plate away and lit her pipe. “I’ve got to go find Kalara, you’ll take my place while I’m gone won’t you?” she said between puffs.
“Why? Why do you have to? She was nothing but trouble and we owe her nothing.”
“I wasn’t done with her.”
“You could have fooled me” Todd remarked “- you hardly even thought about her after Jenniffer took her to Tulsa.”
“You don’t know how often I thought about her.” Annette scolded him with a gravelly voice. “Kalara was special, it wasn’t just her eyes, she was powerful and I want to know why.”
“OK,” Todd had hear
d her say that about Kalara before. “I’m sorry” he muttered.
Annette wasn’t finished with her thought, as if even now she was mulling things over in her head, trying to work it out. “I’ve never understood why my medicine could not recover her memories. You know how powerful I am – the whole tribe does. Yet Kalara eludes me. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Todd waited quietly while Annette did more thinking.
She pointed at him with her pipe to stress her point, “There are answers in her head, secrets. That is why I’ve got to find her. I want them. We just need to figure out how to clear her mind and get them out of her. Now she is gone thanks to that twit of a sister you have.”
Todd shook his head “I guess I don’t understand why you were never very forceful with Kalara. You could have been, I’ve seen you do it and you had plenty of chances.”
Annette absolutely did not want to discuss that matter with Todd and she had to move him away from it. “Perhaps I will when I get her back. Which reminds me, do you have everything you need while I’m away? How much healing salve is left?”
“I made some more last week.”
“And you remember the chant I sing to use it?”
“Yes Mom, I learned well.”
“Well then,” she stood up and began clearing the dishes “Do you remember how to properly thank the spirits and anoint the prayer stone?”
“Yes.”
She paused to smile at him, “Of course you do. Look at you, how far you’ve come. I think you are ready to lead the prayers of our people.” Turning back to the dishes she added, “Now you go and prepare the prayer stone, I’ll need the blessings of our ancestors if I’m to find Kalara.”
Annette opened the ceremony with her turtle shell rattle, making a hypnotic beat. Then she added her voice to sing a short chant. The song ended but the rattling continued on until it too finally died away into a time of meditation.
Todd may have been near her standing guard outside the circle but Annette was alone with her thoughts. She raised her face to the sky and beckoned, “Ancestors, Great Spirit, be honored this day.”
The air grew thick with heavy smoke signaling the spirits had come. Annette loved that smell. She touched her forehead to the ground and communed with them “I am going on a great journey to find Kalara. I ask your blessings to protect me on the way. Guide me to her.”
The loving voice of Mother Earth filled her ears and mind “You have been given all the power of the Earth. Your thoughts are amplified to higher planes, your will has been given action, and yet you seek the power of a woman that doesn’t exist anymore?”
“But I know it’s still there inside her, I have felt her threatening me many times with her power.”
“Feeling threatened can be a warning, a fear to be heeded rather than ignored.”
“I will find the source of her power no matter how much it frightens me and take it for myself.”
“Then do what you will, knowing that your actions may bring you suffering. But also be warned, do not bring that woman back to this place or you will certainly suffer a great deal.”
“Thank you for your warnings Great Spirit. But how can I find her now when I can no longer see her?”
“She will be where you found her before, you know this already.”
“But I only know the area, not the exact location.”
“Then look up to the cliffs, there is a black sword that cuts across the rock, begin at that point with this.” On the prayer stone appeared a small greenish-black crystal – a gift from the Spirit.
Annette picked up the boring-looking crystal, trying to see what made it important.
“After dipping it in the waterfall near there, touch it only with gloves. Pull the fern away and place the crystal in the hole only after the wall is covered with the mist of dawn and your eyes closed, working only with feeling. This key is but a beginning to a most arduous journey through rock.” The voice and smoke faded away.
Annette tucked the little shard in her bra and concluded the ceremony. She called over to Todd and handed him her turtle rattle necklace, keeping hold of his hand as she did.
Todd (who had heard only the glassy-sharp voice the whole time but not any clear words) thought this was a little strange but did not pull his hand away.
“Todd,” Annette said softly, “take this rattle, make it yours and always keep it full.”
Their gazes were locked, Todd could feel a warmth from her skin flowing into him, moving up his arm and into his heart.
His step-mom continued, “I’m not allowed to bring Kalara back here and I don’t know when I will return. But some day I will and I will have her power when I do. Until then take care of the tribe, use the power I’m giving you, Mother Earth will guide you as she has me. Always listen to the Great Spirit first, before the tribal elders, they don’t realize the power that Mother Earth has given to us. You are an extension of the Earth itself. With time you’ll understand and learn how to push your will into the world, making it work for you. That is all there is to it, make a decision for good or bad, and there it will be for all to see.”
When their hands finally parted Todd looked down to see that Annette had added burrs to the rattle that had pierced his skin and hers. They’d shared blood.
Annette went to bed early, the sun was barely touching the trees. Todd noticed she seemed eager to retire. After he cleaned the dishes from their evening meal, he unpacked his overnight bag and settled down to some TV and a beer or two.
It was a dark night, Todd got up on a commercial break to stretch his legs and water the lawn. In the corner of his eye, he saw movement going towards the backyard, he followed it but lost it by the time he got there. He decided to check the shadows for the varmint.
Todd neared the sweat lodge, it seemed to be in use which he knew it shouldn’t be, his alertness turned to anger. Who would dare trespass onto Annette’s land and go into such a sacred place? He wished he would have brought the flashlight with him. He prepared to open the door, maybe Annette was in there, he wondered how she could have made it outside without him seeing her. Not knowing who he’d find, Todd swung open the door, sweltering steam overtook him. “Annette?” he called out.
There was no answer. He could hardly see anything because of the dark night and the lodge didn’t have lights, but he could tell there was smoke. He didn’t see any flames though and there was no sound, it didn’t look like the lodge was on fire. He stepped inside and felt with his hands but no one was there. Someone had definitely been there to create the steam but they must have just left.
Todd turned around to chase down the trespassers but had to stop for a second to cough from ash and soot. He knew the Great Spirit was upon him. He was amazed and in total disbelief. He was inside a manifestation cloud of Mother Earth! He leaned with his hands against the door frame and struggled to find fresh air, he was coughing and needed to get out, even though he didn’t want to leave the spirit cloud. He wasn’t strong like Annette, he couldn’t handle the ash of Mother Earth in his throat. Tasting the ash reminded him how he was always the last in the circle to share the pipe, it never failed that when it got to him there was more ash than tobacco. Then he heard the Great Spirit speak with the sound of glass breaking, he was unable to figure out what it said because it was so highly distorted and it came from all around him and from no where at the same time, but somehow he understood Mother Earth wanted him held there, forcing him to breathe the noxious air.
As his stomach muscles flexed from the violent coughing, he felt something big appear out of the smoke around his waist, it was hard against him and it was alive. Todd couldn’t see what it was through the dark cloud, nor could he drop his hands to feel it, but before long there was no mistaking, it felt to him like the body of a giant python. He panicked, it wasn’t coiled but was just one large, scaly loop around him. He tried to release his hands from the doorway but they were stuck and he was held there, arms extended. He was afraid.
Des
pite being unable to move he remarkably found it easier to breathe as time passed. The ash cloud still enveloped him, but it no longer affected him, it was like Mother Earth was helping him handle it.
The shattered glass spoke and this time he heard it in two ways, the familiar broken shards and also a very well-defined soft voice inside his head, “Todd” it soothed like a cactus, “Why are you scared?”
“I’m not scared” he stammered. “I’m not really, I’m just not used to this.... but it’s OK” he said quickly as to not offend, “I can breathe, I’m alright.” He wanted to experience Mother Earth in her fullness.
There was silence as the Great Spirit listened.
“Are... are you really a snake?”
There was a sound that would have sounded like a laughing woman had the voice not been filled with broken glass and then it said “REDUCE MORPH”. The great python around his waist wreathed about, he felt the large girth of the snake shrink to become a slender, long body the size of a woman’s arm, it crawled over his torso, Todd held his breath.
The splintery voice asked “Is this form less troubling to you?”
“Ye...yes.” Todd managed to say.
The snake wrapped around him, clinging to him, exploring his frame. It gently traveled up his arms and down the length of his legs, paused wherever it felt warmth on its way, it roped tightly around his neck, feeling his pulse, it slithered through his hair, it’s movements were tender, slow, methodical, the working of the snake’s many muscles soothed and massaged his skin. It was almost like the snake was moving in the pattern of words, magical words of calming. Todd began to relax, it wasn’t so bad, but Annette had never mentioned snakes. The way the snake moved across his sweaty, wet skin made him feel like he was resting in a heated stream, any tension he felt washed away with every movement the snake made.
The Cursed Dragon Page 6