Tell Me I'm Dreamin'

by Eboni Snoe

  Nadine watched the women holding the robe in readiness as the third assisted her in rising from the pallet. They all helped her place the splendid garment about her slender frame. White sandals were produced for her and Nadine was silently beckoned to follow their lead.

  She knew her evaluation of her surroundings had been correct; she was in a cave, and was being led through a maze of well-lit tunnels branching out from the cavern.

  The walls were covered by the hieroglyphics Nadine had seen on the papyri and on the onionskin document that uncannily presented itself in the office on Barbados. These were the same symbols that she had seen in the vision.

  The women approached an opening to what Nadine assumed was another cavern. It was covered by the same fabric the cliff dwellers seemed to favor, a heavy linen. One of the women slipped inside.

  Nadine thought she could hear her heart pounding as she stood outside the opening. The walk through the tunnels had allowed her time to gather her thoughts, and fear grew deep within her. She had no idea what would happen next. She tried to remember some of the passages from the translation. They had mentioned a man involved with the debt she had to pay. She had assumed it meant going to Basil and saving Ulysses and Sovereign from his greedy intentions. But that was not possible now. Basil was dead.

  No matter how she tried she could not imagine what lay ahead. So far the cliff dwellers had treated her with extreme kindness, but what would they expect from her now?

  Nadine could hear loud voices coming from inside the cave. They sounded vaguely familiar although she could not understand what was being said. Then the woman who had left returned, and ushered Nadine and her attendants inside. To her astonishment, Melanie’s angry voice was the first thing she heard.

  “This man is the one who lies,” she spat back at Ulysses, pointing an aggravated finger in his direction, her voice rising in pitch with each word.

  Seeing Ulysses, Melanie, and Rodney gave Nadine a jolt back to reality. Melanie’s anger stunned her. This woman was nothing like the Melanie she had come to know.

  Ulysses, his eyes narrowing with speculation, was even more stunned by Melanie’s malicious outbreak. He watched her as she pointed a threatening finger while Rodney knelt obediently beside her. Ulysses had not known what to expect when he decided to follow Nadine to the cliff dwellers’ settlement.

  In light of all that he had seen, and what his aunt had told him, Ulysses still remained somewhat skeptical that his aunt was speaking the truth. He had to admit his main concern had been for Nadine’s safety, although he knew the cliff dwellers better than anyone else on the island, and knew they were a peace-loving people. There was one thing about them that Ulysses knew very little. The cliff dwellers’ spiritual rituals. That was one aspect of their lives they had not shared with him. It was taboo to speak of the rituals with outsiders.

  Ulysses tore his eyes away from Melanie to focus on Nadine. She was frightened. He could see that. But Ulysses wondered if her fear came from being brought to the cliff dwellers’ caves, or had it been magnified as a result of seeing Basil dead? Ulysses’ jealousy gripped him. Was Nadine heart-broken over the murder of her would-be lover? He considered the possibility that the killing had occurred before her very eyes. Yet Nadine still appeared devastatingly beautiful to him, even now when he knew she had betrayed him.

  The soft material of the cliff dwellers’ ritual robe clung to her. The slender fringes at the bottom of the robe began high on her toned thighs and fell softly about her sandaled feet. Evenly spaced slashes had been made at the top of the garment above each breast, allowing tempting strips of her cinnamon-brown skin to show through. The remaining strands were decorated with sparkling, colorful gemstones. Ulysses could feel his blood coursing hotly through his veins and he knew he wanted her, regardless of her intended infidelity.

  Frightened brownish-jade eyes focused on Ulysses’ stony features, and her full lips formed to call his name. No sound came forth as she took in the loathing in their depths. In a matter of seconds Nadine’s sudden rush of hope, that Ulysses had come after her out of love, plunged in the dark recesses of his eyes.

  They were pitch-black and hard as obsidian stones. With the weight of her circumstances pressing on her, Nadine was numbed by this last blow, and her body reflected her resignation.

  Now all eyes’ like Ulysses’ were upon Nadine, and her own gaze traveled to the three figures seated near a large, blazing fire. She watched as the female rose to her feet, walked over to her, and offered her hand. Taking it like a child in need of guidance, Nadine allowed herself to be led to a place near the elders.

  She recognized Ulysses’ bronze case sitting beside a wooden container. The head cliff dweller opened both lids and examined what appeared to be identical pieces inside each one, except Ulysses’ case did not contain a jade slab.

  Nadine watched as the oldest cliff dweller looked at Melanie, Rodney, and then Ulysses. There was no anger or even surprise on his lined features; to the contrary, he embraced them all with an understanding gaze.

  Slowly, he rose from his seat and approached the three of them. He extended his knurled fingers and placed his leathery palm upon each one of their unsuspecting heads. As if on cue several cliff dwellers who were seated silently along the walls began to play a slow melodious tune on reed instruments, while others lit braided sticks of unusual twine, creating a light, sweet cloud of smoke within the cavern walls.

  The melodious, soothing, high-pitched notes vibrated in the night air like a ghostly reminder of things of which only the cliff dwellers knew the true meaning. One by one sparks of light ushered forth from several lines of participants holding objects like lighted candles, their flames appearing to sway to the melody of the soul-searching tune.

  It was apparent to Nadine that even though she, Ulysses, Melanie, and Rodney had not known the evening would end with all four of them gathered together like this, somehow the cliff dwellers had known.

  Without saying a word the elderly man held out his hand to her, calling her forth. What else was there to do but to consent to his request, and Nadine found herself seated by Ulysses’ side. Strange words began to pour from the cliff dweller’s withered lips. They had a rhythmic sound, a calming sound. Soon he was joined in his chanting by the woman and the man seated upon the stand, and then their voices were joined by many others.

  The cavern was filled with cliff dwellers, and those who could not fit inside chanted outside under the stars, their voices joining together, low and raspy, but beautiful all the same. In a strange way the cliff dwellers’ unity made mockery of the outsiders’ anger and distrust.

  Melanie was stunned into silence by the transforming vibrations of the music, the trance-inducing smoke, and the cliff dwellers’ chant, but the guilt upon Rodney’s face told the entire story.

  As if by secret command, five young girls carrying tiny mounts fashioned from the cliff dwellers’ stone came forward and stood in a semicircle beside the high elder. The four outsiders watched as the head female took the jade slab from the wooden case and placed it within Ulysses’ bronze one. Afterwards she brought the bronze case which now held the original Five Pieces of Gaia forward, and stood among the other females.

  The high elder’s lips turned up in an almost imperceptible smile as he looked over the contents of the ancient bronze case, and his wise gaze rose and held the supportive gaze of the eldest female.

  Slowly, she extended the case forward, and with reverence he removed his headband, laying it inside the open lid. One of the female cliff dwellers who attended Nadine stepped forward and gave the papyri Nadine had placed inside her pocket to the elder. He held the papyri in one hand as he slid apart the carved bronze sheets inside the lid, revealing the secret compartments. Then, with reverence, he unrolled the pages and placed them inside the lid, before concealing them behind the shield. Next, one by one the elder removed the gold coins, with their images of the cliff dwellers’ symbol, from the headband, and placed them inside the
carved medallions on each of the slabs. When the elder turned the coins they acted like ancient keys, opening the stones. This allowed the female cliff dweller to remove the manuscript. Afterwards the slabs were closed and put on the mounts held by the five young attendants. Once the last stone was mounted, the onlooking cliff dwellers brought their soul-satisfying melody to an end.

  Chapter 29

  The high elder looked out into the throngs of his fellow cliff dwellers and began to speak. First he motioned toward Ulysses and Nadine, then Melanie and Rodney as he talked in his native tongue. Ulysses was the only one of the four who understood his message, and despite his obvious indignation toward her, in a voice that sounded far off even to her own ears, Nadine could not resist asking what the cliff dweller was saying. Ulysses responded as if he were in a semi-trance, translating the ceremonial words.

  “The Rite of Commencement could not take place without bringing together the symbols of good and evil.” His rich voice reached out to her through a pleasant mental haze. “Both were part of the original cause. Evil, the dark, had to be born to prove the power of the light, for all comes from God/Goddess/All That Is. Everything from the tiniest stone, to every human being, to Gaia herself, is an expression of the trilogy. The uniting has begun and in the end darkness will be no more.”

  Melanie could only hear the low hum of Ulysses’ voice, and although the trance-inducing smoke was taking hold, she visibly blanched as she stared at the five original pieces in their sacred holders. Her mind resisted understanding that all along the cliff dwellers had known who the true owner of the manuscript and the Five Pieces of Gaia was. She had underestimated these people who appeared to be uneducated and uncivilized. How could she accept that all the years she and her mother had spent dreaming of owning the cliff dwellers’ jewels had come to naught?

  Melanie had come to the cliffs believing she could outwit these primitive people, but in reality they had not only outsmarted her, but had prophesied her coming to their settlement as well.

  She thought of how her life might have been different had she not become obsessed with possessing the jewels, and she thought of all the hideous things she had done to obtain them. The jewels had been her sole motivation in life since her mother first shared the secret with her. A secret Evelyn felt would free her daughter, but had actually chained her to a life of evil intent, and had contributed to creating the twisted person she had become.

  Melanie thought of the years she had seduced her youngest brother, inviting him to know her in ways that were indecent, obscene. How she had felt triumphant and powerful at the confusion in his dark eyes. Eyes that longed for motherly love. Their mother’s love. Eyes that had witnessed the death of their brother. A death that she had wanted. Planned.

  On the verge of hysteria Melanie rose up, crying and laughing melodiously. The sound rang within the quiet cavern as her glazed eyes scoured her brother then Ulysses and Nadine. With Melanie’s rise the cliff dwellers’ music began again, this time a combination of rich, even tones, flowing from instruments created from seashells.

  The music seemed to coerce Melanie further into her madness, and she began to spin and turn in a maniacal primitive manner, working her way toward the platform and the ritual fire. To Nadine it was like watching a strange ballet, Melanie’s display of animated madness accompanied by the cliff dwellers’ song.

  Melanie danced about the ring of fire, her wild, flailing arms graceful in their insanity as she swayed perilously close to the edge. In the beginning the wailing was almost indiscernible it mounted so slowly. First, like a distant calling, the high feminine voices of the cliff dwellers were hypnotic as they accompanied the concluding notes of the ritualistic music. Their peaking notes foretold the end was near.

  By now the trance-inducing smoke was in full command, and as if in a waking dream, Nadine, Ulysses, Rodney, and the cliff dwellers watched Melanie take a final leap into the ring of fire. There were no cries of anguish or terror from her or the hypnotized onlookers, only the vibration of a shrill final note struck on the quivering strings of an instrument resembling a lyre.

  Unmoved by the scene before her, Nadine continued to stare at the ceremonial fire that had become Melanie’s funeral pyre. Words which seemed like her own filled her mind. The dark will be enticed by the light, seduced by the Five Pieces of Gaia and named similar to a melody. Melanie.

  Somewhere behind her she heard the sound of grating stone. The bizarre incident was over, and was accepted by all as the rightful end to Melanie’s horrid, tragic life.

  By command Nadine and Ulysses rose and followed the head cliff dwellers through a newly revealed opening to an adjoining cavern. Several males and females followed before the stone door was closed behind them. Rodney remained in the outer cavern in blissful silence.

  A rainbow of colors met Nadine and Ulysses as they entered the space on the other side of the stone. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Small fires had been lit and placed strategically throughout a grotto. The flames were enclosed in mounted rings of quartz crystals, amethyst, rose quartz, jade, and tiger’s-eye; therefore each fire was encapsulated by a tiny wall of white, purple, pink, green, and brownish-gold. The marvels created colorful, natural spotlights.

  A profusion of long streamers made of blossoms and green leaves hung throughout the grotto, decorating uneven walls of cliffs and crannies. It was a natural fantasyland with several small waterfalls tumbling into a sapphire-blue lake. A boat fashioned like a scallop shell floated silently upon it. The masthead on the tiny bow was an exquisite young girl, delicately holding a butterfly in her hands.

  Two males led Ulysses to a cliff where he was undressed and bathed under a trickling waterfall that fell into the crystal lake. His dark-brown skin gleamed from the water’s touch as he stood beneath its gently massaging fingers. The shower plastered his black curls to his head. Ulysses’ face turned up toward the source of the water, and his thick lashes imprisoned the luminescent beads like a silken spiderweb.

  The sound of the gently rushing waterfalls pressed upon Nadine’s consciousness as the ceremonial white robe she wore was removed from her slender shoulders. Coaxed, she was led to the tiny boat trimmed in peonies and orchids. Nadine sat obediently as the tiny craft was steered through the clear water toward the platform where Ulysses waited.

  Despite the silent cliff dwellers who watched at a distance, and those who assisted them, when Ulysses and Nadine looked at one another they could have been the only two human beings on earth, existing in a phenomenal haven so far removed from the reality they had always known. Their actions reflected their feelings as he guided her behind the translucent shield of the waterfall, where a soft covering of pummeled reeds awaited them. Like Melanie, they too had a predestined role to play. Their union would mark the beginning of a new way of living for the cliff dwellers on Eros that would reverberate throughout the indigenous peoples of Gaia, Mother Earth.

  It was all part of the prophecy. Melanie, the dark, whose hidden passions had distorted her view of life, allowing greed to be her master, had been consumed by the fiery blazing light. Ulysses, the dark, who had never let the light of love shine fully upon him, would soon be physically consumed by the fiery passion and pure love of Nadine, the present reflection of the light one.

  Closing his eyes, Ulysses sat cross-legged upon the reeds and waited for the warm feel of Nadine’s nude body to descend upon him. She wrapped her supple lower limbs around the base of his back, then they held each other tight, their bodies flush.

  Initially, they sat very still, inhaling the mellow aroma of the smoking braided twine that burned in nearby crevices, their only conscious thought being the smoothness of the other’s body, and the sound of the other’s breath.

  But soon their breathing turned deep and synchronized, and their bodies resembled one flowing instrument as nature took its course. Small moans escaped Nadine’s lips as Ulysses’ hands began to explore the velvety softness of her back. His fingers strummed up and down h
er spine as if they were playing an instrument.

  Nadine’s hands also began to explore, and she combed through the ebony curls that nestled at the base of Ulysses’ strong neck. They felt slick and cool to her touch, and the need to get even closer to him overwhelmed her as she nestled her face in the space between his neck and shoulder.

  Tiny whimpering noises like those of a young animal in need of love and affection formed deep in Nadine’s throat. The sounds were answered by Ulysses’ mating call, a throaty guttural noise, and the couple nuzzled each other in an affectionate primitive display.

  At first their kisses were meager samples of the other’s lips. Tiny, testing strokes of their tongues. Soon they evolved to slower, more languid explorations, their lips welding together as the passion mounted between them, until the kisses were deep and draining. The potency of the kisses plunged Ulysses and Nadine into a drunken state of unparalleled eroticism.

  The cliff dwellers who had been watching from a distance, all except the head female, left through the stone entrance. With decorum she turned her back, and began to read from the manuscript hidden within the original Five Pieces of Gaia.

  Ulysses and Nadine were oblivious to the goings-on around them. Somehow they had been transported to a place and time where love and sex were the epitome of communication and giving between a woman and a man. The movements and murmurings were sacred.

  Free of the societal guilts that are present to lovers, Nadine gave of herself to Ulysses, pressing her small rounded breasts against his eager lips, urging him on with strange utterances that he reciprocated as he traced each bud with a feverish tongue.

  With escalating intensity she gave back the loving attention, each one wanting to give the other the ultimate pleasure. Their bodies positioned themselves to ensure their desires were carried out, and they focused on the most sensuous spots of their being, until neither could take any more. The ache for their physical union had become a burning force.