"But I'm working, so between us we'll do fine," Rose said.
"I know that, and you know that, but the problem will be convincing my dad."
"What about your mom?" Rose asked.
"She'll be fine because she just wants me to be happy, and she knows you make me happy."
"How does she know that?"
Tyler kissed her on the tip of the nose, and replied, "She stopped by yesterday and flipped through some drawings of you, and she told me she liked you too."
"Did she flip through all the drawings?" Rose asked, alarmed.
Tyler laughed. "No, baby. That tablet's for me alone and it's tucked away in a drawer. She saw what was on my table. Meanwhile, I want to take a shower with you so I can have some images for more drawings."
"Wait! Are you serious?" Rose asked, wondering if this could become a problem.
Tyler laughed. "Yeah, I'm serious. You can get rid of any of them though, but we'll get a lock box for the ones you don't want to tear up. They're all just thoughts on paper."
Once in the shower, as Tyler was spreading lather over Rose's body, he said, while concentrating on her breasts, "My heads so filled with clutter I feel like it could split open before I get it all down on paper." He soaped his hands again and made his way down her tummy.
"Honey," Rose said, while Tyler's hands began doing their magic, "do you draw everything that goes through your head, I mean… what you're doing now would be pretty graphic on paper… umm… oh… oh…" Her climax came so fast she didn't have time to finish her thought.
But after her breathing settled down some, Rose said, "You caught me by surprise, but now it's my turn. She soaped her hands and while she was trying her best to work some magic on Tyler, he kissed her long and deep, then said, "About the drawings… some of what happens has to stay in my head, but… oh man, what you're doing is really cluttering up my mind right now, and this isn't working." He turned off the shower, scooped Rose up in his arms, dripping wet, and carried her into the bedroom, then lowered her to the bed and finished what she'd started.
As they consummated their love yet again, Rose wished she could draw the way Tyler could because she felt so much love in her heart she needed an outlet or else she'd find herself wanting Tyler in her bed for all eternity.
After she could catch her breath again, and when they were cuddled together, Rose kissed Tyler on the jaw, and said, "When we're married, I don't want a bigger bed than this one because this is the way I want to sleep with you every night of our lives."
Tyler nuzzled the top of her head, and replied, "That works for me too. I'm a minimalist, so when I got this bed I never intended to sleep alone in it, I just hadn't found a woman I thought would want to share it with me, but I kept hoping."
"Honey, my problem won't be sharing this bed with you, it will be having to leave it and do other things, like work at the museum, and eat, and exercise Tundra, but then we'll have from sundown to sunup to shower and make love and shower and sleep and wake up and make love and fill your head with more clutter."
Tyler laughed, kissed her on the neck, and the curve of her shoulder, and her breast, and said, "My heads already starting to fill so maybe you'd better shove me out of bed or we'll stay on a lovemaking, shower-taking, cycle all day…"
"I love that idea," Rose said, welcoming Tyler to her one last time.
After they'd dried and dressed, and while Tyler was bundling the wet bedding into a washing machine in a small utility room off the passageway, Rose found herself wandering over to the drafting table again, after looking at the drawings of Diana, and of her, she spotted a tablet that lay open on the shelf behind the drafting table, as if Tyler had set it aside when he started the drawings of Diana. Reaching for the tablet, Rose scanned the images, noting that they were a series of small sketches of people in historic dress, accompanied by words.
On closer examination, she saw that the words were strings of dialog from Hamlet, but without punctuation, like, 'alas poor Yorik I knew him well Horatio he was a man of infinite jest.' On the page was a jester and a man holding a skull. Flipping to another page, she found small sketches of a medieval sling, several $100 bills, a gun, and a swirling ocean with a ship, accompanied by the words 'whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.'
Tyler returned from loading the washer and peered over her shoulder. "It's a way to learn a ton of information," he explained. "I can look at any one of those pages and see the scene in its entirety and know what comes before and after, and the pictures help the words stick in my head. This is the way I want to pass things on to kids who are struggling to read. It worked for me. The idea came after I'd filled in the hole in the cavern and was on my way back here. The way I see it, since I have the ability to shift my focus from mental images to drawings in order to resolve confusions, that combined with my new understanding of my body being one big electrical circuit, I came to the conclusion that I'm a unique kind of teacher who can teach dyslectic kids to use images to organize the clutter in their heads and learn to read."
"I don't understand what you mean by your body being a big electrical circuit," Rose said.
"It's kind of complex to explain, which is one of my problems that you might have to live with, but when I was in the pasture with Gypsy and Diana, and Diana lit up, like she was wired, and other things started happening, I realized we're all wired together, along with spirits as transmitters, and using the same circuit, I can get through to kids because their brains are wired more like mine than yours, and they'll probably understand better when I try to explain things."
"Actually," Rose said, "I just understood you perfectly, in a convoluted sort of way."
"Good, but I also want to write and illustrate some children's early readers so kids will get the idea, around first grade, how to decode words and connect them with images. For instance, with the word bug, there'd be a picture of a butterfly above the B because the B in butterfly sounds like the B in bug, and over the U would be an arrow pointing up, because the U in up sounds like the U in bug, and over the G would be a stick of gum, because the G in gum sounds like the G in bug. So kids can look at the word with the pictures over it and sound out the letters. If there was just a picture of a bug over the word bug, the kids wouldn't learn phonics. This can also work for dyslectic adults who never learned to read."
"So then, this tablet is for teaching adults Hamlet?" Rose asked.
Tyler laughed. "No, that's an old tablet, the one I used when I was in high school. I got it out to see if it would work, so maybe it's a little advanced."
Rose looked thoughtfully at the tablet, and the drawings, and said, "You wanted do Hamlet then, and you still know the lines. Why don't you try out for the Willamette Shakespeare Theater in Portland? You'd make a good Hamlet. He was a complicated man too."
Tyler let out a little ironic laugh. "Yeah, well a guy who looks like an Indian would make a pretty odd-looking prince of Denmark."
"But you wanted to play the part," Rose said.
"I did, but the reason no longer exists. It served a purpose, and now I want to pass it on."
Rose curved her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly, and said, "You're an innovative man, and without dyslexia you wouldn't be the man you are. We need dyslexic kind of thinkers. Our world wouldn’t be the same without them. And I think you're onto something teaching dyslectic kids and writing early reader books."
A loud kee-eeee-arrr, caught their attention. Rose moved out of Tyler's arms and stepped to the window, and said, "Diana just left the post and she making a wide circle."
Tyler walked over to stand behind Rose, and with his hands on her shoulders, looked out as Diana dipped her wings and let out another loud kee-eeee-arr, then sailed off into the distance, where another hawk intercepted her. Together they made a wide circle while uttering shrill cries, then the new hawk made a steep dive and climbed again, and repeat
ed several times before briefly grasping Diana's talons with his own, and together they flew off into the distance.
"Diana's left for good this time," Rose said. "She just found her mate." She looked over her shoulder at Tyler and added, "She also delivered her message. Did you get it?"
Tyler looked into the distance where the hawks were mere specks, and said, "Yeah, now we'll see if my dad agrees that I should teach kids like me to read. He probably will, but he'll also want me to go to college and get all the degrees I'd need to do it right, and that's not the way I want to do it because I want the kids to learn how to communicate with animals too, and they don't teach that in college."
Turning to face Tyler, Rose said, "Honey, however you want to do it, I'm with you a hundred percent, and so was Diana, so now you need to follow your heart."
***
Before announcing their plans to his folks, Tyler wanted to clear it with Rose's family, primarily by asking her father for Rose's hand in marriage, which brought a chuckle from Rose, who thought it was very old-fashioned, but cute. He also wanted to square things away with Preston, since they'd be brothers-in-law.
As they were approaching the driveway to Rose's parent's house, Tyler said to Rose, "You did call them this time, didn't you?"
Rose nodded. "They already have a fair idea what this is all about."
"How could they?" Tyler asked. "They barely know me. The only time they met me was when we were here before."
"They know you better than you think," Rose said.
Tyler looked askance at her. "Through spirits?" he asked.
Rose laughed. "No, through me. I've been talking non-stop about you practically since I met you, and all of them, including Preston, watched your video a dozen or more times, and I showed them the drawings you did of Tundra that you gave me last week, and explained about your dyslexia and your plans to teach dyslectic kids how to read and communicate with animals, and also about the horsemanship school, and they're impressed. They know you're through drilling at Whispering Springs, and why, and that made a big difference. And if there was any doubt, my grandmother just sat back in her chair and rocked and smiled, which meant she approved. So all you have to do now is convince my father."
"I'm not worried about him," Tyler said. "When I was here before he made it pretty clear that he was okay with me."
"Yes, but that was before he learned that I wanted to marry you. I'm his little girl, and I'm only twenty-one, and you live in a stable on a mountain, and you have long hair."
"Wait a minute," Tyler said. "He was okay with my hair before and said he understood why it was long. Besides, he's an Indian and long hair is okay with Indians."
"True, but that was before he learned that you're about to take me away from him for good. Things have changed now. He wants me to wait a couple of years to make sure."
"A couple of years?" Tyler pulled the truck to the curb and cut the engine. "Honey, there's no way I can wait a couple of years. Maybe a couple of months, or even as long as six months if there's no other way, but a couple of years is out."
Rose placed her hand over his on the steering wheel, and said, "It's not like other couples haven't waited that long. My dad could be right in that we're rushing into this."
Tyler felt the old sinking in his stomach that came whenever he had strong doubts about himself, then he realized it was all about him, not Rose. "Do you want to wait that long, just to make sure?" he asked, thinking he really might be rushing her with his plan to marry before the summer was over, and he wanted to make sure she had no doubts.
Rose reached up and touched his face, and said to him, "Sweetheart, I am absolutely sure I want to marry you now and be with you for the rest of my life. I have no doubts. But you might want to rethink asking my dad for my hand. We could go to the courthouse and marry on our own. We're both of age, so we don't need anyone's permission."
Tyler curled his hands around the steering wheel while thinking that her suggestion would remove all obstacles in their path. They'd get married, and the families would have to accept it, and that would be that…
And he'd be taking the coward's way out.
"We can't do it that way," he said, while starting engine. "When we marry it has to be with our families' blessings. I don't want to wait, but if Jeremy's willing to leave the family, maybe for good, to be with Billy, then I can wait however long it takes to have you for my wife."
Rose kissed him on the cheek, and said, "If the wait's too long, I'll become a slovenly, irresponsible, rebellious teenager again and they'll all be glad to get rid of me."
Tyler looked askance at her. "Were you like that once?" he asked, finding it hard to imagine Rose that way.
Rose chuckled. "No, but I could put on a really good act until my dad decides it's a latent rebellion that could last some time, and turns me over to you."
Tyler laughed, finding the joking helped take some of the edge off what he'd be facing.
A few minutes later, he and Rose found themselves sitting on the couch, with Rose's mother looking across the coffee table at them, her grandmother sitting in her rocker staring beyond the window, with a troubled look on her face, and Preston standing with folded arms, while leaning against the wall. Rose broke the awkward silence by saying, "Where's Dad?"
Helen Starbright replied, "He's on his way from the elder center. He knows you're here."
"Does he know why Tyler wants to talk to him?" Rose asked.
Helen nodded. "Have you two really thought this through? You've known each other less than two months, and marriage is a lifelong commitment."
Rose covered Tyler's hand with hers, and replied, "We know what we want, Mom, and we know we're right for each other, just as Granna knows." She looked at her grandmother, who gave a little nod, while continuing to stare out the window.
Curious, Rose left the couch and went to see what her grandmother was looking at and saw that the post where the hawk had sat was vacant, and in its place was a crow, which traditionally was considered the Trickster for its assertiveness and cunning. Turning to her grandmother, she said, "Granna, you've been staring at that crow for some time. What does it mean?" She prayed it wasn't something negative about Tyler, or maybe a sign that they must wait to marry.
Instead, her grandmother shrugged, and said, "If someone doesn't throw netting across that row of berries, the crows will get them."
Preston laughed, which seemed to break the tension. Looking at Tyler, he said, "I've got the mustang going pretty well now. Maybe later you could come out and see how he's doing."
"I figured you'd connect with him," Tyler replied. "I knew you had the instinct and just needed a little guidance. Maybe after I get my horsemanship school going you'd be interested in learning some new ways of horse handling."
"Sounds good," Preston replied. "Meanwhile, I'd better cover the berries before the crows get them and Granna gives me what for." He started for the door, then stopped midway and said to Tyler, "Incidentally, I'm glad you're not a squaw man."
Tyler laughed. "Yeah, so am I." He gave Rose's hand a squeeze and winked.
Preston had just exited the back door when the front door swept open, and Edison Starbright stepped inside. Seeing Tyler sitting with Rose on the couch, while holding her hand, he said to Tyler, "I understand you want to talk to me." There was no humor in his tone.
Tyler sucked in a breath to calm his nerves, and said, "Yes sir."
"Then come this way."
Tyler was surprised at his abruptness, and when he looked at Rose, he could tell she was greatly disturbed. Still, he followed Edison into a room off the living room that appeared to be a combination family room, computer room, and exercise room, with a treadmill off in one corner, and closed the door. He sat on the couch, and Edison sat in a recliner adjacent to it.
However, before Tyler could start in with his practiced introduction about why he was the perfect husband for Rose, Edison said, "Did you learn anything about Chief Joseph?"
Th
e question threw Tyler completely off guard, and for a moment his mind went blank, but after retrieving some images in his head, he said, "Yes sir."
"I don't need the sir," Edison said.
"Yes sir… umm. Okay." Tyler took a few moments to pull his thoughts together, then started in. "About Chief Joseph… I've read quite a bit and he was an amazing man. After their homeland was taken from them, which would force them to live on a reservation, Joseph was one of the chiefs to lead 250 warriors, 500 women, children, old people and cripples, and over a thousand horses, on a trek across 1,500 miles of rugged terrain in an attempt to reach Canada."
Tyler went on to describe how they'd crossed rivers at flood stage on rafts made of tightly-rolled skins lashed together, and trekked over mountains in cold torrential rain and on muddy trails so narrow one step would send them plunging over the edge, and came within forty miles of the Canadian border when an unexpected military force intercepted them…
"…then in October 1877, after four days of fighting," Tyler continued, "Chief Joseph raised the surrender flag and rode in on a black horse, and surrendered with the words, 'I am tired of fighting. Too-hul-hul-sit is dead. Looking Glass is dead. He-who-led-the-young-men-in-battle is dead. The chiefs are all dead. It is the young men now who say 'yes' or 'no.' My little daughter has run away upon the prairie. I do not know where to find her—perhaps I shall find her too among the dead. It is cold and we have no fire; no blankets. Our little children are crying for food but we have none to give. Hear me, my chiefs. From where the sun now stands, Joseph will fight no more forever.'" Tyler waited for Edison's response.
For a few moments, Edison stared at him in silence, and Tyler knew he hadn't expected the long spiel, but the images kept coming, and the words in his mind kept flowing.
"Did you learn about his horse, Ebenezer?" Edison asked.
Tyler could tell that the test wasn't over yet, so he replied, "Yes, he was a red roan with large blood-red spots on his white rump, and he could run like the wind. Everyone with a fast horse, whether he was a frontiersman or an Indian, dreamed of the day his horse would beat Ebenezer, but, Ebenezer won all his races by large margins against the best horses in the region."
Forbidden Spirits Page 22