CHAPTER ELEVEN
LIVVY SAT AT the back of the bus, doing what she always did on bus rides: checking messages and news feeds. The shaman channels were more active than usual. Users who hadn’t posted in a while were posting again. A doctor friend with whom she’d gone to medical school had messaged about being crazy busy in the emergency room and pulling a ridiculously long shift. A couple of shamans were talking about strange Multiverse experiences.
She could relate. Then, of course, there had been the extra special bonus of Jack and Indra. They had seemed–what would be the right word–happy. Yeah, that was probably it.
She sighed, leaned her head against the window, and watched the familiar city flow by. Carnecerias and lavanderias, meat shops and coin laundries, flashed by along with seafood restaurants and taco shops. The sidewalks were crowded with women pushing strollers and hauling groceries. Occasionally a pickup truck with a brahma bull on the door went by. Most of the men who wore a straw cowboy hat were older. The younger ones wore baseball caps or ski caps, even in this weather. It wasn’t the worst neighborhood in L.A., but, this close to downtown, good blocks and bad blocks were side by side.
As the bus made its way from stop to stop with passengers coming and going, Livvy felt the warmth of the sun through the window and closed her eyes. She hadn’t realized how tired she was.
Then she remembered the kachina. She opened her eyes, sat up, and did a quick search on the net. There might be hundreds of different kachinas but only one with a giant feather-fringed turquoise-colored face. Sure enough, it didn’t take long to find him. He was Tawa, the Hopi sun kachina, a creator and bringer of life. The Hopi were a Native American tribe who lived on the mesa tops of northeastern Arizona. Their village, Oraibi, was the oldest continually occupied place in North America. As she looked at images of him, or the small kachina dolls that were for sale at various trading post sites, she realized that only the bottom half of his face was turquoise. The upper half was divided into two quarters, one red and one yellow, separated from each other by a band of white. The black rectangular eyes and triangle mouth sat in the lower turquoise half. His gigantic face was nearly the size of his upper body. The same alternating colors of red, yellow, and turquoise repeated throughout: red moccasins, turquoise and yellow body paint, and black geometric designs on the white kilt.
Livvy sighed. As the sun streamed in through the bus window, she caught a reflection of herself: slim with sea green eyes, nose small and straight, face framed by blindingly white hair. Ever since she was small, she’d been told she was pretty. Jack had always said he especially loved her lips, particularly when she smiled. As the sunlight and her reflection vanished, she looked away. Jack again. Exhaling, she forced the thought of him out of her mind.
She looked back down at her phone and a small painting of the kachina, of Tawa. What would a bringer of life, one of the most powerful kachinas in the Hopi pantheon, want from her?
CHAPTER TWELVE
AT THE TOP of the stairs, Livvy exited into the long hallway that led to her apartment. The automatic arm at the top of the stairwell door had probably been broken long before she’d moved in. There wasn’t an elevator or air conditioning, and sometimes no heat in the building, but the price was right. She was close to her clientele, didn’t overlap any other shaman’s territory, and didn’t need to take on a roommate.
As she turned the corner to her apartment, still a few yards from the front door, she stopped. Someone familiar was waiting. The kachina looked right at her. Heart pounding, she glanced behind her. Maybe this time there’ll be a witness, she thought, but the hall was empty. When she looked back, he was gone.
“No,” she muttered.
Like before, the fact that he would disappear somehow spooked her more than the fact that he had appeared. Now that she had also seen him in the Multiverse, she knew he had to be a spirit. Was he following her? Stalking her? Was he manifesting physically?
Calm down. Think for a second. She could run, get as far away as possible. That’s really what she wanted to do. But then what? Would he follow her? She stared at her front door. Was he waiting inside right now? Maybe she should call somebody. She started to reach for her phone but who would she call, SK? Her hand stopped. What if the kachina disappeared before he got there? Yeah, that’d look great. She didn’t even know if he was still here.
She took her phone out but instead of making a call, she turned on the camera. If she couldn’t have a witness, maybe she could at least get proof. A small spark jumped between her keys and the deadbolt as she unlocked it. She opened the door.
The kachina was in the middle of the small front room that served as the living room, dining room and kitchen.
“Say cheese,” she said under her breath and snapped a photo.
The kachina tilted his enormous head to the side and they both stood there for several seconds, looking at each other.
Livvy tensed as he slowly raised his rattle and pointed at her. She heard the pellets sliding around inside.
“Just tell me what you want,” she barked, louder than she’d intended.
He lowered the rattle a few inches, still pointing, but not directly at her.
She looked down, following his eyeless gaze, but kept him in her peripheral vision. He was pointing to her shoulder bag. She frowned.
“You want something in there?”
He shook the rattle once at the bag.
Maybe if I give him what he wants, he’ll leave me alone. Without taking her eyes off the kachina, she reached down to her side, opened the bag, and brought out the first thing she touched–her small pillow. She held it out between them.
“You want the pillow?”
He shook his head slowly.
“No,” she confirmed.
Still watching him, she put the pillow back and fished around for something else. As she looked at the mask, she realized that several of the feathers around the edge looked slightly darker than the rest, singed.
She pulled out her goggles and the rattle went off like a Geiger counter. The explosive sound made her jump, hand flying to her heart, as though that could keep it from pounding.
“The goggles?” she finally asked, holding them out.
The kachina made a beckoning motion with his other hand. “Come on,” he seemed to insist. He didn’t want the goggles. He wanted her to come to the Multiverse.
“Uh, no,” she said, as she shook her head and jammed the goggles back in the bag. “I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”
It dawned on her that he must have been trying to take her to the Multiverse when he had reached out for her that morning. SK had said she wasn’t the kind of shaman a kachina would seek out, and yet here he was again. Then she remembered how serious SK had become.
The kachina dropped his hand and shook the rattle at the bag, agitated, but she couldn’t tell if he was angry. What would a kachina do if he was angry? As he held out his other hand, he took a step forward.
“Don’t touch me,” she shouted and stepped back. The welts were gone but she remembered the sparks and the pain all too well.
The kachina stopped.
“Just leave me alone,” she said, backing toward the door. “I’m not going with you.”
He advanced on her again.
“No!” she screamed.
But, within moments, he had disappeared, vanishing the same way he had before. She looked around the room and back to where he had been standing. He hadn’t left a trace.
“No,” she said under her breath. She shut her eyes and clenched her hands as she willed herself to breathe evenly. Then she remembered the phone, still in her hand.
She flipped through the pictures but kept glancing around the apartment to see if the kachina had reappeared. Finally, she found the photo and e-mailed it to SK, proof that she hadn’t been imagining things in the real world. She still didn’t know why, but at least she knew what the kachina wanted now. He wanted her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
L
IVVY HEARD THE phone vibrate before it rang. When she checked the time on it, she groaned. Nacho stirred on her feet. Three a.m.? Who would be calling at this hour? It better not be anybody I know, she thought, and then she remembered the photo of the kachina that she had sent to SK. When she looked at the caller ID though, it was Cedars-Sinai hospital. Worried, she sat up and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Livvy?” said an unfamiliar woman’s voice.
“Yes.”
“I’m so sorry for calling at this hour, but I got your name from a friend who’s seen your…work.”
It was a job. Normally that’d be great news, but not so much at this hour. Even so, she needed the work way more than she needed the sleep.
“Okay,” she said, rubbing her eyes as she waited to hear the rest.
“My husband needs your help and I’ve got cash,” said the woman.
Livvy knew that hospitals weren’t fond of visits in the middle of the night, especially from shamans. Nor were shamans fond of it either, since it made them look like they were sneaking around, which was kind of true.
“Could this wait until tomorrow?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
Typically, a shaman got the call only after every other resource had been exhausted, when every other conventional and not-so-conventional form of treatment had already been tried.
“No, I don’t think so,” said the woman, pausing. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what else to do.”
“What room are you in?” said Livvy, getting up from the mattress as Nacho raised his head.
She flipped on the light switch and blinked against the bare bulbs.
“Room 349.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ON THE THIRD floor of the east tower, Livvy followed the signs to Room 349, passing the nurse’s station, which was thankfully empty. At Room 349, the door was ajar, but she knocked quietly.
A man opened the door immediately, as though he’d been standing there waiting for her.
“I’m Livvy,” she said, but the man didn’t respond.
He was middle-aged and overweight, with tired eyes and a sullen face that stared at her.
“Diana sent for me.”
He didn’t move.
“Saul, let her in,” said a woman from inside the room.
Saul scrutinized Livvy for a few moments, lingering on her hair, but opened the door. As she passed by, he looked up and down the hallway to see if anybody had seen them, and then he closed the door.
It was a private room and it had the lived-in look that hospital rooms got when the stay was a long one. There was a blanket and pillow on the reclining chair, a hardcover novel leaning against the wall on the floor next to it, several sets of wilted flowers, a few posters of famous works of art taped to the wall, and a few get well cards.
The patient had a nasogastric feeding tube, the type that went up through the nose and then down into the throat and stomach, but he wasn’t on a ventilator. There was a urine bag hanging down at the side of the bed with liquid the color of cherry wood. He wasn’t getting enough liquids, Livvy thought, glancing at his chart and slipping into doctor mode without meaning to. She looked at the drip and thought about adjusting it but stopped herself. She was in a different world now.
Diana was on the other side of the bed, near the chair, and was holding the man’s hand.
“Is this your husband?” Livvy asked.
“This is Mitch,” she said, looking down at his face, stroking his arm.
“You said he had a heart attack and then slipped into a coma?”
“Yes, that was three weeks ago. Three weeks ago today.”
Livvy had gotten the basic medical history from her on the phone. There was no point in getting anybody’s hopes up if someone was terminally ill with cancer or they needed a bypass or a liver transplant. Other shamans didn’t seem to have a problem with taking people’s money for that kind of stuff, but Livvy couldn’t see how they lived with themselves, especially the ones who knew the client was putting off medical intervention that might help.
“I don’t think Mitch would want this,” said Saul. “He wouldn’t want that feeding tube either.”
Livvy had seen it in their body language, but now she could also hear that she’d stepped into the middle of the usual turmoil, a family torn apart at the critical time. Each side believed they were doing the right thing, what the patient would have wanted, even if they were only guessing.
“Saul,” said Diana, as though she were repeating herself for the tenth time, “It can’t hurt anything.”
He glared at Livvy, who stood waiting.
“Why don’t you just bring an exorcist over here too? Do the kids know you’re doing this?”
“Goddammit, Saul! I have to know I tried everything. Do you have any better ideas?”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“I didn’t think so.” She turned to Livvy. “What should we do?”
“Not a thing,” she said, unslinging her bag. “I’m going to lay down in this chair and put on my goggles.” Saul exhaled with disgust. “It’ll look like I’m asleep, but I’m not.” He clucked. “I won’t be able to see or hear you until I’m back.”
As always, it made Livvy nervous not to have someone familiar with the shaman world watching over her.
“How long will it take?” asked Diana.
As Livvy settled into the chair, she put her pillow behind her head.
“Not long. Time here and there aren’t the same.”
The woman looked down at her husband.
“Hold on honey,” she whispered.
“Back in a bit,” said Livvy, as she flipped on the switch and put on the goggles.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE MIDDLEWORLD WAS crowded, absolutely packed. Stunned, Livvy stood on the path for a moment, getting her bearings. Only yesterday it had been deserted. Now, the animal helpers and ancestor spirits were rushing around in every direction.
The clouds above were already moving toward the black lake, so Livvy didn’t delay. As the spirits and ancestors moved past her, she sensed their agitation. The air was full of birdcalls, howling monkeys, and roars and growls of every type. The faces of the ancestors were worried and nobody headed toward the lake–except for her. By the time she was at the shore, the crowd was far behind.
Down through the lake and then out of the fountain, she was prepared for a hard landing but it was much easier than last time. As deserted as the Middleworld had been earlier, the Underworld was nearly empty. Even in the central plaza there was hardly a soul. What was going on lately? Every time she came to the Multiverse, it was different somehow.
As she gazed upward, the clouds streamed away from her, down the main thoroughfare. Uneasy about the changes she had seen, she decided to start off at a fairly good run.
The main street was flanked by enormous high rises whose tops were clipped by the clouds. As she watched the clouds traveling through the sky, the buildings seemed to be leaning toward her, a trick of perspective, but one that almost always left her queasy. Today, though, she was in too much of a hurry to notice. A large grizzly bear lumbered down the middle of the street in the opposite direction, heading toward the plaza.
She reached an area where the density of the high rises gave way to smaller buildings that had an older look, like an original downtown area but more industrial. Up above, the clouds had frozen.
“X marks the spot,” she said.
The large panes of dirty glass that made up the wall in front of her spoke of a roomy interior with high ceilings. There had to be more than one floor inside but the exterior seemed like endless rows of windows.
A movement along the roofline caught her eye. There was a small figure there, a man wearing a hospital gown.
“Mitch?” she yelled.
He looked down at her.
“Mitch,” she repeated, waving. “Diana sent me. I’m here to help you.”
He backed away from
the edge and out of view.
“It’s all right,” yelled Livvy. “Just wait right there.”
She ran to the front of the building and pushed through the revolving glass doors. Ignoring the open elevators, she found the stairs and ran up, two at a time, past the top floor, following a sign that said roof access. She burst onto the roof and skidded to a halt in the gravel. Mitch was perched on the lip of the building, looking down. He turned around when he heard her.
“Mitch?” Livvy ventured. “Mitch, what are you doing up there?”
He smiled.
“I’m not going back,” he said.
Oh please, thought Livvy. Why didn’t anybody ever tell the truth, give her all the information she’d need.
“Diana sent me,” Livvy said, moving closer. “She’s trying everything she can to save you.”
“Screw her,” he said.
“Mitch, if you stay here, your body will die.” She moved closer. “You’ll be dead.”
“Dead ain’t so bad,” he said, grinning.
“Oh, this isn’t dead,” she said, forcing a laugh and taking another step. “Oh no. What made you think that?”
His grin vanished and he looked around and down the side of the building. A flock of crows soared by above them.
“If you were dead,” she said, almost within grasping distance, “I wouldn’t be here.” He looked back at her. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“Where do you go when you’re dead then?” he asked.
He was worried now.
“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” she tossed off casually, as she lunged for him.
She caught him by the arm and yanked him backward, sending them both sprawling on the gravel, but he wasn’t struggling. He just lay there as she got up.
She looked down at him but suddenly had the distinct impression that they were being watched. She spun around and saw someone across the street, on the building top opposite her–the kachina. She turned back to Mitch, who hadn’t moved.
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