Spirits of the Wildflowers

by Parris Match

  One morning, Ahcoo’ah invited Dacoh to take a walk with him; they strolled, not talking as they went down the path, to a small copperyleaf-lined clearing, hidden in a yellow-amber-gem grove of whispering aspens at the lower end of the lake; and sat upon the hard wind-sweptclean ground. Ahcoo’ah placed his thumb-less hands on Dacoh’s shoulders and began, “Dacoh, my only son…, I must ask you to do a most important task for our people”. “But before I let you know what it is, I want to tell you a story”.

  “This is a story of shame, a degradation of the gentle people; not often retold; only in closed circle, amongst the responsible men; to make even idle whispered mention of it, is not allowed.”

  And Ahcoo’ah commenced with his story;

  “Not many growing seasons ago, in the yesteryear of your valley; the brothers on a customary inspection of our homeland, inadvertently discovered two startled strangers within their midst. The brothers on coming over a graveled knoll, located near the grand escarpment, surprised the trespassers, traveling through an open sandy hollow; and immediately pounced upon, and captured these stunned intruders. After wrestling them to the ground, the strangers kicking and squirming for quick release, the brothers tied their hands behind them, and started back to the village; to deliver them to me.”

  “The two pummeled strangers, bruised and bleeding, one a man and the other a youthful boy; who the brothers assumed were members of the Rabbit People; were brought to their leader to decide their consequence for trespassing into our valley. When the brothers brought the trussed captives into the village, I was not there but soon returned; in the meantime the people were surrounding, curiously poking-at, and taunting the frightened outsiders. As I walked into the clearing, Coseh, forefather to Eebee and Eeboh, quickly came to me and apprised me of the situation. I hastily directed Coseh to deposit the wetted bound bodies into a meeting lodge, away from public display, and to disperse the people, who were unnecessarily upset at their alien presence, and most certainly to be kept from children’s eyes”.

  “Coseh, two brothers, and myself, after entering the wickerup with the coupled and draggled prisoners in a bundled heap; sat crosslegged in a circle with the crumpled thin naked bodies confronting us, the focused light from the central smoke-hole clearly revealing our quandary. ‘Let me see him’, as I gestured towards the larger body. The brothers stood bent, and lifted the man to his knees; he was encrusted with dirt, on his bloodied sweaty body, his ashen lost face, and wild matted scraggly hair; bowed head hanging down in whipped docile submission. I leaned forward and gently pulled the young boy to me, and as I did, I glanced-up at the man; his head quickly raised-up, terror filled his glazed eyes, to plead for the boy, and a low slight shivering, a humming whimper escaped from his tight closed lips. I, Ahcoo’ah, unbound the boy and drew him into my lap; my hands clasped against his chest, could feel his skin quivering and the rapid beat of his heart, his breathing coming in panting shrill gasps. The warm and tender boy, slowly calmed within my embrace; I could see the man’s black eyes soften, receding from the effect of absolute utter panic. As I continued to tenderly enfold the smaller boy, I avowed in believed truth”, “We are a good people”! “On the honor of our ancestors, we respect all life”.

  “I, Ahcoo’ah, ordered my steadfast Coseh to assuredly clear the common area of the people and forbid them from witnessing what had to be done; The Forgotten Ones would not be eager spectators of this kind of repugnant event, this was not the time for a solitary act in public ceremony, or for crowing in the direction of the changeable shifting wind”.

  “I could hear Cosehs’ commanding voice, telling the people to vacate the scene of the coming tempest. Silence followed the muted shuffle of retreating feet; the people acknowledged, by the authority presented, that this strange occurrence was not for them to hear or to see”.

  “When Coseh re-entered the wicker lodge, I had placed the boy, kneeling in front and facing me, with my hands firmly on his shoulders; the boy’s doleful trusting wide-eyes, in his untested innocence, an unsure pup cognizant of command, looked into my heart”. “Coseh told me he had done what I asked and the area surrounding the men’s lodge had been completely cleared of the gentle untainted people. I cupped the boy’s face in my hands with thumbs aligned against his jaw, so he could not see neither right nor left, and said to my aide Coseh,” “The man must be squashed”.

  “Coseh with two brothers dragged the bound terrorized father, kicking and howling in protest, separated from his endangered seed, through the closing portal, from the wickerups kicked-up swirling dusty dim containment; as I kept the boy’s stiffened face and neck constrained by the palms of my hands, my thumbs pressed to his ears, attempting to protect him from this deafening evident horror. The violently disturbed dust tempest, churned and swirled around the young boy and me, but I looked purposely into his glassy ebon eyes, endeavoring to ideally affect his fear and pain. The little pup innocently gazed, eyes wide in piercing pursuit, searching my humane intent, seemingly trusting, back at me”.

  “By Coseh’s account, he and two brothers delivered the incidental trespasser into the emptied, heavily trampled, hard surfaced, circumscribed men’s common area; strictly circled by the dotted boundary of unoccupied sitting stones. Under Coseh’s command; one brother forced the man’s face into the dirt by pulling-up on his trussed arms; his eyes seeing, his nose smelling, his mouth tasting, the source of his creation; while the other held his feet tightly, from flapping insane fear and confusion, or wings of flight, beating against the ground. Coseh walked over to the councils exact arrangement of heavy rocks, and with great effort he picked the elected-one up, raised it to his chest, brought it to the man; then lifted the boulder as high as he could, and brought it crashing onto the man’s head, smashing and splitting his skull, crushing and pulverizing his head into the bosom of his mother earth. A spastic shudder emanated through his convulsive humping body, heart still grasping at another beat, vital noxious liquids spewing; and then he laid still”.

  “Coseh came to me, and told me, he had done what I had asked of him; I considerately requested, that they wait for me to perform my difficult task, and that I would come out shortly. I, Ahcoo’ah, was overcome with grief at the decision that I was compelled to make, but I, as the Story Teller must make inevitable onerous judgments, for the future growth and the wellbeing of our people. We could not have let the father as well as the son go free, for it would have brought certain disaster into the peaceful valley; it would most certainly have disclosed our other flaw, and at the very least our lack of resolve. Our virgin valley cannot allow the admittance to any unfamiliar wanton milkweeds, for the resources of our beautiful homeland subsists limited and untainted”.

  Ahcoo’ah firmly clutched Dacoh’s hand, enfolding him with his own misshapen mangled hands, and continued with his story;

  “The pleasing youth sat on his haunches in front of me, his head slightly cocked, eyes inquiringly staring into my blank glazed intent; searching within my sad corrupting face, fixed jaw set determinate. He was like any young boy, an eager bright-eyed blameless wolf cub; he could be a dearly nurtured companion of the whole tribal family, of The displaced Forgotten Ones, or to me…!, the son-less man.” “He may well have been you!”

  “I, Ahcoo’ah, with sad regret, fully conceded that the boy was just beyond the age of realization. I placed my two perfect hands on his shoulders and he reached and laid his smaller hands on my forearms; My hands tightened around his tender little neck, my thumbs steadily compressed inward, constricting the rhythmic flow of his life force. The small wide-eyed boy wildly flailed at my arms, bruising my heart, his body squirmed and thrashed with incredible strength, but I squeezed tighter and tighter, as my iniquitous thumbs choked closer into his soft pliant throat. Tears were running down my face, a retching base moan escaped from my vital core, but I continued to strangle the throbbing drum-beat of his heart from this innocent youth. The boy’s eyes went dull and his body fell limp, I brought him into me a
nd embraced this little boy, cuddling and sobbing over this wicked deed; I, Ahcoo’ah, had executed. I carry the full burden of this reprehensible act every day of my life; but I also know that for the good of my people, I had no other choice; for the festering sallow pus of bitterness, from the fangs of the sleeping green-like viper of vengeance, could not exist in our enclosed peaceful valley”.

  “Faint from pain and sorrow, I bowed and stepped out of the wickerup, with the dangling slender stalked boy in my arms, walked over and gently placed him, next to his dead father. I asked Coseh to search out two deerskin hides to cover the lifeless bodies, to keep them shrouded from the peoples view. While he was gone I loathly shuffled to the storehouse and found a carding scraper [a thin slice of rock with a honed edge], and two narrow pieces of shaved deer hide, and brought these back to the ruptured circle of sitting Spirits. When Coseh returned, he and the brothers wrapped the trespassers in the deer pelts, and I instructed him on what had to be done to complete our obligation to our people and to our homeland. Then I solicited my kind brother Coseh to do me an added grateful service; my gentle brother Coseh had one of the other brothers reluctantly hold and secure my hand over the smooth offending boulder, and my unfaltering Coseh with the finely honed scraper, and by the swiftly hammer of a rock; with great force, struck down and severed my guilty thumb with a single blow; and on finishing one hand, he repeated my request, and chopped off my vile thumb, on the other; two less iniquitous digits. The gristly blood-stained symbols lay in the dirt aside my little victim; my thumb-less hands were then tightly wrapped in narrow strips of deer skin to block the loss of life. This self-mutilation would be a constant reminder to me, and to the people, my total acceptance of my complete responsibility, my solitary personal penance, of the shameful heinous act, that I, Ahcoo’ah, had solely performed”.

  Dacoh rarely had mimicked Ahcoo’ah with his visible flaw as well as infirmity; not out of disrespect, but to experience what it was like to live without your thumbs. He discovered firsthand the difficulty of achieving the most ordinary tasks of the day; to bring a gourd of water to your mouth…, to eat…, to build and feed a warming fire…, to lift a child, to plant any single consecrated seed…; all were a constant courageous effort on Ahcoo’ah’s role.

  The oppressive downcast anguish was apparent on Ahcoo’ah’s weathered brow and face, but he gravely went on with the story;

  “Coseh and eight brothers took the wrapped bodies and some long lengths of thick intertwined fiber reed cords, and transported the two trespassers through the chasm to the entrance of our valley. On a high rock outcropping, be in the full blazoned mornings display, overlooking the silent dead lake, they draped the stiff father and the son, over the sloping face of the projecting rock, and secured them in place with the dense webbed rope they had brought. Upon my final request of Coseh; he tied a small leather pouch around the neck of the boy; inside the pouch, the two severed bloodied thumbs of his most unwilling executioner”.

  All evidence of the bloodied ground, deerskin shrouds, and the profane rock were carefully collected in a basket of remorse, then transported to the burning place, and offered to the Spirits kind dispersion. The offending stone from the grandfather’s circle may perhaps be replaced when the disgrace is not recalled.

  “The rotting and putrefying flesh of those primitive brothers, men of the same dust, were consumed by the pecking birds and the procession of insects; leaving nothing but this offensive review, picked clean, bleached mortal bones, suspended above our bowed heads, as we take passage below, to the open wide barren desert beyond. This hanging explicit symbol is the ultimate sign of our determination and resolve, for the continued existence of our people. We do not look at this as a good deed or an honorable victory, but it has entirely deterred all encroachment into or near our homeland, and put the necessary fear into the hearts of the timid Rabbit People”.

  “Dacoh, My favored son, I must ask you to do a vital service for the well-being of our people; an essential duty that must be completed, with no regard for second opinion”. “As you know we have a pestilence upon our land”… . “Our people are going to disappear forever from the divine valley if we do not take action”. “The seeds of our brothers are good, but the nascent vessels of our sisters are tainted and diseased”. “The journey and duty you must perform will preserve the survival of our people”.

  Coming together to this same place for three full days, in the still dapple shaded, spectral visions of the amber-brilliant glen; seated beneath the transforming multi-colored capricious trees; Ahcoo’ah then explained in minute detail, what Dacoh must do.

  Dacoh arose as the single piercing beam of light, had just come through the transparent pane, of a southeast stone window ledge; to instantly burst into the valley, by means of the narrow angled notch, to make most clear the unlit appearance, of the dark-yellow-ocher grand escarpment, and the sun risen revelation of the brightening rosy-tinted canyon of the Forgotten Ones. The hazy last morning deportment of the dew-mist, stayed moist and dazzled upon the ground, be caused from the overcast moon-less night shadow, and of the tallest mountain Spirits. Another season’s yield had entered the second beginning of the fall, and not quite met the colder finale of Indian summer. Dacoh carefully collected together, his bow and quiver of arrows, his sturdy spear which also served as a walking staff, an additional pair of moccasins, and with a large full deer hide draped over his shoulder; embraced his mother, Malee, and left the close comfort of the rustic cavern. Dacoh went to the storehouse, amongst the silent but tactful people, and took a generous supply of dried meat and a small sack of fine pestled cornmeal, strapped four leatherngourd of water on his hips; then called on Ahcoo’ah in his cave for his last reliable appraisal, and left for the perilous mission, to the distant closed valley of the River People.

  Entering and passing through the commencing narrow chasm, leaving the security of the grand escarpment, Dacoh began to feel the full reality of his circumstance, his unconditional aloneness in this duty to his people; yet he also felt a surge of excitement for the events and distant places he would experience, on this precarious journey, he had agreed to perform, and willingly embarked upon this dangerous calling. He had carefully climbed and maneuvered himself and his goods over and down the three stone barriers in the respected deep canyon, not wanting to damage or mislay anything that he carried, for his survival was dependent on all he maintained. Dacoh exited the constricted canyon and passed below the hitherto ignored grave exhibition of white blanched skeletal bones, hanging overhead; he this time to pause, and to consider intently, this confirmation of Ahcoo’ah’s strength of mind, and the steadfast affection for his people.

  Meanwhile back at the village, Ahcoo’ah had called together a group of the brothers, including Oocaie, Eeboh, and Hoocoh, to go within the shade of the grove, where Dacoh and he had conversed, and to build a special lodgehouse upon that same place. The skillful sisters of the village usually were the ones who constructed the wickerups, with the brothers supplying the structural reed material; but this was an exception; the presence or touch of the women would be prohibited, upon or near this specific wickerup, in the blessed secluded glen, by Ahcoo’ah‘s exacting adamant declaration;

  “No flower vessel of this polluted valley shall set her spilled stain upon this hallowed plot”.

  Dacoh gazed with mixed emotions upon the vast desert, with mild trepidation and rising anticipation on what lay ahead. He had stood here, such times before, next to the symbolic tripod; the cautionary sign for the Rabbit People, to steer clear of the land beyond this point; but he had always been accompanied by his trusted big brothers, Oocaie and Eeboh. Out of nervous custom, Dacoh made cursory repairs on the fluttering emblem, feeling ill at ease, and hesitating to strike out into his wilderness.

  Soon he could not ignore his essential mission and he bravely started to walk into the blank page of the storied east. At a short distance, Dacoh crossed a shallow severe-sided clay-walled gulch, walked even a longer
distance further and with soft transverse steps entered into and disappeared within a huge crystal-like sphere, a panorama of pristine white sand dunes. Ahcoo’ah’s introduction to where Dacoh found himself at this time was not unforeseen; Ahcoo’ah had explained in every minute detail, each step Dacoh would make on his romantic quest to the beautiful dreamy realm of the fertile river valley. The collected timeless knowledge of all the brothers, past and present, retained by The Forgotten Ones, would constantly guide his way. Still, the actual capturing wonderment of this environment; being consumed by the enveloping untouched mounds of creamy-white powdery sand, was a peaceful affirming comfort to Dacoh. He first laid on his back on the soft sand empty bed, in the warmth of the wispy changing artful folds of the barren dunes, a tiny infinitesimal speck, just an innermost sense of one’s self, in the wide expanse of innocent space. The only hint of Dacoh’s passing interlude, his receding vulnerable footprints, very slowly collapsing inward, that would soon vanish completely, indicating ever so briefly, that not even the shadow of his essence had ever existed.

  Leaving the tranquil pliant hillocks of sand, Dacoh started to pass through the low, rising and falling, repetitious gravelly mounds of the desert, eastward; constantly making him aware of the parallel range of golden-brown gently sloping mountains, to follow his course, in the near-distant north. He was crossing a widened, curving away, shallow graveled, waterless grooved stream bed, when he heard them; quickly he crawled back into a thick prickly dry cluster of sagebrush and laid still. The sounds of clattering alluvial stones, and the murmur then louder voices, grew nearer. Dacoh could hear the chattering of the people and the scraping sound of the pole sleds as they became closer and closer to his hidden location. He cautiously scrunched-up and carefully covered his entire body with the deerskin, and scattered sand and twigs and leaves, over the outer deer’s hide and his face; nothing but his green eyes peered through a narrow slit, from the concealed pile of strewn earth and dried grass, beneath and inside the undergrowth.