Here’s another sneak peek where we meet Big Crow with Little Feet, an ancient Medicine Man who seems to come and go as he pleases, always with a wisp of smoke that he swears comes from his passing through the ether.
Things get kinda weird from here on…but no spoiler.
I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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Chapter 5 – Back Seat Driver
Several hours later, I-20 fed into I-10 on the way to El Paso. Starting in Dallas, the drive across Texas would take all day and into the night, but she knew things would be fine with enough iced tea and plenty of blues. Okay, she thought, I’ll be fine if all this Native American spirit voodoo crap would leave my head alone. The words from that old Indian woman had her spooked but not in a terrified way.
As she continued westward, her head would not purge what had happened, and her body still tingled from the experience that swept through her while sprawled on the floor of the diner. She knew she had not masturbated; she never touched herself, and nothing had ever been that overwhelming. What happened to her had occurred within her…from within her. That’s when realization hit. The residual sensations she felt right then were the same as she experienced in her apartment after that first unknown dream. There was too much to consider, too much unknown, leaving her with too much distraction over the prophecy of the spirit of a Puye Princess inside of her.
Four hours later, in the latter half of the afternoon, she needed to recycle some of the coldest iced tea in Texas and find someplace to grab a refill. The first exit outside of El Paso displayed a Hardee’s sign standing high in the air, and she knew from experience they had at least the second-coldest iced tea in Texas. Kat pulled into the parking lot and circled the building to park on the shady side. The chilled rush of air conditioning felt so good inside the door under a big vent that she paused before heading to the restrooms.
Holding a giant cup of iced tea, she again paused at the door before stepping back into the furnace-fired heat of mid-afternoon Texas. The heat blasted her when she pushed through the door to the parking lot. Taking a quick sip from her straw, she hung a left to walk toward the limo.
Kat stopped short when she saw an odd-looking man dressed entirely in black leaning on the front fender of her car. He appeared to be old and very tall in a dusty black overcoat and an equally dusty top hat with an edge crushed down slightly that topped off long gray hair. In her assessment, the clothing and the old man had seen better years. In that instant, her nose picked up the scent of a wood fire. She froze, looked around for signs of fire or smoke, and found none, and honestly didn’t expect any. She knew this scent, and her eyes riveted back to the old man. She thought, Who the hell wears an overcoat when it has to be 100 degrees or more?
“Excuse me, sir,” she addressed him, irritated, “you’re leaning on my car.”
“I know,” he replied softly in a deep baritone voice, “and a very nice car it is, Katherine.”
She nearly dropped her tea. “How do you know my…who the hell are YOU?” she spat in rapidly swelling anger.
He straightened to his full height of well over six feet and spoke softly, “You are Duwit chonah mowna jawneek.”
“Oh, hell no!” she said, “not you too!”
“I am Big Crow…” he started to say.
Kat interrupted him rudely. “Yeah, yeah, I know…with Little Feet.”
He smiled disarmingly and continued, “We have a short journey to complete.”
She fired back, “Oh hell no, WE don’t! No, no. I have a journey to complete, and it does not involve you or some nomadic spirit princess. Nope, not even. I’m going to Phoenix just as soon as I get back in my car.”
He said nothing, but his icy blue gaze held her fast with as much energy as if he had physically grabbed her about the shoulders. “You will continue to Phoenix,” he agreed, “but we have a stop along the way to reconnect Shadow Eagle with his princess bride, Dew on Flowers, whose spirit resides in you. You will not be harmed.”
“No, Big Crow buddy, WE don’t have any spirit baggage in or on me, and WE aren’t going anywhere together,” Kat explained with more conviction than she felt when she first opened her mouth to protest.
He continued to look directly at her with the icy blues with big black pupils, and she could not pull her eyes away. Her feet seemed stuck to the sidewalk, and she could not take a single step toward the driver’s side door. “We need to leave now,” he stated flatly.
Like she had been drugged or hypnotized, Kat replied with an air of complete compliance, “Yes, we can leave now.”
With no further resistance, she slipped behind the wheel. Big Crow with Little Feet slid into the back seat, slouching down so his crumpled top hat remained atop his head. Without another word, she pulled out of the parking lot and turned west on I-10 before taking I-25, heading north toward Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Despite functioning well behind the wheel, Kat felt she had to be under a spell because she could not resist his driving directions. Take this exit, turn here, turn there; total compliance seemed to pour out of her, which went against everything she knew about herself. Oddly, her animosity toward her passenger began to lessen, allowing her natural curiosity to surface. “So…are you a Medicine Man?” she asked.
His smile widened in her rearview mirror, “I am a Medicine Man. How did you know, Katherine.”
“I think it was the busted-up top hat that pointed to Medicine Man. Too many movies, I guess, but every Medicine Man I’ve ever seen had a crunched top hat. No offense, I like the look. I’m not so sure about the stinking wood smoke, though,” she said.
“I apologize for the smoke. When I travel, passing through the ether creates smoke that follows my arrival. Only those I choose can smell the smoke. You only smell my smoke because I have a connection with you, Katherine, and I will always be close to you.”
Great! she thought, so how close…is close…there, Crow buddy? Were there connections here to reality? Was there even a single connection…or was this her reality now? All of this had been like a waking dream, especially with the smell of burning wood smoke accompanying the presence of Big Crow. Her ability to control her thoughts was at low tide, and she struggled to speak, but she had to know more.
“Why were Eagle Shadow and Dew on Flowers separated? What happened to them?” she asked.
Big Crow spoke slowly, “They were destined to marry. Eagle Shadow was to become the next chief of his tribe, and Dew on Flowers would be his princess bride. Plans for a celebration feast required a hunting party that traveled almost two days from their encampment to the Puye ruins for the best hunting.”
The word Puye hit her like a lightning bolt, and her eyes locked onto his in the rearview mirror.
“Do you know of Puye?” he asked.
Her mouth had gone as dry as dust, and she had to take a long draught off the iced tea before speaking. “I’ve heard the word but know only that there are ancient cliff dwelling ruins and something about rabbits running around,” Kat said nothing else.
He nodded before stating flatly, “We are going there.”
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The story is consuming me at the moment. What started as a 2,800-word short story has blossomed into over 14,000 words so far, and there’s considerably more story to tell, according to my Relentless Wench Muse, who manages to remain just out of reach. I’ll share more as the editing frenzy continues.
If you have any thoughts to share, ping me at gdogwise@live.com
Here’s an early Christmas gift :
My 1st novel, “Mirror Mirror” or https://bit.ly/4izzxpF downloadable PDF for FREE
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This chapter was posted on my blog, Learning by Living, or https://learningbyliving.blog. It’s free, and all new posts, stories, and samples appear there frequently.
Merry Christmas!
Peace!
G.