Chapter 8, Wohpe
Shirley had been driving for days…her destination close at hand, Devil’s lake was just a few miles away, and she would try to locate the family of Dan Ghostwolf. The crystal that lay in a box by her side seemed to be growing hotter by the moment. She finally found the small town of Minnewauken.
Shirley found a small group of ramshackle houses near Summit hill, she searched for the address that was on the box mailed to her from North Dakota. A small trailer Park rose up out of nowhere to her left and the dirt road ended. This is as far as she would be able to go; the rest of her journey would have to be done on foot.
The lustrous blue sky transformed into deep sunken amber. The clouds disappeared as they were replaced with heavenly hawks, which soared high in the sky to watch over their traveler. All seemed peaceful, but Shirley had a sense of foreboding and fear started to creep its way into her consciousness. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck raised, and a tingling sensation rising up through her spine. She found an old dilapidated mobile home, the red paint had worn off eons ago, and the front lawn was littered with rusted motor cycles, baby carriages, bicycles, old Tonka trucks and a mountain of garbage. An old black dog was lying under a small wild growing raspberry bush; he didn’t even bother to look up.
"Hello... is anyone there?" Shirley asked her voice just above a whisper. She could feel the crystal growing hotter inside the deerskin and the box that protected the crystal. Walking along a wide path, she stumbled across a broken down shack that was something of an eyesore. Shirley prepared herself then knocked ever so gently upon the front door. No one answered. Shirley walked around the shack to the back, there were clothes hanging on a clothesline, but they looked like they had been hanging there for a very long time, in fact they were very stiff to the touch, drab looking and there were holes in them….Shirley instinctively went to feel them, they must have been hanging there for years….
"Stop!" came a gruff voice from a clearing among the trees. "Who are you?"
"I am a…I’m here to find the family…” Shirley was completely taken back by the appearance of a very old much wrinkled white haired man. “I’m looking for anyone who might know Daniel Ghostwolf.”
Eagle Flying Bye recognized Shirley as the paleface who visited him on many nocturnal occasions.
“Dan is my grandson.” Eagle Flying Bye announced. “Why do you look for him?”
Shirley a great inspirational speaker by trade, became very still, emotion swept over her features. She tried to regain her composure. A lump formed in her throat, “May I sit down, please?” Shirley asked.
The medicine man realized that Shirley had news of his grandson. “Certainly, Miss….We have not been introduced….”
“Oh, I’m sorry, my name is Shirley Cohen, I traveled here, from New York City, trying to find someone who knew Dan Ghostwolf and to clear up a few things for me.”
“Did my grandson send you here?” queried the great Shaman.
“No…., well sort of….I mean, maybe. Mr. Ghostwolf, I have some news for you…” Shirley’s voice trailed off….
“My name is Eagle Flying Bye, but my friends call me Sam.”
“Well Sam, there is no easy way to say this, but your grandson’s body was found off Fire Island, apparently he had drowned…” Shirley’s voice was just above a whisper. “The Police told me they could not find any of his relatives, and I had to come here…to find out a few things or clear a few things up…I’m so sorry….”
Eagle Flying Bye stared at the young woman for a very long time. “Then this is not why you are here….You didn’t travel all the way from New York to tell me that my grandson is dead?”
“Well, no…Shirley confessed, “…I, well this is very strange, but, to tell you the truth, your grandson mailed me a package….the return address was here, on Summit hill, but it was postmarked from New York City….I know this sounds strange, but he mailed me something and I was just trying to find out, why.”
“I think I know what it is that my grandson sent to you…” Eagle Flying bye announced. “How do you know that it was my grandson who had drowned?”
Shirley spoke very truthfully, “My fiancé went missing over two and a half years ago now, and when the police found Daniel’s body, they found Darren’s wallet on him.”
“This man Darren, was he your husband?”
“Yes, he was a Paleontologist, and he excavated in the Badlands. He disappeared, and no one ever saw him again…” Shirley lied.
“My grandson told me that he had found a body in a crevice….” Eagle Flying Bye knew that Shirley was being deceptive. But he quietly waited for her response.
Shirley skipped over any reply or query about Darren. “Your son mailed me a crystal. A stone…more than a stone, but I can’t explain this, but it, well he left me instructions on how to care for it and well, ‘feed’ it,"….Shirley was staring at the medicine man to see his reaction.
“Daniel informed me that the body of the man he found had been murdered.”
Shirley stared blankly into the face of the wise elder. “I know.”
Shirley slowly revealed the box that she carried protectively at her side. Inside the box the crystal lay wrapped in deerskin. Shirley had used thick rubber bands to enclose the crystal. She undid the rubber bands and stared at the box. A piece of white quartz lay in this box…
”Your grandson mailed me this…” Shirley looked confused. “I’m not sure what this is, so I travelled here from New York to shed a little light on the subject.”
The great Shaman sat beside her, and told her the most extraordinary tale about the beast that sleeps in the deep crevices of the Badlands. She turned and looked straight in the man's eyes with utter disbelief, and began to laugh.
"It is no laughing matter my young friend." Eagle flying bye reproved her.
"You don’t really expect me to believe in this monster, do you?” Shirley mused.
"If you keep that stone, you will believe and then wish that monsters remained nothing more than a myth." The medicine man announced. “My grandson was given that crystal and it took away the lives of his wife, my blessed great grandchildren, and now……him.”
"Well then, let us find out who is telling the truth."
Using her left hand, she unhooked the latch lifting the lid of destiny. The hawks that soared above in the sky of harmony vanished as quickly as they appeared. The leaves on the nearby trees rustled then inexplicably fell to the ground, leaving a barren and desolate carcass of wood. The cold wind blew across the land from the south. Within a matter of minutes the land became void of sound.
"What happened?" Whispered Shirley
"By opening the box you have awakened Uktena, the owner of the Ulun'suti.’” The great counselor advised.
"Who is this?" …Uktena?
"The great serpent you hesitated to believe in."
Their eyes scanned across the horizon searching for some paranormal experience. Nothing is worse than having to wait for the inevitable to happen. A single strand of lightning struck the earth a short distance from where the two sat.
Clouds of dust sprang to life as two enormous wings surfaced. Eyes of pearls stared upon the two who either had the courage to stay or who were just too foolish not to run.
"Who is the keeper of the transparent crystal?" The question was transmitted mentally.
Shirley peaked through her clasped hands to see before her a snake of such size and strength that she could only whisper a prayer pleading to leave this god forsaken place. The medicine man looked upon her legs that trembled with fear, and did the only thing that could possibly be done. A gentle and kind hand caressed her leg, as if to give her confidence to her inner soul. The medicine man pulled her hands away from her face, gazing into her eyes.
; "It is now time for you to take responsibility for what you have caused to happen, and I will be by your side." The great warrior promised.
"I do not think that I am capable of confrontation.” Shirley confessed.
"Then you should not have awakened the beast that stands before you." Said Eagle Flying bye, as he caressed his Keya, an amulet that held his umbilical cord that hung around his neck.
Eyes of pearls turned to eyes of ice, as Uktena glared upon the inferior beings. The serpent’s tail ferociously swung from side to side, rattling loudly, encompassing the two in clouds of dust so that they could not see anything but what stares back.
"Who is the caretaker of the stone?" The great serpent demanded.
Shirley knew that this time was the time to make things right once more or this serpent would do what comes naturally to a beast such as he... Feast upon the weak.
"I am the keeper of the stone." Shirley announced.
"Then you must answer correctly this riddle, in order for you to obtain the great knowledge and strength that the crystal bestows on the safe keeper.”
The great medicine man gave words of encouragement to Shirley and told her that she should listen to her heart and not her mind when she was asked the riddle.
"Are you ready?" The great serpent hissed…
"Yes I am." Shirley lied.
"What is the smallest yet strongest conqueror known to have lived a million lifetimes, and will continue to live long after you have perished?"
Oh no... So many possibilities, but which is the right answer? The puzzled look on Shirley’s face was a bad omen. She stared down at the scales of the serpent and began to ponder which answer to give, for she knew she had a limited amount of time.
She stared at the ground beneath her, hoping that the answer she was about to give would be correct. Standing, she turned to look at the old native, giving him a wink, as if to say not to worry.
"I think I have the answer." Shirley stated.
Uktena peered down, knowing that the answer she was about to give would more than likely be the wrong one. It is times such as these that the great serpent would rather tell the individual the answer instead of having to deliver them into the bowels of hell.
"May the answer you give be free from thought and true of heart?" The great serpent stated.
"Hunger?” Shirley asked.
"This is what you give me... you are nothing more than an inferior being with nothing to offer the human race."
Her soul cried out, wringing through countless dimensions into trillions of kalpas of time. The medicine man dropped to his knees, weeping for his grandson, his family, and now this woman who he promised to protect.
"You could have left this place unharmed if you had never opened the box, to reveal that infernal crystal.”
"What is so special about the crystal?"
“The crystal contains the conqueror of which Uktena spoke of."
The ghostly apparition of an opening suddenly appeared in the back of the shack on Summit Hill. As the bowels of hell beckoned, a voice drew Shirley closer to the gates of the Dark underworld. The door began to close, and for the first time she realized what was in the crystal ... Terror. Terror is the answer that she needed to give, for she was frightened to death, her heart was filled with the answer, terror.
The great serpent hissed, its great head in Eagle Flying bye’s face, “No mere mortal can save her.”
“Please…Great Eagle Flying bye…Save me!!” Shirley’s voice echoed, it echoed through the caverns, through the black hills, through the great expanse to the Badlands....it echoed through the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters....taking the jet stream her voice could be heard calling....echoing through the Atlantic corridor, to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. "Save me Eagle flying bye, free me free me.....” Until all of Turtle Island could hear the cries of the woman of the wilderness...
Eagle Flying Bye, being a great warrior, did not fear, but knew that this was now his battle. The great medicine man stooped down to retrieve the box that carried the crystal, and knew he must prepare for the battle of a thousand lifetimes, but how to win such a battle? He spoke out loud, “Well there is nothing to fear, but fear itself.”
Sophia Begot Barbelo
Once upon a bygone time,
Before the pen of nursery rhymes
When water flowed with finite brine
Epinoia spewed perfume’s divine.
But there was no nose to smell her vine
No tongue to taste her fruits of wine
No ear to listen to music chime
No eyes to see radiant beauty shine
No touch to caress in evening time.
And as the fountain of all radiance
She spewed star dust; the first ether dance.
Birthed daughter Sophia; Mother’s first romance
a mirror of magic in winds of enhance.
A mother’s child full grown one day
and taught her love a virgin’s way
together breathing garden spray
in radiance of heaven’s play.
Potential grew from far away
Came down to earth and kissed the clay
then the tiller appeared in break of day
as girls made boys to share and play.
And as earth crust twisted, formed and turned
molten magna within her burned
A ball of butter formed, when churned
Made cosmic fire explode her ferns.
The sun shone hot to bake her clay
As spinning mass made night and day
An atmosphere to soothe the blaze
As heavens called; Adameh raised
To rapture some to paradise above
All woman’s spirits flew like doves
Gave every life a taste of love
As each newborn’s eye, spied mom above.
Love was the essence of her connection
Robbers came; taught man insurrection
And made clay genders with sore infection
To mine for gold little god defections.
And stars on high cried heaving tears
As gasses flamed and terrors seared
And gods fought earth as man stole gears
And soured the wine; binding woman in fear.
And earthquakes rocked; volcanoes blew
boiling lava overflowed,
hurricanes made nightly news
Tsunami tidal waves crashed through.
The heavens pulled the earth apart
as ozone holes exposed hinder parts
when black oil spilled gusher starts
Made men to die from weak failed hearts.
And mother's womb took back her chord,
They didn't know that she was Lord
So all men died of one accord,
Their breath cut off by the Elysium sword