The previous three days Ray and Dan spent doing research on the water shaman and ways to disband an evil spirit’s hold over the land or a home. The problem they were running into is that even in the era of the internet there were little authentic instructions available online. Frequently ideas about spirits and healers, prayers and exorcisms among the various tribes and even individual families and web owners from a specific tribe gave conflicting ideas and instructions. Ultimately, the two had decided that the soul of the creature stalking them must have a fairly wide territory it tried to maintain, but they felt that it was centralized, or at least presently residing in the immediate area around Daniel’s home. That, Daniel repeatedly asserted to himself, gives us an advantage.
While they built their case and prepared for Daniel’s interview on the twelfth, Rachel had implemented a regime of sitting together cross-legged in the living room and placing a tobacco wrapped prayer stick into a bowl of water between them and quietly meditating or praying. To one side she would also place a prayer stick on a small stone bowl she found in the kitchen and burned it, and to the other side she would fill a small terra cotta planter with dirt and bury another prayer stick. This was done each night relatively close to bed time for the two. Daniel recognized it was mostly a hedge against any nightmares or attacks while they slept, but for the most part it seemed to be working. The rain itself hadn’t stopped but it seemed stable and light most of the time, and this alone provided some comfort.
In spare moments when they weren’t research, talking or praying, Rachel had spent time looking for postings at the various parks. There were openings, but she seemed disinterested in them. Neither she nor Dan understood whether that was because she was looking for some resolution to the water shaman situation, or if she was just naturally in a bad funk over her career prospects. Daniel suggested, only once, trying as best he could to make sure he didn’t mean with himself, that perhaps it was time Rachel developed a relationship with someone again. His intent was that perhaps finding a so-called soul-mate would give her some direction, and likely a good number of goals to start working towards. But Ray would have none of it. In some ways that discouraged Daniel from entertaining the idea of finding someone to be his companion in his wife’s absence as well.
For his part, Daniel also had activities he worked on singularly. He was practicing to see if he could control the rain more. He had some success, enough that he could during high spirits acknowledge that he had indeed slowed or increased the rain at his command. However, during quieter and more solemn moments, such as after he tried to advise Rachel in dating, he could just as easily describe it all as wishful thinking. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Certainly he couldn’t make the waters tower upon itself like he’d seen in a movie about Moses. But he was also unsure of why he’d have any effect at all. Nothing in their research indicated any reason that Daniel could think of in his past or about him that should give him particular surreal skills such as controlling rain, nor of prescience about an evil spirit stalking them. It was as if the darkened soul had just selected him for its own reasons.