Rider on Fire. Sharon Sala

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СКАЧАТЬ a half-day’s hike up and back—nothing he hadn’t done countless times before—only today, he felt unsettled. He kept going from room to room, thinking there was something else he was supposed to do, but nothing occurred to him. Finally, he’d given up and prepared to leave.

      If he hadn’t forgotten the bag he liked to carry his herbs and plants in, he would have already been gone when the phone rang. But he was digging through a closet, and ignoring the ring would have been like a doctor ignoring a call for help.

      “Hello.”

      “Adam! I was beginning to think you were gone.”

      Adam smiled as he recognized the voice.

      “Good morning, Franklin. You just caught me. How have you been?”

      “The same,” Franklin said shortly, unwilling to dwell on his illness. “But that’s not why I called.”

      Adam frowned. The seriousness in his old friend’s voice was unfamiliar.

      “So, what’s up?” Adam asked.

      “It’s complicated,” Franklin said. “Can you come over?”

      “Yes, of course. When do you need me?” Adam asked.

      There was a moment of hesitation, then Franklin sighed. “Now, I need you to come now.”

      “I’m on my way,” Adam said, and hung up.

      In less than fifteen minutes, Adam was pulling up to Franklin’s house. He parked, then killed the engine. When he looked up, Franklin had come outside and was waiting for him on the porch. He smiled and then waved Adam up before moving back into the house. Adam bolted up the steps and followed him.

      A few minutes were wasted on small talk and the pouring of coffee before Adam urged Franklin to sit down. Franklin did so without arguing. Adam took a seat opposite Franklin’s chair and leaned back, waiting for the older man to begin.

      “I had a dream,” Franklin said.

      Adam set his coffee aside and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair.

      “Tell me.”

      Franklin relayed what he’d dreamed, and what he believed that it meant. When he was finished, he leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest.

      “So, can you help me?” he asked.

      “What do you want me to do?” Adam countered.

      Franklin sighed. “I guess, I want to know if I’m right, if Leila and I had a child. I want to know this before I die.”

      Adam stood, then paced to the window, absently staring at the way sunlight reflected from his windshield onto a wind chime hanging from the porch. He knew what Franklin was asking. He just wasn’t convinced Franklin would get the answer he desired.

      “So, will you make medicine for me?” Franklin asked.

      Adam turned abruptly and asked, “Will you accept what comes, even if it’s not what you wanted?”

      “Yes.”

      Adam nodded shortly. “Then, yes, I’ll help you.”

      Franklin sighed, then swiped a shaky hand across his face.

      “What do you need from me?” he asked.

      “Something that is remarkably yours alone.”

      Franklin hesitated a moment, then left the room. He returned shortly carrying a carving of an owl in flight.

      “This was my first owl. Would this do?”

      “Are you willing to sacrifice it?”

      Franklin rubbed a hand over the owl one last time, as if imprinting the perfection of the shape and the feathers in his mind, then handed it over.

      Adam took it. The wood felt warm where Franklin had been holding it, adding yet another layer of reality to the piece. Then he took out his knife.

      “Are you still on blood thinner?” Adam asked.

      Franklin nodded.

      “Then hair will have to do.”

      Franklin sat down. Adam deftly separated a couple of strands of Franklin’s hair from his head and cut them off, wrapped them in his handkerchief and put them in his pocket.

      “Is that all you need?” Franklin asked.

      Adam nodded. “I will make medicine for you.”

      Franklin’s shoulders slumped with relief. “When will we know if it worked?”

      “When someone comes.”

      “When? Not if, but when? How can you be so sure?”

      “I know what I know,” Adam said, and it was all he would say.

      For Franklin, it wasn’t enough, but it would have to do. “Then I will wait,” he said.

      Adam nodded, then picked up his coffee cup and leaned back in his chair and took a sip.

      Franklin picked up his cup as well, but he didn’t drink. He tightened his fingers around the mug, letting the warmth of the crockery settle within him as he watched his old friend’s son.

      Adam was looking out the window, his eyes narrowing sharply as he squinted against the light. Franklin thought that Adam looked a lot like his father. Same strong face—same far-seeing expression in his eyes, but he was taller and more muscular. And he’d been beyond the Kiamichis. He’d lived a warrior’s life for the United States government.

      Franklin set his coffee cup aside, folded his hands in his lap, and closed his eyes.

      It was good that Adam Two Eagles had come home.

      Within an hour after arriving back at his home, Adam began the preparations. He drank some water before going out to ready the sweat lodge. On the way down the hillside, he got work gloves from the tool shed and a small hatchet from a shelf.

      A sense of peace came over him as he worked, gathering wood and patching a small hole in the lodge. Tonight, he would begin the ceremony. If Franklin and Leila had made a baby together, the Old Ones would find it.

      He hurried back to the house, gathering everything he needed, then walked back to the small lodge above the creek bank.

      He undressed with care, shedding his clothes a layer at a time. By the time he’d dropped his last garment, a slight breeze had come up, lifting his hair away from his face and cooling the sweat beading on his body. The first star of the evening was just visible when he looked up at the sky. He checked the fire. Ideally, there would be someone outside the lodge continuing to feed the fire, but not tonight. Tonight the fire that he’d already built would serve the purpose.

      He lifted the flap and crawled in. Within seconds, СКАЧАТЬ