Tricked

someone to teach them healin’ ceremonies, askin’ people for illegal shit like eagle feathers ’cause they got it into their heads that there’s some huge black market in feathers on the reservation. Six of ’em found me in the canyon, and whoever told ’em to find me there deserves a swift kick in the cooter. I was sittin’ down, see, doin’ a sing, a little private prayer, and you know how it is—once you start you ain’t supposed to stop, ’cause it’s an insult to the Holy People. Well, those hippies found me and didn’t wanna wait for me to finish. They started sayin’, excuse me, sir, yo, dude, hey, old man, can we talk for a second, and of course I ignored them and kept singin’. If I gotta make a choice between bein’ rude to the Holy People and bein’ rude to six white people, I’m gonna be rude to the white people every time. «
    » Right, « I said, nodding in agreement. I wouldn’t interrupt one of my ceremonies either.
    » Well, they didn’t wanna take the hint. They got more insistent, shouting at me. Tapping me on the shoulder. Then one of them chucked me hard on the side of the arm, here « —he pointed to his right upper arm— » and it knocked me over sideways, startling me and stopping my sing. «
    » That’s terrible! « Granuaile said. » Roundhouse kicks for everybody! «
    Frank grinned at her. » That’s more or less what happened, heh! Before I could sit up again, I felt this wind—my hat blew away—and I heard a noise, kinda like a door shutting on a storm outside. Then all their feet left the ground and they were blown back, flat on their asses, and they didn’t move. «
    » Oh! Were they dead? « Granuaile asked.
    » Naw. Just unconscious. I sat up and faced the east, and there she was. It was Changing Woman, and I knew this without her saying anything. I apologized for stopping my song and she forgave me, said she understood. She’d come to give me some gifts. She knelt down in front of me, and she touched my eyes here at the corners, « he said, putting his fingers at the outside edge of his eyes, » and said I would be able to see things I’d never seen before. I started cryin’, because, you know, damn , it was Changing Woman. She touched my throat and said the Holy People would hear my songs better from then on. She touched my right hand and said my sandpaintings would always be perfect. And then she gave me a special jish . Said that when I spoke the words and used it, one of her children, Monster Slayer, would come to Fourth World again, once and once only. Said I would know when it was time.
    » When I saw that giant thing climb out o’ the top of that little ol’ lady’s head yesterday, I thought it was time. That was somethin’ that didn’t belong in this world. «
    » You’re right about that, « I said.
    » Yeah. But now I don’t know if I did the right thing. Mr. Benally knew about it—he’s one o’ the few people who believed me—and he was tryin’ to tell me, no, don’t waste it now, save it for the skinwalkers, but I didn’t listen. « He hooked a thumb in the direction of Darren’s body. » Now I’m thinkin’ maybe I shoulda waited, you know? «
    If only.
    » Even if you still had the jish , Frank, « I pointed out, » you couldn’t have saved him last night without interrupting your sing. «
    » True, « he said. » But that don’t make me regret what happened any less. «
    There was nothing I could say about his regret, except to perhaps offer the advice to suppress it savagely. It keeps you functioning.
    » What happened to the hippies? « I asked, to distract both of us from our regrets.
    » Oh. Well, Changing Woman told me they’d wake up eventually, but she didn’t say when. It was summertime and hotter than a branding iron down there, and part o’ me thought it’d serve them right to get sunburned, since they wanted to be red men so badly. But then I thought they might get seriously burned, and I didn’t want to be responsible for that. So I did my best to drag them into the shade. One of them was too damn huge and I couldn’t move him, so I put my hat over his face and hoped he’d be all right. «
    » That was kind of you, « Granuaile said, smiling at him. » I know from experience that a bad sunburn can make you terribly sick, so that was a good precaution. «
    » What could you see after Changing Woman touched your eyes? « I asked.
    » Most things were the same. But some things weren’t. I saw some colors