Red Fox (16 page)

I looked down at my feet,
at the holes. Something
had
been unearthed here. I don’t know how I dreamed
this but there was no mistaking it.

I glanced around me again,
scrutinizing the landscape for any extra signs. To the right, as
the foliage from the trees crept up onto where I was standing,
something foreign poked out. I hobbled over and saw a rusty shovel
lying in a scrubby brush. I picked it up and looked at the spade.
It was dark and stained with something. I smelled it. It smelled
like blood…or rust. Of course I’d think the worst thing
first.

I peered over into the
forest to see what else I could find. There was nothing except what
looked like a path. Maybe if I followed it, it would take me back
to the ranch.

CAW!

A crow’s call resounded
from the trees. I looked up fearfully but didn’t see anything in
the branches. I waited a few moments, tense and listening.
Nothing.

I looked behind me at the
fire pit and the holes. Perhaps if I started digging, I’d find
something. I didn’t know what but there had to be something here.
Why on earth would I dream about this place?

SMACK!

My head whipped back as I
was hit straight in the forehead. I fell again but this time I
caught myself on the ground with my good arm.

I never saw it coming. Then
I saw the shadow as it flew underneath the sun. The crow had
returned for me.

I looked up just in time to
see it dive. Instinctively, I reached for the shovel but I had
dropped it too far away from me. I barely had enough time to shield
my face with my hands as the crow came by again and swooped at my
forearms with its outstretched claws. I felt them sink into my thin
skin with sickening clarity. The bird made a go through my hands
with its lethal beak, trying to get at my eyes, and pecking bloody
holes into my palms.

I summoned all my fright
and used it to fling my arms to the side until the crow released
its grasp, then I made one chop into its chest. Feathers flew and
the bird was flung backward into the air. It cried, which sounded
too much like laughter, and landed on the ground with a dusty
thump.

My eyes were raging;
adrenaline flowed through every inch of my being. I was ready to
kick the fucking hell out of that god damn evil piece of
shit.

The crow flapped its wings
a few times, creating a thick cloud of dust, but to my dismay it
was still able to fly off. I watched it soar over the trees in a
crooked line. I held my breath, poised, waiting for its
return.

It didn’t come back right
away, so I quickly looked at my hands for damage assessment. I
looked like I had fucking stigmata. I gently placed them on the
dirt, wincing at the sting, ready to push myself up again, when,
out of the corner of my eye, the cloud of dust where the crow had
been stirred. I froze and looked over.

At first I couldn’t see
anything but a low, hazy shadow. Then through the cloud, a snake
emerged. It was no more than four feet away, slithering slowly
along the rough earth, heading in my direction.

I was transfixed, paralyzed
in total fear. My breathing stopped, I felt encased in ice. I
watched it come closer, watched the details of its movements, the
way the scales ebbed and flowed with each slink, the way the forked
tongue slid in and out of its angular mouth…and its eyes. Its eyes
weren’t like snake eyes at all.

I had barely any time to
think about my actions. The snake was coming for me. It wasn’t
going to stop. It would strike me, it would hurt, and there was no
way of knowing how fast the venom would kill me. I was at least
thirty minutes from the farm and that’s if I ran, which I knew I
wouldn’t be able to do with my ankle, not to mention the fucking
venom coursing through my veins. I took my eyes off the snake for a
split second and noted how far the shovel was. If I made a move for
the shovel, would I get to it first or was the snake able to strike
faster than that?

It seemed like my only
option and with each second I spent thinking about it, I knew I was
losing the battle. The snake was unbearably close now. Would I even
be able to move?

I took a deep breath and
was about to go for it when the snake pounced in one quick
movement. I had no time to react, no time to scream. I could only
sit there and watch in slow motion as the snake coiled its head
back and flung itself at me, mouth open, fangs
protruding.

I braced for
impact.

And heard the loudest BANG
rip through the sky and shake the earth. Before my eyes, the snake
suddenly exploded into a million pieces. A plume of dirt flew
straight up into the air like a geyser and my ears throbbed with
the sonic boom.

I felt wet. I looked down.
Bloody bits and pieces of snake were sticking to me. But the snake
was gone and dead.

“
Are you OK?” a voice shot
out from behind me.

I turned my head and looked
up at the slope. At the top of the ridge was Bird, white Stetson on
his head, pistol in hand, looking like something out of a Gary
Cooper film. He was staring down at me, his face stern.

He may have just saved my
life. I looked at where the snake was, just to make sure it really
was dead, that I really managed to escape that. It was gone. I was
safe.

I nodded, not sure what to
say.

“
Stay there,” he commanded
and quickly slid down the slope, jumping down the last bit. He
knelt beside me, sorrow etched into his knobby forehead. He looked
me over and nodded to himself a few times.

“
You’ll be OK. Can you
walk?”

“
Yeah,” I croaked out. I
cleared my throat, trying to seem more in control and less stupid.
“I can, my ankle kind of hurts but I don’t think I sprained
it.”

He walked around behind me
and pulled me up from underneath my arms, careful not to hurt me. I
got to my feet, too embarrassed to even look him in the
eye.

“
Thank you,” I said
quietly.

“
A snake is a bad omen.
Killing one can be even worse,” he said. “But it would have been
far worse if that one had gotten a hold of you.”

“
Was it
poisonous?”

“
The worst. But it can’t
hurt you now.”

“
You must think I’m a total
moron. Going off into the mountains by myself, not even telling
anyone. And now my whole left side is a disgusting
mess.”

He lay his hand lightly on
my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. His own were gentle, as
always, and seemed to possess endless wisdom.

“
I don’t think you’re a
so-called moron. Though you should have told someone where you were
going. But I was watching you, the whole time, until you
disappeared from the mesa. I know now I don’t have to tell you that
these hills aren’t as pretty as they look. There’s a lot more
things out here than snakes, worse things. I know you won’t be
doing that again.”

I shook my head, looking at
the ground, feeling like a child.

“
And your arm isn’t as bad
as you think.”

He licked his finger and
brought it down against it. The dirt lifted clean off showing the
skin beneath had only superficial scratches.

“
We’ll get you cleaned up.
Come on, would you like me to carry you?”

I smiled anxiously. “No,
I’m good. Really. Lead the way.”

He walked down through the
trees, through the makeshift path I saw earlier, offering his hand
every few steps. I stubbornly refused in the nicest way
possible.

We walked through the
forest for about five minutes. I felt the elevation dropping and
the air growing warmer, even underneath the fragrant
shade.

“
So,” I said. “I noticed
someone had been there before.”

“
Sure,” he replied and kept
walking forward.

“
There was a fire, a
shovel, footprints. Looked like people were digging for
something.”

“
It happens all the time
here.”

“
Is it Miguel or
Shan?”

Bird laughed and skirted
around an outcrop that stuck out into the trees. “No, not them. New
Mexico is a lot different from Oregon. We don’t have a lot of
property laws. People generally come and go on your land as they
please.”

“
But digging up stuff, I
mean whatever it is, isn’t it yours?”

“
It depends. If they are
looking for Navajo objects, it’s probably everyone’s. Everyone
Navajo that is. To be honest with you, if a fellow brother finds
something Navajo on the Lancaster’s property, it’s better off in
their hands anyway. Will and Sarah wouldn’t care, they don’t follow
that way anymore.”

Interesting. I almost
detected a hint of animosity in Bird’s gentle voice.

“
Is it a big problem when
people give up their…way?” I asked.

“
It can be. It usually is
for their families. But, you know, people in town, we’ve all become
a lot more tolerant. It’s a shame but you can’t blame them in this
day and age. It wasn’t working for them, maybe. Maybe being a
Christian has been more rewarding.”

I stifled a
laugh.

“
You can’t tell me they
feel more rewarded,” I said. “For someone as blatantly Christian as
Sarah…” I shook my head. “That woman is not rewarded. She’s a
hypocrite.”

Bird stopped and I almost
ran into his back. I was suddenly afraid I had angered him. There I
was shooting my mouth off again.

He turned and looked at me,
eyebrow cocked. “You think Sarah is a liar?”

“
No. Not at all, I just
don’t get how she can be all Christian and religious and stuff and
then act like the complete opposite. Maybe it’s just me though.
Maybe she just rubs me the wrong way.”

He nodded, musing it over.
He looked up at the trees and the sunlight filtering through the
needles. Bird always seemed so poised.

“
You have to understand…she
wasn’t always like this. Even years ago, when she was still blind,
she was a lot better. I don’t know what happened. Especially
lately. But Will and Sarah are not an easy pair to figure out and I
can only say that forsaking the Navajo way can’t have been easy,
ever. Growing pains. Besides, all religions are full of
hypocrites.”

“
True.” I nodded.

“
What do you believe in?” he
asked gently.

“
I believe
in God. Or some great power beyond what we can imagine. But I think
religion is a manmade prison,” I answered honestly.
Try telling that to my father,
though
, I thought.

“
You’re a smart woman,
Perry. There’s a lot more to you than some people give you credit
for. I know you feel that.”

I smiled shyly. “I
guess.”

“
Don’t sell yourself short.
I think you’re going to need every ounce of confidence while you’re
here.”

His last words had a bit of
an edge to them. I didn’t like that.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I think you know. Will
explained to me what happened last night. And look what happened
just now. You…being here…is not going to be easy.”

“
I can handle it,” I said
bluntly. He was starting to sound like Miguel.

He chuckled but his lips
quickly turned down. “That’s the spirit. I believe you can.
But…what I’m trying to say is that you,
you
are causing this.”

I stiffened.

“
And it’s going to follow
you, wherever you go.”

I felt currents of
electricity spark at the base of my skull and travel down my nerves
in waves.

“
I don’t understand,” I
said.

“
I’m not the wisest man.
I’m not the most powerful. I am just a man amongst others just like
me. But I do know I have more connection, more…heart,” he reached
over and tapped my upper chest with his hand, “to people, to the
earth, to the spirits. I listen closely and I hear things. I open
my eyes wider and I see things. You’ve got a lot of energy, a lot
of power in your little form, and there are some things in this
world, and in other worlds, evil things, that are going to want to
take that from you.”

My first thought was that I
was living
Poltergeist
and I was the little girl and Bird was that creepy midget
psychic woman. My second thought was a sick sort of relief. I
wasn’t sure if I believed it entirely but what Bird said confirmed
a few thoughts I had of my own. Yes, I had always felt I was
different. Only to think that there was something special about me
was rather egotistical, so I avoided it.

“
I don’t think I’m all that
special,” I said.

He smiled. “I know you
don’t. And that’s part of your ‘charm.’ But the sooner that you own
it, the sooner you’ll be in control over what happens to you. You
must prepare for anything now and you must,
must
realize that whatever happens to
you, it’s not going to be easy.”