Published: 28 Oct 2019
Places of Power
Over the next few weeks, Joe, TomTom, Adam, and I go to kivas – places of power – including some of the most ancient ones. At each one, TomTom and the local shamans use the words in the book to reach out to Phillip’s world, to his shaman.
We are not successful. Uncle Jim says he has an idea, but would need TomTom’s help for a couple of weeks. TomTom and I talk before he leaves. He is sad he will be alone for that long. I remind him Casey is living with Uncle Jim, and that TomTom thinks Casey is a nice boy. “See how Casey reacts to you,” I tell TomTom. “If he seems receptive, ask him to share.”
TomTom wants to know if it really would be okay with me if he shared with Casey, and I remind him of our talk about being boyfriends. I also remind him of the words in the book, that love shared is love multiplied. He says he understands, and then grins. “And if you find someone, someone cute and worthy of you, you ask them, too.”
Uncle Joe and I stand on the porch. Johnny Dashee, Uncle Jim’s husband, has come to take TomTom to their home. Johnny’s Hummer had not left our sight before Joe speaks. “We cannot waste the next two weeks. I arranged for you to be admitted to the kiva at _____. The shaman there is Alan Redrock. He is young, but accomplished. He will expect you. Take the truck.”
I arrive at the kiva in late afternoon. The Diné Park Ranger on duty warns me that it is about to close for the day.
“My name is Oliver; I was sent here by Joe Leaphorn. I’m looking for Alan Redrock. Can you say where I might find—”
“That’s me,” the ranger says. “They told me to expect a bila… sorry, a non-Diné shaman. I didn’t expect someone so young.”
I laugh. “They told me to expect a young but wise shaman. I didn’t expect to find a park ranger. Oh, and I’m not a shaman. I just know some—”
“There are no tourists left; it’s nearly closing time,” Alan says. “Come with me, please?” He hangs a chain with a ‘closed’ sign across the path, and leads me into the eastern entrance of the kiva. He locks the door behind us and flips a switch. A battery of high-power arc lights illuminates every corner of the kiva.
“If you don’t mind? Would you turn off the lights? I have a gasoline lantern—”
“Sure,” Alan says. He switches off the lights. The only illumination comes from holes scattered high on the walls, the holes through which the sun will shine at different times of the year. It takes only moments to pump the lantern to pressure and light it. Alan lead me to the floor of the kiva.
“This is one of the largest kivas. It has been reconstructed as closely as possible to the original, and has been opened to tourists for seven years. It is still used for ritual, and at times is closed to visitors.” He pauses. “Sorry. That’s what I say a dozen times a day.”
“Please don’t be sorry,” I say. “I am interested.”
He continues his story. When it is over, he asks. “I was told to offer you all possible help. What may I do?”
I invite him to sit on one of the benches beside me, and open the book. “Here is a chant. We do not have the herbs, but we don’t need them at this point. I will recite the chant. You may accompany me—”
“I’ve seen that chant,” Alan says, “I’ve seen it before. It’s—” He abruptly stops speaking.
“It’s on a gay web site,” I say.
He nods. The light from the gasoline lantern is not as bright as his blush. “Yes … I read…”
“Please do not be embarrassed. I am on the team that posted the story—”
“You’re that Oliver?” he asks.
“I am.”
I have read the chant so many times I’ve memorized it; Alan focuses on the book. We begin. It takes a few seconds before we feel the cadence and synchronize our voices. Alan’s tenor and my baritone harmonize and reverberate. At the end of the chant, Alan looks up and then grabs my hand. I have already seen the vortex form in the center of the kiva.
However, Alan has broken his concentration and mine, and the vortex disappears.
“It’s real,” he whispers. “I knew it. You really are a shaman!” He leans toward me and kisses my cheek.
“Oh, shit! I’m sorry!” he says, and pulls away.
“Please do not be sorry,” I say. It takes only an instant to close the book and set it aside. I put my arms around him and pull him toward me. “Please do not be sorry,” I say, again, and kiss his cheek. He trembles in my arms, so I release him quickly. Funny reaction. He blushed when I caught him reading a gay web site; but his kiss seemed both instinctive and sincere. Wonder… He interrupts my thoughts.
“It’s nearly 6:00; you can’t drive back to Window Rock, now. Will you stay the night?”
“Yes,” I reply. “I’d like to try the chant again, tomorrow, before the kiva is open to tourists. Is there a motel—”
“Not one you’d want to stay at,” Alan interrupts. “Besides, I’d like you to sleep – I mean stay – with me.” He is blushing, again.
I thank him. “May we stop somewhere for supper—”
“My nephew and his boyf … uh, his friend live with me. I have to feed them. It’s not too late to throw something together.”
It is easy to convince Alan to let me buy take-out, which includes both Navajo and Tex-Mex tacos, as well as burritos, refried beans, and rice.
Alan leads the way into his home. I am still kicking dust from my boots when a little tornado swarms into the room and slams into Alan. “Tex-Mex! I smell Tex-Mex! Oh, who is that?”
A teen walks into the room a little more sedately. “Hi, Uncle Alan.” He waits, but raises an eyebrow in question.
“Boys, this is Oliver, adopted into Salt Clan, and a shaman. He’s here to do some work at the kiva, and will be staying with us for several days. It was his idea to bring home the food.”
I didn’t want to correct Alan in front of the boys, so I let it slide that I am a shaman. Maybe I could clarify that, later. It didn’t help my plans when the older boy speaks.
“My name is Jacob Whitedeer,” the older boy says. “In kiva, I am Nastas. This is my friend, Ethan Cooper. He has not yet been admitted to kiva, but his nickname is Hok’ee. I think that will become his true name, as well.”
“I’m very happy to meet you, Jacob also Nastas. I am Gaagii, raven.”
“Raven is your spirit guide? Raven is a trickster and a thief!”
I laugh, and then realize Jacob doesn’t think it is funny. “I don’t have a spirit guide. They say my name is for my hair. I’d like to talk more, but I believe your boyfriend is going to starve if he’s not fed.”
Jacob stares at me. “Yes. We need to talk, and Ethan does need his supper.”
“Nourishment,” Ethan says. “Require nourishment.” He imitates a robot in both voice and his movements, but that doesn’t keep him from being the first at table.
It is hard for Alan to ask, but I encourage him, and eventually he does so. “Will you sleep with me? I can make up a bed in the guest room if you’d rather…?”
“Alan, being your guest is an honor; sleeping with you is a greater honor. We worked together in harmony in the kiva. I would like to explore that harmony, further.”
He blushes. Alan’s really cute when he blushes, and he does it a lot. “Thank you, Oliver. And thank you for sharing your true name with the boys. You honor them. My true name is Ata’halne.”
He who interrupts, I think, and managed to keep a smile from my face.
I have enjoyed sex with TomTom for several weeks. It is beautiful. But TomTom is a boy, and I am always afraid, somewhere deep in my mind, I would hurt him. There is no thought of that with Alan. He is not only my age, he is also strong and sturdy. Our sex is “athletic,” in a word. We take nearly an hour, an hour of grasping, groping, and wrestling before we reach the decision of who is going to be top and who is going to be bottom. In the end, it doesn’t matter. We look at one another, eye-to-eye. We reach a peak of ecstasy together. We come at the same instant.
Barrone
“Oliver says he is afraid of hurting TomTom because he is a boy. Are you afraid of hurting me? Are there things you won’t do because you’re afraid you’ll hurt me?” Rudy asks. He and Alexis are cuddled after sex and before sleep. Their voices are low.
Alexis hugs Rudy. “Rudy, forever-beloved, it’s not the sex but the love. If I need a workout, many tweens here could give me one. Yes, even when just hugging you, I have to be conscious of my strength and your size. But I’m not afraid. If there’s anything we’re not doing now, we’ll be able to do it when you become a tween – in another seventy years or so, I’d guess.”
Rudy abruptly changes the subject. “Someday, I want to meet TomTom. Please?”
“When Master Criticus says you may create a gate, we will try to reach him. I cannot promise we will succeed,” Alexis says.
Hok’ee’s Story
The next evening, Alexis continues reading Oliver Linden’s story from the Book of Heroes.
“I’ve learned some of the language of the People; besides, there’s this web site that has the translations of names on it. ‘Hok’ee’ means abandoned. Why does he have that name?”
Jacob and I are alone for the first time since we met. I take the opportunity to ask this, even though I am afraid how he might react. Jacob answers in an intelligent, rational, and caring way.
“He knows what the name means, and we talked about it. Yes, he is abandoned, as are nearly a third of all children of our family – what you call a tribe, but which we call a nation.” Jacob looks at me. His eyes bore into mine.
“Jacob, brother, please do not let semantics come between us. I have only a few words of your language; you know both English and Diné. If you agree to help me understand, I promise not to jump to conclusions before asking you.”
Jacob seems to understand my commitment. “Ethan is born to __________. But that clan does not accept the current definition of…” Jacob hesitates, but then says firmly, “… love. Ethan and I found one another a few months ago.
“I was walking home from school, when I heard a ruckus in an alley. Normally, I would have ignored it, but I heard a voice call for help.” Jacob shudders. “It was a boy’s voice, a soprano voice from a boy who hadn’t passed puberty. And, it was not only in my ears, but also in my mind.
“I felt a pull toward the voice, and followed it. I saw a boy held face down in an alley. His pants were pulled down, and an older boy was kneeling over him. The older boy’s pants were unzipped, and his penis was erect. It was pretty obvious what he intended.
“I don’t know why – I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now – why I knew I had to do something.
“I pushed the rapist away from the boy. There was an unpleasant confrontation. And, there was something else: I felt a presence that gave me courage. It was enough that when the rapist and his friends realized I wouldn’t back down, they slunk away.
“The boy is Ethan. We have been together since then. When he is older, Alan will adopt him and he will become my brother. When he is old enough, I think he will become my lover.”
At Kiva
Alan and Jacob share the book; I rely on my memory. We begin the chant. The high tenor of the boy’s voice adds to the harmony Alan and I had established earlier. The vortex forms. It is small and insubstantial, but it seems stronger than before. It fades quickly after the chant ends.
“Alan,” I say, breaking the silence that falls. “You will have to decide this, but, it seems to me that the harmony of our three voices made the vortex stronger. What might happen if we add Ethan’s soprano? Does he have to be an initiate?”
Rather than answer me, Alan looks to Jacob. “Is he mature enough for initiation? Is he mature enough to keep a great secret, one that may mean the life of our people?”
Jacob doesn’t hesitate. “Yes. Especially if you tell him how important it is, especially if you tell him how much you trust him, he is not only mature enough, but strong enough. I know this, for I know his spirit. But, I don’t know his spirit guide, and he does not either, for he has not completed a vision quest.
“I think,” Jacob continues, “that he and Gaagii both need to undergo vision quest.”
Rudy takes the place of Petrus as Alexis’s pillow. A couple of the younger boys yawn. “Shall I continue, tomorrow?” Alexis asks.
“No! It’s just getting good,” Rudy replies. The others echo this.
“Oliver did not write about the vision quest, or what spirit guide showed itself to Ethan. Those are secret. He did write that he saw Raven, who assured him that he would help Oliver be clever, but not become a trickster or a thief.
Oliver Linden’s Story – Continued
I ask Raven how he can be other than true to his nature. He tells me he isn’t accustomed to being challenged, and that he is also not accustomed to bonding with a bilagaana and an adult, at that. We seem to reach an understanding.
“You are said to be a trickster, like Coyote,” I say.
“I am called that,” Raven replies. “Tell me, again, why you were adopted by the People.”
“I brought them a book that tells of their magic and warns of a possible future,” I say. “I was adopted not as a reward, but to ensure I would keep their secrets. Also, I think, so that I would continue to help explore their magic.”
“You tell the truth,” Raven says. “Oh yes,” he continues, perhaps in response to my feeling of disbelief in his ability to assess the truth. “Raven can lie; but Raven can also see what is a lie and what is truth.
“Your brother, Joe said he would give you something insubstantial. Have you discovered what this is?” Raven cocks his head and looks at me through only his right eye.
“A reason for living, and my name,” I say. “Before I came here, I was content to be a translator, creating nothing, but only repeating what others had said. Now, I find I can use what I learned to help my family – my Diné family. I know I am part of that family because of my name – which is also yours,” I remind him.
After the ceremonies are over, Jacob and I find ourselves alone.
“I understand how I got my name: for my hair, although someone may have been a fore-seer, since Raven became my spirit guide” I say. “I understand why you named Ethan, Hok’ee. But your name, it means ‘curved like foxtail grass.’ How did you get that?”
Jacob grins. “Do you really want to know?”
“Well, yes, unless it would break a confidence or embarrass you,” I say.
“Only if you will have sex with me,” he says. He drops the grin. His voice is firm, without any quaver or hesitation. “I am adult, you know that and what it means.”
“What about Ethan?” I ask. “And Alan?”
“Ethan is still too young,” he says. “We cuddle. That’s all. And Alan? Alan lost his boyfriend nearly a year ago when he moved to California. Alan has been alone since then. You broke him from his shell. Oh yes, I know you two – you’re really noisy, you know – and this is a small house! Anyway, he will think it’s a good thing.”
Barrone
“Well?” Chandler demands. “Why did he have that name?”
“Do you really want to know?” Alexis asks.
“Yes,” Chandler says. “But only if you’ll share.”
“Hmmm. A pretty high price. Okay. It was his penis. It is curved upward just perfectly to hit the prostate of any boy he has sex with that way.”
“Wow,” Ethan says. His eyes are wide. “I wonder if there’s a spell – ”
“You are not to put a spell on anyone’s penis!” Alexis says. “Especially your own.
“At least, not before talking to me.”
Oliver Linden’s Story (Continued)
There are eight of us in Kiva. Jim Chee and his husband, Johnny Dashee brought TomTom and Casey. I get a smile from Casey, and when I hold out my arms, a hug. It is a good hug, and I think I see a promise of more when I look in his eyes. Oh, how I wish for the powers of empathy that I read about in the book!
Joe Leaphorn brings Adam and his new boyfriend – one of TomTom’s cousins from next door; however, they are too young to participate, and wait outside under the eyes of one of Alan’s co-workers.
The signs at the kiva tell the tourists that it is “Closed for a religious ceremony.” Alan lets us in before dawn. We carry the bundles of clothing Jim Chee and TomTom created. After Alan locks the doors, we open the bundles. They contain moccasins, breechclouts, bands to hold back hair and to be tied to arms. Other bands, with bells tied to them, are for ankles and wrists. All are decorated with intricate, beaded designs. That’s what had taken Jim and TomTom two weeks to do.
Ethan gets a stiffy – that’s what he calls it – and giggles when Jacob helps him into the breechclout. Alan moves as if to quiet them, until Johnny says that their bond would strengthen the magic, and besides, Johnny says he gets a stiffy too, every time he puts on a breechclout. That brings more giggles to Ethan, and grins to us all.
There’s little I can say about the ceremony. Johnny is the Eastern Drum; Casey, Jim, and Tommy complete the drum circle. The chant is read by Alan, Jacob, Ethan, Joe, and me. Joe’s basso profundo rattles our teeth, and makes the vortex even more palpable than we could have imagined.
Our success opens the door to further experimentation. After several attempts, we succeed in contacting the shaman from Phillip’s world. He tells us what happened after Phillip left and about the flower that reached Johnny Two-Horses. He tells us what he and Johnny talked about after Phillip and Argon had been transported to World. TomTom tells him about Phillip’s adventure, and promises to try to send a copy of the translation to the shaman. The shamans talk about what is happening to their culture, their worlds, and the climate. They pledge mutual support. I cannot say more about that, though.
This book wraps up many of the stories of World, though we hope it is not the last from the fertile mind of David. Let David know you are reading: David dot McLeod at CastleRoland dot net. He deserves your feedback.
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