Goddess Girl Prophecy

by C C Daniels

  I felt the heat build in my eyes again. Of course, an accusation like that would warrant a call to our guardians and a meeting with the principal. She may even be required to report the incident to the district, even the police. Chief Danny would surely ask even more questions.

  I stomped extremely fast out of the office, down the hall, and out the front doors of the building. Kanaan was close at my heels.

  “Wray!” he called. “Stop! Wray.”

  I didn’t stop until I was several yards from the front doors, where I stopped to catch my breath and try to calm down.

  Kanaan caught up with me. “I’m sorry, okay.”

  I was ready to yell at him.

  He took in a sharp breath. “Whoa.”

  I lowered my head to hide my eyes. He cupped my chin. I wrenched my face free from him.

  “Look at me,” he demanded softly.

  Fine. I did as he asked.

  “Wow.” His mouth was open as he stared into my eyes. “Your irises are gold.”

  He wasn’t repulsed by them like Amaya was. Instead, he was enthralled. He caressed my chin and cheek, which soothed my anger much faster than deep breathing did.

  “My goodness!” MawMaw chastised me. “Can you cut an old woman a break and slow down?”

  Neither Kanaan nor I noticed MawMaw and Honaw come out of the building.

  Kanaan quickly dropped his hand.

  “I’m sorry.” I went to her quickly and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry, too, that you had to come up here for nothing.”

  She pulled out of my embrace and leveled her eagle hen eyes on me. “It’s not nothing, is it?”

  “We’ve got it in hand.” Honaw held the passenger door open for her on his SUV. She cocked her head sideways at Honaw.

  “You knew about this, didn’t you?”

  “Not all of it.” Honaw squinted at me. “But I’ll get the rest out of Kanaan when we get home.”

  MawMaw didn’t make a move to get in. She looked at all of us. “I don’t like being kept in the dark. Especially”—she gently laid a hand on the side of my face—“when it comes to my granddaughter. Do you understand me?” She narrowed her eyes at both Lykota boys.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kanaan said. “I just want to protect Wray.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need protecting.”

  “Well, obviously, you do,” Kanaan argued back.

  “Children, children,” MawMaw admonished us just as the bell rang ending school for the day.

  “I’ve got to get to work,” I said.

  MawMaw narrowed her eyes at me. “We will talk about this when you get home. I want to know everything that went on between you and Smith. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, MawMaw.” I gave her a hug and made a move to walk down the hill.

  “You want a ride?” Honaw offered as MawMaw climbed into his car.

  “No, it’s just down the hill,” I said. “With student traffic, it’s quicker to walk.”

  “You’re not supposed to be alone, remember?” MawMaw shouted.

  Kanaan caught up with me and fell in step.

  “Thank you, Kanaan,” MawMaw said through the car window as they drove past us into the crush of a teen-traffic jam.

  Kanaan nodded at MawMaw like they were coconspirators in some special ops program.

  He and I ducked around the side of the school to cut through the junior high football field stacked just below the high school on the steep hillside. He opened the small gate in the chain-link fence and let me go through first. Then, he slipped in behind me on the single-file path. When it broadened and leveled out at the football field, he caught my hand and tugged gently for me to stop.

  “Wray,” he said softly. “You want to tell me why you get so angry lately? And that eye thing.” He paused as I turned to look at him. “It’s wicked sexy, but…” He trailed off when I looked down and kicked at the red earth. “You want to talk about it?”

  “Talk about what?” I asked. Really, I thought, which of the strange phenomena do you want to hash out first?

  “I heard that,” he said. Good. I wanted him to hear it. I kicked harder at the ground.

  “I don’t know the answer to your questions or anything that’s going on with me or with that skull,” I admitted honestly.

  You mean apple, Kanaan corrected me with a thought.

  I laughed even as I felt the tears in my eyes. Great. I rolled my eyes at myself. Now I’m a crybaby. “I really do have to get to work.” I pulled away and walked quickly the rest of the way, cutting through the neighborhood that clung to the south side of the canyon that Manitou Springs was situated in.

  Kanaan stayed with me, but we walked in silence.

  “Thanks for walking with me,” I said when we got to T-Shirt Tom’s.

  “Anytime.” He opened and held the door for me to go in. He let it fall behind me without coming in himself.

  Inhaling the wonderful smell, I calmed instantly and got right to work.

  One customer had already approved the sketch I made for his shirts. With the design app on the store’s computer, I fleshed out the art in more detail and saved a high-resolution version to Christy’s proofs-to-print folder.

  Next, there were dozens of Founders Day shirts to tag, mindless work that helped me detach from the weirdness. In a few hours, I had a huge stack of shirts with my design on them ready to sell in Soda Springs Park on Founders Day.

  With my head clearer, I left T-Shirt Tom’s feeling better than I did going in. And, there was Kanaan, leaning on the side of the building when I came out.

  Really?

  He held up his hands in mock-surrender. “I promised MawMaw that I wouldn’t leave you alone.”

  “You were here the whole time?”

  He shrugged. “I was just up the street.”

  “Kanaan.” I tilted my head at him.

  He caught my hand in his and smiled. “I wanted to.”

  We walked in silence for a few blocks, but then he broke it.

  “So, about my decoy idea, I thought that if we could make sure Smith saw us destroy the apple, the men in black might go away.”

  I was pretty certain that wouldn’t work. The more I analyzed it, the more certain I was about which piece the men in black were after. They searched my backpack, but any robber would do that. Mr. Smith only knew of the skull. I was sure of that. But the men in black came to New York long before I found the skull. So, odds were that he wasn’t connected to them.

  “It would’ve been a good idea, except Mr. Smith has to stay away from me now.”

  Kanaan sighed. “I guess I played that all wrong.”

  I didn’t argue with him.

  He was quiet for another block. “What are you going to tell MawMaw about Smith?”

  I hadn’t thought that far ahead, instead I wanted to stay in the peaceful mind-set from work.

  “At first, I didn’t want to tell her about the skull, because I wasn’t sure it was safe.” I shrugged. “She’s in danger anyway.” Because of her little secret hunk of sparkly bone. “So.” I stopped walking and turned to him. “I’m going to tell her everything.”

  “You can’t,” Kanaan blurted out.

  “Yes, I can,” I insisted.

  Kanaan shook his head. “The elders don’t want you to.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know?”

  “They called me while you were at work.”

  “You?” I was taken aback. Elders were calling teenagers now?

  He nodded.

  “And?” I encouraged him to continue.

  “When I described the skull in full detail, including its healing properties, they were horrified, Wray. It’s like I was describing a radioactive waste dump.”

  “Is that what they said?” I asked, concerned since Kai, Amaya, and I all had that sparkly dust inside us.

  “No. That’s how they sounded,” he clarified.

  Scratching his head he added, “Honaw asked why Ms. Savage was in the
meeting with the principal.”

  “She’s head of the science department and Mr. Smith’s boss.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

  “Plus, I showed her the skull the morning after I found it, remember.”

  Kanaan sucked in a breath.

  “She’s not Ute, Wray.”

  “I know, but I didn’t know what it was then.” I began to walk again. “Besides, she’s the one who told me it was a Nuutsiu artifact, and she helped me hide it from Mr. Smith. I trust her.”

  “We have no choice now, do we?” Kanaan said with a small smile.

  We came around the corner to the cul-de-sac and saw MawMaw in the front yard watering her flower boxes.

  “What are you going to tell her?” Kanaan asked again.

  “As much of the truth as possible,” I said with a tilt of my head.

  A pure Ute did not go against the elders’ orders. I wasn’t about to break that rule.

  Some people thought that since I lacked actual Ute DNA in my blood, I’d be less likely to follow tribal rules. The truth was that, because I was an adopted member, I was even more conscious of Ute culture. I wanted to prove to everyone that it wasn’t a mistake to welcome me into their tribe.

  I was ready to play it by ear and answer MawMaw’s questions as best I could without lying. If she insisted, I’ll have to play the elders card. She’d hate it, but she would understand.

  A river of water ran along the curb. Someone must have forgotten to turn off their sprinklers. Once we got closer to home, the origin of that river was clear—MawMaw’s flowerpots.

  The flowers were drowning in water. It gushed from the drainage holes and through her front yard. But MawMaw held the hose on them anyway. Her shoes were drenched. And she was outside without her cane.

  “Ah, there’s my girl.” It was woo-woo MawMaw who greeted us.

  “MawMaw, let me do that.” Kanaan let go of my hand to gently take the hose from her.

  Thank you, I thought to him.

  MawMaw latched on to my arm, making it easier for me to walk her inside.

  We heard the faucet outside squeak as Kanaan turned it off.

  MawMaw’s eyes got big and she turned to go. “The flowers!”

  I touched her elbow lightly to keep her from leaving. “They’re fine.”

  She stared at me with awed devotion. “Of course, they are. As long as you’re here everything will be fine.”

  I lead her to her easy chair.

  Lowering herself to the edge of the seat, she turned up my palms and traced the triangles. I sank to the ottoman and let her.

  Kanaan came inside. I heard him run water in the kitchen and clunk the kettle on to the stovetop. Then he leaned in the archway between the kitchen and the living room to watch us.

  “She’s getting worse,” he said.

  She was. The trances came several times a day and she was gone for hours and hours. I extricated one of my hands to put a long strand of her strong gray hair back behind her ear. Eyes soft, she let go of my other hand and slid back in the chair. I put her knitting bag close so she could reach it when she wanted it.

  It was about a year since I had lost my parents, and MawMaw’s mind was taking her away from me too. I tried to force back the emotion, but just couldn’t. Pure emotions were the worst. The moisture built in my eyes. I stood abruptly and went into the kitchen.

  Kanaan didn’t try to stop me. Still leaning on the threshold, he bounced up, turned around to face me and, in the same spot on the wall, leaned on his other shoulder.

  I wiped away a few tears as I prepped MawMaw’s mug with tea. I tilted my head back and willed the rest away.

  The kettle whistled. I poured her tea and took it to her, even though she had fallen asleep.

  “You know, it’s okay to cry, Ms. Crybaby,” Kanaan softly admonished me.

  I moved to the pantry. I know, I thought. Now just isn't the right time.

  I gathered a loaf of sourdough bread, an onion, and a few tomatoes in my arms, spun and walked back to the prep counter.

  “When will be a good time?”

  I shrugged. “I’ll check my schedule.”

  Whenever it happened, I was fairly certain it’d suck my soul right out of me.

  Kanaan smirked and stepped up to the counter. He pulled a cutting board from behind the knife block, selected a chef’s knife from the block, and reached for the onion.

  “I love sandwiches,” he said.

  “I should do the onion, since I’m already crying and all.” My joke succeeded in eliciting a smile from both of us.

  “I got this. I’m secure enough in my manhood to cry.”

  He sliced down the side of the onion and used his fingers to peel off the skin.

  “Do you have thousand island dressing?” He grinned at the onion.

  His grin warmed a spot in my chest. That cheesy warmth fanned out to the rest of my body.

  He turned and raised his eyebrows at me. “Wray?”

  “Yeah, let me check.” I opened the fridge to survey the condiments on the door. “I think we do.”

  Turning bottles until I found the dressing, I spun it around to look for an expiration date. The date was smudged and unreadable. Not sure how old this is, though.

  “It’s almost brand new. It’s safe,” said woo-woo MawMaw from the living room.

  Chapter 20

  Head inside the fridge, I took an extremely deep breath. I hadn't intended on broadcasting that thought. Breathing properly needed to be automatic. I needed to work on that.

  Dressing bottle in hand, I closed the fridge and exhaled slowly through my mouth.

  I thought we had a deal that you’d practice on me? Kanaan thought. His eyes were red from the sting of the onion.

  “Okay,” I said out loud. I reached around him for a serrated knife and the breadboard. “I’ll count in my head. You tell me which numbers you hear, even or odd.” I sliced the bread and counted just every other slice. One, I thought, three, five…

  “Odd,” said Kanaan. He opened the fridge.

  “Tell me you have meat in here somewhere.”

  “There are leftover slices of roast beef in the freezer door.”

  Kanaan found the labeled package and opened it. He rolled the meat in paper towel and set it in the microwave on thaw while I plugged in the panini press to heat up.

  I washed the tomatoes and got ready to slice them. “Again with the numbers?” I asked him.

  “Sure.” He wiped the onion tears away from his eyes.

  In my mind, I counted each tomato slice to myself, but wanted Kanaan to only hear the even numbers that time. And I was successful.

  Next, I mentally recited the alphabet and sang the scale. Most of the time, Kanaan heard only the thoughts I wanted him to hear. Considering the secrets I kept, that was a happy improvement of that quirk.

  While the three of us ate, I experimented on woo-woo MawMaw too. I mind spoke to one of them at a time or both at the same time. My success with singling them out was pretty solid, as long as my breathing was systematically deep.

  The sound of a vehicle pulling up in the driveway interrupted my practice. I sprang out of my seat to the window.

  “Don’t worry,” Kanaan mumbled through a bite. “It’s just Honaw with the camper.”

  “Really?” I spun around to face him.

  He swallowed the last of his sandwich. “No offense to MawMaw but her couch is awful lumpy. And I needed a decent place to sleep since you’re stuck with me until, you know, the apple is no longer a threat.” He peeked at MawMaw, who obliviously nibbled the second half of her sandwich. He turned back to me. “Don’t argue.”

  I didn’t.

  Mind-speak practice sapped my energy. Besides how wrong could it be to have a couple of Ute braves right outside your back door?

  Honaw knocked lightly before he came in.

  I plugged the panini press back in. “Want to fix yourself a sandwich, Honaw?”

  “Yeah, I’m
starving.”

  “The spectacular tomatoes are from my garden.” PhD MawMaw rejoined us. Along with being gone from long periods of time, the flips between her two sides were getting unsettlingly rapid.

  “Delicious, dear.” She gathered her plate plus mine and Kanaan’s to put in the dishwasher. “You boys need bedding for the camper?”

  “We’re good.” Honaw squished his sandwich under the press.

  “Fantastic.” MawMaw turned her attention to me. “You’ve got more to tell me, don’t you?”

  “Pardon?” Did she mean the mind-speak thing?

  “How quickly we forget. You’re going to tell me all about Smith, remember?”

  Kanaan stood abruptly. “I’ll take care of Ella on my way out.” He hightailed it out the door. Honaw, too, retrieved his barely warm sandwich from the press and peeled out.

  MawMaw snorted. “Your partners in crime left you to defend yourself.”

  “It’s just like Ms. Savage explained; Mr. Smith thinks I have something that I don’t.”

  “What something would that be?”

  “Some Nuutsiu artifact. I bet he doesn’t even know what it is,” I said.

  “You’re beating around the bush.” She studied me with her eagle hen eyes. “Why won’t you tell me what is going on with Smith? What does he want from you?”

  “I can’t tell you,” I said. MawMaw looked like her best friend had just betrayed her. “Because I’m not totally certain what it is that Mr. Smith wants,” I said with a soft voice. It wasn’t a lie, not really.

  “You’re hiding something.” She gently cupped my cheek with a hand. “The next question requires a yes or no. Are you in danger?”

  I couldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know, MawMaw.” I decided to spin the discussion in her direction. “What do you think? Do you have an artifact that Mr. Smith would want? Something that would put me, all of us, in danger?” I thought, taking oxygen deep into my lungs, about Mom and Dad, and the polished hunk of bone in the bed.

  MawMaw dropped her hand, nodded at me the way a debate opponent nodded when they’d been beaten in an argument. “I would never willingly put you in danger.” She dodged my question and busied herself with the kettle, dumping the water out and adding fresh for the morning.

  Willingly. She said willingly before. Were we both in the same predicament? Stuck with an item we didn’t know how to dispose of?