by Dena Nicotra
I focused on the inside of the car. I saw the shiny black dashboard in my mind. I heard my own voice screaming and I saw Kalan’s face as he desperately tried to reach out for me. We were tumbling. It worked. I was no longer in the dark crevice of the mineshaft. I was in the car with Kalan. I had weaved back in time. Directly into Railey’s weave. Crap! My mind raced as the car hit stone and flipped. There was so little time. I knew with all my being that the next instant would have me back in my room in Arkansas oblivious to every meaningful thing in my life. Railey would follow me. She’d weave me out. It was hard to stay focused, but I knew I had to if my plan was going to work. I shut my eyes and focused on the image that Kess had pressed into my mind when he handed me the vial of sand. It was a giant weaving loom. Before it, sat giant baskets containing the sands of time, and my grandfather Levi was sitting on the floor with Genessa.
In the softest voice I had ever heard, she was explaining the history of weaving to my young grandfather. I could see them as if I were there in the room and nothing else was happening. I couldn’t help but bask in the momentary relief this gave me from the beating my body was actually taking at that moment. Even though I knew I was not physically removed from it.
I could feel the cool marble floor beneath my bare feet and I could smell the jasmine that twined around the columns in the room. I moved in closer. As I listened to Kalan’s mother speak, I realized that I was a master weaver. A special gift derived from royal blood. Blood poured from the sands of time. The tiny vial that Kess had handed to me contained ancient sand from one of those baskets. The flash of images he had pressed into my mind earlier made sense now.
Kess had done something forbidden. Something a light weaver would never do -- something his split nature allowed and justified. He stole from time. By dipping into the sacred sands, he would be punished severely. That is, his own abilities would be stripped. To save me from his sister, he had sacrificed his own gift. The image that he had shown me was a hand dipping a vial into the basket. I recognized the tattoos on his fingers, and the ring he wore. I knew it was his hand.
Knowing that my powers were restored gave me the strength to disregard the circumstances of the moment. To push out the pain that racked my physical body as Railey threatened to take my life, and separately as the car continued to careen down the side of the mountain. I centered my body and become conscious of the knowledge the sands of time gave. For one, the fact that the blanket reference that both Kalan and Kessler had taught me about in their own separate ways represented the master cloth from which all life is derived.
As a master weaver I held the secret of that power, and I called upon it with all my strength. The sands of time were used to weave the master cloth. All weaver threads tied to that cloth which was…my blanket! The secrets of the ancients coursed through my veins. With new determination, I concentrated on that dark space that held Kalan’s bones. I called to them with my mind and drew them from their sleep. “Rise up! Restore! Return to that which you belong!” I demanded. Next, I called to Kalan in the present moment. Calmly mind to mind I said, “accept only the fate that is ours!” I pressed the memories toward him of his bones on the dry floor, along with everything that followed. I knew this would be a shock to him, but he was a weaver. A descendent of royal blood, and he would be able to accept it. Just as I had accepted what Kess pressed into my mind when he handed me the vial. It was a final selfless gesture to teach me what I needed to know. The dark weaver abilities he held onto had served a purpose of light. There was so much more that I would have to sort through later.
Kalan’s body jerked and his eyes rolled back in his head. I knew in that moment that his death was undone. I had summoned his bones to his flesh and it was a master weave…a beautiful master weave. In that same moment, the car came to rest at the base of the canyon. There was a cloud of dust that was accompanied by an eerie silence. Kalan opened his eyes and smiled at me. “I knew you could do it.” He said breathlessly. Our lips met in the space of that moment, and both of us were completely whole again.
Losing the one you love the most can make you suffer in unimaginable ways because without that one person that makes your world make sense, you cannot think straight. Love keeps us safe, makes us complete – whole. Like my Mamaw and Papaw. They were one package just like Kalan and I were one package. It made perfect sense and in that moment, I did something else. I broke my promise to my Papaw and brought him back, undoing the suffering for my Mamaw, and my family without them ever knowing because it was the right thing to do. What’s the sense in keeping a promise if no one even remembers asking you to make it? Besides, sometimes, life doesn’t give us answers. We have to find them for ourselves. I followed this with restoring Peter’s life. This was my way of thanking Pepper for everything that she had done for me.
With my weaving done, I focused on the warmth of Kalan’s arms around me. I took a deep breath and absorbed his cedar-scented cologne. In his arms, I felt like I was finally home. As we held each other in that crumpled vehicle, nothing else mattered. Not time, because why should it? We had all the time in the world and more if we wanted it. I shut my eyes for the briefest of moments and thought of our bayou spot. After all, we had unfinished business there.
