by T. Isilwath
She shook her head. “No. It’s Cougar.”
“Koooo-gahhhh?”
She giggled at his attempt to say it. “Cougar,” she repeated. “It’s a big cat.”
“A big cat?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Like a lion or tiger, only a little smaller.”
“Tigers. I’ve seen drawings of tigers in books from China, and Tiger is one of the twelve year animals.”
“Cougars aren’t striped like tigers. They have yellowy fur like lions.”
“We don’t have such cats here.”
“I know.”
“Why is your animal this koo-gahh?”
“It’s a long story, but basically I had a vision in a sweat lodge.” He blinked at her, completely perplexed, and she had to smile. She put down the mussel she had just finished and took a sip of water before explaining.
“Many tribal people participate in a special ceremony for purification.”
“Purification? Yes, I understand. The priests have purification ceremonies, and holy men and mikos can purify things too.”
“Yes. Anyway, five years ago I was undergoing this ceremony, and, while I was in there, I saw Cougar.”
“You saw the cat?”
She nodded. “Yes, and when it was over, I told Michael about my vision, and he told me that Cougar had come to me to be my guide. He told me that having Cougar as a Guide was very special because Cougar was one of the two animals that stayed awake during the Seven Nights of Creation when the world was made.”
“Have you ever seen a koo-gah?”
She sobered, her eyes turning dark, and nodded. “Once. When I was still living in California, I saw one. I was walking with my family in the woods near our house, and I thought something was watching me, so I stopped on the trail and looked around. A moment later I saw this face with these huge yellow-gold eyes staring at me from the trees. If it hadn’t blinked I wouldn’t have known it was even there. It was as close to me as you are now.” His eyes had gotten wide with concern and he leaned closer to her.
“What happened?”
“I froze. It was like I couldn’t move because I was being held captive by those eyes. I couldn’t even call for help.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. The cougar stared at me for a while longer, then my father came looking for me because he’d realized that I wasn’t with the family anymore.
The cat heard my dad coming, turned its head to look towards him, hissed loudly, then slunk off into the forest. A second later it had blended so well with the trees that you couldn’t even see it anymore. We reported it to the warden.
He told us a bunch of people had been attacked recently, so the cat had probably chosen me for its next victim, but my dad scared it off.” All the tension drained from his shoulders, and he sighed with relief. “Oh I am so glad that you were not hurt. I was afraid that you were going to tell me that it had attacked you, and that was how you got the blood sickness.” She laughed softly and shook her head. “No. My blood sickness runs in my family. My grandmother on my father’s side had it.”
“Ahh, yes. The ills that follow families,” he said, nodding in understanding.
She nodded. “Exactly.”
Dinner was finished so she sat back to watch the sunset. The colors were spectacular and shared only with Akihiro and herself on their own private beach. Akihiro had stretched out on the blanket draped over the sand and was now lounging with one hand supporting his chin. He was pretending to watch the sunset, but she saw that his ears were turned towards her, and they twitched every time she moved or made a noise.
“I practically grew up on the beach,” she admitted, breaking the comfortable silence between them. “We lived less than five miles from the coast, and we used to spend almost every weekend there in summer. My brother liked to surf.”
“Surf?”
“It’s a sport. Ummm, a person takes a long wooden board that’s been covered in wax and goes into the water. Then they find the biggest wave, stand on the board and ride the wave to shore.”
He blinked at her for several moments then shook his head. “That’s crazy.
Why would anyone do that?”
“Because it’s fun.”
“Fun? What happens if you fall off the board?”
“Usually you’d swim to shore or grab your board and get back on, although sometimes you get eaten by a shark,” she answered with a wink.
“A shark! See? Crazy!” he said, wide-eyed, but his expression was one of amusement.
She giggled. “Any crazier than skiing? That’s a sport where you strap two thin boards to your feet and slide down the side of a snowy mountain.” He snickered. “Do you do this?”
“Yeah, it’s fun.”
“Fun? I’m not sure I like your idea of fun,” he commented nonchalantly, pretending to be more interested in his nails than in what she was saying.
“Then there’s bungee jumping,” she said, smiling wickedly. “That’s where you tie a stretchy rope to your feet and jump off a bridge.” That one got him, and he howled with laughter for a good minute, then shook an accusing finger at her. “It’s not nice to make up stories.”
“I’m not. Every word I told you is true.”
He snorted, obviously not believing her. “Then you Cher-o-kee are all insane. I am glad that they live far away from here so they cannot teach the villagers how to do this “bun-geeee jumping” or skiing. Your people must be very bored to have so much time to do crazy things.”
She chuckled. “We do like to do fun things to pass the time.”
“What does your brother do now? Does he live in your village?” It was an innocent question, but the words struck her like a physical blow, and she had to swallow the sudden, sharp pain.
“N… no. No, he died,” she answered softly, looking down at her hands.
Akihiro lowered his ears and looked contrite. “Forgive me for causing you a painful memory.”
“It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“Did he… did he have the blood sickness too?” he asked tentatively.
She shook her head. “No. No, he was killed. He died the same day my parents and sister died. They were all killed at the same time.” There, she’d said it and the admission hadn’t made her want to vomit.
If it was possible, he looked worse and bowed his head. “I am sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she assured him.
“Were they killed in a battle?”
“A battle? Sort of. It was an attack, yes. A lot of people died that day.”
“A war with armies and soldiers,” he commented sadly. “The daimyos here fight petty wars over land, but it’s the villagers who suffer. The fever that killed my mother was brought by soldiers.”
‘That’s right. He’s an orphan too.’ “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that she died.”
“It would never have happened if Chichi-ue had been alive. I curse the day the monks from Mt. Hiei murdered him,” he spat angrily.
“Mt. Hiei? The warrior Buddhist monks?” she asked.
Akihiro nodded. “They slaughtered him like a common dog and made his skin into a drum.”
‘A drum?’ She’d heard a similar story about a famous kitsune from Japanese folklore whose parents had been made into a drum. “Like Genkuro’s parents?”
He blinked at her, surprised. “You know of him?”
She nodded. “I’ve heard stories. I’ve also heard of Tamama-no-mae.” Akihiro grimaced and curled up his lip. “Don’t speak her name. She was a terrible dark kitsune who killed thousands of people. I am glad that she is dead.”
“I heard that she sucked the life out of everything around her.” He nodded. “Yes. She was a horrible beast. She had nine tails and she used all of their power for evil.”
“How many tails did your father have?”
“He had six when he died. He was a great kitsune. He helped people and he loved my mother very much.”
She smiled at the un
disguised pride in his voice. “He sounds like a very honorable fox. His name was Kazehiro? The Wind Fire?” He sat up straight and nodded. “Yes. Kazehiro. And my mother was the Lady Yukiko of the Takeda clan. She was a great woman. She gave me life and loved me when no one else did. She sacrificed everything for me.” He paused, then cocked his head at her. “Who were your parents?” She wondered how she should answer him. In this time, only nobility had surnames because the common folk wouldn’t be allowed to create family names until the late 1800’s. Finally, she decided to mirror his answer.
“My father was William of the Tindall Clan. My mother was Nancy of the Long Hair Clan. My grandmother is Ruby Spider-Weaver Woman of the Long Hair, and I have two names: the name of my father’s clan, Joanna Marie Tindall, and my Cherokee name that the Elders gave me: Sings in Winter.”
“Sings in Winter. Because you like the cold,” he said with a soft smile.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“You must miss the cold now with summer so hot and humid.” She rolled her eyes. “You have no idea. I am so glad these coastal breezes make the heat bearable. I’m glad we came here. Thank you, Akihiro.” He blushed and smiled sheepishly. “You said you needed salt.”
“Yes, but you didn’t have to bring me to the best beach in all of Japan.”
“I figured you would want to be away from people so I brought you here. I knew it would be empty.”
“How did you ever find this place?”
He lowered his eyes sadly. “After Haha-ue died I wasn’t allowed to stay in the village where we lived anymore. I left and wandered for five years without a home. One day I found the tunnel that led to this beach. It was quiet and isolated. I spent half a summer here once, and I’ve come back every now and then.
No one has ever bothered me.”
She suddenly realized that he had brought her to a place where he had found sanctuary, and she was humbled by the amount of trust he had shown in her.
“Akihiro, thank you. Thank you for sharing this place with me. I am very honored and grateful.”
He blushed the way he always did when she praised him and picked at a few blades of grass. “It’s nothing. You do far more. You saved my life and accepted me into your place of safety. You shared your food, and your medicines, and you took care of me when I was sick. Bringing you here is a very small part of the debt that I owe you. It is I who am honored and grateful to be able to share this place with you.”
She reached over and patted his hand gently. “You owe me nothing. What I did, I would have done for anyone. You repay me well enough with your friendship and your presence in my life. I don’t need any more than that.” He looked at her, and his eyes were so vulnerable and open that she couldn’t resist. Without hesitation, she took him into her arms and hugged him.
“Thank you for being my friend, Akihiro.”
“Joanna… Joanna-sama…” he breathed, wrapping both arms around her and burying his face in her hair. His embrace was gentle but desperate at the same time, like he didn’t want to cling to her but couldn’t help himself.
“Don’t call me that,” she chided gently. “I’m no lady.” He pulled away to look at her, his expression one of adoration and awe, and he raised his hands to boldly cup her face. “But you are. You have no idea. You are my lady and I belong to you. I am yours until the breath leaves my chest and my body turns to dust.”
As she stared into his amber-brown eyes, digesting his heartfelt words, she remembered something Michael had once said to her about the nature of the fox.
‘The heart of a fox is forever faithful.’
Foxes were monogamous, choosing one mate over the course of a lifetime.
Michael had told her that he emulated the Fox because he had chosen her to be his lifelong partner. In many ways, Akihiro had just made a very similar vow and she almost feared the consequences. She knew that he was besotted with her, but she hadn’t realized how strongly he had bonded to her until now. If he believed that she was the one for him, then he would accept no other until she (or he) was dead.
She was silent for too long, and the expression on her face must have concerned him because he pulled away and looked forlorn.
“Forgive me. I was too bold,” he apologized, cringing slightly.
She wanted to tell him that he had her heart too, but she couldn’t because deep inside she was still Michael’s. She had known that they were growing more and more attached to one another, but she had done nothing to prevent it because she did not want to be alone. For the first time, however, she truly despaired the outcome of her situation. It seemed that no matter how it ended, her fox would be destroyed, and that knowledge was a terrible pain.
With trembling hands, she reached for him and gently laid his head in her lap. It was an intimate gesture in the Japanese culture and she knew it, but she wanted to tell him how much he had come to mean to her without actually saying anything. He resisted at first, his eyes going wide, then allowed her to lower his body down until his cheek rested against her thigh.
“No, it’s okay. I understand. I’m grateful for your devotion. Thank you,” she told him quietly.
Akihiro sighed and nuzzled his nose against her knee as one hand came up to lightly clasp her calf. She petted his hair then began to rub his ears, telling him how much she cared with actions instead of words, and they remained silent, each lost in their own thoughts, as they watched the sun go down.
Chapter Twelve
The following morning they dug the shallow evaporation pit and lined it with the rain tarp. The dark brown color of the tarp would increase the rate of evaporation, and the waterproof lining would prevent the salt from being contaminated with too much sand. They filled the pit with water taken from the cove, then went about their business. Over the course of the next few days, they would repeatedly refill the pit and allow the water to burn off in the sunlight, leaving the crystallized salt behind.
Once the pit was dug, lined and filled, she went to change into her bathing suit in anticipation of going into the water. She left her GPS transceiver at the camp with her insulin pump because she doubted that it was waterproof (her insulin pump was only water resistant, but it was safe to leave it off while she was swimming). She checked it every time they returned to refill the pit. She didn’t expect it to be beeping, but she felt it was safer to have it just in case.
Her bathing suit was modest by modern standards: a dark blue tankini with a swim-mini skirt, but Akihiro’s jaw dropped when he saw her in it. There really wasn’t anything she could do about his embarrassment because her second suit was a true spaghetti-strap bikini, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when she showed it to him. She had half a mind to put it on just for the shock value, but decided against it. The last thing she needed was for him to bust a blood vessel or hyperventilate. She finally managed to convince him that she was dressed decently, but he still blushed every time he looked at her.
They went crabbing, using the nets and baiting the traps with small bits of fish. Joanna didn’t have high hopes of too much success because crabbing was a chore back home even with the proper equipment, so she was understandably shocked when they managed to net almost two dozen crabs, plus a lobster, within the first two hours. It spoke volumes about the actual populations living in the waters, and told a sad story of overfishing and contamination of the seas in the modern times.
The water was completely untainted, and she noticed a marked change in the taste of the fish and crustaceans they caught. The variety of fish shocked her as well, not just the numbers. There had to be thousands of separate species living in the cove, all existing together in the delicate balance of the ecosystem and dependent upon each other for their survival. How many of the fish she was now seeing would be wiped off the face of the earth before anyone even knew they were there? No one had any idea of the kinds of creatures populating the world until scientists started quantifying them and recording their species for future reference. From oral traditions and loc
al records, they had an idea of the extent of the damage, but to actually see it was a completely different story.
The tragic tale of human waste and folly was evidenced everywhere, and she darkly mused that all the nay-sayers and skeptics of her time need only come to this place to learn the error of their ways. Then she realized that her little “accident” might allow them to do just that. If the engineers were able to recreate the circumstances that caused her to be thrown back in time, then maybe they could harness its secrets.
Scientists from all over the world could collect data from any era. They could record climate changes, the thickness of the ozone layer, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere; they could gather all the “evidence” these nay-sayers said they needed and prove that the theories of global warming and ozone depletion were right. Maybe then more people would sit up and listen, and work harder to clean up the mess they had made. Even species that had been hunted to extinction could be collected and saved. Plants and animals that had been completely destroyed by deforestation, destruction of habitat, and over fishing or hunting, could be repopulated and reintroduced into the wild.
Foreknowledge of diseases and disasters that had killed thousands could be used to prevent the spread or minimize the impact. Epidemics like AIDS, Ebola, Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu and West Nile Virus could be stopped dead in their tracks before they got a chance to get a foothold in the general populace. Earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions… all of these could be addressed and the people relocated before they caused a single death.
Maybe even the terrible events of September 11, 2001 could be stopped before they happened, and her family could be saved.
For one bright, beautiful moment she basked in the joy of that possibility.
She could almost touch it with both hands: her parents, her brother, her sister all alive and healthy. But then she realized that she also would never have moved to North Carolina or known Elisi or met Michael. She would never have become Sings In Winter or fallen in love or learned to live in the forest. She wouldn’t have gone to Western Carolina University or won the homestay or traveled by Quantum Gate. The accident would never have happened, and she would never have been thrown back in time to meet Akihiro. Without the accident, then there would be no reason for the engineers in the modern era to try to repeat the time shift, so chances were they wouldn’t discover that the Quantum Gate could also act as a time machine.
