Soul Scent: A Zackie Story (The Zackie Stories Book 2)

by Reyna Favis

“Seriously, Uma? Kemosabe?” Ron’s eyes squinted with merriment as a grin erupted on his face and he let out a deep chuckle. “You realize, if he’s the Lone Ranger, that makes you Tonto.”

  Ignoring him, she went on. “We wash the body of our dead and dress them in new clothing.” She began holding up a finger for each point she made. “We comb the hair, but we don’t give it grease. That’s only for the living. And we paint the face with olaman before we put them in the ground. That makes it red.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she sat back, daring Cam to contradict her.

  Cam blew air from his puffed cheeks and also sat back. “All right, I guess I buy it.”

  “And that spirit’s not confused. He knows he’s dead. He comes with his face painted red.” Lenora circled her own face with a finger.

  For a few long minutes, no one said anything as we pondered the plight of the Lenape spirit. I slumped in my seat and my limbs grew heavy. The images of the people seated at the table swam and distorted as I fought to keep my eyes open. I was nearly out when Lenora came up with something that made me bolt upright.

  “Bring your dog to him.”

  “Wha- what?” I looked straight at Cam. Did she know?

  Cam had a much better poker face than me and his voice was level when he spoke. “Why should we do that, Lenora?”

  “Once the lenapeokan departs from the body, it travels along the Milky Way, and eventually joins the Creator in the twelfth heaven. Deceased dogs stand guard at the bridges connecting the Milky Way to the abode of the Creator. Souls of people who mistreated a dog or done other evil will not be allowed to cross these bridges. If this spirit is evil, he will be afraid of the dog.”

  A wave of relief washed over me. Zackie’s secret was safe. If people knew about the psychopomp, there would be no end of trouble with folks wanting to send messages to their dearly departed or making special requests for escort to the other side. “Oh, well that makes sense. I guess we-”

  “Also, the old Lenape used to bury the dead with dogs. Dogs served as guides for the departed souls on their way to the next world.” She said this so matter-of-factly that I actually nodded in agreement before my head snapped around to look at Cam again.

  Cam’s features froze in that bland look he does when he needs to feel something out. “I see… So, you think Zackie might be able to help this spirit go on to the afterlife?”

  “Maybe. The dog will do what she wants to do. We can’t force her to help him.”

  Ron leaned forward, planting his elbows on his knees and looked at us earnestly. “See, we don’t believe that man has dominion over the earth and animals. We’re just a part of things and all things of creation are equal and necessary, worthy of respect and honor.”

  Intuitively, Lenora and Ron understood the fundamental truth about Zackie. The best thing about their worldview was that if Zackie were able to bring the Lenape man through the portal, there would be nothing surprising in this. It would just be accepted. As far as I was concerned, the fewer explanations required, the better.

  Cam nodded and his face cleared. “We’ll do just that. Zackie will come with us when we talk to the Lenape spirit.”

  “Good.” Lenora stood up. “You all clean up. I’m going to bed.”

  # # #

  “I exhausted all natural explanations, so I needed to look into unnatural explanations.” Peyton arched an eyebrow in silent accusation as she told me this. I thought I’d be the first to arrive at Peyton’s home, beating Cam and his sleepy houseguests by a good fifteen minutes. Ron and Lenora were only an hour off from their regular waking time in Oklahoma, but travel had taken its toll and they were slow to rise that morning. Meanwhile, Lucas and his film crew had been devastatingly efficient and were already busy filming background footage for the story.

  I stuck my hands in the pockets of my fleece as I watched the activity. “So, you thought you’d call in some ghost busters?”

  “That’s right. You got a problem with that?”

  I sighed and scraped my fingers through my bangs. Out loud, I said, “No, no problem with that.” Internally, I thought that this was going to royally complicate everything.

  Lucas finished directing the crew on what images to capture and his eyes widened in recognition and surprise as he approached. His arms extended and he grabbed me in a bear hug, lifting me off my feet. “Fia! Wonderful to see you again.”

  I returned the hug, because, well… Lucas. “Good to see you, too.” He smelled of sandal wood and coconut shampoo and I got a rush of memories from our last spirit encounter. As he returned me to solid ground, I thought that maybe between us we could make things work and release the Lenape spirit.

  Lucas took the opportunity to murmur into my ear. “This is the case where she thought it was a raccoon?” I gave enough of a nod for him to feel and he gave me a squeeze to let me know he understood.

  Peyton took in the scene of fond familiarity and narrowed her eyes at me. “Why do I get the feeling that this isn’t your first rodeo?” Crossing her arms over her chest, she turned her gaze to Lucas. “I take it no introductions are necessary?”

  Grinning, Lucas dropped an arm over my shoulders. “Definitely not. We’ve worked together before.”

  “Oh, have you now?” Peyton directed this question to me, but I was spared from answering as Cam’s truck pulled up. The warmth of his embrace left me as Lucas strode towards the truck to greet Cam.

  “Cam! How the hell are you?”

  “Good, good.” Cam exited the cab and engaged Lucas in a back-slapping hug before opening the tailgate for Zackie. Meanwhile, Ron emerged and trotted around the truck to help Lenora. Armed with her capacious handbag, she gingerly stepped down from the cab. Moving forward to wish them a good morning, I caught a whiff of ammonia before Hannah shoved me and I stumbled.

  “Fleet of foot is our Fia.” Ron chuckled as he caught me one-handed before I hit the dirt.

  Blushing heavily, I struggled to get my feet under me and caught the look of uncertainty in Lucas’s eyes as I righted myself. His grin faltered as he gazed at Ron. At that moment, Lenora stared hard at Lucas and then squealed and burst into a smile liked an excited little kid. Having never seen her smile before, I froze, immobile as an ice sculpture, not knowing what to expect. “Hey, I know you. You’re that ghost hunter guy. I watch your show all the time.”

  The grin returned and Lucas stepped forward to shake her hand. “I’m Lucas Tremaine. Very pleased to meet you.”

  Ron spun around to see the celebrity, abruptly releasing me to wobble in place a moment before regaining my balance. “Oh my God! It’s Lucas Tremaine.” Ron stuck out his hand and pumped Lucas’s hand vigorously. “I’m Ron and this is Lenora. We watch you all the time back in Oklahoma.”

  “Great to meet you, Ron. How do you know Fia?”

  Before Ron could speak, I interjected. “We met when we were little kids.” I did not want Lucas to know anything about my psychotic past, how Ron and I were institutionalized when we were kids. He thought I was pretty normal except for the spirit detecting thing, and I wanted it to stay that way. Maybe Ron would show some discretion, but I couldn’t be sure.

  “Oh, childhood sweethearts?” Lucas’s voice was teasing, but his eyes were still shadowed by uncertainty.

  Ron laughed. “We shared more than Valentines growing up. We lived—” Catching the look of near panic in my eyes, he stopped speaking and changed course. “We were close.”

  Lucas bit his lip and nodded. “Well, I guess I better get back to work and go take a few readings…” He let his voice trail off and he shot a furtive glance at me before walking back to the crew. I almost called out to him to stop, to let me explain, but then the moment passed.

  “You might have been better off with the truth.” Cam muttered the words, but Peyton’s sharp ears picked up his comment.

  “Speaking of truth, how about I get a little of that?” Peyton looked from me to Cam. She shifted her weight to take on a casual stance, but I could tel
l she was pissed.

  Lenora sensed the tension and decided to take the opportunity to pile on. “You been lying to this lady, little girl?”

  I blew out a breath. “Not exactly. It’s more like we offer up logical explanations and let her draw her own conclusions.”

  Ron nodded. “That’s why I like Lucas’s show. He does that. I never saw him make a claim that something weird was going on. He just gives you the evidence and you figure it out.”

  “Well, we got something really weird going on right here.” Peyton’s eyes widened as she spoke and color rose in her cheeks as she struggled to keep her temper. “I want you to tell me straight up what you think is going on. Is it that dead woman from the search? Did she follow me home?”

  Cam took a step forward and laid a gentle hand on her arm. “Easy there. It’s not Maggie Pierceson.” He slanted his eyes towards me and gave an imperceptible shrug. “It is a spirit, so you’re right on that front.”

  Peyton whirled on him. “Well, why didn’t you just tell me this from the get-go?”

  “Would you have believed us from the get-go?” Cam kept his voice level and did not react to Peyton’s escalating anger.

  She inhaled deeply, bunched her fists and was about to launch into a diatribe, but then she clamped her lips shut and breathed heavily through her nose. Briefly closing her eyes, Peyton shook her head as if to clear it. Throwing her hands in the air as the universal sign of ‘I give up,’ she took another moment to think before she spoke. “No. You’re right. I would not have believed you. I needed time to come to my own conclusions.”

  “Look, I’m really sorry we have to do things this way, but sometimes we can just clear things up and no one has to be traUmatized by anything.” I sighed. “Things didn’t work out that easily for you, unfortunately.”

  Peyton nodded in resignation. “Yeah, but things aren’t really worked out yet, right? I heard booming from the trailer just this morning. If it’s not the dead woman, who is it?”

  “He’s a tribal man from a long time back. That’s what they told us.” Lenora jutted her chin towards Cam and me.

  Peyton’s mouth fell open. “For real? But why? What did I do to bring this on?”

  “Why you? Don’t know, but we’ll ask.” Lenora shrugged eloquently.

  “All of this just makes no sense to me.” Peyton’s shoulders slumped and she shook her head morosely.

  “Welcome to the club.” Cam turned on his heel and began walking towards the trailer. Zackie had preceded him and was circling it, nose to the ground. There was no sign of our Lenape friend and I worried that Ron and Lenora had made that long trip for nothing. If the spirit didn’t want to show himself, we had little recourse. We gathered around the trailer and soon, our small group was joined by Lucas and his film crew.

  “Is he here?” Peyton’s eyes shifted nervously.

  I shook my head. “I don’t see anything, but-” A spray of gravel flew past me and bounced off the side of the trailer with a sound like a hail storm. Awesome. Just what we needed. The spirit had gone poltergeist. I spun around, shielding my face with upraised arms, while trying to pinpoint where the gravel came from. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Lucas with a handheld camera aimed towards the woods. The second round of gravel formed an arc around him and was then directed back into the woods as Hannah returned fire. She was having none of it. Flying gravel from the woods stung my arms and I felt a moment’s irritation as the lack of cover for the rest of us registered. Hannah cared only for Lucas.

  A voice growled from the woods. “Alëmskakw, wèmi, yukwe!”

  I shook my head, struggling for comprehension. With nothing making sense, I yelled out, repeating what I heard. “Ron! He said ‘Alem skok wemi yuk way.’”

  Lenora spat an invective as Ron shielded her from the worst of it with his broad back. “Mahtënu!” The word formed meaning in my brain - Bad man!

  The rain of gravel ceased as suddenly as it had started. Ron shifted slightly, minutely relaxing his defense of Lenora. “He said ‘Leave, all of you, now!’” Twitching wide, frightened eyes toward me, his voice sounded strained. “Maybe we should –”

  Before I could respond, the voice from the woods came again, but this time he was sobbing. “Ktalënixsi… ktalënixsi!” And this time, I understood. You speak Lenape!

  Ron began to repeat what he’d heard. “He said – ”

  “He said, ‘You speak Lenape.’ I can understand him now.” I grinned back at him.

  “We have our breakthrough at last.” Cam wiped a trickle of blood from his face and closed his eyes briefly.

  The voice from the woods cried out again and it was pitiful. “Where have you been? All these long years…I searched and I searched for you…” The voice broke and a wailing sob echoed through the woods. But this was heard only by Cam and me.

  Peyton cocked her head and squinted. “What was that? It didn’t sound like a screech owl or a coyote. It was really faint, but the hair on my arms is standing up.” The camera crew dutifully filmed the hair on Peyton’s arms and I rolled my eyes.

  The voice had faded to a croaking rasp. “Is she with you?”

  I sidled over to Cam and lowered my voice. “Who is the ‘she’ he’s talking about? Maggie? Zackie? Someone else?”

  “How the hell should I know?” Cam glowered at me as he whispered back. “We should just ask for clarification.”

  I hissed my response, yanking my bangs back in frustration. “What if we piss him off because we don’t know who ‘she’ is? He might go back to throwing gravel or just take off on us.”

  “Zackie can go and hold him in place while we try to figure this out.” Turning his gaze to Zackie, she cocked her ears and tilted her head and then shook herself. It seemed like the canine version of shrugging her shoulders and saying ‘whatever,’ since she subsequently trotted off into the woods.

  “Aiiiiaaa! Let go!” The brush rustled vigorously, accompanied by the sound of breaking branches. “I am not ready. You cannot force me, red dog.” A short, low growl thundered from the woods and the tumult ceased.

  “Should we go in?” I took a step forward, but Cam held me back and shook his head.

  “Let Zackie handle him. He can hear us fine from where we are.”

  Lenora breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good. I’m too old for that shit.”

  Cheek twitching as he suppressed a smile at this remark, Lucas motioned to the camera crew to reposition on the periphery of the woods in order to capture the action from several angles. The woods were deathly still – no birdsong, no skittering of small animals in the brush. Even the breeze had died. The sky was blue with a bright sun, but the stillness felt ominous and I chewed on a cuticle.

  Cam cleared his throat and began. “Who is she? The woman you asked about?”

  The spirit’s voice cracked. “She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra.” The branches started rustling again, at first gently, but then with increasing violence. The scent of ozone filled the air and I feared that we would lose him.

  Turning to Ron and Lenora, I relayed what the spirit said. “What is Audachienrra?”

  Lenora answered me, her eyes watching the branches as thick pieces began to fly despite the lack of wind. “The root of the may-apple. It’s very poisonous. Kills you in two hours.”

  “Back off, Cam, or we’re going to lose him. Whoever ‘she’ is died because someone poisoned her and this event is too emotional to start with. Ask him something else and quick.” I forced the bangs out of my face and nervously shifted my weight.

  Cam fired off a new question to divert the spirit’s attention. “What is your name?”

  Lenora spun towards him, her face livid. “Don’t ask him that!”

  “Why the hell not?” Cam threw his hands in the air and his brow furrowed.

  “The name dies with the man,” Ron explained. “It is an abuse to say the name again after someone dies. Ask him who he was instead.”

  “You can ask him yourself.” Cam folde
d his arms, obviously nonplussed by all the unknown rules in dealing with this spirit.

  Ron repeated the question in Lenape and the voice from the woods replied with pride. “I was the one who counseled the chief.” The force behind the swaying branches diminished with the scent of ozone and I smelled tobacco wafting in the air.

  Lenora nodded when I shared what the spirit said. “He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief, how did you die?” Cocking her head as if she could hear him, she waited for a reply.

  “I hunted bear with my family. Brother bear grabbed me by the jaw and crushed my head. He was quick and I did not suffer.” I winced as he said this and heard in my mind a sharp crack as his skull gave way. “Brother bear had a good hunt that day.”

  I translated for the hearing impaired and then asked a question of my own. “What did you do to Maggie?”

  The spirit roared and my eyes widened as I took an involuntary step back, almost tripping over Cam. “Fia, he’d just calmed down! Now look what you’ve done!” In an effort to mitigate my inflammatory question, Cam tried to soothe the spirit. “What she means is, do you know what happened to Maggie?”

  “She died, just like She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra!” The spirit screamed the words, setting my ears ringing as heat from an inferno blasted against my skin. Thick branches broke from the trees and brush, going airborne in all directions and knocking one of Lucas’s crew to the ground. Lucas ran to the man and helped him up. His scalp was bleeding and he looked dazed as Lucas hurried him away to the safety of Peyton’s front porch. Calling over his shoulder, Lucas told the rest of his crew to abandon their equipment and get out of there. After a flash of lightning split the clear, blue sky, Cam cried out to Zackie to release the spirit. The sky lit up a final time, silhouetting the form of He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief on the roof of the trailer as he smashed his fist down with a resounding crash that left us hunching and protecting our ears. With one last whooshing sound, the world was still again for a moment and ozone filled my sinuses, burning my throat and making me cough. Just when we thought it was over, the brush parted and Zackie emerged from the woods, licking her chops.