Shaman, Healer, Heretic (Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman)

by Green, M. Terry

  “I’ve heard her name around,” said Livvy. “Are you going to dial her and then put me on the phone so you don’t have to give me the number?”

  “This isn’t something you just chat about over the phone,” he said, and stopped scrolling. “This business is face-to-face. We go to their turf. We let them see us. We play by their rules.”

  He paused to let it sink in.

  “Let me see if she’s logged in,” he said, looking back at his phone.

  “Logged in?”

  “To the internet,” he said.

  He looked up and saw Livvy’s astonished face.

  “You mean you’re not using social media to connect with potential clients?”

  He started scrolling on the phone again.

  “Yeah, there she is.”

  He clicked on something and started typing and then paused, waiting.

  “You mean, shamans are on the internet, right out in the open?” Livvy asked.

  “Oh no, not in the open. It’s all anonymous with creative usernames and e-mail addresses, and the like. I might be the only person who knows where any of these people actually live and what their real names are.”

  A message popped up on his phone. He typed something back. Again, he waited. Then another message appeared.

  “Good,” he said. “You’re on. Let’s go.”

  “Now? Just like that?”

  “Yep,” he said, picking up his keys. “Just like that.”

  “Are we going to Palm Springs?” she said, standing up.

  “Nope. We’re going to Watts.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  NOT FAR FROM the Watts Towers, SK turned down a narrow alley. His small hands did the steering, the gas, and the brake, all from the special attachments on the column. Livvy had watched with fascination for most of their drive. Once they got off the freeway and headed east toward Watts, she took more notice of the surroundings.

  “You know,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been here.”

  He snorted.

  “A green-eyed girl with hair the color of snow has never been to Watts. There’s a news flash.”

  “Is it really all that dangerous any more?”

  “Not for me,” he said, confidently. “But for you?”

  He snorted again.

  At the end of the alley, there was a single empty parking space, a painted white rectangle on the ground. He pulled into it.

  “Are you sure you can park here?” Livvy asked as they got out.

  “They leave it open for me.”

  There was more to SK and his world than Livvy had ever considered. Even though she’d know him for a couple of years, she’d never been in his car, let alone given a thought to where he lived. Here, in Watts, he had his own parking space.

  He locked the car and they went over to the back step of what appeared to be several small stores. He marched up and stood under the awning, looking up as he pressed the doorbell. Within seconds there was a clicking sound and he pulled open the door.

  “She’s usually watching,” he said.

  Livvy glanced up as someone disappeared from the window behind thick draperies.

  “I talk, you listen,” said SK.

  “Right.”

  The first floor was a cramped grocery store. Livvy and SK had walked into the back, where the crates were unpacked. He took a quick right and they headed up a narrow set of stairs. Before they reached the top, they found they were at the end of a line of people.

  “Coming through,” said SK, sliding against the wall on the left.

  “Excuse me,” said Livvy, trying not to jostle people. “Pardon me,” she said, bumping into someone as a tiny spark of static electricity popped almost imperceptibly.

  The man she had bumped was turning around to say something to her but instead just stopped and stared.

  The line of people went to the top of the stairs, followed the hallway to the right, and went about half-way down to a door where a large black man in a black leather jacket and sunglasses stood, his hands clasped in front of him, watching the line of people. He looked like a weightlifter, wide at the shoulders, his hair cropped close and his mutton chop sideburns ending in sharp points near the corners of his mouth.

  As SK approached, he nodded.

  “SK,” he said, in a deep voice.

  “Bruno,” replied SK.

  Bruno turned to Livvy, looked down and then up, and then turned his head back to SK.

  “She’s expecting us,” SK said. He tilted his head at Livvy. “I can vouch for her.”

  Bruno nodded again and opened the door.

  “Turn around and enter backwards,” said SK, as he turned around and began backing up.

  “What?” said Livvy, but as SK vanished into the curtained entry, she quickly did likewise.

  There was grumbling in the line in the hallway.

  “We’ve been waiting all day,” someone mumbled, but not loud enough that Bruno needed to respond.

  Livvy glanced back out the door as it was closing and then walked backward through the thick curtain. She felt a hand on her arm. SK, who was facing forward once again, motioned for her to turn around.

  Inside, the room was dark, lit only by a few logs burning in the fireplace. Livvy realized that the air conditioning must be running on high to keep the room at a decent temperature. Animal skin rugs of various types lined the entire floor. There were bright paintings hanging on the dark walls, portraits of various men and women, but painted in garish glowing colors. It was like a gallery of multicolor saints, each one gazing directly at the viewer, all holding a significant prop in their hands. In the center of the fireplace mantel was a small cloth doll with outstretched arms and legs–a voodoo doll.

  “SK,” said a silky voice from somewhere in the dimness.

  Livvy realized that there was an elaborate carved wood screen that divided the room in two.

  “Ursula,” he said.

  A tall figure, taller than Livvy, seemed to glide from behind the screen. Her deeply black skin was in stark contrast to her bright pink head wrap. She wore a long flowing gown of crimson velvet trimmed with pink and gold. Small beaded designs at her waist caught the firelight and twinkled. Suspended in the deep V of the neckline was a large cabochon of fire opal that hung from a wide, flat gold chain. Her neck was long and she moved with the unhurried pace of royalty, graceful as well. She came to a stop in front of them and was looking at Livvy, particularly at her hair, raising one eyebrow. She might have been in her fifties, her skin glowing with vitality and health, with power.

  In her t-shirt and jeans, Livvy felt miserably underdressed for the occasion.

  “Ursula, this is Livvy.”

  “Yes,” said Ursula, studying her. “So Ursula gathered.”

  For a second, Livvy was confused and then realized that Ursula was referring to herself in the third person. Her voice was as beautiful as she was and her manner was reserved–the opposite of the surroundings.

  “You said it was…urgent,” said Ursula, looking down at SK.

  “It’s urgent if you want to work again,” he said.

  “Always to the point,” she said, a small curl to her full lips, no invitation to sit down.

  “That’s quite a line out there,” he said.

  “It is a busy time.”

  Ursula had a faint accent that Livvy couldn’t quite place–something Caribbean perhaps, or Creole.

  “We both know why there’s a line,” he paused, looking at Livvy and then back to Ursula. “We all know it’s impossible to work.”

  “Oh, you think Ursula can not work?” she glanced at Livvy and then back at SK.

  “No,” he said. “I know it.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “That’s why we’re here,” he continued. “Livvy might have figured out a way to help the situation.”

  “Does Livvy have a voice?” she said, turning towards her.

  At that moment, Livvy felt that she might not have a vo
ice and coughed. Ursula raised one eyebrow and crossed her long thin arms in front of her. Livvy cleared her throat.

  “I’ve figured out a way to hook goggles together,” she said. “I think that if we’re linked, we can combine strength.”

  “Combine strength.”

  “Yeah, help each other, in the multiverse.”

  “How does it work?”

  “Well, I don’t exactly know,” Livvy said.

  Ursula stared at her and then at SK.

  “That is all you have? This is why you want to see Ursula?” she said testily, her dark eyes glittering.

  “I’ve got to work with other shamans to get it figured out but I know it will work,” said Livvy quickly.

  “We need your help,” said SK.

  “You need a guinea pig. Ursula is no guinea pig.”

  “What are you going to do with that line of people out there?” SK said, hands still in pockets but indicating with his head.

  “Them?” she said, turning back to the wooden screen. “Most of them need to stop using, smoking, and drinking. Ursula has herbs and the like to get them through.”

  Ursula went over to the altar and pushed a small white button that looked like a doorbell. The front door opened behind them and Bruno came in. Ursula turned back to them, restored to her imperial self, and waited.

  Confused, Livvy looked at Bruno and SK and then back to Ursula.

  “Thank you for your time, Ursula,” said SK, inclining his head.

  Ursula inclined hers ever so slightly and never even looked at Livvy. They were done.

  Back in the car, SK turned on the engine and took out his phone, scrolling through the address book. Livvy was still trying to digest what she’d just seen. She looked up to the window and saw Ursula looking at her. The woman had a line of people waiting to see her. Incredible. And a bouncer.

  “Why did we have to enter backwards?”

  “It has to do with Ursula’s loa, the particular spirit with which she identifies. Entering the realm of that loa is like an inversion of the normal world. Up is down, right is wrong, and backwards is forwards.”

  Livvy watched as Ursula closed the curtain.

  “You’re going to have come up with something better than ‘I think it’ll work’,” he said.

  She turned to him and hung her head, nodding.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Somehow, Livvy had thought that another shaman would jump at the chance to link up in the multiverse. She would have. Apparently, not all shamans were like her–not even close. Maybe she’d have better luck with a shaman that she had more in common with.

  “I need a meeting,” he said.

  “What?” said Livvy, looking at him. He was on the phone.

  “About an hour and a half,” he said. “I’m bringing somebody with me.” He looked at Livvy. “No, not a client. Somebody I think you should meet. Her name is Livvy.” He looked out the front window. “Yes, that’s the one.”

  The one what? Livvy thought.

  “Okay, an hour and a half, we’ll see you then,” he said and hung up.

  “The one what?” she asked.

  “Just a second,” he said, texting somebody.

  While he waited for a reply, he went to another social media app and direct messaged somebody else. For several minutes, he texted and DM’d.

  “I want to set these up now,” he said, still typing. “I have a feeling we’re going to be doing a bit of traveling today.”

  When he’d finally finished and put the car in gear, she asked again.

  “The one what?”

  “Sometimes word gets around,” he said.

  “Like what kind of word?”

  He pointedly turned his head to her and glared. Apparently, he would not be sharing.

  “Okay fine,” she said. “Where are we going?”

  “Next stop, Palm Springs.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  SOMEHOW, PALM SPRINGS wasn’t what Livvy had expected. She had thought it might be like Beverly Hills, with rows of giant gated estates, posh restaurants and exclusive shopping. But the town itself had one main drag, a one-way street at that, and then another one-way street that went in the opposite direction. At the beginning and ends of the main street, several of the storefronts were empty and there wasn’t a high rise in sight.

  Nobody was out with their dogs and nobody was sipping lattes outside the cafés. In fact, it was mostly deserted. As the buildings thinned out SK took a road that angled off to the right, toward the steep mountains. Enormous boulders that centuries of earthquakes had tumbled down lay in disarray off to the side. At the end of the pavement, SK took a dirt road past a chain link fence that warned about trespassing on tribal land.

  He passed a few small houses and derelict vehicles and finally pulled in front of the last one in the group, set apart from the other houses. When they got out of the car, Livvy understood why nobody had been on the street.

  “Oh my god!” she said, as the heat flooded over her.

  Sitting in the air-conditioned car as the miles had rolled by, she’d had no idea how the temperature was changing. It had to be well over one hundred degrees and felt like stepping into a furnace.

  “Here,” he said, giving her the box of cigars and bottle of scotch that he’d bought in L.A. “When you present these to her, make sure to use both hands.”

  SK had explained that the token offerings were a standard and polite way to interact with the Cahuilla, part of the customs and the centuries-long traditions that they had developed here. He’d made it sound as though it didn’t matter if the person even smoked or drank. Even so, he’d bought the best that the liquor store had to offer.

  He knocked on the front door and Livvy watched a shadow cross in front of the peephole. She could already feel the sweat starting to trickle under her t-shirt and knew that her face must be flushed. The door opened and an ancient woman with hair that was completely white looked at them.

  “Goodness, you made excellent time,” Alvina said, smiling.

  She wore a simple cotton dress with a bright floral print but also a long pocketed vest of finely woven material, done in earth and desert tones that were difficult to bring into focus. Livvy was about to offer the cigars and scotch when the old woman reached down to a small table next to the front door. A tightly bunched bundle of sage was already smoldering in a large ashtray. She picked it up and traced the edges of the front door with the smoke, all the way around. Livvy noticed that around her wrist she wore a thin but solid bracelet of gold, encrusted with small diamonds.

  When she had finished and set the bundle back in the ashtray, Livvy offered her the box of cigars and bottle of scotch, presenting them with both hands and bowing slightly, although she wasn’t sure if that was needed or not.

  “Come in, friends,” said the woman, taking them and smiling. “Come in.”

  She checked up and down the street and then looked up at Livvy.

  “Best to get out of the heat, dear.”

  She watched Livvy as she passed, followed by SK.

  “You better get in here before the young one melts.”

  She closed the door behind them saying, “Sit down, dear, take off your coat.”

  The air conditioning was a relief but it wasn’t as cool as the car had been. Livvy had only been outside a few minutes but the heat had penetrated through everything. She took off her bag and her coat.

  “I’ll just get some iced tea,” said the old woman, heading to the kitchen.

  “Are you all right?” asked SK.

  “Yeah, yeah,” said Livvy, wiping her forehead with her fingers. “It’s just so hot.”

  The woman came back with two tall glasses full of ice cubes and tea. She wore her white hair short, matching her petite frame. It was combed directly back from her furrowed forehead and tucked behind her ears. Her skin, deeply tanned, was almost as deeply wrinkled. The diamond studs in her earlobes drooped but sparkled.

  “This will help,”
said Alvina, handing one glass to Livvy and the other to SK. “Just sip it though.”

  Livvy did and then held the glass to her face. The old woman wasn’t drinking anything.

  “How do you stand the heat?” Livvy asked.

  The woman laughed and gave her a little wink.

  “You should be here when it’s hot.”

  SK nodded agreement but Livvy could not imagine it.

  “Even the Water Baby usually comes at night,” Alvina said, nodding at SK.

  He set his drink down on a small doily and hopped up into a chair. As Livvy wondered about the strange nickname Alvina had used, she noticed several sage bundles on the bottom shelf of the end table near SK.

  “Better to travel by day right now,” SK said. “By the way, Alvina this is Livvy and Livvy this is Alvina.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Livvy, smiling.

  The old woman smiled back.

  “Likewise, dear,” she said, taking a seat on the couch. “What’s this all about then?”

  Livvy gave her the same explanation that she and SK had given to Ursula but this time Livvy mentioned the kachina and how they had worked together. That had seemed to peak Alvina’s interest.

  “A kachina you say,” she said, sitting back, gazing out the front window. “A kachina. Hmm.”

  She considered it for a minute.

  “Well, of course we don’t have kachinas here but I don’t suppose you’ve got them in Los Angeles either.”

  Alvina had smiled and nodded during the whole explanation and Livvy had done the same. Unlike the meeting with Ursula, she felt welcome, as though she were bonding with another shaman, and one of some repute.

  “I know this can work,” Livvy said.

  “I’m sure you’re right, dear,” said Alvina, smiling. “Do let me know when it does.”

  “Well, that’s why I’m here,” said Livvy, confused. “I need another shaman to do this with me.”

  “Oh, dear one,” said Alvina. “I’m not even a techno-shaman.”

  “You’re not?” asked Livvy, looking at SK.

  “Well, that’s not quite true,” said SK. “Alvina’s being modest. She’s been all kinds of different shamans in her time.”