At the sound of his voice, Emma stirred.
Marvin immediately bent down over her. “Emma, sweetie?”
Emma opened her eyes and yawned. She lifted her arms from under the comforter and stretched them.
“How you feeling, sweetie?”
She let her arms collapse on the bed. “Hungry!” she chirped.
Marvin backed up as though he’d been struck.
“Hungry,” he repeated. Then he turned to Livvy, his eyes glistening. “Do you hear that? Hungry.” He didn’t wait for Livvy to answer and spun back toward Emma. “I don’t think I’ve heard a more beautiful word!”
He gently patted Emma’s tummy which, judging from her reaction, tickled. She giggled uncontrollably while trying to get a look at Livvy.
“Let’s see what Grandpa can do about a hungry girl!” He lifted her easily out of the bed and held her in one arm as he turned to Livvy. For the first time, she saw the resemblance. When Marvin smiled, his eyes turned to half-moons. She’d just never seen him smile.
“Thank you isn’t enough,” he said. “Neither is lunch but I hope you’ll stay.”
“Lunch!” Emma squealed and clapped her hands.
Jo Jo barked.
“I think it’s unanimous,” said Marvin, laughing.
Livvy had been about to say yes when a loud knocking came from the front door.
“Lunch for everybody!” Marvin said, his voice booming.
He bounced out of the room with Emma. She was looking back over his shoulder at Livvy, who gave her a wave before rolling up her mat. By the time Livvy reached the living room, Marvin’s mood had changed. Dale and Leon were there and he was having words with Dale. When she entered, they both stopped talking and Dale looked pointedly at her shoulder bag.
“Seriously,” Dale said, looking at her. “In my own backyard, you come here and do a healing?”
“Now hold it right there,” said Marvin. “She’s here at my request. You got something to say about it, you can say it to me.”
Marvin set Emma down and she ran to Livvy, arms held high. Livvy gladly scooped her up and stood next to Marvin.
“Okay,” said Dale, turning to him. “You really think I’d do anything to hurt Emma?”
Although Emma had been playing with Livvy’s hair, she turned at the sound of her name.
“Dale,” said Leon, watching Emma. “Maybe now is not the time.”
Livvy watched as Dale’s eyes flicked between her, Emma, and Marvin. His jaw muscles tightened and he pursed his lips but then he glared at the ground.
“Look,” he said. “That’s not even why I’m here so forget it.”
Leon made a silly face at Emma and she giggled.
“Then why are you here?” Marvin said. “I’ve got to get lunch on for a very hungry and healthy little girl.”
“Marvin,” Livvy interjected. “It wasn’t Dale. It couldn’t have been if he’s here now.”
Dale stared at Marvin. “Look, if you want to accuse me of–”
“Soyal,” said Leon, still gagging for Emma. He put his hands over his face, hiding, and then quickly opened them. “Is being announced,” he blurted out. Emma giggled. “And,” said Leon, as he covered and then uncovered his face again, “the tablet’s been stolen from your room.”
Emma laughed and reached out for Leon, who carefully took her in his big hands. Livvy had been so entranced by the two of them that it took several seconds for her to process what Leon had said.
“The tablet?” she asked him and then looked at Dale.
“I think we better go,” Dale said.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
THEY WEREN’T GOING to get into the plaza. That much was clear even from far away. They’d have to go around in order to get to Dale’s car. Livvy was glad she’d brought the cane.
“Leon,” said Livvy, as they got closer, “what did you say is being announced?”
“It should be Soyal, the winter solstice ceremony. They had the smoke last night.”
“The smoke?” Livvy asked as their pace slowed at the edge of the crowd.
“Yeah. The chiefs got together last night with the Sun-watcher, with Marvin, and decided it was time. They smoke a pipe, you know, kind of pass it around.”
“But this is a bit late,” said Dale, up on the balls of his feet trying to see over the heads of the people in the back of the crowd. “Normally this takes place in the morning.”
“I think that’s why the crowd is so big,” said Leon. “The buzz has been going for some time.”
“The crier will announce Soyal,” said Dale. “No news there. We need to get back to the hotel.”
“About the room,” Livvy said.
“Look!” said Leon, who stood a head taller than everyone else. He pointed to a rooftop on the other side of the plaza. Others pointed too and all heads turned as a hush descended on the crowd. A man stood there, someone Livvy recognized.
“That’s not the Crier Chief,” said Leon.
Livvy’s hand automatically went to the spot on her arm where the porcupine quill had hit her. There were murmurs and grumbling from the crowd.
“Celestino,” Dale hissed.
There was more grumbling and a few people in the crowd started to leave.
“People of the village!” Celestino called out. His voice was deeply resonant. “I have an announcement.”
“Not this again,” mumbled someone in front of them.
“You know that Soyal is being announced,” Celestino said. “But I tell you now that the moment we have awaited for thousands of years is here. The Blue Star Kachina will dance!”
The person who had mumbled shook their head and left but not everybody was as dismissive. Some of the crowd inched closer to Celestino.
“The Fifth World is at hand and we must be ready! The time of purification is now. We must be clean when this world ends. We must be ready to take up the responsibility of beginning the Fifth World, new and fresh, when our people take their rightful place. We must renounce the world beyond the mesas. That is the world that has brought us to this crisis. Wars in distant places fought with weapons we don’t even see. The strange plants that come in the ground.”
At that, several people in the square nodded.
“You have seen the signs as well. For years they have been growing. For years we have born witness to them. For years we have waited and prayed and acted right. And now, this Soyal, it will happen. The last sign has come.”
“What?” said Dale. “Since when?”
“What’s the last sign?” Livvy asked.
“The Pahaana has returned!” Celestino screamed, spreading his arms wide.
There were a few exclamations from the crowd. Livvy heard the word ‘Pahaana’ repeated as people turned to one another.
“What’s the Pahaana?” Livvy asked but neither Dale nor Leon seemed to be listening.
“Really,” scoffed Dale.
Celestino motioned for silence and the crowd complied.
“The white brother,” Leon whispered in her ear.
“Show him!” yelled Dale.
All heads turned to see who had shouted. None of them looked particularly pleased but they quickly turned back to Celestino to see his reaction to the challenge.
“Unbeliever,” Celestino yelled.
But Dale only spread his hands out and shrugged.
“Proof?” Celestino bellowed. “You want proof?”
He dug in the pocket of his jacket and brought out something wrapped in a handkerchief. He quickly untied and unwrapped it and held it up over his head. It was a stone tablet.
The hair on the back of Livvy’s neck stood on end.
Was that the tablet Tawa had given to her?
A shadow suddenly raced across the plaza as a storm front covered the sun. Everyone looked skyward, including Livvy. Deeply dark and smooth clouds, their leading edge a near perfect line, had raced in from the west. They seemed close enough to touch and that nearness only accentuated the rate
at which they were covering the sky.
“Don’t be afraid,” yelled Celestino, as thunder rumbled in the distance. “Don’t be afraid of her.”
As she looked back to Celestino, Livvy realized everyone was staring at her.
“Don’t let the sorceress cause you to doubt,” he yelled.
The crowd in her vicinity moved away.
Oh please.
“Look,” Celestino said, as he jabbed a finger at the sky and then at her. “She will call it down on your head.”
As though to support his claim, lightning flashed in the distance and the entire crowd seemed to flinch. Lightning on the exposed mesa would be deadly.
“Hey,” Dale said, under his breath. “Could you give it a rest?”
“It’s not something I can control,” Livvy said.
“Do you see how they collude?” yelled Celestino.
Dale turned back to him.
“Where’s your Pahaana?” Dale yelled. “Why show us the same old piece of rock?”
“That he probably made himself,” Leon said.
Made himself? thought Livvy. How many tablets are there?
Some of the crowd muttered their assent and nodded at Leon. Apparently this wasn’t the first time they’d seen the tablet. They wanted to see the Pahaana too.
Celestino turned away from the crowd and motioned to someone. Gasps and cries rippled through the plaza as someone came into view.
“Oh my god,” said Leon.
Like everyone else, Livvy tried to stand on her tiptoes, pushing down on the cane. What she saw made her gasp as well.
Standing next to Celestino was a tall, thin man, wearing a wide-brimmed hat. The straight hair that fell down to his shoulders was the color of fresh snow and he had a complexion to match. Livvy blinked a few times. Although the man was wearing sunglasses, she knew that, if they could see his eyes, they’d be tinged with red. This man was an albino.
“Dammit,” muttered Dale.
“Talk about white,” Leon said.
“And he has brought this!” yelled Celestino.
The albino held up a fragment of a stone tablet.
There were shouts from all around now.
“The missing fragment!” yelled some.
“Together!” a few people shouted, waving at the two men.
“Show us!” yelled another.
“The Pahaana!” someone screamed.
Celestino then raised his tablet up and Livvy realized it couldn’t be hers because it was broken. Then slowly, as if it were a dance, the two men approached each other, fragments above their heads. The two pieces came together, fitting perfectly.
Livvy watched as the plaza erupted into chaos.
“Where did you come from?” someone yelled.
“How did you get the tablet?” someone else yelled.
“Dammit,” Dale said, again.
The albino smiled–a smooth and winning smile. He opened his mouth but Celestino quickly took him by the elbow, spun him around, and hustled him out of view.
“No,” Dale said, more to himself now, since no one was listening. “No!”
His hands were balled into fists. Livvy watched him as he continued to glare at the empty rooftop.
“Dale?” Leon said.
“You fools,” Dale said, as though he was just now seeing the people in front of him.
The crowd had surged toward the rooftop as if pulled by a magnet. Some people looked up to the clouds, some at Livvy, and some stared at the rooftop as though Celestino and the albino might return.
“Fools!” Dale yelled. “Like sheep!”
A few faces briefly turned toward him.
Leon grimaced as he looked from the crowd to Dale and back again.
Though Livvy didn’t understand it, there was obviously something more going on.
Dale put both hands on top of his head.
“Like sheep to slaughter,” he groaned.
To slaughter?
“How did he get all the tablets?” Leon asked no one in particular.
Livvy might not know the prophecy or understand Soyal or what had just happened but she did know one thing.
“He doesn’t have them all,” she said.
“What?” Dale said. Suddenly he was in front of her, grasping her by the shoulders.
“I tried to tell you earlier.”
Dale stared into her face and held her at arms length. “Are you sure?”
“If he searched my room, I guarantee he didn’t find the tablet,” she said. “And I–”
Dale jerked her forward and kissed her.
Surprise immediately gave way to anger as she tried to push him back but his grip was stronger than she would have guessed. A sharp prod of the cane to his chest finally made him let go.
“Stop it!” she yelled, as they separated.
Dale moved backward a step but instead of holding his chest, his hand flew to his mouth, covering it. He stared at her in disbelief and then he looked right past her.
Livvy turned to see Leon.
He stood there, arms hanging limply at his sides and his eyes squeezed shut. He slowly opened them, as his hands went to his stomach.
“Leon,” Livvy whispered, as she reached for him.
But he spun away from her, one hand out to fend her off, the other clutching his midsection as he staggered a few paces. With each heavy step he gained speed, hunching forward and not looking back. He lurched toward the crowd and they silently parted to make way for him. Some watched him with pitying looks, some with puzzlement, and a few turned their faces to her, not bothering to hide their contempt.
She was about to turn back to Dale when someone at the edge of the rapidly thinning crowd caught her attention. As her heart skipped a beat, she realized it was someone short.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
THAT HAD NEARLY gotten out of control, thought Celestino, striding faster. Franklin yanked his arm away from him but continued walking.
“What’s the matter with you?” Franklin demanded.
Celestino put a hand to his back. “Let’s keep moving.”
He glanced back toward the plaza and saw several people standing in the street watching them, though no one seemed like they were following.
“The car is down here,” Celestino said.
The crowd had truly been stunned at Franklin’s appearance. It was exactly what he had hoped for. They needed a shock. They needed to wake up.
They need to take me seriously for once–and now they do.
“They wanted to hear me,” Franklin protested.
“They want to hear about the prophecy.”
“I am the prophecy, old man. You should’ve let me take a shot.”
And say what, Celestino thought.
Franklin’s knowledge of Hopi culture was amazingly small. Granted, the Pahaana was never promised to be knowledgeable about anything in particular, but even so, he had expected more. At the very least, he had thought the Pahaana would know how to act. The last thing he needed right now was the white brother shooting his mouth off.
He thought of Dale, then, and his clown-friend Leon. Celestino had ended Franklin’s time in the plaza mostly for fear that they’d call for all the tablets.
“What’s the deal with the white witch?” Franklin asked. “I thought you’d seen to her personally.”
Celestino could have punched him. When he’d been Franklin’s age, he wouldn’t have hesitated. Now, he’d probably break his hand.
“A techno-shaman,” he said tightly. “She’s not your worry.”
Lightning flashed above them, followed by thunder.
“Yeah, right,” said Franklin, looking at the sky. “So this is normal for a techno-shaman?”
Celestino glanced at the sky as well. He had no answer for that. The real world and the spiritual world were separate.
“A coincidence,” he said.
“You kill me,” Franklin said. “You really do.” Then, as if to prove it, he laughed. “You don’t beli
eve in coincidence, remember? Why is she here right now? Why did the lightning appear right then?”
He paused. “Let’s go back,” Franklin said, stopping.
Celestino stopped too. “Nothing is going to happen until we have all the tablets,” he said. “There’s no point in going back.”
“Sure there is. Let me have a crack at that crowd. I’ll figure out where the tablets are.”
Celestino shook his head. “I’m already doing that.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
“SK?” SHE SAID, although he was yards away.
He stood there, with hands in pockets, until he realized she’d seen him. The smile on his face could have lit the Underworld.
“SK!” she yelled as she started to run.
If people in the plaza weren’t looking before, they were looking now. She could care less. In moments, they were together. She quickly fell to one knee, dropped the cane, and hugged him close. His arms slipped over hers and she felt his hands on her back.
“SK,” she murmured against his hair as she closed her eyes.
“Liv,” he breathed into her ear.
She hugged him tighter.
Please let this be real.
“Gods, how I missed you,” he said.
“Me too.”
She breathed in deeply, filling her nostrils with the familiar scent of his cologne. Her fingers combed through the short hair at the back of his neck. She felt him pull back and she knew she would have to open her eyes. When she did, his were staring into hers, steady and serious. He moved some strands of hair from her forehead, tucking them back, but left his hand on the side of her face.
“Don’t do that again,” he said, quietly.
“Never,” she whispered. “I couldn’t.”
She had needed to leave L.A. but that wasn’t what he was talking about. Being apart was wrong–and they both knew it. It would have been the point where they kissed but they knew what that would mean. He leaned forward and softly held his lips against her cheek for a few moments before leaning back to look down at her.
“Your hip is better,” he said, with a little smile.
And not just that. There was so much to tell him. It was as though a heavy weight had been lifted. A shadow crossed over them and Livvy looked up to see Dale.
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