Well, it’s Saturday again. I keep writing to my congressman about this, the fact that Saturday keeps ending after only 24 hours, I mean, but I get no response: Probably out spending all my tax dollars. So, like it or not, there will be be only 24 hour Saturdays, but I comfort myself in the fact that there will be Sundays too.
So where am I today… I will be writing most of the day, I
hope. I have been away from writing for several days now, except editing stuff
and I want to get back to it. I will leave you with a selection from Dreamers.
Dreamer’s is one of
my favorite books. I began this book as a series of short stories in a creative
writing class. The class shared stories twice a week and I chose to share these
weird little musings about a man and a woman who become lovers, but who only meet
in the dream worlds. I based it on a series of dreams I have had for as long as
I can remember. Bits and pieces of things that seem so real that you believe
you are not in a dream at all. In that writing class I had begun to wonder
about those dream flashes and so the next time I had one, something like three
A.M. I got up and wrote it down as fast as I could in longhand.
In the light of day that dream flash seemed disjointed,
unreal, but there was still something about it that drew me and so a few nights
later I wrote another one down, and then another, and then a weird thing
happened that happens to most writers; the story behind it began to come to me
and I began to write it interspersed with the dream flashes. So if you asked me
if I am the author of this work I would have to say yes, but if you asked me
who wrote it I would not be able to tell you.
When I finished the story I shelved it. I thought it was
over but a few weeks later I was back at it with the same characters writing
another dream sequence.
So that is the back story. I hope you check out the book
links at the end of this excerpt and I hope you like the story, Dell
…………………………………………………………………………….
This is copyrighted material
This material is not edited for content
……………………………………………………………………………
DREAMERS
Dreamers is Copyright © 2016
by Dell Sweet. All rights reserved foreign and domestic.
Cover Art © Copyright 2016
Wendell Sweet
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment
only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would
like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy
for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it
was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your bookseller and
purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
LEGAL
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters,
places or incidents depicted are products of the author’s imagination. Any
resemblance to actual living persons places, situations or events is purely
coincidental.
Parts of this novel are Copyright © 2010, 2015
Wendell Sweet and his assignees. No part of this book may be reproduced by any
means, electronic, print, scanner or any other means and, or distributed
without the author’s permission.
Permission is granted to use short sections of text
in reviews or critiques in standard or electronic print.
Before Dreams:
Enlightened Teachers:
Benjamin Bear Killer
Joe
I had come back to spend time with Laura. I could not tell her my real
reasons. That I was afraid of leading the Dream Killer to her. Or I was not
sure even whether I was coming back in the end, so I had wanted to see her one
more time. She asked me about the Bear Killer who had been my Uncle and so I
told her as we sat in the quiet of the evening and talked..
I thought a moment, gathered my thoughts, and then began to speak to
Laura.
“I Knew Benjamin from my father’s side of the family. My
grandmother was Blackfoot. She came from Canada with my father and my uncles
and aunts. My father was the baby of the family. He looks Indian. Black hair,
facial markings. So do most of my uncles, Benjamin excluded.”
“Benjamin is not a blood uncle, he is an uncle by marriage to my
Aunt Ethel. He is a full blooded Irishman who married my aunt, gave up his
Christian religion and has never looked back. If he could have ended the
civilized world with a wish and turn it all back to the old ways, he would
have. I’m not that dramatic but there are days when I can see his
reasoning.”
“Benjamin Bear Killer knew the myths and legends. He understood
more than some of my blood uncles did. They would go to him to learn. They saw
him as one of the Enlightened Teachers.”
“Enlightened Teachers are something that the creator has given to
us. They guide us. They teach us to respect the world, the Earth Mother. Teach
us the legends and myths that we need to know. When my dreams became too much,
too real, Benjamin Bear Killer came to me.”
Laura nodded for me to continue.
Bear crossed to the fireplace, yawned, curled up and rested his head on
his paws.
“I had mentioned the dreaming to my mother, and she had spoken to
my Aunt. My aunt had spoken to Benjamin and he had come to see me. Benjamin saw
it as duty. It was part of what the creator made him to do, he said. At that
time I wasn’t sure but now I believe that he is exactly right. Who knows what
would’ve happened to me if not for the guidance and the stories he gave to me. Knowledge is meant to be used, he told me,
why would anyone go to a Bear fight without a knife? A strange analogy maybe.
But he wasn’t called the Bear Killer for nothing. So it made some sense to me.”
Bear yawned.
“Benjamin told me the legends first…….”
“In the beginning the Creator made a way to the peoples that will
always be open. First Woman, The Clan Totems, the Star People, were all able to
communicate, and they are still able now, up to this day and beyond, until your
days cease you will have a pathway to that knowledge. A way to reach all that
is possible. You hold the keys to all that is within yourself. We all do…”
“This is how the Creator came to make that way open for us, Benjamin
told me.”
Laura nodded, curled her feet under herself and settled in to listen.
“We were in a sweat lodge at the time. One Benjamin had built with
the help of my Uncles and Cousins. So many used it though that we had to check
first to see if it could be used.”
“The Owl Woman’s Society use it,” he told me. “That meant nothing
to me. At least nothing concrete. I had known my mother belonged to the Owl
Woman’s Society. I didn’t know what they did: Where they met. What they
decided. How important they were to each other, to us, to the well being of our
people.”
“We settled into the sweat lodge and Benjamin began to tell me the
legend of the Dreamer’s Way…”
“In the beginning there were very few people. In those days there
was direct communication between the creator and his creations. Mother Earth
spoke to Grandfather Sun every day. Grandmother Moon spoke to Mother Earth. The
trees spoke to the people and the people spoke to their four legged brothers.
The Enlightened teachers kept the legends. They passed them down from
generation to generation. Grandfathers taught Grandsons. Grandmothers taught
Granddaughters. And it could be that they both taught all the children equally
well. The generations were not vast at that time. Time itself was brand new.
We as a people did not see our destiny. We did not realize where we
would go. The things that would befall us. As we matured, evolved, we became
more independent. We talked to the Creator less and less. We lost our ability
to communicate with our four legged brothers. Our winged brothers the birds.
The fish. We forgot that the trees themselves, the rocks, the winds, the
directions all had their own languages that we could use to talk to them as we
had at one time. We had begun to live a life that did not include regular
communication with the other beings we lived with, or the Creator, or the Earth
Mother.”
“One day a young girl, she was called Sparrow Spirit, was walking
beside a swollen spring river that ran near her village. She was just into her ninth year. She was not
a princess. Not someone specially selected for honor, or in her case
death. She was the legends say, an
ordinary girl.”
“She watched as the waters roared by. Huge trees were carried
along in the current. Boulders were swept along and even seemed to float.
Sparrow Spirit stood on a rock ledge and watched these things. Amazed at how
powerful the water spirit was.”
“A tree larger than any living tree she had ever seen came down
the river. It was floating, being pushed and pulled by the current.”
“Now the trees, we know, are alive. They breathe, think, feel,
just as we do. And this tree said to itself, ‘Here is this young girl just
watching me die. And she is not lifting a finger to help me.’ The thoughts,
although unreasonable, angered the tree. When it reached the ledge, big as it
was, it could not bring its limbs up high enough to snatch her, to catch her
long black hair and pull her into the water.”
“There was no time to think so that tree rammed itself into the rock
wall under the ledge Sparrow Spirit stood on with all its might. Hoping to
cause the little girl to lose her footing and fall into the raging water, where
the tree could entangle her by her long flowing hair and then pull her down
into the depths to drown her.”
“Tree’s plan worked better than Tree had hoped. The ledge itself
under Sparrow Spirit’s feet crumbled away and plunged her into the cold, fast
moving water. Tree reached out with her spindly limbs and entangled them in her
hair, pulling her down into the depths; drowning her.”
“Now Bird Song, who was Sparrow Spirits mother, could not be
convinced that her daughter was dead. Even though many who had seen what Tree
had done had come and told her. She refused to accept it. Refused to believe in
it.
“Bring me her body then, if she has gone to the spirit
world,” she told her husband Four Feathers. “If she has died we need
to sing her to the stars.”
“Four Feathers had personally seen Sparrow Spirit fall into the
river. And he was positive she was dead. He did not think there would be any
chance of finding her body and singing her to the stars where the ancestors lived
among the Star People. The river, this time of year, never gave any of its dead
back.”
“Even so Four Feathers knew his wife would never accept Sparrow
Spirit’s death until he bought her the little girl’s body. And even though he was sure he would never
find her, he believed the spirits would probably allow her to go to the
ancestors if he at least looked for her.”
“Four Feathers had no sons. And he was sure that Sparrow Spirit
was part of his own spirit. He had no proof, just a feeling. But it caused him
to love Sparrow Spirit more deeply, and he too wanted to find her and send her
on her way. He feared Bird Song would never be the same until he could show
her, her daughter dead or alive. So he set out beside the river that same day
in search of Sparrow Spirit’s body.”
“Now he traveled for three hands of time. Days walking and keeping
lookout along the river’s edge. Nights sleeping beside her. Letting the land,
the bounty of Mother Earth protect and nurture him.”
“He found many animals, and even a few of the people who had
fallen into the waters. And he prayed them to the spirits and continued to
search for Sparrow Spirit.”
“Near the end of the three hands of time he became sure that he
would not find her. He was in a land that he did not know. No one knew. No people had been there before
him.”
“That night he slept beside the river and dreamed. In his dream
Sparrow Spirit came to him and spoke to him just as she had when she had been
alive.”
“Father,” she had said. “You will find my bones on the
river bank just one more days travel. You must take them back to my mother so
she can be at peace. As for me, my Father, I have found my way to the Spirit
World.”
“Four Feathers wept in his sleep. He had thought she was a child
of his spirit, now he knew she was. In the morning he set out once more and by
the end of the day he found Sparrow Spirits bones on the river bank just as she
had told him he would. Her Medicine bag was still caught within her ribs. He
carefully packed her remains and set out back to the village.
Now on the way back Sparrow Spirit often talked to him. All the days
and all the nights. And as he walked he listened and Four Feathers learned
about the way that it had once been.”
“As he learned he began to follow Sparrow Spirit’s voice as she
led him to other worlds. To the homes of Grandfather Sun. First Woman. Grandmother Moon. To the
ancestors who hearths are scattered among the stars.”
“He met the Clan Totems who lived among the stars with the
ancestors. She showed him how to dream. What it was: Where it could take
you.”
“As the three hands of time passed on the return trip Four
Feathers spent less and less time in the waking world and more and more time
walking in the other worlds. He found the City Of The Dead. He met the Coyote,
The Trickster, the Dream Killer, but he was not afraid. He was becoming a
powerful dreamer. He was the first dreamer.”
“When Four Feathers arrived in his village he handed over Sparrow
Spirits bones to Bird Song. Bird Song spoke to the Clan Mothers. The Clan Mothers
came together and listened to the story that Four Feathers told about finding
the bones. About the Spirit Worlds.
About dreaming, how Sparrow Spirits voice still spoke to him. The Clan Mothers
went to the Chief. The Chief called all the people together and told them. They
held their first prayers to the Creator, to Mother Earth, to Grandmother Moon
and Grandfather Sun, that very day.”
“As the first Dreamer Four Feathers spoke to the spirits,
discovered their ways, told the people and helped the people to understand. He
became greatly respected, but he was not alone. From those days until these
days, there have been Dreamers. They keep the balance. They speak for some
people who wish to speak to the spirits, but cannot. They help to keep the
balance. But most important they keep
the lines of communication open.”
“Benjamin Bear Killer leaned back into the steam as I took in what he
had told me.”
“You are a dreamer,” he said at last.”
“Me,” I asked? I suspected
something like that, but I was still shocked though.”
“You know you are.” He looked at me through the clouds of steam.
“It’s a bad time. A dangerous time. Everything is out of its natural
order. We need dreamers. The people need to have a relationship with the
Creator, all of creation itself needs to be bought back into balance.” He eyed
me through the steam.”
“I don’t know how and what could I do?” I asked him.”
“You already do it. You only need guidance. What can you do?
Plenty. The Thief of Souls, the Dream Killer, the Trickster. They rule the spirit worlds. They rule only
because there is no one to oppose them. No one to stop them. It has been
allowed because as a people we have fallen away from The Creator. A strong
Dreamer will have to fight for us. A Dreamer as strong as the first. You will be
part of that,” he told me.”
“I am not that dreamer. I am just one man. An ordinary man at
that. I don’t know how I do the things I do.” I said.”
“But you will,” the Bear Killer told me. “You will
learn. And that dreamer will be lead to you: Come to us through you; because of
you.”
“I had my first productive dreams with Benjamin Bear Killer’s
guidance. He went with me. But he had no blood. Will, but no blood. I only have
partial blood. Why would I be stronger than someone who has all Native
blood,” I asked him?”
“Because you are willing and they are not,” Benjamin Bear
Killer said. “We are our own worst enemy. That is not just something to
say.”
“So I followed, and I learned from him and I soon out stripped
Benjamin. Not long after that I realized how serious the Thief of Souls was. He
sent his minions to take Benjamin’s soul. He died in his sleep, lost without
it. I have dreamed every night since then. And I know how dangerous it is, but
I believe it is my only true calling.
Before dreaming I had felt aimless: Out of touch with my native roots.
I did not know how to address the stars. Thank the Mother Earth. The
Directions. The Winds. My Wolf Totem. Grandfather Sun. Grandmother Moon. I had
no relationship. No relationship with my own clans. My Bear and Wolf totems. I
was a man taking up space. I truly felt useless. I did not know my purpose. And
the creator makes each one of us for a purpose: Since I have started down this
path I have not looked back.”
“What happened to Sparrow Spirit,” Laura asked?
Bear was stretched out by the fire place. A fire burned there. His paws twitched and I wondered what sort of
dreams spirit wolf dogs dreamed. And maybe he wasn’t a spirit dog at all.
Laura, after all, had been a sparrow when I had first met her.
I laughed lightly. “I asked the same thing. Benjamin told me. Like he was waiting for me to ask him.”
I thought for a second and then began.
“The clan mothers took Sparrow Spirits bones to the death house to
cleanse them and paint them before they could be buried and start the trip to
the ancestors.”
“There was a full Moon time involved in preparing the bones. Now that they knew how to speak to the
spirits, how to find the old ways, they did what Four Feathers told them to do. And he told them what Sparrow Spirit told
him. And she was telling him what the ancestors told her to say.”
“After cleansing: After a full Moons time; after painting the
bones with the sacred red. The day came for the burial. But a strange thing
happened on the ceremony day.
The bones had been placed into the Mother Earth. Food, weapons,
clothing, were placed in the earth over the bones so Sparrow Spirit would have
those things in the spirit world.”
“The Shaman came forward, the heads of the Clans. The
Grandmothers. They sprinkled the sacred red earth down into the grave along
with handfuls of rich, black dirt. The red rock had been gathered, crushed, and
then mixed with Bear fat to paint the bones. Today it isn’t made the same way.
Just one more thing that is wrong with our people, Benjamin told me.” I
paused.
“When the Ocher and the dirt hit the clothing covering the bones
something happened. The legends say that at that moment the Creator was
petitioned by Mother Earth, Grandmother Moon, the Clan Grandmothers,
Grandfather Sun and many of the ancestors that lived among the stars to return
Sparrow Spirit’s life force to her.” I met Laura’s eyes.
“The bones began to move beneath the clothes and piled gifts:
Clacking together. The Grandmothers stood with the Shaman unafraid. They had been
part of the prayer after all and they believed in what they had prayed. They
believed because they believed Four Feathers, and Four Feathers believed
Sparrow Spirit.”
“The bones rattled for three days and three nights. At the end of
the third day, towards dusk, the bones fell silent. The people, who had been
frightened, came back to stand behind the Grandmothers and the Shaman, to see
what would happen.”
“As the sun began to sink there came a different sound from the
grave. Some people looked fearfully to the grave, but the Grandmothers waited
with expectation. Bird Song allowed herself to walk closer and stand with the
Grandmothers. The sounds that came to them were the sounds of gravel and dirt
being pushed aside. Two small pale white hands appeared at the top of the grave
just as Grandmother Moon began to lift into the sky. A head of pure black hair appeared next, and then Sparrow
Spirit’s face came into view. She climbed from the grave and stood next to the
Grandmothers. She had come back, but she was not the same.”
“While she had been dead the Thief of Souls had stolen and
enslaved her soul. And although the Creator was displeased about it, he had
created the Thief of Souls for a purpose, just as all of us have a purpose, and
so he would not force him to give Sparrow Spirit back her soul.”
“She stayed for one Moon, but she was so unhappy living among the
people without her soul that the Grandmothers prayed to the Creator to let her
go back to the ancestors. She went on the first new Moon.”
“Since then, the legends say, Dreamers have sought the Thief of
Souls to get her soul back and set her free. And all the other souls he has
taken too.” I finished.
“That poor little girl,” Laura said.
“That poor little girl is thousands of years old now,” I
said.
“You know there is someone who is purposed to kill the Thief of
Souls. He doesn’t rule forever,” I
said after a brief pause.
“Who,” Laura asked?
“I didn’t know. Benjamin told me. There is a purpose given to
every soul that is born. The Thief of Souls was purposed to do exactly what he
does, evil. But there is a counter to him that is purposed to end his
purpose.”
Laura seemed to think about it. “Who did Benjamin think it
was,” she asked at last. “You?”
“No, Laura. He believed I would meet a Bird Woman. He believed
that Bird Woman would be the one who would have the key and the power to kill
the Thief of Souls,” I said.
She blinked, but continued to stare for a few minutes. “Not
me,” she said softly.
“No,” I asked? “It seems you exactly.”
“But I don’t know how,” she said.
“So you’ll learn.” I told her, “you’ll learn.”
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