2 A Haunting In Oregon (15 page)

“What do you think?” Steven asked
Eliza, after they all sat back down in the living room. “Will it work?”

“Well,” she replied. “Like Joe
said, there’s a lot of moving parts to get right. But it might. It would be
so
awesome
if it did!” She smiled at him.

“Seeing Jurgen neutered would make
my day,” said Roy. “My year.”

“Are you fine with lowering the
barrier for this?” Steven asked Eliza. “Letting us dig up Sam and one of those
other bodies out there?”

“I am,” Eliza said, “because I’ve
found the more power is returned to these people, the healthier this place
gets.”

Eliza poured Roy a cup of coffee
from a thermos as Steven drove them all to the same location they had visited
the morning before. Roy tried to drink the coffee from an open cup, watching
for any bumps in the road that Steven might hit. He guffawed every time Steven
hit one.

It was early. There was light in
the sky, but the sun hadn’t yet risen.

“Going to dig up bodies!” Roy
said. “Just like old times!”

Steven smiled, remembering the
steps they had to take back in Seattle to rid his house of ghosts. That had
involved digging up a grave. It was not something he was looking forward to.

“We appreciate the use of your
sheets,” Stevens said to Eliza. “I expect you won’t want them back.”

“No!” she said. “What would I do
with sheets that carried dead bodies? Creepy.”

They parked. Steven and Roy
retrieved the donated sheets, a pickaxe, and two shovels from the trunk of
Steven’s car. Then they all walked back into the forest, Steven again leading
the way with his GPS. Wisps of fog hung in the trees. They moved faster this
time, having a better idea where they were headed.

Once they reached the clearing,
Eliza took two pieces of wood. She marked the grave of Samuel Stone and one of
the other graves that registered no power. Then Roy and Steven started to dig.
As they did, Eliza closed her eyes and shut down the barrier in the immediate
area.

 They dug for a while. It was
still cold, and fog escaped from their lungs as their breathing got heavier. The
sun crested the trees as Steven saw the first bones in the dirt below his feet.
“Found it,” he said, jumping out of the hole. He opened up one of the sheets
and carefully placed the bones on it. Then he continued digging in the hole
more carefully to find the rest of the bones, delicately transferring each one
up as it was exposed to him. After he could find no more bones in the hole, he
scanned the skeleton on the sheet. It looked like he’d found most of the
important ones – hands, feet, ribs, the long bones of the arms and legs, and
the skull.

“Sorry to disturb you,” he spoke
to the skeleton, “but this is for a good cause. You will be taking down a very
bad man.”

About the time Steven was wrapping
up the sheet containing the skeleton he’d unearthed, Roy announced that he’d
uncovered a bone in the hole he was digging.

Eliza stepped over to the grave.
“Let me check,” she said, her arm extended out to Roy as a signal to wait. She
closed her eyes, and after a moment, opened them again.

“Oh, that’s him,” she said.
“Definitely.”

Steven brought the other sheet
over by Roy, and helped him move pieces of the body from the hole onto the
sheet.
We’ll need to not mix these bodies up,
Steven thought.

“Samuel is on the yellow sheet,”
Eliza said.

“How come every time I…?” Steven
said, stammering.

“Coincidence,” she replied.

Once Steven and Roy had placed all
of the bones they could find on the sheet, all three of them stopped and looked
at the body they had exhumed.

“Samuel Stone,” Roy said. “You
brought this on yourself, you bastard.”

Steven began rolling up the sheet.
“I’ve rolled these up so we can carry them back to the car without fear of
bones falling out,” he said, showing Roy the handhold to use on the sheets.

“I’ll carry the shovels and
pickaxe,” Eliza said. “You two can handle the bodies?”

“Sure,” Roy said, picking up the
yellow sheet that contained the remains of Samuel Stone. “Let’s hope I don’t
trip. I guess we leave the graves open?”

“For now,” Eliza said. “If things
work out, we’ll be coming back to put John Doe into Samuel’s grave. If not,
we’ll put him back in the grave he came out of. Either way, we’ll fill these
back in as soon as that’s done.”

They lugged the bodies and
implements back to the car. It was a long haul, over a mile, and they stopped
occasionally to drink some water and rest. Steven kept an eye on Roy to make
sure he wasn’t becoming weak or unbalanced. So far he seemed to have as much
energy as either himself or Eliza.

When they reached the car, Steven
arranged the bodies in the trunk and then placed the shovels and pickaxe on
top.

As they drove back Eliza asked
them if they wanted any more coffee.

“No,” Steven said, “but I’d take
some hand sanitizer if you have it.”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Eliza
said, rummaging through her purse. She passed a small bottle up to Steven who
applied it to his hands. He passed it to Roy. “Want some?” he asked.

“What is it?” Roy asked.

“Hand sanitizer. You rub it on
your hands, it kills bacteria.”

“Nah,” Roy replied, “I don’t want
to get my hands wet.”

“It dries as you rub it in,”
Steven said. “Try some, you’ll see.”

Roy opened the cap to the bottle
and squirted a small amount on his hands, then passed it back to Eliza. He
sniffed it as he rubbed it in.

“Smells like alcohol,” he said.
“I’d rather drink my booze.”

As the sanitizer dried up, Roy
held his hands up for Steven to see.

“That’s really something,” he
said. “So now my hands are clean?”

“Well, yeah,” Steven said.

“Then yes, I’d like some coffee,”
Roy said to Eliza. She opened the thermos and poured him another cup. It was
still hot.

-

As they drove back into town,
Steven received a call from Pete. He passed the phone to Roy, who took the
call. Roy and Pete talked back and forth. It was maddening to hear only one
half of the conversation. Roy seemed to be trying to calm Pete, but it didn’t
sound like it was working. Roy updated Pete on their progress. He didn’t tell
him everything about their plan, just that if things worked out he’d be
ghost-free in a day or two. After a while he hung up.

Roy passed the phone back to
Steven.

“Well?” Steven asked.

“What?” Roy said.

“How are they?” Steven asked.

“Oh, they’re fine,” Roy answered,
“Fine.”

“It didn’t sound like they were
fine,” Steven said. “He sounded upset.”

“Well,” Roy said, “he did say
things were worse.”

“Worse like how?” Steven asked.

“It’s nothing,” Roy said. “Just
Jurgen trying to push us along, that’s all.”

“What?!” Steven raised his voice.
“Tell me!”

“He’s making the walls bleed,” Roy
said. “Melodramatics.”

“You’re kidding me!” Eliza said
from the back seat.

“The walls are bleeding?” Steven
asked. “Just at night? Or all the time?”

“He didn’t say,” Roy said.
“Doesn’t matter, there’s no guests there. Apparently it shook up Sarah though.”

“I imagine it did!” Eliza said.
“What a little creep he is!”

“We’ve got to speed this up,”
Steven said. “Is there any way to see if Joe’s talked to Kicking Horse yet?” he
asked Eliza.

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Eliza
replied. “Native time is Native time. It works at its own pace. And a white man
asking them to speed up is exactly what makes it slow down.”

“Is there anything we can do to
help Pete and Sarah?” Steven asked. “Something we can do remotely to make it
seem less worse?”

“Not that I know of, we’re too far
away,” Eliza said. “Oh – wait. Where did you say this place was?”

“About forty miles east of
Medford,” Steven said.

“Is that near Ashland?” Eliza
asked.

“Yes, Ashland is close,” Steven
replied.

“I have a friend who lives in
Ashland. She might be able to do something. I’ll call her when we get back.”

“Thank you,” Steven said.
“Anything that can help, we need. Sarah is pregnant and it’s been going on for
many nights now. I’m worried about them.”

“Oh, Claire will love that,” Eliza
said. “She’ll want to throw her a shower.”

“Claire?” Roy asked. “Your
friend’s name is Claire?”

“Yes,” Eliza said. “You know her?”

“No,” Roy replied. “That was my
wife’s name.”

“Oh, what a coincidence,” Eliza
said. “How long has she been gone, Roy?”

“A few years now,” he said.

“Oh,” Eliza said. “Not long enough
for me to be asking like that. I’m sorry.”

“No,” Roy said, “you’re fine.
There’s times I miss her. With Steven around, not so much though.”

Steven had never heard his father
acknowledge this before. Their relationship was much better than it had been
while he was growing up, but he always felt a gulf between them. Working
together the last few months Steven felt that gulf had narrowed. But he had no
idea Roy felt his presence was easing his loneliness, making it easier to deal
with the loss of his mother.
I mean more to him than I realized,
he
thought.

He expected Eliza to make a
comment, but she didn’t.

-

“Good news,” Eliza said, joining
Steven and Roy in the kitchen after checking her messages. “That was Joe. He
talked to Kicking Horse, and he agreed to call Canyon Fire. It’ll happen
tonight, at sundown.”

“That’s great,” Roy said. “Do we
participate?”

“Yes, it’s a private ceremony, but
we’ll all go.”

“Have you met Kicking Horse
before?” Steven asked. “Or Canyon Fire?”

“I’ve met Kicking Horse,” Eliza
said. “He’s a very kind man. For him to act so quickly tells me he thinks this
is something Canyon Fire will have an interest in.”

“How exactly does this go?” Roy
asked. “Do we go out to them?”

“Yes,” she said, rising to make
some coffee. “There will be a group of Elders, all major supporters of the
barrier. They’ll stage a dream lodge, probably in the longhouse there on native
land. Kicking Horse will run the show, he’ll call in Canyon Fire. Just go with
what happens. Answer any questions they ask you. There won’t be any games, they
won’t try to trick you.”

“Do we bring the bodies?” Steven
asked.

“Yes,” she said. “And we’ll need
to bring some gifts for the bundle.”

“Bundle?” Steven asked.

“Yes,” Eliza replied. “The bundle
for Canyon Fire will be at the ceremony. We’ll be expected to contribute to it.
The standard offerings are sweetgrass and tobacco, but we’ll want to take
something more, this is a substantial request and a significant offering will
be needed.”

“I have to confess I’m completely
out of my depth here,” Steven said. “I have no idea what to offer that would be
considered acceptable.”

Eliza thought for a moment. “Don’t
worry,” she said. “I have just the thing.”

“After the offering,” Steven
asked, “will Canyon Fire take Samuel Stone, right then and there?”

“Possibly,” Eliza replied. “If he
agrees to your plan, we’ll leave with the changeling ready to go, so we should
plan on going straight out to the forest and burying it. Then you can mark it.”

“Wow, that means this could all
wrap up tonight,” Steven said.

“And what will you do once you
mark it?” she asked, sitting with them at the table while the coffee brewed.
“Go back to Seattle?”

Steven looked at Roy. “What do you
think?”

“I think we have to be sure the
body was retrieved,” Roy said. “We should stake out the clearing after we mark
the grave, and see who – or what – shows up to dig it up. Then I would expect
to hear from Pete and Sarah that the ghosts are no longer visible. In fact, I
think we should ask Pete to monitor tonight, and to call us when they stop.”

“You don’t think it’s going to
stop, do you?” Steven asked.

“No,” Roy said. “I don’t trust
Jurgen at all. So to hedge our bets we should leave for Seattle as soon as the
body has been exhumed and taken. That way we’ll be there to confront him when we
learn he hasn’t held up his end of the deal.”

“That means we’ll need to be
packed and ready to go before we leave to see Joe and Kicking Horse,” Steven
said.

“Plenty of time to pack,” Eliza
said, pouring them both a cup of coffee. “I sure will miss you two, it’s been
fun having you.”

“I can’t thank you enough for the
help you’ve given us,” Roy said.

“Oh! Claire!” Eliza said, jumping
up from the table to go to the phone. “Let me call her right now. Might only
help for one night, but at least it’s something.”

Steve, Eliza, and Roy walked
through the doors of the longhouse and into a large, open space. Timbers angled
upward to support the roof, exposed on the inside. A large open area separated
them from a group of Elders who were waiting quietly for them to arrive. Behind
the Elders, on the back wall, was a giant medicine wheel drawn in reddish-brown
clay.

Joe and another man walked to meet
them at the entrance. Joe introduced each of them to Samuel Kicking Horse. Then
Joe asked them to step back by the door, and Kicking Horse returned with an
abalone shell and the wing of a dark bird. To Steven it looked like the wing of
a vulture.

Smoke rose from the shell Kicking
Horse held. Using the wing, be scooped the smoke and pushed it toward Roy’s
shoulders and chest. As the smoke passed over Roy’s body, Kicking Horse used
the wing to collect the smoke that fell, and he flicked the wing towards the
open door. He continued this process around Roy front and back, even on the
bottom of his shoes. When he was finished with Roy, he performed the same steps
on Eliza and Steven. Then Joe asked them all to join the Elders at the other
end of the longhouse.

As they walked towards the large
medicine wheel, Steven noticed the smell of burning cedar. He couldn’t see
where it was coming from, as there was no open fire, but the smell was strong
and pleasant.

The Elders were seated on the
floor in a semi-circle. Three pieces of wood formed a tripod in front of them,
and a bundle wrapped in a blanket was suspended from the tripod by a leather
strap. Joe motioned for them to sit, and Roy, Eliza, and Steven all sat on the
floor opposite the Elders, where Joe returned to sit. Kicking Horse asked them
to introduce themselves.

 Eliza seemed to know everyone. In
addition to Joe and Kicking Horse there were four older men. The Elders were
kind, yet Steven felt a little intimidated by them. They all chatted briefly, exchanging
names, hometowns, and some small talk. Kicking Horse interrupted the chatting
to say that before they started, they all wanted to hear Steven and Roy’s story.

Steven and Roy looked at each
other, expecting the other one to start. Given the respect for elders that the
room seemed to inspire, Steven waited for Roy to begin. Roy told the group the
events they had witnessed over the past two weeks.

The Elders sat stone-faced during
the story. If any parts of it surprised or amused them, they showed no sign of
it. Roy concluded with his plan for turning Samuel Stone over to them, and
asking that they infuse the bones of the other body to be returned to Jurgen.

When he finished, there was
silence. Eventually one of the Elders spoke.

“You have had dealings with this
Jurgen, before?” he said.

“Yes,” Roy replied. “He tried to
swindle me and a partner.”

“Canyon Fire will not settle a
personal vendetta, even if Jurgen is rotten belly,” said another Elder.

“It’s true that I dislike him,”
Roy said, “and have grievances against him. And he is shady and dishonest. But
he is an evil man aside from that. It was his plan to steal Samuel Stone’s body
for profit. He stole blood from people without their knowledge for profit,
including the blood of a pregnant woman. And he is terrorizing my friends every
night as a way to force me to help him steal. These are the actions of an evil
man.”

More silence. Then Kicking Horse
stood.

“We will start. Would you bring
the bodies and place them here next to the bundle?”

Steven and Roy returned to the car
and retrieved the sheets that contained the two bodies. They carefully walked
them into the longhouse. Kicking Horse met them at the door, and Steven and Roy
held the sheets as Kicking Horse repeated the process with the abalone shell,
smoke, and vulture wing. Whereas he had smudged Steven and Roy once on their
way in, Kicking Horse spent extra time on the bodies, going over them again and
again until he seemed satisfied. Then he motioned for Steven and Roy to carry
the bodies over to the Elders. They placed the bodies next to the suspended bundle.

“Please, sit,” Kicking Horse said.
Steven and Roy sat next to Eliza in the circle. Steven was worried that the
conversation they’d had with the Elders hadn’t exactly gone the way he’d
expected.
Are they on our side in this?
he thought.
Do they see it
the same way we do? Will they ask Canyon Fire for the same things we asked for?

He looked at Eliza and they
exchanged glances. She gave him an encouraging nod.

“Steven, Roy,” Kicking Horse said,
“have you ever participated in a Native ceremony?”

“No,” Roy said.

“This is an unusual one,” Kicking
Horse said. “Canyon Fire was created by a dream lodge many years ago. He is a
spirit that holds the anger and cries of vengeance for our people. The Elders
here in the circle with you keep him alive today. They inherited the
responsibility from their ancestors. Do not stand and don’t speak while they
work. They will open the bundle, and I will call forth Canyon Fire and they
will speak on your behalf.”

Steven watched as one of the
Elders removed the bundle from the tripod and placed it on the ground. Slowly
and methodically he unwrapped the outer layer, which looked like a red blanket.
As he opened it, Joe inhaled tobacco through a pipe, and blew the smoke of the
pipe onto the contents inside.

Inside was another layer, an
interior bundle. Its wrapping was white, and looked like a very old material.
As the Elder opened it, Joe blew more smoke on the contents, which was a yellow
calico bundle. The Elder continued the unwrapping. The final layer was a black
satin.

Steven was intrigued to see the
contents of the bundle as the final layer was removed. There were five or six
smaller bundles, about the size of a fist, wrapped in red cloth and leather
strips. There were several leather pouches. Tobacco spilled from one. He saw a
long braided material which looked like the sweetgrass Eliza had brought, and a
small glass bottle that contained a clear liquid. There was a small gourd with
feathers attached. Joe blew more smoke over the contents. One of the Elders
rose and removed the gourd; it made a light rattling sound as he picked it up.
Another Elder rose and removed a much larger item that had an animal tail
connected to it, then returned to his seat.

“Do you have an offering for the
bundle?” Kicking Horse asked. Eliza stood, walked over to Kicking Horse, and
gave him the sweetgrass, tobacco, and a shirt that was old and faded. It had a
delicate fringe, and a feather hanging from one arm. As she turned to walk back,
Kicking Horse stopped her.

“Is this a ghost dance shirt?” he
asked.

“It is,” she answered, wiping a
tear from her eye as she watched Kicking Horse inspect it.

Steven heard the seated Elders
murmuring. Kicking Horse looked at Eliza and smiled. “You and I will talk about
this another day,” Kicking Horse said, placing it with the other items in the
bundle.

Kicking Horse walked to the wall
of the longhouse and turned off the lights. There were no windows in the
longhouse, so no light of any kind appeared inside the room. Steven opened his
eyes, adjusting them to the dark, but could not see anything. There were no
ambient lights and nothing trickled in from under a door or through a crack. He
held his hand in front of his face and couldn’t see it.

A flame flickered as Kicking Horse
lit the end of a two foot piece of braided sweetgrass. The flame was
extinguished, and the burning end of the grass glowed bright red. Kicking Horse
raised the braid over his head and swung it through the air, in a circle. The
burning grass gave off a sweet smell, and the circular motion of the red ember was
mesmerizing to Steven. The more he watched its movement the calmer he felt.

He became aware that the objects
that had been removed from the bundle were now being shaken by the Elders who
removed them. One created a light, gentle rattle, while the other sounded rough
and heavy. A rhythm began to develop between the spinning red cherry of the
sweetgrass and the shaking of the bundle rattles. Steven’s mesmerization
deepened.

Kicking Horse began chanting in a
language he didn’t understand. It lasted for several minutes. The intensity and
loudness of the rattling increased, and the sound of the braided sweetgrass
cutting through the air blended with the chanting and the rattles. There was a
sense of something building, something being drawn. When Kicking Horse abruptly
stopped, everything went silent, and Steven could feel a momentum all around
him. All of his senses were alive in anticipation of what would happen next.

He felt a wind against the back of
his neck. He turned, but there was nothing to see. He felt more wind, against
his face and cheeks. The ground underneath him began to shake. He felt an
overpowering need to stand and run out of the longhouse, certain that an earthquake
was underway. Then he heard one of the Elders speaking. It also was a language
he didn’t understand. When he was finished another Elder spoke. This continued
for several minutes. He continued to strain his eyes to see, but only blackness
met them.

He placed his hands on the ground
next to him, to feel the earth. It was rumbling under his fingers.

He knew something else was in the
room with them and had been since the shaking began. He wanted to slip into the
River, to see if he could discern what was happening, but he didn’t know if
this would be acceptable to his hosts. His curiosity won out, and he jumped in.

When he entered, he noticed Roy
and Eliza were already there. He was late to the party.

Canyon Fire was already manifest
as a burning wooden mask, floating in the center of the circle, hovering over
the bundle. He could see nothing behind the mask. It did not cast light; its fire
was not illuminating any of the people around the circle. He could hear one of
the Elders speaking to it and then pausing for an answer, as though they were
having a conversation. After a moment the Elder stopped talking. In another
moment, the mask faded away and was gone. Then he noticed that one of the
bodies was missing – the one wrapped in the yellow sheet.

He saw thin red wisps of fog swirl
in and around the other body under the sheet. Everyone watched as the wisps
moved in and out of the body, seeming to settle inside it. The ground continued
to shake under Steven, and the smell of tobacco smoke was strong in his nostrils.
Steven knew that Canyon Fire had accepted their proposal. The changeling was
becoming a host to the Manitou.

He heard Kicking Horse chanting
again, but from within the flow Steven understood what he was doing – he was
summoning Canyon Fire to return to the world he came from. The rumbling under
his hands slowly diminished. A long silence passed over the room, and Steven
realized they were done, the ceremony was ending. It had lasted no more than
ten minutes. Steven exited the flow, and sat in the dark for a moment longer
until Kicking Horse turned the light back on.

The Elders stayed seated. One of
them began to fold the items of the bundle into the black satin layer and wrap
it up, incorporating the offerings they had brought. They watched as the bundle
was slowly reassembled.

Steven was overwhelmed and he
hoped no one would speak to him because he wasn’t sure he could answer. Thankfully,
Kicking Horse spoke to Roy.

“You may take the body. If he is
judged to be good, the spirit inside will not attack. But if he is judged evil,
when he attempts to open the bones the spirit will be released and he will be
punished for his crimes.”

Steven, Roy, and Eliza stood.
Steven and Roy took hold of the ends of the sheet that contained the body.
Steven wasn’t sure why he did it, but he grabbed the empty yellow sheet and
placed it on top of the bundle they were about to carry from the room.

As they lifted the body, the voice
of one of the Elders stopped them. “On behalf of the tribe, we thank you for
returning Samuel Stone to us. He abused and killed many of us; men, women, and
children. Now his power has been reclaimed by Canyon Fire for the tribe. It is
an ugly thing, but it is justice. Good luck on your path.”

“Thank you,” Roy said, and they
carried the body out of the longhouse. Steven opened the trunk of the car, and
they placed the body inside.

“Do we go back in?” Steven asked.

“No,” Eliza said. “It’s done, they
did their part. Now it’s up to us to finish it.”

“Do you want to come with us to
bury it?” Steven asked.

“You are planning to hang out
there and wait to see who takes it, right?” she asked.

“Indeed we are,” answered Steven.

“Then absolutely I’m coming,” she
said. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

-

As they drove the twenty miles
into the forest to reinter the corpse, Steven asked Eliza questions about the
ceremony he had witnessed.

“Oh yes,” she said, “I jumped in
the moment it started. Didn’t you Roy?”

“Sure I did,” Roy said.

“I guess I thought that would be
rude,” Steven said. “I only saw the ending.”

“The Elders all expected us to be
in the River,” Eliza said. “The only reason we were allowed to see that,
considering that we’re white folk, was because of our gift. They knew we’d
understand and respect it, and could witness it the same as they did. If not
they wouldn’t have let us in the door.”

“So that ceremony hasn’t been
witnessed by many white people?” Steven asked.

“I think the only white people
who’ve ever seen that ceremony,” Eliza said, “are sitting in this car right
now.”

“Wow,” Steven said. “I guess
that’s pretty amazing.”

“Vengeance is a tricky thing,” Roy
said. “Those Elders have a delicate job. It can get away from you quickly and
become a monster. I admire that they’ve been able to keep it controlled the way
they have.”