Alice 1 (5 page)

The two women were friendly and I got the
skinny. Ralph has been weird since Stephen died. They were very,
very close. I guess my ego got in the way when I thought he was
looking me over, or maybe he swings both ways. Ruth and Betty sleep
with each other, and David visits sometimes. Doris doesn’t seem to
need that sort of thing.

They won’t be jealous if David and I get it
on. He makes it sometimes with the girls over at the Lodge. The
headquarters of The Great Northern Railway is in St. Paul, right
next to the University of Minnesota. The Great Northern still owns
the lodge and hires kids from the University to work summers.

____________________

We got to Cut Bank around nine in the evening
and parked a couple of blocks from the Commercial building.

“When no one’s watching, go into the woods over
there and circle to the back of the building.”

There are a lot of bushes to hide behind, and
Greg and Doris came a few minutes later. They put on gloves, zipped
the lock, and went in.

Oh No! A car came around the corner and parked.
Should we warn them? David motioned to keep quiet and my head down.
The guy got out of the car and walked toward the building. About
ten feet from the door he fell unconscious to the ground.

“Great god, how did you do that?” We carried him
behind some bushes.

“He’ll be out for around half an hour.”

When we all got back to the car we saw smoke
coming out of a window. Opps, a little too much heat. Doris called
the local fire department on her cell phone, and few minutes later
two fire trucks arrived. A fireman smashed the glass in the front
door and 5 or 6 ran in. I guess the sirens woke the guy in the back
because soon after the fire trucks arrived he came around the
corner waving his arms in the air.

The next morning we went to the website of The
Pioneer Press.

FIRE IN LOCAL BUSINESS

Last night around 9:35 The Financial
Planner, a local business at 2243 Main Drive, sustained a loss of
all of their computers. A short in one of the computers caused a
minor fire that was quickly put out by the Cut Bank Fire
Department. Ms. Collins, owner of The Financial Planner, was
unavailable for comment.

CHAPTER 10

A quick breakfast, and off to Glacier with
David. We stopped at the little store at Two Medicine and got a
Glacier Park specialty, soft huckleberry ice cream.

Click
Two Medicine Lake
.

Then started on the trail around the Lake. Held
hands the first quarter mile, arms around each other the second,
behind some rocks the third. Yes, I shocked him, and very happy to
report that Hell is not what came out.

And if I shocked you, please accept my
sincerest apology.

You are so wonderfully sensitive and
refined.

Go watch a nice comedy on TV.

Every summer in the old days, Blackfoot
shaman came from the high plains to practice two kinds of medicine.
David took me over to where their teepees stood beside the
lake.

TWO MEDICINE LAKE

“Imagine a radio dial but instead of tuning in
stations go back in time.”

I closed my eyes and moved the dial. Easy. I
watched guys build the store, and then a crew build the road. A few
more twists of the dial and I saw a one-eyed Indian and a white guy
on horses, looking out over the lake. The Indian has long, black
hair tied in a big bun on top of his head. The white guy has
reddish-brown hair, blue eyes and is clean shaven. I thought all
those old mountain men had beards. Wonder why he looks so
familiar.

I moved the dial again and saw three Indians
sitting around a small fire, eyes closed, humming and swaying. One
was the one-eyed Indian with the white guy. He suddenly opened his
eye and saw me.

“
Get the hell out of here!”

Of course I didn’t understand the words but the
message was clear, and I dialed back to the present. I got a
wonderful imagination.

David and I sat for a while by the side of
the lake, listening to water lap rock and watching birds skim for
bugs. He pointed to a large mountain on the north shore.

RISING WOLF

“That mountain is called Rising Wolf, Hugh
Monroe’s Indian name, a white guy who lived among the Blackfoot
around 1845. He liked to be called Hughie. When he died his friends
buried him on the mountain, nobody knows where.”

“Ok, that’s Interesting, and now something even
more interesting. How did you put that guy to sleep?”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask. Do
you know any neuroanatomy, like what the brain stem does?”

“No”

“Ok. At the top of the spinal cord is a bulb
like structure called the brain stem. It has three parts, and one
of them puts you to sleep. Just follow the spine to the bulb at the
top with your Shadow hands, and give it a tiny squeeze.”

“What happens if you give it a big squeeze?”

“Not so good. I once squeezed a mountain jay
hard to see what would happen, and the poor bird dropped dead. That
hurt. The mountain jay is my totem bird. There is a wide safety
zone though and I’ve never killed anything else. It’s sort of true
the harder you squeeze the longer they sleep, but that varies a lot
from animal to animal. Not so much for humans.”

“Sounds dangerous. Not sure I want to do
that.”

“The Squeeze can be very handy.”

“Good point. Ok, let me try.”

“See the squirrel over there? Go to the top of
the spine with your Shadow hands, feel the bulb, and give it a
squeeze.”

Nothing.

“A little harder.”

The poor thing keeled over. God, what a power
surge, and that scares the hell out of me. Power corrupts, somebody
said.

“I don’t want to, David. It’s too
dangerous.”

“Nah. Just don’t squeeze hard and you’ll be
fine.”

“I don’t mean that, I mean the power. I’m afraid
it will twist me into a monster.”

“Yeah, I remember the warning from Lord Acton,
‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad men.’ Notice he said ‘tends to
corrupt’. Not letting power corrupt is one of the challenges of
your life. You can’t run away.”

“Kind of preachy David, but good advice. Ok,
make me a promise. If you see monster horns start to grow on top of
my head, splash a big glass of ice water across my face.”

“Agreed, if you do the same for me.”

“Agreed.”

So I accept the burden and glory of power. He’s
right, I have no choice.

We ate a sack lunch by the lake, and then got a
couple more delicious, double dip huckleberry ice cream cones.
Spent the rest of the day walking around, enjoying each other and
the wonderful mountains and lake. Even saw a wolverine.

I gently put little animals to sleep, and they
were usually up and around in a few seconds.

Late in the afternoon we got our third
huckleberry ice cream cone. They are really good. That one-eyed
shaman followed me around all day, glaring and shaking his silly
rattle. I finally had it and told him to stuff that rattle down his
fucking throat. He raised it high in the air and I raised high my
double dip, huckleberry ice cream cone. He grinned, turned coyote,
and ran into the woods.

Tomorrow we go to Many Glacier, the most
beautiful and magical part of the Park. And David promised to teach
me more about the Squeeze, something the group has been working
on.

CHAPTER 11

Well no. So much for Many Glacier. Linda is at
San Francisco General. She was mugged and the bastard broke her
arm. Quick drive to Great Falls, shuttle to Denver, red eye to San
Francisco. On the way I told Greg about the Squeeze and he thought
it would be good to teach it to the group. I could tell he already
knew about it. Why has he kept it a secret?

Linda’s ready to come home so we hit the
interstate. I’ve never seen her so mad. If she knew the Squeeze,
that guy would be on a cold slab. And what would I have done?
Squeezed the hell out of his brain stem, kicked him in the balls on
the way down, and spit in his face when he hit the ground.

The next morning I taught everybody the Squeeze.
We went from birds to cats and dogs. Once a curious deer came out
of the woods and Linda squeezed a little too hard. He lay there for
quite a while, but eventually got up, looked dazed, and jumped back
into the woods. Linda was the best student and accidently killed a
couple of seagulls. I figure she plans to go back to San Francisco
to get that bastard.

Johnny is a fisherman as well as a clammer and
loves to fish off our pier for rock cod. He saw a fat one near
shore, did the Squeeze, and that poor fish turned belly up and
floated to the top. He jumped up and down, yelling and screaming,
pointing to that poor dead fish. Is that legal in California?

Tomorrow we practice on each other.

____________________

By the end of the next day we mastered the
Squeeze, and God help the next mugger.

I was right, Linda’s going back to get that
bastard! Skinny Santa said no way and we had a very big fight.
Molly and I sided with Linda. Johnny and Maggie with Skinny Santa.
Old man Benson but didn’t say anything.

“Ok, ok, so you’re going,” Skinny Santa said.
“What are you going to do if you find him, which is not very
likely?”

“I’m going to squeeze the hell out of his balls,
like Alice did to a guy. I want that prick to hurt, like he hurt
me. Maybe he’ll learn what it’s like to hurt people.”

“I understand revenge, not so sure about the
lesson. What are you going to do if he attacks?”

“I’ll put him to sleep and hope he has a real
bad headache when he wakes up.”

“Won’t that blow our cover?”

“Who’d believe him, and he’d never tell anybody
he was put down by a woman.”

I asked if she would like me to come along and
she gave a big hug. “We leave in the morning.”

That really got everybody going. Greg went on
and on for some time about my reservoir of anger, my lack of
experience, immaturity, impulsiveness, misuse of the Gift, etc,
etc. He honey coated the sermon with my great progress, how much
they all care for me, concern for my safety, etc, etc.

Santa’s a nice guy and I love him, but I
don’t do well with heavy parent.

____________________

We got to San Francisco mid-morning. Bad
neighborhood. What was Linda doing here? Guys whistled and a few
cars stopped and asked our price, but no mugger until the
afternoon.

“There, just inside that alley, the man in the
brown shirt with that other guy.” We acted as if we didn’t see them
as we walked by.

“Hey Jimmie, look at that sweet pussy. Hey
ladies, lookin’ for some wild stuff?”

“I know the old bitch. I took her money and gave
her a lesson not to give me a hard time.” They pushed us into the
alley and pulled knives.

“This is your lucky day, ladies. You’re going to
find out how a real man fucks a woman, and don't you try to fight
me again or I’ll cut you good.” And herded us to the back of the
alley.

“Now we’re real gentlemen. You want it on the
ground or against the wall?”

“And we’re real ladies,” I said. “So we’re gonna
give you sorry pricks one chance to get the hell out of here before
we beat the shit out of you!”

Oh my, how they did laugh. Probably the funniest
thing they ever heard, and maybe the last. I don’t do well laughed
at, so I did my thing. They doubled over and hit the ground.
Linda’s guy got up wild eyed, spraying spit. We squeezed and he hit
the ground hard.

His friend turned into a wittle, waby wabbit,
and hopped back down the wabbit twail as fast as he could hop.

“Think we killed him?” Linda asked.

“Yes.”

Why aren’t I even a little upset, remorseful? I
just killed a guy and all I felt was that oh so satisfying, so
dangerous surge of power. Are the monster horns growing so
soon?