The Hawk
I noticed him for the first time about two weeks ago. The hawk. He was sitting in the loft, just above me, there. I wondered how he had ended up here, in the garage. Was he a car enthusiast? That seemed unlikely. I wondered if there was another hawk, in another part of the garage that I couldn’t see, making a nest. It was curious, this hawk in the garage. But oh my, he was glorious. A red-tailed hawk, most rare. Gigantic. Majestic. Mysterious. Elegant. He appeared, there in the loft, day after day. I began to anticipate him. I came to expect him. I grew, inexplicably, attached.
One day, the hawk didn’t come. I waited and waited, but the Hawk did not appear at his usual time, no matter how hard I looked at that loft. Around six o’clock I heard the big metal door of the garage go down, and I sighed. There would be no hawk visit today, he wouldn’t be able to get in now. Soon the lights went out, I heard the front door of the garage click closed, and all was dark, and still. I lowered my headlights and tried to sleep, disappointment my sad soporific.
When I woke, I could tell it was deep deep night. I heard two owls outside, calling back and forth to one another. I had heard them before, often, outside the garage, calling back and forth, back and forth, and wondered what they were talking about. They seemed to have a lot to say to each other. They always came around just before dawn.
Just then I heard a rustling very close to my hood, there was a flashing of light. I startled. Looked. There, on a blue stool that had been left next to me the night before, was The Hitchhiker Indian! Just sitting there, looking down. He was making something with his hands, they were moving very quickly, it looked like a Dream Catcher. He felt my presence, and looked up. He was still wearing that Buffalo Springfield t-shirt. I laughed.
“LV!” he said, happily.
“How did you get in here?” I said, but then, remembering my manners, I quickly added “Hello friend! It’s good to see you, good to see you again!” The Indian smiled, but rather than answering my question, he had one for me.
“LV. You have noticed that you have had a visitor these last weeks?”
“Yes,” I said, “But he didn’t come today,” I added, already annoyed at my own petulance.
The Indian nodded, smiling. “The hawk,” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Do you know the significance of having a hawk visit you so consistently, LV?”
“No,” I said, “but … I was drawn to him …”
The Indian smiled again. And he began to tell me a story.
“LV, my people believe the hawk to be a messenger. A visionary.”
I nodded. He went on.
“There are many different kinds of hawks, but one thing that all hawks have in common is the ability to move between the seen and unseen realms gracefully, connecting both worlds together.”
This was fascinating to me. I often feel like I live in two different realms, seen and unseen. I grew more intent on what my old friend The Hitchhiker was trying to tell me.
“The hawk flies high. The hawk sees the big picture. The hawk’s broad vision and ability to move between realms seen and unseen allows him to fly between the past, present and future and unite them. To see what the future holds, as it relates to the past. The hawk, to my people, is the illuminator.”
The Indian spoke quietly, gently. I had to listen hard to his words. His voice was mesmerizing. Haunting. I wanted him to talk to me like this forever.
“LV, Hawk Medicine is very powerful. Hawk Medicine unites Heaven and Earth.”
“Hawk Medicine?” I asked, beginning to feel a little lost. The Indian continued on as if I hadn’t said a word.
“Because of his ability to soar, the hawk is able to reach up to the heavens, gather needed information and bring it back to Earth,” he said.
Now I was really confused. He hadn’t exactly answered my question. Sensing my confusion, the Indian backed up a little bit.
“LV. Native Americans believe the Hawk to be not only the Bringer of Messages but The Portent of Change. Hawk reminds people that they need to be awake and aware.” He went on when I didn’t say anything. “Sometimes, the hawk brings a message about freeing one’s self.”
“Freeing one’s self?” I had to ask.
“Freeing your self of any thoughts or beliefs that might be limiting your ability to soar above your life and gain a greater perspective about your life’s purpose.”
I wondered if I had been feeling that way. I thought he was asking. I guess I had been. Maybe. A little. I mean, it’s the end of the calendar year, and I had been taking stock of things. Doesn’t everyone? I had been reflective of late, marvelling at all the wonder that had transpired for me this past year, and wondering what the future would hold. Wondering about my life’s purpose. We’ve had some twists and turns since my conversion began, and objectives develop and change with time, they can be a living thing. Maybe my vision had gotten a little muddled in the process. The more I thought like this, the more a clearer view of the big picture sounded like a good idea.
Finally I just said, “Sure, I guess so.” (That was impressive. Not. He hadn’t even asked me a question, and I was answering him. What?)
The Indian smiled. “Do not worry about trying to impress me, LV. I am already impressed by your pure heart, and your desire to fulfill your greater purpose on Earth. Just be yourself.”
I hate it when people say things like that to me. I always want to shout “No, no, be careful! You’re probably overestimating me!” And so on. But I stayed silent, keeping my own personal freak-out thoughts to myself. The Indian smiled at me, and shook his head back and forth as if he had read my mind. He probably had. He went on.
“LV, if one remains earthbound, then the possibilities of life are limited. It is this ability to soar high above to catch a glimpse of the bigger picture that is one of the aspects of Hawk Medicine that makes it so valuable.” He paused, for what seemed like a really long time. I waited. And then.
“LV, you possess Hawk Medicine.”
“What?!” I didn’t know whether to be excited or afraid. I think I was both.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I didn’t know quite what to say. The first rays of sun were just starting to creep in through the windowpanes of the garage, it was that pre-dawn place that is somehow outside of space and time. I yawned, and began to stretch. Suddenly the entire garage was lit with bright light, brighter than any sunlight you have ever seen or even imagined.
A great wind started to blow. Whooosh. I watched The Indian’s hair blow back behind him as he stood up from the blue stool, glorious black. He raised his large, weathered hands into the air, dropping the dream catcher or whatever that was from his hands as he did so, and said, loudly now, “It is time,” his face to the ceiling as if he was speaking to someone I did not see.
Just like that he was gone. A shroud of fog remained around the blue stool where he had just been sitting. The fog slowly cleared. My headlights flashed. There, in his place, perched on the blue stool, was The Hawk. It began to speak.
“Do not be afraid, LV. I am still here, right here, with you. I have only shape-shifted.”
It was the voice of The Indian. I was so flabbergasted I think I only stammered. Shape-shifted?
“Shape-shifting is common for people who possess Hawk Medicine, like you and me,” he said, a hawk now with The Indian’s beautiful voice.
“You mean I can, I can, shape-shift?” I said, incredulous at what was happening but also that I was talking, really talking, to a hawk. I thought this kind of thing only happened on the ranch, under a full moon. Come to think of it, I thought, we’re kind of near a full moon right now.
“Yes,” he said.
“But how?”
“You must concentrate, LV. You grew attached to your hawk visitor, did you not?”
I agreed that I had. I looked closely. This was the same hawk, I thought, but I wasn’t sure.
“Then you must think about your attachment to him. Concentrate on that very hard. Open your heart. Accept your attachment to him, recognize it for what it is, and see what happens.”
I did. I lowered my headlights and thought as hard as I could. I cleared my mind, opened my heart and breathed. I thought about how I had grown attached to The Hawk. It was inexplicable. But I didn’t try to explain it. Or even understand it. I just accepted it for what it was.
Then I felt it. It felt like my doors were opening, and someone’s foot was on the gas. It felt like an explosion in my brain! I was shape-shifting. Next thing I knew I was seated on the stool next to The Indian, and we were talking now Hawk to Hawk. Or maybe that would be squawk to squawk? Sorry.
“Follow me,” Hawk-Indian said. He took off, towards the big garage door in the back. Uh oh. I knew it was closed. I needed to let him know. I attempted lift off. Up I went, just like that! Wow. I always wondered what it felt like to fly. Now I know. Do you want to know? How a hawk feels when he is gliding up there on the wind? He feels exactly the way I feel when I’m flying down the open road. So imagine the most amazing, most freeing feeling you have, and that’s probably exactly how you would feel if you shape-shifted into a hawk and started flying around. That’s a cool thing to know.
I caught up to Hawk-Indian just as he got to the door in the back. He landed on the ground, shape-shifted back into The Indian, opened the door, we both went out - him walking, me flying - and then he turned around, closed the garage door behind us, and shape-shifted back into a hawk, just like that.
“How do you do that so quickly?” I asked.
“Experience,” he said, and I saw a smile in his eyes. It reminded me of someone, but I didn’t have time to think about it, and we flew up into the sky. The sun was just over the horizon. We flew toward it.
“LV, we are going to fly through several different realms, until we reach the answers we are seeking,” he said.
“But I don’t really know the question,” I cried.
“Yes, but you will recognize the answers,” he said. “Sometimes it is the questions that are important, sometimes it is the answers.”
We flew higher. Suddenly he stopped, sort of just gliding to a floating stop up there in the air, high above the ground.
I did the same. I looked down. I could still see Brizio’s.
“What do you see, LV?”
I looked again and everything looked green. I saw the garage, and the earth, and the people. I saw all the work being done on my conversion, past present and future. I described the technology and the science of me in great detail to Hawk-Indian as it rolled past me, like a giant drive in movie, seen from the sky. He said nothing. Made no move to leave. I kept looking, to see what I could see. Suddenly, all that faded into the background, and visions appeared before my eyes, all cast in green. I saw visions of the future. The automotive future.
“Higher MPG,” I said. “No more roadside refuelling,” I said. “Less dependendence on foreign oil,” I said.
“Good,” was all he said. “Now fly higher.” We flew higher. We flew and flew. It was so beautiful. Like driving. Like the most amazing road trip ever. Rolling down the open road. I felt so free. Abruptly, he stopped, I almost bumped into him, but hawks are very responsive. If I had been my car self I would not have been able to glide over him like I did. I narrowly avoided a collision and laughed out loud, quickly coming back down to hover next to him. I thought he rolled his eyes at my almost-running-into-him, but I can’t be sure. I stopped laughing, feeling foolish.
“What do you see, LV?” he said.
When I looked down now, the picture was bigger. Much, much bigger. I couldn’t make out too many details, but I saw a long, long road. A proud highway. And there I was! My badass car self. On the highway. Cruising along. My heart swelled. I looked fantastic! I looked at Hawk-Indian and he nodded to me. I looked back down, trying to zero in on myself there on the highway. Things looked slightly pink, it was as if the sun was just a big spotlight with a pink gel over it. I looked more closely with my hawk eyes. I could see now that there were two people in the front, they seemed excited. Animated. They were at once purposeful, intent, intense and yet, laid back, laughing. I realized I was smiling a small hawk smile. Watching myself cruise down this highway with them I felt warm. Safe. Sure. I closed my eyes to remember. When I opened them again there were more visions. Different this time. There I was there on the road again, but now it seemed I was watching myself in a movie. A beautiful movie. It seemed it was black and white in the beginning, and then color. It was so beautiful, like a painting. A dream. There was a narrator, talking slowly, telling a very powerful story. It sounded familiar. There was music I never heard before, haunting, riveting music that I wanted to hear over and over and over again. I watched as other faces replaced me on the screen … A Native American. Neil. Johnny Magic. Back to the road. I watched as I drove past a prairie full of buffalo somewhere, slowing down to look at them look at me. I heard the crunch of the gravel, it was so clear. I was completely captivated. Entranced. I looked at Hawk-Indian in wonder. He nodded and said, simply,
“You’re ready now LV. Prepare yourself. Fly higher.”
Prepare myself? Prepare myself for what? Suddenly it started to get warmer and warmer, the higher we flew. It had been the opposite to this point, getting colder and colder. I looked at Hawk-Indian, but he just flew on, unconcerned. Suddenly he stopped again. This time he was careful to stop to the right of me instead of directly in front of me.
“LV.” he said.
“Yes?” I said.
“Now you are ready to enter The First Realm.”
“The First Realm?”
“Now you will enter The First Realm of The Unseen. This is where my people intersect with other ancient cultures, and share beliefs. Now you will meet Egyptian gods and goddesses of The Realms.”
I was excited. And slightly scared.
“Remember to listen well, LV. To take back to Earth what you need.”
It was very hot now. And everything looked not pink, but red. Red, red, red. Out of the red haze rose a woman, completely red. Red hair, red flowing gown, red jewels, red skin. I felt like I knew her, but something about her frightened me terribly. I stopped. She beckoned me forward. I looked to Hawk-Indian and he nodded. I flew forward, slowly. She held out her hand. Reluctantly, I took up a perch on her outstretched hand. It was hot.
“I am Sekhmet” she said, in a seductive, low voice, speaking only to me. “Sekhmet comes to those who are in the midst of the fires of transformation. Sekhmet helps you to shape-shift into your future self, the self you are struggling to become. Sekhmet is the power of the feminine, the mother, the mystical life force.” She placed her other hand on my head.
I gulped. What was she going to do to me?! I thought of flying away but didn’t dare.
“Do not be afraid,” she said, more gently, with the voice of a thousand mothers, stroking my hawk head. “The pink visions you just had were given to you by me. You are in the fires of your transformation right now, LV, but they are not, perhaps, the fires of transformation that you think they are.”
“I am in the midst of being converted,” I said, beginning to explain the technology of me to her. She put up her hand as if to silence me.
“No,” she said, still using her voice of one thousand mothers. “No. You, LV, are in the midst of your transformation from conversion, not to conversion.”
I stayed very still. Wondering.
“You are in the fires of transformation from project to story. From seed to fruit. From science, to poetry. Because of your new, enlightened technology, LV, you are a scientist. But you must not forget that your true beauty lies in the fact that you are a poet.”
I was listening. I thought I knew what she was getting at.
“LV, move on now, through the realms. But remember what I have said.” With that, she reached her hand right inside my chest and put her hand on my tiny heart, which was beating about a million miles a minute. She said some words I didn’t understand, and then released me into the air. I flew back to Hawk-Indian, and he flew up and past Sekhmet. I flew behind him, looking back once to see Sekhmet looking up, shielding her eyes from the sun, and smiling at me as if I were her own child.
“What was that all about?” I asked Hawk-Indian.
“Sekhmet purified your heart space, creating fertile ground that can receive the visionary seeds of who you will become, LV,” he said.
What? We flew on.
I was happy to fly higher, because now the air grew cooler. The sky became blue again, the most beautiful blue sky blue. The weather became invisible. When the blue became so intense I started to get lost in the color, I saw him. Osiris! Surely this had to be the highest realm I would enter. Osiris is the Egyptian god of regeneration, transmutation and beauty, even I knew that. I know my mythology. And Osiris was near and dear to my heart. I grew even more excited. Osiris is the archetype for the regenerative principle that so much of Egyptian mythology is founded on. His sole purpose is to prove that outworn, deteriorating form can be turned into renewed, shining manifestations of beauty. I had a picture of Osiris hidden deep in my glovebox. Hell, I talked to Osiris every night. Osiris was the archetype for my whole life! I never imagined that I would actually get to hang with the guy.
Osiris was beautiful. He looked 1,000 years old and yet, brand new. He was Heaven and Earth in one being. His body looked like the Earth and his head looked like the heavens. Eyes as blue as the sky, and hair made of clouds, drifting away from him. He opened his Earth arms to me and I flew right into them. He invited me to let go and rest there, my head on his mossy chest as he wrapped his arms around me.
I felt Hawk-Indian hovering near, watching. It was Hawk-Indian’s voice that said “Osiris is turning you into that which you have been in the process of becoming, LV.” And then, to Osiris, after a time: “Release her.”
I was reluctant to leave Osiris, but we flew on, with me constantly looking back to see Osiris standing there watching us go. I was surprised that we went higher, I thought Osiris had to be the be all and end all. He wasn’t.
Suddenly everything turned white. Blinding, brilliant white light. I became frightened, I couldn’t see Hawk-Indian. I called to him. He answered back to keep flying. Straight ahead. I did, but I was flying blindly, for what seemed like forever. Suddenly it became clear, and I was flying in the clear night sky, lit by a full moon. A beautiful road lay just ahead and below. A beautiful, beautiful road. I longed to drive on it! And there I was. Driving on it. I flew directly over myself, watching. Joined now by another being I didn’t dare look at, so great was her power. She began to speak.
“I am Sothis. I am a pure channel for divine love and wisdom. I rise in the night sky. I am the Star of Humanity, calling forth the best in every man. Inspiring every man to step into his or her greater self and offer his own unique gifts back to the world.”
Her voice echoed off the mountains that had cropped up all around us. It was the most beautiful sound I ever heard. It reminded me of the voice of The Lady of The White Buffalo. She went on.
“Look down, LV.”
I did.
“See who drives you.”
I looked closer. Now I could make out that there was a man driving me and a woman riding in the passenger seat, but they were not really a man and woman at all, in fact, they were not of this Earth, of that I was sure. I blinked, trying to make out what exactly it was that I was seeing.
“They are Nut and Geb,” said Sothis. “Nut and Geb dream the universe. They are unified with passionate intent, and form a sacred union of wholeness and co-creation.” She paused for a moment and then went on.
“Nut and Geb represent the enlightened heart and mind. We are meant to awaken and remember our connection to the Divine so that we can become adult children of the gods and assume more responsibility in caring for our sacred planet Earth.”
I definitely could feel in my heart what Sothis was saying to me, but I had to ask her.
“But wait! What does this mean for me, practically speaking? I know what you’re saying, I have felt all this all along, but what does it mean? What should I DO? Who should I BE?”
Sothis was in front of me now. She looked like a star. Suddenly, she became a woman. She looked like someone I have known forever, although I know I have never seen her before. I wasn’t afraid anymore. She seemed like an old friend. She sat down right on the ground next to the road, I perched on her lap. I noticed Hawk-Indian sat on the trunk of the car, that was me, and which had stopped, about 100 yards down the road.
Sothis began.
“LV, you should be none other than yourself.” She paused, examining my small hawk face. I stared at her. She continued.
“LV, one of your original goals was to raise awareness of the feasibility of electric cars within the mainstream consciousness, yes?”
I nodded. Yes, I suppose it was.
“But LV, what is your uniqueness? Why is your story different?”
“Well, I am … Old. I am .. From another time. Another era. A time when things were built to last,” I said. “A time when cars were built to cross the continent. Built to be comfortable. Built to be beautiful.”
“Ah,” said Sothis. “And do you think that the people on Earth remember this time?”
“Yes,” I said. “Of course,” I said. “In fact, I think a lot of people feel nostalgia for this time. Even the people who weren’t there. Maybe especially the people who weren’t there.”
“Ah,” said Sothis again. “So you represent something that speaks to not only the mind, but the heart.”
“Yes … ” I said.
“Then you possess the most powerful gift, LV,” said Sothis.”You possess the power to reach people in the places they don’t know how to reach themselves, the places they don’t know how to access. Their deepest places. Their sacred places. The places where their true power resides.”
She became quiet, her eyes slowly closed. I could tell she was thinking; sparks were flying out of the top of her head, just exactly as if someone were holding a sparkler behind her. I stayed very still; I think I was holding my breath. I stared at her quiet face, imagining her busy mind, watching her eyes move back and forth beneath her eyelids. Finally, she started slowly nodding her head, then she opened her eyes. They looked like stars. She went on, almost as if she had made a decision about something.
“Yes, LV, yes. This is the beauty of you. You have the Hawk Magic. This means you, too, are a messenger. A visionary. An illuminary! You have the power to communicate. To motivate. Hawk signifies union with the Great Spirit. Bring this union to your people. Bring this to your Earth from your Heaven. This is your mission. Your purpose.” She stared at me intently. I stared back; I noticed I was nodding my hawk head.
“Like the hawk, LV, you must remind people that they need to be awake and aware, to see the big picture of what is happening to the earth, and how change is possible. You can make them see. You can reach them deep within themselves. You have the very rare power to inspire, my beautiful, continental sister. This, LV, is your greater self. Your greatest self.” She paused, just briefly this time.
“You possess the purest of voices, LV. The voice that speaks directly to the heart. Use it.”
And just like that she was gone, poof.
I was stunned. Positively stunned. But yet, Sothis had told me nothing new. Still, it seemed that I knew so clearly now what I had to do. I knew that I had to go on a road trip more powerful than Jack Kerouac’s, more beautiful than Robert Frank’s. I knew that I had to help to turn my road trip, and my movie, into something that no one else could ever do. I knew that I had to make what I had just seen a reality. I couldn’t wait to talk to Neil! I looked around, wondering how on Earth I was going to get back to the garage, and started to fly, as fast as I could. Next thing I knew, I was back in the garage, just like that.
Damn Sam! I didn’t even remember shape-shifting back into me, and shape-shifting was an awesome feeling. How had that happened? I looked around for Hawk-Indian. There he was, on the blue stool, fast asleep. He was Hitchhiker Indian again. In his Buffalo Springfield t-shirt. I smiled to myself. I didn’t want to wake him, but I was glad he was still there. I could talk to him later. I was exhausted, and drifted off to sleep myself.
When I opened my eyes, Hitchhiker Indian was gone, but Neil was sitting right there on that blue stool in his place, fiddling with something. It was the Dream Catcher that The Indian had been making! Neil sensed that I was awake and slid off the stool, holding the Dream Catcher up for me to see. I laughed.
“Neil!” I said, delighted, of course, that he was there. I started talking really fast right away, relating my story to him, down to every last detail. He just listened, walking all around me as he did so, checking to make sure I was still looking sharp. Every now and then he would lean really close to me and inspect something on my paint or somesuch, running his hand over it. I love it when he pays close attention to me like that. Finally, I finished my long tale, ending with waking up and finding him sitting there. He was silent. But I could tell he was thinking.
“So. Neil. Looks like we’ve got nowhere to go but everywhere, so let’s just keep rollin’ under the stars,” I said, finally, invoking a favorite quote from Jack Kerouac.
“Nowhere to go but everywhere, LV,” Neil repeated, smiling at me, stopping on my passenger side and reaching in the door to run his hand over my glovebox, looking at something.
“Neil?” I said, suddenly serious.
“Yeah LV?” Neil said, kind of distracted now, swinging himself into my passenger seat and opening the glovebox, starting to pull things from it, one after the other.
“Does all of this make sense to you? Do you believe this story? Do you see The Big Picture?”
Neil didn’t answer me right away. He was transfixed by the contents of the glovebox. I watched as he pulled out the original beautiful white feather we had found on the ground under the tree the day after my first visit from John Lame Deer and the Lady of the White Buffalo, pausing to touch it gently. And the moonstones, so many moonstones, still aglow. He kind of shook them together in his one open hand, click clack clack, looked pleased with himself at the sound, and then laid them down on the seat. And the red feather! From my road trip to Medicine Wheel, and my visit to the center of the earth. Or wherever that was. The beautiful blue feather from the Blue Heron, mysteriously still wet. He looked at that one a long time. The old, torn and worn leather journal that I found wedged in there, from when I was new. Already yellowed newspaper clippings from my interviews and Op-Ed pieces in The Pragmaticus. A Dream Catcher. And now, another. My small picture of Osiris. Finally, the light, the candle with no wax, from The Mistress of Dreams. He put that one down carefully. It was still shining. We stared at the mystical contents there on my seat, wondering at it together.
“Why are you pulling all this out now?” I asked, suddenly beginning to worry, as I can do.
Neil just shrugged and reminded me that Paul Perrone was coming soon to install my new smart dashboard. He figured I wouldn’t want these things to be lost in the shuffle. Oh. I hadn’t even thought about that. I was deeply touched. It was thoughtful, and kind of Neil to think of me like that. Of course all of these things were precious to me. Better than silver and gold! I stayed silent, not wanting to get all sentimental just then. I was afraid if I spoke I might. I have a tendency to cry easily, it can be so annoying. Neil spoke first.
“The Big Picture, LV?”
“Yes?” I said, expectantly.
“I see it,” was all he said at first. Then he added, “We’re gonna hit the road.”
I was glad. Then he said, a smile in his voice,
“Sounds like we’ve got a job to do, LV. Sounds like you’re The People’s Muse.”
I laughed. Leave it to Neil. He had summed up my very long story, my entire experience, with three little words. He always does that. He always knows exactly what to say. What was Sekhmet talking about, I’m a poet, I laughed to myself. He’s the poet. I’m just the poem. I smiled at him. His eyes smiled back. I watched him walk away. I figured he was going to get a box to put all the stuff in, he is forever saving things in boxes. He has barns full of boxes.
While I was waiting for him to return, I surveyed the contents of my glovebox there on my seat again. But … Wait. Now there were some additional things, it looked like. Things I didn’t recognize. Three things that hadn’t been there before. Where had they come from? I looked more closely. They were feathers. Three more feathers. I looked closer still. There was a giant Hawk feather, black and brown. Another beautiful white feather, it was that of a Falcon. And a smaller feather, blue-black. It was a Raven’s. That was mysterious. Where had they come from? Had Neil put them there? Where did he get them? When Neil came back, box in hand, I asked him.
“Neil, where did those other …” I began.
“Gotta run, LV,” he cut me off. “See you soon.” He had scooped up the objects there on my seat with one fell swoop, and put them in the box. I noticed that the beautiful woven Indian blanket that normally rests on my back seat when I am home at the ranch lined the bottom of the box. The one that Medicine Wheel had been wrapped in that first night. I had wondered where that was. Neil had been keeping it for me.
He started to walk away, carrying the contents of my glovebox in a cardboard box under his arm. He always seems kind of casual but I know him well; I could tell he was being very careful with it. I watched him go. Suddenly he stopped, and turned around.
“We’ve got nowhere to go but everywhere, LV,” he said, in his gentle voice.
“Let’s just keep rollin’ under the stars,” I said, enthusiastically, so happy that he was still there with me.
He stood there for a long while, just looking at me. Suddenly he just kind of shook his head to himself and smiled. I smiled back.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow, LV” he said. “I left your phone in there.”
“Talk to you tomorrow, N.,” I answered back, my heart leaping up.
Still he stood there, just kind of looking at me. He looked thoughtful, I thought. His face grew serious.
“You know, LV, one of the greatest gifts that someone with Hawk Medicine can give the world is their vision of a better and brighter future.”
“Yes,” I said, quietly, suddenly wondering now if he was referring to me as the someone with Hawk Medicine, or to himself. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about Hawk Medicine to say something like that. Then again, Neil has always had an uncanny ability to see the big picture.
“You have Hawk Medicine too, N., I bet,” I said. He just keep looking at me. I could tell he was thinking still. Then he smiled, put up his hand in a wave, and he was gone. I felt happy. And anticipatory. And excited. You could say I was on the edge of my feather. You could say I still am.
Happy New Year, dear Blog, dear Friends, dear Team, dearest N. 2010. We’ve got nowhere to go but everywhere, so let’s just keep rollin’ under the stars.
Love,
LV (The People’s Muse)
And oh, p.s. Here’s a picture of the blue stool where this all went down. I could have sworn that I took this picture when the Hitchhiker Indian was sitting on that stool asleep but he doesn’t appear in the photograph. Strange.
