waving for me to follow him. Struggling, I managed to get myself to standing and waddled a ways up the path. Bending over, I stopped to catch my breath. The steep terrain was wearing me down fast.
“Here, let me help you.” An unfamiliar voice said to me. Whipping my head up, I saw a man, obviously Hopi Indian, extending his hand to me. His face was worn like old leather; he’d obviously seen his fair share of the desert sun. He wasn’t an old man compared to my grandmother, but he was likely in his mid-fifties. Beyond his tanned and weathered appearance, however, his eyes shone with the warmth of a hundred elders.
He must have sensed the alarm in my face when he quickly introduced himself. “I’m Tanaka. I live in these parts.”
“Cassia.” I responded warily, accepting his offer to help me up the hill.
“Come with me.” His voice was calm and soothing. Somehow he put me at ease, and stranger still, I felt like I knew him or that I’d seen him before.
Struggling up the side of the mountain, an excited Keanu stood before the mouth of a large cave. His happy expression melted into disbelief when he saw my swollen belly.
“What the…? You weren’t that big an hour ago!” His eyes were wide.
“Thanks.” I responded sarcastically, still trying to catch my breath from the jaunt up the hillside.
Tanaka took his backpack off, opened it and then offered me a leather bladder with what I assumed was water and a strip of jerky.
“Oh thank you!” I snatched them away with unintentional rudeness. Plopping myself down on a nearby boulder, I devoured the jerky and then nearly drowned myself as I poured the water down my parched throat.
“I see you’ve met Tanaka.” Keanu stated as he attempted to reach for the water bag, but was met with a look of sheer contempt. Pregnancy does weird things to a person, especially when hungry or thirsty. Eventually, I shared the water…but not the jerky.
Nodding, Tanaka added as he pointed to Keanu. “Yes, I saw this one wandering around on my mountain and I came to check him out.”
“Your mountain?” I wasn’t sure if he actually owned this land or had merely claimed it.
“Yes, I have an acreage a few miles from here. I was out checking my traps.”
“What are you trapping?” Keanu inquired with interest. He really seemed to take an instant liking to this old fellow. I had to admit, Tanaka was rather soothing to be around, I wondered if he was a shaman or medicine man.
“Coyotes. They’re a nuisance.” He explained, then asked. “So what are you folks out here for? It’s dangerous to be wandering about the desert.”
Keanu and I exchanged a quiet glance, both of us unsure if we should trust a stranger. Tanaka picked up on our hesitation.
“You on the run?”
Sighing, I nodded. I was tired. Tired of running. Tired of lying. I just wanted to lie down, I didn’t feel well.
“Why?” Tanaka’s face was so…innocent. I felt guilty that I couldn’t spill every single detail to him. I wanted to release all the fear and anxiety I had bottled up inside me. Part of me so desperately desired to just blurt out everything, get it off my chest.
But how could I? I’d have to tell him why. I’d have to tell him that I wasn’t human.
It’s not every day, I’m sure, that someone meets a…a…what was I exactly? An alien? Yah, that would go over well, I’m sure. Mutant sounds a little better, sort of, but I wasn’t willing to call myself that. I may as well start calling myself freak if that was the case.
He must have sensed my internal struggle with divulging any more information and turned to walk into the cave.
“Come, let’s look around.” His native accent was strong; I wondered what tribe he was from. I would’ve recognized him immediately if he were from ours. He dressed rather modern for someone who lived in the desert. Wearing dark jeans and a short sleeve shirt, I suspected he had lived in the city at some point.
Our tribe wore more traditional clothing. We tried to make most of our own clothes from leather and light cotton fabrics. Of course we had to buy some of the fabrics from nearby towns but we preferred to be as self-reliant as possible. Some modern people mocked our ways but we preferred to live with the land rather than just on it.
After I moved away to university, I had to retrain my thinking to blend with society. I didn’t miss a lot of the traditional ways of the Hopi tribe but one thing I did miss was being surrounded by people who respected the land.
“We can hide here for the day and then travel by night. It will be harder for them to spot us…if nothing happens, I mean.” Keanu said eyeing my belly nervously
“If I may ask, where are you going?” Tanaka inquired, his voice smooth and relaxed.
I glanced at Keanu, wondering how much information he was going to supply this perfect stranger.
Keanu sighed and seemed to have an internal debate within himself, obviously thinking the same thing as me. After a moment, he blurted out. “We’re trying to find a certain cave…a special cave…where Cassia was born.”
The man paled instantly, his eyes moved to mine.
“You…were born in a cave? Here, in Sedona?”
My voice wavered as I answered. “Yes.”
Fumbling as he nearly fell over; he managed to sit down on a large rock before falling.
“Are you okay?” I asked, frowning and touching his shoulder.
“Yes, I’m sorry.” He composed himself. “Are you from a nearby tribe?”
“Yes, the one in the far south, near Sedona.”
Standing, he stated with a look of trepidation dancing across his face. “We need to go there…now.”
“How much further?” Tanaka asked as we sped along the Arizona highway. The headlights shone like two moons on the black asphalt, guiding us through the dark.
“Make a left up here and it’s about twenty miles from there.” My voice shook with anticipation. We hadn’t seen any sign of the Majestic 12 since the helicopter incident and I kept feeling like they were going to jump out from behind a tree or bush at any moment.
Keanu curled and uncurled his fist beside me. Staring out the window into the pitch of the night, his aura exuded stress. I could see how he would be tense, I looked like I was going to pop at any moment and we could literally be driving directly into the arms of his fiendish former employers.
Sandwiched between the two silent men, I couldn’t stand it anymore. Leaning forward and switching on the radio, I breathed a sigh of relief as Johnny Cash began serenading me with one of his classics.
After the song ended, the radio announcer began his top of the hour spiel.
“Good evening everyone. That was the one and only, Johnny Cash with his number one hit,
Waiting for the next song to start, I smiled at the newscaster’s jolly weather report. He continued.
“That’s all for the weather. I hope all you lovebirds are prepared for tomorrow. Valentine’s Day is upon us and if you men out there want to keep your ladies happy, you best be hurrying down to the local flower stores tomorrow!”
“Valentine’s Day!” I exclaimed with a twinge of excitement. The men on either side of me jumped with my spontaneous outburst. “It’s my birthday tomorrow! I’ll be twenty-one!”
With the all the upset and upheaval in my life over the last few months, I realized that I didn’t have clue what day it was…let alone what month.
I’d always loved my birthday! Grandmother made it such a special event that it warmed my heart.
Keanu turned and grinned at me but Tanaka’s entire body stiffened and his face fell like he’d heard disturbing news. Slightly offended and annoyed with his reaction, I chose to ignore him and enjoy the fact that tomorrow was my birthday.
Resting my head on Keanu’s large shoulder, I closed my eyes and let myself drift off a little.
