open. Most likely exhausted from old age and the time of night, but I suspected she was also weary of the secrets she’d been holding onto for over twenty years.
“Was he…there?” I felt numb as I watched my grandmother intently.
“Yes. He was there.” Her voice was quiet yet I could tell that she was relieved to be divulging this information.
Confusion overwhelmed me. Tears flowed freely down my face as mixed emotions rose to the surface.
“Why?” I spoke louder than I meant to but the anger was rising within me. “Why did they both leave me behind?”
“Cassia, please don’t be angry with them…or me…we did what we had to do to protect you.” Fatigue strained her voice as she continued. “Your father didn’t want to leave you behind; he did it out of love.”
“Love?! He left me out of love?! What does that mean?” All the years of abandonment, neglect…how did that equal love in any way? I wanted to slam my fist on the table or throw the teacup across the room.
“Child, please, listen to me.” Her eyes pleaded with me and I took deep breaths to calm myself.
I hated this. I hated learning that the one person I trusted in life had lied to me. After a moment of composing myself, I looked my grandmother straight in the eyes and waited…for the truth.
“Cassia, your mother died right after she had you.” I inhaled sharply as the shock set in. “Your father begged me to take you, to keep you and…hide you. He never told me why, only that you were the most precious being on the planet.”
I swallowed hard as a painful lump formed in my throat.
“Did he say…anything else?” I managed to force the words out between sobs.
“Yes.” She exhaled sharply as she continued. “He said that someday…you would help change the world.”
Melting into a pool of my own tears on the kitchen table, I didn’t know if her answers left me feeling relieved or more confused. I knew that she was telling me the truth, but there was still so much I didn’t understand. A thought flashed through my mind, making me sit straight up.
“Did my mother have a star? A birthmark…like me?” I knew before my grandmother even spoke that she did. The sparkle behind her eyes lit up with the question.
“Yes Cassia, she did.”
Joy. I felt immense joy that my mother was like me. Even though I still didn’t know what we were, I was just happy that there had been another.
Frowning with yet another epiphany, I asked. “My father…did he?” I pointed to my chest with hope.
Shaking her head, she responded with less enthusiasm. “No, just her…and you.” Then she added with a very serious expression. “There is a prophecy that the elders used to speak of. The Kachina.”
I sat up with interest, normally the old legends of the elders didn’t spark much curiosity within me but I was beginning to believe in fairy tales.
“The elders spoke of a coming time when the new people would arrive. They said that they were of a royal bloodline and would be called…the star people.”
I’m sure my eyes widened to the point where they would soon fall out. This was all too unbelievable.
Closing my eyes and resting my head in my hands, I tried to wrap my head around her words. In the disbelief of the moment, I began to giggle. I laughed so hard that I nearly bowled myself out of my chair. My pregnant belly jiggled like a bowl of Jello. Looking up at grandmother, she looked offended, but that only seemed to make my maniacal musing even worse. Snorting as I fought for air, the laughter bubbled out of me.
God it felt good.
I wasn’t laughing at my grandmother or her story, I was laughing because for the first time in my life, something completely irrational made perfect sense.
If she had told me before this whole nightmare had started that I was some space creature, I would’ve turned tail and run away as fast as I could, but because of the fear, torture and inhumanity I’d endured over the last few months, I completely believed her.
For the first time in months, I cried tears of laughter. Poor grandmother stared at me as though I was completely cracked.
After several moments of basking in the glow of lunacy, I decided to ask her the question that had plagued me since the beginning of this nightmare. Though I was certain I knew the answer, I needed to hear it with my own ears.
Composing myself, I asked. “Grandmother, what am I?”
Wisdom danced through her eyes as she opened her mouth to answer. “You are…”
Before she could answer, however, her front door flew open with a large bang! Keanu stood in the doorway, panic marring his handsome face.
“
Peering out of my grandmother’s window, I saw over a dozen men in black approaching the bonfire.
With nearly my entire tribe standing in a semi-circle around the fire, I was genuinely frightened for the fate of my people. Plain and spiritual people, they were unaccustomed to violence and manipulations.
Keanu and Tanaka scoured my grandmother’s house for supplies and weapons, supplies they found plenty of, weapons, however, were scarce.
I noticed my grandmother eyeing Tanaka suspiciously as he searched her home. Thinking nothing of it, I turned back to the window to watch the unfolding drama outside.
The men in black appeared to be chatting pleasantly with the chief of our village and a few of the elders. I shuddered as I imagined what the Majestic 12 were telling them. What if they convinced my people that I was guilty of Amy’s murder and my village turned against me? If they handed me over to the men in black, I would be shipped straight back to the facility…if I was lucky. After all of this, I’m sure the Majestic 12 simply wanted my baby, and my head on a platter.
Swallowing hard, I was pleasantly relieved when Keanu came up from behind me, slid his arms around my waist and whispered in my ear. “Time to go.”
Turning around, I stared up at his face as I realized he wasn’t upset with me about Meyers or the fact that the baby might not be his.
Inhaling a calming breath, I looked out the window once more to witness a malleable tension form between the men in black and my village.
The chief was waving his hands and pointing as though ordering the outsiders to leave. A spark of hope fired in my chest as I watched the villagers move into an aggressive stance as though readying themselves to protect their home.
“Let’s go.” Keanu stated, leading us out the back door of grandmother’s house.
A streak of lightning ripped through the black fabric of the night sky as we ran through the dark. Thunder growled overhead with a vengeance as though the gods were shouting obscenities at the Majestic 12. They were intruders on sacred land, our land.
Escaping down a shadowy path behind grandmother’s house, we scrambled up a steep embankment. Grandmother led the way with Keanu helping her over the unpredictable terrain. Tanaka stayed close to me, holding me up when my cumbersome body threatened to topple me over.
With my grandmother nearly blind, I hoped that she could navigate her way to the cave without getting us lost in the desert.
Angry shouts and screams could be heard from the village below us. The Majestic 12 had ambushed my people and I feared for them. I knew the Hopi natives; they were fiercely intelligent and resourceful people. I just hoped it would be enough to keep them alive.
Tanaka held my hand tight as we shuffled down the side of the hill. Low growing brush slashed at my ankles and sand worked its way between my toes.
The mournful cries of coyotes in the distance and the whistle of roving winds suddenly captivated me.
