Shades

to make the plants grow and to warm the world, then it must also hold the secret to eternal life. So Raven flew from this world to the sun.'

That caught Max's attention. Was the story about space flight? 'How?'

'Raven, like Coyote, has magic powers that he can use,' River Dog said. 'He used his magic to fly to the sun. Once there, he scooped up some of the sun's flames in his beak and flew back into the world. However, the suns flames were too hot even for Raven. As he reentered this world, his beak began to burn, and that is how Raven's beak came to be black. Unable to withstand the pain of his burning beak, Raven spat the flames out. The ball of fire crashed into the world where the Mesaliko reservation and the desert are.'

Max sipped the tea and waited.

'The Elders say that when Raven spat the ball of fire from the sun,' River Dog continued, 'that was what created the parched lands of the earth. A few of the Mesaliko people who had gone to meet and aid Raven in his quest to steal the sun's flames died when the flames scarred the earth. Days later, their spirits rose again and went and spoke to the Mesaliko people.'

'Why would the spirits rise?' Max asked.

'Because the sun was angry with Raven,' River Dog said. 'The sun punished Raven by taking away his feathers and making him go naked through the world for a time. Raven was embarrassed and angry, blaming everyone but himself, as Raven always did, so he stayed hidden in the mountains for a long time.'

'The Mesaliko tribe moved because they were hunted by the ghosts of the dead warriors?'

River Dog nodded. 'Those warriors who perished with Raven returned first, but as the days continued, other ancestors returned as well. In the end, the People had no choice but to go.'

Max turned the story over in his mind. Somehow it seemed important that the ghosts of the warriors who supposedly accompanied Raven had come back first, but he couldn't figure out why. 'What about the prophecy?' he asked.

'When the Mesaliko returned to this land, first by choice and then because the United States government created the reservations here, the shamans protested, saying that the ghosts would rise again. You see, the gods never forget, and the sun would never forget how men tried to steal the immortality that could only belong to the gods.'

'Do you know where the Mesaliko warriors perished?' Max asked.

River Dog waved to include all the hills that lay before his home and the village. 'Out there somewhere.'

Max stood, and leaned against the roof support poles on the porch. He gazed up into the tall ridges overlooking the small village tucked into the foothills. The blue sky looked innocent, streaked by wisps of clouds. Flurries of dust skated over the harsh, parched earth.

'There has to be a reason these'… Max hesitated… 'A reason that the ghosts have returned.'

'Perhaps,' River Dog said, 'it's only to punish the Mesa-liko people for moving back into this area. But the shaman before me believed that since I had helped Nacedo recover from wounds that would have killed a normal man that I had angered the gods. Proud Redbird told me that the prophecy would return because I helped the Visitor live, and that the act was like Raven's attempt to give immortality to the People.'

Max turned, shifting so he could look at the shaman. 'Is that what you believe?'

'I believe many things,' River Dog said. 'But I also know there are many things that I know nothing about. Until Nacedo came to me, I thought people from another world were only inventions created by writers of radio shows, comic books, television programs, and old movies my father would sometimes take me to when my grandfather did not know. Perhaps if my father had not done such a thing, I would not have been so helpful toward Nacedo when he came among us.'

From the tone in the man's voice, Max knew that River Dog harbored some regrets about the aid he'd given.

'You had a vision with me in it?' Max asked.

'Yes,' River Dog answered. 'You and your friends.' He sipped his tea and looked up into the hills that would shadow the village as the sun began its descent into the west. 'Somehow, you and they have a part to play in this.'

Part of Max doubted that. Probably River Dog's vision was based on wishful thinking. Still, that wishful thinking wouldn't have existed if the ghosts/spirits/phantoms had not started manifesting.

'I don't want any part of this,' Max said.

'But it will want you,' River Dog said softly. 'Until you arrived this morning, I had watched my ancestor for hours. Bear-Killer flickered in and out of existence, into this world from the next, then back again, without touching me. His voice had been only a whisper, not the shouts that you'd heard.'

'I didn't do anything,' Max protested.

'You were there. Somehow your presence made the ghosts stronger.'

Max lifted his hands and gazed at them. A tremor passed through his fingers and wouldn't stop. He knotted his fists and put them away in his jacket pockets. 'It's not me.'

'It isn't you alone. There is something more than you that brought these ghosts from their rests in the world beyond ours.' River Dog pierced Max with his direct gaze. 'But you are part of it.'

Max looked away, trying to figure out what to do. 'I'm not part of this.' Don't make me be part of this. I've already got enough things in my life that are going wrong.

'The ghosts will continue to get stronger,' River Dog said. 'Back when they returned the last time, the ghosts only appeared to the People and spoke to the families. After a time, however, they became violent. They could ride the wind and bring storms from a clear sky. And the touch of a ghost could bruise and eventually maim and kill. Bear-Killer could never touch me till this morning.'

Max remained silent. Somewhere only a short distance away in one of the houses a radio came on, bringing a semblance of normalcy. A woman's voice said something that sounded urgent, and the radio noise disappeared. That sounded more normal and relaxing than anything he'd heard all morning.

'Maybe your people should think about moving,' Max suggested.

'To where?' The shaman spread his hands. 'This is our home. It has been for hundreds of years. My people can't go anywhere else, and the United States government would have to be dealt with.' He fell silent for a moment. 'I don't think you would want the government agencies looking closely into this matter any more than I do.'

'No,' Max agreed. He'd had enough of government agencies, secret and otherwise. None of them had his or his friends' best interests at heart. By not departing on the Granilith, they'd given up any hope of returning to their original birth world. The government agencies would take them away from the world they'd chosen to remain in if their secret was revealed.

Running feet sounded out in the dust-covered dirt road that threaded between the homes. The hound at River Dog's feet raised his gray-streaked muzzle and barked at the two small children who raced around a fifty-year-old Ford pickup parked next to the porch.

'River Dog! River Dog!' the two young boys yelled. 'You must come!'

River Dog put his drink down and stood. 'What is wrong?'

'Our grandfather,' the oldest boy said. He wore ragged cutoffs and was brown from the sun. Dust covered his bare feet and legs. He pointed back down the narrow alley between houses.

'What about your grandfather?' River Dog asked.

'He has come back,' the oldest boy said. He wrapped his arms around the younger boy, who was crying and holding his head. 'He's yelling at Mom, saying terrible things to her!'

River Dog turned to Max. 'Come on.'

The last thing Max wanted to do was go with the shaman, but he felt drawn into the events. If River Dog was right about the occurrences somehow being connected to Isabel, Michael, and him, he needed to know.

River Dog led the way out into the alley, pausing only long enough to take each boy by the hand.

As Max trotted after the shaman and the boys, he heard a woman screaming in terror and pain. Other men and women ran from their houses, joining in the rush to reach the house where the sounds came from.

For a moment Isabel believed that the van bearing down on Jesse and her was filled with government agents. In that moment, she was certain that their secret had somehow spilled out again. Then she spotted the terrified woman behind the steering wheel.

The driver had her mouth open, screaming in terror, but the roar of the racing engine drowned the sound.