Bailey New Madrid

The Certainty of Uncertainty
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5439-4990-2
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 178 Seiten

An archeologist discovers a sealed jar in an old fish weir in the Mississippi delta. A Native American grandfather and grandson find a cave on their reservation. The people of Memphis , Tennessee are warned about an eminent earthquake. The earthquake happens and all must deal with the challenges.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bailey, Malcolm

Leseproben

A Fall to Remember Bear Daddy stood on his favorite rock. This rock was a huge flat outcropping of limestone on the side of the mountain, and it extended twenty feet over the valley. He smiled as he watched a bald eagle circling above the winding river, below, in that same valley. The afternoon sun gave a golden glow to the yellow and red fall leaves that clung to the branches of every tree in the area. They seemed especially beautiful this fall. Every time Bear Daddy visited, it made him feel good, and it was not easy to feel good nowadays. Bear Daddy was the chief of the Quan Pawtees. His real name was Running Bear, but everyone liked the name Bear Daddy better. His family was descended from the great hunter, Manapah, and the princess, Minatomeh. The Quan Pawtee people were now only a shadow of the tribe that was here before the European settlers arrived over four hundred years ago. Their territory had extended from what is now southern, central Missouri to the east, past the great river, known now as the Mississippi, and many miles south of that line. Bear Daddy’s great-grandfather told him of the invaders that brought sickness and death in their blankets. Most of the tribe had been destroyed by disease and despair. Bear Daddy’s family was almost wiped out later, when the Mississippi River flooded the valleys and ate up the farming and hunting lands. Bear Daddy had survived several floods and had grown up strong and smart. He became the chief and leader of his people during a time of great cultural change and social awareness. It had been a difficult challenge for Bear Daddy, but he had guided his people well. “Full Feather!” Bear Daddy’s booming voice rang out and echoed off the barren rocky cliff across the valley and came back to him. “Full Feather, where are you? Where are you?” Bear Daddy’s eleven-year-old grandson was having a great time exploring the woods with his grandfather. Bear Daddy liked to take time to enjoy the woods and trails with the boy. One day, Full Feather would be the chief and Bear Daddy wanted him to develop an appreciation for nature and this land. There was no answer, and daylight was waning. Bear Daddy started down the trail that Full Feather had taken earlier. The wind was still hot. Every now and then, a dust cloud spun aimlessly back and forth across the trail in front of him. Bear Daddy’s grandfather used to say that the dust devils were unhappy spirits of lost souls who had not been allowed to pass into the next world. The dust devils were forced to wander the world until a person with a pure soul took pity on them. This person would have to catch the dust devil in a deerskin bag and then burn the bag over a roaring hot, pinecone fire and throw the cooled ashes to the four winds from a southern-facing cliff. The spirit would then be free. He saw the ceremony done many times and felt elation to know that a person’s spirit had been released. Farther down the trail, Full Feather sat and watched a brown squirrel with one floppy ear. The animal stood up on his hind legs and balanced by curling his fluffy tail into an “s” shape. As if in deep thought, the squirrel looked left, and then right, and popped two huge acorns into each cheek for easy transport. He knew that these acorns must be stored in the most secure place that he could put them. The squirrel scurried along the ground to a place he had discovered earlier. Full Feather climbed up a nearby weeping willow tree so he could continue to watch the squirrel as the furry creature raced across the forest floor. He watched the funny, flop-eared squirrel duck into some thick brush near a freshly fallen rockslide. The inquisitive boy jumped out of the tree and ran toward the place where the squirrel had just vanished. To his surprise, the hiding place for the squirrel was bigger than a hollow log or a space under a rock. There before him was the opening to a cave! Fresh dirt made it look as though it had just been turned over, as in a cornfield, around the opening. Tumbled rocks lay everywhere without a pattern. There was just enough sunlight getting into the cave opening to light up the entrance and a short way toward the inside. “Full Feather, come here. Where are you?” Bear Daddy implored. Still no answer came back. Bear Daddy always had trouble with Full Feather’s curious nature. Then, from the trail ahead, near the rock cliff, Full Feather yelled, “I’ll be back soon. There’s a cave here. It’s huge!” Bear Daddy heard him faintly. “If you don’t come back here right now, you won’t get any honey on your flat cakes tonight. No blueberries either!” Bear Daddy was frustrated with the youth’s strong will, but deep down inside, he was proud of the child’s fiercely independent nature. “Grandfather, look!” Full Feather shouted. “It’s a big opening in the mountain. Come see! I’m in a big, big cave. Over here!” Full Feather, again, followed the squirrel’s path toward the place where he had been storing his acorns in the cave. A large pile of rubble lined the opening of the cave. Upon entering the mouth of the cave, Full Feather was amazed when he discovered a huge crack running northwest to southeast, along the side of the cave wall. It appeared to go on and on, but the late afternoon light was too dim to determine how large the cave or the crack really was. Bear Daddy finally caught up with Full Feather. Full Feather saw the squirrel on the edge of the crack. “I’m going to catch him, Bear Daddy!” “No! No, don’t!” Bear Daddy cautioned. At that same moment, the rock crunched and crumbled beneath Full Feather’s foot, throwing him off balance. The boy began to fall toward the cold, black void of the crevice. “Ahhhhh-eeeeh!” he screamed. Bear Daddy lunged and reached for him. Time seemed to slow. Bear Daddy could feel his arm stretch. “Ahhh-eeeh!” he heard again. The tiny fingers twisted in the air in front of him. He saw pieces of dirt flying in the air alongside tiny rocks; they seemed to freeze in midair. Bear Daddy caught a glimpse of Full Feather’s eyes, then broke away to focus on his outstretched hand. “Full Featherrrrr! Oh, Great Spirit, help us!” The sounds bounced off the cave walls, the same sound that had been made throughout the ages; man’s plea to his God for help in times of great need when all else fails. Then their hands met. Of all the times Bear Daddy had caught and held on to anything throughout his life, the most precious grasp had come to this. He had to hold on to Full Feather. He had to! “Oh, no!” Full Feather’s hand slipped through Bear Daddy’s fingers. In an instant, the unthinkable had happened. A seemingly random set of events came together to magnify the lack of control human beings have over their lives. But then, the heavy stainless-steel hook on Full Feather’s backpack caught Bear Daddy’s thick, nylon watchstrap and held long enough for Bear Daddy to reach once again and regain his grasp on Full Feather’s hand. The fall was stopped. They both took a deep breath. “Hold on!” Bear Daddy shouted. “Hold on!” Bear Daddy braced his legs and pushed with his left hand against the cave floor. “Ugh. Pull up, Full Feather. Now!” They both strained, and at last, Full Feather crawled over the craggy rock edge. “Are you alright, Full Feather?” “Yes, yes. How about you, Grandfather?” “Yes, I’m OK.” “I thought you were gone.” Bear Daddy took a deep breath again and sighed. He gave Full Feather a hug. Bear Daddy then placed both hands on his grandson’s shoulders, and set the boy away, the distance of his outstretched, aging, arms. Looking straight into the boy’s eyes, the grandfather sternly said, “You must not act before you think about what could happen next. You are to become a leader of our people. Your decisions are not yours alone.” “Yes, I understand.” Full Feather lowered his head. “I not only endangered myself but you also. I, I understand. I’m-I’m-I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Bear Daddy nodded his head to show silent acceptance and closure. “A lesson is clear to me,” said Bear Daddy. “Do not lose faith in your creator, no matter how hopeless things may appear. The watch and backpack are both modern inventions and culturally alien to us, but they both helped us survive, so all things new are not wholly bad.” The two turned to walk back. Full Feather pointed. “Look over there!” “Where?” Bear Daddy asked. “There!” He pointed to the corner of the wall near the back of the cave. It looked like polished stone, and next to it were several fairly crude, but still easily recognizable, drawings of different animals and people running. The picture of a large bear was prominent. It was too dark to see much more. “This reminds me of the stories my grandfather told us around the tribal fire,” Bear Daddy said. “This is amazing. I don’t...