Chapter 13

"I presume you couldn't sleep," Cecelia finally said.

"No. I nearly got there, and then I turned over and was wide awake again."

"I confess that, while I did sleep, it was more discontinuous than usual." Even in the middle of Lanfair Valley, in the middle of the night, with no one to hear but me, she loved her big words. "I too rolled over, and realized you weren't there. I arose, and saw a darker shadow here, one which resembled a man in a chair. I couldn't be sure, but the odds of it being someone other than my husband were fairly colossal, so I seized a chair and joined you."

I thought for a moment, for I knew that she wasn't there just to look at the stars ... though the stars were, in fact, right above us, and exceedingly impressive. I tilted my head back, and saw the Milky Way stretching its jeweled belt across the sky. "Do you know," I asked, "what the Lahtkwa say about how all that got there?" And I waved at the stars which were so thick that in places they looked like solid smears of light.

"No, I don't believe I've ever heard that story."

"I haven't heard many of 'em, but I visited the rez one time, just a year or so, I think it was, before we met. And I heard one of the elders tell it. One of these days you'll have to get Memphis to tell it to you." My brother is one of the most traditional members of the tribe, and he's been gaining a reputation, over the years, as one of the best repositories of the tribe's lore. But then to him it's not merely anthropological material – it's his religion.

I waved a hand at the Milky Way above us. "According to the story, when the Lahtkwa first came into the world, there was gold and silver all over, and every sort of jewel – diamonds and pearls and emeralds and whatnot. It lay all over the land, and made things pretty, but no one coveted it, and no one collected it. There wasn't any greed in the world, and there was no value in any of that stuff except its beauty. A woman might use some of it for adornment once in a while, but when she was done with it she'd toss it away, for it was as common as grass.

"And then Coyote came along." I heard Cecelia chuckle, for she knows how commonly Coyote crops up in the myths of any number of Indian nations – Coyote the mischief maker, who is malicious as often as he's playful. "He began to whisper in the women's ears about how lovely the jewels were, and how they needed to get the best ones before someone else did. And he whispered in the men's ears about the gold and silver, and told them it was marvelous, wonderful stuff – and if they didn't take it for themselves, someone else would grab it all. And so greed came into the world.

"The people began scuffling over these baubles, and scuffling came to fighting, and fighting came to killing, and death and murder were now in the world. And Coyote was everywhere, licking his lips and laughing at the uproar he'd made.

"But Raven saw what was happening, and spread his wings." The raven is very important in Lahtkwa mythology, and every time he's about to act decisively, the story will say that he spread his wings. "He came down from his nest on The Mountain Where Raven Lives – I have no idea what the white name is, or even if it's a real mountain – and landed with thunder in the midst of the people. And he gathered up all the gold and silver, and carried it far away to where the people would never find it – and it's true that no one's ever found gold or silver on traditional Lahtkwa land. Then he gathered all the jewels up, and flew with them in his beak to the highest part of the sky, and then as he flew he scattered them along. And the trail of jewels is that." And I pointed upward.

After a minute or two Cecelia said, "It is no wonder that your people – and people in many times and places – have devised stories of how that vast spread of stars came into existence. In today's world, where few can see the majesty of the Milky Way and even fewer care to look, no one but astronomers think about the origins of those stars. But in older days, when people weren't engrossed in their cell phones..."

"It's no wonder the Maya, and the Druids, and the ancient Koreans, and so many others, made astronomy part of their religion or their science. Out here, at night, the most visible thing around is that sky."

"And one takes that view inside himself, and clothes it with awe, and out come origin myths."

"Yeah. At least I'll accept your analysis – I don't know enough to even guess, even if I had the mind for it."

"Your mind does work in other ways. For instance, you have deftly – though without manipulative intent, I know – sidestepped the reason I am here talking with you."

I squeezed the fingers I still held in mine. "Bodies don't bother me. But thinking about what death means to the living can, and Darlia got me on that subject for sure tonight."

"I admire the way you dealt gently with her questions."

"Shoot, C, I ain't a-gonna tear her head off just 'cause I hate thinking about you dying."

"No, you wouldn't. For all your faults, you do strive to be fair to her – and to me, and to others, for that matter. Nevertheless, I have heard people who would count themselves wiser than you, deal with such topics in far less sensitive ways."