Finding a way Part 2

She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky
and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.
― Neil Gaiman

Jim Crow's a fiftyish Cherokee Indian who's a trapper and medicine man.

He's not somebody I'd usually to consult to treat a case of severe depression, but I'm out of my depth trying to reach a Mohawk woman and Jim is confident his guides will show him the way.

My guides are different—Hippocrates and Grey's Anatomy.

He has his guides, and I have mine.

As we left Jim's place and drove to the hospital, a crow followed my SUV.

I was wondering what the hell I got myself into but Jim just tilted his seat back, closed his eyes and smiled.

I was glad he was amused. His confidence was reassuring though.

When we arrived at the hospital, we went directly to Aileen’s room. She was propped up in bed staring blankly out the window.

Jim approached her, passed a hand across her eyes, and made a soft whuffling sound, like an animal call. She blinked and turned her head to look at him.

He spoke to her in Indian and she answered him. I was flabbergasted. She had been virtually catatonic.

I watched while he spoke softly with her—it was all so gentle and intimate I felt I was intruding.

I left and went back to my office letting the duty nurse know where I was.

A half hour later, Jim appeared.

“What did you find out?” I asked.

He sat down opposite me. It was turning dark outside and I stood to turn on the lights, but he waved me off.

“The lighting in here’s bad, Doc—besides, it’s too harsh—scares away my guides.”

“Sorry.” I sat back down.

“Her husband’s been unfaithful—seduced by a woman—a newcomer to the tribe.”

“I see.”

“The woman’s name is Njolon Wakanda. Interesting—her name means mistress.”

I shook my head, “Ironic.”

“The woman’s a sorceress, an enchantress—she possesses magical power and she’s cunning like a fox.”

“Oh great—just what we need.”

“Naw—that’s no problem—Aylen’s spirit guide is a wolf—wolves overcome foxes.”

“Oh well, then the problem’s solved.”

I admit I was a bit tetchy—but I’m not into zoolatry—the glorification of animals.

“Don’t doubt our kinship with animals, Doc. A great Indian leader, Chief Seattle said, what is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man.”

“Okay, Jim—I was being cavalier—but explain to me how these animal spirits will help Aileen.”

“The wolf is a teacher and pathfinder. He comes when we need guidance in our lives. Aylen is at a crossroads in her life. The wolf will appear and be by her side as a journey animal to guide her through this crisis.”

“So, you’re confident that telling her this will help her get out of her depression?”

He smiled as if explaining a truth to a child.

“The Great Spirit always provides. We have a saying—there’s a way out of every dark mist—over a rainbow trail. Aylen now has her traveling companion. She’ll be all right.”

I drove Jim back to the reservation and handed him a check for five hundred dollars—an honorarium. He folded it and put it in his shirt pocket.

“I’ll use this Doc, to pay for courses so our young people can learn our language.”

“Don’t they teach that in the reservation schools?”

He just laughed as if a dimwit asked a dumb question.

I drove back on country roads, back past dark fields, dimly illumined by a ghostly Moon. I felt a strange frisson.

I’m not a mystic and permitting Jim to help Aileen, pushed the limits of my tolerance to the extreme.

When I got back to the hospital, it was after midnight and I decided to look in on Aileen and make sure she was all right.

I stood in the doorway listening to her gentle breathing.

The room was bathed in an ethereal peacefulness.

My breath caught.

In the dim moonlight, I could discern a shape.

There, beside her bed, asleep on the tiled floor was a huge gray wolf.

I gently closed the door.

© 2017, John J Geddes. All rights reserved

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