William Diehl: Seven ways to die

Ka-Wan seeing his father, Charley Wildpony, for the first time. How powerful and handsome he was in his Marine uniform, stepping off the bus as he returned from faraway battlefields, a mighty warrior with colored ribbons on his chest, each a testament to his bravery.

The stink of the hospital in Denver.

Being swept up and held high and hearing his father’s proud laughter and his deep voice full of pride crying out, “Look at you! Boy, how I’ve waited for this time, young fella.”

The three of them together hugging each other.

A shaft of blue sunlight.

Pa teaching him to catch salmon on the big river.

Watching him rounding up and breaking wild horses on the plains of Montana’s Big Open.

Pa vomiting in the bathroom while his Ma tried to comfort him.

Old Man talking wisdom as they climbed through a canyon in the Bitterroots, all the while pointing out the flowers, the purple buds of shooting stars and the deep scarlet flowers of fairy slippers mingling in the rocks, while a crescent yellow, green and red rainbow arced the sky above them.

Pa and Old Man talking history around a campfire with their friends from the Crow tribe while a coyote wailed in the distance and the wild horses snorted restlessly in the makeshift corral.

Another shaft of blue sunlight.

Pa, his voice sounding old and worn out, telling his tribesmen and their families of battles he had fought while the Orange Death rained down on him and his comrades, killing cactus and scorpions and eventually all living things.

Virgil Red Cloud, his father’s best friend and the leading wise man of the tribe, speaking Charley Wildpony’s eulogy: “Remember the words of our great Chief Joseph. The earth was created by the assistance of the sun and should be left as it is. We and the earth are of one mind. The land is not ours to destroy and do with as we choose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who created it.”

Later, sweating in the wistitamo with his father beside him clutching his hand in his own wasted fist, listening to him fighting for one final breath.

Another shaft of blue sunlight. And darkness.?

The Boy awoke. He stared at the roof of the cave. He was soaked to the skin with sweat. He held his hand in front of his face and the swelling was gone. He touched his forehead and it was cool. No fever.

Then he felt something against his leg and he looked down and his heart jumped.

He was staring into the eyes of a white wolf. The animal was settled on his haunches beside Ka-Wan’s leg, his rough tongue slowly licking the ointment off the rattlesnake wound. The wolf had torn the tourniquets off his ankle and the bleeding had stopped.

Ka-Wan felt no fear. He looked straight into the wolf’s golden eyes and stared at him and the wolf stared back and kept licking.

“Are you a gift from The Creator, Brother Wolf?” he asked. The wolf kept licking.

The Boy’s mouth was parched. He reached for the canteen, took slow sips, swished the water around and spat it out, then took a deep drink.

How long had he been in the trance? He thought about the visions conjured by the rattlesnake. Were the blue flashes passages of time? Days? No. He was weak but not that weak.

Brother wolf finished his licking. He stood up, stretched his legs and shook himself. He loped across the cavern floor, sat near the opening, and looked back at Ka-Wan. Then he put his head back and howled, a single, sustained, note. A few seconds passed and, off in the distance, his song was answered with the same call.

Talking, Ka-Wan thought. What is Brother Wolf telling me? Was the weyekin working? The wolf hunched down and went outside.

Follow me, he thought. Brother Wolf is telling me to follow him.

He struggled to his knees, gathered up his meager belongings and his walking stick and crawled outside the cave.

Thankfully, a warm day. The sun was high in the sky. Noon or thereabouts. The leaves and trees were still dripping from the rain. Perhaps the snake bite was only a superficial wound. Perhaps his vision had only lasted twelve hours or so. But it had left him weak.

He rummaged through the blanket and tarp, checked the pot, and found some chunks of rabbit, berries and roots. Still fresh. He devoured them, felt some strength coming back in his legs.

The wolf stood a dozen yards away, looking back at him. It turned, walked a few steps and looked back. The Boy bundled his belongings in the blanket and draped it over his shoulder. Using his walking stick, he pulled himself to his feet. His legs were trembling from the effort so he waited a minute or two, leaning against the ravine wall, gathering all the strength he could muster before trying a step or two.

He walked to the pool, took off his shirt, and held his head and shoulders under the ice cold waterfall, kneading his fingers through his hair, letting the shower douse his face.

There, that helped.

Brother Wolf sat and watched, bemused. He looked up at the sun, then back at The Boy and growled. Not a threatening growl, but stern.

Follow me.

And The Boy did. He quickly dried off using the tarp and, leaning on the stick, limped along behind. They went down a slope, followed a ridge for awhile, turned south into the forest again. Brother Wolf stopped, howled the same lovely note. This time the answer was closer. Ka-Wan held his hat so the shadow from the sun fell across his face and looked up.

Southwest, he figured. The eagle was right. Brother Wolf was leading him out of the wilderness, waiting when he had to stop to give his legs a rest-but not for long — before moving on, forcing him to follow.

The Boy was growing weaker. Each step was harder than the one before it. Finally he sat down on a fallen tree, his breath coming hard. The wolf growled at him.

“I’m tired,” he snapped back. The wolf’s ears perked up for a moment, then he turned and kept walking.

“Well, darn,” Ka-Wan said. Then he remembered one of the many lessons Old Man had taught him.

Never give up hope. Hope is a test. When you think all is lost, an answer will come to you.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming,” he yelled to the wolf and struggled back on his feet.

Occasionally the animal would call again and be answered. Each time, the answer was closer.

Then they broke out of the trees and he saw the wolf’s brother, sitting on a cliff. They yowled and barked playfully at each other. Brother Wolf turned back to The Boy and then looked across the treetops and the youth felt his breath catch in his throat. He saw a landmark: Three mountain tops close together to the north; three mountains called the Three Sisters.

He shielded his eyes and peered intently to the south and saw a few wisps of smoke rising lazily out of the trees. He was two, maybe three miles from the reservation.

“Yeah!” He cried, raising the walking stick and shaking it at the sky. “Thank you, Brother Wolf!”

But when he turned back his white friend was gone. He thought he saw a white streak, a ghost running through the trees, but he wasn’t sure.

“I hope we meet again,” he yelled but his words echoed balefully back at him and he felt a moment of deep sadness. He knew in his heart he would never see Brother Wolf again but he also knew they were bound together in their hearts forever.

Soon he would be leaving this place which he loved and which held such bittersweet memories. Soon he would start another life in another place. But now he was a man. Ka-Wan had made his journey.

Now Micah Cody was ready to face whatever map the future sketched for him.

The wind shouldered him down the mountainside toward home.

Manhattan-2006

It had once been a church. Now demonically, it had been transformed into a soaring, Gothic danger zone sardonically called Satan’s Sanctuary. Its rood-shaped main hall had been gutted and converted into a sprawling dance floor jammed with more than two hundred rave converts, jumping, twisting, spinning, their fists raised high, pumping the air in rhythm with the thunderous repetition of the band whose drums and bass hammered a mesmerizing beat.