Hari Kunzru - Gods Without Men

Then the man did a strange thing. He sent his woman. She was young and pretty, which made the People laugh because he was such a stringy old thing. Under her big straw hat, her face was as white as salt. With her dusty skirts and her patched shirtwaist she cut a sorry sight. She had no jewelry, not so much as a string of beads, and when she sat down on the earth you could see the holes in her shoes. Then the People knew she was not rich, though the man Deighton drove an automobile. They said to one another: There must be trouble between them.

Salt-Face Woman tried to talk, but no one could understand. Then she spoke English to Thorn Baby and Charcoal Standing and those two told the People that her husband had sent her to the camp to be his mouth and ears. The other women felt sorry for her. They helped her build a shelter; Skin Peeled Open had already left and gone back to town.

One evening she came and sat down beside Segunda at the fire. Thorn Baby was embarrassed at having to repeat her words in Language. She was talking about dust. She was asking for the names of the dead. Segunda covered her ears. She was afraid. These people had death all over them. They were covered in death, like a hide. Segunda ran away. Thorn Baby came to find her in the arroyo to say that the woman had promised not to bother her again.

Salt-Face Woman stayed for a long time. After a while it seemed like she accepted the way of things. She was certainly a quicker study than her husband. Her voice grew louder. Segunda could understand some of what she said. But she made her afraid. Segunda didn’t want to talk anymore. Salt-Face Woman had struck her dumb. Everyone remarked on it. Empty Clay Olla not talking? What could be the matter?

When a person is dead, it is right for them to go into silence. You should never call them back. Trouble for them and trouble for you. It was possible the woman wasn’t human. She could have been wearing someone’s skin.

Then into camp came Mockingbird Runner, who’d been away working as a hand for one of the cattlemen. Ever since the time when the whites fought their war for the water holes, they’d hired People to watch over certain places. Mockingbird Runner carried a rifle and wore fancy boots, but he was also an owner of the Bighorn Sheep Song and People said he got his name because he knew how to run in the old way. His grandfather was a famous doctor who had a bat familiar that protected him from the cold. Though he was young, Mockingbird Runner had power. When he heard about Salt-Face Woman he went to take a look at her. The next thing Segunda knew, they were sitting together under a ramada and the little thing was writing in her book.

Segunda sidled closer, to listen to what they were saying. Mockingbird Runner was telling her a story of the time when Coyote was living with his brother Wolf at Snow-Having. They went to war with the Bear People and Wolf was killed. The Bear People took his scalp and Coyote snuck into the camp with his penis, the two of them disguised in the skins of old Bear women who’d been out gathering mesquite branches for the fire.

Mockingbird Runner was telling this story and the woman was writing it down. Of course he didn’t use the word penis . He called it Coyote’s tail .

Willie Prince, said the woman. That is only your English name.

Soon after that the man Deighton came back and took his woman away. Segunda felt happy, but all the same she talked to Little Bird about moving to another camp. There were many places they could go. People were down in Imperial Valley, and on the riverbank up near Adobe Hanging Like Tears. There would be trouble at Kairo, she was sure. The snakes were listening. They should go somewhere else. Little Bird had work driving mules at one of the silver mines in the mountains. He had to go back to that place. He said she could go to another camp if she liked. He would follow her later. But she was an old woman. It was hard to bestir herself to make a long journey on her own.

Then Deighton brought his wife back again. He left her with a box of canned food and drove away. Before he left, he raised his voice to her, saying she was wasteful and a poor worker. Salt-Face Woman hid in her shelter, where she thought no one would see her cry. That evening Mockingbird Runner sat beside her, telling her words. The names of animals and rocks and stars. The types of rain. Rain that slashes at the skin. Spring rain, as fine as palmita seeds.

Willie Prince, said the woman. That is only your English name. What is your real name?

Segunda had warned Mockingbird Runner about such questions. He laughed and told her she was a foolish old clay olla, with a few grains rattling around inside. That one was reckless. He didn’t care if the snakes were awake. He didn’t care about telling stories to a spirit. Segunda saw him show Salt-Face Woman the scars on his back from the mission school. She heard him sing one of the songs they taught him there. When the woman asked a third time, Mockingbird Runner told her his true name.

Who would leave a wife alone in a strange camp? It was obvious to Segunda the man Deighton didn’t care for Salt-Face Woman at all. Everyone said so. That was why she cried so much. At night it was cold. She had only a thin blanket. Segunda saw Mockingbird Runner bring her a quilt. She saw them talking in the firelight. She saw Mockingbird Runner lay down beside her.

I shall explain to her about death, said Mockingbird Runner, as he washed himself in the water the next morning. There is no need, Segunda told him. These people know more about it than you or I. But he would not listen. It was what Salt-Face Woman wanted to know, he said. He wanted to make her happy.

That afternoon the two lovers climbed the rocks together. Though it was years since Segunda had walked so far, let alone scrambled over boulders or up narrow paths, she followed them. She saw them sit down together in a sheltered spot. She saw Salt-Face Woman open up her little book. Segunda crept closer and strained to overhear. It was as she’d feared. Mockingbird Runner was telling the story of the time Coyote traveled to the Land of the Dead.

Coyote was wandering around, aimlessly as usual. He was feeling sad that so many of his companions had been killed in the war against Gila Monster.

“Haik ya ! I am lonely. There is no one to help me carry the game I kill-aik ya ! Where are my friends, the friends with whom I used to play the hand game and sing by the fire? Gila Monster and his people have killed them all.”

He asked his penis, who knew many more things than he. “Penis,” he said, “what shall I do-aik ya ! Once I had companions to help me dance the old dances, but Gila Monster and his people have killed them all-aik ya !”

His penis thought for a while. “If you want to see your friends, you must travel to the Three-Finger Rocks and look inside the cave beneath them. There you will find Yucca Woman, weaving a basket. She is blind and will not know what you are doing, just so long as you are quiet. Cling to a strand of devil’s claw and hold on tight, because she is weaving together this world and the Land of the Dead. At the moment when she holds the willow wands open, there is a gap between the two worlds. You can crawl into the Land of the Dead. But whatever you do, never let go of the devil’s-claw strand. If you do, you will be trapped.”

So Coyote traveled over the mountains and across the white sands and came at last to the Three-Finger Rocks. Sure enough, in the cave beneath he found old blind Yucca Woman, weaving her basket.

“Who is there?” asked Yucca Woman. “Nobody is there-aik ya !” said Coyote. “Just an old dust devil, the kind the children beat with sticks.” And Yucca Woman went back to her basket weaving.