Billy Buckhorn and the War of Worlds, page 2
Wesley said Grandma Awinita had read from that Bible every night before going to bed, so he’d continued the practice himself after she died ten years ago. Billy had thought about carrying on the tradition now that Wesley had passed, but he hadn’t. The teen was all too painfully aware that generations of people claiming to follow biblical traditions had enslaved, betrayed, and murdered Native Americans while stealing lands and resources out from under them. So, for the time being, the old book remained merely a treasured souvenir of his grandparents’ amazing lives.
As he returned his attention to the weather radar, his phone rang. The screen displayed a photo of his girlfriend, Lisa.
“Hey there,” he answered in a weary voice. “Are you getting ready for our gathering today?”
“Of course,” she replied. “But you sound tired. I thought you’d be catching up on your sleep after finishing all thirteen training sessions with the Medicine Council.”
“My energy body is overflowing with the incredible knowledge I’ve learned from those powerful people,” Billy said. “But my physical brain and body feel thrashed by it all. I’m exhausted when I thought I’d be energized. I don’t know what the problem is.”
“Stress,” the Osage girl said. “Your problem is stress.”
“You’re probably—”
Before he could finish the sentence, the radar picture on his computer began changing unexpectedly. Out in the Pacific Ocean west of Northern California, a swirling blue-green mass of clouds was forming. Simultaneously, off the East Coast of the United States, in the Atlantic Ocean, a tropical storm also began a swirling pattern. Then, south of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, a third rotating cloud pattern emerged.
Billy watched in silence.
“What is it, Billy?” Lisa asked. “What’s going on?”
“Three synchronized hurricanes, in three different oceans, are forming on the radar map all at the same time,” he replied. “I don’t think that’s supposed to happen, especially since hurricane season doesn’t usually start for two months.”
As he continued to watch, the three storms began creeping toward land and gathering strength. Then, within a few seconds, another anomaly developed, this time in the north over the Great Lakes region between Canada and the US. The mixture of churning blue-and-white clouds represented a snowstorm that started out small but rapidly blossomed, growing larger and larger. Now there were four different storms coming from the four directions.
“Adverse weather in diverse places,” Billy muttered.
“What?” Lisa asked.
“Nothing,” Billy replied. “You, your dad, and your grandfather should get over here as soon as you can. I believe the first step of the Night Seers’ plan is beginning to unfold.”
After ending the call, Billy ran to the kitchen to see if his parents, James and Rebecca, had left for work yet. Both were still at the breakfast table.
“Call in sick and fire up the big computer,” he told them.
“What’s up?” James asked.
“Adverse weather in diverse places,” Billy replied.
“What does that mean?” Rebecca followed up.
“It means I think the Owls are beginning to roll out the first phase,” her son replied. “And, here on the first day of spring, they’ve chosen weather to start things off.”
“How do you know it’s not just more climate change phenomena?” James said.
“You’ll see,” his son said. “I told Lisa to get her family over here pronto.”
James dashed up the stairs to his office, where he had a desktop Mac computer with a large screen. After firing up the machine, he quickly pulled up the national weather radar.
“Holy guacamole!” he said when he saw the quickly developing weather patterns. “That’s not normal.”
Since Billy had last seen the radar screen in his room, a new line of thunderstorms had appeared as a wide, uneven wave of greenish clouds that began at the eastern edge of California and ran diagonally up to the southeastern corner of Montana. Within the moving green mass, areas of yellow, orange, and red indicated spots of intense weather.
Meanwhile, the original three hurricanes were beginning to make landfall.
“It’s all happening so fast!” Rebecca said. “What are you going to do?”
“Time to consult a higher power,” Billy said with a furrowed brow.
Billy ran back downstairs to his bedroom to lie down on his bed. After getting in a comfortable position, he began the sequence he’d often used to project his energy body out of his physical body. Within a couple of minutes, the familiar vibrational pattern surged through him, increasing in strength. The sound of ripping Velcro signaled his release from his flesh.
By picturing in his mind the nonphysical operations base above the belief zones, he was propelled through the energy layers to what he called his glass-domed “Home Among the Stars.” Billy’s Upperworld contact, Morningstar, arrived to meet him a few seconds later.
“I think it’s beginning,” Billy told the being, who stood much taller than any human. “Strange weather is afoot, and I could use some guidance. What should I do?”
“Volcanoes, earthquakes, and atmospheric phenomena probably aren’t the main events,” Morningstar replied. “You already know this at a deeper level, but you don’t give yourself credit for having knowledge and resources directly available to you. You’ll need to rely more on your innate intuition in the weeks ahead.”
That wasn’t the response Billy had hoped to get.
“I know that wasn’t the answer you were looking for,” the spirit man continued. “But you’re going to face situations where you won’t have the luxury of pausing the physical action while you spirit travel up here to the higher levels to seek guidance. You’ll have to act swiftly and decisively.”
Billy had already been stressed out, knowing the whole world was depending on him to make the right decisions and take the correct actions. Morningstar’s advice wasn’t really helping his peace of mind any.
“Look inward for the answer to your question about what to do,” the Upperworld dweller said. “This morning when you performed the seven directions ceremony, did you really immerse yourself in it, or did you just go through the motions?”
Billy realized he’d been watching and waiting for signs outside himself in the world around him or from the Upperworld above him. He’d ignored his inner channels of communication. Now he knew he’d need all the elements of his multidimensional being functioning at the highest levels to face the coming challenges. He would, after all, be facing a possible end-of-the-world scenario.
His morning ritual had been less than productive, so, even though he wasn’t in his body at the moment, he mimicked the action of letting out a breath of air as if to relieve tension. As soon as he did, he was back in his physical body.
He sat up in bed, blinked a couple of times, and quickly tried to gather his thoughts. Morningstar used the opportunity to impart one last message into Billy’s mind.
“Remember when the Sun Chief transported you to a scene atop the chief’s mound at Solstice City?” he asked.
“Yes,” Billy replied. “Back when I was first learning about spirit travel.”
“When you asked where this was, what did the Sun Chief say?”
“He said the more important question was when,” Billy answered.
“You never really followed up on that idea, did you?”
Billy thought about all that had happened since that day in December. “I’ve been kind of busy, but yeah, you’re right,” he responded. “I never asked what he meant or how he did that.”
“The time is coming very soon when you may wish you had that knowledge and could duplicate that process,” Morningstar said and then ended the dialog.
“Great!” Billy said. “When will that happen?”
No answer came back.
“Hello?”
Still nothing.
Billy shook his head. “I hate it when you guys leave me hanging,” he said out loud. “One of you shows up, imparts some piece of cosmic information, and then runs off back to the Upperworld, leaving me to sort it all out on my own. What a deal!”
He rose from his bed and thought about what he would do next. He remembered he was supposed to do the seven directions ceremony over again, so that’s what he did. This time with real focus, feeling, and intention, he allowed energy from all seven directions to flow through him. That actually made a big difference.
Feeling more grounded and yet simultaneously more ethereal, he bounded back up the stairs to his dad’s office. He was shocked at what he saw on the radar screen.
“It’s only been a few minutes, but a lot has happened while you were gone,” James said.
Billy gazed at the radar screen as rapidly swelling and swirling storms began to engulf the entire country.
“What did your higher power say?” his dad asked.
“That the weather isn’t the main event, and I should rely more on my own intuition in times like these,” the teen replied.
He paused to do just that.
“My inner source says this is all just a distraction so people won’t notice when the main event begins. But, in the meantime, national resources will be tied up rescuing people from storms and floods and other catastrophes.”
Outside, the winds began to blow as drops of rain fell on the roof of the Buckhorn’s two-story log home.
“What we need to do first is prepare for long-term rainstorms and rising waters,” Billy said. “Batten down the hatches, and all that.”
A few miles northeast of the Buckhorn home, Billy’s friend Chigger was feeling rather strange as he awoke—and the feeling was oddly familiar. The first time he’d felt anything like it was when he’d taken the purple gem from the crystal cave near Spiral Mounds, before whatever possessed him turned him into a raging maniac.
It was also the feeling he experienced when Carmelita Tuckaleechee had given him some of her strange tea or blown a handful of the purple powder into his face. He’d begun going to her cabin in January for so-called lessons in Cherokee traditional medicine. Except what was really happening, it turned out, was that the old skili was using the teen to gain information about, and access to, the Buckhorn and Lookout families.
When Billy, in his role as Thunder Child, had ended the witch’s life, Chigger had been freed from her hypnotic spell. So why had that same sensation returned now?
His mother’s voice rang out from the other end of the family’s modest trailer home.
“You’d better get a move on,” she shouted. “The weather’s turning bad, and you don’t want to be late for school.”
“Yes, Mother,” he replied less than enthusiastically.
He envied Billy for having gotten his parents to write him a medical excuse for skipping school on an extended basis. And then they’d signed him up to take the GED exam through the Cherokee Education Department, which his friend had passed with flying colors. Oh, to be like Billy!
But Chigger caught himself right there.
“Stop it right there, Charles Checotah Muskrat!” he said loudly, suddenly adopting Billy’s habit of talking to himself. “Envy is one of the things that got you in trouble to begin with.”
Chigger remembered that Billy had easily forgiven him for the mistaken path he’d taken with Carmelita Tuckaleechee. Keeping that friendship alive was most important now.
He grabbed his schoolbooks, along with the latest superhero comic book he’d received in the mail and the sketch pad he’d been doodling on. He headed out the door toward his truck.
“Come straight home from school,” his mother called after him in a sharp tone. “Oh, and have a nice day.”
That last bit came out overly light and sweet, and Chigger knew she was trying not to sound like his father. When the old man found out his son had been skipping school to learn Cherokee medicine from that witch, the crap had hit the fan. And the crap had continued to hit the fan every day since.
So Chigger had promised to show up for school every day, do his best to get good grades, and put out of his mind anything and everything having to do with Billy Buckhorn and all forms of Cherokee medicine, good or bad.
But how could he keep that last promise when elements of the supernatural were intruding into his life again, now possibly plaguing him with yet another mental disorder? It was Billy’s grandpa, the medicine man, who’d freed the teen from the Horned Serpent’s spell. The elder said Chigger might be influenced by the negative effects of that purple crystal for the rest of his life.
The teen was approaching the turn in the road that led to Billy’s house, and the boy made a quick decision right then and there. He needed to talk to Billy more than ever. Now was the time. He made the turn, heading south toward Park Hill as scattered drops of rain fell.
He arrived at the Buckhorn home just ahead of the Lookout family, who pulled into the gravel drive behind Chigger’s pickup. The boy made a beeline for the front door and knocked loudly as Lisa, Cecil, and Ethan Lookout got out of the van with the Indigenous Archaeology Alliance logo painted on the side.
“What are you doing here?” Lisa called angrily to Chigger just as Billy’s mother opened the front door to the log house. Lisa still hadn’t forgiven him for the trouble he’d caused when he was under Tuckaleechee’s spells.
“I need to see Billy right away,” the boy told Rebecca, loud enough so the Lookouts could hear.
“It’s not a good time,” Rebecca said. “Why don’t you—”
“I gotta do it now,” Chigger said. “It won’t take long, and I can’t be late for school.”
Rebecca had known Chigger almost all his life, and she could tell he was distraught. “Okay. Wait out here on the porch.”
Ignoring the boy, Lisa stepped quickly into the house, followed by her father and grandfather. Saying nothing, the two Lookout men gave Chigger a look that seemed to say, “We don’t blame you like Lisa does, but what can we do?” Billy’s mother told them to go to her husband’s upstairs study.
“I’ll have Billy meet you in his bedroom,” Rebecca whispered to Chigger as the Lookouts headed up the stairs.
As Chigger waited in Billy’s room, a forgotten memory popped into his mind. The last time he’d been in Billy’s bedroom, he was under the spell of skili Carmelita Tuckaleechee, who’d hypnotically commanded him to collect strands of his friend’s hair so she could cast a spell against him.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to associate with me,” Billy said as he came into the room, a broad smile on his face. He hugged his oldest friend, noticing that Chigger’s energy field once again emanated a faint purplish hue.
“I’m not, but I needed to tell you that those old feelings are coming back,” Chigger said with concern in his voice. “You know, like when the purple crystal was just starting to take its hold on me.”
“That’s not good,” Billy said.
“The same feeling I got whenever Tuckaleechee dosed me with her hypnosis medicine. Or really, anytime I was over there at her place, I could feel it a little.”
“I didn’t realize that. What do you think it means?”
“I think someone somewhere who’s like Tuckaleechee is trying to access or activate the Horned Serpent’s crystal. Or maybe there’s another crystal like it somewhere else that’s being activated.”
“Either of those things are definitely not good,” Billy said as his mind began to explore the possible meanings of this new information.
“I just needed to tell you that,” Chigger said. “Now I gotta go.”
“Hang in there, Chig,” Billy said. “I’m glad you shared this with me. I’m still working on getting everyone to accept you back into the fold.”
“I know you are. Thanks.”
“If you need to talk and I’m not here, I’ll probably be over at Grandpa’s house taking care of patients,” Billy said. “I’m slowly taking on his medicine practice, you know, healing the ailments of traditional Cherokees when I can.”
After Chigger left, Billy opened the door to his closet and stooped down to pick up a hiking boot he kept on the floor in the back. Reaching inside the shoe, he fished around for something he kept hidden there: the key to his bottom desk drawer.
After unlocking and opening the drawer, he pulled out an ornately carved wooden box that he’d hidden under a pile of papers. It was the same box that Carmelita Tuckaleechee had kept in the fireproof safe in the back of her cabin.
“Now is the time, Buckhorn,” Billy announced.
Carrying the box with him, he headed back up the stairs to rejoin the rest of the “Underworld Takeover Prevention Team,” as he liked to think of them.
While he’d been downstairs, the storms coming from the four directions hadn’t moved much. It seemed like they’d arrived at prearranged positions and would continue wreaking havoc in those four parts of the country. But the diagonal line of thunderstorms continued marching from west to east, ensuring that interior regions would also get battered by winds and receive a good soaking.
“What did Chigger want?” Lisa asked sharply. Having been captured, imprisoned, and drugged by Chigger’s mentor, Lisa had remained the most critical and least forgiving of the boy.
“Not only did Chigger forgo his own safety by racing into that fire and rescuing Blacksnake’s medicine book from Tuckaleechee’s cabin, but he also went back into the burnt-out structure a few days later to retrieve this,” Billy said.
He sat the wooden box on the computer desk and opened it. Members of his UTP Team moved in closer to get a better look as Billy removed a flat object wrapped in black cloth. Inside the cloth was a thin, highly polished slab of obsidian that was now slowly pulsating with a purplish glow.
“Whoa,” Billy said. “It wasn’t doing that before.”
The group watched as the shiny black object emitted a low-energy glow, accompanied by a soft, synchronized hum every few seconds. It almost seemed like a cell phone in a slow vibrate mode.
