Let Your Will Be Done: Chapter Three

Chapter Three

 The trip back home was not nearly as joyous as Blue Wolf had envisioned.  In fact, he had even went as far on occasion to daydream about it being rather triumphant after directing Zeke’s powers for the good of as many as possible and putting an end to the prejudices against Indians.

There was some of that when they pulled up to Ghost Owl’s place in New Mexico, but it was not exactly what Blue Wolf had in mind.  For well over a hundred Mescaleros swarmed Zeke, and there was not so quiet talk of the Mockingbird being the long-awaited savior who would restore the former glory of the peoples of the land.

No one had to tell Blue Wolf that Zeke was the Mockingbird.  No, Blue Wolf did not have a good feeling about this at all.

Blue Wolf was not so sure that he would be allowed to leave with Zeke, but the sea of red-men parted when Zeke told them something in a language that Blue Wolf did not understand.  From the look on the faces of some of elders in the crowd, Blue Wolf assumed that Zeke had spoken to them in an Apache dialect unfamiliar to him, but when he later asked Zeke about it, he said that he had just told them in plain English that he would see them again soon.

Blue Wolf strongly suspected that there was something not good in the works.  Well, at least what he would define as not good, with Ghost Owl being the catalyst.

Consistent with his nature, Blue Wolf was willing to consider the possibility that he had sorely misjudged Ghost Owl.  For in all fairness, Ghost Owl might feel just as much like a victim of his circumstances as Blue Owl did about his own.

In any event, Blue Owl was quite certain that time would tell, and it did indeed much sooner than later.  For the day after they had arrived home, Blue Owl overheard Zeke discussing plans with Ghost Owl for a great gathering of the Indian tribes relocated to Oklahoma.

The discussion was taking place behind the closed door of Zeke’s bedroom, which piqued Blue Wolf’s interest to the max.  For as far as he knew, Ghost Owl was still in New Mexico and there was not a telephone in Zeke’s bedroom.

Was Zeke just pretending to have a discussion with Ghost Owl?  No, that could not be it.  For Blue Owl had actually heard Ghost Owl’s voice, and he did not think Zeke’s powers included being able to speak with another’s voice.  Besides, it made no sense that he would do so in this case.

With the current state of their relationship not being anything like it used to be, Blue Wolf did not want to make matters worse by barging into Zeke’s bedroom unannounced.  Moreover, Blue Wolf figured that Ghost Owl would simply slip away if he knocked on the door.  Therefore, Blue Wolf had to approach this situation from quite literally a different direction.

After weighing all of the available options, Blue Wolf decided to go outside and take a look around.  For aside from hearing Ghost Owl’s voice, he had clearly heard songbirds in the background, which meant that Zeke’s bedroom window was open and the curtains were probably not drawn shut.

As if the possibilities that he could naturally conceive were not enough, Blue Wolf was not at all prepared for what he saw when he drew near Zeke’s bedroom window.  For sitting on the sill was a great horned owl clearly speaking in Ghost Owl’s voice.

Blue Wolf did not believe that he had been seen, but he could see where his judgment might be suspect.  For Blue Wolf did not want to believe what he had seen.

Despite the shock, Blue Wolf had immediately recognized that he was looking at a case of skinwalking from the legends he had heard as a child.  If this is unfamiliar to you, skinwalking enables a person to change shapes, and the practice had been generally outlawed because it often led to madness resulting in meaningless death and destruction.

Officially, there had not been a genuine case of skinwalking in almost a hundred years, but there were some rumors of it still being practiced by certain secret societies.  Blue Wolf wondered if Ghost Owl could be a member of such a group, and a few well-placed telephone calls confirmed his suspicions.  Those calls also confirmed that Ghost Owl had been nowhere to be seen down around Ruidoso since just before Blue Wolf and Zeke had left to continue on toward home.

Blue Wolf could only hope that skinwalking would hold no interest for Zeke, but he understood the appeal.  For who would not want to run like a deer or fly like an eagle when the mood struck?  Furthermore, it is perfectly natural to think that nothing bad is going to happen to you just because it has happened before to others when you want to do something bad enough—especially when you are young.

Blue Wolf did not have to wait long to receive an answer, but the incident gave him reason to hold out hope for the best possible outcome.  For while he was out taking a walk in some woods on the east side of his property, a mockingbird landed on a branch above his head and proceeded to do what birds also do in the woods.

Okay, those without a twisted sense of humor will not get the joke.  Therefore, let me assure you that pooping on Blue Wolf’s head was meant as a joke.  Well, at least Blue Wolf hoped it was.

Blue Wolf’s hopes for the best were dashed a week later, however.  For a couple of hours after what started out as a nice conversation with Zeke turned very ugly when Blue Wolf brought up how concerned he was with Ghost Owl leading him down a dangerous path, a mockingbird flew through the screen of an open window, landed on back of the living room couch and cut loose with the spine-chilling sound of a screech owl.  Blue Wolf could not be sure if it was Zeke or Ghost Owl, but there was no mistaking the taunt.

When a couple of Blue Wolf’s neighbors stopped by to check on him a few days later, they found Blue Wolf’s body slumped over in his easy chair with the throat torn out.  Bloody paw prints of either a wolf or very large dog led from his body to an open window with a rip in the screen.

There were no other tracks of any kind found elsewhere.  Several different branches of local, state and federal law enforcement conducted an exhaustive search for clues, but nothing was found.

After Blue Wolf’s body was released to the Cherokee tribe, a large memorial gathering was planned.  Present were representatives of the Arapaho, Caddo, Cayuga, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek Comanche, Delaware, Eastern Shawnee, Iowa, Kaw, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Madoc, Miami, Osage, Ottawa, Otoe, Pawnee, Peoria, Ponca, Potawatomi, Quapaw, Sac and Fox, Seminole, Seneca, Tonkawa, Western Shawnee, Wichita and Wyandotte tribes.

The chief of the Cherokee tribe was still standing at the podium when a mockingbird landed and started speaking like a man to those in attendance.  It announced that a return to the old ways had begun and that much personal sacrifice would be required to win the war.  It went on to say that all openly opposed would not live long enough to stop the movement.  Then the mockingbird took off and with the piercing cry of a bald eagle, changed into one in midflight.

As if in a trance, the crowd kept looking up into the sky long after the bald eagle was out of sight.  Almost thirty minutes passed before more and more started gathering into smaller groups and talking about what they had witnessed.

Understandably, there was much to discuss.  For it is not every day when one hears a mockingbird talking like a man and then sees it change into a bald eagle.

Furthermore, there was what the mockingbird said and how it was said.  For those who still knew the language traditionally spoken by their tribe, heard the mockingbird speak in that tongue.  A count totaled over ten different tribal languages being heard at the same time.

Some groups focused on the different languages while the others moved on to what was said. Most of the elders were opposed to any talk of an armed uprising.  For they wanted to keep what was left of their cultures intact, but younger Indians boldly spoke out of driving the white man back to Europe and making them wary of ever wanting to return.

The FBI had several undercover agents at the gathering, and they became very nervous hearing such talk.  When the gathering finally broke up, the FBI agents headed straight for the Oklahoma City office.

The next day, the Oklahoma State Highway Patrol was called to the scene of a traffic accident around fifteen miles east of Tulsa.  The vehicles involved were badly burned, and inside of them were nine bodies charred beyond recognition.  Dental records later determined that those bodies were of the undercover FBI agents at the gathering.

Both the FBI and Oklahoma State Highway Patrol conducted separate and very thorough investigations of the accident.  As with the Blue Wolf investigation, there was no additional evidence to be found.

As was mentioned before, most of the tribal elders were opposed to an armed revolt against the United States government, and they decided to not say anything to their respective tribes about the mockingbird.  The trouble was that news of the fantastic things that had happened was very hard to suppress.  In fact, it was downright impossible, and accounts of the talking mockingbird and its message spread all over the Oklahoma reservations like a prairie wildfire driven by high winds.

The chief of the Pawnees had his hands full trying to maintain order during a tribal meeting between those in favor of doing nothing and those wanting to go on the warpath like it was in days long past.  He was standing quite literally in the middle of the two factions at one end of a long hall, but neither side was paying much attention to his pleas for calm.

A disquieting pall seems to settle in the air when three Cheyenne braves in buckskins and full war paint appeared at the opposite end of the hall from where the Pawnee chief was standing.  Two of the Cheyenne braves held long pony-lances, and between them was a brave holding a bow with a black arrow nocked.

The Pawnee chief and several of the elders immediately recognized the arrow as being one of the sacred arrows the Pawnee had captured from the Cheyenne during a battle around 150 years before.  The Pawnee chief demanded the immediate return of the sacred arrow, and the Cheyenne brave grunted, pulled back the bowstring and sent the arrow flying toward the chief.

The black arrow hit the Pawnee chief dead-center between his eyes and split his body in two from the top of his head down through his torso.  Then it instantly reappeared nocked on the Cheyenne brave’s bow.  As if that was not enough of a shock for those in the hall to witness, a mockingbird landed on the podium the Pawnee chief had been speaking from and announced that such would be the fate of all who opposed a return to the old ways.

News of what had happened to the Pawnee chief spread even faster and farther than the news of what had happened at Blue Wolf’s memorial gathering.  Governor William T. Davies did not have to consult with the White House over the mobilization of the Oklahoma National Guard to keep matters from becoming too far out of hand.  For President Andrew Jessup was already way ahead of him and ordered the 4^th Infantry and 101^st Airborne divisions to encircle the reservations in Oklahoma.

Checkpoints were established to allow those not wanting to have anything to do with the potential conflict to leave the area.  Most wanting to leave were white, black and Hispanic people, but at least 70% of the official Indian population living on the reservations joined the exodus.

As in an eerily similar echo of a time when America broke the pledge to be the land of the free for all of its law-abiding citizens, President Jessup ordered the internment of all Indian refugees.  Aside from being highly prejudicial, the decision made no more sense than it did before with American citizens of Japanese heritage during World War II.  For those interned were never a threat while the true militants remained at large to wreak havoc far and wide.

Emboldened by the return of their sacred arrows, the Cheyenne resurrected the dog soldier society, who actually took on the form of dogs as they rampaged across the countryside. Ghost Owl’s shadow warriors were the most feared, though.  For they slaughtered men, women and children indiscriminately while the dog soldiers limited their attacks to men of fighting age.

Zeke had not taken human form in several months, but when he saw what Ghost Owl was doing, Zeke confronted him as a man.  Ghost Owl just laughed at Zeke, took the form of a great horned owl and attacked.  Zeke took the form of a grizzly bear and swatted Ghost Owl out of the air.

Ghost Owl hit the ground as a man with a badly broken left arm and right leg.  Zeke took the form of a man again and walked up to Ghost Owl.

Several of Ghost Owl’s shadow warriors were watching the battle between him and Zeke, and one of them threw a spear at Zeke as he knelt beside their fallen leader.  Without even looking, Zeke reached behind him and caught the spear before its tip could pierce the base of his skull.

Zeke stood up, faced the shadow warriors and snapped the spear in half.  Then he told them to go home.  For the war was over.

Zeke knelt back down beside Ghost Owl and placed his hands on his injuries.  Ghost Owl’s broken bones were instantly mended, and the old shaman looked at Zeke in utter disbelief.

“How did you do that, Mockingbird?”

“I do not know, Ghost Owl.  I assume that the power came from the spirits, as did the power to change forms.  I now realize that we misused that power quite wickedly.”

“Yes, I now realize that, too.”

“Good.  We must now go spread the word that the war is over and was very wrong from the start.  Our initial intentions were noble, but our tactics were anything but.  Let us hope that what we do next will heal the wounds that we have inflicted on both sides.”

“Your ability to heal grave injuries with just a touch of your hands, Mockingbird, will surely achieve much.”

“I sure hope so, Ghost Owl. I will contact you again, soon.”

Zeke immediately set about to use his healing power, but he quickly saw that he would not be allowed to.  For security forces would not let him near the wounded without a fight, and that would defeat the purpose.

A week or so later, Zeke sent a message to Ghost Owl informing him that the fastest way to secure the release of the interned Indians would be for him and the rest of the guilty to surrender themselves to the authorities.  Zeke went on to say that he would not implicate anyone else, but he hoped that enough of the perpetrators would want to do the honorable thing for the good of all on both sides of the conflict.

Zeke was sent to a federal prison in central Oklahoma with a sentence pf life without parole.  Ghost Owl and his shadow warriors, along with the Cheyenne dog soldiers were also sentenced to life in prison without parole, but they were sent to Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas. The rest received lesser sentences to be served at other federal prisons around the country.

With popular opinion being against his misguided decision from the start and political pressure mounting, President Jessup was all too happy to immediately release the interned Indians and help them recover what was lost during the time.  When they heard what had been done to secure their immediate release, it was an even split among the tribes between those who wanted to celebrate the Mockingbird and those who wanted to curse him.  The consensus swung heavily in favor of cursing when it was discovered that their failed savior was a white man.

Zeke asked to be placed in solitary confinement for the protection of both other inmates and the guards.  For Zeke anticipated facing attacks from supporters of both sides of the conflict, and the sadistic warden was most willing to oblige.

As in other prisons, solitary confinement where Zeke was imprisoned was referred to as being the hole, and it was more than an arbitrary reference where Zeke was.  For the hole was located at the bottom of a deep mine shaft that was only accessible by lowering and raising people and supplies with a cable pulley system from its days as a working mine in the 1920s.

Since the hole was deemed inhumane, no upgrades had been made.  Warden Wright was not one to let little details like that stand in the way of administering his brand of justice, though.

Zeke was lowered down into the hole with a week’s ration of water and precooked beans.  The cable was pulled back up and a heavy steel cover was closed until time for next week’s rations to be sent down.  There Zeke was in the dark with the rats and not even a bed to sleep on.

Zeke could not see the rats, but he could hear them.  Then Zeke felt them around him, but instead of trying to eat him alive, the rats snuggled up to Zeke like they were his pets.

Understandably, Zeke was quite wary of the rats at first, but when a rather large one crawled up on his lap, Zeke could not help but scratch its back.  Then the large rat rolled over so its belly could be rubbed like one would a beloved puppy, and Zeke thought to himself that the spirits must have forgiven him for misusing the power they had entrusted to him and sent some friends to keep him company.

Zeke’s daily routine remained largely unchanged day after day, week after week and month after month.  The only real variations came on the days when his weekly food allotment was sent down the cable.

Zeke had long since lost all sense of time, but he had been down in the hole six months when he received a visitor.  Well, at least Warden Wright stopped by to look down on Zeke from 200 feet above.

Without illumination, Warden Wright could not see anything down the shaft.  So, he decided to kick in some dirt to elicit a response.  Not a sound came from Zeke, and Warden Wright leaned farther over the edge in the hope of seeing something.  That is when the sadistic warden fell in.

Warden Wright let out a blood-curdling scream that lasted the entire fall down the shaft.  He landed with a thud that could be clearly heard on top, and one of the guards strapped on the harness used for lowering prisoners down to the bottom.

When the guard made it to the bottom, he found Warden Wright dazed, but aside from that, he appeared to be generally in good health.  Zeke helped the guard strap the warden in the harness, and after he was hoisted to the top, Warden Wright was rushed to the prison infirmary to be examined before being transferred to a much better medical facility in Oklahoma City.

Warden Wright was given a clean bill of health by both the prison doctors and those at the Oklahoma City hospital.  None of them could explain how it was possible for Warden Wright to not have sustained even a minor bruise.  They kept running their tests and scans, and they all came back showing nothing abnormal.

Warden Wright knew full well what Zeke had done, but he was loathed to say anything good about one of his prisoners.  That is, at least not until Warden Wright received an unexpected visitor in the middle of the night.

Warden Wright awoke in a jolt to see a man dressed in a flowing white robe standing at the foot of his hospital bed.  The man told him that it would be in his best interest to support a petition for the immediate release from custody of Ezekiel Edward Erickson.  Warden Wright was about to say in no uncertain terms that he would do no such thing, but when he saw the man vanish before his very eyes, Warden Wright reconsidered his position.

Later that day, the prison guard who had gone down the mine shaft to recover what was thought to undoubtedly be the warden’s lifeless body, presented a petition to the warden signed by over half of the prison guards and many of the administrative and medical staff asking for the immediate release of Zeke.  Warden Wright signed the petition and ordered it sent to the US Attorney’s General office, along with a written account of what Zeke had done for him that he had already prepared.

Not only had Warden Wright written that there was no doubt in his mind that Zeke had brought him back from the dead, his account included that it would be a shame to keep such a powerful source of healing locked away from the general public.  The warden’s account and the petition did little to soften the exceedingly great hardness of far too many hearts in Washington, DC, however.

So, Zeke’s angelic ambassador skipped a couple of links and went straight to the end of the chain of command.  It was obviously some visit that he had with President Jessup.  For he did more than just order Zeke’s immediate release from custody, President Jessup had his record completely expunged to the extent that it was as if Zeke’s previously duly adjudicated crimes had never occurred.

Oh, but wait—there’s more!  For Zeke was given clear title to the Erickson homestead, and a team of contractors had his new home built in less than three months at the federal government’s expense.

Zeke insisted that the building of the new home was too much, but he backed down when he had a feeling that he should just humbly accept the lavish gift.  During Zeke’s first night in his new home, he had an unexpected visitor of his own.