Sittingjing-gongala was immediately drawn back to the scene
before her when Omwanaku knelt down beside the child
and began rubbing ointments and powders on her temples,
hands and feet.
He sat now before the child, facing Sittingjing-gongala.
He began chanting softly again. Still Lali did not move.
But she was breathing deep, rhythmic breaths.
For many hours Omwanaku sat chanting over and over again
the mother's name. In one hand he held the rattle, in the other,
the carved stone head. Sittingjing-gongala eyed it curiously.
She was afraid to really look at it, or touch it.
She shuddered to think of it and of her precious daughter Leula.
"Go forward Leula. Go forward!" the old medicine man
was chanting. "Leave Lali with us. Let her go!"
Gongi beat the drum harder.
"Go forward" he said. "Let go Leula"
Still the child did not move.
Sittingjing-gongala steadily beat the little drum all the while,
wiping the tears she could catch from her eyes.
The sun rose at last. Now Omwanaku got up.
He was shaking his head. Gongi had fallen asleep, but
awoke suddenly to hear him speaking to her.
"The mother's will is very strong" he told her.
"We must have more faith. We must not give up!"
He sat down again after stretching a bit and quickly resumed
his chanting, shaking the rattle and stone persistantly.
Sittingjing-gongala was quite awake now, and
began beating the drum again, concentrating all her will
upon her inner vision.
They continued like this for a while and around mid-morning,
when the rays of the sun slanted in thru the openning
at the top of the teepee, Omwanaku stopped abruptly.
He put the rattle down and looked up.
Omwanaku looked thru the rays of sunlight,
over to where Sittingjing-gongala sat in the shadow in the corner.
She looked at him not knowing what he would say.
He said nothing. He only looked toward the light
as it slanted down onto the earthen floor.
They sat silently and watched it until it was gone.
Gongi felt a strange sensation. A freeness, a lightness...
Peaciwawala began to sigh; she moved and openned her eyes.
She just lay there quietly for a time, and then realized
where she was. Gongi came over and sat beside her.
Omwanaku was near on her other side.
They both held her hands as she looked strangely at them.
She knew they knew something about her dreams.
She didn't want to come back and be there with them.
She wanted to return to the forest. Something there was calling her.
She didn't know what it was. Who it was. Where it was.
Only that there was something....calling her to find it.
She felt peaceful in the forest. She was afraid to come back
all the way. But now she was back and would have to stay.
Inside her still swelled a spirit of rebellion that she felt
was almost impossible to control.
Soon Lali resigned herself to wakefulness again, and sat up.
The sun was setting and Gongi sat by the fire patting the tortillas. She had made
a savory buffalo stew to go with them.
Lali was hungry as a bear when she woke up.
Omwanaku had gone back to his teepee and Gongi
was still humming softly, the chant that Omwanaku
told her to remember.
In a basket near her, Gongi placed the owl feather and carved stone head
fragment that her daughter Leula had left with Omwanaku.
She knew she would never call Lali the name of the old witch Jzurlea that lived in their
village so many years ago. She knew now that Leula would never return. But Lali was still a young girl.
She was still a child. There were many years ahead, good years, years of growing up and growing old together.
Gongi looked forward to that. Would do anything to assure that. She had lost so many loved ones, her parents and
grand parents, brothers and sisters, her husband, her son, her daughter, her miscarried children. She could not lose
Lali! She looked at the stone head fragment as she covered the woven grass basket. She would have to chant
everyday, all the time to protect Lali, but she could do that, and she would! Whatever it took to break the old witch
Jzurlea's hold on Lali.
Lali came and sat beside her grandmother. She grabbed a hot tortilla and
took a bite before her grandmother could stop her.
"Hey" shouted Gongi.
"I'm hungry Grandma!" replied Lali dipping the rest of the tortilla into the stew."
"Okay then," said the Grandmother patiently. "Go get your bowl."
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