Free A Coffin for Santa Rosa by Steve Hayes

his lips sealed. He was chewing stoically, rhythmically, and in the flickering firelight his gaunt, wrinkled face was etched by eerie shadows.
    Suddenly his eyes opened. They focused on her. She feltherself drawn into them. Trust in me, they said. And you will come to no harm.
    Almighty Sky’s assurance was all she needed. Popping a button in her mouth, she began to chew. Expecting the taste to be unbearable, she was surprised to find the peyote was tasteless as sawdust. Her mind wandered. She thought of various different tastes, all of which she enjoyed, each of those tastes becoming what she tasted: blueberry pie, lemonade, Gabriel’s buttermilk biscuits – even the licorice-tasting Black Jack chewing gum that her now-dead Uncle Reece had given her – all flooded her senses.
    Swallowing the peyote, Raven began chewing another button and then another, all the time enjoying the variety of pleasing tastes that filled her mouth. Meanwhile, Almighty Sky’s voice continued talking to her. No woman, he explained, Apache or Pale Eyes, had ever been allowed to sit at a Peyote Ceremony. She was the first. The Sacred One, Lolotea, whose soul had recently joined the Great Spirit, had appeared to him in a vision and told him to invite Raven. She had chosen Raven, she explained, because she was pure at heart – and because of this the poisonous cactus would not taste bitter or unpleasant, or, more importantly, make her ill.
    Raven felt her mind expanding. Everything became hazy. The room swam about her. She began to hallucinate. Suddenly, like a shower of exploding fireworks, a kaleidoscope of colors dazzled her eyes. She felt weightless, as if she were floating. Looking down, she saw herself seated in the circle with the elders. She watched herself chewing the peyote buttons. The buttons changed color and size then disappeared. The fire beckoned to her and she swooped down like an eagle and became engulfed in the flames. She expected to be burned. But the fire was her friend and she remained unharmed. She heard herself laughing. Thanking the fire for not burning her, she flew back to her seat in the circle.
    Opposite, across the fire, Almighty Sky fed himself a handful of peyote buttons and instantly shape-shifted into a mountain lion, then an owl, then a rattlesnake with two heads. Raven watched as one head swallowed the other. Now a white woodpecker flew out of the remaining snake’s mouth. The little bird flew around inside the hogan, shaking tiny, soft feathers from its wings. The feathers floated down like falling snow but never landed, turning the air into a silent, swirling snowstorm.
    Raven looked up and saw Lolotea’s angelic face smiling at her among the drifting snowflakes. The Sacred One spoke without sound. The feathers were sucked into her mouth until only one feather remained. It floated down and landed on Raven’s face, balancing on her upturned nose. She grasped it and held it tightly in her hand.
    Waving it like a magic wand, she felt herself levitate and fly away. Suddenly, large wooden doors opened in front of her. She couldn’t see herself but she knew, as in a dream, she had entered a barn. A man lay sprawled on some straw. He was tied up, his face bruised and bloodied from a beating. Faceless ranch-hands entered carrying a rope. One threw the rope over the rafters so that a noose dangled. The other men picked up the beaten man, looped the rope around his neck and hoisted him up until his feet were off the ground. He hung there, kicking and choking.
    Raven realized the dying man was Gabriel. She screamed and ran forward, grasping his legs and trying to support him so that he could breathe. But the men dragged her away and held her, helpless. The men now had faces. She recognized them as the riders who had jumped them on the trail. She turned her head away. But the foreman grasped her face and forced her to watch Gabriel die.
    She fainted.
    Everything went dark. Silent.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    She awoke, choking.