Free Jornada del Muerto: Prisoner Days by Claudia Hall Christian

his
eyes, and he strikes. Out of reflex, I jerk out of his way. He
lurches a foot forward. His fangs land deeply into the neck of a
being behind me.
    A spirit had followed me here.
    I had no idea that I’d been followed. I’d
never been followed before.
    The spirit shrieks, writhes, and then bursts
into flame. I’m knocked off my feet by the explosion of energy and
fire. I must have passed out, because when I wake, I’m lying by a
familiar waterfall with Great Horned Owl by my side. Grey Squirrel
is sorting through a stack of pinon nuts just off to my side.
Squawking Black Crow, Timid Horned Lizard, Chaotic Coyote, and all
of the others are there with me.
    As I open my eyes, they begin speaking at
once. I cannot make out what they are saying over the noise of all
of their voices. Grey Squirrel climbs onto my shoulder to push a
handful of pinon nuts into my mouth. Before I can chew the nuts,
Great Horned Owl screeches for order. The spirit-guide animals
quiet down.
    “ You were followed.” I
make out the Great Owl’s voice.
    The spirit guides began to speak at once
again. Squirrel continues stuffing shelled pinon nuts into my
mouth. I can’t make out what they are saying. My ears are clouded
with the noise of their voices. I’m unable to speak with my mouth
full of pinon nuts.
    “ They have learned to
breed,” Great Horned Owl says. Again, I work to make out the
muffled words.
    The spirit guides scream
and howl at the unnatural state of things. I feel the earth
vibrate. Stomp ! Stomp ! Stomp ! A
very large being is moving toward us. The spirit guides continue
screaming and howling. I can hear the noise of their voices and
feel the earth vibrate.
    An enormous Black Bear breaks into the
clearing. On all fours, she screams at the top of her lungs.
Furious, she stomps toward us. Her enormity and rage remind me of
George. She gets within two feet of me and screams again. Before I
can react, she swipes a sharp black nail at my ear. She pulls what
looks like sheep’s wool from one ear, then the next.
    “ You will get him killed
if you don’t listen carefully,” Towering Black Bear
says.
    And I knew that this creature, this Towering
Black Bear, belonged to George. Whether George knew it or not, he
had this spirit guide watching over him. No wonder George and I
became friends. No wonder I cared for him. He belongs to the earth
and sky like I do.
    “ WAKE UP FROM YOUR
LUST-FILLED DREAM!” the Towering Black Bear screams.
“LISTEN!”
    In a flash, I see myself standing with the
women in their cell. I see my lust for them. My human-mind is
delirious with the sight and smell of these women. I want them. I
am drunk on my wanting of them. Desperately, I work to push aside
my lust.
    My eyes turn to the Ute woman. I see what I
missed before. She is trying to tell me something with her eyes.
Her eyes flick to the pregnant woman’s belly and then to me. Flick
to belly -- back to me.
    I’m back to the stream, surrounded by spirit
guides. Playful River Otter flips from the stream to whisper in my
now-clear ears:
    “ They laid their eggs in
her carcass.”
    In that moment, I know that Playful River
Otter is telling me what the Ute woman cannot speak. Playful River
Otter is telling me that he is Ute’s spirit guide.
    I’m back in the women’s cell watching
myself. Great Horned Owl is there with me.
    “ You must kill them all,”
he says.
    I’m back at the stream. Playful River Otter
slaps his tail on the water to splash at Great Horned Owl.
    “ She deserves to be at
peace,” Playful River Otter says.
    “ The wasp can’t take hold
in native peoples,” I argue.
    “ That makes her more
dangerous! They’re all incubating eggs,” Towering Black Bear says
in a more moderate voice. “They need your seed to complete the
monster.”
    “ She must die with the
others,” Great Horned Owl says. “For their souls, first. To stop
the wasps, second. They will not survive the hatch.”
    “ Salt kills the wasp. Salt
kills the