Goddess Girl Prophecy Read online

  “Good night, MawMaw.” Uncle Jun leaned down to kiss her good cheek. They shared another adult look.

  “I’ll go get my truck and meet you outside the ER,” Uncle Jun said to me.

  I nodded. The elevator chimed its arrival. “I’ll see you tomorrow, MawMaw.” I kissed her good cheek, too, before the nurse wheeled her inside the elevator.

  “We’ll take good care of her,” he said as the doors closed.

  I stood there for a moment all by myself. The tears really wanted to flow. Ironically, I willed them back. Falling apart had a time and a place, and that moment wasn’t it any more than in the middle of a home invasion. I had to get home and clean up their mess. I made my way out of the emergency room and back to the doors leading into the waiting room, then handed my visitor badge to the guard.

  As I turned around, there was Kanaan and his older brother.

  Chapter 8

  “How is she?” Kanaan said.

  My tear ducts responded to the genuine concern in his voice and on his face. “Other than a gigantic bruise—” My voice shook. The moisture I just willed away promptly welled in my eyes. I blinked like crazy to regain control. Blinking didn’t work. Like a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm, the tears were ferocious and determined.

  Kanaan’s brows pulled together tighter. His own eyes got glassy, and then, just like that, his arms went around me.

  Tight.

  Firm.

  Essential.

  Therapeutic.

  Oh my goodness. What I did and didn’t need was that kind of hug from the boy who, I realized at that very moment, I loved—had always loved. I clung to him like he was a lightning rod channeling away the storm inside. That hug grounded me in a way I’d never felt before. It was transformative. He cradled my head in his hands and leaned away a few inches.

  I wiped my cheeks. “She’s fine.” I said it with conviction.

  Kanaan smiled.

  Honaw smiled too. “Of course she’s fine. She’s MawMaw.”

  I sniffled and smile as I pulled away from Kanaan. The strange thing was, I still felt the pressure of his arms. To this day, I can still feel them.

  Honaw gave me a quick hug too.

  Kanaan put a hand on the small of my back. “C’mon, let’s get you to Amaya’s.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’m going home.”

  Honaw raised his eyebrows. “It’s not safe, Wray.”

  “Sure it is,” I answered trying not to think about tattooed man. “Whatever those guys wanted obviously wasn’t at MawMaw’s.”

  I glanced at Kanaan to see if he got my meaning.

  “I know about it,” Honaw said hooking his fingers on the word “it”. Apparently, air quotes were a Lykota family thing.

  I shot Kanaan a look.

  “Well, it,” I emphasized to Honaw. “Isn’t at my house. They know that and have no reason to come back.”

  I walked briskly out the automatic doors just as Uncle Jun pulled up to the curb. Determination replaced sorrow and fear. I opened the passenger’s side door to get into the SUV. “I’ve got to get that mess cleaned up. I won’t have MawMaw coming home to that.”

  “Fine,” Kanaan challenged and opened the back door on Uncle Jun’s vehicle. “I’m going with you to help, because I’m not leaving you alone.”

  Kanaan’s aura vibrated like crazy. The bright light of an almost-full moon reflected in his eyes.

  Honaw showed his displeasure with a loud sigh. “We’re going to need tools and some wood to fix the front door so the place can be locked up, at least.”

  “I’ve got some scraps at my place,” Uncle Jun hollered from the driver’s seat. Uncle Jun’s property was about fifty acres. He was just like MawMaw collecting stuff. MawMaw gathered things because she was extremely eco-conscious. Uncle Jun was a waste-not-want-not kind of guy. Though his reasoning was more pragmatic, it was MawMaw approved, and all their finds piled up out at his place.

  Honaw nodded. “I can take the kids to MawMaw’s, if you want to go get that stuff.”

  “That’ll work,” Uncle Jun said.

  Instead of getting in, Kanaan and I stepped away from Uncle Jun’s vehicle and closed the doors.

  “Don’t leave her alone.” Uncle Jun passed along MawMaw’s order.

  Kanaan gave one sharp nod of his head. “I won’t.”

  “I’ll hurry.” Uncle Jun pulled away from the curb and sped off.

  We crossed the street to the hospital parking garage and took the stairs to Honaw’s SUV parked on the third level.

  After we were rolling, I slipped my phone out of my pocket to call Amaya.

  “What happened?” Amaya shouted so loudly that I had to take the phone away from my ear. “Are you okay? Oh my God. Why didn’t you call?” It was both a question and an accusation.

  “Amaya.” I tried to get her to stop rattling off questions.

  “I was so worried.” Amaya rambled on.

  “Amaya.”

  “Are you okay? I asked that already,” she continued.

  “Amaya!” I shouted into the phone. “Stop.” Finally she stopped. “I’m fine,” I said. “Other than a big bruise and cut on her cheek, MawMaw is fine, too. But the doctors want to watch her overnight.”

  “Thank God,” Amaya said. “Not the overnight thing or her cheek, but thank God she’s not seriously hurt.”

  “You’re at your aunt’s?” I asked.

  “Yeah, me and the brat. We’ll stay here until my parents and Kai get back in the morning. My aunt made up another bed for you.”

  “Tell her thank you for me, but I’m going home.”

  “Are you kidding?!” Amaya shouted. I lifted the phone from my ear again. “Don’t you dare go back there!”

  I put her on speaker to save my eardrum. “They trashed the place,” I said defiantly to her, and to Honaw, who was watching me in the rearview mirror. “MawMaw cannot come home to that. Besides, Kanaan and Honaw are with me, and Uncle Jun is coming over to fix the doors.”

  “I still think it’s a bad idea.” She paused a moment. “Do you think the gunmen went to my house?”

  “Maybe. Just prepare yourself for it.” I considered telling the police to check the Bell house. A deep throb developed in my temple. I put my fingers to it and massaged. “Maybe we should just tell Chief Danny that I found an Indian artifact.”

  “No!” both Kanaan and Honaw shouted from the front seats.

  Amaya was against it too.

  “Nothing looks disturbed there,” Kanaan said.

  I cocked my head in question.

  “We went by there after Honaw picked me up from MawMaw’s,” Kanaan explained.

  “That’s good news,” Amaya said happily.

  I eyed the two Lykota boys in the front seats. “We’re almost home. I’ll call you tomorrow. Don’t go back home alone.”

  “Says the girl going back home.”

  “But not alone,” I clarified.

  We hung up.

  Honaw caught my eye in the rearview. “Amaya’s right. You should take your own advice.”

  I just cocked my head sideways and looked back defiantly.

  “Actually, I’m with Wray on this one.” Kanaan darted a glance back at me. “They won’t come back.”

  “So.” I brought them back to the topic I was most interested in. “Why shouldn’t I go to the police with this entire story?”

  Kanaan and Honaw shared a glance, which annoyed the hell out of me. MawMaw and Uncle Jun did the same thing in the hospital. What did they all know that I didn’t?

  “Look.” I leaned forward in the space between the front seats. “It’s my grandmother who is in the hospital over this thing. I have a right to know what it is and what’s going on.”

  We turned the corner onto our street. A couple of police cruisers were parked outside. Honaw’s headlights reflected off bright-yellow police tape that ringed MawMaw’s entire property—barn and all. One police officer stood guard at the smashed front door. When we
pulled around to the driveway, we saw that another cop was stationed outside the back door

  “We’ll talk about it later.” Honaw killed the engine and got out.

  Kanaan and I quickly unbuckled and followed him to the back of the house. “Sir,” Honaw said respectfully to the deputy. He pointed at me. “This young lady lives here—”

  The officer shook his head. “My orders are to keep everyone out until its secure.”

  “But I really need to get in there and clean up,” I blurted. “Before my grandmother comes home tomorrow.” I put my best pout on my face, and in my head, pictured the chaos the men in black left in the kitchen. “Have you seen the mess?” I asked the officer.

  He nodded but frowned. “Orders are—”

  “But I’m not everyone.” I cut him off. “I live here. And what my grandmother doesn’t need is a reminder of the violence that happened here. She’d be just devastated to come home to that.” The deputy rubbed his jaw and blinked. Almost there. “Please,” I whispered the plea. With a great big sigh, he gestured to the door.

  Ella’s whinny got my attention. “I’d like to look in on my horse first.” I glanced at the deputy for approval. When he gave it, I ran for the barn.

  Kanaan was right behind me. “You’re supposed to be too scared to waltz around here by yourself.”

  “I’m not, though.” Strangely, I wasn’t afraid. “Besides, I’ve got you to protect me.” I had meant it sarcastically, but instead of smirking, I smiled.

  He swung the barn door open. “Are you flirting with me?”

  I flipped on the light and didn’t answer. Ella nuzzled me right away and wouldn’t stop, like she knew something was wrong. I patted her neck and then her rump—all the while looking her over.

  “Not a mark on her.” Kanaan pointed at the ceiling. “They shot in the air to get her out of the stall.”

  I looked at the bullet holes—big enough to see the moon through. Another couple of days and it would be a full one.

  “I found her around the block happily munching Mary’s flowers.”

  “Were you, girl?” I cooed at her. She nuzzled me again. “I love you right back,” I whispered.

  After Kanaan helped me feed her dinner, we closed the barn and went back to the house.

  “Sir?” I paused to talk to the officer on guard before going in. “Were there any other reports of home invasions or break-ins tonight?”

  “No.” The deputy wrinkled his forehead. “Why do you ask?”

  “Just wondering if those guys hurt anyone else.”

  Kanaan hurried me into the house.

  Once inside, I turned around. “Stop pushing me.”

  He closed the door. “The less we say to them the better,” he said low.

  “It was an innocent question,” I argued with crossed arms.

  Honaw raised his eyebrows at us. “If looks could kill, you two would be slaying each other.”

  Kanaan’s brother already started to clean the kitchen. I uncrossed my arms to pick up the trash can that was supposed to be under the sink.

  I took in the monumental mess. “Okay. It’s later, Honaw. What do you know about the skull?”

  Honaw shrugged. “Not much.”

  I cocked my head in disbelief. “Then why don’t you want me to tell the police about it?” It’s not that I seriously considered telling them everything. They’d lock me in a psych ward the second ‘magic skull’ was out of my mouth.

  “Because if Ms. Savage is right that it belongs to the Nuutsiu,” Kanaan explained, “we don’t want to take the chance of losing another tribal artifact.”

  That made more sense than I wanted it to.

  If I told Chief Danny about it, he’d want to see it and most likely, take it as evidence. I recalled the skull’s fear and my bizarre anxiety attack at school. That was just Mr. Smith wanting to look at it. What would happen if someone tried to take it? Instead of putting the trash can back under the sink, I began filling it with broken items from the floor. The still useable things I put right into the dishwasher.

  “Until we know what it is for certain, we just feel it’s best to keep quiet about it.” Honaw slid another drawer back into a cabinet.

  “But you’re remembering a legend from your childhood.” It was a statement, not a question.

  Both Honaw and Kanaan, who worked on tidying the pantry area of the kitchen, paused and stood up straight. Both stared at me. I couldn’t believe I said that out loud. I had taken myself aback. However, I just kept working as I had been.

  “You’re a mind reader now?” Kanaan said.

  I must be, I thought to myself that time. Clear as day, I saw Honaw’s thought. Just what I didn’t need—another weird quirk. But I shrugged and said what I thought. “That thing put its cooties inside my arm. Perhaps it got to my brain by now and made it sparkle.”

  Honaw put an index finger to his lips. “Shhh.” He pointed to the open window and the deputy, who had moved closer to it.

  Later, I mouthed to him and he nodded in agreement.

  I picked up the paper towel holder, rolled the towels onto the cardboard core, and put it all back on the counter. Turning to the floor, my eyes landed on MawMaw’s favorite stoneware platter. It was broken into two huge shards. She had it for decades—a welcome gift from an artisan neighbor when MawMaw first came to live in Manitou Springs.

  I picked up the pieces. The flash of images both seared and startled me, as though I was the piece of clay, I looked up into the face of the maker. A thoughtful expression on her face and paintbrush in her hand, I flinched when the bristles came at and stroked my face. Someone took both pieces from me. Thankfully, the images abruptly stopped. I had handled that platter dozens of times. That was the first time it gave me visions.

  Kanaan turned the pieces to look at the broken ends. “We can get it fixed.”

  “You think?”

  He put the shards together. “We can try.” He gingerly laid the pieces aside.

  With the boys’ help, the cleanup went much faster than I expected. When Uncle Jun arrived, they switched to helping him repair the doors and the damaged kitchen drawers.

  I went upstairs to MawMaw’s bedroom to start picking up in there. All the drawers had been pulled out of the dressers and lay upside down on the floor, the contents strewn beneath them. The mattress hung half off the side of the massive antique four-poster bed. It used to belong to my parents. It had taken up most of Mom and Dad’s bedroom in New York, but Dad insisted on keeping it despite Mom’s complaint. It was one of the few things MawMaw brought back to Colorado after they died.

  I put MawMaw’s things back in the drawers before I replaced them into the dressers. Then I gripped one side of the mattress and yanked it as hard as I could to lift it back on top of the box spring. The mattress was lighter and moved easier than I expected it to. The back of my hand hit the inside one of the footboard posts.

  “Ouch.” I rubbed the scraped knuckles with my other palm. The posts were supposed to be solid oak, but my knuckles had made a hollow sound on the one I hit. I knocked on it like one would do to find a stud in the wall. It sounded solid everywhere except near the bottom inside where the mattress sat squarely up against it. There, the sound changed to a hollow thud. That was weird.

  If the men in black broke that bed, there’d be hell to pay with MawMaw. To get a closer look at the hollow sounding one, I slid the mattress out of the way just a bit and sat on the box spring. The post had a tiny slit in the wood that the other one didn’t have. It must have been repaired at some point. But it wasn’t broken by the intruders. Thank goodness.

  I grabbed the post to stand up and get back to work. From the pressure of my hand, the entire square piece on the bottom slid up a little—like a sleeve over an arm. When I let go of it, it clicked back down into place. Curious, I sat and used both hands to push on the section that had the slit in it. It smoothly and easily slid up to reveal a small secret compartment carved into the post. Inside the secret com
partment was a suede pouch.

  Holding the sliding piece up and, using my sleeve to cover my fingers, I took out the little bag. I laid it on the box spring. The suede looked like mountain goat hide and the hand-stitching looked Ute. Intricate beading in diamond shapes decorated the top just below a drawstring closure. With the tips of my fingernails, I tugged the drawstrings to open it. Inside was a polished oval-shaped object.

  I didn’t need to take it out to get a better look. I knew instantly what I was looking at. It was the exact same material as the skull. To double-check myself, I slid the suede down far enough so that I could scratch the gem with my thumbnail. Sure enough, sparkles.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs. I quickly pulled the drawstrings closed and, sleeves over my hand, put the pouch back inside the post. My hands shook as I stood and pulled the mattress back into place just as Kanaan came into the bedroom. Taking the top sheet from the chair, I shook it out and made it flutter down to the bed

  “The front door is fixed, but it’ll need a new jamb in the morning,” he said.

  “Fabulous.” I hid my shaking hands by tucking in the sheet.

  “Need some help?” He took the other side.

  When we finished with MawMaw’s room, I moved on to my own room. I stood at the threshold with my shoulders slumped at yet another mess to clean up.

  “Take a break,” Kanaan ordered. He didn’t need to twist my arm.

  We went downstairs. In the kitchen, Honaw was at the stove browning grilled cheese sandwiches in an iron skillet.

  Uncle Jun headed for the repaired back door. “You boys stayin’ here tonight, right?”

  “Yes, sir,” said Kanaan and Honaw said almost in unison.

  “We’ll putty the bullet holes in the ceiling tomorrow,” Uncle Jun said. “When we have better light.”

  I looked up at the scariest evidence of our home invasion, and I nodded through my exhaustion. Finding a chunk of bone in MawMaw’s bed was the last straw for me mentally that night.

  “Goodnight, Uncle Jun,” I said. “Thanks for everything.”

  He smiled sadly, nodded, and was out the door.