Shamanka Part 23

RUBY FEATHA.

Sam wants to head straight to New Guinea. Maybe her father has completed his mission and gone home to live with her grandpa. Maybe they're fishing together in the Sepik River while her mother sits in the shade in a pretty hat.

It's a lovely thought, but that's all it is. Kitty advises her not to be so hasty. "Imagine if you went all that the way and they hadn't returned? What if your grimfather is no longer alive? You have to consider that."

"He's alive, Kitty. Whenever I hold his book, I hear his drum. If the drumming stops, I'll know he's gone but when I read the list of names this morning, the beat was stronger than ever."

Kitty adjusts her mask. "Where next then? Who does he want us to visit now?"

They must fly to Canada to visit Ruby Featha. I'd like to tell you that Professor Farthy offered to fly them in his private jet, but he refused. Although he had no scientific proof, he suspected they had something to do with Mr Dwight's furry slippers and it had upset him no end.

The last pearl has to be sold. This time, the buyer is an old man, a resident in their hotel. At least, I think he's a man. Old men often look like old women, and he is wearing a skirt. Maybe he has a skin condition and trousers irritate his thighs. But no amount of eczema can explain his enormous hat trimmed with blue-black feathers plucked from the rear end of a crow. The hat is attached to his head by a long pin which has lost its bauble; he wants to replace it with the pearl, or so he says. Who cares if he's lying? They now have the money to catch a plane to Canada.

Rather than bore you with how dull the in-flight salad was and how Lola collected everyone's lettuce leaves and used them to built a nest in the lavatory bowl, causing a desperate queue, let's leap forward once more and join them all in the wilds of Canada, among the deer and the mighty redwood trees.

They ride to Moose Mount on skewbald ponies, and find Ruby Featha sitting in front of a totem pole with a horsehair drum on her knees. She's wearing a modest headdress but an air of great importance. She is a midiwiwin a medicine woman, a healer, a spiritual consultant.

It's hard to tell how old she is; her skin is weathered but her posture is youthful. As the most powerful person in her tribe, n.o.body dares to ask her age. She might be nineteen she might be ninety.

Sam dismounts and shakes her by the hand. "I knew I'd find you here, Ruby. Grandpa drew you in his book, only in his picture the carving on the totem pole looks like a guinea pig."

"Dear Yafer," laughs the medicine woman. "Art was never his strong point. He meant to draw a horse. The horse is my totem animal. She carries me to other worlds."

Sam's mare snorts softly. Everyone has a totem animal and a power animal, Ruby says. The totem animal links you to your tribe. The power animal represents a special strength or purpose. She moves her arm like a serpent. "My power animal is the snake, all wise, all healing."

"Do you think Lola might be my totem animal?" asks Sam. "She's the one who links me to my family and she's my oldest friend."

Lola removes the woman's headdress and places it on her own head with great seriousness. It's far too small.

Ruby laughs. "Yes, you're right, she is. How lucky you are to have a totem animal with a sense of humour!"

How can Sam discover which is her power animal? Ruby says there's only one way. "I would have to send you on a journey are you willing to go?"

Sam sighs inwardly. They've only just arrived. "I'm not sure ... is it far?"

"Only we've just got off the plane," adds Kitty.

"Ah, but this is a very different kind of plane." Ruby taps her handsome nose. "No tickets required, but before you travel, you will have to be smudged."

It sounds like something that might be done to you by the school bully, but it's nothing like that. Smudging is a ritual designed to purify and protect.

Ruby undoes her power bundle. It clips together with a clasp that looks like a crocodile's claw but could be an eagle's talon it is hard to tell, they're shrivelled. She removes a feather, a rattle and a seash.e.l.l stuffed with incense, sage to protect, cedar to cleanse and sweet gra.s.s to summon the spirits. I shudder to think what else is in that power bundle, but it isn't a packet of mints and a hanky.

Ruby lights the incense and asks Sam to strip. She isn't shy, but it does feel odd, standing in the prairie in her vest and pants. Take it as a warning: if you ever wish to be smudged, be sure to wear decent underwear.

How to be smudged: 1. Strip to your undies and stand with your arms horizontal and feet apart to form a star.

2. The midiwiwin smudges your right hand with soot and says, "Grandfather".

3. She smudges your left hand with soot and says, "Grandmother".

4. She pa.s.ses her hand across your hips, down your right leg and says, "Creation".

5. She pa.s.ses her hand back over your hips and down your left leg.

6. She will say, "Great Mystery!" and wave incense smoke around your head. Try not to cough.

7. Finally, she will say, "Mitakuye Oyasin", which means "All my relations, including stones and animals", in the belief that everything in nature is alive and connected to the same cosmic web in other words, that our relatives aren't just people, they're pebbles and bison and maple leaves.

8. You are now ready to go on your journey. I'd take a cardigan if I were you.

Sam is raring to go. "Will I see anyone apart from my power animal, Ruby? Only I'm searching for my mother and father."

Ruby knows this already; she's all-seeing, all-knowing. She takes Sam over to a red cedar tree and they sit beneath it. "You might see your parents. Or other relatives or ancient ancestors. People journey for many reasons: to retrieve a lost soul, to add to their knowledge or to divine answers from the spirits regarding future events."

"How do I get to where I have to go?" Sam's wondering if the tree she's parked under is some kind of mystic taxi rank and that someone will eventually come along and offer her a lift.

"I will guide you. We will pa.s.s through the Tree of Life. There are three levels. In the branches is the Astral Temple where the G.o.ds and spirits reside. Here you will learn about the future and meet your guide. The Middle World the trunk is the Here and Now, where you learn answers to everyday questions such as 'Will it rain?'"

Ruby begins to drum. As she drums, Sam remembers Professor Farthy's temporal lobe and how it has been scientifically proven to be affected by drumming, causing a floating sensation, and as she finds herself drifting away, she hears a tiny voice her own calling out, "I want to know what is real, what is magic and what is illusion."

"The answers lie in the Lower World," whispers the drum, "where the dead reside, where lost information is retrieved. Where we learn what ails usssssssss..."

Was it the hiss of the drum or the rush of the human soul as Sam slips out of her head like a dragonfly shedding its skin. She can see her body still sitting beneath the tree, but it's getting smaller and smaller neither dead or alive an empty vessel; all that is vital has been sucked up into the branches. Ruby Featha's chant whirls around her ears: "The souls of the children perch in the trees,

Like birds, like birds.

The souls of the children perch in the trees,

Waiting to be born."

Something calls Sam's name. It's not Ruby Featha; it's a deep brown voice, old as the earth. It's coming from the uppermost branch and it speaks in Motu. It's a crow, but it isn't any old crow.

It's a Torresian crow.

NUMBER MAGIC.

The masked magician asks you to think of a number between 1 and 10 and write it down so it can't be seen. Say your number is 6. First of all you will be asked to double it (12), then add ten to the answer (22), and divide by two (11). Now yell out your final number (11). The magician will then reveal that your secret number is indeed 6! But how?

THE SECRET.

It's not magic, just a little-known mathematical law. No matter which number you choose, all the masked magician has to do is subtract five from the last number you shout out: 11 - 5 = 6 The trick works every time.

THE SIGN OF THE TRIANGLE.

Someone is holding Sam's hand. Strange, because surely to have her hand held, she must have a body yet her body is still sitting under the tree next to Ruby Featha. If Professor Farthy's mother had given him a better microscope, maybe he would have cried out, "Yes, it is scientifically possible to see the soul!"

If he had a decent set of binoculars, perhaps he could see Sam's soul sitting on the bough of the Tree of Life. Maybe the invisible hand she is holding is just a hey-lucy-nation, but it feels warm and alive; Sam calls out, "Is that you, Lola. Are you my totem animal?"

It might be a dream orang-utan. Or it might be Freya, the spirit guide; Freya the grandmother. Whatever it is, it's a comforting presence.

Sam feels the draught of wings and the weight of the Torresian crow on her shoulders. As it lifts her off the bough, she feels no pain. She soars through the blinding brightness of the sun not flying, but being carried and still holding someone's hand. The crow is carrying two souls; to do that, he must be powerful. He must be her power animal, this crow.

Above the tree, on the edge of s.p.a.ce, lies the Astral Temple. It's made from clouds unknown to meteorologists but you have seen them. You've been here before you were born, but you've forgotten. There's a reason for that. If you could remember how beautiful it was, you'd be in too much of a hurry to come back, like Conchita and Consuella.

The crow releases his pa.s.sengers. Sam falls back onto a soft, furry cushion it's Lola. She gets to her feet. She turns to face the Torresian crow, but all that's left of it is a bracelet of blue-black feathers around the wrist of an old man with tusks through his nostrils who stands with his arms outstretched.

"Come, little daughter of Tabuh."

In the Astral Temple, it doesn't feel awkward to be held. For the first time, Sam feels it might be possible to bear the embrace of another person. She runs forward. She allows herself to be folded into her grandfather's arms and there she stays until the icy lump in the pit of her stomach melts. The relief is phenomenal.

"Grandpa, is Grandma Freya here too?"

He nods and his hornbill necklace rattles like machine-gun fire as he points to the orang-utan. "Grandma is Lola. Lola is Grandma."

Make what you will of that remark. Is he saying that the spirit of his wife has possessed an ape so that she can protect her granddaughter? My instinct says no, but we're dealing with a witch doctor whose reputation is second to none, so I'm going to ignore my instinct.

"What now, Grandpa?" asks Sam.

The witch doctor removes his headdress the one with bird of paradise feathers two metres high. "We swap hats!"

It's a fun thing to do and harmless enough. Yafer looks ludicrous in the ringmaster's hat it's far too small for his hairdo, which looks like a flaming ginger bush. Sam doesn't look much better; Yafer's headdress is so large it slips over her head and lands on her shoulders.

"You'll grow!" he laughs. "But you still have much to put into that little head of yours. You must go to China, to India, to the Antipodes, then you must say goodbye to your old self."

"Can't I stay here with you?"

He shakes his head. "Now where have I heard that phrase before? Ah, yes, from my son, the wanderer." He looks at his wrist as if he wore a watch. "I thought he would be back by now."

At the mention of her father, Sam begs the witch doctor to tell her where he is she's sure he knows.

"Please tell me. I've looked so hard, but he always seems to be just over the horizon."

It's no good pleading with Yafer Tabuh. No matter how much he loves his granddaughter, he will not give in to wheedling; he has his plans and he will not deviate from them. He puts a kindly arm around her and they walk up and down.

"Number One Daughter, the more you look for your father, the more you will find yourself. When you know who you are, he will come to you. He will find himself and his father. Then we can all go home!"

He stops walking. Using his forefingers and thumbs, he makes the sign of a triangle.

"There is magic in numbers, child. Your magic number is three: father, mother, daughter. Heart, body, soul. The power of three will show itself to you again, again, again."

"I'm one of three sisters," says Sam.

The witch doctor counts on his long fingers.

"Three is Big Magic. One guides you. Two harms you. Three loves you beyond the grave. You must experience all three in equal measure."

"Must I? But what does-?"

The witch doctor presses a finger to Sam's lips. "No buts! It's up to you to work it out. Grandpa knows you can do it." He presses his thumb against her forehead, between her eyebrows. "Here is your third eye. The insects have it. All mankind has it. Mostly they are blind, but you possess great vision. By the power of three, you will see what is illusion, what is real and what is magic!"

As he says it, he chants and waves his arms and the faster he waves them, the more they blur into wings and the more he turns back into a crow. Sam is lifted back into the air. She doesn't feel ready to leave, but Yafer has decided it's time...

Down.

Down.

Down.