Chapter Thirteen: Change

Saturday evening, Ellen decided to eat her dinner alone in her room at Glacier Park Lodge. She made an excuse to Tanya and Sue about needing to elevate her ankle, but what was really bothering her was the story of Crow Woman. Ellen ordered room service and then sat in front of the television to wait for her meal.

Even Downton Abbey couldn’t pull Ellen from her racing thoughts. It wasn’t just the horrendous treatment that Crow Woman and her people had endured at the hands of the U.S. government. It was also the loneliness and despair that had dominated the woman’s life. When Ellen imagined a lonely, heart-broken widow waiting for her child to return, she saw her own future.

Of course, Ellen’s children weren’t dead at the bottom of some river. But Crow Woman hadn’t known about her son’s demise. She had gone from having her son there in her life every single day, as important as the food she ate and the air she breathed, to not having him at all.

Ellen felt guilty for comparing herself to Crow Woman, for feeling sorry for herself when she lived in luxury and had wonderful children and friends. Even so, she longed for the days when she and her children and husband lived under the same roof, the happiest time of her life.

Now, her children rarely called. Nolan was busy with his new residency and his new girlfriend. Lane had graduated and was working his first real job in Austin. And Alison was finishing up her graduate degree. When she called them, she felt as if she were interfering, detaining them from something more important. They didn’t need her anymore. But she needed them.

Thank goodness for Tanya and Sue and for their willingness to immerse themselves in these paranormal investigations. However, Ellen dreaded the possibility that this could be their last adventure. Tanya nearly hadn’t come. And Sue was only interested in the property because she wanted a vacation home. She’d had dozens of requests on her blog to investigate haunted properties. Neither she nor Tanya had been interested in pursuing those leads. Sue and Tanya didn’t need to be a part of Ghost Healers, Inc., anymore. For whatever reason, they were ready to move on, which left Ellen wondering what she would do with her life.

And then there was Brian. He’d asked her to travel the world with him and then accused her of holding him at arm’s length. He’d been right. She hadn’t intended to keep her distance. She’d wanted to love him as fully as—and perhaps even more fully than—she’d loved Paul. Why couldn’t she? Why couldn’t she let go of whatever it was that was holding her back?

She gazed through the tall windows at the lovely mountain view, where the sun was setting in all its brilliance. Ellen wondered if the simple answer to her question was that she was afraid of change. Rich Falcon had said that the one constant in life was change. The mountains were constantly cut and reshaped by the shrinking glaciers, melting ice, and tumbling water. Nothing ever stayed the same, not even the earth. So why should she?

She took out her phone to call Brian but was interrupted by a knock at her door. It was room service with her salad.

Maybe she’d call Brian another time.

 

The following morning, Ellen still didn’t feel like leaving her room. She made an excuse to get out of breakfast with Sue and Tanya, even though she knew that isolating herself from her friends would only make her feel worse. She felt like she needed someone to tell her what to do. She felt as if she’d fallen overboard and was sinking to the bottom of a river.

She took out her phone, intending to call Brian, but as she scrolled through her contacts, her eyes fell upon Eduardo Mankiller, one of the psychics she and her friends had worked with in Tulsa. She hadn’t spoken to him in nearly four years, but she clicked on his number and called him.

“Oh my, Ellen! I was just thinking about you!” he said into the phone.

Ellen laughed. “I bet you say that to everyone who calls.”

“Is that shade you’re throwing at me? You know me better than that!”

“I’m just teasing,” she said. “How have you been?”

He told her about his most recent project with Carrie French and Miss Margaret Myrtle involving an old building that had served as a flophouse during the 1800’s.

Ellen told him what she and Sue and Tanya were doing in Montana.

“Are you asking me to fly up there?” Eduardo said. “Because you know that I would in a heartbeat.”

“No, though I wouldn’t stop you if you wanted to,” she said. “I just think we’ve done all we can at this point.”

“I get it.”

“I called because I was wondering if you’d do me the favor of reading my cards over the phone. I could Paypal you the fee.”

“Of course, girlfriend! You know I’m always happy to be of service. Let me shuffle my cards while you think on your question. Is there anything in particular you want to know?”

She sucked in her lips and fought back tears. “Not really. I guess I’m looking for guidance. Where do I go from here—you know what I mean?”

“I know exactly what you mean. Okay, I’m cutting the cards, and I’m laying them out. Oh, yes. This is very clear to me, Ellen.”

“Lay it on me. What do you see?”

“The first card is about intuition. You haven’t been listening to yours. You’ve been avoiding it. Embrace it, Ellen, Stop fighting it. You know what to do. You just aren’t listening to yourself.”

“I suppose that’s fair.”

“The next card is about sacrifice. It’s good that you want to sacrifice your time and energy for others, but you can’t do it at the price of your own well-being. You need to take time for yourself, to save yourself. You know the saying about when you’re on a plane, you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first, right?”

“Right.”

“And the last card is about awakenings, about a new rite of passage, about a death and a rebirth. It’s time for you to let something go so that you can begin a new chapter of your life.”

Tears flowed down Ellen’s cheeks. He wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know. She had to let go of her past and embrace her future, but, damn, if it wasn’t the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.

“Thank you, Eduardo. That’s just what I needed to hear.”

 

Instead of phoning Brian, Ellen decided to write to him. In the letter, she was completely raw with him, admitting that she didn’t know what she was doing, but she knew that she needed to do something. She couldn’t go on like this. She loved him and didn’t want to lose him, but she had to take things slow. She asked if he could give her another chance, even if it would take her a while to allow him to be any closer to her than arm’s length.

Before she could change her mind, she went to the business office downstairs, bought an envelope and postage, and dropped the letter into the mail. As soon as she did, she felt much better.

She was about to knock on Tanya’s door when her phone rang. It was Father Gonzales.

“I don’t have time to talk,” he said. “I’m about to serve mass. But I was wondering if you and Sue and Tanya might be able to come by the rectory later, perhaps around three o’clock? I have news, but it’s mixed, and I’d like to discuss it in person.”

“Of course, Father,” Ellen said. “We’ll see you at the rectory at three.”

 

Ellen arrived with her friends by taxi to the rectory at three o’clock sharp. Father Gonzales welcomed them inside, to the sitting area where the two of them had spent the night after falling overboard the Sinopah. Ellen took her wingback chair as Sue and Tanya shared the couch facing the empty fireplace.

“Can I get you ladies some coffee or tea?” Father Gonzales offered.

The ladies declined, having just eaten a late lunch together at the Rock-N-Roll Bakery.

“But I have something for you,” Sue said. “This is the best cinnamon roll you’ll ever eat.”

Father Gonzales accepted the bag from the bakery before taking a seat in the wingback opposite Ellen. “It’s my favorite. Thank you. I’ll have it for breakfast tomorrow.”

“Out with it,” Ellen finally said. “We’re dying to know what you’ve heard.”

Father Gonzales blushed. “First of all, the medical examiner confirmed that one of the legs belonging to the second body is indeed shorter than the other.”

Sue clapped her hands. “I knew it!”

Father Gonzales glanced toward the hall. “I expect Father O’Brien’s naptime is over.”

Sue covered her mouth as the blood rushed to her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

He waved a hand at her. “No worries. I think I can still hear him snoring, actually.”

“Why is this mixed news, Father?” Tanya asked.

“Well, apparently it’s quite common for people to have one leg longer than the other. Officer Jackson told me that it happens in forty to seventy percent of the human population.”

“Oh, no,” Ellen groaned. She felt completely deflated. “Then we’ve proved nothing.”

“The good news is that the discrepancy in leg length is usually unnoticeable,” the priest said. “The fact that Rabbit’s was severe enough to affect his walking might set him apart. And the medical examiner did concede that the discrepancy in the case of the remains was severe. He also said that the remains were of a male who was approximately seventeen years of age when he died, and that the bones appeared to have been at the bottom of the river for at least one hundred years. This is all consistent with the body belonging to Rabbit.”

“Well, then!” Sue said, a little too loudly again. She covered her mouth. “Sorry.”

“The problem is that the authorities aren’t willing to accept the results of a paranormal investigation or a memoir handwritten in Piegan as evidence that Rabbit had such a condition. Officer Jackson says the medical examiner has documented the second body as a John Doe.”

Ellen wanted to cry.

“They accepted the letters of Father Galdas in identifying Sister Alma,” Sue pointed out.

“They had the rosary,” the priest said.

“Someone else could have jumped in the river with Alma’s rosary,” Sue argued.

Father Gonzales nodded. “It’s unfair. Completely unfair.”

“Well, we know the truth,” Tanya said. “Isn’t that good enough?”

“I don’t know,” Father Gonzales said. “Didn’t you say you wanted to bury Rabbit at his home with his parents? I’m not sure if you or anyone will be able to claim the body. The ME won’t release the remains to just anyone.”

“What about Sister Alma?” Sue asked.

“She’s being released to Holy Family Mission in a few days,” he said.

“There’s got to be a way,” Tanya muttered.

“Us knowing the truth isn’t good enough by a longshot.” Ellen shifted in her chair. “Not if we want to convince Sidney Longfellow that he’s a descendant of the Blackfeet. Not if we want the white buffalo hide to find its rightful owner. Not if we want Rabbit and Crow Woman to find peace.”

“Mr. Longfellow may surprise us,” Tanya said. “Maybe he’ll be open to the idea.”

Sue shook her head. “It would be too much of a conflict of interest for him to both accept his heritage and litigate for drilling rights. If Karen’s right and all he cares about is money, he won’t accept the hide.”

“A letter from the medical examiner might have changed that,” Ellen said. “But without the authorities on our side, I think it’s a lost cause.”

“We’ll just have to find a way to convince him,” Tanya said. “Come on, guys. You dragged me out here for a reason. Don’t tell me you’re giving up this easily.”

Ellen wiped the tears from her eyes. “What choice do we have?”

“We should at least reach out to Mr. Longfellow,” Tanya said. “Shouldn’t we? We can’t not give it a try.”

Sue lifted a finger. “Maybe it’s time we went back to the French Quarter.”

“I don’t know.” It seemed like a waste of time to Ellen.

“Hear me out.” Sue sat up on the end of the couch. “You said the white buffalo fur shocked you, right?”

“So?”

“Well, if Sidney is the rightful owner of it, wouldn’t it shock him, too?”

“Maybe,” Ellen said. She lifted her brows. She was reminded of something the white buffalo had said to her in her dream. “I suppose it’s our best chance. What do you think, Tanya?”

“I’m game, but only if we take the train.”

Ellen turned to Sue.

“The train it is,” Sue said.

Ellen sighed. “Now we just need to convince the tribe to let us take the fur with us.”

 

The next day at breakfast, as they sat at a table in the lodge restaurant overlooking the beautiful mountains, Ellen, Sue, and Tanya called Karen Murray to update her on what they’d been told by the Jesuit priest and to ask her opinion about their taking the white buffalo skin to New Orleans.

Over the speaker on Sue’s phone, Karen said, “Chief Eric Old Person would be the one to ask, but I can tell you now, he won’t allow it. The white buffalo is too sacred to our people, and, no offense, but we don’t know you well enough to trust you with it.”

“I understand,” Sue said. “What if I go forward with my plans to buy the property? You did say that I would become its custodian.”

“It’s custodian, but not its owner,” Karen said. “The chief would never allow it to be taken off the reservation by anyone but a member of our tribe.”

“Could you come with us?” Ellen asked.

Karen’s laughter carried over the speaker. “Not everyone has the luxury of travelling at their leisure. Some of us have to work for a living.”

“Ouch,” Ellen whispered.

“Speaking of which,” Karen added, “I should get back to mine.”

“Before you go, is there anyone you can think of that might be willing to accompany us?” Sue asked her.

“Not off the top of my head. If I think of someone, I’ll let you know.”

They ended the call and sat quietly for a moment, allowing the disappointment to settle in.

Then Sue lifted a finger. “What about Rich Falcon, our tour guide? He owns his own business. I bet if we offered to pay him each day for more than he could make otherwise, he’d agree. Don’t you think?”

Ellen and Tanya exchanged smiles.

“Good idea, Sue!” Tanya said.

“You’d be surprised how often I’m told that,” Sue said with a grin.