“Look,” Jake said, pointing toward the northern horizon. “Kalduke.” He grinned triumphantly at Kai, who was riding at his side. “We made it.”
“I never thought I’d be so glad to see civilization again. Do you think they’ll have a shower?”
“Don’t count on it.”
Grimacing, Kai wiped the sweat from her upper lip one more time. It was near four in the afternoon, and the brutal heat of the day was pounding down on them. She felt sapped of strength from the relentless ovenlike temperatures. The camels, though, seemed completely adjusted to it and had kept up a fast, steady walk toward their destination.
Pulling out a pair of binoculars from the saddle pocket, Kai tried to peer through them despite the constant swaying of the camel. “All I see is a lot of small, dome-shaped brush huts. Not too many people, either. This is a really small village….” She placed the binoculars back in the tan leather case at her side and snapped it closed.
“Don’t expect much. There’s a rock hole spring here and they’ll have water for the camels to drink. Coober said that many of these remote aboriginal villages are built around water sources.”
“I’d give anything to fall into a water trough at this point.” Kai touched her cheek, which was rough with fine grit. Rock holes, she’d discovered, were just that: holes in the ground where water poured upward like an artesian well from an underground lake below—a continual source for those lucky enough to find them in this hot, dry desert.
Chuckling, Jake nodded. “Makes two of us. Let’s hope that your Aboriginal elder, Ooranye, is here.”
“If she isn’t…” Kai clenched her teeth momentarily. “That means we’ve wasted two days out in this oven.” She didn’t have much faith that Ooranye would be here, but the rest of her dream had come true, so maybe, just maybe, the woman really did exist. Kai hoped so, because she didn’t want to ever have to make this kind of trip again.
“Well, we’ll soon find out.” Jake saw a small group of people of different ages gathering at the outskirts of the village, which was built more or less in a circle. He counted seven individuals watching them as they drew closer and closer.
Kai halted Booster and instructed him to kneel. Leaning back as the camel dropped to his front knees, Kai kept her gaze on the Aborigines who stood looking at them. Once Booster was on the ground, she dismounted from the saddle. Riding a camel was somewhat like riding a horse, yet different. Her muscles weren’t in terrific shape for this, so her legs were stiff and sore.
Jake dismounted in turn, and together they walked toward the group. Kai had been studying a bit of the local Aboriginal language on her way here. They didn’t have a word for “Hello.” Instead, they always asked, “What’s up?” That seemed odd to her, but it was their custom, and she had to try and fit in so that they would trust her.
Kai saw several white-and gray-haired elders, both men and women. They were dressed in sun-bleached and well-worn but clean cotton garments, all colorful. The men wore trousers that were ragged on the bottoms. The women, all rotund, wore skirts that hung to their knees, and white blouses. None wore shoes, and Kai could see the thick calluses on their feet that enabled them to handle the burning heat of the desert.
“What’s up?” she said, greeting them in their language. “I’m Kai and this is my friend Jake. We’re looking for Ooranye. Is she here in this village?” Heart beating a little harder, Kai waited. She knew her ability to speak their language was very poor.
One man, stooped with age, his gray hair hanging around his shoulders, hobbled forward. “Yes, Ooranye said you were coming,” he told her in pidgin English. With great effort, his words slow and halting, he said, “Follow us. We will take your camels to the rock hole. Come….”
Relief exploded through Kai. She looked at Jake as the small entourage of adults surrounded them.
“Pay dirt. She’s here.” Kai was amazed and stunned by the discovery. Her dreams weren’t just her imagination, after all. That made her uneasy, for she’d never had dreams come true before.
Grinning, Jake said, “I never thought she wasn’t.”
Eyes round as they walked slowly with the group, Kai said, “Well, I didn’t have that kind of blind faith, Carter.”
Wiping his face, Jake replaced his baseball cap, still grinning. “I probably have more faith in you right now that you do yourself.”
“No argument there.” From her vest, Kai brought out two sticks of sacred sage from her home in North Carolina. It was good manners when visiting a medicine person to honor them with sage. It was like a calling card. Kai wasn’t sure Ooranye would know her people’s customs, but that didn’t matter. She would honor her anyway.
Entering the village proper, Kai saw that the homes were mostly makeshift and created out of wattle brush. Others were lean-tos with woven grass roofs to give shade from the merciless heat. She knew from her research that, before white men came to Australia, the Aboriginal people had moved with the seasons, without any fixed dwellings they called home. Instead, as they traveled about, seeking food and water, they created brush huts when necessary, and used them as transitory housing to escape the heat. Half the village was comprised of such huts, some of them quite large and well made. The other buildings were of corrugated tin panels cobbled together, the metal dulled from time and age. Nothing looked very solid or stable. But then, the Aborigines didn’t want permanent dwellings, so this building style suited them just fine.
Kai’s heart bled for these magnificent people, who walked with their heads up and shoulders back. They shared a common history with Native Americans. In both cases, Europeans had come and heartlessly destroyed their cultures without a backward glance. So many Aboriginal children had been stolen from their parents, cruelly taken and placed in schools to “civilize” them, just as Indian children had been similarly wrenched away. There was indeed an unspoken bond between Indians and Aborigines.
The Aboriginal people were trying to reclaim their culture now. They had fought for their rights in courts of law, as well. Kai felt very close to these people, even though she lived half a world away.
“Here,” the male elder said, pointing to a large brush hut. “Ooranye expects you to come in….”
“Thank you,” Kai said in English, knowing that in their language there was no such term. Bending down, she entered the opening. Surprised at the coolness that greeted her, she realized that the loose branches provided shade, yet let in every breeze.
In the light filtering in through the branches, Kai saw a very old woman sitting on a green blanket opposite the doorway. Kai’s heart sped up. It was Ooranye! She looked exactly as Kai had seen her in her dreams. Ooranye lifted her round, black face, and Kai could see that her eyes were completely covered with a whitish membrane. Startled, Kai realized the old woman was blind.
“Welcome, child. We are grateful you have arrived. Come. Come and sit down….”
Kai went forward, crouching down on her hands and knees because of the low ceiling. The hut was less than six feet in height. Ooranye herself didn’t appear to be more than four and a half feet tall. She was dressed in a dark blue shift, her legs crossed under the fabric, her toughened feet sticking out from beneath. To Kai’s surprise, Ooranye’s English was halting but understandable.
“Grandmother Ooranye, I bring you a gift from my people.” Kai gently placed the dried sticks of sage in the woman’s short wide hands.
“Ahh! Yes…” She smiled a toothless smile and lifted the sage to her wide, flat nose, her nostrils flaring as she inhaled deeply. “Mmm, this smells good.”
Jake moved into the hut and saw Kai crouched before the old woman. He knelt quietly and said nothing. The rapt look on Kai’s face told him that this old, gray-haired woman smiling over the sage in her hands was indeed Ooranye.
Kai heard Jake quietly enter the hut and kneel nearby. She spoke slowly in English, knowing it was a foreign language to Ooranye. The old woman set the sage in her lap, her gnarled hands resting over it. She tilted her head to one side birdlike, as Kai introduced Jake.
“You have come a long way, my grandson,” she greeted him, turning her head toward him. “Be at peace. Sit here with us.”
Jake wondered how Ooranye could know where he was sitting. She was obviously blind. When she patted the blanket at her left side, he moved over to her and sat down.
“Granddaughter, come and sit here, beside me.”
Kai did as she was bid when Ooranye pointed to her right side. As she made herself comfortable in the large, airy shelter, Kai saw another woman, perhaps half Ooranye’s age, come to the entrance. She was carrying a wooden pitcher and three wooden cups in her hands. Entering and kneeling before Ooranye, she murmured something in their language that Kai couldn’t decipher.
“Are you thirsty, my children? My daughter Yirrkala has made us a sweet, cool drink from the flowers.”
“We’d love some,” Kai murmured. “Thank you.” She watched as Yirrkala, who was probably in her sixties, poured them each a glass. The first one went to Ooranye, who took it, nodded and smiled. Kai was served next. She held the rough-hewn wooden cup and looked into it. Bits of crushed yellow flower petals were floating on top of the beverage.
Jake took the last cup and thanked her.
“Drink, children. There is more if you want it.” Ooranye lifted her cup to her lips and drank deeply.
Kai didn’t know the protocol of these people, but she waited until Ooranye was drinking before she did so herself. To her surprise, the drink tasted like honey. It was delicious. Kai drained her cup and held it out to Yirrkala to fill it again.
“Is there enough of this for everyone?” Kai asked. She didn’t want to be a pig or seem rude.
Smacking her lips with pleasure, Ooranye set her cup aside. “Yes, we have plenty, child. This is made from the Grevillea bush. The nectar of their long yellow flowers is what you are tasting. The women gather the blossoms just after the sun rises, mash them and pour water over them in a bowl, then let them sit half a day. We enjoy the sweetness. Drink until you are filled.”
Kai drank three full cups before her thirst was stated. She hadn’t realized just how parched she’d become, although she’d been drinking regularly from the water bottles tied to Booster’s saddle.
When Yirrkala left, another woman—Akana—came in, bearing a round wooden platter filled with cooked kangaroo meat, bush honey and bread.
“I know you are tired,” Ooranye said to Kai and Jake. “You are not used to our heat. Come, eat your fill. Our hunters have prayed that a kangaroo would give his life so that we may live. This meat is freshly cooked for you. My little granddaughter, Ulpundu, found the honey nearby by talking to the bees who made it. They led her to the hive, so that you may put honey on your bread. My other daughter, Mararu, has made flour damper here, or what you call bush bread. Come, eat….”
For the next half hour, they feasted. Kai reverently made sure that the elder was served first. It was a custom of the Cherokee that the old ones and growing children ate before anyone else, to be assured a full stomach. Adults were the last to eat, consuming whatever was left.
There was no talking during the meal, only the sounds of them eating with great enjoyment. Kai found the tender kangaroo meat tasted like the jerky she’d eaten the last two days—a cross between beef and chicken. The flour damper bread was surprisingly delicious and warm. She smeared the bush honey across the firm crust with her finger. Outside the hut, Kai heard quiet sounds of people talking to one another as they passed. Every now and again there was laughter. The homey setting and warm welcome made Kai relax. She had been worried about what kind of reception they would get. Little by little, she was feeling relief—a profound relief. She hadn’t realized how tense and anxious she’d been about the whole journey.
As Kai sucked the last of the honey from her fingers, Yirrkala reentered the hut. She removed the platter, cups and pitcher, and left the three of them alone once more.
“Bush food is best,” Ooranye told them in halting pidgin English. “When I was very little, white men came and stole me from my mother and family. I was taken to Adelaide, where I was taught English and told that my own language was never to be spoken again.”
Kai’s heart ached for the old woman.
“I spent the next twenty years as a servant to a rich white man and his family. Always, my heart yearned to come home to here.” She pointed to the red sand with her index finger. “One day, I got the courage to escape and I ran. I would rather die in the bush than be made into a person I was not. I finally found my way here, to my home. My mother was alive and so happy to see me. All my brothers and sisters were still missing, so she was very glad to have me return.”
“And you’ve lived here in Kalduke since then?” Kai asked. Outside, the sun was changing position, slanting ever westward, she noted. Even though the day was still hot, the interior of the hut was cool. Surprisingly so.
Chuckling deeply, Ooranye said, “Oh, no! This place is where the government asks us to have an ‘official’ village. Our people follow the Rainbow Serpent’s instructions, which she gives to us yearly. She tells us where to go and when. We have only come back to this place because I knew you were coming. No, we are usually out there.” She gestured toward the desert that surrounded them. “The government needs us to have a place we call home. They do not understand that home for us is all over the bush, not just here.” She chuckled again and shook her head.
“I’m sure your mother was overjoyed to have you back,” Kai said, suddenly emotional. She couldn’t imagine being torn away like that. But in a way, she could, having lost her own mother at age nine and living in a foster home until age thirteen. After her parents’ death, the state had felt Grams was too old to take care of her, so Kai had been sent to a foster home. Grams had eventually proved to the officials that she was more than capable of caring for her, so Kai was able to go home to the res once more. But Kai refused to be taught anything about medicine even though Grams had offered.
Reaching out, Ooranye patted Kai’s hand. “All things have purpose, child. We do not know the answers to why they happen, only that the Rainbow Serpent has a greater plan and path for us to follow.” Her fingers curled around Kai’s. “And just like I was, you are lost, child, and yearn to go home.”
Uneasy, Kai wondered if the elder could read not only her mind, but what lay in her wounded heart. She knew enough not to try and lie her way out of this, for there was an incredible energy swirling around Ooranye. Kai recognized it as the kind of nurturing, loving energy that Grams also possessed. It told her that Ooranye was a very adept medicine person who knew a great deal of magic. Kai was sure that the elder understood the world of metaphysics as few could, and had likely completed decades of work on herself to lighten her spirit and make a powerful connection to the Rainbow Serpent so revered by her people.
“Grandmother, in all honesty, I do not know why I was chosen for this mission. I am not whole. I don’t walk in balance as I should. My people seek harmony and wholeness, but I possess neither of those things….”
Patting her hand again, Ooranye whispered. “That is why you were chosen, child. You have the heart of Kuniya, the woman python or Dream Snake, and the humility to admit that you do not know everything. Do not feel bad about this. When I was stolen, I used to sit in a school that had bars over the windows to stop us from leaving. I cried nightly to the Dream Snake and asked why this had happened to me. Now I understand why I had to be taken. There is a greater plan for all of us, so do not feel bad about where you are presently. In time, all things heal within us, if we allow it. Everything is more than it seems….”
Hot tears stung Kai’s closed eyes. She felt such gentle love flowing from Ooranye as she held her hand. The heat was alive and she realized that there was a healing going on between them. Sitting quietly, Kai closed her fingers around the old woman’s gnarled and callused ones. Once the heat reached her heart she felt pain so sharp that it made her gasp out loud.
“Just accept it,” Ooranye counseled gently. “The hurt will go as you give it back to the Rainbow Serpent to digest….”
Breathing shallowly, Kai felt the pain in her heart arc upward. Was she going to die of a cardiac arrest? With each indrawn breath, she felt the ache go deeper. It hurt to inhale, it hurt to think. Gripping Ooranye’s hand, Kai bowed her head, her other hand pressed to the center of her chest. Was she going to die?
The moment she thought it, the pain began to ease. Over the next few minutes, the hurt dissolved, and soon Kai could once more take in a full, deep breath of air without resistance. Gradually, she loosened her grip on the elder’s strong hand.
“There…” Ooranye murmured. “It is done. Now you will feel better, a little more each day.”
Kai looked at the woman, whose ebony face shone with an ethereal glow. Blinking, Kai realized that the glow went beyond her head, surrounding her whole body in a golden, oval-shaped aura. Kai sent Jake a quick glance, wondering if he saw it, too. He did, she realized. His eyes were wide with awe and surprise.
Sitting back, Kai gulped. Only once, in her late teens, had she seen Grams’s aura. It had startled her, almost frightened her, until she’d remembered as a child seeing an icon of the Mother Mary with just such a halo of gold light around her head. When it happened with her grandmother, Grams had just finished conducting a sacred ceremony for their clan.
Understanding that Ooranye was a sacred person, someone holy in the tradition of her people, Kai gulped again. She felt so far below her, spiritually speaking, that she had no right to even be near her. Kai knew her life so far had been one of bruising pain and nonstop suffering. She was not a light to the world, as this Aboriginal elder certainly was. And as was Grams.
“I came into your dreams, child, because the Rainbow Serpent told me it was time.” Ooranye looked directly at Kai. “Last year we had a dark-hearted man near here. He had stolen a sacred object, and it was made of stone. That much I know.”
“You mean the quartz crystal mask we’re looking for?” Kai asked, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. She gave Jake another quick look. He, too, was leaning forward raptly.
Nodding, Ooranye said, “I have seen this stone face. It has come to me often in the Dreamtime. It cries out to go home.”
“We’re here to bring it back to our people,” Jake told her. “It’s the Paint Clan crystal mask. A sacred totem for our people.”
Unable to contain her excitement, Kai whispered, “You know it’s here?”
Ooranye nodded. “Yes. But to get it back will be very, very dangerous. You may lose your life trying to rescue it….”