It Dreams in Me by Kathleen O’Neal Gear

beds.”
    Sea Grass stared at him agape. “In that case, I change my vote. I vote not to allow you to go home. Wigeon, what do you say?”
    Wigeon, who almost always voted in support of Water Hickory Clan, hesitated, and it infuriated Sea Grass. Has Wink gotten to you, my old friend?
    In a small, trembling voice, Wigeon said, “My vote stands. High Matron Wink is right. If we begin telling other nations who they may or may not establish trading alliances with, then
we can expect them to do the same to us. It is wrong to interfere in the affairs of other nations.”
    Her eyes narrowed as though she expected Sea Grass to shout at her.
    Instead, Sea Grass rose from the bench and announced, “Since I have been outvoted, I assume this council meeting is over.”
    “It is,” Wink said.
    Sea Grass waved to her guards and hobbled toward the door. As her guards rushed to pull the curtain back for her, she heard Chief Long Fin whisper, “You … playing with … leashed bear, Mother. I pray … Skyholder …”
    He stopped abruptly, and just before she ducked beneath the curtain, Sea Grass glanced back to see Wink glaring at the boy. Obviously Wink feared that his voice had been too loud.
    Sea Grass sternly motioned for her guards to follow her.

13

    IN THE DREAM, I WEEP … .
    I wrap the cleaned bones of my stillborn child in a blanket and carry them up the steep trail to the top of the Red Hill, where a ladder leans against the ramada. It’s awkward, carrying the baby while climbing the ladder to the roof, but I make it, and step out onto the thatch. A scatter of bones already covers the roof. No one allows the bones of animals to touch the ground. Instead, they place them on their roofs where the souls of the animals can keep watch for their new bodies. If animals are killed correctly, with reverence, death is only a temporary thing. Within a few days, Skyholder, the Creator, will send a new body and the soul will rise up from the bones and resume its life.
    Humans are born with animal souls. A human soul does not come into the body until a child has seen four or five winters.
    I hug the bundle and rock back and forth, begging Skyholder to give me the strength to let this baby go. I know he must be able to watch for his new body, but …
    Bones clack together as I clutch the baby hard against my breast.

    When I start to unfold the blanket, a strange numbing palsy possesses my hands. My fingers won’t grasp the fabric.
    “Flint?” I call, but no one answers.
    He ran away right after the birth, leaving me alone, but I know he’s coming back to help me care for the bones. Where is he?
    I kneel and place each bone on the roof amid the others. He was so small. His bones resemble tiny white twigs.
    I try to rise, to go, but my legs won’t work. I can’t straighten up. Gasping and struggling, I sob … .
    Nearby, dry evergreen needles crunch underfoot and a familiar voice soothes, “Can you hear my voice, Sora? Follow it. It will lead you back to Sassafras Lake. I’m here waiting for you. Come back. Everything is all right. Dawn Girl’s blue hem is trailing across the forests. Flint is cooking a goose for breakfast.”
    A hand strokes my hair, and I feel my shadow-soul seep back into my heavy body. The delicious scent of roasted meat taunts my nostrils … .
     
     
     
    SHE OPENED HER EYES AND FOUND STRONGHEART KNEELING at her bedside. The yellow starbursts on his buckskin cape looked tan in the light.
    “Where was your shadow-soul walking, Chieftess?”
    She searched the lodge’s dark interior. Streaks of dawn light fell through the gaps in the roof and slanted across her blankets. “On the Red Hill.”
    “Again?”
    She nodded. “I was placing the bones on the roof of the ramada.”
    Strongheart sank down beside her, and through the door, she could see Flint’s distinct silhouette crouched before a goose that had been skewered on a stick and propped near the
flames. As he turned it so the other side would cook,