JoKoKo

    Rian’s new friend was just creeping into sight on the edges of his peripheral vision. He continued to sing a few phrases here and there, but he was no longer concentrating on the song. He was trying to perceive who this person approaching him might be.     When Rian's new friend had finally made their cautious way around the far side of a thicket of huckleberry, through the tiny almond shaped leaves, and the plump red berries that always called to mind the bright salmon eggs to be found in creeks and streams of the foothills, Rian could just make out the figure of a young woman. Her dress, a vibrant woolen weave of red, black, and white, depicted the image of a ring necked duck. She wore a hat of woven cedar with eyes painted around the brim in every direction. Her jet black hair was braided into loops or rings both winding around her crown and swooping down to her shoulders.      Rian was speechless. She could not have been much more than a high schooler, but her poise and com

 7 New in Town     Rian was hot and sweaty by the time he reached the source of the smoke. He had gone from soaked with sea water to sticky and damp from his long walk. He hadn’t felt as though the walk was all that long, but he was warm and his heart was beating strong. He longed to get a change of clothes. He was wearing the same clothes he had on when he and Conny met Kiki, and he couldn’t rightly say how long it had been since then. He hoped his unkempt, disheveled, and perhaps stinky presentation did not offend whomever it was he saw crouched near the small cookfire which was the source of the smoke which had led him away from the sandy place.     Rian wanted to be sure not to startle the person by the fire. Alone in the wood, an approaching stranger could be quite a disconcerting event. He had learned well from Conny that unwelcome surprises could lead to unwelcome injuries. Predators, both human and beast, tended to skirt the shadows before they pounced. Careful beings tended to

6 New Suit      Conny knew exactly where he was the instant he opened his eyes. Well, not exactly. He had a general idea, a good hypothesis, a reasonable conjecture. He knew where he was within a 30 mile radius, probably. He didn’t know how he got there, and he couldn’t explain why it was just before midday, and obviously, no longer late April. He remembered Kiki seeking him out, agreeing to help, preparing to feast the spirits, Rian’s beautiful singing, the sudden gale, and the glass hip flask bottle of MacNaughton which whaled into his temple. The fact that some spirit had assaulted his temple was a trickster’s pun that was not lost on Conny. Even demons and devils were easier to deal with than a trickster. It didn’t matter if they were trying to help or hinder, tricksters always exacted so high a price that in the end, one never knew what outcome they had been aiming for.     From where he sat, within a hollow in a giant red cedar he could see mighty Tahoma rising three miles high i