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 tha...

 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...

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 Tah...

   5 A Dream     Moon slept for what seemed like ages before she began dreaming. The dark enveloped her mind, and she floated in a vast pool of silence. It was a refreshing feeling. It was very much like things had been before the birth of Sun. The peace and the quiet rejuvenated her, and she could feel herself growing more calm and more centered as each moment passed. As she let the world drift away, her mind would wander, and her dream began to take form.     In her dream, she placed an island of calm between herself and Sun. It was a place of cold stone, much like herself. She placed it right in the middle, where she and Sun could both observe and enjoy. As soon as it began to float before her, it started to change. Her side was dark and cool and calm, and reflected her own temperament. The side facing Sun became hot and wild. The very stone began to melt, and pulse, and flow. Moon was quite alarmed by this, and set the orb to spin slowly so th...

 4 The Sandy Place Rian didn't feel groggy, but he was very disorientated. He seemed to be floating. The weight of his body was almost imperceptible. He was more curious than alarmed. Nothing indicated he should be concerned, no pain, no obvious danger, just a strange floaty feeling that was as curious as it was comforting.  Opening his eyes helped bring those sensations into context. He found himself in a longboat, in a copse of maple. The boat was suspended in the crotch of the oldest tree he could see within the small wood. Even from this elevated vantage, he couldn't see the sound, nor any rivers or lakes through the thicket of trees. The boat was full of water, which explained his floating feeling. The sun was warm, the water comfortable, and he was reluctant to climb out, but it occurred to him that he had better find his uncle Conny and their client Kiki. He remembered preparing for Conny's cockamamie plan to send Kiki home. He remembered singing, reaching out li...

 1 Naming “Grizz! Wake up! It’s time to go!” Grizzly Baby could hear her mother calling from inside the longhouse, and laughed out loud. She had already been up for hours. She awoke before the dawn, and waded down to the clear, cold salt water. She bathed, and said a little prayer to her long line of ancestors, naming each in the line until she got back to the beginning of the Saltwater People. She dressed, and gathered some nearby camas bulbs, devil’s club buds, fiddleheads, and a few gumboots from the base of the seaweed covered rocks. She thanked them all for the sustenance they would provide, and promised each one that their spirit would grow and flourish once it joined her own. It was not until she had prepared everything for the coming day, or perhaps days, that she heard her family begin to shuffle out of bed.  She whistled a loud, high pitched hummingbird call in response to her mother’s summons. Her mother gave a high “yew-uup” of celebration in response. There wa...

  2 The Moon It was dark, but that was okay. It was always dark. It had always been dark. The dark was the natural state of things. She couldn't even imagine something other than the dark. 'What else could there be? " she wondered, and then, startled, asked, "Who just thought that?" She knew herself. She had memories of the long, dark silence, recollections of the quiet solitude. She did not remember when she became aware though. She had always been, and, at one point she suddenly knew it. Knowing came with a host of questions and feelings.     "Where am I?" "What am I?" "Why?" "How?" "Who am I?"     The Who came easily. She was herself. She was the one who thought and existed and experienced. She knew all of her properties: her mass, her dimensions, her reflective index (though there was nothing to reflect, she reflected) She tried on different properties as well, assuming the affect that suited her best. Was she...