The Light Through the Leaves(24)

He grinned. Ellis had apparently thrown a dry log into his hot spot. His eyes were ablaze. “Yeah, sure,” he said. “I love a cold dip in a mountain river. Especially with a beautiful woman.”

“And afterward, ‘Open Road.’”

He clasped her hand in his. “Forever alive, forever forward.”

Those words meant more to her than he knew. She had a feeling this night she’d been dreading wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe it would even be good.

Caleb kept holding her hand as they walked toward the cascade. The rush of the water rose above all other sounds in the forest. For the first time in a year, Ellis felt like she was moving in the right direction.





PART TWO

DAUGHTER OF RAVEN





1


Mama would be home soon. Raven sensed it. But she couldn’t guess what Mama’s mood would be. Her temper changed as quickly as the spring weather recently, one day freezing cold, the next warm enough for bare feet.

Mama had left the house in one of her silent, stormy moods. She looked like big billows of dark clouds when she was like that. Before she left for her walk, she’d told Raven she had to do her work. All of it.

Raven finished the last math problem. 10 + 12 = 22. Easy. She set her lessons into neat piles in the order she had finished them: reading, science, social studies, and math.

She looked out the window at the rainy gray afternoon. Yes, Mama would be home soon. She didn’t know what her mood would be, but she could try to guide it the way she wanted.

She put on rubber boots and a raincoat and walked into the woods. For a moment, she stopped and closed her eyes, picturing what she wanted as Mama had taught her. She imagined Mama coming home smiling. Happy. Talking instead of silent. When the picture was strong, she opened her eyes. She walked slowly, waiting for the earth to show her how to make what she wanted to happen.

That was how Mama had gotten her. She had wanted a baby, wanted one with all her heart and soul, so she asked the earth what she needed to do to bring her one. Mama was good at the Asking. She’d been doing it for many years. But a baby was a very big thing to ask for. Mama had to ask and ask and ask, until one day the earth gave her a dark-eyed daughter, exactly what she wanted. A raven delivered the baby to her. His spirit was Raven’s father. That was why she was called Daughter of Raven.

Raven’s gaze fell on a stick that looked like a squashed letter M. It was a sign. M for Mama. She picked up the stick and searched for more signs. She found a greenish stone. Green, Mama’s favorite color. Then a tiny white feather. Mama loved birds.

When she saw the little flower pushing through the ground, she knew she had found her Asking place. Mama said she would know when she’d found it if she paid close attention to how her body felt. The right place to ask would make her feel suddenly bright inside, like a fire sparking into life.

Now she had to figure out the best way to ask for what she wanted. She would get better and better at doing that if she kept practicing. Again, she pictured what she wanted: Mama coming home happy.

Raven let the earth guide her Asking. She laid the M stick next to the flower. She sensed the feather had to go next. But it was stuck to her skin from the rain. She scraped it off her finger with the green stone, and she liked how it looked when it adhered to the stone’s wet surface. She carefully laid stone and feather in a V-shaped space between the flower and the stick. She stayed squatted to study her Asking. It looked good. She felt it was right. Mama said she would know if she listened to her body.

She stood and walked back to the house.

Mama had returned from her walk. Her two braids dripped rain as she leaned over to take off her boots at the back door. When she saw Raven, she smiled, opened her arms, and said, “Come here, sweet Daughter.”





2


Raven and Mama were frying venison strips when the alarms went off. The loud beeping that signaled a person coming down their private road always made Raven’s heart pound. Mama said someday someone might try to take her away. Modern-day people didn’t understand miracles of the earth anymore. They would steal Raven from Mama and make her live with people who didn’t practice the ancient ways.

Mama hurried away to look at the video screens, and Raven ran to her hiding place behind a metal grate that looked like a heating duct. She crawled into the little room and pulled the metal door closed.

“Damn it!” Mama said when she looked at the video screens.

Raven’s heart beat harder. Had the bad people come to take her?

Mama turned off the alarms. There was loud knocking on the front door, then the sound of Mama’s footsteps coming toward the grating instead of going to the door. “Come out, Raven,” she said. “It’s your aunt.”

Raven was relieved, but now she had to prepare for the arguing that always happened when Aunt Sondra visited. Raven hated it. But what she hated more was how Mama changed when her older sister was in their house. She never seemed as sure of herself with Aunt Sondra.

Raven crawled out of the hiding space and carefully closed the grating door tight. Her aunt must never know about the hiding place. She must never know her sister’s child was the daughter of a raven’s spirit. She was one of the people who didn’t believe in the powers of the earth. People in the outer world had to believe Raven had come from her mother’s body as most children did. That was why Raven must tell others that she had Mama’s last name and was a girl called “Raven Lind.”