Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,24

of your name. I laughed the day you were born ‘fore I knew you’d be mine, and here you are my son, my only son. Now drink.”

“You’re not my father. You can’t be my father.” Ahanu shook his head back and forth, fighting with all his being.

“Be still, my son.” Kanti waved a hand over him, and the boy relaxed. “In dreams, we shall speak.”

And there it was. Ahanu drank—the son of a Shaman.

“Ahanu? I don’t know that name.” Patty scratched his sweaty head.

“I hadn’t seen him before either.” Ed took a seat with Patty across from him in the gloomy chair.

“What do you know?”

“He’s involved with her.”

“What?” Patty profusely shook his head. “That can’t be; she’s with Hank.”

“Look . . . I don’t know what she said or when, or what she was up to, but I know this to be true.”

“How?”

“I saw them together,” said Ed, the con he was.

“When?”

Ed paused, trying to come up with something decent, “Ah, yes. After that fair. I saw them.”

“After the fair, but she went missing during the fair.”

“It was later, later that night. I was outside the back of D Street. I saw them off a ways.”

“How do you know his name, if you’ve never seen him before?”

Ed paused in thought. “I heard her say it. She’s a blonde little thing, she is. They were together, leaving.”

Patty held his clenched fist up, “Hey now. This tale doesn’t make any sense. You grifting me? What’s your name again?” Patty gave him a tough look. He was a small man but wasn’t afraid of anyone.

“Ed. I’m Ed. Trust me on this. Go find that kid. He’ll tell you. He knows what happened to her that night. I’m sure of it.”

“Well, Ed, your story doesn’t quite match up with what I know to be the timing of the events that took place. My daughter was no cheater if that’s what you’re implying. I don’t take too kindly to strangers throwing about lies.”

Ed stood pointing a finger down at Patty. “I’m no liar. You should be careful where you throw your words. I could have easily just not said anything about this.”

Patty stood up. “Fine. We’ll look into your story. This story of yours—that my daughter was seeing another . . . well, she wouldn’t do something like that, especially with no Indian.”

Ed shrugged and turned to leave. The secretary kept her face down.

“Wait, stop. Where do I reach you?”

“I’m around,” said Ed.

“Do you know how many dam workers there are around here?”

“I do.”

“You need to give me more than that. This is soon going to be a murder investigation. How do we know it wasn’t you and this is your story, make someone else take the heat?”

Ed stopped in the old doorway and leaned his hand on the wilted, white paint, “I have an alibi. I’m not concerned at all about that. You just find that kid.”

That kid. It struck Patty odd the tone he used, the emphasis on it. There was more going on. He stood at the door to the station and watched Ed walk off toward the only road that led to the dam and away from town.

“Oh, I’m watching you, Ed,” he vowed.

***

There were shades of green all around moving in and out like water. Was he floating or was he standing without the feeling of his legs? He just was. It was that simple. Ahanu was there in that space—the colors shifting from green to blue with a brighter blue sifting through. The python twisted in yellow and white, sliding closer and closer to him with stars popping against the background as if they had just been born ablaze.

“Take him,” the voice said.

The pink-forked tongue flicked in and out to taste the ether and the subject. It opened its mouth wide and took the stance to strike. Ahanu moved arms that did not exist, and realizing his new form, his soul form, he froze. The freedom of it was shocking. The snake bit down, bit hard, splitting him in two. Ahanu watched as his darker lower half floated away. His upper body, his mind was lost in that space with the python.

“You must learn,” the voice said. “You must learn to be one.”

Ahanu felt it all slipping away, felt himself digress into some lower form of being, his organized thoughts becoming nothing but chaos and disorder, his memories spreading out into the spirit world where eyes began to watch, some dark, some light, hands reaching out to take this