The phone rings. I pick it up holding it inches from my ear, wondering who could this be? It’s Diane on the other end inviting Jackie and me to come over to her house and do some beading. “Don’t forget to bring Neewa,” she says before hanging up.
I’m excited about beading.
I demand, “Dad, meet us at Diane’s at four o’clock.”
Jackie and I start walking over to Diane’s.
I like Heather, but she is the Medicine Woman and sometimes she gives me the creeps. I want Dad to be with me when I’m there or I will be totally freaked out.
Remember what happened the last time we were at Heather’s house? There was that fierce windstorm that scared the crap out of me. We were outside, covered in sand, and that dust devil came flying into Heather’s yard, chasing us into the house.
Heather said it was an Evil Devil Spirit in the dust devil that wanted to possess me. But Heather protected us with her powders, throwing the sacred stuff all over us and into the wood stove. Oh my God, that was too creepy.
Heather said in a really weird voice, “Go devil, leave us, you demon.”
I can’t get those words out of my head.
Maybe it was Heather who made the dust storm with the Evil Devil Spirit. I don’t know if I should even be at Heather’s house?
After it was over, Heather gave us herbs to protect us from evil. I wish I had them in my pocket right now. But they are packed away with my clothes, the antlers, and our entire collection of ghost hunting equipment except for the stuff that goes back to Dad’s work. He’s going to return all of it at the end of the week, his last day.
Neewa is all excited as we arrive at Diane and Heather’s house. I thought Neewa should wait outside with the kids in Diane’s neighborhood? They love to play with her, though they make fun of her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth.
“Neewa!” Heather exclaims petting and hugging her. “You come right into my house, I want you here with me.”
Diane smiles at Neewa as she holds the door open and watches her slip in. She runs in, galloping through the house, smelling every room, especially the kitchen, which she scours for scraps.
Diane motions Jackie and me to come over to the kitchen table. She has her beading stuff on the table. We brought her a couple of strands of yellow beads that Dad had given us. Diane places them with all of her beads. I see bright turquoise blue, red coral, white, and black beads. She has rolls of silky string and a pile of silver clasps in the center of the table.
We sit ourselves down and she shows us some basic beading designs. After that we each take a sewing needle, some fishing line, and begin stringing beads from our trays.
In silence, I look around her home. The house has not changed since I was last here.
Using a loom is what I want to learn. I saw some beading techniques for looms in a display at the tribal building. Loom beading creates the most intricate designs, like the ones you see in museums and galleries.
I string beads onto a necklace when I look up and see Diane run her needle through a small acorn-like bead.
“What is that?” I ask.
She answers, “It’s a juniper bead.”
I exclaim, “The ones the prairie dogs bite a hole in?”
Diane looks puzzled, “Yes, the prairie dogs do bite a hole into the nut. They put a circular tunnel almost all the way through to the end. I push a heavy sewing needle through the bottom of the nut to make it into a bead. Then I string them in patterns with other beads. Here, look at this one.”
Diane holds up a bracelet with juniper nuts placed every third bead.
“No way!” Jackie jumps up and stands behind Diane for a closer look.
“Way!” I say.
Pointing at the bracelet I say to Jackie, “They’re like the ones you found out at Ruby Lake. Diane makes them into beads and strings them.”
Jackie takes one of the juniper nuts from Diane’s beading tray and rolls it between her two fingers.
Nodding her head in agreement, “Yup it’s the same. That’s amazing. Look how cool they look in that bracelet, awesome.”
“Show me how you get the hole the rest of the way through.” Jackie leans over Diane’s tray.
Diane picks up another nut. “The prairie dog leaves some of the shell at the bottom when it bites down. I just push the needle through the bottom of the hole like this.”
Quietly we observe as she takes the nut and slides the heavy sewing needle inside. Then positioning it over some cardboard, she pushes the needle down, puncturing a small hole through the remaining portion of the nut, making a juniper nut into a beautiful juniper bead.
Jackie reaches into her pocket and pulls out a handful of juniper nuts from Ruby Lake and puts them in Diane’s tray.
“Wow, where did you get all those?” Diane turns to look at Jackie, puzzled.
Jackie smiles, “They are from Ruby Lake, the Spirit Deer gave them to me.”
Diane asks, “The Spirit Deer? When did you meet the Spirit Deer?”
Jackie says, “Well, I didn’t but Christina met him on a trail.”
We all laugh and continue beading.
Diane adds a handful of juniper beads to each of our beading trays. We string them with the other colorful beads.
I comment, “The juniper beads have the best natural color. Don’t you think?”
We all nod our heads in agreement.
Diane says, “The Spirit Deer is very important to us. If you are in his favor, he will protect you from evil. But if you are his enemy, he will pierce your heart with his antlers.”
Jackie speaks, “She is in his favor, Chester said he left the antlers for her.”
Looking at Diane to see her reaction I say, “I knew I should have left those antlers where I found them.”
Diane replies, “You were given the antlers of the Spirit Deer? That is very special.”