He then sucked in a wild breath of surprise when he saw a massive figure of a man whose buckskins were the whitest white, and whose face was the noblest of all.
“Wah-kon-tah?” Dancing Cloud said softly.
“Ii, it is I,” the Great Spirit said, his voice gentle as all spring breezes. “I allowed you to come to the spirit world to be with your family so that your father could ease your sadness when you discover back on earth that he has passed on to the other side. I allow you to return to earth, to lead your people. But I promise you, Dancing Cloud, that I will call you again at a later time, to be with your family forever in the hereafter spirit world.”
A hand reached out from Wah-kon-tah and placed it on Dancing Cloud’s shoulder. “Go now,” he said. “Return to your other life. Lead your people well.”
Dancing Cloud turned and gazed at his loved ones one last time and felt no sadness in leaving them. He now knew that he would be reunited with them one day. They would walk these beautiful meadows, mountains, and forests together. They would be as one until the end of time.
Suddenly he felt himself being drawn again into that vast vacuum of white, swirling light.
He felt no pain.
He felt no regrets.
He felt no remorse.
Only total peace, and very blessed.
He awakened. He found Lauralee there, leaning over him, her eyes questioning.
“What were you dreaming about?” she asked, gently stroking his brow. “Darling, I could tell that you were dreaming about something that disturbed you.”
“I was not disturbed,” Dancing Cloud said, in awe of what he had just experienced. “I was with family.”
“With family?” Lauralee asked, easing her hand from him. “How could you be?” Then she laughed lightly. “Oh, I see. You were dreaming of your family.”
“No. I was with them,” Dancing Cloud insisted. He forced himself to a sitting position, fighting off the pain that this caused him. He looked down. The bandages were there again. His wound was not healed as it had been in the land on the other side.
“And my father was among them,” he said as he looked up at Lauralee. “My father has passed on to the other life. I must return to my people. I must gain my strength back quickly so that I can make the journey back to my mountain. I am now chief. My people need my leadership.”
Lauralee’s head was spinning from what he was saying. She was also amazed at how determined he was to leave the bed. “I don’t understand,” she murmured. She took him by the arm and helped him as he insistently swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Darling, how could you know that your father is dead? How could anyone know how to find you to tell you here in Mattoon? When did they tell you?”
“No one came here. Although I do not understand myself how, I crossed over to the spirit world today,” Dancing Cloud said, sweat pearling his brow in his effort to place his feet solidly on the floor. “But I was. I met with my family who died during the war. Also my father was there. He has passed on to the spirit world. I was there momentarily. I saw. I talked with him. I talked with my whole family. I talked with the Great Spirit. Now I must get my strength back so that I can return to my people.”
“Do you mean you were actually separated from your body?” Lauralee asked, rising from the chair as Dancing Cloud rose slowly and shakily from the bed. “I have heard of people who have spoken of such a rare thing as that. Until today I thought it was a hoax. But, Dancing Cloud, you are not the sort to play games of the mind with people. I believe you. Oh, Lord, I believe you.”
“Help me pace the floor,” Dancing Cloud said, wrapping and tying a blanket around himself so that he would not be totally nude.
“Dancing Cloud, it’s too soon,” Lauralee pleaded, yet saw his determination.
Still in awe of what he had told her, she allowed him to sling his left arm around her shoulder. He leaned against her as he slowly began to walk across the floor, then back again.
“It was good to see my family again,” Dancing Cloud said, panting as he continued walking back and forth. “Although I mourn my father’s death, I feel no deep remorse, for I know, I have seen his happiness. It is complete. And his body is mended. He is a strong and vital man again.”
The pain in his shoulder was excruciating. But the need to return to his people was far more overwhelming to him.
“Oh, if I could but just once see my mother and father again,” Lauralee said, sighing as tears sprang to her eyes. “But at least I now know that they are together, hand in hand, waiting for me, when I die.”
“It is a place of paradise,” Dancing Cloud said, giving her a soft smile. “We shall be there together, my love, after we have walked a full and happy life on this side of the spirit w
orld.”
Lauralee suddenly remembered with much pain and guilt her fleeting moments with Paul Brown. Most certainly she had something that needed done to make things right in her world again.
Chapter 15
Many waters cannot quench love,