CHAPTER 16
HIDEY HOLE
“Ieee!” shouted the first tribesman to see Johnny, carrying Dooley, flying past the Great Tree and towards them. Three hundred Tribe members pointed and muttered exclamations. They all gave him a wide berth when he landed among them, near the still smoldering log remains.
“White Wolf, is it truly you and not your spirit?” asked an astonished tribesman. Black Knife was so covered with soot and mud that Johnny would not have recognized him, had he not spoken. Blood was also mixed with the soot and mud, Johnny noticed. He laid Dooley gently on the ground and stood on slightly unsteady legs.
“I’m not yet a ghost, my friend, it is really me, a bit winded but otherwise healthy. I left here before the fire started, to find Dooley and Ned.” He pointed down the path. “Send aid towards the cabin to help bring Ned, Elizabeth, and Dooley’s father here. They are all coming here by my order and responsibility, of course.”
“You are the Goth, Johnny.” At a nod of Black Knife’s head two braves ran back down the trail. Then his smile faded. “I’m sorry, Johnny. Someone got past us and started the Healing Place on fire. All we could do is keep it from spreading beyond the hollowed out area.”
“And we lost a man,” said Johnny. He nodded towards the woods to one side of the Great Tree, where several Tribe members had gathered. He couldn’t see the body, but he could sense it, and he could sense the grief of those gathered around it.
“Yes. Red Fox; knifed dead by a traitor.”
“Too late to try to save him,” noted Johnny regretfully.
“We did all we could to try to save those in the hollowed out log, White Wolf,” said an old man who was also covered with soot.
Johnny recognized Summer Buck, the former Chief. The ancient leader was shivering, even though after the fire the entire area still radiated heat, like pavement that had sat the day in an improbably hot summer Sun. “You did well, Elder Summer Buck. Rest now.” He pulled off his own flannel shirt and wrapped it around the old man’s shoulders, then led him aside to sit on a patch of soft moss, before turning to address all those gathered there: three hundred tired, despairing men, women and children.
“You all did very well,” he reassured them, as they stared at him without comprehension. Why was he so unmoved by what had happened? Why was he smiling? “You limited the fire. Thanks to you they're still alive; I'm communicating with my Mother right now."
Tribe members murmured. "But they can't possibly be alive, Johnny," Summer Buck insisted, shaking his gray haired head and pointing to the black smoldering charcoal ruins.
"They're in a dark place. Somewhere beyond the fire within what remains of the log, too deep for me to sense them very well. They're weak though, and their air grows fouler. We've got to hurry. We have to get them out quickly."
"Can Ann describe where she is?" Black Knife asked.
"No, she grows weak and isn’t very coherent," said Johnny. "She just keeps saying something about a 'hidey hole' over and over."
Summer Buck suddenly smacked his forehead with a blackened hand and stood up again on unsteady legs. "Powers, I'm an idiot! Hidey hole? Ann must mean the place I showed her many years ago!" Grabbing an ax from a startled brave, he hobbled to what remained of the log, followed by Johnny and others. Between the giant torn roots at the base of the log and the burned out cabin area he moved along the singed bark, thumping it with the flat side of the ax. At last he found a spot that made a hollow sound when he smacked it. "Cut here!" he exclaimed, as he drove the ax into the trunk.
Two husky tribesmen with chain-saws soon took over, as the out of breath old man sat and rested and explained what he had just remembered to Johnny and the others. "They built the Healing Place in this fallen tree when I was a child. But the log already had hollowed out cavities in it big enough to crawl into. The biggest was enlarged to make the Healing Place, but there were other cavities. One that remained was walled off from the cabin, but some of us kids put in a door that led into it from inside the cabin."
"I never knew that," said Johnny.
"Not many did. The door has hidden behind hanging furs and blankets, but Ann found it one day many years ago, when she was helping to clean the Healing Place. I told her its history and she laughed about it, calling it her hidey hole. I should have remembered sooner.”
“No matter,” said Black Knife. “We couldn’t have gotten to it until the fire was put out anyway.”
The encircling crowd parted, admitting Elizabeth, Professor Simple, and finally Ned, who was carried by one of the Tribe that had been sent to help.
Simple nodded at the gathering, than attended Dooley after little Ned was laid next to the lanky young man.
Elizabeth also bent over Dooley, concern etched on her face, but Johnny reassured her. “They both live strongly enough,” he announced, “but the sooner we can rescue our healers for them the better.” Johnny went back to watching the men working with the chainsaws, and aided their progress with his powers, such that they cut even faster into the thick log. One saw ran out of gasoline, but kept operating anyway, ripping through wood as Johnny concentrated on it with unblinking eyes. In minutes they broke through into the hollow of the log and Johnny crawled into the dark hole while Black Knife stayed behind at the entrance.
The next moments were very long ones.
"He's found them, and they all live,” Black Knife soon announced, smiling, tears streaming from his eyes and down his soot covered cheeks. A great shout of joy went up from the weary rescuers.
Greeted by cheers, Mary White Dove crawled out of the hole first, half carried by Johnny. She looked exhausted and a little dirty, but otherwise alright. She looked at her filthy friends and made a funny face. "What happened to all of you?" she asked her rescuers, as she received their wet sooty hugs.
"You all need baths," seconded Ann Goth, as she was helped from the log, to a chorus of cheers.
She was followed by a huge man being carried by Johnny. It was Two Bears, pale and unconscious but still alive. Cheers went up from the Tribe and a hundred voices chanted the names of their shaman and their Goth while waving shovels and buckets in the air, as several strong men rushed to help carry the big man. Soon the shaman was lying in the soft forest moss near Dooley and Ned. He was still unconscious and looked weak but he was breathing unaided.
Mary and Simple sat with the injured, as Ann described what had happened. “We were both focused on healing Two Bears when it happened. For just a moment I thought that I smelled gasoline and then there was an explosion. The door was blocked by something heavy but with the fire raging outside it couldn’t have been used anyway. We dragged Two Bears into the hidey hole and then we both focused on strengthening his heart until the fire burned through into the cabin. At that point we focused on staying away from the fire as much as possible and on trying to contact you, Johnny.”
“What about smoke?” asked Johnny.
“We got lucky. Though too small to crawl through, the cavity twists all the way to the base of the trunk and outside. The fire sucked fresh air through it so strongly that smoke and heat didn’t get to us while the fire raged. Only when the fire was actually extinguished did air-flow reverse direction and smoke threaten us.”
A smiling Johnny Goth had Summer Buck, Black Knife, and his mother sit down with him and rest while they talked further. “Mary should stay here with Dooley,” he proposed. “Ned and Two Bears have the greatest need of healing. Mother, you and I should take them further up the Mountain, where they may heal even faster. It is time too that I learned the Mountain’s secrets. We remain at a disadvantage if I do not have the full Goth knowledge.”
“Spoken with wisdom, young Goth,” said Summer Buck. “And what of Miss Winters and Mr. Simple?”
“Elizabeth should return to the cabin and join Small Bear, and help delay Fenster’s loggers,” said Black Knife. I just radioed Small Bear with all the good news, and that is what he requested. Elizabeth has legal standing that will help h
im keep out the loggers he says.”
“Very well,” agreed Johnny, “but Simple should stay with his son.”
“Yes, but that was not my point,” replied Summer Buck. “Elizabeth and Mr. Simple are both outsiders.”
“They must become members of the Tribe, if they will have us,” said Johnny. “That was of course my intent when I brought them all here.”
“Dooley has special powers and is already one of the Tribe, so in principle at least his father may become one of us,” agreed Summer Buck. “But there is in principle only one way for Elizabeth Winters to join the Tribe. Did you know this?”
“Yes,” said Johnny. “I intend to address that issue at my earliest opportunity.”
“You have not asked her then?” his mother inquired.
“No, not at all.”
“Then I think you should take fifteen minutes or so right now to ask her. Two Bears, Dooley and Ned will be alright with me and Mary watching them.”
“You like her then, Mother?”
“Very much, especially when compared to her competition.”
Johnny had to think a bit before he even realized whom she meant. “You mean Angela.”
“Certainly Angela.”
“I confess that I haven’t thought much about Angela since I met Elizabeth.”
“Are you sure about Elizabeth?”
“I am very sure, but I don’t know what her reaction might be. We only just met.”
“Then talk to her, Johnny,” interjected Summer Buck. “Use your fifteen minutes with her, not with us old folk.”
Elizabeth was sitting on the ground between Dooley and Ned, turning from one to the other, watching them intently. She was holding one of Dooley’s hands, and his father was holding the other, when Johnny approached them.
“They’re both sleeping but they are very weak,” she looked up and told Johnny softly. “I wish I could help them the way you and the others can. I feel so helpless!”
“You are helping them greatly, just by being with them and with us.”
“Ned doesn’t always look this way, does he Johnny?”
“Beat up?”
“You know what I mean: hooves and horns!”
“I’d like to be able to tell you more.”
“But you can’t? Why did you bring me here to the Tribe’s Holy Forest Johnny? You could have easily had someone else carry Ned here. Then you and your secrets would be safe from me.”
He smiled. “Maybe I don’t want to be safe from you. Could we walk alone to the Great Tree?”
She smiled as she took his hand. “We can walk there, but I doubt that we’ll be alone,” she noted.
She was right, Johnny realized. Though some fire fighters had started to hike back towards the village, half the tribe remained, resting or putting out the last of the smoldering coals. Dozens were gathered about the Great Tree, basking in its life force. “We’ll do the best we can.”
About that time Elizabeth had another startling realization. "No bugs!" she exclaimed. "Where have all the flies and gnats and ticks and mosquitoes gone? Did the fire spook them?"
"No, I took care of that, at least for the surrounding area."
"You took care of that? You can control bugs?"
"It's no big deal. I learned to do it when I was a kid. I started doing it again subconsciously when I returned here. It took me a while to even notice I was doing it."
"No big deal? It's a very big deal, Johnny. It's mind-boggling. What else can you do that I don't know about? Can you read my mind?"
"I can’t avoid sensing emotions to some degree, but I try to avoid reading distinct thoughts unless they are broadcast intentionally. I’ve conditioned myself to not even try to read minds, as that would be unethical. If you were to live close to the Mountain for several months you might eventually be able to communicate telepathically yourself, but you'd find that it would be a lot like talking. Your thoughts would need to be consciously projected in order to be detected and understood by others."
“Spooky. There are so many questions I don’t know when to start. If this is such a holy place for the Tribe, how come you Goths own it? Why wasn't it made part of the Reservation?”
“The Government at the time required that all Reservation land be surveyed in detail. The Tribe couldn't let that happen with this place; they knew it would be taken away from them if the white men knew its true value. My great-granddad was an Indian-friendly naturalist who wanted to save trees. The Holy Forest and its Great Tree are priceless. The Goths agreed to help the Tribe protect the Forest and all the secrets of the Mountain.”
“Just how big is the Great Tree?”
"My Dad said that it’s about fifty meters in circumference at eye level, and over two-hundred meters tall. Nobody knows how old it is, but the fallen trunk that just burned was at least five thousand years old.”
“Fascinating!”
“Yes, but we have to talk about other things right now. For instance I’m not going back to Los Angeles, ever. I belong here. I have responsibilities here. I want and need to be here.”
“So I gather. What about Angela?”
“Angela was the biggest mistake of my life. I will still have to tell her that outright, I owe her that much, but I think she already knows it. I don’t ever want to make another mistake of that magnitude. I can’t go back to what my life was before returning here.
“I want you to understand how total my commitment is. I am committed to this place and this situation, as were my parents, as were my grandparents and as were my great-grandparents on my Dad’s side. My children will need the same commitment, or at least one of them will.”
“Why, Johnny? What is so damned important about Goth Mountain? What is the source of all of this?”
“I couldn’t tell you, even if I knew, not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not a Goth. You already have seen too much and know too much. It’s my fault, really. Ever since we met, maybe I haven’t been thinking straight. I’ve been very careless in assuming things I have no right to assume. We Goths have an agreement with the Tribe to keep the secrets of Goth Mountain, secrets that we’ve shared with them for almost two centuries. It’s a sacred trust.”
They had reached the Great Tree and the point of their discussion. “Johnny, what is it that you want of me, just tell me.”
Johnny looked around. At least a dozen curious Tribe members were watching them and listening. Not overtly intruding perhaps, but he was still uneasy about it. There was one nearby place however, where they wouldn’t be able to follow. “I want us to talk in private. So first, would you go with me to the top of the Tree? It’s a favorite place of mine that I haven’t been to in years.”
Elizabeth looked at the Tree. Though the thick rough black bark featured half-foot deep reddish crevices that would provide excellent hand and foot holds, it was at least fifty meters up to the first branches. It could take hours for an expert to climb it, she figured. “How?”
“I’ll fly us up, of course.”
"Can you lift both of us up that far, Johnny?”
"Sure. A person can run faster and think clearer here. And fly better also, in my case. Come on, I'll show you."
He swept her up in his strong arms, and she held him around the neck. They promptly lifted off the ground, floating far above the amused smiling faces of those of the Tribe still watching them. In less than a minute they were sitting side by side in the upper branches, with the very tip-top of the tree only ten meters above them.
The sight left Elizabeth speechless. They were sitting a full twenty meters above the tops of the surrounding great trees, and she could see for many miles down the valley: tree tops for the first few miles, and stumps in the distant cleared wasteland beyond the forest. In the other direction Goth Mountain rose, an ancient, black, weathered volcanic cone, its peak shrouded in ice, mists and primal mystery.
The Great Tree itself was the greatest wonder. The towering tre
e swayed in the gentle breeze, slowly rocking back and forth like some enormous ship shifting on invisible tides. Evidence that the Tree was very much alive and growing still larger was everywhere, in the form of soft new light green needles shooting out from the tips of most branches. It was already so huge that it seemed to be a world unto itself; it seemed to her that perhaps the Earth, and not the tree, was swaying in the breeze.
When she turned her attention to Johnny, he was watching her, his expression troubled. “Events have merely accelerated this issue Elizabeth. I think I knew what I wanted almost since the first moment that I met you. I want you to stay with me here on Goth Mountain forever Elizabeth, as my wife. I’m absolutely crazy in love with you.”
After her heart started beating again, racing actually, she opened her mouth to speak, but Johnny wasn’t done yet. “Please don’t say anything yet Elizabeth, until I’ve explained more. You’ll have to stay on the Mountain mostly; that’s one of the rules. We can travel to town of course, and you can visit your aunt or other places temporarily, and any Goth kids can go off to school, but mainly you’ll have to stay here or be visiting the Reservation, that’s one of the rules.”
“Shut up Johnny Goth,” she said, as she pulled his lips to hers. Any doubts she might have had were melted away by that kiss and the feeling of his strong arms around her and the press of his body against hers. Maybe she still didn't know everything about Johnny Goth and his mountain, but she knew everything that she had to.
Finally he broke free. “Was that a yes kiss or a goodbye kiss? I’m still confused.”
“Why? Can’t read my thoughts? That was definitely a ‘yes’ kiss, dummy.” She never felt this way before, so much attracted to a man, and so hungry for more; it was all like some sort of fairy tale.
“Oh, and you have to be made a member of the Tribe too, of course.”
“I do? Holy shits!”
“It’s one of the rules. I’d explain more, but I’m not allowed to, until after the ceremony.”
“One of the rules?”
“Yep.”
“There seem to be a lot of rules. I'll try to come more than half way on all this business about secrets of the Mountain and rules to follow and so forth, but I warn you that I'll have some of my own ideas too."
Johnny smiled. "I wouldn't want to marry you if you didn't."
They kissed again.
Summer Buck and Black Knife stood under the tree, looking straight up. Ann Goth stood with them, smiling. That could only mean one thing, others knew. Everyone that remained in the area sensed what was happening, and gathered around the tree.
“She’s a very good person, Ann,” commented Summer Buck. “Two Bears always spoke highly of her, and so do her students. She reminds me of you.”
“I hope you mean that in a good way,” replied Ann.
“I do. Two Bears always said that you and Johnny would return. I admit that I wasn’t so certain.”
“I couldn’t stay here after losing Mark.”
“I know. But I hope you’ll stay now. We all do.”
“I’m keeping an open mind about it.”
A huge smile formed on his old face. “That’s very good news, White Hope, and the Tribe can use some good news.”
Suddenly there was shouting and laughter as people looked up and saw Johnny Goth and Elizabeth floating down through the Great Tree like a pair of falling leaves, skillfully dodging branches while holding each other very close. “White Wolf, White Wolf, White Wolf!” they chanted, as they jubilantly ringed the smiling couple. Only with difficulty was it possible for Summer Buck and Black Knife to quiet the crowd.
“She said yes?” Ann asked her son.
“I did,” admitted Elizabeth, glancing at all the smiling faces. “Are you all mind readers?”
“Mostly just astute observers,” explained Ann. “Welcome to the family,” she added, as she hugged Elizabeth. “But I hope that you two are certain about this. It all happened super-fast.”
“We seem to be living in accelerated times, Mother,” said Johnny.
“Have you thought of a name for her, Johnny?” asked Ann.
“Goth would be my name, right?” Elizabeth asked, puzzled.
“I mean your Tribe name,” explained Ann. “It’s tradition for the Goth to pick the Tribe name for his spouse.”
“OK, I didn’t know that part,” admitted Johnny, “but how about …”
“Wait, Johnny,” admonished Summer Buck. “You shouldn’t tell anyone the name until the ceremony.”
“Including Elizabeth?”
“Especially Elizabeth,” said Ann, grinning.
Elizabeth laughed. “That’s sort of romantic!”
“That’s the idea,” said Ann. “Any idea about when? It should be very soon.”
“As soon as we’re in the clear with some of the things that are happening,” said Johnny. “And I’m afraid we have to get back to that right away. Elizabeth, you’ll need to go back to the cabin as a renter for now.”
Elizabeth nodded in understanding. “You’re going to visit your mysterious Mountain now, aren’t you?”
“Are you a mind reader?” teased Johnny.
“Just an astute observer,” she replied. Then amid hoots and giggles from the smiling crowd, she wrapped her arms around Johnny’s neck and kissed him. “Hurry back,” she told him.
“All of you hurry back,” she added, as Johnny joined his mother, who was already picking up Ned. Ann did it with ease; she was far stronger than she looked.
So was Johnny Goth. There were gasps among the crowd as Johnny again easily picked up Great Two Bears, who weighed over four hundred pounds. Together, he and his mother walked towards the remnants of the still smoking fire and around it, to the path beyond that led further up Goth Mountain.
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