Chapter 23

After a brief stop at the cop shop to tell my story, I was delivered back at Dark Wolf’s place. There were all the Deer Horns, several other Shoshone, who were involved in the search, and Dark Wolf. There was a hub, and a bub, and a general hubbub.

I told the story of the scruffy guys, in between bites of food, my ‘escape’ into the heavily wooded surrounding territory, and my eventual contact with the SAPD guys. There were a few non-alcoholic drinks, and people started to leave soon enough.

When we were alone, Dark Wolf said, “I was never worried about you. The Hunter was not here. May I assume he was with you?”

“Yes. He got me off of the street and into hiding. Then he led me to the Mineral Hot Springs place, where I was safe. I don’t see him outside tonight, and I heard his cry as he flew off after I was rescued. I wonder if he’ll be back?”

“Hmmf.”

“And thanks for the improvement in my tape job. It made it much easier to move through the brush.”

He waved off my thanks with another “Hmmf.”

I bade him good night and returned to my room.

...

In the morning, Dark Wolf was having breakfast with a lighter skinned man. He was clearly not Shoshone, since he had an oriental appearance, yet he and the Wolf were conversing in the Indian language.

“Ah, good afternoon, White Owl. We’ve been waiting for you. It seems you sleep well,” the Medicine Man said.

I checked my brain clock. 9:50 “Hey! I’m a growing girl, and besides I had a trying day yesterday,” I half-whined.

“You see, Soon, how my adopted granddaughter shows me respect,” he said to the man sitting opposite.

“I see that she won’t be the compliant girl you are used to,” replied Soon, chuckling.

“White Owl, this is my friend, Soon Maritsuki.”

Soon rose from his chair and gave me a Japanese style bow. I was taken back for a second, then remembered how to do it from life #1. I gave him a similar bow, from the waist, deeper than his bow, and said “I am honored.”

If Soon was surprised, he hid it well. “Please sit, Miss White Owl. Join us. We were just having an excellent croissant. Would you like juice or milk?”

“I’d like it if you called me Lexi, Maritsuki-san.” I reached for a croissant, and poured myself a glass of milk.

Dark Wolf moved the plate of croissants closer to me. “You see how she honors you and ignores me?”

“Are you jealous, grandfather,” I countered, “that I honor the traditions of his ancestors? I certainly honor yours.”

“You see, Soon. How easily she disarms me? Hmmf.”

Soon Maritsuki just laughed. “I shall call you Lexi, but you must call me Soon.”

I acknowledged his suggestion with a little nod. “Certainly, Soon-san,” I laughed.

“Where did you learn of Japanese customs, Lexi?” he asked.

“I just knew it.”

Dark Wolf gestured to his backyard. “The Hunter has returned,” he said. “Owl, I would like you to study self-defense with Soon. He is a teacher of the martial arts here. I fear that you will be tested again. It may be that you will not always so easily escape into the woods.”

I considered it. It was phrased as a request, but it felt more like a command. It would be a slap in the face if I declined. Besides, he was probably right.

“Yes, grandfather. I think that is a very good idea. But, as you know, I am injured and will not heal for several more weeks. I don’t know how I could learn anything physical.”

“Not all that can be learned is physical. So we shall begin with the mental aspects. Lexi, do you meditate?” Soon asked.

“Well, I am often called to ... How shall I say it? ... I am asked to withdraw from the world and have a conversation with someone in my brain. Is that meditation?”

“No, I don’t think so. If you are conversing with ANYone, in your brain or in the world around you, then you are acting in the beta range of brain wave activity. If you truly meditate, you will slow down to the alpha range, or even slower to the delta/theta range. You will heal faster if you can achieve theta, believe it or not. I call this ‘active meditation.’ Some have achieved the ability to transfer the consciousness to other places.”

“That is all new to me.”

“You can study with me, and learn about this and eventually self-defense. If you are interested, it can progress to the martial arts.”

Red? What about this brain wave alpha and beta stuff?

[It is well established in my time, some 1600 years in the future. It was provable in 1977 even. But it was not widely known. I can supply a great deal of information on this topic.] And suddenly my mind was swamped by the fire hose of data on this brain wave subject.

I came back into the here and now. I realized that someone had probably spoken to me. “I’m sorry. I was off woolgathering.”

“Please, granddaughter,” said Dark Wolf, “you need not cover your mental absences here.”

“All right,” I said, “I got a brief message from the Spirit.”

“Fascinating,” said Soon Maritsuki.

I spent the rest of that Monday with Sensei Soon, as I came to call him. We went to his home, which was a very normal looking wood and brick ranch house. That was the outside. Inside was completely different. His Shoshone wife had died more than a decade ago, and his meditation room had one wall full of her pictures. Apparently, they met when both of them were young, and I could see their aging. There were no pictures of children.

The rest of the home was detailed in the Japanese style. A low table with pillows instead of chairs. In the basement was a more public studio where he taught Tai Chi, meditation, and martial arts to those who were interested.

That day, I learned a lot about brain wave activity: beta was for conscious activity, alpha was a more relaxed state, theta was for deep meditation, some healing, and sleep, and delta was for deeper levels of sleep and healing. All that matched what Red had downloaded into memory.

He played a tape with music and a subliminal drumbeat at the alpha frequency. I felt like I slept for fifty of the sixty minutes of the tape. It was a very restful slumber.

[Lexi, if you want me to play that tape for you, I can do so. I captured it. Whenever you want it, it is there.]

Red, I want to experience what the next tape will be. Sensei said that once I can go to alpha level on my own, he will introduce an alpha / theta tape. If that is what I want.

I also learned to do some Tai Chi exercises. Sensei said to make sure that I never did anything to the level that hurt, and I was very glad to follow that advice. They were very gentle, slow stretches, but I was totally wiped out after half an hour of them.

...

In the next few weeks, several things happened. Most importantly to me, I finally got my ribs freed from imprisonment. Dark Wolf warned me NOT to take any blows to my ribs for at least two months.

I spent hours upon hours learning how to meditate with my Sensei. I thought I knew it all. After all, couldn’t I meditate already? I listened to the alpha tape. Eventually, I could drop into alpha and stay awake! Then came the theta tape. That led to trips into my own body, visualizing parts of ‘the horse’ that my brain – ‘the rider’ – could control. Really, ‘the rider’ was my consciousness, which only resided in my brain. I learned to control my heart rate, increasing it and decreasing it as ‘the rider’ directed. I went to my ribs and ‘saw’ the difference between the broken left ribs and the unbroken right ribs. I learned how to direct blood flow (and the nutrients hidden in the blood) to those areas surrounding those injured ribs. I ‘saw’ an egg detach from my ovary, and I squelched the pain that could have resulted from that. It was fascinating.

That process alone took me many hours and many sessions. After one session, Sensei asked me if I was ready to take a trip OUTSIDE my body. That was some trip, let me tell you. I visited a horse first. Same kind of body, generally. Then a tree. WAY different. Sap moving up into the leaves. A dead branch, with no sign of activity. Then a rock. I could actually see the different strata in the rock. I sensed a very, very low strumming. That was weird, right? I mean ... rocks were inanimate. That means ‘no animating energy.’ So what was strumming?