46.

            Jill of course headed west. She drove through the night. She passed Darnell on a stretch of the interstate but they had not seen each other through the hilly median.

            Her morning sickness made travel difficult. The smell of rest stop toilets compounded the relentless nausea. Midday travel was more relaxed and encouraging. She watched the prairie open before her like a welcome lap. She drove with bitter sweetness as her motif. She cried and laughed and sent all her love back along the interstate to Darnell.

            “His spirit will tell him what to do” she cried to herself “and he will live accordingly, but that bitch is not going to mess with my life one second further.”

            And with that Jill Pines headed for the Pine Ridge Reservation and gave her spirit to her future and to the Black Hills. It was the sound of freedom that cried back to her from the Corolla’s tires the sound of the road the sound of the spirit in the wind.

47.

            Darnell stared at the upside down eagle feather on the kitchen table for a long time. He wasn’t certain what it meant but it was a sign with great meaning-that he knew for sure.

            He felt the warrior spirit in the molecules of the air of the cabin. He sat at the kitchen screen door and waited the entire day. He knew to wait one day. No one called. No one came.

            Two days after Norma’s accident the police finished their investigation and questioning of Darnell towed out the Biarritz and snickered back at Darnell as the cruisers left his driveway.        

            Darnell knew what those snickers meant for him. He was prepared for something negative. He could read it from the policemen as if they were saying it out loud to him out the sides of their mouths like a dirty joke “Your ass is in a sling, sucker”

            Even though Darnell was worldly enough to know that he had no culpability in the facts of Norma’s accident he also knew that the Grubers were the richest folks in town and when it came down to it the meanest. He imagined what he would be feeling right now if Norma had died in the accident. His mind reeled.

            After the wrecker and cops left Darnell got out his garden tools and began to tend the wounds the dirt pile and the yard had sustained.         

            Jeepers watched him interestingly from the front porch. Darnell felt the most intense wave of feeling cross his midsection the most liquid stirring of his blood and being. He caught in the feeling the message of freedom that Jill had sent back to him from the interstate and the Black Hills. River was strong. He wept for a few seconds because the feelings were so intense. He wept for his family now on the run. Ancient scenes ancient memories.

48.

                        HE DREAMT A DREAM

                        IT WAS A TERRIBLE DREAM

                        THE WIND SWEPT ACROSS THE LAND

                        LIKE A WAILING SCREAM

           

                        HE RAN IN THE DARKNESS

                        OVER THE HILLSIDES

                        HE FELL BREATHLESS TO THE GROUND

                        HOLDING TO THE REINS

                        THE CHILDREN WERE CRYING

                        THEIR MOTHERS’ NAMES

                        THE WARRIORS WERE CLINGING

                        TO THEIR PONIES’ MANES

                        WAS THIS THE LAST DREAM

                        OF WHAT WAS GOOD

                        SCARED AND ON THE RUN

                        THROUGH THE MEADOWS AND WOODS

            This had been the last poem of his manuscript. The power of his words and dreams were now evident in his life. He wasn’t freaked out by it. He was unprepared for the suddenness of the revelations.

            Norma had the lawsuit underway while she was still barely able to speak. She had Harry hire the best litigator he could find to sue Darnell. If the dirt pile had been removed her car would not have rolled over. It was Darnell’s negligence that had caused her severe injuries and he was going to have to pay for it.

            And you know what? She was absolutely correct. Before Darnell knew what had happened he had been through a civil case that left him without his house and much of his belongings. He was wiped out and in debt. Norma won his property and basically Darnell as well.

            In the end he could do little but go to Harry Gruber for a job, move into Donald’s shed, and wonder about the transitory nature of existence.

            He couldn’t even follow after River. He was not sure where she had gone but he definitely was in no position to follow. She was strong enough not to contact him. He did not waste energy to fight against any of this injustice. From Donald’s stoop he listened to the music and looked up into the sky. Sometimes the path was difficult to walk.

            He was their slave.

49.

            When Jill and Darnell’s child was born in South Dakota the weather was still bitter. Jill named the boy Jack with a wryness that escaped no one in the DuBois family. Jack Pines was a wonderful little guy and made the small house come alive with his fragrances and his giggles. Jill was wonderfully happy except for the absence of Darnell. She would only send her love east on the wind for him. She told the wind Jack’s name for Darnell to hear. She put her musk on the prairie to burn across it into Darnell’s heart and spirit.

            Norma was gloatingly victorious. She was more that self satisfied in assuming that a little pressure on Jill would find her gone for good. She couldn’t have asked for more. Obviously.

            The dirt pile was hers.

            Her recovery was painful. The pain nonetheless had an unexpected effect on her. At first she was enormously angry.  Spitting angry. But the pain was like a flame within her breast. She couldn’t fight it consciously and it had its way with her. After the painkillers wore off she felt different. Her heart hurt. Her heart itched as well. It felt like a scabbed over brush burn with a pulsing core. She would wail into her pillow and moan the moan of life. She wondered if the feeling was similar to the labor of childbirth. She didn’t know exactly what to think. All that she knew was that she almost burned up inside. The experience came close to destroying her. 

            What had belayed her inner consummation finally was the growing realization that she could begin to merchandize the most magical dirt that anyone had ever put in a pot. She began to get giddy.

50.

            Norma’s accident was brutal for Harry. His choking emotion in the hospital changed him forever. Facing the possible loss of Norma threw him into a spasm. He attended her and stayed near her like a fawning puppy. He thinned out quickly from the dire stress. He grayed and he felt ill most of the time.

            During the final paring’s greens play in the closely contested 1987 Leesa Pines Memorial Invitational Tournament Harry stood up at his seat took a quick look around said “Gonay-it means ‘be well’!” and collapsed lifeless into his cushioned chair.

            Harry’s passing over left Norma in charge. It had been inevitable.

            Nikki was Norma’s comfort and lifter of spirits. Nikki had a good head on her shoulders and the time had come for her to join forces with her aunt.

            At the quarry it was Norma, Nikki, and now Donald. After Nikki and Donald married it became apparent that Donald had been a real sleeper. His life became one that seemed miraculous in its departure from its former incarnation. He displayed the most exemplary character in all he now did. He adored Nikki. His path was clear and full of the fruit of the earth: love, sharing, passion, purpose, future.

            Nikki reeled in the bliss of her good life.

            And together the three of them continued down the road that the eighties provided for the strong of nerve and business mettle. Donald had not permitted Norma to market Darnell’s magic dirt.  He told her she had enough crap to deal with at the quarry. He didn’t tell her that she would most likely quickly die if she messed with the Lenape burial mound.

            Norma’s heart though still itched and ached. It was difficult to face her life without Harry’s adoration and head down industriousness. But truthfully she had to admit that there had been pain all along. She would have been loath to admit it also but what Jill Pines had said to her that fateful night was absolutely true: there was something bothering her.

            And she had to get to the bottom of it. She knew not how.

51.

            The summer afternoon at the quarry was winding down. Norma decided to step out of the air conditioning and take a small walk around the grounds. She sometimes felt ill at ease there and at other times serenely peaceful.  Today she needed something from the quarry.

            The wounds from the accident had as the surgeons had predicted caused only slight alterations in her face. In fact if one had to suggest something about her face one might say that it had become more of a monument to beauty. The change was not in the effects of the plastic surgery but in her eyes. A more mellow light now glowed there amber maybe. More somber and kind. Her heart itched.

            The afternoon light fell across the quarry in golden sheets. From the rim of the northern edge she made her way carefully down towards the rattling machinery where the stone was processed. She picked her way between the sumac and chokecherry as carefully as she could. Just as she made her way clear of the thicket a family of deer bounded up and stole away quickly across the western rim of the quarry. In the light they shone like comets.

            Norma’s heart seemed to burst. She had not witnessed anything as beautiful as that in her life. She was happy to have seen it but unhappy because there was no one with whom to share it. In a weird state she continued toward the processor.

            The dust and the noise transfixed her. She stood motionless watching the dust settle as the stone reached its designated bins. The rhythm for the first time in her life held her in its sway. It was if the rhythm were giving her life. Then suddenly it stopped.

            As her normal consciousness returned she looked down into the processor’s pit. Darnell had just hit the red button that had stopped the processor. He was coated with the fine quarry dust. The sun lit the dust to a sparkling gold. Norma gazed down upon him and burst into tears. The next moment she was holding the snot from her nose and wiping it on her skirt and looking up a Darnell’s face.

            She held his hair as she brought his lips to hers. She wept as she caressed his head and gave her heart its open door. The ache left in tender waves.

52.

            For an inexplicable reason maybe it was the great distance maybe it was the Black Hills maybe it was Donald’s cousin Russell DuBois Jill divorced Darnell. Darnell got the notice and signed it close to Christmas 1988. Russell adopted Jack and Jack became Jack DuBois.

            Darnell was now past the point where he questioned much. He wondered about the child that River had taken with her in utero. He did not question why she had gone or why he had not yet seen his child. For him the chain of events was the looping spiral of the path. It was not that he was content or undisturbed. He loved children and he loved River. But his life had changed as well.

            Norma’s startling change, her released passion and compassion all centered on Darnell. At first it was her astoundingly tender love that was showered upon him. Of course it was kept covert. Norma judiciously doted on Darnell. She did not lift him out of his servitude or his shed at Donald’s but she lavished the pent up goodness and love that was hers in reserve in such a way that Darnell had no doubt about its sincerity.

            As she freely admitted to Darnell at the time she was pretty much scaring herself. It was a freefall through the mistakes and side roads of an angry heart. Norma Gruber nee Robeson had a difficult life growing up. Scattered beatings, hammering psychoblows as she had termed them for Darnell.

            Darnell understood when she made revelation after revelation. There was a mutual undertow between them. He was even and calm about the interchange. It was unusual but it was meaningful and welcomed. He had felt it since he was young.  She had made him feel strange for many years but he had felt something from her through all of it. He loved her.

            And now Norma loved Darnell.

            The problem for Norma was that she didn’t know what to do with her love for Darnell. Her love for him was in such juxtaposition to everything that had gone down in her life up until then she felt as if she was at a precipice.

            Darnell said quietly to her one night something he read in a book back in the seventies “The flight of an eagle begins with a leap from the cliff.”

            Norma made no noticeable reaction to his paraphrase. Darnell though noticed a distinct rise in her body temperature.  He drank in the apple fragrance of her hair. He listened to the wind attempt to lift the shed’s tin roof. The loft swayed like a ship at sea. He dreamed.

53.

            The professor read through Darnell’s manuscript many times. He wasn’t sure what to think of it. The poetry was very intense in a way that most poetry that was currently being published was not. The poetry was earthy and naïve musical and at times lavish or terse depending on the subject matter.

            Some of the poems seemed fit to be set to music or just childlike in their attempt to make common words rhyme. The professor was captivated by the poems. He sent a set of three poems out to a small literary magazine under a pseudonym. He made the name sound rough to his ears. There was Native American sensibility to all of the writings. The professor chose the name George Buck. It came to him just as he awoke in the early morning as sleet slashed against his tin porch roof.

            Much to his surprise the magazine accepted one of the poems that was entitled “In Dream Time.” The editor a woman named Leigh Welles wrote back and invited George Buck to send her more. She was thrilled and delighted with what she had gotten in the first batch.

                       

IN DREAM TIME

 

 

                                    The warrior gently strokes

                                    The pony’s mane

                                    In the stars’ light

                                    It is a glowing honey

           

                                    He touches the pony’s ear

                                    With his lips

                                    As he says the names

                                    Of the stars

                                    He knows

                                   

                                    Great brother bear

                                    The seven sisters

                                    The courageous and steadfast one

                                    Wonderful pony

                                    He whispers

                                    Let us run through

                                    Them again

           

                                    He reaches down

                                    And strokes the pony’s

                                    Fragrant neck                                 

                                    In dream time

54.

            Even though he almost froze during the winter Darnell loved Donald’s shed. The Jetson Stuff seemed rather more at home there. The pickup liked to be out of the wind under his bedroom. Norma could come and go undetected (so she thought) too. Donald was too sly to be fooled. He didn’t say anything to Darnell about it. And Nikki didn’t seem to notice. And Donald hadn’t seemed to tell her.

            And the nineties advanced. Darnell’s job at the quarry and his life at Donald’s shed served to keep Darnell isolated form much of the advancement. Sometimes Darnell wondered if Norma and he should have a child. But in reality Darnell had just rounded the bend of 40 and Norma was soon going to be 50. Norma didn’t truly like the idea of bearing children. Her past shaded the life affirming zest that the thought of having children puts into most women’s breasts. Sometimes Darnell thought of asking Norma if he could buy the cabin back. But he knew you truly couldn’t go home again. Norma saw to it that the property was kept up very well and rented it to only very fastidious young couples. She utilized the dirt to begin and to keep up the most luxuriantly high yield vegetable and herb garden in the tri state region. It was phenomenal and a true turnaround from the showy exotic plants that had dominated the Gruber estate through the seventies and eighties. A substantial part of the garden included the wild plants that Darnell brought to the dirt pile so many years ago.

            Norma became an authority on local plant life. She began and completed a botany degree at the local college. Darnell was very much in love with his botanist girlfriend. He was tempted to ask her to marry him. She was an impressive person to say the least. And still very beautiful. But he didn’t.

            One thing Norma needed to do was stop smoking. But he also knew the botanical and spiritual significance of the tobacco plant. He hadn’t the heart to make demands about it with her. Occasionally he would share some puffs with her. He would kid her about the prayers he was sending to Father Sky. He told her she should stop swallowing her prayers.

55.

            “Where did the 20^th Century go? Darnell asked himself one lazy summer morning in 1999. He had lain longer than usual after Norma sneaked away in her jogging shorts to run home to the estate. He got up and put his Highwayman cd into the player and brought up Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson’s rendition of the Steve Goodman/John Prine song “The 20^th Century is Almost Over.” When he started his day with that song he got a little extra boost.

            He had a 12:10 p.m. tee time so he had not rushed to get up. The pro golfer he was caddying for at the Lisa Pines Memorial Invitational Tournament was arguably one of the best golfers to develop in the last few years, a young African American guy named Elgin Wool. Norma picked Darnell to caddy for Elgin when Elgin’s professional caddy couldn’t make it.  She knew Darnell could give a rip about for whom he was caddying. Nonetheless she also knew that Darnell was the best caddy on the face of this part of the earth. With Darnell carrying Elgin Wool’s bag Elgin would have the greatest non skill advantage he could possibly have.

            Darnell didn’t mind caddying at all. Donald thought that it was a bit demeaning for Darnell.

            But Darnell said “C’mon, Donald, it’s a nice walk. The golfers are interesting guys. I’m helping out. You know I like that.”

            So Darnell caddied for Elgin Wool and they became great friends. Darnell made Elgin laugh. It was good for his game.  Elgin won the tournament amidst a great deal of publicity about his closely contested victory over his Arizona State teammate and young Native American Race Davis. Elgin nonetheless distinctly disliked the course. 

            Darnell told Norma about Elgin’s opinion of the Foothills Country Club course and got them together before he left.  Norma was in a bit of a funk that afternoon dealing with the pressure of the tournament and all and fired back quite quickly into the discussion “Well, Elgin, you know if you don’t like the course, design us one that you do like.”

            Two years later the Earthworks Country Club course designed by Elgin Wool was the venue for the Gruber/Pines Memorial Invitational Tournament.

56.

            It was unmistakable. In almost every shot of Elgin Wool during the coverage of the 1999 Lisa Pines Memorial the professor saw the older image of his former student and author of the most published modern book of poetry

Darnell Pines.

            He couldn’t believe the somewhat outrageous aspect of what he was seeing. The professor wasn’t a golfer so he thought the job of caddy a demeaning one. He happened upon the television broadcast of the tournament by accident. The professor also forgot in that instant his own truly demeaning treatment of Darnell Pines and began a long and painful battle with his conscience and guilt.

            The amount of money that the professor had accumulated from the sale of Beyond Lethal Limits was into its second million. The professor truly didn’t care about the money. He had made a solid financial life out of his college professorship and scholarly writings. And if he started spending like a madman he had no way of explaining it to his very intelligent friends.

            As he watched the tournament he realized that somehow he must let Darnell in on his ruse and Darnell’s actual success. He full well knew that his act in many ways was just a terrible continuation of all the injustices and cruelties heaped upon Native Americans since the european landing. 

            The professor was horrified to see his former student and maybe the most respected writer alive in the united states caddying on television. The other historical and cultural implications of what he was seeing were enough to aid him quickly in draining the remainder of his bottle of Jameson’s. When he was good and drunk he thought about calling the lawyer who handled the George Buck transactions. He passed out before he dialed the phone.

57.

            Jack DuBois grew up in South Dakota in a progressive family. His mother Jill never rested until she pushed not only her life but also her son’s life into area where people in Pine Ridge and elsewhere had not ventured before. 

            She started a cultural center for the children on the reservation where she invited who she thought were important Americans to come and interact with the Native American children and culture there. And people came. Famous people. Important people.

            It was to one of the cultural exchange festivals-which Jill had named the Pines Festival in honor of you know who-that Race Davis and Elgin Wool had come. It was at that particular Pines Festival that Jack Dubois found the inspiration for his future. Golf.

            The two famous pro golfers took little Jack under their wing. Clubs. Balls. Hours of swing technique instructions when they were available. Scholarships to golf camp. And the opportunity through their generosity to enter and compete in amateur golf tournaments around the united states.

            Jack was the kind of young person who took seriously the good fortune that somehow had come his way out under the Big Sky. He loved every minute of the hard work and the eventual ability to play golf competitively. He at 14 had developed into a tall smooth swinging athlete. His mother practically wept every time she watched him play. His dad Russell took the opportunity to hang out with Race and Elgin as his own personal nirvana.

            The group of which the DuBois family and the two pros consisted became the most intensely funny golf cadre at tournaments. Many heads turned when the laugher became so intense that others had to stop their laughter and wait. Russell called the cadre the gophers. He got more humorous mileage out of it than the others.

            As Jack began to succeed the pros quietly bowed out of the young man’s life. But one of the last things that Elgin did for Jack was to make certain that the 2002 U. S. Open Junior Amateur Golf Championship was held at the spanking new Earthworks Country Club course he had designed. He also made certain that Jack’s caddy would be his strange and good friend Darnell Pines.

58.

            After the millennium had come and gone Darnell felt that the world he lived in was still rather screwed up but nonetheless had gained some kind of foothold into a future that seemed to be a juggernaut not headed for destruction. He knew that technology had turned an interesting corner with computers etc. etc. etc. but, as he noticed, people had become either blithering idiots or people of true heart and spirit. Many people in Darnell’s world continued to look at him as a hopeless retard. He didn’t notice. They didn’t know him very well.

            He learned more and more about how life ensued. He learned more and more how to interact with the spirit while interacting with his quarry machine. To him many days he was the most fortunate of men. Unless he compared his life to that of His Crazy Horse.

            Some days he wondered about the child he had made with Jill who he had not yet met. His dreams had presented the image of a young boy. So he was sure he had a son. In one dream the young boy was playing the ancient Traditional game of stickball. As a young warrior the young boy’s talent at the rough game was dreamlike even for a dream. He could only compare it to the movements of Jimi Hendrix he had seen in a film called Hendrix in the West when he was still in college. He had a few other dreams about whom he called his son. They were dreams that made him feel as though they were living together. That was all he could remember about them.

            He thought a little about the phone call from Elgin asking him to caddy for a young golfer from South Dakota. The Big Sky. Elgin had said the young guy was about as good as a young golfer could be.

            “It sounds funny, Darnell, I know,” Elgin had said on the phone, “but he reminds me of me when I was young, only he has something else to offer to the game. I know you’ll help him. OK?”

            “Yes, Elgin, I will gladly caddy for him. It would be my honor and pleasure. You doin’ good?” Darnell asked with a laugh.

            “Yes, Darnell, doin’ fine. I’ll see you at the tournament.”

            “Sure will. Be well. Later.”

            “Goodbye, Darnell.”

59.

            By 2002 Donald and Nikki were the chief executives of The Gruber Works, directors of the board of the Earthworks County Club, and organizers of the two important tournaments that were held there that year.

            Donald’s ears perked up when he heard the name Jack DuBois on the player list for the Junior Amateur Tournament. Donald found out that Jack was from South Dakota and he was stunned. Donald did not keep ties with the scattered remnants of his family in South Dakota. But this boy had the same last name as his. He would watch the boy closely.

            Norma enjoyed the tournament as it unfolded because the young golfers were so different from the professionals. They were so different and needy. Her mothering instincts though not her most cordial of traits came to the forefront and she truly enjoyed helping the young athletes getting things underway.

            Darnell took his two weeks vacation so that he could not only help Norma, Donald, and Nikki but also so that he would be able to give his full attention to the favor that Elgin had asked of him.

            Darnell picked up Jack at newark. He stood near the disembarkation area with a small sign that read Jack Dubois.

            Jack did not know who was meeting him at the airport. Elgin made no mention of his plans to Jack. Norma made Darnell pick up Jack because of her esteem for Elgin. She wanted no mistakes.

            Darnell loaded Jack’s stuff into the back of Norma’s Range Rover. They headed back I-78 into a fine late spring sunset. Jack was a quiet kid. Darnell made easy conversation trying to get some idea of how he could help out this kid.

            “It is very beautiful here” Jack said softly after some miles. ”I didn’t know it could be so green this close to new york city.”

            Darnell turned slowly and smiled at Jack.

            “It’s even nicer where we’re goin. I never found a nicer place although I haven’t traveled a whole lot. Just relax. We’ll be there in an hour or so.”

            “OK” Jack said and smiled back at Darnell.

            They rode in almost complete silence. Darnell liked the young golfer.

            When Jack studied Darnell’s face he got the feeling that the man driving the car had a motor running somewhere deep inside of him. The man driving the car seemed to provide the energy that was taking them into the foothills. The feeling gave Jack peace for his sprinting nerves.

60.

            Here now is the point where the path diverges in a leafy wood so to speak. The dirt pile has set all things in motion and all things are poised and set all the elements of the picture are on the canvas all things set just so that tragedy or ecstasy could develop there in the foothills at the Junior Amateur Tournament with all the world able to watch etc. etc. etc. There is only one detail left to disclose however. Norma had made sure that dirt from the dirt pile saw its way onto every tee box and every green on the Earthworks course.

            So how shall we witness the final scenes of this our story?

            We will witness the final scenes of the story by observing our own beloved Jill River Woman Pines DuBois.

           

            Jill’s flight east out of pierre South Dakota had been delayed from Thursday morning until late Friday afternoon. The ugly bank of thunderstorms hailstorms and tornadoes had lingered over the prairie states.

It was unbearable for her to know and accept that she would not be able to watch Jack play all four rounds of the tournament. She would miss the first two.

            Her rented car did not seem to remember the way back to the foothills, as well. She had always come in from the west. This time she was approaching from new jersey. 

            Having pooled all the money she could she had booked a room at the Earthworks Country Club Resort. She wanted to appear in her old haunts as someone else someone almost unrecognizable. She did not know if anyone back east had put together the truth about Jack’s identity. She wanted to be invisible to everyone except Jack. Elgin would know her of course but he wouldn’t know about the east part of her past.

            Jill knew that things back east had changed. She was not ready for what she witnessed as she took in the scenes around her now.

            Jill was overwhelmed finally when she bumped into Norma in the hallway of the Country Club.

            “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry” Norma had obsequiously said.

            Jill did not utter a word. She surveyed Norma’s face quickly and smiled an accepting smile.

            Distracted as Norma was she paused long enough to acknowledge the sentiment from Jill recognize something familiar about Jill that she could not catch and excuse herself down the corridor.

            On the course during the tournament on Saturday Jill remained unexposed to her son. That is because she could not even in her wildest dreams or schemes believe that Darnell would be caddying for Jack.

            Jill was beginning to have a gut loosening spiraling feeling that things were suddenly drifting away in an extremely uncontrolled way. She was experienced far well enough to know that these moments and hours as they transpired were the true essence of living. She always thought of the Jimi Hendrix song that Darnell loved so much when things got like this:

                        …Trumpets and violins

                        I can hear in the distance

                        I think maybe they’re calling our name

                        Maybe now you can’t hear them

                        But you will

                        If you just

                        Take hold of my hand

                        Oh, but are you experienced?

                        Have you ever been experienced?

                        Not necessarily stoned

                        But,

                        Beautiful?

            She swooned with each of Jack’s graceful shots. He was doing very well. As she had intuited that he was poised and ready for this challenge. For River the spiraling feeling indicated that there was no other way things could happen: magic was afoot. A thousand generations of love and spirit flowing out through the arms of her darling son. Darnell’s son too.

            She kept her distance from Jack until she knew he had returned to his room at the resort and called him there. They embraced in the fields behind the golf course. Jack was relieved to see his mother. He was vibrating with the excitement of his emotions and the energy of the sun and earth that had caressed him that afternoon on the links.

            They spoke little as they watched the rim of purple hills absorb the last rays of the blood orange sun.

            As River’s intuition had foretold Jack’s Sunday round of golf was exquisite. He was the U.S. Junior Amateur Champion. He was a sensation because his style of play was so unusually fluid and secure. There were some whispered questions as to what the spectators were actually witnessing as they watched the young Native American who was the understudy and ward of the most successful non-european golfer to ride atop the most waspish sport in existence. It was as if they were watching the annihilation of the white house or the ending of an extremely bad social reform movie from the late sixties or early seventies.

            But River knew it was just the beginning of the later part of human existence. The part where hurts began their healing and understanding pushed harder on the brains and consciousness of each and every person. The media were the unwitting providers. These moments now were in everyone’s homes.

            The presentation of Jack’s championship took place just aside the 18^th green in front of the Earthworks clubhouse.  Jack, Elgin, Darnell, Norma, Nikki, Donald and the USGA officials were lined up for the cameras. Elgin was being allowed the honor of handling the trophy (after it was presented by the officials) to Jack in light of the course and his stature in the game.

            Jill had managed to squeeze around and through the crowd and gain a spot directly behind Jack at the edge of the green.

            Jack’s young body was in flight as he listened and looked around at the spectacle he was a part of on this Sunday afternoon. River could sense his joy and had tears in her eyes. She touched Jack’s shoulder softly from behind.

            As she rested her hand on his shoulder Jack’s attention was caught by a shimmering purple glow from the surface of the 18th green the prismatic reflection of the golden afternoon sun off a drop of water on the grass. He could not take his eyes from it. The pulsing light mesmerized him when instantly it vanished. In its place was a small brilliant yellow feather. He stooped to pick it up just as Elgin was walking the trophy over to him.

            Jill saw the bullet, ducked, pushed Elgin over and all three fell onto the green. The bullet ricocheted harmlessly off the clubhouse stone.

            In the commotion the professor was brought down and disarmed.

61.

            Jill took Norma aside after the commotion died down and made certain that Norma knew who she was and explained clearly who Jack was. She swore Norma to secrecy for now. Norma, unbelievably, almost, in Jill’s eyes, agreed.

            Jill also urged Norma in no uncertain terms not to press charges against the professor.

            “Here’s a huge chance, Norma, to do things differently. As the media and the world are watching, you could use your enormous influence in this town and do the right thing for the professor. He needs help. He is no murderer. You can see that. Intervene and get him out of here. I’ll help find the right environment. Please, Norma. Please.”

           

            And it went from there.

62.

            In River’s opinion it was just as well that the tournament ceremony ended with the stray bullet. People scattered like leaves in the wind and Jill was saved the enormous task of explaining quickly the huge things that had transpired.

            She told Jack to head home by himself. She said that he didn’t need to hang around while the police detained her to investigate the incident etc. She helped him gather himself and his stuff and drove him to newark for the flight home.

            River also got a chance to talk to the professor thanks to Norma’s intervention. It was a very interesting conversation.

            River found Darnell in the shed the next morning. His two weeks vacation was still in effect.

            They embraced with tears in their eyes.

            She sat Darnell down and told him about Jack. Darnell did not act surprised. As she might have figured, Darnell had pretty much worked out the scenario as the tournament transpired.

           

                        If you can just get your mind together

                        Then come on across to me

                        We’ll hold hand and then

                        We’ll watch the sun rise

                        From the bottom of the sea…

            “Darnell, I want you to come and speak at our festival this year. Would you do that for me?”

            “Well… you know I’ve always wanted to see the Black Hills. They have always seemed to be calling me, anyway. But, how do I fit the profile of the speakers at your festival? What was it? Important Americans?”

            “Don’t worry, Darnell. You fit. Anyway, you need to be given ceremony. You’ll see. Your life has made many ripples on the ocean.”

            River handed Darnell a book.

            Surprised Darnell turned it around in his hands looking at the orange cover with a purple circle in the middle crossed by a small yellow feather.

            “Beyond lethal limits” Darnell said out loud “I wrote a poem a long time ago called that.”

            “Yes, you did, my love. Yes, you did.”

            “Why is this book called that?” Darnell was innocent in this question.

            “Open it” River commanded.

            Darnell’s eyes widened as he looked at the manuscript he had given the professor in 1986.

            “Holy smokes” he said.

            “Turns out, Darnell, you’re an important American. People all over the world have read your poems. But, especially, many, many Americans have read them. Those poems have done a great deal of good. Actually, the professor has done a great deal of good.”

            “I see…  George Buck, eh? I like that name. Sure, I’ll come.”

63.

            Norma bade Darnell goodbye. 

            Darnell did not leave the Black Hills. Once there he could not return to his quarry machine.

SONG LYRICS CREDITS

1. Wise Users-Bruce Cockburn c1996 Golden Mountain Music Corp. (SOCAN/BMI) from the album Honor-Daemon Records.

2. Blue Sky-Dicky Betts c1972 No Exit Music Co. (BMI) from the album Eat A Peach-Warner Brothers Records Inc.

3. Farther On-Jackson Browne c1974 Benchmark Music (ASCAP) from the album Late For The Sky-Elektra/Asylum Records, WEA International Inc.

4. Pocahontas-Neil Young c1977 Silver Fiddle (BMI) from the album Rust Never Sleeps-Warner Brothers Records Inc.

5. Colors of the Sun-Jackson Browne c1973 Benchmark Music (ASCAP) from the album For Everyman-Elektra/Asylum Records, WEA International Inc.

6. The Silky Veils of Ardor-Joni Mitchell c1977 Crazy Crow Music/BMI from the album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter-Elektra/Asylum Records.

7. Badlands-Bruce Springsteen c1978 (ASCAP) from the album Darkness On The Edge Of Town-Columbia Records/CBS Inc.

8. Devil in Disguise-Gram Parsons/Chris Hillman c1972 Irving Music, Inc./BMI from the album The Last Of The Red Hot Burritos-A&M Records.

9. Are You Experienced?-Jimi Hendrix c1967 renewed 1995 Experience Hendrix L.L.C. (ASCAP) from the album Are You Experienced?-under license to MCA Records, Inc.