of. They put GOD before everything else. I think that is why they lived for such a long time and were in such good health. Grandfather was always telling me that we could make our days longer upon this earth by following GOD’s word. As always, I had a great time with them, listening to the stories they would tell about our ancestors.
Grandfather was one of a kind there wasn’t another man like him anywhere in the world as far as I was concerned. After church Sunday morning, it was time for me to go home and get ready for school. There was a week left; I had to get ready for final exams, then the school would be out for the summer.
I spent most of the summer with my grandparents. Grandfather was a very wise man. He knew things that would boggle the mind of most people. He could talk to people on any level of conversation that he confronted. He was just as sharp now as he was when I was little. Most people loved my Grandpa because he was honest. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. He didn’t take to people that spoke with a “double tongue”; he could always tell if a person was lying to him.
I learned a lot from him about how to listen to people and watch their eyes or see if their breathing was irregular to tell if they were telling the truth. This is something that would help when I got older. Grandfather and I fished and spent a lot of time in the forest again that summer. I almost had the song learned on the flute by the end of summer. But I was nowhere close to sounding as good as my Grandfather yet. He said I would not only be as good as he was, but I would probably be a lot better. That was hard for me to believe because Grandpa was great, and he had been playing that tune for eighty years. It was time for school to start again and time to go back home with Mom. I asked, “Mom, do you know much about Dad when he was a kid? Did he keep a journal or a diary of any kind?”
“He didn’t talk much about his life after thirteen. I can tell you that he left you a key to a lockbox at the bank. His instructions were to give you that key when you graduated from college and not a day before.”
That was just great: I had five or six years to be tormented by the thought of what could be in the bank vault. Mom said she didn’t know what was in it. If she did know she sure wasn’t telling me about it. “You just keep your mind on your books for now. It will all happen when the time is right.” Now she was starting to sound like Grandfather!
It was a long school year of studying to keep my grades up so I could get a scholarship for college.
Then it was time to go with Grandfather to my Dad’s grave again. It was March fourth.
There wasn’t any snow this year, thank GOD! I don’t know if I could have taken another adventure like last year. This year, everything at the cemetery was different; the temperature this year was hotter than normal it was eighty degrees. It was warm for this time of year. My Dad’s grave was cooler, though it was still about seventy-seven degrees. Grandfather said it maintained that temperature year around. It even made him a little nervous when he goes out there. I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed the difference between my Dad’s grave and the others? It sure makes the hair on your neck stand up. We talked about what it could be that keeps Dad’s grave at the same temperature; could it be something or someone was watching over him?
Our visit was too short this weekend; I had to get back to school because of the extra classes I am taking this year. I had a lot of homework to get done before Monday morning.
The next two months flew by and it’s time for mine and Grandfather’s birthdays again. I wondered what he was going to share with me this weekend. I’m seventeen today; one more year of high school left. But what I was most curious about was my visit with Grandpa today. What clue was he going to tell me today? I drove up to his house and there he stood just like last year, ready to go. We went to the river but this time we took the path alongside the river instead of taking the boat. We walked for a couple of hours until we walked out onto the ledge that hung out over the river. He pulled out his flute again and asked me to play along with him. Playing with him was an experience that I will never forget. This time the animals were so close, you could reach out and touch them. Just as before, when we stopped playing, they were all gone, disappeared into thin air. “Jacob, you’re playing as well as I’ve ever heard anyone play,” he told me “I’m proud of the way you have been practicing. I can tell and so can the spirits of the forest.” We must have played for hours by the way the sun was low in the sky, but the time passed by so quickly it was time to go before we knew it.
“Before we leave, I have another clue for you. Do you remember the other clues?”
“Yes, I remember them! I have them all written down in my journal Grandpa.”
“Good man, Jacob.” That was the first time he called me a man.
“Find the book in the hand of the seventh warrior above facing the west. On the twenty-third page of that book on the ninth shelf of the fifth Angel two wings removed from above facing the east has a note telling you the next place to look.”
Then we walked back to the house, where Grandma had supper ready for us again as usual. Before you knew it, Sunday afternoon came, and it was time to go home.
Summertime was here and it was hotter than normal this year. The lack of rain caused the Red River to be lower than I had ever seen it before. Grandfather said it hadn’t been this low in eighty-four years. One day in July, we got in the boat and went upriver to the same rock he took me to last year. Now the river was seven feet below its normal level revealing twenty (ta’-l’-s-go-hi) rocks surrounding a boulder. Each rock had a word carved on the side. The big rock was sitting on what looked like a pedestal. Or it maybe it was covering a tunnel that went back into the mountain?
On the bottom of the largest boulder was a circle with words craved around it: “MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN” (“you have been weighed in the balance and have been found lacking”). It almost looked like a key.
Grandfather said, “Jacob, pull the boat out on the bank and tie it up. I want to show you something. Follow me.” I followed him to the top of the boulder. Grandfather told me to look down at the rocks surrounding the boulder. When I looked down, I noticed words were also written on top of the rocks. Grandfather explained, “The words on the side of the rocks are for those who are young in spirit and in the natural realm of the world. The ones on top are for people who are more mature in the spirit and those words are in the spirit realm. When you add the two sentences together; well that is a narrow path leading to the true spirit world of the Great Spirit. Jacob, my son, few there will be who find this path!” He also showed me a carving at the top of the boulder” “There is only one Great Spirit. All things were created by Him; so, all things are in the Great Spirit (u-ne-qua) and everything has the Great Spirit inside of it!” As I was looking at the carving in the boulder, I thought I saw fossilized fingers protruding out of the stone. Grandfather told me, “These words spoken incorrectly will cause you to sink into hardening of the heart; hardened by pride. Jacob, many of our ancestors made the wrong choice. By doing so their spirits became entombed in the world of deceit, and their hearts entombed in stone.”
The words written on the side of the rocks of wisdom were: (the natural realm) FORGET, LOVE, (tsi-lv-quo-di), BEING, HIGHER, (ga-lv-la-di) ANGEL, (di-ka-no-wa-di-do-hi), HELPERS, (a-li-s-de-lv-di) WINGED, (go-hu-nv-hi) TO, CHOOSE, (su-ye-ta) TWO, (ta-li), WORLDS, (e-lo-hi), INTO, DEATHS, (o-yo-hu-sa a-tsi-la) WAR, (da-nu-wa) OF, ONE, (sa-quu-i) PATH, (nv-ne-hi), CHOSEN, (su-ye-ta) DECAYS, (u-go-sv) SPIRIT, (a-da-nv-do). The words written on the top of the rocks are the (Spiritual Rim). REMEMBER,(a-nv-da-di-s-di), TRUTH, (do-na-te-u) BECOMING, LIFE, (ga-no-du) JOY, (ga-li-e-li-ga) ENGAGED, (i-tsu-la) ON, SPIRITUAL, (a-do-nv-do) WINGS, (go-hu-nv-hi) HELPS, TO, CHOOSE, ONE, (sa-quu-i) PATH, (nv-ne-hi), TOO, (na-s-gi), TAKE,(a-gi-s-di) IN, SPIRITUAL, (a-do-nv-do) TONGUES, POWER.
“It’s a sign that the time is drawing near for—never
