style="font-size:15px;"> “Grandpa, I forgot to tell you we are supposed to meet with one of my teachers named Cherrie (gi-ta-ya) on July 12th and play our flutes for her family. She is going to call me with the details of where it is going to be later. She is my Native American history teacher.”
“Jacob, I would be more than happy to go with you.”
We got out of the truck and went for a long walk through the woods. It was amazing; Grandpa knew these woods as well as he knew the one on his land. It felt as if the trees in these woods watched you as you walked through them. It was like we were being watched and yet I felt protected at the same time. We came to a great opening in the woods, a circle about thirty feet in diameter with a fire pit in the center. We gathered wood and made a small fire to fight off the chill in the air. Grandpa asked me to sit down and close my eyes and think about the summers past and the clues he had given me. “Time is getting closer for you to find your way on your own, I won’t be around forever. I only have a few more years with you before GOD calls me home to be with him. Jacob, I need you to really listen to me over the next few summers.
“Your grandmother will be going to meet GOD next year in October. Your grandmother and I both know what is coming. I’m telling you this so you will be prepared. That is why I brought you to this place in the forest. This is a very special place. This is where I proposed to your grandmother 77 years ago and a year later, we got married, on October 19th in the year of our Lord 1898. I want you to meditate on these things while I play you a new tune with my flute and recall what you see.”
Grandpa played for the better part of an hour. I saw the past as if I were watching a movie. I saw a young couple standing in the middle of this place together; as I looked closer, I realized that it was my grandparents as young people. I recognized them from photographs. Then I saw Grandpa get down on both knees and ask Grandma to marry him. Then Grandmother got down on her knees and took Grandfather’s hands and said, “Yes, yes I will marry you and be your wife for the rest of my life. Until I take my last breath, I will love you now and throughout eternity.” Then I saw them get up to build a fire together in the very fire pit I was sitting by; sitting facing each other with their legs crossed holding hands looking into each other’s eyes! Suddenly, I saw them standing in front of the preacher. Grandfather was dressed in white buckskins with beadwork in the middle of his back in the shape of a wolf and on the elbows of his coat were beadwork figures of eagles. Grandmother was wearing a long white dress also made of buckskin with the same beadwork as Grandfather’s. I saw them walk off hand-in-hand through the forest into an opening of a white teepee. It must have been sixteen to eighteen feet tall and twenty feet or more in diameter.
The next thing I saw was my Dad as a child lying in Grandmother’s arms in the same teepee. When Dad was thirteen and walking through the woods, he walked into the mouth of a cave; then everything went blank and Grandpa stopped playing.
“Jacob, I want you to write down the things you saw in your journal and remember every little detail. Don’t leave anything out.
“Jacob, here is the next clue for you to write down in your journal to help you find the way.”
“The table in the middle of the library is solid oak and one foot thick. The shape of the table is oval. Underneath the southwest side of the table is a hidden drawer. The release that opens the drawer is on the opposite side of the table. In this drawer is a key to open the firebox where my journal is stored.”
July 12, 1975 – Grandfather and I met Cherrie (gi-ta-ya) and her family in the national forest called The Forest of Many Spirits. I couldn’t believe it! It was the same place Grandfather had taken me for my nineteenth birthday. It was as if he knew before I told him where we were going to meet Cherrie and her family.
It was the year of the cicadas; when we got out of the truck the cicadas were so loud it was almost deafening. The cicadas are known to have destroyed entire crops in just a matter of hours in the past. They are the grasshopper-like bugs that, in the summer, you find their shells on the side of trees. When you were a young child, you would look around every tree in the yard to see how many of them you could find.
I introduced Grandfather to Cherrie (gi-ta-ya) Hummingbird (WA-LE-LA) and she then introduced us to her father (White Hawk) James, mother (Spotted Fawn) Susie, her grandparents (Gray Wolf) Adam and (Little Robin) Sara; three brothers (Painted Horse) Raymond, (Lone Wolf) Jimmy, (Gray Owl) Michael; and her two sisters, (Yellow Fence) Elizabeth, (White Dove) Catharine. After Cherrie had introduced us to everyone, they all walked over to grandpa and told him it was good to see him again. Adam walked over and grasped his hand and said it was great to see my good friend. “Grandpa, what is going on?” “Jacob this is Adam my best friend we served together in the cavalry. I know everyone here; this is my best friend’s family.” “Why didn’t you tell me?” “It had to be the right time and place and today is it.” After meeting Adam and all of Cherry’s family, especially Catharine, I was overwhelmed! When I looked into Catharine’s eyes my heartbeat must have been loud enough for everyone to hear. She took my breath away!
I thought Cherrie was beautiful until I met her sister, Catharine, who is a couple of years younger than I am; she had just graduated from high school. I remember thinking that today I found the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Catharine’s eyes were green instead of brown, like most Native Americans, and it felt as if she could see right through me when she looked at me. My hands began to tremble; I could hardly speak to her without stuttering. I was weak in the knees; I was a mess when I was close to her. Catharine had the prettiest smile I had ever laid eyes on. Her voice was like an angel singing when she spoke. She was five-foot-eleven and perfect in every way possible, as far as I could see. When we sat down to eat, Catharine sat down beside me and it was as if I had known her all her life. I was weak, strong, excited, and terrified at the same time. It was almost as if we were one in body, mind, and soul; it was scary. I had never felt this way about anyone, and it seemed apparent that she felt the same way. Being with her was like being born all over again; it was like a breath of fresh air after being in a dust storm. We couldn’t stop looking at each other. Just being with each other was like no one else was around. Our spirits were bound; bound since the beginning of time by so strange a force and we knew we would be bound together for all eternity always and forever bound together with GOD as one.
I didn’t know it at the time but her Grandfather (Gray Wolf) Adam and my Grandfather were best friends; he was one of the men that went into the Spirit Cave with him in 1897. My Grandfather and her Grandfather were the same age, 98 years young. Both were born on May 26th, 1877; the month and day were the same as mine. Grandfather always told me that people were brought together for a reason, that somehow, we were all connected in the spirit. Grandfather told me that some of us have kindred spirits and that we are drawn to one another like a moth to the flame. That there are spiritual forces at work and people come and go in and out of our lives to help make us better people. We are better for knowing them and they are better for knowing us. Sometimes we know everything about a person from the moment we meet them: We may know their birthday, where they were born, things that have happened in their past. Only GOD knows why these things come about from time to time. Why two people come together for a period of time; but most of the time, we are better people because of who we come in contact with and see from day today.
After lunch, we gathered around in a circle and sat down on the ground. Cherrie asked us to play our flutes for them. I walked over to our truck and pulled out our flutes, wrapped up in leather, and brought them back to where everyone was sitting. When we pulled the flutes out of their cases, Grandfather handed his to Adam and I handed mine to Catharine. Adam and Catharine held up the flutes toward the heavens and asked GOD (the Great Spirit), the creator of all things known and unknown, to bless them and the music that was played. As Adam started to speak, it became quiet as a tomb; the cicadas suddenly were silent, and there wasn’t a sound from anything. You could almost hear your own heart beating. After Adam had asked GOD to bless them, he and Catharine handed
