Moonlight Water (35 page)

When Zahnie stood up to go, Clarita said, “Granddaughter, I wish so much for your happiness. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you that there is no joy without taking risks.”

Zahnie made a face, but they embraced, and Zahnie walked toward her small house, alone. Clarita whispered to herself, “Not another fatherless child.”

Zahnie hoped Red would come to her soon. His presence each day was a growing wonderful-terrible combination. For these special days, one at a time, it was a joy. When he was gone, she told herself, it would be a great relief. No more suspense about when he'd take off and act out every man's fantasy, to start a new life. Again.

 

44

APOCALYPSO NOW

If you don't have a wife, don't wish for one. If you do, you'll never have one.

—Navajo saying

 

The grand opening of the Nizhoni Living Center was a blast. They had tubs of soda pop and beer and big coolers of lemonade. Tony grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and bratwurst on the outdoor barbecue. Jolo whipped up every kind of fresh vegetable, salad, and dessert imaginable. Yazzie brought a dozen cases of beer. Which was good, because it was
hot
outside.

The guests stood or sat on hay bales that served as chairs for the makeshift stage. They were Moonlighters—every sort of human being—schoolteachers, archeologists, bluegrass musicians, cowboys, a sculptor who made his living as a river guide, a farmer who grew wine grapes, and a lot of traditional Mormons. A dozen of Clarita's Navajo progeny turned out, which Tony said was unusual, because they usually avoided big gatherings of white people. The Harmony House folks were bonding into a Nizhoni community and having fun doing it.

The occasion for the party was given due attention. Red and Damon on one end, with Clarita and Yazzie on the other, put up a big sign of butcher paper and paint:

GRAND OPENING

NIZHONI LIVING CENTER

Naturally, the story of the great encounter at the Road to Glory Mine had to be told and re-told, each of the heroes entertaining small groups with his deeds. Winsonfred went to the microphone and made a whispery speech about giving Ed due credit, and everyone cheered, even Zahnie. Damon got the most slaps on the back for his role in the affair, and Red thought that was a fine thing. Exactly right.

Red had his four steel drums, called a boom, cellopan, guitar pan, and ping pong, and ranging from bass to treble, lined up against one wall of the main house. He and Damon made music right along, Damon singing beautifully. The people out-partied the music.

Red grinned and said, “Way of the world, kid. Give 'em a drink and they don't listen.” Damon looked dubious. “Hear me now,” said Red. “You make it beautiful. You sing your heart out. If the people don't notice, the gods of music will.” Damon gave an ambiguous smile. Youth.

In a few minutes Zahnie, Yazzie, and Clarita sat on bales front and center and gave full attention to the playing. Winsonfred climbed on the stage with a drum that looked older than he was. Red gave him a look, and Winsonfred smiled back. Without rehearsal he added a light
tum-
tum, like a heartbeat. It was perfect. How could it be anything else?

The evening circled on. People got tipsy and then sobered up a little, or got tipsier. The temperature dropped toward ninety degrees. A little girl backed up against one of the soda pop tubs, now just a big bucket of ice and water, and fell in. Other people took her example by putting arms, legs, heads, or even shirts and hats into the tub. Men and women alike took off their T-shirts, soaked them in the cold water, and pulled them back on. Though the Navajos turned away in embarrassment and the Mormons could only force smiles, about half the crowd half-stripped, dunked their clothes, and put them back on soaking and icy.

Tum-
tum, the evening's heartbeat. Winsonfred.

Red was getting nervous. He told himself he knew how to do this. He'd learned it from a young woman who told him what one of his concerts did for her. Usually, she said, she was too self-conscious to dance. The first time she heard Red's band go wild on a jam, she went wild along with it. In a couple of months dancing was her favorite date.

The secret was that energy. With luck and practice, the performers got everyone's minds and hands and feet dancing to the same beat. When that got rolling, a miracle happened. Communal energy throbbed in everyone, performers and audience, angels and devils. Minds and hearts did a swing together and felt the fun. Energy throbbed in every heart.

Tonight he would persuade it to happen. He and Damon.

The moment the sun dropped behind the mesa to the west, Damon said, “It's time, boss.”

Red whispered to Yazzie and Clarita to get ready. They disappeared into Tony's house.

Red lined up the steel drums behind the microphones. Damon unfolded his chair and stashed a pair of Red's maracas and a certain cloth-covered prop underneath it. By the time they took their seats onstage, people noticed and the hubbub died down.

Tum-
tum.

“Ladies and gentlemen and,” cried Red, taking his seat and getting out his rubber-tipped hammers, “white folks and red folks! Desert rats, lizards, and occasional buzzards.
Plunk your bottoms on bales. Open your ears and hearts.
We have arrived at this evening's entertainment.

“You may have read the story of the battle of the Road to Glory Mine in the newspaper, but it skirts the truth. You may have heard it this evening in bits and pieces from those of us who were there, but we stretch the truth. There is one supreme source for the story of this great victory, and you're about to hear it. Damon has told the story true in a song called ‘Apocalypso Now.'”

The crowd moved closer to the stage. Zahnie slipped to the rear, uncertain. Winsonfred kept right on providing the evening's heartbeat.

“Now, before my friend Damon Kee sings the song and I accompany him, I must explain the title. This song is climaxed by a great explosion, as you probably know. ‘And the Road to Glory … she came tumblin' down.' Sounds like an occasion for a brass fanfare or some such. But in the last month I've learned something. Which I'll say nothing about except that I've added to Damon's song the calypso beat. Here we give you the world premiere of Damon Kee's ‘Apocalypso Now'!”

With those words Red whacked the highest-tuned steel drum and launched into a vigorous eight-bar intro. Damon stood and gave the maracas what for, right on the beat.

In the first stanza Damon sang of how the spirits of the Kravins were captured by the White Man Monster of Greed. With their minds taken over by this monster, they laid dark plans.

Red banged into the chorus. Damon donned a straw hat with plastic bananas sewn onto it and danced out in front, shaking those maracas like a madman, shuffling and gliding to the calypso bang.

The crowd laughed and applauded.

The chorus rocked along—

“They fooled the feds, that Kravin Korps,

Had the Road to Glory for their hidey-hole,

But they didn't figure on the fabulous five,

The powerful five from Harmony House.

Harmony rode against the Money Monster

And the Road to Glory …

She came tumblin' down.”

In the second stanza Damon sang about how the Kravins captured him and made him work for them—there was a certain poetic license here. Maybe that's why, when the chorus came around, Damon bopped to the beat like one sexy Latin guy, hands twirling and elbows eloquent.

The third verse told how Ed the heroic buzzard led the fabulous five across the wild, lost lands to the Road to Glory Mine. Their mission—to rescue Damon.

The fourth told how the craven Kravins sneaked up on four of the fabulous five at the mine and got the drop on them. The four were saved by Damon's heroic leap through the empty air to land … right on top of the boss Kravin.

“They fooled the feds, that Kravin Korps,

Had the Road to Glory for their hidey-hole,

But they didn't figure on the fabulous five,

The powerful five from Harmony House.

Harmony rode forth against the Money Monster

And the Road to Glory …

She came tumblin' down.”

The last stanza was Winsonfred's turn for heroism. The young centenarian found the dynamite, walked up to the mine shaft, and threw it down the Kravins' throats.

“Apocalypse
now!
” Winsonfred mugged for the audience—
tum-
tum,
tum-
tum. And did those steel drums ever beat it out.

The crowd hooted and hollered. During the final chorus Winsonfred jumped up, grabbed the banana hat off Damon's head, and did a syncopated turn at geriatric speed. Luckily, the music made a grand
ritard
.

Cheering, stomping, and slapping of knees.

Red and Damon took their bows. Winsonfred beat
tum-
tum,
tum-
tum.

When the applause died down, Red picked up his guitar and said, “With your indulgence, we'll venture one more song, a new one of mine. It's called ‘Dance Your Way to Glory,' and the ending is unwritten. For a good reason—no one knows how it will turn out. Here, this evening, you in the audience may help me write the ending. It's a love song.”

Now he had them puzzled, but they waited eagerly.

Tum-
tum,
tum-
tum.

Damon re-tuned his Martin. Yazzie and Clarita slipped behind a corner of Tony's house.

Zahnie wished she could get Ed to give her a ride right on out of there.

As Red played the intro, he allowed himself a passing glance at her. She was at the back of the crowd, face taut.

The first phrase was the haunting melody “Morning of Carnival” from
Black Orpheus
. Red wrenched out all of its poignance. Then, just before beginning to sing, he gave a big grin, and he and Damon banged out a bright and lively jig.

Everyone laughed with relief.

The comic first stanza told how life tossed Red off a bridge, hauled him out of the sea, and yelled at him to go looking, looking for something, he did not know what.

Though Damon sang the verses, he and Red sang the chorus together, Red on the melody, Damon in sweet harmony:

“I have searched the world, seeking all that is true.

I have walked the road, I have looked for glory.

In all of this world what I found was you.

Now everything waits—write an end to this story.

“Give me the word—write an end bright with glory.

Join your voice with mine—

Join your life with mine—

My love, write
us
for the end of this story.”

The second verse told how Red came to Moonlight Water and got whisked down the river by the lady ranger. The red, white, and money, all of those silly differences, had been washed away by the river.

The third verse took them to Lukas Gulch and ended with the words: “And the sun blazed through the waterfall, and it struck your heart, and it filled you with mine.”

Zahnie gasped loudly. Other Navajos put their hands over their mouths at this bit from the Creation Story, and what it meant.

The crowd grew very still, and no one looked at Zahnie.

During the next chorus Yazzie and Clarita paraded out and stood behind Red and Damon. On thick dowels they held up a fancy sign painted on butcher paper. It read:

ZAHNIE, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY. WONDERFUL!

The next verse told how Red and Zahnie bound themselves in the adventure of rescuing Damon.

On the chorus, Yazzie and Clarita trotted out with another glorious sign:

RED IS GOING TO BE A DADDY. ECSTASY!

Then the elder duo hustled off.

The audience now was preternaturally hushed.

No one heard the next verse, for everyone's mind was on what sign Winsonfred and Clarita would come back with. It read:

LET'S RAISE OUR CHILD TOGETHER

The final run-through of the chorus brought the oldsters out with the climactic sign. They stood behind Red and Damon so that a huge painted arrow aimed directly down at Red.

ZAHNIE KEE

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

Red sang the last lines of the chorus directly to Zahnie—

“Waltz with me to a happy ending.

Lift my heart to glory.

Join your voice to this song.

Write joy for the end of this story.

“Now give me the word—write an end bright with glory.

Join your voice with mine—

Join your life with mine—

Write joy for the end of this story.”

As with one pair of eyes, the members of the audience looked back at Zahnie. Her mouth was wide open, her hands covered her face, and she peered at Red through her fingers.

He rose, set down his guitar carefully, and walked to her. He eased her hands away and looked into her eyes. He said loud enough for all to hear, “Zahnie Kee, will you marry me?”

She flicked her eyes to Winsonfred onstage. The Ancient One smiled hugely and beat
tum-
tum.

Now she stood and took Red's face between her hands. Clearly, she spoke the most dangerous of all words.

“Yes.”

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The teachings of the Blessing Way are real, and they're posted on a wall in the elementary school our grandkids go to. The Navajo proverbs at the heads of our chapters are real, too. They were brought by Navajo students, collected by their teacher Ernie Bulow, and published by Buffalo Medicine Books.
Big
thanks to Ernie for permission to use them.