Under A Painted Sky (Spirit Warrior Series) (17 page)

“Well, I did hurt my
thumb and Logan had to doctor me and wrap it up. I did not really think too
much about it when it happened, but when I touched the hand
etching,
I felt warmth go through my thumb and my whole hand. My thumb started throbbing
and then went all cool. It was the strangest thing. That night, when I went to
shower and took off the bandage, my thumb was healed. You couldn’t even tell
anything had been wrong. There wasn’t a sign of an injury; even the orange/red
mercurochrome was gone. It freaked me out a little. So what are you saying is
that she came home with me and healed me?” I asked.

“No, that is not the
kind of healing the woman was supposed to fix. She was supposed to heal a
broken heart, as in a love gone bad or unable to be together. The legend said
she had to stay here on this Earth until she found a love to heal whose heart
was in pain. After that happened, she was supposed to be picked up at the
Petroglyphs by her husband and go to the next world with him. There are many
stories of spirits that can’t cross over at the Petroglyphs,” Cheveyo
explained.

“Wow, wait a minute,
Isabella. You told me your husband left you about six months ago for another
woman, because you worked all the time. That must have been painful to you,”
Logan empathized.

“It was very painful.
That was the reason I moved here. To get away from the hurt and the shame of
how my former friends treated me, like it was my fault. I was isolated from my
friends and it was actually depressing. I wanted a fresh start, and falling in
love with Logan or anyone, was the farthest thing from my mind when I came here.
I didn’t even want to be thinking about a man,” I elaborated.

“But, you have found
happiness now, right, Isabella?” Cheveyo asked.

“I have never been this
happy in my life. Logan has made me very happy. He has been amazing. The only
thing I’m unhappy about is my ghostly visitor, but Logan has been here
protecting me every step of the way,” I enthused.

“Wait a minute. The
shadow on the wall spelled the word ‘back’ and the shower door with the
handprint had the same word. Do you think this spirit is telling us she needs
to go back?” Logan wondered.

“You do seem very happy
with Logan. Maybe White Dove healed you. That was her name. Perhaps she healed
your heart so you could love Logan,” Cheveyo offered.

“I really did feel
something that day, and that night, I couldn’t sleep for thinking about how
wonderful Logan was. Even though I didn’t sleep much, I couldn’t believe how
good I felt the next day. Truthfully, I can think of almost nothing other than
Logan since that time,” I said.

“That has to be it.
That would be the reason I never saw White Dove before, because she wasn’t
here,” Logan said.

“So, I just brought her
home and now she has healed me and is just hanging out in the house?” I asked.

“I think that is true,
Isabella. Most spirits are not here to do us harm. They just have unfinished
business. In your case, her spirit followed you because you were her unfinished
business. She needed to help you so she can be free to go on to the next world
with her true love,” Cheveyo replied.

“That explains the
tissues. She was crying and sad because she needed to go back to meet up with
her husband. And the door knob twisting violently and the
window
flying
open. Everything is coming together in my head. We have got to
help her,” I said.

“How do we help her? I
don’t understand how we brought her home, and I sure don’t understand how we
can take her back,” Logan said.

“I think I know. She
came home with me through my hand touching that rock. I felt it. I didn’t know
what it was then, but I think I do now,” I said.

“I think Isabella is
right. Maybe we just need to reverse the process,” Cheveyo suggested.

“How, exactly, do we do
that?” Logan asked.

“Maybe we just summon
her and tell her we are taking her back, and for her to get back on Isabella’s
hand. What if we then take Isabella to the Petroglyphs to the same spot, and
have her place her hand back in the same etching of that hand, and let it go,”
Cheveyo said.

“Yes, I think that just
might work. It has to be true, because I know I’ve been healed inside and out. That
woman I saw was Native American and she had on a blue dress. It all adds up.
Let’s try it,” I urged.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Logan said, “Isabella,
I don’t know, what if we just bring back another spirit and have double
trouble?”

“No, we must do it. I
feel it through and through. This is the right thing and I am usually the
scaredy cat of the crowd,” I said.

“Well, if you want to
try, then we must step on it. It is three o’clock and it gets dark much faster
in the Petroglyphs,” Cheveyo said.

“We need to change our
clothes first,” Logan said.

“Okay, Cheveyo, you
change first and I have to go upstairs to get some different clothes,” I said.

“I’ll go with you,”
Logan replied.

We hurried up the
stairs and went to the large closet in the bathroom to get my clothes.

“You change and I will
be right outside this door.”

I did just that and
slipped into my jeans, T-shirt and tennis shoes. I grabbed my hat and opened
the door. I looked back in the bathroom and saw the handprint made by the
shower was still there.

I told Logan to look
and I went over to it and called out, “White Dove, we know it was you. Thank
you for healing me and allowing me to be able to love Logan. We are ready to
take you back so you can join your true love. I need you to get back on my hand
now so I can take you.”

I placed my hand into
the print on the shower door and called out again, “White Dove, we need to go
now while we can still see well,” I said.

I barely finished
getting it out of my mouth when I felt my hand being sucked tighter onto the
glass and it was filled with heat. Then it cooled.

I pulled my hand back
and looked up at Logan and said, “I’ve got her; she is with me.”

“Holy crap,” Logan
said. “Let’s go,
[LEB4]
 
Isabella.”

We tore down the stairs
to where Cheveyo was waiting and Logan said, “Isabella has her. She has White
Dove. I’ll get dressed.”

He went in the bathroom
downstairs and was out in a flash, all dressed.

“How, did you get her?”
Cheveyo asked.

“Come on; we will tell
you in the truck,” Logan replied.

I turned off the music,
locked up and joined them in the truck. We pulled out and Logan told Cheveyo
the story about how we got her. He was very dramatic. He said I had this
brilliant idea about placing my hand in the print on the shower door. I was
blushing. He told Cheveyo what I said to her and that I felt her get onto my
hand.

I found myself glancing
down at my hand and holding it upright. I somehow felt really important on my
mission and wandered if that is how White Dove felt when she attached to heal
me. I felt this bone deep emotional attachment flood over my entire being.
Tears began rolling down my face in gratitude.

White Dove healed me so
I could love my one true soul mate; the man of my destiny. How could I ever
repay what she had given to me? I wondered if she knew for however many
hundreds of years it had been, that I was the one she would heal, so I could be
open to the love of my life.

Did she know it was me,
or was I the only one who touched it haphazardly that needed healing? I think I
like that she waited hundreds of years for me to come because I was her
destiny.

“Earth to Isabella,”
Logan said.

“Yes, did you need me?”
I asked.

“You just looked a
million miles away from here,” Logan said.

“I was just thinking
about my connection to White Dove and how she was my destiny and now, I was
hers. It just seemed poetic now that she was not scaring me to death anymore. I
thought of all of those events and how she was just trying to get my attention
and talk to me after giving me a gift,” I said.

“I think I prefer
old-fashioned gift giving,” Logan laughed.

“It’s pretty incredible
now that we’ve put it all together and figured it out. Even I felt like I was a
part of something way bigger than myself,” Cheveyo said.

We arrived at the
Petroglyphs and Logan said, “Let’s go get this thing done.”

We all got out and
headed to the spot. Cheveyo said he always dreaded coming here because it was
like the spirits called out to him and there were many so, it was all jumbled
in his head.

We walked the rough
trail and Logan said we were getting close. “There it is,” I said and pointed
to the hand on the rock. My hand heated up as if White Dove was revved up and ready.

“Stop,” Cheveyo said.
“Stop now!”

I looked up and there
was a rattlesnake right under the hand on the ground.

“Oh,
no.”
My heart raced fiercely. “What can we do? We just
have to get White Dove back,” I said.

“That snake is not
going to let you get that close to him,” Cheveyo said.

I felt my hand heat up
again and I raised it up.

The snake struck at me
and I gasped and backed up, but then the snake hit the ground dead.

“Wow, that snake is
dead! I don’t understand it,” Cheveyo said.

I reached up and put my
hand into the handprint on the rock and I felt the heat and then the rock
shook. I felt cool peacefulness flood through my soul and wept as White Dove
left me.

Logan came over and
embraced me, holding my face in his hands as the tears flowed down like rain.

“Isabella, I am so
thankful she healed you so you could love me. I don’t think I could breathe
without your love. You are my whole life. I love you,” Logan told me.

“We better make our way
back, before we can’t see,” Cheveyo suggested.

On our way back to the
truck Cheveyo said, “That was a really beautiful thing you did, Isabella. I
can’t think of one woman with that much courage that it took for you to do
that. Your life is very important for her to have chosen you. I think I should
call you ‘Tiponi’, which means child of importance.”

“I love the name, but
she was the important one,” I said. “I just feel so touched that my life has
that much meaning to someone else. I will have to live my life of love to the
fullest for the both of us.”

“That is just as she
would want it, I am sure,” Cheveyo said.

We made our way back to
the truck and on toward my aunt’s house. While we were driving, Cheveyo asked,
“What does your aunt think of all of this?”

“I still have not told
her,” I replied.

“Maybe it is better
that way,” Logan said.

“Yeah, I think no one
outside of the people in this truck would believe it. I don’t think I would’ve
believed if I had not experienced it. This is yet another reason why I feel
drawn to this place. I guess it was my destiny to come here,” I said.

“I sure am glad you
did,” Logan said.

“I am, too, Cheveyo
responded.

“Thanks, guys. I’m glad
I came also.”

“What a day,” Logan
said.

“I guess our campout is
cancelled now that we’ve solved the problem,” Cheveyo said.

“I don’t know. I think
we deserve a real campout. I already have the steaks ready for the grill and we
have plenty of room. I am still so emotional, I would love to have you guys
stay over,” I said.

“I think she has made
us an offer that we can’t refuse, Cheveyo,” Logan said.

“I could certainly go
for another swim after hiking the Petroglyphs,” Cheveyo replied.

“It’s settled then. At
least now it is a party,” I announced.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

At my aunt’s house,
Cheveyo ran in to get his swim trunks on.

Inside, Logan grabbed
me and pulled me into him. “You, my love, are the best. I think this is a great
idea and I am ready to celebrate.” He kissed my forehead and said, “Let’s go
grab your suit.”

We raced upstairs and I
went in the bathroom and changed. Logan did the same, going in after me.

He came out of the
bathroom, grabbed me again and kissed me. “I love you, Isabella”.

“I love you more,
Logan.” We journeyed back downstairs.

Cheveyo was on the
patio already. I reached up and turned on the music and lights and asked them
what they were drinking. They gave me drink orders and I delivered them.

Cheveyo dived into the
water and Logan followed suit. I jumped up from my chair and took a dive into
the water myself. The water felt like heaven flooding over me. The warm clear
water encompassed my body and it felt delicious.