The Ghost of Dome Rock Road

The War Council

Jessie pulled in front of Jack Willis' trailer. He noticed his friend Bud perched precariously on top of the trailer, struggling to reposition a TV antenna. "Yeah, it went out right in the bottom of the ninth of the Red Sox-Yankees game," Bud yelled.' Hey! That was some windstorm, hey Bud?" Jessie asked. "I didn't notice," said Bud. "There were two outs... bases were loaded and a 3-2 count on Big Papi. Then bam... nothing!" Jessie turned to Lizzy and Danny. "He's a big Red Sox fan. He's from back east, you know." Danny and Lizzy looked at each other. Bud and Jessie might as well have been talking Martian for all they knew. Neither of them ever showed any interest in sports. The old man walked into the trailer and motioned Lizzy and Danny to join him. "I'm going to hang out here with my buddy," Jessie said. "Ok... whatever!" Lizzy said.

Jessie barely recognized his old friend. Bud's whole demeanor seemed radically different than the man he left days earlier. When Bud spoke about watching the ballgame on TV, he had a sparkle in his eyes that Jessie hadn't seen since they were teenagers. Jessie helped Bud off the roof. "So, what have you guys been doing?" Jessie asked." Well, let's see. Where do I start?" Bud replied. "Man, something's happened, Bud. You don't look like the same person who showed up at my door a couple of weeks ago - all sad and shit." Bud scratched the back of his head briefly. It was a habit he'd developed in high school when he was asked a difficult question.

"I guess it started that night the old man and I went out into the desert," Bud said. "I was sitting on the edge of this ravine, my feet dangling over the edge. The old man was dancing behind me, spouting some incantations I didn't understand. I looked up and saw the brightest shooting star I've ever seen streak across the night sky. In an instant, it was gone, and the sky was dark again. All I saw were stars, thousands of them! Just then, I got this thought. I thought of how insignificant I am compared to thousands of stars. I began to think that they would just keep on twinkling in the night sky no matter what I did. Then I had this calm feeling come over me as I've never felt before." Tears began to well up in Bud's eyes. His voice trembled. "That night, I realized for the first time in my adult life that I'm here for a purpose - that it's not important what happens to me, but what I can contribute to the next poor sap. Like this guy Barry, for example."

"That's some heavy shit, Bud," Jesse said as he embraced his old friend. "What now?" Jessie asked. "I was filled with a sense of power I never felt before, Jessie. My job now is to figure out what that power wants me to do with the rest of my life. It certainly isn't living at the end of a whiskey bottle anymore, that's for sure!" "That's good news, man! I've seen that crap ruin more than a few people. I see it all the time out on the Rez." The men walked to Jessie's car, retrieved some suitcases and bags. On their way back to the trailer, Jessie stopped and asked Bud, "Hey Bud. Do you think what happened to you is what people call - finding God?" "Old friend, I don't know if it's 'a God' or 'the God', but I know it's bigger than all of us. Oh, and I didn't find it. It was never lost. I was the one who was lost! The old man told me later that this power is all around us. It travels right through us. Our job is to train our mind to hear what the power is telling us." Jessie thought,' his friend sounds a little kooky, but whatever happened to him, it's definitely for the better.'

Inside the trailer, everyone gathered themselves around Jack Willis' rickety old dining room table. They're pounding down some lemonade, ice-cold from the fridge. Then Lizzy broke the silence. "I heard my dad talking the other day," Lizzy said. "He wants to escape from that evil ghost, and he's pretty confident he can do it if he can get our help." "Help him, we will," the old man says. "Help him how?" Jessie asked. The old man slowly scanned the faces at the table before he said his next words. He raised his hands, "First, let me say a prayer. It is a warrior prayer, and it will help us to prepare our minds for the battle that is to come." Everyone locked their hands together as the old man recited the prayer.

"Great spirit of us all...

You have made our bodies strong...

Please fill us with your wisdom, so we will know the right path to take when the time comes...

We who must wage war, give us the strength and courage of the bear...

The cunning and endurance of the wolf, so we can send our enemy back to the place where it belongs...."

Then, he turned back to his guests. "The evil one we fight is powerful. He is built from the thousands of angry souls who have left this world knowing only hatred and despair. But there is a force in the universe much greater than he. We shall work together as one to pry the young one's father from its grasp and vanquish the demon into the pit from which it came. Now, we shall eat and gain our strength. Then, at morning light, we will venture up to the mountains. There, we will find a small chasm with an entrance to a dark cavern. It is there that we find what we are looking for." "It's waiting for us up there, isn't it, Yawaka?" Lizzy asked. "Yes, young one. It is working hard to fill us with fear, hoping that we will flee. He attempted to scare you on your journey here today." "Well, it's working, Mr. Willis," Danny said. "Fear not, dream warrior," the old man said. "Tonight, in your dreams, you shall summon your Nani. You will ask her to gather the many good and peaceful spirits from the great beyond so that they may help us in this battle."

Lizzy looked at Danny, "We're going to beat this thing, Danny. I feel like this is what we are destined to do," she said. Bud thought, 'That night in the desert... Bud now knew that his arrival at Jack Willis' crusty old trailer was no accident.' His destiny was linked to that of the old man. He knew that for sure now. They ate a large meal of deer meat, potatoes, and corn - then settled in for the night. As they dozed off, they could hear a cacophony of coyotes howling in the night sky. It seemed like there were hundreds of them everywhere! At first, the sounds conjured up fear in Danny, but he began to focus instead on the constant chirp of the crickets outside his window, and soon he was fast asleep. Danny thought about his Nani before he drifted off. He had a vital mission in his dreams tonight.