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January 5 - January 9, 2023
Rosita was an entertainer, the keeper of ten thousand stories, each stranger than the last.
“It may be an Apache dialect. Rosita’s parents spoke Lipan, ’round when our people had to go culturally incognito for survival.”
Years ago, Nina’s parents taught her that Lipan needed to be “revitalized”—people knew phrases, simple sentences, and words, but nobody spoke it fluently.
If baby Rosita had survived the U.S. government’s attempts to slaughter Texas Natives, she’d been alive during the 1800s, which would make her over 150 years old.
When awake, she told fanciful, ancient stories about the days when humans and spirits lived together.
Even in our false form, cottonmouths do poorly in low temperatures.
So I had a choice to make: right or left.
I picked the branch going right.
I wanted to sleep near the water; in my true form, I could escape most threats by swimming. Not many land animals are able to outswim a cottonmouth.
the night bugs and toads were singing.
The voice of a lovesick frog person wove between the cacophony of screeches and chirps.
In my dreams, I tried to sing, but my voice was drowned by the screams of trees. “Why are you shouting?” I asked the forest. “It’s okay. You’re home.” “Then why are you here?” the trees asked. “If this is our home, who are you?”
Maybe I should slither back to Momma’s house and beg for mercy. Just one more year in her cottage. One more blanket.
Everyone knew they had left Earth thousands of years ago after the joined era, but considering their prodigious lifespans,
Your side of the family has the life span of parrots! It all begins with Rosita. Is she actually a bird person? Are we descended from spirits? Is that the big mystery of her story?
Social media. Targeted ads. Some people don’t want to be known by the unknown, believe it or not.
People said strange things when they were in the dreamlike fog of IV-delivered morphine.
I wondered how many of my siblings had survived their first day of independence. How could all of them thrive in a world that was so vicious and uncaring?
Stop trembling in a tree, waiting for the world to be as safe as her cottage. That’ll never happen.
Snakes don’t stop growing. Every year, we get a bit longer and wider. Slower, heavier. Our appetites grow, as well. That’s why elders rarely transform into their true bodies.
There did not seem to be any kindness in the world beyond my childhood, and I could never return to the past.
They say the path to anywhere-you-please is not concerned with the rules of space or time. It slithers snakelike through forests—mostly in the world of spirits and monsters, but occasionally on Earth—fleeing from the people who want to catch it. That’s why no map leads to the path, just like no map can lead to a roaming pack of wolves. Guess that’s also why most people who walk the path do so unwittingly.
Some things are worth protecting with your life.
The land under and around the three-bedroom house had been their family’s homeland for generations. Before Texas became a state, Nina’s ancestors had lived there, and they didn’t ever leave. Not really. When Federal Indian Removal became the law of the land, and bounties were put on Apache heads, her people resisted. In many ways, they still did.
It was a world-shaper, an act that momentarily tweaked the natural laws through willpower alone.
we’re semiaquatic snakes, which means we’re good at influencing the water.
For every species on Earth, there are animal people. A couple truths are known. First, we’re strong and plentiful when our species do well. Second, we suffer when our species suffer.
“They were slaughtered,” she said. “A human breed known as colonizer killed millions.”
The colonizers desired to annihilate another group of humans. Indigenous peoples. They knew that the Indigenous ones relied on bison. So the bison had to go.
To her, the emptiness and silence were home. This wasn’t a ghost town. Not when the heart of her family still beat within the land.
I guess marriage could be okay, if the right person came along.
It’s just that I haven’t seen my siblings in years. Don’t even know if they’re all alive. This is the first sign
It’s the first physical sign that my family’s out there,
I thought of all the pain and loss that could have been avoided if I—if he—hadn’t been so alone.
Was he even still alive?
… nor is it clear how many so-called crossing zones exist, although estimates range from 500 to 500,000. Size estimates are similarly variable. Researchers hypothesize that the largest, strongest crossing zones—through which most spirits journey—exert an influence on Earth, resulting in measurable magnetic and temperature anomalies. However, to date, zero peer-reviewed studies support this belief. A recent video by J. C. Jackson, a self-described spirit hunter, purports to show evidence of a crossing zone anomaly. In the 2-minute clip, which was filmed in Northern Canada, a compass needle
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It was certainly possible that Grandma’s land was a “crossing zone,” an area where spirits could go back and forth between their world and Earth through the sky, the land, and the water.
Some claim that owls delight in delivering terrible news, but that’s an unfair characterization. The thing is, they are often asked to carry urgent messages at night. And, as you know, night is a common time for monster attacks.
t had been generations since my many-great ancestors more or less gave up living on Earth. It was beautiful, but too dangerous, too heartbreaking.
In my experience, your friend’s illness indicates that his animal species has been irreversibly damaged.
Some people like solitude,
There’s something about Grandma’s home that heals people. That’s why Rosita lived so long. That’s why Tightrope got better ridiculously fast. That’s why the story includes the words “healer” and “homeland.” That’s why animal people (probablyyyy) hang out around Grandma’s house.
All I could do was make the most of the time I had and hope that my actions mattered.
Lipan Apache and Jicarilla Apache are similar languages.
there are words that sound practically identical and other words that sound similar.
Mom had to reach out to a tribal linguist, and he collected materials for her.
Lipan language doesn’t use gendered pronouns. There is no he hunted or she hunted. There’s only, like, they—singular—hunted.
“She told the story of a family. It begins with a man from afar—using context, I assume that’s the Reflecting World—and a woman from Earth. They meet in the place of water, in the homeland, and have one son. The father has to go back and forth between worlds. The mother has to stay near the water. They make it work, and the son grows into an adult. In the story, he travels and does amazing things. He is a friend to animal people. Essentially, the son behaves like the spirit humans of the joined era. Like a legend. “That’s probably what makes him the target of hunters. I’m not clear what
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Rosita's story about animal people with human on Earth
The latest predictions show Hurricane Jeremy-2 heading toward Grandma’s house.
They predict a category 5. But it’s still early. At least three days till landfall. The weather people aren’t even confident where it’ll strike. To be safe, I’m gonna drive to Refuge County and board up Grandma’s windows. Get her place ready.
