Part II of Fiddlesticks
In the Next World, You’re on Your Own
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1. Rene Renews an Old Friendship
Surprised by the applause, Rene looked around to learn of whom her audience consisted. A young woman stood before her, a pretty young woman of her own age. She stood at least a foot shorter than Rene, though there was something subjective to her height; one moment she appeared no taller than a young child, and the next she seemed to tower overhead.
This woman had a delicate, colorful beauty about her, yet she projected inner strength — as though her airy spirit gave her the ability to endure, where a more obdurate nature would be worn down.
As she smiled, there was something about this woman that seemed familiar, something that called memories. Then it all came rushing back to Rene. This was her childhood play friend, the friend she had thought to be imaginary. And her name came to Rene’s lips as well. She was not called Meme; her name was derived from the Ojibwa word for butterfly: Maemaegawauhnse.
“Maemae!”
“Hello.” Her dear friend spoke in a cheerful, musical voice. She talked in the old tongue. “It has been a long time, but I knew you would find your way here some day.”
Rene laid aside her fiddle and bow as Maemae approached. They hugged as reunited sisters. Then Rene stepped back to look at her friend again. She spoke to her in the Ojibwa language her grandmother had taught her. “You have grown up.”
“No,” Maemae corrected her, “you have grown up. I remain as I always was.”
“But we were children together.”
For a moment that child stood before her, and then the adult returned. “I mirrored your own childhood.”
“Then you are my spirit guide?”
“Who better for a guide than a friend?”
Rene thought about it for a moment. “Maemaegawauhnse. Then you are a butterfly?”
In answer, Maemae shrank herself down to a colorful butterfly. Awed by the transition, Rene extended her hand, palm facing upward. The butterfly flitted over and landed on her palm.
“How miraculous!” Rene said as she studied the exquisite butterfly up close. “To think I never knew.”
The butterfly flew off and changed back into the young woman.
“Oh, you knew,” Maemae said. “You just accepted it. That is one of the gifts of a child.”
Rene was so ecstatic to have her special friend back she almost shed a tear. She had not realized just how lonely life was without her friend.
“Why did you ever leave me?”
“I never left you. I have been watching over you all these years. You stopped believing in me. But I knew you would open your eyes again some day.”
Rene shyly took her friend and guardian’s hand. “I am sorry, Maemae. I will never again doubt your existence.”
“I trust you,” Maemae brushed aside the apology.
“There are important things we must discuss before you end your first visit to the World under the Flesh.” Maemae got down to business. She drew Rene to sit on some rocks. The fiddle and bow were between them, at their feet. In one corner of her mind, Rene realized the fiddle case had not made the transition. Evidently she brought with her only the things that were in hand. She had no time to reflect on this as she was more concerned about her long lost friend.
“I don’t want to lose you so soon,” Rene quipped.
“Now that we are reunited,” Maemae told her, “we have the rest of your life to continue our friendship. I will always be around. If you ever need me, just call my name. If there are no other humans around, I will come to you in this form. Otherwise, I will attend you as a butterfly.”
Maemae cocked her head and seemed to listen for a moment. Rene watched her, but said nothing. Whatever Maemae was listening for, she dismissed it and laid her hand on the scroll of the fiddle.
“Long have I waited for you and your grandmother to realize your power was in your music. Understanding that is the beginning. Over time, you will learn there is no end to what you can achieve with your music. For now, however, your abilities are limited.”
“What do you mean?” Rene asked.
“This fiddle — special as it is — has little magic in it. Soon you will find an instrument suited to your abilities.”
“When?” Rene could not wait to get her hands on this magical instrument.
“It is hard to say. It may be sooner than any of us think. You will find it when it is necessary.”
Maemae stopped to listen again. She seemed uneasy about something, but she dismissed it. “Even after you have this instrument, you will need an instructor to teach you how to use the magic of your music.”
“What good is any of this, if I must wait for the right instructor?”
Maemae again cocked her head and listened. She answered Rene’s question in a hushed voice. “You can learn some things on your own, with the help of your grandmother and me, and maybe a few others. But even with this new fiddle, your abilities will be limited. They will be dependent on necessity until you find this teacher.”
Maemae stood up, ending the conversation. “Now you must return to your world.”
“But I just got here,” Rene protested.
“And you can come back when it is safe, but right now there is trouble approaching!” Maemae grabbed up the fiddle and bow and thrust them at Rene. “Now play and open the gateway while there is still time.”
“What is coming?”
“You remember the giant that troubled us when we first met?”
Rene had a dim memory of the encounter.
“Unless I am mistaken, there is an even bigger one on the way. And Chekaubaewiss cannot be found to save us from this one. Now play!”
Rene tucked the fiddle under her chin and bowed the open strings. The tuning pegs had slipped.
“What is wrong?” Maemae asked when Rene did not play.
“It is out of tune.”
“Then tune it! He is almost here!”
“I am.” Rene tried, though she was growing too nervous to tune the fiddle, much less play it. She heard thundering noises that grew louder and louder. Her eyes wide, she asked, “What is that?”
“The giant approaches,” Maemae told her. “Those are his footsteps.” Now the ground began to shake with each step.
“I will try to lure him away. Tune that fiddle and play!” Maemae dashed off.
“Maemae!” Rene started after her.
She took several steps and then recalled her grandmother’s instructions. Rene stopped where she was and looked at the ground about her. At first, in her panic she saw nothing. Then she made out the faint circle Grandma Rena had traced upon the ground. She was standing outside of it.
She had only exceeded the boundary by two steps. Rene told herself she was still in the area. Maybe it would work. Though she tried to convince herself she could still open the portal, she knew she could not. She had left the circle.
Tucking the fiddle back under her chin, she concentrated on tuning the instrument. Unfortunately, her hands were now shaking so much she dropped the bow. It bounced over by some rocks.
When she stepped over to retrieve it, she heard a loud roar, then there was a crashing noise and the whole ridge shook as though it was struck by an earthquake. Startled, Rene let out a scream and stumbled. Her foot came down right on the fiddlestick, breaking it. She might as well have broken her arm.
“Oh no!” she picked up the fiddlestick by the frog. The top end of the stick hung down freely, connected to the section in her hand only by the hairs. Now she would not be able to fiddle at all. And with no fiddle, how was she to return to her world?
Two more steps shook the ground. Rene wondered where she could hide. Despite her predicament, she was worried about Maemae and thought of calling her back when the giant appeared over the edge of the ridge.
This giant was huge. The top of the ridge reached a little above his waist. His jaw and arms were bristling with hairs that bore a close resemblance to porcupine quills. Beneath this hair, she could tell his arms and chest were well-muscled. He wore a dark leather jerkin. Rene had to wonder how many animals were slain to make such gargantuan apparel.
The giant looked at her with his dark brown eyes. The eyeballs surrounding the irises were a sick yellow color, shot through with red veins. He smirked at her, showing her his rotting teeth, and he breathed down on her a foul air thick with the lingering odor of long dead and rotting flesh. Then he leered at her, and with a massive tongue he licked his lips.
Rene’s legs lost their strength and she almost collapsed then and there.
Maemae was suddenly before her. “Why are you not gone?”
Rene held up her broken bow.
Maemae assessed the situation. Then her eyes opened wide and she sprang into action.
“Flee!” she told Rene as she pushed her out of the way and ran to meet the giant.
Rene stumbled a few feet and then stopped to watch in horror as her friend charged the giant. She cried out, “Maemae, no!”
Maemae took a running leap off the edge of the cliff. The giant caught her in his huge hand. Rene screamed, knowing her friend was surely crushed in that strong and massive paw.
Grinning at his catch, the giant opened his hand, intending to lick Maemae’s remains from his palm. Then he let out a hoot as the grin melted from his face in astonishment.
A butterfly flew out from between his fingers and proceeded to dart about his head.
“Maemae,” Rene sighed with relief. Then she realized she had best make an escape while her friend distracted the giant. As the huge monster swiped at the little butterfly with his large, slow arms, Rene turned and ran through the cedar woods atop the mesa.
The giant must have seen her move. With a howl and a sweep of the arm, he tore out by their roots the trees she had just passed.
Rene ran for all she was worth, holding the fiddle by the neck. She did not know where she was going. Her only thought was to escape.
Looking behind her as she ran, she saw the giant was distracted again by the butterfly, which had perched on the end of his nose. Before she could see what happened next, she tripped, sending the fiddle flying.
She landed by some cedar roots, near where the top of the mesa rose up to a new height over a series of irregular steps. The fiddle landed on the hard steps. She thought she heard the body crack, and the bridge snapped out of place, slapping the top of the instrument with a loud thump, accompanied by twanging strings that went dead. Rene scrambled over to grab the fiddle, aware as she did so that her right ankle ached, and her knees stung along with her elbow and palm, where she had scraped them.
She wanted to examine her grandfather’s fiddle to assess the damage, but there was no time for that now. The giant turned his attention back to her. He swished the butterfly out of his face and stepped closer, looking for her through the trees.
Rene glanced to her side and saw a dark space between a cedar trunk and the side of a ledge. It might be an animal’s lair. However, she had to hide and this was the only place she might do so. Ignoring the pain in her ankle, Rene scrambled over to the dark recess and crawled inside.
It was a cave stretching out behind her into blackness. Rene could not tell how deep it was and she did not intend to explore it. She only entered far enough for safety, staying in the dim light of the entrance, far enough back that she could not be seen.
The giant, Mishi-naubae, parted the trees just in time to see her disappear into the hidey hole. Roaring in anger, he swept the trees out of the way, causing rocks to fall and block the entrance.
Reaching out, the giant dug at the opening of the cave with a finger. Rene backed away as his finger probed the hole. Then he withdrew his hand and leaned down to place his cheek against the ground to peer through the entrance with a large discolored eye. He growled as he saw Rene cowering in the cave, just out of reach.
As he peered into the cavern, a rock bounced off his temple. He raised his head and looked to see where it had come from. It was Maemae, in human form. She threw another stone that bounced off his forehead as she taunted him. “You giants are so dumb, you get lost picking your nose!”
Maemae ran and the giant prepared to give chase. But first he chose one of the uprooted cedar trees and thrust it into the cave entrance. He was not dumb enough to leave without making sure the human woman could not escape from her lair. Human flesh was a rare delicacy he did not intend to miss out on. Satisfied the human would not be able to get out of this hole, he set off to pursue the Manitoussiwuk.
Next Chapter: Rene is Stuck in a Hole