Awchewa: Awakening to Swan Medicine

By Nita Bauer

When a rainstorm spoils the first LaHoya family picnic of the summer, an angry swan suddenly flies out of the reeds and attacks fifteen-year-old Katie. As she falls in seemingly slow motion, Katie hears a voice that no one else can hear, chanting in a foreign language. Ya awchewa!

Continuing to be troubled by nightmares, a swarm of neon stars on steroids, and episodic visions that start to come true, Katie is reluctantly swept off to the sticks of central Texas to stay with her quirky Grandma Rubythe only one who knows whats going on.

As a chain of events leads Katie to unravel the secret her family has been protecting for centuries, Katie must confront the past and the future in ways she never imagined. When she is left with an agonizing choice between the safety of normalcy and accepting her destiny, Katie soon discovers that she will have to let go of who she believes she is in order to find her true self.

In this coming of age tale, a self-conscious teen spending the summer with her grandmother becomes intertwined with a centuries-old secret and a deranged swan intent on bringing the awakening.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532045912

Nita Bauer

Nita Bauer spent twenty years in the Air Force, and holds a BA in social work and a MA in information systems management. Today she works in the IT department for a Texas law firm. When she is not working or writing, Nita enjoys spending time with her family surrounded by a menagerie of pets in the Texas Hill Country. This is her first novel.

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Copyright © 2018 Nita Bauer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-4590-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4592-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4591-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907163

iUniverse rev. date: 06/18/2018

Contents

Chapter 1     It’s Time

Chapter 2     What Now?

Chapter 3     Welcome to Podunk

Chapter 4     Cypress Springs Ranch

Chapter 5     Grandma’s Earth Medicine

Chapter 6     John Allen’s Animal Medicine

Chapter 7     Clan of the Wolf

Chapter 8     Night Fright—Fright Night

Chapter 9     Nirvana

Chapter 10   Coyote Medicine

Chapter 11   Conscious Dreaming

Chapter 12   Cypress Creek Manor

Chapter 13   We Go Three Times

Chapter 14   The Space Between

Chapter 15   The Notebook

Chapter 16   First-Day Jitters

Chapter 17   The Sheriff’s Visit

Chapter 18   The Andrews’ Pool Party

Chapter 19   Storm Cellar

Chapter 20   Day after the Storm

Chapter 21   Tonight’s the Night

Chapter 22   Gone Below

Chapter 23   Missing

Chapter 24   The Quest

Chapter 25   The Green Door

Chapter 26   The Red Door

Chapter 27   The Crystal Cavern

Chapter 28   The Council of Elders

Chapter 29   Home Sweet Home

Chapter 30   The Wildflower Festival

Awchewa II   White Bird and Raven

Acknowledgments

For my mother

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In honor of the

sacred bond between mother and daughter

and the precious memory of our grandmothers

and their grandmothers

and all the grandmothers

who came before and

who come again

to remind us

who we are

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Wake up, Little Spring Bird!

Wake up!

Open your eyes; it’s time to fly.

It’s time to live!

Awaken!

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Chapter 1

It’s Time

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R uby clutched the leather medicine pouch hanging around her neck while she scanned the horizon from her hilltop vista. I’ve seen this day before, she whispered to herself. Her snow-white wisps of waist-length hair feathered around her face and fluttered behind her.

The long line of cedar bordering her garden swayed, and lush rows of lavender spikes whipped in the sudden breeze. In a nearby rose bed, heavy buds began to bob and weave. Then the temperature took a noticeable dip. The ground she’d tilled that morning stirred, and a swipe of gray smeared across the Texas Hill Country sky with a hint of coming rain.

Ah, yes. A blush touched her cheeks as the trace of a knowing smile spread to her eyes. It’s time.

A single white feather fell from her hair and drifted across the garden, caught up in a crosswind with the sound of her voice. It’s time.

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From her perch on the edge of a picnic table, nearly a hundred miles away, fifteen-year-old Katie La Hoya glanced up from her cell phone screen. She wasn’t sure what she’d heard, if anything at all. Mom and Dad were just coming back from a hike along the lake shore—too far away for the sound to have come from them. Her eight-year-old brother, Allen, was still practicing soccer drills at the bottom of the knoll they’d chosen for their first summer picnic. What had it been then? She pulled her dark sunglasses to the top of her head and looked around. Then she saw it.

Cast in a ray of sunlight, the shimmering bird glided across the lake. As it skimmed the surface with feet outstretched, water sprayed behind it like tiny drops of pure gold. Then, without the slightest shift in majesty, the stunning swan folded its exquisite wings and came to rest in a state of grace perfectly reflected on the surface of the lake.

Did you see that? Allen yelled.

Katie tucked a length of her bangs behind an ear and grinned. She knew what he wanted. She grabbed the half-empty bag of hamburger buns and jogged down to meet him. Be careful.

He couldn’t wait. He snatched the bag and took off running, mousy-brown curls flying. A flock of geese crowded around the little dock in anticipation of the feast he offered, but the swan remained unfazed by his offering.

Beautiful, Mom whispered when she joined Katie. They stood together, fists on hips, and admired the scene while Allen tossed bread crumbs for the waterfowl.

When Katie noticed their matching stance, she shoved her hands into her jeans pockets. It was bad enough strangers assumed they were sisters. She didn’t need people calling them twins. Of course, Mom was the pretty one—unlike Katie, who’d won her weird-colored eyes in some cruel gene-pool lottery. Witch hazel, Mom called them—too pale for hazel, with flecks of green and amber that glowed unexplainably in a particular light. Her eyes were her greatest annoyance and the reason for her obsessive devotion to sunglasses. All she ever wanted was to be normal like the other girls—something she hadn’t been since prissy little Amanda Worthington had called her Witch Eyes during a third-grade soccer match.

All these years later, Katie still hadn’t lived it down. She pulled her shades down to cover her eyes and kicked Allen’s abandoned soccer ball across the grass.

Thunder cracked, and a telltale whiff of wet earth filled Katie’s senses. Above them, massive gray clouds lumbered in like an elephant stampede. Tree limbs rustled with an increasing frenzy, and a stack of paper plates flew out of the trash can like playing cards dealt out on family night. The first raindrops glanced Katie’s sunglasses.

I knew this weather was too good to be true, Mom said. You’d better go get him. We don’t want to be trapped here all day in another downpour like last time. She turned uphill.

Katie knew her mother was right. She dashed toward the water like a soccer player making a run on goal. Come on, Allen! We’ve got to go. She took a sideswipe at the soccer ball as she zipped past. It was a perfect shot straight into the cattails. She might have yelled Goal! if only in her head, except for the angry white bird that flew out of the reeds.

What the heck?

The swan dove at her, flapping its wings and striking her with its beak until her sunglasses flew off. Katie covered her face with her arms and screamed, but the deranged bird continued to batter her with its wings.

She felt herself falling in slow motion—as if she had been falling for so long she’d lost sight of the idea she might ever hit the ground. Her brother’s shouts came from an ever-greater distance until she couldn’t hear his voice anymore. She fought to open her eyes and tried to cry out for help, but she couldn’t make a sound.

Then something brushed past her ears. Through what sounded like static on the radio, she barely made out a raspy female voice. It spiraled around her, chanting in a foreign language. Is that Chinese? The voice repeated the same maddening phrase over and over again while a drumbeat tapped out its cadence. The incessant voice chanted crazy words:

Ya awchewa.

Ko’l apen ac aw is, ya awchewa.

Ana! Apansus e eyawa.

Eye e eyawa.

Ya awchewa e eyawa!

Katie grew dizzy with the sound of it. The beat quickened, the words becoming clearer with each repeated phrase. Awchewa! When she heard the voice in her head, her eyes flew open. Lightning flashed, and the last resistance of the storm broke free with a thunderbolt.

Dad’s body shielded her from the rain as his frightened face looked down at her. What happened, honey? He pulled her to her feet. Are you hurt?

Chilled to the core, Katie felt the world spinning beneath her. It came out of nowhere.

Allen beamed, beside himself with excitement. You should’ve seen it, Dad. It was all over her. Just pecking and pecking like it was trying to kill her.

His frantic gestures were too much for Katie. She cringed and backed away. Crack! Her sunglasses snapped in two, but she couldn’t see the crushed remains of her protective shield through the swarm of firefly lights rotating around her head in alternating green and gold. Then she heard the woman’s voice again.

Awchewa, Katie said aloud.

What? Mom grabbed Katie’s arm, her expression blank. What did you say?

Katie hugged herself. I think I’m going to be sick.

We need to get you home. Mom slipped her arm around Katie’s waist and steered her up the now slippery slope while the skies fell around them.

What is it, Becca? Dad flanked the path behind them. Should we take her to the emergency room?

Just get my purse, Mom snapped. We need to get her home.

Katie glanced back at her sunglasses left in the grass. They were ruined, of course. There was nothing she could do to save them now.

Dad hollered at Allen. Come on, Son! Stop messing around.

Katie watched her soggy brother run toward them with a fistful of grimy swan feathers. Another feather lay on the path in front of him. Did it glimmer? She wasn’t sure.

Allen snatched it up. I’m coming. He smiled up at her.

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It stormed for the rest of the day. Katie tucked Grandma’s tattered throw around her legs and curled up on the sofa with a book. She couldn’t get into the story, though. Crazy Chinese words floated through her mind like whispers in the dark, and those maddening lights seemed to be everywhere—blinking around her like neon stars on steroids. In the end, she clamped a pillow over her head until she fell asleep with her guard cat, Winston, at her feet.

In the haze of her dream, she knew she’d been running. She ducked under the limbs of the great tree and forced her breathing to even out while she got her bearings. A thundering sound overhead ramped up her adrenaline, and she took off running again. For the life of her, though, she couldn’t remember what she was running from. Her mind grappled for control.

All of a sudden, the path disappeared, and she came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a bluff. Steep canyon walls faded into oblivion below her—there was no escape in sight. Then the giant white bird attacked, diving at her again and again. While its massive wings pounded her arms, tattered feathers fluttered over the canyon wall. Katie turned to avoid the next attack and backed over the edge.

She knew she should have been falling, but the fabric of time seemed to hold her suspended over the gorge. A whirl of glistening feathers floated around her while she hung in midair and stared into the invasive eyes of the swan. Then, just like that, time let go, and she plummeted into the bowels of the spinning vortex. Katie screamed for her life.

She landed with such force that the sofa scooted across the wood floor. Her quaking heart raced to keep up with each anxious tick of the mantel clock. What the hell? She’d had nightmares before, but this one had been so real. Those eyes.

When she saw Allen’s feather collection drying on the coffee table, she swiped the feathers into the wastebasket. She didn’t need any more reminders of that deranged bird.

A loud scrape sounded behind her, and Katie spun around with a gasp, only to laugh at herself when the cat pawed at the door again. Oh, Winston, you almost gave me a heart attack. She scooped him up and pushed through the door into the kitchen.

Inside, Mom had her iPhone set on speaker while she cleaned up.

It’s time, the voice said, and the hair on Katie’s neck prickled.

I told you I didn’t want this! Mom shoved a pan into the dishwasher. Not for myself and certainly not for my daughter.

You only deny your heritage, Ahan. You cannot deny hers.

Grandma Ruby! Katie recognized the familiar term of endearment her grandmother used for her daughter.

But I thought the cycle ended when Grandma Angie died. Mom glanced at the grouping of photographs on the wall over the kitchen table.

Katie did too. The revered Grandma Angie’s portrait hung at the heart of their family photos. Mom never spoke of her, but Katie knew this woman had meant the world to her.

The cycle of time is never-ending. Once the Awchewa begins—

Katherine! Mom shouted when she saw Katie standing there. She almost dropped a glass.

Is that my Katie-girl? Grandma’s voice reverberated excitement from the speaker. Your mama’s been talking to me about that waterbird that started all this trouble.

Stupid bird broke my sunglasses. Katie set Winston down by his food bowl.

Grandma didn’t even pause for breath. I need you to catch a feather from that bird and bring it here to me. Can you do that?

What? No way! Katie backed away. Just thinking about the swan had her heart racing. I’m already having nightmares.

Nightmares? Mom’s eyes darkened. She moved closer.

She carries the message, Grandma said.

What nightmares? Mom ignored her mother.

That freaking swan chased me over a cliff.

Like I told you, Grandma whispered.

Time stopped, and I—

Time stopped? Mom just stood there and stared at Katie with dark brown eyes that said so many things. When Mom looked away, Katie heard the resignation in her voice. Okay. We’ll do it. If she needs a damned feather, we’ll get her one. Mom touched Katie’s cheek.

But, Mom—

The universe will provide. You’ll see, Grandma said.

Her line went dead just as Allen pushed through the kitchen door with a clenched fist of scraggly feathers. Hey! Who threw these away? he asked.

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The sky was still drizzling when Katie started packing, but she didn’t turn on her lamp. The nightlight from the hall was all she needed to find her way around. Besides, she didn’t want to see the damned feather lying on her desk. She didn’t need a reminder of that crazy bird or the hopeless conversation she’d had with her mother after Grandma’s call. Nothing could get through to Mom once she made up her mind. Dad wouldn’t even try. Katie was going to stay with Grandma Ruby for the summer, and that was that.

Katie yanked a drawer out of her dresser and dumped a pile of colorful underthings into an open suitcase. Her clothes seemed to writhe in equivalent despair. The more she looked at it, though, the more her clothing appeared to move. She dropped the drawer and ran into the hall. The invisible creature scrambled under the bed. What the hell?

Katie flipped on the overhead light and peered around the doorframe. Winston’s green eyes scowled back at her from under the bed. Oh yeah. He was mad. He was taking his frustration out on the pages of Katie’s freshman yearbook, which was still open to the team layouts.

Hey! Cut that out. She snatched the book away from him and smoothed down the scuffed pages, grazing gently across the face of Brad Carpenter, captain of the soccer team. She tried not to notice the tiny heart she’d penned next to his name in a pathetic moment of pretending anyone like him would ever want to be with her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t ignore the ugly red X she’d drawn across the face of Amanda Worthington, who was standing there in all her glory with the state championship trophy. Oh, how Katie despised pretty blondes with big blue eyes.

Katie slammed the book closed and shoved it into the closet. As she did, a pile of soccer trophies from grade school tumbled to the floor. Among them was one engraved Second-Place State Champions, the last one she’d ever received. She kicked it back into the dark recesses of her closet and slammed the door.

Winston slinked around her leg, his tail high, and Katie reached down to pick him up. Me too, little buddy, she whispered. She flipped the light off and slumped down on the bed. A stream of moonlight fell across the desk where the accused feather lay. Katie rolled over to face the wall in a huff and curled up around her feline companion.

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Chapter 2

What Now?

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T he next morning, Katie awakened to her tubby gray tabby kneading her belly.

Hey! That was a decent dream for a change. She smoothed Winston’s ruffled fur and tilted her head to pull at the fading threads of her dream. She only remembered a few snippets of Grandma Ruby talking to a strange man. In Chinese? Was he holding a feather?

Come on, Katie. Mom tapped on the door. It’s time to get up.

In a minute! she yelled back. Then the suitcases by her bedroom door brought her back to reality. Any lingering memory of her dream-time adventures fizzled in an instant. Today was the day she was being banished to Cypress Creek.

She stood up too fast, and a bolt of neon green flashed across her eyes. She latched on to the dresser to keep from falling. Then a barrage of images assaulted her inner eye while the Chinese voice chanted crazy stuff again.

Ya awchewa, Ko’l apen ac aw is. Ya Awchewa.

Katie sat down on the side of the bed with her head in her hands and tried to make sense of the montage of images: a fly on a pile of scrambled eggs in a green dish, Winston sliding across the breakfast table, and Dad with a brown stain on a white shirt. Each image bore the same consistency as those of a dream, but she couldn’t bring her rational brain to agree she was just experiencing flashbacks from a dream.

Mom!

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Everyone else was at the breakfast table when Katie went downstairs. She overheard Dad mutter to her mother over the top of his iPad. I can’t believe you bought into this cockamamie story your mother dreamed up. When he saw Katie, he shut his mouth and stared at her as if she were a freak from another planet—the same way the kids at school did.

What? Her responding glare was involuntary.

Sit down, and eat your breakfast, young lady.

Any thought Katie might have had to tell them about her episode went out the window. She bopped Allen on the back of his head. Move over, meathead. It was their morning ritual.

Dad cleared his throat, and Mom whispered, Leave her alone, Paul.

Katie didn’t notice, though. All she cared about was the picture-perfect platter of scrambled eggs in the middle of the table. Her neck hair tingled. That’s the exact dish! She plopped down without giving her brother the accompanying nudge he usually received. Her hand shook so much she thought she might spill the obligatory spoonful of eggs she put on her plate. Her mouth was so dry that she had to gulp back half a glass of orange juice.

You want some bacon, sweetie? Mom attempted to pass Katie a plate.

Katie just shook her head and picked at her eggs with her fork. She couldn’t take her eyes off that green dish. What does it mean?

Dad flicked his napkin over the table. Who let flies in the house?

Katie’s mouth fell open. A big, fat, hairy fly buzzed around the table and alighted on the scrambled eggs. She’d seen that very thing. That exact fly on those exact eggs. Her mind went on tilt. Before she could even consider what might happen next, Winston bounded from the counter and skidded across the table in pursuit of the fly. Placemats buckled, and Allen’s glass toppled in Winston’s wake. Dad’s steaming-hot coffee mug was in Winston’s direct path.

Katie stood up. Dad! Your—

It was too late. His cup tipped, and coffee splattered across Dad’s starched white shirt. He bolted to his feet. What the hell? His eyes practically bulged with fury.

Katie couldn’t believe it. Had she known that was going to happen? Oh God. Did I cause it? She just stood there open-mouthed until she noticed everyone staring at her. What? I didn’t do it! She threw her napkin at a puddle of spilled milk and stormed out.

What’s she so upset about? I’m the one who got scalded with hot coffee!

Just leave her be, Paul. I’ll take care of it, Mom said.

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A few hours later, a week’s worth of groceries, two oversized suitcases, and a stack of fresh bedding were loaded in the back of Mom’s SUV. Katie slumped against the passenger-side window ledge and twisted the stupid feather between her fingers. Grandma Ruby’s ranch was the last place on earth she wanted to go. She’d had plans for the summer. She was going to get a job and start saving money to buy a car—so she didn’t have to ride the bus with those creeps. What the hell am I going to do in Grandma’s little Podunk town?

Mom patted Katie’s leg. This isn’t a punishment, you know.

It feels like punishment. Katie looked away and shielded her eyes. A pair of cardinals whistled back and forth as they flittered from tree to tree, keeping pace with Mom. Katie rolled up her window. She didn’t have anything to be so cheerful about.

Neither of them spoke again until they left the stop-and-go bustle of San Antonio traffic behind. Mom cruised through the first leg of the Hill Country at a fast clip. The rolling hills and sweeping valleys were sparsely adorned with the familiar twisted oaks, blueberry juniper, and prickly pear cactus Katie had observed on their annual trips to visit her grandmother.

This place always reminds me of her. Mom glanced sideways at Katie. You always remind me of her, with your beautiful witch-hazel eyes.

Katie curled her fingers into fists. Why does she have to say that? It was bad enough the kids at school called her names, but her own mother? She let a protective curtain of bangs fall across her face.

Mom sent Katie a wistful smile. Oh, how I loved her old stories and silly songs. She always made me feel like I was the most special child in the world.

Katie scrunched her face and glared at her mother. Who? Grandma Ruby? I thought you didn’t like her very much.

What? No. Of course I like her. She’s my mother. I just don’t— She tightened her grip on the steering wheel and sighed. I was talking about Grandma Angie.

Grandma Angie had hazel eyes too? Katie pushed her bangs aside. How come you never told me about her?

You know she died when I was about your age, I guess. I missed her so much. Mom’s voice sounded hoarse. Mother tried to keep the traditions and practice the old ways. But I couldn’t. Not in that town. Not without her. Her lips trembled. I stayed with Aunt Margie.

It was evident Mom was fighting back tears, but Katie didn’t want to care. She was the one with something to cry about, wasn’t she? She was the one being sent away for no good reason. Besides, what could she say that would make a difference for Mom? Helpless, Katie leaned into her mom’s shoulder, and Mom slipped an arm around her the way she’d done since Katie was a kid. They stayed that way until the monotony of the road lulled Katie into the void between wake and sleep.

I never wanted this for you was the last thing Katie heard before she stepped into the world of dreams.

A mystical light beckoned in the distance, spreading a luminous path along the pool’s mirrored surface. The trail ended in the sparkling sand at Katie’s feet. A scattering of stars whirled out from the beam and circled ever wider until they disappeared into the night sky. Then a phantom bird emerged from the radiant core, flying high and dipping