Gardens in the Dunes Read Online Free PDF Page B

surrounded by willow and tamarisk. Then she saw the wagon with bedding spread underneath, with people still asleep; but standing around a small campfire she saw a white woman and a white man. So the Paiute woman’s story about the Mormons was true! Small groups of Mormons came because the Mormons had been waiting for the Messiah’s return; they became very excited after they heard Wovoka preach. Mormons began to dance hand in hand with the other dancers; these Mormons who believed in Wovoka were generous and donated meat for the dancers. The white canvas for the dancers’ shawls was donated by the Mormons.
    The second night more dancers circled the fire. Indigo counted eight Mormons—six men and two women; painted with white clay and wrapped in white robes, the Mormons looked like all the others. Indigo watchedthem that night and wondered if Mormons saw their ancestors when they danced. Watching the Mormons kept Indigo awake; she wanted to see one of them fall to the ground and moan from a visit by the old Mormon spirits. Try as she did, Indigo fell asleep after a few hours, and she had to rely on Sister Salt to tell her all that happened.
    Early on the final night, Indigo got to see for herself what happened to a Mormon visited by his ancestors. The young man suddenly fell to his knees with his face in his hands, babbling and weeping before he slowly sank to the earth and lay quietly on his side, no different from any of the other dancers who visited with the spirits. Indigo was wide awake. This final night was the night the Messiah and his Holy Mother would come.
    â€œThe whirlwind! The whirlwind! The snowy earth floats before me! The snowy earth floats before me!” Grandma Fleet sang loudly even after dancing hard four nights straight. She squeezed their entwined fingers together firmly—Sister Salt on one side, Indigo on the other. They must sing hard if they wanted the Christ and his eleven children to come down from the mountains at dawn.
    Around and around they danced, lightly caressing the Mother Earth with their feet. “Dust of the whirlwind, dust of the mountains in the whirlwind, even the rocks are ringing! Whirlwind in the mountains, rock dust rings. Rock dust rings,” they sang. The whirlwind would transform the Earth, the Paiute woman said. When the wind scoured away all impurities, then the Earth’s rebirth would follow.
    On this final night, more dancers were visited by spirits than on previous nights. Indigo watched Mama stiffen, lean her head back, and sink to the ground shivering, without a word. They carefully stepped around Mama and they kept dancing. “Cottonwood! Cottonwood, so tall! Lush green leaves! Lush green leaves! Cottonwood so tall!” The voices of the dancers rose above the river. Indigo closed her eyes: the sound of the hundreds of voices was not human but mountain, as if out of the depths of the mountains a great humming rose. The Earth announced her labor; the ground must shudder and heave before she could be reborn. Indigo felt the Earth’s breathing through the soles of her feet; the sound gently carried her along, so she did not tire dancing. She was determined to stay awake; everyone seemed more alert. Sister Salt said the Messiah and his family were close by, waiting for the right moment to come to them.
    As the dancers began the final song, the wind began to stir and the air smelled damp. The waning moon rose but soon disappeared behind theclouds. Big snowflakes began to hiss in the flames of the fire. The clouds and mist reflected the glow of the big campfire and illuminated the hills above the river and cast strange, giant shadows of the dancers. Later Grandma Fleet blamed those odd shadows for the townspeople’s fears, which brought the soldiers and Indian police.
    Although scattered snow flurries remained, the mass of storm clouds drifted east; the buffalo horn moon was still visible as the morning star appeared on the horizon.