“If anyone is as burdened by grief as you are, I will wipe away the tears from their eyes so they can see again.”

Then he took that soft deerskin cloth and wiped the tears from Hiawatha’s eyes.

Picking up the second string of shells, he said the second words of condolence. “From the ears of that person I will take away whatever is preventing him from hearing these words.”

One by one he lifted those strings of shells and spoke those words of condolence. The clouds of sorrow lifted from Hiawatha’s shoulders, his eyes became clear and he stood up straight.

•   •   •

Carries reached down to his belt where his two deerskin pouches hung. He did not choose the larger one with the design of the tree on it. Instead, he untied the smaller pouch, opened it, and took out a string of shells.

“Here,” he said, “hold out your hand.”

Then he placed that string of shells on Okwaho’s outstretched palm.

chapter fourteen

REMEMBERING

As he held the string of shells Carries had given him, Okwaho found himself remembering yet again how it had been when he and his two best friends had been together. But this time he was not remembering it with sorrow choking his throat. This time, that memory was bringing a smile to his face.

As Carries told him the story of the healing of Hiawatha, it had been as if Okwaho were there, watching it happen. Okwaho had not just seen the Peacemaker lifting the sorrow from the shoulders of Hiawatha, he had felt the sorrow being lifted from Hiawatha’s mind. And he had felt more of his own anger and desire for vengeance being cleared from his mind by that story like the wind from the south blowing away the snow clouds in spring.

He handed the string of shells back to Carries.

“Niaweh,” he said. “Thank you.”

The tattooed man smiled and the fish twitched its tail at the edge of his lips. “Do not thank me,” he said, “thank The One Who Grasps the Sky with Both Hands, the one who has sent us the Peacemaker.”

“I’ll do that,” Okwaho said. “I’ll speak my thanks and offer tobacco to the fire. But when will they come here? When will I see Hiawatha and Tsakonsaseh and the Peacemaker?”

“Soon,” Carries said. “The time is not yet, but soon.”

“What can I do until then? I want to help bring this peace.”

Carries put the string of shells back into his pouch, tied it, and hung it on his belt.

“I was told by your mother that you like to sing?”

“That’s true,” Okwaho said.