Dream Catcher

Cai's gone out west to go bail out a friend. But he runs into unexpected circumstances when he stops to rest his head at a seedy motel.

The airport is hot and stinks of stale sweat and humans. People with bags under their eyes collapse wherever there’s room, some even sit in tight little balls where there is no room at all. The people and ragged children have their faces buried in electronic screens, that seem to suck their souls further away. They have been waiting for hours for the finale hellish adventure which is commercial flying, so they can finally get home to their loving families and pets, and more importantly their own beds, where clean clothes and a good night’s sleep awaits them.

Cai steps out of the terminal. The lean six feet three inches of him towers over the throng pushing at his back. His hair is tangled and clothes disheveled. He doesn’t notice his fellow travels and they don’t notice him. The airport is a grotesque petri dish of humanity where the exhausted face of one person blends into the next. Cai hates flying, and for the past eight hours he has had to sit in a middle seat between a large man who kept the window shade down the whole damn flight who smelled like b.o. and sausages, and a nervous woman with mousy brown hair who kept looking at Cai as though he was going to attack her. Every time Cai even glanced at the woman, she vehemently started to attack the call button for the stewardess, her watery eyes the size of dinner plates staring at him in blatant fear. At first he tried to say something, but that only led to the woman crying. The other passengers and the stewardesses gave him the evil eye. But no one was willing to give up their seats for his, so he was stuck having to look down at his feet the whole plane ride.

The man who had been sitting in front of Cai bumped against him without out so much as a backward glance. Cai scowled at his sweaty back. The a*****e had leaned back his seat past the chair’s ability to lean back, and subsequently left Cai unable to to feel his legs for the entirety of the six hour plane ride.

Cai takes a deep breath, runs his fingers through his greasy hair, shoulders his bag and takes off for the bathroom first, and then the world outside the airport.

The sun bears down upon the red desert rocks with the full force of its hellish heat. It’s 132 degrees outside, so hot that the scraggly desert shrubs are about to burst into flames, so hot that not even the desert geckos dare to lounge in the sun.

Down a winding road a car engine thunders. The metal car shines bright like a star as it speeds through the scenery.

Cai sits behind the wheel, dark aviators rest on his nose, hiding his earthen eyes from the sun. The air conditioning’s on and the radio turned off. Normally the radio would be blaring with the windows rolled down, but Cai knows from experience that it is just too goddamn hot out, the heat would suck the water right out of him before he ever made it to his destination.

Cai glances about himself. It’s only him and the desert. There’s no civilization for miles. The thought goes through his head that if he were to be stranded out here, there would be no one to help him. He takes comfort in knowing that in the trunk of the car are two gallons of water and a gallon of gas, he had put them there himself out of habit. Cai comes from the back country in appalachia, where it is green and there’s always water. His family’s motto is “be prepared for just about anything,” growing up he had extensive survival lessons. Even now, his pocket knife carries an assured weight in his jeans. It’s been a few years since he left them behind and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, but some things never ware off.

As Cai drives his mind wanders into distant places, different times. This isn’t a vacation for him. He’s in the desert for a reason. A friend had called him a few days back. He didn’t say why he was out there or what he had been doing, but it was clear that the friend was out of money and needed someone to pick him up. Normally Cai would have told him no and to call someone else (that someone being a family member), but a feeling had tugged in the center of Cai’s heart and he accepted readily, to the relief of his friend Tony.

Haunting images from a time almost forgotten are not far away in this barren desert plane. The ghostly projections wander listlessly, so lost in their misery, they do not notice the car that rushes past them. In the green metropolises of Ohio, such spirits are rarely seen except for on the darkest nights and earliest mornings. But here, in this country barely touched by man, they roam freely all times of the day. They’re whispers blending naturally with the wind.

Cai pulls into a motel at sunset. All day he had been seeing mirages of ghosts as he drove. He’s bone tired and even though he had all the windows rolled up and the air conditioning blasting on his drive, the sun had managed to deplete him of his water and turn his skin a golden color.

“You see anything funny on the planes as you drove over here?” The, for a lack of a better term, innkeep asked him, before handing Cai the key to his room.

“What?” Cai had bags under his eyes, for Christ’s sake. Couldn’t the fat bearded man in front of him, tell that Cai had had a long journey?

“A lot of people passing through say they see ghosts on the plateau. Or strange distant towns.”

Cai, shakes his head. “No, I didn’t see anything, of that sort. A bush caught fire as I drove by, though.”

“Yep, that’ll happen. I wouldn’t discount what people say though. Even the locals here admit to seeing strange things in the desert. The indians have legends about this land, for them it was a holy place, where the earth spirits and the souls of the dead walked.”

Cai reaches out an open palm, the innkeep has his key in his greasy sausage fingers. “That’s interesting.”

“How old are you?” The innkeep suddenly asks taking in Cai’s appearance for the first time.

“Twenty-five.”

It’s a lie, and for a second, it looked like the fat man behind the counter wasn’t going to accept it. Then he shrugged and put the key into Cai’s hand. “Room 44, it won’t be too hard to find.” And as Cai was about to walk out the door. “Eh, be careful walking in the dark. I don’t know what kind of critters you got wherever you’re from, I’m guessing up north probably, but we got some real man killers out here.” Cai gives him a gruff nod, then turns to go. “And,” the hairy ape behind the counter continues. “Don’t mess the room up.”

Cai gets to his room. It was a rather uneventful adventure. No man eaters, no feeling eyes on his back. Just him, the pavement, the parking lot lights, and his exhaustion.

Laying on his bed fully clothed, Cai wonder’s why the f**k he’s even here. He doesn’t even like Tony that much. At least he doesn’t have to bail Tony out or purchase his plane ticket, that’s already been done. All Cai has to do tomorrow is pick Tony up and drive him and himself to the airport.

He closes his eyes hoping to fall into a deep slumber. There’s a three hour time difference between where he is, and back home. Here it’s only 12:32 pm, but back home it’s 2:32 am, and Cai has been up since 4:30 am Ohio time. God damn, thinking about it like that, Cai has been up for a long time, and he has to pick Tony up around noon tomorrow.

“Ohh, f**k me.” He groans. Then it feels like he falls into what is supposed to be a deep, dreamless slumber.

It doesn’t feel like he’s been asleep for long until Cai is awoken by what sounds like distant crying. Suddenly wide awake Cai, presses an ear to the floral wallpaper behind him.

No it’s not coming from there. The crying continues. The room is dark, but his eyes adjust. Cai goes to the door of his room and peers out into the woods that run parallel to the back of the motel. It sounds like the crying is coming from out there.

What the innkeeper said about man eaters in these parts, ran briefly through his head, then Cai steps out into the night in search of the sound.

The night is much cooler than the day, especially in the forested area Cai is crunching through, but it’s still around 80 degrees fahrenheit, not even close to jacket weather.

As Cai ventures deeper and deeper into the woods, shrubbery and twigs and sticks crunch beneath his barefeet, and dust coats his toes. The thought, that it was stupid to wonder out here without shoes on, crosses his mind. But then the crying intensifies and the thought is all but forgotten. Until, of course, the crying stops, and he’s left alone, in the dark, with no idea where he is. S**t, what dumbass goes into the woods in the middle of the night? Cai, that’s who.

It occurs to Cai that, out here, where there isn’t a lot of people. Not a lot of towns with light. That the night is really very dark. Cai looks up for the stars peering through the scraggly leaves of desert trees. He’s left breathless with his mouth gaping. He’s never seen so many stars before, nor the milky way which runs right down the middle of the sky.

“Oh, wow.” He takes a few humbled steps and immediately stubbs his foot on something hard and metal. “Oh, OWW!” Cai reaches down and brings close to his face an old timey lantern, it looked like something straight out of a Hollywood cowboy movie. Cai lights it without hesitation, using the matches he carries in his pocket. Old habits really do die hard. Thank God for that.

He takes in his surrounding area, turning in a little circle with the lantern, before picking the direction he believes to be the way back.

He walks along this path for sometime, until he hears the wailing again. Except now it is very loud, and he realizes the sound is not coming from a human, but from the throat of wolf. A giant, grey wolf standing twenty feet away from him.

The wolf tilts its head back, with eyes closed, singing a mournful song. Silhouetted in moonlight, her white grey fur makes her look like a fairy casting a spell. When the song ends, she turns luminous blue eyes upon Cai, trapping him in a predatory gaze.

Yipping bubbles in the night. Out of the corner of his eyes Cai catches the haunty forms of coyotes with long ears and scraggly red-brown fur. Fear prickles at the nap of Cai’s neck. He’s been surrounded.

Cai takes one last look into the wolf’s blue-blue eyes, before doing the stupid thing and runs for his life.

The Coyotes’ yips grow to a fevered pitch, as they chase after the prey. Their teeth bared and hunches raised, they tear after Cai with unbelievable speed. Their paws rip into the earth propelling their small bodies faster, and faster still, through the night time obstacles, just so they can nip at Cai’s heels.

Cai’s heart pumps faster than he thought possible, his blood circulating through his limbs bringing life giving oxygen to his muscles as he pushes them further and further to their limit. If he had breath to spare he would cry out from the pain, but he can’t, he simply does not have enough breath. But as fast as he’s going, it feels like he’s running through molasses, and the coyotes are catching up.

Cai makes a sharp turn hoping to lose the coyotes, but they are as close as ever. They’re deep into the heart of the woods now and Cai is hopelessly lost as he tries to run for safety. The natural shrubbery of the woods reach out for Cai leaving thin streaks of blood on his exposed flesh as he tears through their home.

Cai’s grows tired. He has reached the end of his running endurance. Now, as he enters a glade, he makes the decision to fight the coyotes. He whips around, and on accident smashes the lantern against the trunk of a tree.

Fire and oil spew everywhere, and soon the clearing is engulfed in golden flames. Cai recoils from the heat. Oh, no! The only thought in his head.

He lays on his belly in the center of the clearing with his arms covering his face. All around him flames flicker, shrinking away the night’s shadows. The occupants of the forest who had been watching Cai the whole time during his mad flight through the woods, sit in a circle around him smiling at his foolishness.

“Rise, human, and greet the land you walk upon.” A devious looking spirit with curling mountain goat horns says. “Rise and greet us.”

Cai, lifts his head startled. The coyotes sit in a circle around him, a contained fire between their paws, but then behind them, in the deep night shadows he glimpses the different forms of what he can only image to be spirits. Some look human while others resemble desert animals and plants, and yet there are even more others that look like nothing Cai had ever seen before. Standing directly in front of Cai, at the head of the circle, is a woman. She has thick black straight hair that brushes the ground, her skin the color of copper, and her eyes look like a starry night. Her face is broad with high cheekbones, an angular jaw, and plush lips. Her limbs and neck are long. She’s tall, taller than Cai, and around her thin tall frame is drapped a dress made from spider webs.

“Who are you?” Cai asks the beautiful woman before him.

She smiles down at Cai, as a God might smile upon a man. “I have had many names.” Her voice is rich with knowledge, it was like silk upon the ear, smooth, shimmering, tangible but intangible at the same time.. “Here I am known as, Asibikaashi, the spider woman, weaver of dreams.”

Cai stares at The Dream Weaver, at a lost for words. He can’t believe his eyes, can’t believe his ears. Is this really happening? The earth beneath him feels solid, the fire around him blistering. Is this real? The air shimmers with magic, he can taste it upon his tongue. He sees the night shadows elongating, the trees and shrubs seem to come to life, like the old willow does in Disney’s Pocahontas.

“Do not question the world around you child. It is as it has always been. I was the one who summoned you here.”

“Y-you, summoned, me?” Cai stammers.

“Yes.”

“Why?”
At his question the clearing spirits chitter with excitement, their inhuman eyes aglow. Prowling behind them Cai glances the cold blue fire of the wolf.

Suddenly, with great animation, the Dream Weaver picks Cai up from the ground like a child, then sets him back down so that he sits on his rump. She presses a string instrument into Cai’s hands. Her eyes are intense as she looks into his eyes. “We are creature of the old world. Our legends and myths are almost forgotten in our motherland. We are the spirits and the gods of this land, Cai. It is us who thrive here, and yet it’s the names of foreign gods who reign . I have watched you, Cai. I see the world you see, and know the dreams you dream. Within them I have woven the old stories. I called you here, Cai, because I want you to sing for us. Sing to us the songs you have spun from the stories I have given you.” The spirits of the gove watch Cai in rapt attention.

His head is fuzzy, he can’t comprehend what’s happening. But the instrument in his hands feels real. Feels familiar, like home. Cai, had started learning the guitar when he was five. He would sit outside on the front porch with his father and guitar and pick away at the strings. At first he learned the old songs that all backcountry people know, and then he started to create his own. Cai, loves music. It is his heart his soul. It’s the one thing he will always do for the rest of his life.

Now, holding a guitar in his hands, in front of a horde of desert spirits, he does what comes naturally to him. He sings.

The grove is silent except for Cai. Every living thing is listening to the married voices of Cai and the guitar made with spider silk strings. The tale is an epic of a clever hero. The music rises and falls with the story, and during times of war Cai’s voice is like thunder then is gentle like the smell of spring flowers. The spirits sway with the music their bodies humming with energy. When the tale comes to an end they demand another, then another, then another, and another. The spirits get up and dance with the songs, courting the tales like ladies of a royal court. And yet there is savagery in Cai’s voice and the cords of the music, and it makes the spirits cackle with ancient feverency. The night goes on, and on. At times the spirits reveled in the music and in others, it had the ability to bring them to their knees in tears. And Cai plays on. As Soon as he finishes on song he moves onto the next, his head swimming, arms aching, voice catching.

It finally ends when the sun begins to peak over the horizon.

Cai’s eyes snap open. He stares up and the motel’s peeling ceiling. He sits up in bed gingerly, his whole body aches. He’s still wearing the clothes he was yesterday. The same clothes he fell asleep in. His head hurts and he feels disgusting. With a groan Cai stumbles out of bed and in the bathroom, peeling the sweat soaked garments from his body.

The hot water steaming up the bathroom feels nice on his skin, and loosens his muscles. After his shower, Cai brushes his teeth and pulls on fresh clothes. By the time he’s down with his morning toiletries it 10:17 am. He has to get on the road soon to go and pick up Tony. The motel doesn’t have a complimentary breakfast so he figures he’ll just pick something up on the road. Cai packs up his stuff and heads off to check out of the motel. As soon as the door to his room closes behind him, Cai, whirls around and forcefully opens the door again. It slams against the way was he goes charging back inside.

Cai stands at the foot of the bed he had slept on, his head whirling. “No, way.” He reaches down and picks up the dream catcher that had fallen off the bed when he got up this morning. Gently he traces the intricate pattern woven with leather in the center of the willow hoop. Soft feathers and colorful beads dangle at the bottom of the dream catcher . “A spider web.”

Cai stands there stupefied, last night’s dream (or maybe memory) going through his head.

A car horn beeps outside, and Cai returns to the world. Hurrilied, but carefully he places the dream catche in his bag, then resumes his journey for Tony again.