“Coyote and Another” Nuda Waya © Kathleen Douglas 2013 Coyote had just managed to have a lovely egg breakfast that some foolish birds had nested in a rickety wooden cave. He was licking the rich delicious yolks off his face and whiskers when the yell of an angry “skin-stealer” signaled his meal was over. He dashed from the rickety wooden cave hoping he would not hear the blast of the death thunder. He did not understand it but he had seen skin-stealers hold up a shiny stick that bellowed smoke and thunder and without even touching what they were chasing it would fall down dead or worse their tales would disappear. So with his tail tucked firmly between his rear legs, he bounded away from the wooden cave. Coyote as knew if his tail lingered were his pursuer could grab it; they might yank his skin right off. He had fortune and no death thunder echoed as he galloped but heard the skin-stealer yell: “There’s a coyote!” He squirmed ‘beneath the tress that had fallen in a line’ to the tress that stood wild and then heard. “And there is another!” from the other side of the trees that had fallen in a line. As the puff of brown dust cleared, he suddenly saw a fellow coyote huffing and squirming to escape where he had only just been. “Hey!” Said coyote, surprised by this encounter. “A Brother coyote, exploring in the same field as me what a surprise.” “I am not a coyote” said the dusty, panting escapee not trotting up to sniff him. “Of course you are!” Said coyote, annoyed by his companions ignorance and sniffing him just to be sure. “You smell like a coyote and look like one so you have to be!” “No, you’re wrong.” His companion said flippantly. “You smell the same, breathe the same, talk the same and look the same! You are a coyote just like me!” Coyote insisted. “No, no.” His ignorant peer maintained “I am not a coyote and I will prove it.” “We are close enough to Missouri,” Coyote wryly said. “Show-me?” “Okay let us both run across the field where the ’Skin-stealer’ is.” The stubborn ‘not a Coyote’ now challenged. While it was risky Coyote felt it the fastest way to end the argument and since the skin-stealers seemed not to have the death thunder Medicine he was willing to chance it. He did lament his morning eggs were almost run off but as he would need his mouth for lunch rather than debating this fool he felt the trade off worth it. So it was they both flatten their bodies and tugged to slither beneath the odd trees that fell in a line and ran back towards the wooden caves they had come. They didn’t have to go far as it wasn’t long before the “Skin-stealer’s” voice shouted angrily. “There’s a coyote!” The skin-stealers shout was quickly followed by a shout from a second skin-stealer of, “And there’s another!” Again the two animals fled for their lives, again scrambled under the odd trees that fell in a line and off into the woods. They were both hot and dusty from the running they walked all the way to a nearby stream before saying a word. The Coyote had decided his partner was a fool. He thought that at the stream he would see his face in the stream. Looking at his reflected face would end his companion’s foolishness once and for all and he could get back to the business of lunch! After taking a good long drink Coyote stood watching the fool drinking and said in a wry voice. “Who is the coyote drinking in the sky stream under your nose? Even Skin-stealer said, ‘look a coyote’ don’t play the fool anymore.” He jeered and touted. Cooled by the streams water and his thirst quenched, the fool peered at the canine face that stared back from the stream in the sky. Shaking his head he noted the sky stream face did too he said. “No, I am not a coyote. Skin-stealer called you a coyote.” He corrected licking his maul. “You’re a coyote!” The now very impatient and hungry Coyote said, his anger growing. “Admit it and be done!” “No,” Was the fool’s reply. “Skin-stealer called you a coyote but he called me another.” His head nodding in affirmative confirmation and glancing at the stream saw the coyote in the stream above in the sky nodded in agreement too. “See two against one, I win!” Coyote only howled in frustration. Moral: Many are the names we are given but one is the name we are to The Creator and that is the name which matters to ourselves. I remember laughing but also I was very weary so I do not remember being carried to bed inside the cabin after the tale. I do however remember waking on a bright clear Saturday morning though and where I would have normally run for the T.V. lookity box and cartoons my Grandparents cabin had no electricity. So instead I ran following my nose to the smell of just finished fry bread, fresh eggs, slab ham, and honey and never once thought about missing “Under-dog”.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 20:04:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015