Samuel Crane

Chapter 4

I was found in the desert by a couple of Navajo kids. They took me back to the elders in the clan. They knew by my smell, and they told me later what I was. I was a half-breed, but I was what they call yee naaldooshil. Which means with it he goes on all fours. Sometimes it’s a good thing and sometimes it is a bad thing.

They said I had supernatural powers. I had to laugh when they told me this because I was thinking of Superman when they told me. Not something that runs around on four legs or absorbs into other people’s bodies. They told me stories of the skin walkers, how evil they were and the deeds they carried out on the native people. But the elder chief said,

“You, my son, are half-breed skin walker; but something in you is different. Instead of doing evil deeds on good people you do evil deeds to the bad people who deserve to be done from the world. You are unique in your kind. The Great Spirit brings you to us for many reasons. You are a protector from evil; you balance the scales between good and evil beings and creatures. You are now part of our family.”

After I found out what I was and what they thought of me within the native peoples, my life changed again. This time I knew what I was. I kicked the bottle and learned the history of the skin walkers. I even killed several on the reservation who brought evil spells on them. But soon the acts I committed before here followed me here. The U.S. Marshals services came to the reservation one day, looking for me. I knew if I stayed people would get hurt, so I left. Once again, the bottle was calling my name. I lost my way after leaving the reservation. I felt like I had no purpose.

I crawl up to the cot they call a bed, in this hell hole of a hospital. Mr. Davis has a pretty good swing, and my knee is sore. That’s okay, he’ll get his one day. Like they say, karma always comes around to bite you in the ass.

Once again I lay there most of the night, remembering the events and why I did what I did.

The day I was welcomed in the Navajo tribe was a big honor for me. They helped me get control of what I was, helped me fine-tune my abilities. Many nights in the sweat lodge smoking peyote allowed me to see life after death, another world. The spirit world. Something most of people have all wrong except for the Native Americans.

The medicine man of the tribe worked with me for a few years before I left. During this time I saw things in my mind that I can’t un-see; things that came back with me through the visions and follow me to this day. I understand now what the woman was talking about when she said she seen a coyote rip that trucker’s throat out, saving her life. That’s what I changed into without my knowledge, until I came here. I met the spirit animals that are within my soul and have accepted them as my many personalities. Like people who have schizophrenia. A mental disorder characterized by a disconnection from reality.

 I can change into different creatures. The situation determines what comes out. I have shifted into a wolf, coyote, eagle, bear, cougar, even a dog once.

I have learned what I am supposed to do, protecting the innocent from the evil that lurks in the shadows behind them. Most people never realize they have a dark shadow following them. But the ones who do end up in here as a crazy person, paranoid of living in society all together.

All this writing makes the night pass quickly. I look out the window to see dawn break. No rest for the wicked. Funny, I didn’t hear any screams during the night.

Reaching up to the wall next to the cot I etched a line to mark another day alive here. Not that I am worried about dying in this place. I chose this place for a reason, and the reason is other skin walkers do not come to this place. They are the only thing that can threaten my existence. I know all their little tricks and am a few steps ahead of them. This is what the Navajo taught me.

I have taken the lives of many bad people in this world, all for the good. I guess I could call myself a superhero when I look back on those days. Gee, it seems so long ago and yet it also seems like my life went by in a blink of an eye. Sad how we are born and become something we never wanted to be all because someone or something changed us during our life, making us turn and go into another direction when in our hearts most of us wanted to do something other than what we became.

Life is short, so live it to the fullest. No life in this place; it's sitting in a small room to a big room and back to a small one. Every day, over and over, same thing. Escorted by the guards or, should I say, “mental health technician”.

I smell the morning meal moving this way. Soon the door will open and Nurse Emily will come in with her two guards dressed in white to hand me my breakfast and sugar pills for the morning.

Yeah, I know they’re sugar pills; being a skin walker has advantages. I have the nose of animal. If they try to give me anything with chemicals in it I know what to do with them.

“Good morning, Mr. Crane. How are you this morning?” Nurse Emily asks.

I nod my head; she knows what I mean. I don’t talk to anyone, at least 99.9% of them. There is one I do talk to, but not as you and I would. I talk to him with my mind. He is a Shoshone Indian man put in here for doing ceremonial things in the middle of downtown. He told everyone they would die for what their ancestors have done to his people and mother earth. The courts found him unfit to be in society, a drunk, and since he didn’t hurt anyone, they locked him away in here. He had no home, no family to claim him. That is fine; he is my family now and I watch over him. Most of the time he sits alone as I do and chants softly to himself for eight hours a day.