A String of Beads Read Online Free

lights on, I believe
     in quantum mechanics and the big bang and relativity, and everything else is crap.
     But there’s the power of history. When your ancestors built this house, they had to
     get the permission, or at least benign acquiescence, of eight clan mothers, who could
     just as easily have had them disemboweled and roasted. But I feel something else in
     those women. And there’s a ready-made explanation that’s been waiting in the back
     of my mind since before I was born, if I let myself pay attention to it. They’re drenched
     in orenda , the power of good in the world that fights against otgont , all the darkness and evil.”
    Carey said, “Sounds like a lot of responsibility.”
    “Thanks for not laughing at me until I leave the room. What they said was that a little
     boy they saw me playing with on the reservation twenty-five or thirty years ago has
     grown up, and he’s in trouble. He got into a fight, and a short time later the man
     he fought was murdered. He took off and hasn’t turned up.”
    “What are you supposed to do about that?”
    “They asked me to find him and bring him back.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “Find him and bring him back.”
    Carey stopped eating and sat back in his chair. His eyes were staring, and he took
     several deep breaths. “Really?”
    “I know.”
    His face was tense with dismay and growing anger. “It’s hardly a year since you came
     in the kitchen door barely able to walk. The burns on your back have hardly had time
     to heal even now. Tell me—when you go out running, don’t you ever feel a twinge on
     your right side and remember what caused it?”
    “Of course I do,” she said. “I know this sounds to you as though I’m out of my mind.
     But I’m not going off with some stranger who’s got people chasing him down to kill
     him. They want me to find an old friend and tell him that coming back is for his own
     good.”
    “I can’t believe that you’d even consider getting involved in something like this.
     We have police. We have courts. In spite of everything, most of the time they do their
     jobs and get things right. It almost never makes sense to run away from them. This
     is just madness. For a long time you told me this part of your life was over.”
    “I’m sorry, Carey. I know this is difficult for you to understand. I don’t want to
     go. I especially don’t want to spend any time away from you. But this time I have
     to.”
    He stared at her for a moment. “If you honestly believe that’s true, then I guess
     I have to accept your judgment. I can have my people postpone my appointments and
     go with you.”
    She shook her head. “They’re not just appointments. They’re surgeries. People could
     die if you don’t help them. And what I have to do might be possible if I do it alone.
     It won’t be if anyone goes with me. That’s why the clan mothers came to me.”
    “You know that if you shelter him from the police, even for a day, you can be arrested
     and charged with a crime.”
    “I know.”
    He sat unmoving. He looked as though he was about to give in to the anger, but she
     could tell he was fighting it to keep his composure. “I think you’re making a mistake.
     That’s for the record. But I can see you’re going to do it anyway.”
    “I’ll try to make it as quick and painless as I can.”
    “I hope you succeed.” Dinner was over. He got up, tossed his napkin on the table,
     and walked to the staircase.
    When Jane finished clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, and cleaning the counters,
     she went upstairs. Carey had gone to bed.

3
    J ane drove away from the McKinnon house early the next morning. The traffic on the
     New York State Thruway going eastward away from Buffalo was light, even though the
     incoming traffic was heavy.
    The Tonawanda Reservation was about three miles north of the Thruway, just northeast
     of Akron. After the Revolutionary War, George Washington had signed the