Storytelling Week 10: Taps

The sound of tapping plagues me.

It is a constant reminder of who I am, of what I lost.

Long ago, the proud Indian people looked up to the medicine man of our tribe. He and he alone would go into the desert and eat the little knobs or buttons of the mescal plant in order to have visions that he would then share with The People. He warned us not to eat the plants or bad luck would fall upon us.

For a long while, we were good and did not eat the vision plants and everyone was happy. Our medicine man would go out into the desert and eat the buttons and then come back and tell us what he saw.

But then, one night, my husband came to me and held out his hand. In it were the forbidden mescal buttons.

"Wife," he whispered, "I have eaten the buttons and seen wondrous things! They have spread through the tribe because the medicine man's apprentice followed him to the sacred place and ate some while the elder was not looking. He had visions that the medicine man did not talk about and felt that we should all know the truth, so he brought some back. I am not the first to eat them, nearly all the tribe has had some by now. Please try them and share in this experience."

I hesitated, glanced over at my two children, asleep and curled into each other and then nodded and held out my hand.

The buttons were delicious, I had never tasted anything so good. That night, my husband and I lay outside our teepee and watched the stars dance. Great visions exploded and beautifully vibrant colors swirled before our eyes before we fell asleep.

The next day there were more buttons. The entire tribe rolled around on the ground and laughed and called out about their visions. We did not listen to the medicine man when he proclaimed that dangerous weather was coming. All we could do was eat the buttons and have the visions.

I don't know how many days passed while I was in this state but, one day, I woke up with a very clear head. Comatose bodies littered the camp. I suddenly had a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I glanced about for my children and could not see them anywhere. I checked in our home and in the homes of their friends.

There were no children anywhere.

I began shouting and frantically began waking everyone up. The sun was high by the time everyone came to. As a group, we went into the woods in search of our young. They were nowhere to be found.

After several luckless hours, the sky god, Manitou, appeared before us and proclaimed that he had found our children wandering without food or water in the hot sun for a long time. He said that he had protected them by putting them inside hollow trees.

We asked him what we could do to get them back. Manitou said "I will turn you into birds, and you can go look for them in the hollow trees. When you find them, I will turn you all back into people again" and it was so.

I felt very strange and glanced in a puddle to see why. The long black robe I had been wearing had turned into feathers and the red feathers I'd worn in my hair now covered my face. I had been turned into a bird with a very strong and pointy beak but if it meant getting my children back, I didn't care.

We flew in small swarms and pecked at trees for hours. Taps filled the woods and drowned out the sound of birdsong. Many were lucky and found their children but my own remained lost.

I tap away still. Sometimes I hear my husband tapping elsewhere in the woods as well.

I am plagued by the sound of tapping.

Author's Note:

My story and Why the Woodpecker Pecks are basically the same story line, mine is just told from the perspective of the mother who wakes up at the end. 

Basically, the Indians are told not to eat the mescal plants that the medicine man eats or bad luck will be brought upon them. One young man does not listen and eats the buttons of the plants and has visions. He then shares the buttons with his friends who share it with their fathers who share it with their wives until the whole tribe is partaking. The adults are in such a state that they forget about their children and don't feed them for several days. The children get desperate so they wander into the woods in search of food. A sky god sees them and takes pity on them. He hides them in hollow trees so they are safe from the sun and wolves.

Finally, one mother wakes up and cannot find any children. She wakes up the whole tribe and, after they've been looking for several hours, the sky god comes before them and tells them what has happened. He then turns them into birds and tells them they can peck at the hollow trees in order to find their children. When they do find them, they will be turned back. 

The only major differences between my story and the original are the point of view perspective and the ending. I keep the main character as a woodpecker. She and her husband are perpetually searching for their lost children. 

Bibliography: Tejas Legends unit. Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends: Why the Woodpecker Pecks retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

Picture: (Woodpecker: Image Source)