The Dancer - serialized novel Written for Steemit Part 9

The Witch continued 2. Welcome Steemit Friends I invite you into my world for some horror and the power to overcome horror. It is a world of the spirit and the hidden abilities some people have that they find out and secretly use to the benefit of all of us. Written for Steemit.

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The Dancer - The Witch 9

The other three dancers heard what Martha said and looked at her, looked at me.

“It is why we dance,” The man who was the bird dancer said. The other dancers nodded in response to what he said so that I would see it. He then continued, “Most whites do not see these things, or at least admit to it. If you want, I will explain afterwards, more privately.” The other three dancers nodded again then turned their attention back to the people in front of them. “Could I take the next person’s question?” The dancer looked over us and I recognized we were dismissed until later. Martha started to speak but Rog grabbed her to get her attention and said,

“You heard what he said he will talk to us later. Move out of the way and let the other people ask their questions.”

“Thank you.” The bird dancer whispered to Rog. He addressed those behind us again asking if there were any questions he could answer as we moved out of the way until the session was over. It lasted a little longer than fifteen minutes.

During the wait, Rog had to explain to the kids but mostly to his daughter, “What you asked him is not something most people accept or even talk about dear. It is like the drowning day. I went to put a stop to what you said all the time and why you danced but we caught a lot of fish. We always catch a lot of fish when you dance. I don’t understand it. I don’t care because you are my children and I love you. I also am very happy as is Gran’pa that we catch fish. We want to keep it a secret so that we catch the fish or everybody will be doing it and catch all the fish. Right Gran’pa?” I nodded and said,

“That’s right dear.” Rog continued,

“As for the other stuff, I don’t know about that but after seeing this I am a little more open. Just because we are white people, well, we could have done dances for fishing and hunting back in Europe. It’s a funny thing because we have spring planting festivals and harvest festivals, like this fair. Maybe we did something like that and that is why you do it for whatever reason. That does not mean people accept it. If the dancers will be kind enough to say something to us, tell us something we don’t know, we will listen to what they want to say and hear it the way they want to tell it to us, okay?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Martha answered her father.

“Pete?”

“Okay Dad.” Bjorn chimed in agreement with Pete. Then Bjorn said to Rog,

“Dad, in martial arts they talk about things like this too, in case you didn’t know.”

“Well they talk about it in Church too.” Rog responded with some irritation to Bjorn.

“It looks to me like you are having as much trouble with being called Dad as I had when you called me Dad,” I whispered in his ear while I smiled. Rog froze like he was a wall for about a minute. I laughed but once recovered he said to Bjorn,

“Thanks for the information son you can tell me more about it later. Okay?” Bjorn nodded in response to what Rog said.

Things really have changed a lot as to what is allowed and what is not from back then which wasn’t all that long ago. They are about to shoot a rocket to the moon. Some of the things that have changed are much too different for me to accept but, I knew about them when I was a kid as well, I had heard of Jules Vern way back then but scoffed. Like I said before, all the fools think everything is new, it is the new way of doing things, and it is not. There has been a lot of technological change but we are all still just people. For some reason, maybe some morons have teaching positions. They seem to think everybody older than thirty is an idiot. Who do they think built most of the stuff in the modern age anyways?

The question and answer session was over because no one bought any more records or books from the hawkers. The people started to walk away and the bird dancer walked over to us as promised and said,

“Follow me.” We obeyed as he led the way to an area near one of the stage entrances. The others packed up the performers' things while he talked.

“First, let me say it is a pleasure to hear such questions as these but very rare,” he addressed us and continued, “Now I happen to be a catholic, (he looked at Rog and smiled) the other fellows are something else, some Baptists and Pentecostals I think but we all attended the same university and studied performing arts with a major in dance or music for the drummers and singers.

‘Just like the narrator said and you will see this in the books, the purpose of the dances is to clean the area of evil spirits. The hoop dancer lures them in, these evil spirits. I call upon God, the Great Spirit, and the hunters kill them off cleansing the area. Now the reason we do not talk about it in public is because of the persecution. They burn witches right and really thrash people who use magic, well you whites just got here by our reckoning of time on this continent. Our peoples lived here before Christianity and I will tell you why we are Christians of one form or another – it works better.”

The bird dancer paused for effect and looked in each one of our eyes to see that we understood and then he continued, “In your culture, just like ours, there has always been a battle between good and evil. This battle goes so far back that no one really remembers when it began. I will try to state this simply. The difference between our two cultures is that yours got rid of the witches and sorcerers and ours did not. It was a big mistake because they are evil. We would not have been conquered except that their numbers became greater than we could get rid of, keep under control. The numbers of people who followed the evil ones grew and they wanted to rid the world of humans and live in a world of chaos. Chaos is what they like, create. What they do is kill. Do you all understand this?”

Everyone stood there speechless listening to what he had to say. “So they are devil worshippers or something like that?” I asked.

“Something just like that, yes, they are followers of chaos. The Spanish called them Brujos or sorcerers but witches, the possessed, those who interact with demons. They call forth the dark spirits. So the woman you saw and I would ask you if you saw any other adults out there dancing with the kids (I nodded) there were only about thirty children dancing. The rest were the sorcerers themselves or what they called up and most likely that. They are ghosts, evil spirits and they do not look like adults once you can truly see what they are, isn’t that correct?” He looked at Martha and she nodded. So did Bjorn and Peter.

“So, it looks to me like your daughter can give you as much information about them as I can. Has she had this ability for a while?” He looked at Rog.

“Since she could walk, a toddler she has danced around.” Rog answered.

“Well, that is the best news I have heard in a long time. I did that too and so did the other three dancers like we were born into it. The good news is, after the dance this area will be cleansed for awhile. The big woman, she danced to try to stop me and called upon great forces. She was defeated but she will return. She is what you would call a very powerful evil witch and she is around here somewhere. As to how far away, that is hard to tell. Distance is not a limitation to someone like her. It could be a hundred miles.”

“I saw two in the fog a couple of years ago,” I said.

“That means there are at least two. One would be bad enough but there are at least two around here. Read our books, you bought them (We nodded). Read your Bibles. Dancers need to be protected by the warriors of the tribe because those who follow chaos hate us. We take away their power. Again, we do more in an area besides just dance for money. We just don’t tell anyone about it. This place will be fine for quite awhile I think but they will gain in strength and try again.”

“Try to do what?” I asked.

His response was, “We have to clear this area for the next performers. It is time I said goodbye.” He turned and walked through the stage entrance door. He paused and turned around, “There is a bibliography in the books you bought with citations that will arm you, make your success more likely. This has gone on forever and they will not tell this in the history books: We used to have written languages long before white people and the Spanish came. We had much more than that.”

Performers for the next group waited for him to move out of the way and he did before they became angry. He was gone. The new performers entered the stage door; well it was the roadies carrying things at the moment.

We stood there transfixed. This was horrible. What is worse is that we talked to the dancers after the dance performance and they confirmed it. The woman was an evil spirit, a living witch. There was more than just her. It was a cult of some sort from ancient times and they established themselves in the area somewhere. I did learn a lot for as long as the performers held the conversation, about three minutes. I thought. A roady shooed us.

We snapped out of it after Rog said, “By Golly, well don’tchaknow.”

The hoop dancer drew the spirits in. The bird dancer shooed them away or more likely removed the one who called them up, with the Great Spirit ridding the area and then the hunting and fishing dances occurred to wipe out the summoned. I witnessed it all with my own eyes. I saw some guy's heart cut out, well a spirit’s heart.

If only the kids had not talked despite Rog’s protestations about what was said when Mommy asked them. Ma made me go to the doctors the next morning to get checked out for hallucinations. It only took a couple of hours for the doctor to examine me. Thank God, that turned out well. Ma said,

“Well, okay then as long as you are alright.”

Rog, the kids, and I were on the lake at 11 the next morning fishing on a fine August day. I don’t mean Bjorn showed up with us. He had a sports practice and chores for the day. Maybe it would have been better if he came along.

The bird dancer was completely wrong about how fast these cultists could regenerate their chaotic forces. He was very right about Martha needing protection. He was so very, very right.

Copyright:
Written for Steemit: Copyright © 2017 Jeff Kubitz - The Dancer - et al. All Rights Reserved. Steemit.com/steemit/@jeff-kubitz

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