EXT. SWEAT LODGE & SACRED FIRE OF WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
The Grandfathers will sit in a teepee of fire offered up by our tree brothers and sisters. They have spent much of their lives storing the great energy from Sun and now sacrifice themselves to warm the Grandfathers to their very core. It will be a very good sweat. How was your week?
COLE
Same as usual. … I’m worried about Willis. There’s talk about setting up a guardianship. He’s easily lead into bad situations by others. He is driven by what he wants at the moment and seems not to care about consequences …until they hit him in the face. He makes me so mad, but I love him a lot.
WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
We will pray for him. You pray for me and I will pray for you. Maybe the Grandfathers will speak to us and help us along our path. The Great Spirit will hear us. Mother Earth, Father Sky, Sun and Moon will all be with us and we will be surrounded by all our relations and ancestors from the Four Directions in the womb of our Mother to be healed and rejuvenated. The sun will soon set and the fire is blazing well. The Grandfathers will be ready when the sacred fire has transformed the logs into gray, dust-covered coals. . . . . You have been quiet for a while, Cole.
COLE
I’ve been watching the fire. It’s mesmerizing. It’s like I’m thinking about something but I don’t know what I’m thinking.
WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
Maybe you’re preparing yourself for the first round of the sweat. How are your parents?
COLE
They’re good, I guess. I don’t see them together much. I’m usually with one or the other now that Mom’s moved out.
WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
It is difficult to live in situations where you have little control and others control more power than you. There is no shame in protecting yourself by waiting in silence. Be watchful of how others move. You are young. Observing how the forces around you work on others and how others try to survive the challenges that are put before them are good lessons to learn as quickly as possible.
VOICE OF MARLO
See how dark it is now that the sun has set. The light of the fire illuminates only the immediate area around the two figures quietly staring into the flames. The sky is clear and the stars are many and bright. The moon is up and waning. Half of the sweat lodge is clearly visible with the rest training off into the dark background just yards in front of the now lost tree line west of our sacred scene.
The sacred fire has retreated into wooden coals glowing orange red. Wind-That-Never-Stops is the first to enter the sweat lodge. The door flap is left open resting on the side of the lodge. Cole uses the pitch fork to lift each of the Grandfathers and reverently hands off the pitchfork to Wind-That- Never-Stops. Carefully taking the pitchfork, he slips each within the shallow, scooped-out place of honor in the middle of the lodge and hands the pitchfork back to Cole. They repeat this ceremonious action until all Grandfathers rest inside the lodge.
Once all the Grandfathers are comfortably seated, Cole will cover the remaining Grandfathers with new wood keeping the sacred fire burning brightly, maintaining the intense heat consumed by the Grandfathers. Having completed this task, Cole will enter the lodge and close the entrance flap plunging himself into the absolute darkness of Mother Earth’s womb. Cole has experienced the sweat lodge only once before and is still fascinated by the absolute absence of light. He begins, as he did before, by raising his hand up close to his face and is marveled at his open-eyed blindness. He smiles. Listen. Wind-That-Never-Stops has begun to sing. With the practice motion of years of experience he tosses water on the Grandfathers. Hear the strong hissing sound of small water droplets sprinkled upon the Grandfathers to evaporate in multitudinous mini-explosions of heated energy. He will do this three times. Cole does not speak the language of his ancestors so he does not sing. Quietly, in silence, he must cope and internally speaks to himself to assure himself to be calm in the sweltering pitch black darkness.
Act 1: Scene 2
INT. INSIDE THE SWEAT LODGE
COLE’S INNER VOICE
Aye! My lips sting. Many tiny pins of pain prick my lips. Pray. Pray hard. Endure. The tips of my ears are like my lips. I am awash in sweat. Be calm. Pray. Put your towel over your head. No. Pray harder. You can do this.
WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
Great Spirit, Creator, we greet you and Mother Earth and Father Sky, Sun and Moon, and all of our ancestors and relations from the four directions. We thank our Grandfathers and Sun for the life force flowing through them and into us now and always as we journey along our path. Thank you Mother Earth for cradling us and all life as we grow and develop. Thank you Father Sky for the air we breathe that feeds the sacred fire within us that connects us to all that there is, that connects us to you, Great Spirit. We thank, Great Spirit, for our Grandfathers and our ancestors, back to your first creative act. They are the ones who came before us as we go now before those who will come. Help us to remember always that we are the foundation for those who will come as you, Grandfathers and Grandmothers, are the foundation upon which we journey now.
VOICE OF MARLO
Silence in absolute black darkness is profound. Wind-That-Never-Stops is quiet.
COLE
Thank you Great Spirit, Mother Earth, Father Sky, Sun and Moon and all my relations from the Four Directions and thank you Grandfathers for Wind-That-Never-Stops. Thank you all for the signs that have been given and your help to read and heed those signs that brought me to him. Help him to stay keen in sight, strong in health, generous in his understanding and assistance to others and grant him much laughter.
VOICE OF MARLO
Feel the penetrating black silence and now the hiss of more to endure that shatters the warm gentle calmness with a million small shards of stinging pricks of pain. Bath in the sweating fluid of the new challenge!
WIND-THAT-NEVER-STOPS
Great Spirit, our brother Willis is in need. His brother Cole has great concern. There are those who plot to hold Willis’s will captive. Cole feels himself in his brother and wishes Willis to live free as he lives free, but Cole is worried. Willis chooses unwisely and ignores sign. He is driven by his immediate desires and is easily swayed by predatory spirits or other relations who are also unwise and ignore sign. Cole has fear for Willis’s life but greatly honors the life of freedom Mother Earth has given to us all. We are here to ask for your help and the help of our Grandfathers and that of all our relations and ancestors from the four directions.
VOICE OF MARLO
And again, as always, the hot moist sweat lodge wraps all in the embryonic sack of Mother Earth’s deep, dark, infinite silence.
COLE
Great Spirit of all that is, I honor you and ask you to be gentle in your benevolent and wise instruction. I do not pretend to question your keenness in knowing what is needed in Willis’s journey. I am only wishing that his journey be as comfortable as possible. Grant him what happiness can be found along the path he has taken, even if it is not the path that had been laid out for him. He has a good heart. He has not wandered off of the good way out of malice. It is hard for him to anticipate consequences and finding good friends has been difficult for him. Thank you for your patience.