leaving the hotel room for ice. He squinted. “My phone says you sent me a text.”
“I didn’t,” she protested. “Do you see a text sent from me on there?” She leaned back. “Why the hell would I ask you about your ex-fiancée, anyway?”
She was genuinely upset now, so she obviously hadn’t intended this to be some kind of game. But then what the hell was it? And from whom? Who else knew about…“the secret”? The reason he’d broken up with Jessica? “You seriously didn’t send them?”
“No.”
A few moments passed in silence, the Adirondacks whirling by them.
“Well, that’s kinda strange.”
Five
Marcus wasn’t really asleep, just thinking with his eyes closed. He listened to the exchange between Ian and Heather, and what he heard unsettled him. As much as he’d like to pass his own text message off as the work of Dino or some other prankster back home, Ian receiving a strange text from some unknown source within minutes of his own complicated the likelihood of what he wanted to believe. Was someone playing a joke on all of them? Would Ashley and Heather be getting strange messages soon? If so, then whoever was behind the plot seemed to know about Ian’s last fiancée, something even he wasn’t familiar with.
His phone hip-hopped.
Forcing his weary eyes open, he brought the phone up, expecting to see a “Ha-ha! Gotchya!” text from Dino. Instead it read:
I WAS THERE WHEN THE IROQUOIS WERE DRIVEN OUT OF THEIR LAND. AND I WILL DRIVE YOU OUT OF THIS PLACE TOO, BLACKMAN.
There was no fighting back the wave of needles sweeping over his scalp this time.
“You okay?” Ian asked, looking over.
It took him a moment to respond. “Just got a weird text, too,” he muttered.
“What’d it say?”
From the look in his eye, Marcus could tell that Ian had no reservations in assuming their texts to somehow be related.
“Says, ‘I was there when the Iroquois were driven out of their land, and I will drive you out of this place, too.’” He left out the racial designation as well as the previous text. He didn’t want to bring that up. Not yet.
“The hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t know who sent it?” Heather asked.
“It’s blocked.”
Heather looked at her phone, her thumb dancing across its surface. “Says the Adirondacks are within the boundaries of what used to be Mohawk First Nation. Their population was decimated by European diseases before they were driven out of the land by foreign settlers. After the Revolutionary War, most of their land was seized. Then the US forced most of the remaining Iroquois into reservations in the Midwest.”
Ashley’s voice surprised them all when she added, “Iroquois chiefs were actually invited to the meeting hall of the Continental Congress.” She shifted in her seat. “They say the Six Nations, or the Iroquois Confederacy, was the oldest participatory democracy in the world. Jefferson and Franklin’s representative democracy was inspired by it.”
Heather looked over at her sister. “You’re saying the Indians had their own democracy?”
She nodded.
“What,” Marcus asked, closing his eyes and trying to forget the texts, “you never heard that the Red Man could govern himself?”
She didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. Everyone knew how American history portrayed the “Indians.” There wasn’t a cap-gun, badge-wearing boy in the whole of the Unites States who didn’t know the Injun was evil.
They fell into silence, their eyes resetting to the wilderness around them, and imagined what it might have looked like a few hundred years ago, before Europeans decided that they should have it all for themselves.
But Marcus couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. His sense of normalcy, and security along with it, was beginning to cloud, making him uncomfortable. He felt the peripheral influence of something infernal, and it was stirring an unpleasant, childhood memory from when he was
“I didn’t,” she protested. “Do you see a text sent from me on there?” She leaned back. “Why the hell would I ask you about your ex-fiancée, anyway?”
She was genuinely upset now, so she obviously hadn’t intended this to be some kind of game. But then what the hell was it? And from whom? Who else knew about…“the secret”? The reason he’d broken up with Jessica? “You seriously didn’t send them?”
“No.”
A few moments passed in silence, the Adirondacks whirling by them.
“Well, that’s kinda strange.”
Five
Marcus wasn’t really asleep, just thinking with his eyes closed. He listened to the exchange between Ian and Heather, and what he heard unsettled him. As much as he’d like to pass his own text message off as the work of Dino or some other prankster back home, Ian receiving a strange text from some unknown source within minutes of his own complicated the likelihood of what he wanted to believe. Was someone playing a joke on all of them? Would Ashley and Heather be getting strange messages soon? If so, then whoever was behind the plot seemed to know about Ian’s last fiancée, something even he wasn’t familiar with.
His phone hip-hopped.
Forcing his weary eyes open, he brought the phone up, expecting to see a “Ha-ha! Gotchya!” text from Dino. Instead it read:
I WAS THERE WHEN THE IROQUOIS WERE DRIVEN OUT OF THEIR LAND. AND I WILL DRIVE YOU OUT OF THIS PLACE TOO, BLACKMAN.
There was no fighting back the wave of needles sweeping over his scalp this time.
“You okay?” Ian asked, looking over.
It took him a moment to respond. “Just got a weird text, too,” he muttered.
“What’d it say?”
From the look in his eye, Marcus could tell that Ian had no reservations in assuming their texts to somehow be related.
“Says, ‘I was there when the Iroquois were driven out of their land, and I will drive you out of this place, too.’” He left out the racial designation as well as the previous text. He didn’t want to bring that up. Not yet.
“The hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t know who sent it?” Heather asked.
“It’s blocked.”
Heather looked at her phone, her thumb dancing across its surface. “Says the Adirondacks are within the boundaries of what used to be Mohawk First Nation. Their population was decimated by European diseases before they were driven out of the land by foreign settlers. After the Revolutionary War, most of their land was seized. Then the US forced most of the remaining Iroquois into reservations in the Midwest.”
Ashley’s voice surprised them all when she added, “Iroquois chiefs were actually invited to the meeting hall of the Continental Congress.” She shifted in her seat. “They say the Six Nations, or the Iroquois Confederacy, was the oldest participatory democracy in the world. Jefferson and Franklin’s representative democracy was inspired by it.”
Heather looked over at her sister. “You’re saying the Indians had their own democracy?”
She nodded.
“What,” Marcus asked, closing his eyes and trying to forget the texts, “you never heard that the Red Man could govern himself?”
She didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. Everyone knew how American history portrayed the “Indians.” There wasn’t a cap-gun, badge-wearing boy in the whole of the Unites States who didn’t know the Injun was evil.
They fell into silence, their eyes resetting to the wilderness around them, and imagined what it might have looked like a few hundred years ago, before Europeans decided that they should have it all for themselves.
But Marcus couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. His sense of normalcy, and security along with it, was beginning to cloud, making him uncomfortable. He felt the peripheral influence of something infernal, and it was stirring an unpleasant, childhood memory from when he was
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