People got to their seats, and a hush filled the room as the musicians made their way inside. A man from the council navigated towards Paw’s casket, holding a large water drum. Zenith took his seat, right next to Silver who wrapped her arm affectionately around his. The drummer began to speak as he softly beat the drum.
“Hiawatha is still with us… He will stay for ten moon spans. On the tenth day, he will be gone. Thus, in five more days, he will be gone. He is in between worlds, and he is in good company. Our ancestors mourned for ten days until they were certain the spirit was in Heaven. Hiawatha wanted us to celebrate right away, though; he knew where he was going. So, we are honoring his wishes, for he was a great, wise spirit. I spoke to Hiawatha as he lay in the hospital one cold Sunday morning. No one was in the room but he and I. He told me, with a smile on his face, that he wanted me to give a special gift to his Zen…”
Zenith’s eyes widened as he listened intently.
“My hope is that I have done this correctly.” A woman, dressed in traditional maiden Iroquois garb, approached the drummer and handed him what appeared to be a small recorder. I am going to play Hiawatha’s words, what he wanted to say, what he wanted you to know after his passing.”
Silver clutched Zenith more securely, as if sensing his surprise. He sat motionless, speechless.
Paw’s voice resonated throughout the vast room…
“The Great Spirit says the young are to honor their elders. You are to be hospitable and kind, even though we are now like babies. Zen, you made the same sacrifices for me that I made for you. Have no guilt, have no worries. I am going home. You prepared a place for me. You fed me. You bathed me. You entertained me. You clothed me. Things that I found humiliating, you did for me without blinking an eye. I have been confused and afraid, losing pieces of my mind, but you loved me anyway. I could feel your love in the way you’d carry me, and though I was embarrassed for having soiled myself, I was blessed to have a grandson like you that would joke with me, make me smile through it all. I love you, Zen. May the Great Spirit keep you, your family, and your future children with your beautiful bride. You were more than my grandson. You were my best friend, too.”
Fresh tears stung Zenith’s eyes. He swiped surreptitiously at his nose, halting a sniffle. The dancers began to pirouette counter-clockwise while doing the ‘Old Moccasin Dance’ as the singer chanted, and the drumbeat grew louder and louder. The crowd watched on, a sea of faces of different faiths, religions, nationalities and creeds. It was like some euphoric mirage, a dream of sorts. Denise, who sat directly behind him, placed a reassuring hand on his and Silver’s shoulder. He smiled through his tears. Then, the dancers and drummer drew quiet, and they began the ‘Smoke Dance.’ Zenith stood up and began to clap.
“Come on everybody,” he encouraged with a firm voice. “Clap while the dancers dance! No mourning! Hiawatha suffers no more! Clap and dance for him!”
People looked about and began to rise from their seats. The room went from solemn to alive, a living, breathing space. “We are all Iroquois! We are Mohawk! We are Oneida! We are Seneca! We are Onondaga! We are Cayuga! We are Tuscarora! We love hard! We fight hard! We dance and celebrate life and death hard, too!”
Cheers and native calling rang out as feet began to stomp about from the various pews.
Zenith stepped away from his seat, got behind one of the dancers and began to dance along with them, clapping to the drumbeat. He smiled and laughed as he moved about, shuffling his feet, his arms in the air. He could hear Silver in the distance, clapping and cheering… putting more gasoline to his internal fire. Javier came to stand beside him and started dancing, keeping the tempo and the beat as they went around and around, doing the Smoke Dance with precision. As he moved about, out the corner of his eye, he spotted Uncle Len. The man simply sat there, his expression like stone, motionless. Zenith quickly turned away and kept on celebrating, putting more into it.
Too soon, the dance was over, and people cheered and clapped for a while before the noise finally died down. Zenith returned to his seat, listening as so many people approached the podium to say their last goodbyes, shared funny, heartwarming, and lively stories about Paw. He wrapped his arm around Silver’s shoulder, occasionally kissing her on the cheek. His stomach hurt from laughing so hard at various intervals. The tales of Paw were riotous, and he knew this was what Grandfather would have wanted. Then Denise approached the podium.
The beautiful woman took a deep breath, and began.
“I have been a nurse for over thirty years. I have lived in this country for even longer, yet people still can’t understand my English.” This caused a burst of laughter and a smile from Zenith. “But Hiawatha understood me… we understood each other. In all of my years of home care nursing, I have never had a patient like him.” More laughter came. Denise began to laugh, too. “That wasn’t supposed to be funny!” she chastised. “As has been stated, if you weren’t arguing with the man, then he really didn’t love you.” The mirth continued.
“Hiawatha was a funny person, we know this. But he was also quite intelligent, wise and kind. He would never intentionally hurt anyone, and though I only knew him a short while, it felt like a lifetime.” More laughter drifted around the room. Denise hit the podium and shook her head. “Why do you people keep thinking I’m joking?!” Her eyes grew tight with amusement. “I love this, though. Look at all of these people here… Look at how many people he affected and touched. I met Hiawatha under not the best of circumstances, but…” She paused, as if needing a moment. “We made the most of it. I’m used to it. I’ve seen so much in my line of work, that you sort of become numb. But, something about this man made me feel again. We had so many conversations, most of which I’ll never forget. He loved his family very much, each and every one of them.” She casts a stern glance in Len’s direction, then looked over at Zenith.
“Because of the way Alzheimer’s works, you never know what you are going to get. The disease is tricky. So, sometimes, Hiawatha was in a good mood, and sometimes he was not. Sometimes he knew who I was, sometimes he did not, but there is someone he always recalled, 100% of the time, and that was Osha.”
Many people sighed and nodded in agreement.
“For a man to love a woman like that… my, my, my… What a love story!” She placed her hand over her heart. “I learned almost as much about Osha, from him, as I did about Hiawatha. And then, there is Zenith, his grandson. Hiawatha loved all three of his grandchildren, and I believe the eldest two, Len’s sons, are in the crowd.”
Two men raised their hands and waved, and he took note of how they weren’t sitting next to their father. “They’ve flown in from Pennsylvania for this going home celebration. But… family was important to this man. Whether it was a blood family or one devised via mutual bonds and understandings, it made no difference to him. As a black woman from the islands, I’ve seen racism, up close and personal. Not once did Hiawatha make me feel uncomfortable, or say anything that denoted prejudice or racial hatred in the least. He never called me a foreigner, none of that. Matter of fact, he would at times make sexually charged statements to me about my breasts. This man was
completely
obsessed with boobs!” This caused an uproar of laughter, including from her.
“So, I had no worries about him not ‘liking my kind’.” She put her hands up, forming quotes to make her point. “No, he loved women. He loved people, period.” She drew serious once again. “I want to say in closing that I wish to thank this man for coming into my life. I was dealing with some personal matters that I had not shared, but his humor and outlook on life really helped me and pulled me through. Hiawatha, you are gone… but never forgotten.” She blew Paw a kiss, then stepped down. The crowd applauded her as she retook her seat.
Zenith got to his feet, and the funeral director brought him a microphone.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m not going to prolong this. My Paw liked good company, good conversation, and good food, so we’re going to go eat in a bit, and I hope everyone stays and fellowships. But, I just wanted to thank all of you for coming and being with us today, saying your final goodbyes. We’re going to carry Paw’s casket around the fire we light, after which he made it clear he wanted to be cremated. I will be taking his remains to the Chenango River, where his father grew up, saying a prayer, then sprinkling his remains in the Mohawk River… where he grew up, just as he requested. Obviously…” He touched his chest and then batted away tears. Silver patted his lower back in comfort. “Obviously… this would mean a great deal to him… all of us together like this, following his wishes. So, thank you for honoring him in this special way. I love you.”
People rose from their seats. A small gathering of elders approached Zenith, giving him hugs. Uncle Len broke through the crowd, shouldering people out of his way. Zenith took note of the tiredness in the man’s face, his nose a red bulb of sorts, and his suit wrinkled. As soon as he drew closer, he could smell the alcohol reeking from his body.
“Uncle Len, what do you want?” Zenith crossed his arms and then addressed Silver. “Baby, can you ask Javier to make sure the firewood is ready?” The woman hesitated for a moment, shooting a disapproving look at Uncle Len. But, she let it go, simply nodded and walked away.
“I want to know what the will said.”
Zenith gritted his teeth and put on a strained grin. He shook his head in disbelief. “This is a low blow even for
you
.”
“Look, Zen, Hiawatha wasn’t all he was cracked up to be, okay? The least he could have done is left me some money. He only had me and Degan, and Degan has been dead for over twenty-five years, so what’s going on with the will?”
“You’ll get your copy in the mail, certified.”
“Yeah, but what did it say?” The man cocked his head to the side as he nervously scratched under his armpit.
“I fucking hate you, you know that?” Zenith stated calmly. Heads turned in their direction. Uncle Len drew back, then stepped forward as if he couldn’t believe his ears, as if it bore repeating. “I didn’t see your ass at the hospital. I didn’t see you at the nursing home not one damn time. I didn’t see you at my house unless I begged you to come to see your own damn father! YOU AIN’T SHIT!”
“Zenith, baby…” Silver called out.
“My father’s dead,
twice
!!!” he yelled, feeling the vein pulsing on the side of his neck. They now had the full attention of the crowd. “I lost my biological one, and now the one that raised me, too. My Paw. And all you can do is stand here asking about some money! You had a father, Uncle Len, but you didn’t appreciate him. It was always you against everyone else!”
“You’re something else, Zenith.” Len laughed mirthlessly as he stumbled about. “Just as holy and sanctimonious as Hiawatha… blowing smoke…even did the smoke dance… You were pretty good, too. Look.” The man pointed in his face as his tone grew teeth. “He didn’t love me, and I’d rather have
no
father than one who lies and pretends to be so wonderful. He didn’t want me around! I tried! You don’t even know the entire story, just his version of it.”
“Lies and bullshit!”
“Zenith…” He felt Silver’s hand on his shoulder.
“I watched him call you on the phone, Uncle Len, time and time again! I heard him leaving voicemail after voicemail after voicemail when he moved in with me! He
knew
he was dying the whole damn time and was trying to make an amends with you, bury the hatchet before it was too late. All you care about is the damn money, right? Well, here’s a news flash, you fucking drunk… He left it all to
me
! You don’t get a dime and I’m donating most of it to heart disease research and the Seneca Nation for language preservation!”
The rage in Uncle Len’s face was enough to scare the vilest of spirits. He reared his arm back but Javier grabbed it and pulled him back.
“Come on, man… I don’t know you, and I don’t care, but you can’t be fighting at this man’s funeral. That is disrespectful and I’m not going to let it happen,
none
of us are going to let that happen so don’t test me. You don’t want to do this.”
Uncle Len snatched his arm away from Javier, his eyes wild and crazy.
“I had to sit here and listen to all this crap about how
great
my father was!” He spun around, grinning from ear to ear at everyone, then faced Zenith once again. “Yeah… that he was sooooo funny, so wonderful! He didn’t care about me, only Degan! How
great
Degan was! How Degan would grow up and do numerous, incredible things! The hell with my father and the hell with Degan, too!”
The crowd became lively with whispers and audible utterances of shock.
“Degan married a damn angel, while I got saddled with a lying, heroin-addicted whore! But Degan didn’t appreciate his good fortune, no sir!” He shook his head emphatically. “Degan, your angelic father, screwed another woman and caught AIDS! And even after all of that, he was
still
exalted!
“Not
once
did my father condemn Degan’s actions!” He held up his finger. “He was my father, not yours, Zenith! MINE!” He pushed the same finger harshly into his chest. “He had made me promise to not tell you what happened, but years passed, and he still hadn’t told you the truth. I felt you should know. It was only right.”
“Tell me what happened about
what
?”
Len’s lips twisted in an unnerving sneer. “I went to pick you up from school, but I was a little too early. I figured I’d take you to McDonald’s or some shit and set it to you straight. I saw you on the playground with your friends, so I waited…”
Zenith was certain his blood pressure was rising, only no amount of medicine would take care of it, make it better.
“And then, it was taking so damn long, you know? So I walked up to the fence, trying to get your attention, but you didn’t see me. So I called one of your little friends over, a little boy you’d been playing with a few minutes beforehand. I told him that you were just like your old man, and thought you were better than everyone else because you could play the drums… and that you had said some messed up crap about him. I figured,” he said, shrugging nonchalantly, “it was better for you to hear it from a friend than from me, I figured upon second thoughts. I mean, you didn’t know me all that well, and what if you told the school I wasn’t supposed to pick you up or something? Then everything would have been ruined. This way,” he said with an infuriating smirk. “I’d be sure the message went through.”