“More real than anything you’ve ever experienced,” Grandpa said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Why do I have a body?” I asked, gesturing to myself. “I thought I’d be a spirit.”
In the Hawkei religion, we’d been taught that when we died, we fused and became one with our Familiars. Obviously, that had happened with my grandfather. But… my Familiar hadn’t come with me, so I didn’t think the same rules applied.
“You don’tneeda body, though you’re new here, so it’s the form your spirit has chosen to materialize in,” Grandpa Liwanu explained. “You’ll be able to simply inhabit the Ancestral Lands in spirit form once you get used to it.”
“Where’s Monica?” I asked, looking around.
“She’ll be along. Come with me.”
He changed back into a grizzly bear. I recognized his Familiar from photographs my dad had— this was Tatum. They truly had fused together, in the afterlife. I climbed onto the bear’s back, and he took off in a jog throughout the plains.
When we reached the edge of the redwood forest, I disembarked from Tatum’s back. The bear transformed back into my grandfather, and we started walking through the trees together.
“So are you permanently stuck like that? Changing back and forth between your Familiar and yourself?” I asked.
“We can split ourselves,” Grandpa Liwanu explained. “On earth, our Familiars were our souls, but we merge with them once we enter the Ancestral Lands. We can choose to separate these different parts, if we want to spend time with each other. Watch.”
I was mesmerized as I observed Tatum step out of my grandfather’s body as a spirit before he materialized as a fully-fledged bear. I reached out to stroke Tatum’s ears and found that they were solid. “That’s amazing.”
“It’s how it was always meant to be.”
“Are there… other places?” I asked. “I’ve heard of other afterlives, but wasn’t sure if this was truly the only one.”
“There are many different planes of the Blessed Haven, same as there are many different levels of hell. You are in the Hawkei afterlife, though if you wish, you may visit the others,” Grandpa Liwanu said.
I was already excited to start exploring new places, even though I had barely seen this one.
I spotted a small cottage up ahead in the middle of the trees. It didn’t look like much, only one or two rooms, but the little windows and slanted roof made the whole thing look cozy.
“We’ll be stopping here to rest. Your soul had a long journey to get here,” Grandpa Liwanu explained. He proceeded toward the cottage door, but I stopped just outside of it.
“Grandpa? Are you… mad at me?” I wasn’t nervous as I asked the question, but it still prodded at me anyway.
“Why would I be angry at you,pawee?”
He’d used the Hawkei word forbeloved little child, and the term was so affectionate. It made me melt inside. “Well… I kind of blew myself up…”
“You did what you had to, to save the people you loved.” Grandpa put a hand on my shoulder and stroked back my hair. “Why would I be angry at you for that?”
“Does anger even exist here?” I asked.
“Sometimes, though it’s rare.” My grandfather knocked on the door. I was momentarily shocked when I saw who opened it.
At first, I thought it was Ezekiel, and I wondered what had happened for him to end up here at the same time as me. But it wasn’t my brother… this man’s hair was shorter, and he had a more muscular build. He was the same age as me, though, and had that same lopsided smile that my brother always had.
The man grinned at me and said, “About time you showed up, niece.”
This was my Uncle Ezra. He’d died shortly after I was born. His energy and presence were so similar to Ezekiel’s. I immediately felt like I was at home. I grinned and flung my arms around him. Ezra’s embrace was tight and welcoming, unlike my grandfather’s, which had been so stiff and rigid.
“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” I said, and I squeezed him even tighter.
“You’ve been a rascal, let me tell you,” Uncle Ezra said, ruffling my hair. “You definitely kept my dad on his toes.”
Grandpa Liwanu let out ahmphbehind him. As Uncle Ezra stepped aside, I entered the cottage. It was sweet and comfortable here. A fire burned in the hearth, and Hawkei memorabilia lined the walls alongside wooden furniture.
A woman stood at the stove, cooking some sort of dish. When she turned around to greet me, I had to do a double-take. It was my Aunt Stevie— I knew she had to be— and she lookedso muchlike Josee. They were nearly twins. It was mind blowing that I was actually meeting her birth parents, after hearing so much about them growing up.
