Liz looked at Linda and extended her palms. She mouthed, 'What did I do?'

Linda shook her head, mouthing back, 'I don't know.'

They both turned their attention to Tommy. They'd been with many people who were crying and sobbing in front of them when they worked at the shelter for abused women and children. They usually knew why the person was crying.

They waited until Tommy's hard weeping quieted to sniffles and coughing. As he tried to speak, he cried and paused in between phrases creating a hiccup effect. "I...was so afraid...I couldn't take it...again. No...it couldn't...it just couldn't...happen...again...I've lost so much...we've all lost too much.
She never...they never...came home...never showed up...they just disappeared...off the face of the earth."

They both listened without a word. Tommy's rocking slowed. His voice returned to a more regular tone and cadence. He raised his head and used some folded napkins to dry his face and hands.

"The house was stuffy from the heat with no AC. The open windows didn't seem to be very effective with 15 people in a four-room house. My favorite aunt and 13-year-old cousin had gone out for a walk to get some air.

"As Grandfather Sun began to set, someone noticed Aunt Wise Fox and Sweet Juniper hadn't returned from their walk. When darkness was well upon us, we all became concerned. We asked around to see if anyone had seen them.

"One neighbor said he'd passed them and waved to them but when he returned on the same road, they were gone. He said he figured they'd taken another path. The next morning a bunch of us jumped in the bed of his rusted-out Chevy pickup.

"We looked around, off the road on worn trails. There was no sign of them until someone found Juniper's power bundle. The fastened rawhide cord, for around her neck, was broken. It was supposed to keep her safe. The person taking them may have known that, torn it off, and thrown it into the deep grass.

"When we returned home, we sent messengers to pass the word that other houses would be smoked up with sage and cedar for the protection and purification of my aunt and cousin. Each house would choose a specific power object to set out for the two missing loved ones.

"Our house was smoked and tobacco and a hawk feather were set out. We were hoping Hawk might help us to see with a more discerning eye. Days, weeks, months, years went by. We've kept her power bundle and jingle dress to remember her.

"My Aunt Wise Fox helped Juniper make her dress. She sewed between 100-140 curled snuff lids onto it to create the melodious music when she competed in the jingle dance. Oh, could she ever dance. Our family and tribe knew Juniper would win one competition after another as she grew older."

Tommy pounded his fists on his thighs as hot tears commenced again. He sniffled, blew his nose, and let out a deep sigh. He shook his head. "It has left such a great hole in our hearts. I know eventually, it will heal and scar over.

"The scab of protection was ripped off when my mother told me about my sister Sage. We were afraid it would be the same terror of searching and waiting. That would have been the new weight we carried, piled upon the already too great a burden of having lost two of our family members.

"The scars that form on our hearts will remind us of our love for them as we habitually tell their stories of being with us for a very short while until they went missing. Because of you two angels of rescue, we will not have to tell Sage's story; she will be here to tell it on her own."

By this time, both Liz and Linda felt compassionate tears streaming. They found themselves uncharacteristically quiet. All three had redefined how they reacted to the news, who they were to Tommy, and who Tommy was to them.

There was none of the shouting and pointing and exclaiming the 'I knew it and the 'we knew it's. It resembled nothing like any of them had imagined. After all the mystery on the part of both parties, the answer was not as sweet as they had anticipated. It was a painfully emotional moment.

They were glad Tommy found out who they were. But it opened up the memories of the heartbreaking experience of hearing the litany in the cave. They had listened as each girl chanted the friend's or relative's name in her life who had gone missing.

Tommy felt completed when he found out that these ladies in his car were the ones who rescued his sister and many others. It was a double-edged sword. The realness of what could have happened reawakened the panic in him. He began to shake.

Linda and Liz knew it was time for one of them to say something. But neither of them knew what to say. They thought how they should have been better at this, after all their years working with grieving, loss, and horrific situations. But nothing came to either of them.

Liz thought maybe she could alter the mood if she spoke of their adventures of getting into the cave and moving around in and through it. It worked!

It turns out, Tommy had traveled through that very cave when he was younger. He was about ready to relate some funny and scary adventures.

Liz, in her impulsive ways, told him about how they would still be there if one of the teens named Spring Blossom hadn't led them through the cave. "Spring Blossom reassured everyone she knew her way because she'd learned a lot when she travelled that very cave as a young girl."

When Liz mentioned Spring Blossom, Tommy said, "She was taken too?" His voice shook a little as he said, "It was Spring Blossom, her brother, Flying Squirrel, and her father, Shoots the Arrow, who took me through the cave.

"There was a point where if we didn't have little Spring Blossom with us, we may have just turned around. We came to a large room that appeared to end. Our little companion could jump and climb all over the place.

"When she heard us express worry, she bounced around running over to stand in a corner pointing to a hole in the wall that looked like a giant creature had clawed a chunk out of it. I don't know how she saw it. Maybe because she was closer to the ground, being so tiny.

"Since she'd discovered it, she needed to go through it. Children have no fears and spunky Spring Blossom certainly was fearless. We hitched her up to a climbing rope hefted her to peek into the hole with one of us holding the lantern inside lighting her way. Her lead kept lengthening. She was going farther in.

"We yelled to her, to see if she was okay. By then, she was popping her head through the ragged opening. She explained it was a kind of slide she went down and it was a big room at the bottom. So, we were set to go in. She turned around and headed back down and we followed."

Liz and Linda looked at each other, shook their heads. "We remember that weird intimidating opening." Liz added more, in a dramatic voice. "The scariest hole was the one in the middle of the floor. We could have fallen down it." She shuddered just remembering it.

"Funny you should mention that hole. I wanted to throw a rope down there and check it out. My buddy, Flying Squirrel wanted to join me. His father Shoots the Arrow was reticent to let us go. He had to admit, though, we were plenty old enough.

"We made ready, tying three climbing ropes to some stalagmites."

Liz went through her mnemonic device of how she remembered the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. The g in the word stood for ground. She knew he meant they'd tied the ropes to the rocks sticking up from the floor of the cave.

"When Shoots the Arrow saw the third rope, he said he was not interested in going down any dark hole. We both laughed and explained that that was why we needed to hook a lantern onto the third rope. We suspended it about five feet, so we could see the wall expanse where we were planning to repel.

"On the count of three, we both dropped about ten feet expecting to be kicking the walls of the downward tunnel. We looked around with the glow of the lantern glistening on black walls about five feet away.

"We found ourselves, suspended in a cavernous space. After digesting our disappointment, we began the acrobatics of climbing back to the opening.

"Something we hadn't noticed before; breezes swirled around us. There was a gust of either an updraft or a down draft. Our lantern blew out. We were left in a black whirlpool. We had descended into Poe's Maelstrom.