ghost town coyote excerpt

… When I went home the other night, I saw a coyote. Just up the road here. It ran right across in front of the car.”

For the first time the serenity, all the composure, drained from Maria’s rugose cheeks. Now her eyes were portals to a fright mounting inside, and she lay down her fork gravely. “You should have come back here. As soon as you saw it. That was a bad sign, a very bad sign.”

“Come back? Why?”

“Ma’ii. Ma’ii is an evil animal. If a hunter or a warrior saw him on the trail, he would turn back. He would not take the chance after the sight of ma’ii.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s Navajo beliefs, Erik. You know, like a black cat is to some folks.”

There had never lived a black cat to produce the eerie stare transfixing him. “It is the worst of animals. Death has no power over it. Its life is in its tail and the end of its nose. You can destroy the rest of him, yet he pulls himself together and comes to life again. Some of the old men had seen this.”