- Working at KSC
- NASA Old Headquarters building on KSC destroyed.
- Flintknapping points
- Vampires of Kennedy Space Center and the O&C
- Demons of Kennedy Space Center
- Demons of Kennedy Space Center, corpus callosotomy
- Ghosts of Kennedy Space Center, End of Spiders
- Dreams of Kennedy Space Center, lovers and pyramids.
- Witches of Kennedy Space Center
- Cave Bears of Kennedy Space Center
- Aliens of Kennedy Space Center, uninvited guests
- Remembering Kennedy Space Center
- Lake 33 Killing Relic
Ghosts of Lake 33.
A Weldon Spring Story.
Chapter Four “Buffalo Dancer”
Welcome!
A new Book in first stages of writing.
The following pages and chapters are first drafts, including typos, grammar and tense problems.
Take it for what it is, A WORK IN PROGRESS.
.....And....Since I am by nature, a discovery writer, the story could change 100% (Have to get the ideas it out of your head and onto the monitor before it can be improved, fixed or corrected. Or thrown in the trash can via the delete button.
Okay, this is NOT the book cover, just me playing around with ideas
Buffalo Dancer
(First person or third person? Have to make up my mind)
Natasha lay in the darkness, all senses gone except the hearing of her heartbeat and the feeling of herself lying on a soft air mattress as she waited for the drug to take effect.
I’m used to this now. The thought arrsing in the logical part of her mind, reviewing her previous experiments.
A sound? What was that? Logic dictated that sight and sound can only take place in my brain. My eyes can see nothing in the total obsidian blackness and the only real noise in the bunker were the sounds of her pulse and breath.
Still, a carmine mist filled the bunker around her and out of the mist danced a rounded shape with horns. An animal, a Bison? The buffalo danced a primitive dance to match her heartbeat.
In the red mist, she realized no not an animal, it was a man wearing a buffalo skin headdress and horns, his footsteps keeping time with her pulse. There was no fear, she had no fear, though previous visions had been upsetting.
This thing, this man, seemed to offer no threat as he danced around her in rhythm to her heart.
She could even hear his leather covered feet scraping on the on the cement bunker floor, or was that the sound of her breathing? Slowly, ever so slowly, she thought she could hear chanting or singing coming from the man as he stomped around. Yes, he was a man, this became clear when she asked, “Are you a man?”
The red mist grew brighter, illuminating someone who might have been Siberian, his features as ancient as the ritual he performed.
He spoke in a voice that wasn’t English, but somehow she understood perfectly.
“Follow me,” he said, and she stood up and followed him, surprised that she could move at all. A quick glance below showed her body still lying on the air mattress, surrounded by crimson mist.
“Where are we going?” she asked the stranger.
- “To another place,” he answered simply, and took her hand.
The mist swirled around them like secrets kept too long in darkness, and they were gone.
The Buffalo Man stopped at the muddy river, the Missouri. Oddly the river lacked the rock wing dikes used for barge navigation. The river seemed to be flowing slower, almost lazy, but muddy as ever.
Two large wooden boats with furled square sails were on the river, one against the willow lined shoreline and the second boat approached by men pushing long poles.
“No motors? asked Natasha.
The two boats carried men and soldiers in strange uniforms.
“Is this a reenactment?”
The pole-bearers yelled frantically in a French dialect and called out a name, “Pierre, Pierre, Pierre!”
Pierre climbed from the river, clothes dripping and waved at his friends on the boats. He yelled to them in French.
We watched, puzzled.
“Why don’t they see him?” asked Natasha.
The men on the boat pulled hooked poles up and down along the boat trying to catch something.
“He is over there!" yelled Natasha, but none of the boatmen or soldiers turned to look at them.
“I don’t understand,” said Natasha. “He’s right there on the bank, yet they search under the water.”
Buffalo Man looked at the lone Frenchman on the muddy riverbank and said, “That’s because he is under the water for eternity. His body will remain underwater until the catfish and turtles find him. See how his feet do not sink in the mud?”
We could now see through Pierre, a fading wisp of the former boatman.
“This river is a giver of life and taker of life, a caretaker of existence, ever-changing yet somehow constant, clear despite the muddy floods and droughts. It carries rocks from Yellowstone and glacier melt from the far north. Life and death, birth and burial.
All things pass. The river is an example of all things that pass. Nothing is constant.”
“Why do you show me this?”
“I show you nothing,” he answered. “You lie on the floor of your man-made cave, dreaming. I came, you asked to follow.”
“I didn’t say anything, did not ask to come.”
“You don’t have to. Your spirit seeks something which does not exist, which has never existed.”
On the boat, a man with a tall cap spoke English. “We have to get upriver, find a place to set anchor and make camp before the storms arrive. We cannot get stuck here.”
Another man said, “I want to know if we can cross over to the Pacific.”
“I promised President Jefferson we would,” the first man replied, “So we shall move on.”
The Frenchmen holding the long poles weren’t happy, but they grudgingly pushed the boat up river. They knew nothing was certain. Whoever takes from the river must also give.
The fog that covered the river settled, turning crimson. The Buffalo Man remained on the riverbank waiting, watching until a two-legged wolverine appeared beside them.
“You tracked our track,” said the Buffalo Man. “Is there such a thing as good and evil? Or only hunters and the hunted. You tracked the spirit hunter who can fly?”
The wolverine smiled with fierce looking fangs.
“Next time,” whispered the Buffalo Man to the wolverine, “Next time I’ll have protection. Next time I’ll find protection for the sky traveler.”
The Buffalo Man began to laugh when the wolverine faded away.
“Are your scared, are you shaking, Spirit hunter who can fly”
“Should I be? asked Natasha.
“You need a wolf guide or the two-legged wolverine will….feed.”
Natasha woke in the dark bunker and groped for her phone.
Return HOME from Ghosts of Lake 33. Chapter Four Buffalo Dancer
My newest book, available on Amazon
(paperback and e-book)
For pet lovers around the globe, "It's a Matter of Luck" is a collection of heart warming stories of horse rescues from the slaughterhouse.
Available on Amazon
It's a Matter of Luck: Inspirational, Heartfelt Stories of Horses Given a Second Chance.
by Kim Ryba & Lina T. Lindgren
Warning: This book may cause your eyes to water in a good way. (speaking from experience after reading it)
Please give Kim and Lina a heartfelt review on Amazon!
Author Bruce Ryba at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B & Artemis 1. "We are going to the Moon!"
Author's discussion (that's me) on You Tube of a book review on Amazon
For the video versions of information, please check out my YouTube Channel (Turkeys, Flintknapping, dive stories etc.)
My fictional series/stories on Florida history:
Freedoms Quest (book one)
Struggle for the northern frontier and other lost tales of old Florida.
Available on Amazon
Desperate times call for bold action.
In a desperate move to retain Florida and protect the treasure-laden galleons on their dangerous return journey to Europe, the King of Spain issues a royal decree offering refuge to all English slaves who escape Florida and pick up a musket to defend the coquina walls of Saint Augustine.
In another bold gamble, the King offers refuge to the dissatisfied Indian nations of the southeast who will take up arms against the English.
Clans, traumatized by war and disease, cross the Spanish Frontier to settle the cattle-rich land and burned missions of Florida.
Follow the descendants of the conquistador Louis Castillo in remote Spanish Florida, a wild and swept by diseases, hurricanes, and northern invasions.
Book Two: End of Empire Available on Amazon!