Shell Shaker

Dallas, Texas

Sunday Evening, September 22, 1991

Autumnal Equinox

In Dallas, Texas, Auda’s sister Tema is performing as Nora Helmer in Henrik Ibsen’s 19th-century stage play, A Doll’s House. As Tema prepares to go on stage, the stage door sticks, and she falls onto the stage in front of everyone, and then hears a “bodiless voice” which “calls to her in Choctaw” calling her “Hatak abi” meaning “[m]ankiller” (loc 635). Tema is paralyzed with fright but repels the voice and finishes the scene. Afterwards, she tells her husband Borden Beane, an English actor playing Nora’s husband Torvald, that she must go home. He doesn’t believe that she heard anything, and convinces her she must just be tired and nervous. The next morning, however, her son Hopaii Iskitini, called Hoppy, hands her a fax from her Uncle Isaac in Oklahoma telling her about Redford’s death, and the arrest of her mother and sister. Borden apologizes for not believing her, and Tema and Hoppy prepare to leave for Oklahoma.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Monday, September 23, 1991

In New Orleans, Adair Billy, sister of Auda and Tema, prepares for her day. Adair is a stock broker, very well respected, and known as the “Wall Street Shaman” (loc 801).