Excerpt from Thunderhead: A New Age Life and Times
ISBN 1-933514-03-5

Chapter 4: The Eyes of a Raptor

1964, Age Nine, South Miami, Florida

“Manatee? What kind of name is that?” asked Dougie in true third-grader fashion. Chad looked up from where he had been staring at a sea gull circling the playground. For a moment he contemplated this inquiry with silence as he often did when questioned by his peers. He stared at Dougie with those piercing blue eyes, a color so uncharacteristic of his tribe.

“Seminole. It means sea cow.” He continued to look Dougie straight in the eye, recognizing something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Dougie was still curious. Alex Rivera and Rudy Gonzalez were absent today so there was no chance of a pick-up softball game. It was no fun without the Cubans. His glove hung limp in his hand.

“What’s a sea cow, and what’s a Seminole?”

Chad stared again and the beginnings of a smile appeared, something Dougie had never seen before on that face.

“One’s a water mammal, lives in the canals and sloughs; the other’s an Indian. You like hawks? How come your nose is crooked? What’s that weird little lightning-shaped scar on your face from? You can only see it when you squint.”

• • •

“Watch for the young one, Chadwick. His nose will be crooked like the hawk’s, his medicine animal. The sign of the Thunderers will be upon his face. The gators have told me that you will find him. When you do, bring him home.”

Chad’s mother went back to the venison stew, stirring patiently.

• • •

Download the rest of Chapter 4. This is a PDF file (450KB) that opens with Adobe Reader.

If you bought one of the first 40 or so copies of the 2006 edition of Thunderhead, you have a collector’s item. Chapter 4 was left out, and like those stamps with the airplane upside down, there won’t be any more of these. Get a copy of Chapter 4 by downloading the PDF.

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This edition of Thunderhead (ISBN 1-933514-03-5), completely revised and with new material, was released in September 2006, by Wind in the Forge Media in cooperation with Three Moons Media. The first edition was published under the title Totem, Thunderhead: The Life and Times of a Half Breed, and has been out of print for some time.