Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:17:14 -0500
From: Jake Preston <jemtling@gmail.com>
Subject: Psychic Detective 8

Psychic Detective 8
The Peyote Ritual
By: Jake Preston


This is a work of erotic gay fiction, intended for readers who enjoy a
murder mystery in which fully developed characters interact sexually and in
other ways. Their sexual encounters are sometimes romantic, sometimes
recreational, sometimes spiritual, and almost always described explicitly.
My attention is equally divided between narrative, character development,
and sex scenes. If you don't care for this combination, there are many
other excellent "nifty" stories to choose from. And remember that while
nifty stories are free, maintaining a website is not. Please think about
donating at http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html

Writing is usually a solitary avocation, but not necessarily so on
nifty.org, where a longer story appears in installments. If my characters
and my story grab your attention, you can always intervene with suggestions
for improvements. All sincere comments will get a response!

Jake, at jemtling@gmail.com

*  *  *  *  *  *

Chapter 8
The Peyote Ritual


	Sunday morning, July 6: The peyote chips had dried on the kitchen
counter. At Dark Eagle's instruction, the four sworn-brothers moved
furniture to make room for guests. The day was rainy and cold- "Rain is a
good omen," said Dark Eagle, for "the ritual requires a fire in the
fireplace."

	"There will be thirteen of us," Jimmy Brave Heart said. "Isn't that
an unlucky number?"

	"Each one is indispensable in his own way," Dark Eagle said.

      The four Ojibwe elders arrived: Peter Brave Heart (Jimmy's father),
Matt Aseban, Jim Beaver Trail, and Steve 'Rabbit' Waabooz (Tony's
father). Dark Eagle sent them to the sweat lodge, and the four 'brothers'
with them. They stripped down to their shorts, but in the heat of the sweat
lodge, Jim Beaver Trail persuaded Dmitri to get naked. If the truth be
told, Dmitri liked it when other men admired the physique of his wrestler's
body. The elders broke into a ritual that they had used before:

      "Abeweyiingwe," Peter Brave Heart said.  "Abweninjiiweg," Matt Aseban
said.  "Abwezideweg," Jim Beaver Trail said.  "Abwenidiyid," Steve Waabooz
said.
      The elders laughed at their verbal game. Tony Waabooz translated: "He
has a sweaty face. He has sweaty hands. He has sweaty feet. He has a sweaty
butt." The elders laughed again.  On ritual occasions, it was their job to
introduce polar opposites- solemn Ojibwe traditions, and carnivalian
humor. "Sacred laughter is as important as prayer," Dark Eagle used to say.

       Jimmy Brave Heart's red-faced blush was almost imperceptible in the
dim light of the sweat lodge. It was only two hours since he had burrowed
his nose, his tongue, and his cock in Dmitri's butt. Still fresh in his
mind was the sensation of Dmitri's sphincter tightened around his shaft
while semen flowed into his anal canal. At that moment, Dmitri had been an
extension of him. Jimmy didn't like being naked in the presence of his
father, but he stepped out of his shorts so Dmitri wouldn't be the only
one. David was less sympathetic, knowing that Dmitri liked the attention,
but it went without saying that all three of Dmitri's sworn-brothers would
get naked, too.

      The 'brothers' were frolicking in the water on a cool-down when
Göran Svenson, Harvey Winik, and Red Hawk arrived. They stripped naked,
too. Eye- and body-contact were inevitable between eleven men crowded in
the sweat lodge, seven of them butt-naked and remembering sex with one or
more of the others within the last few days, or hours. Göran Svenson
rivaled Dmitri in surplus masculinity, but in other respects they were
unlike each other. If Dmitri fulfilled popular notions of Apollo, Svenson
was more like Paul Bunyan, minus a beard, axe, and ox- unless the bulge in
his basket could be animated as Babe Blue! Svenson's opposite in the group
was Red Hawk; he's what anthropologists call 'slender gracile', even
androgynous when seen from the rear, a look that he cultivated by wearing
shoulder-length hair and an elaborate turquoise necklace, quite similar to
the ones worn by the 'brothers' on this ritual day. How strange that the
most androgynous creature among them should be a voracious top, while his
hunky opposites, Dmitri and Göran, should be accessible to sexual
domination by men who wanted them! Harvey Winik was somewhere between these
extremes: stout but strong in his middle age, new to the gay scene,
self-described as a top but easily seduced by Red Hawk, who suggested to
him that he should think of himself as 'versatile', depending on who he was
with.  The truth is that Winik was too inexperienced to understand his gay
sexuality.

      In the gay intimacy of the sweat lodge, Peter Brave Heart and his son
Jimmy explained the customs of sexual conduct in the peyote ritual. Their
account was clinical; even Red Hawk, an anthropologist, couldn't have done
it better. Even so, uplifting whiffs of testosterone mingled with steam in
the hut crowded to naked men. In the peyote ritual, sexual participation is
voluntary, but if a man gets naked, that signifies his desire to
participate. If he asks another man to have sex with him during the ritual,
it's considered bad manners to refuse him. Of course, the rule cuts both
ways: he can't refuse another man's invitation, either. It's also bad
manners to proposition another man unawares during the ritual; better to
ask him ahead of time, but bad to refuse him ahead of time. Rather than
refusing sex with someone who asks, it's better to withdraw from the ritual
altogether. "But peyote-passion is such that spontaneous sex is possible,
too, and what we are calling 'bad manners' is forgiven," Peter Brave Heart
said. "That rule cancels out the others. One other rule applies to today's
ritual: no one is allowed to touch David, except his sworn brothers."

      Usually the elders kept their clothes on, content in their spectator
role, but when Matt Aseban gazed at Dmitri, he decided to go naked. Jim
Beaver Trail was attracted to Svenson in the same way. During the next
cool-down period in the lake, Matt approached Dmitri, who replied, "I am
for you, then, Matt Aseban, and as you are the first to ask, you'll be my
first in the ritual-assuming that anyone else wants me." He laughed. "I
should warn you, Dmitri, that Aseban means 'raccoon' in Ojibwe. I'm Matt
Raccoon Aseban. Raccoons get into everything."  His remark got a toothy
grin from Dmitri, who wished that his homophobic father could be more laid
back, like Matt Aseban.

      Jim Beaver Trail propositioned Göran Svenson, who said, "I'll
agree on one condition; namely, that you spend the night with me at the
Lodge" (he meant Wayward Island Resort).

      Red Hawk counseled Harvey Winik: "Do you see anything you like? For
you, Harv, the peyote ritual is a chance to broaden your experience." Winik
admitted that he was partial to Jimmy Brave Heart and Tony Waabooz, but
couldn't choose between them. "Why pick just one, when you can have both of
them?" Red Hawk asked. "We'll all be high on peyote, and viagra for
endurance!" The idea seemed outrageously unrealistic to Winik-that two
vital young men would want to be with a man old enough to be their
father. "Would it be all right if I asked them for you?" Red Hawk
volunteered. Minutes later, Red Hawk had organized a peyote-threesome for
Winik, Jimmy Brave Heart, and Tony Waabooz.

      "What about you?" Winik asked Red Hawk. "Everyone else seems paired
up, except for David, and Dark Eagle said that during the ritual, David's
untouchable."

      "I'm going peyote-light this time," Red Hawk said. "I'll be on the
viewing stand, so to speak, with Dark Eagle and Mrs. Ravitch. I'm here to
observe and record, on orders from Dark Eagle."

      "Peyote-light?" Winik asked.

      "Limited to two peyote chips, rather than four or six; enough to get
into the spirit without getting lost in peyote visions," Red Hawk replied.

      If other assignations were made during the sweat-lodge encounter, I'm
not aware of them. Of course, the four 'sworn brothers' had no need to
proposition each other.


      The elders began the ceremony by distributing peyote chips, whisky,
and viagra. "You must chew each peyote chip thoroughly. Chew it until it
feels like a past. Only then should you wash it down with whisky," Peter
Brave Heart instructed. "Dmitri and David, Jimmy Brave Heart and Tony
Waabooz, you must not take peyote until after the Greek dance that Dark
Eagle has promised us. Thirteen participants sat in a wide circle, on the
ceremonial carpet by the fireplace. Dark Eagle started the peace-pipe. It
circled around three times. "It's just tobacco, no marijuana," Dark Eagle
said. He grinned at the two law enforcement officers, Winik and
Svenson. Not that they would have objected.

	"Timothy Leary, the self-proclaimed prophet of LSD, once tried
peyote," Red Hawk said, while everyone (except for the four sworn brothers)
struggled to chew the chips. "He complained that the chips were disgusting
and failed to induce the 'eighth circuit of consciousness'. That's what he
called it. For him it was a scientific experiment, not a ritual. He
accepted the conventional Aristotelian notion that pleasure is the absence
or avoidance of pain. That's why he rejected the chips for their
bitterness." After Red Hawk's discourse, no one dared complain that the
chips tasted bitter!

      Dark Eagle chanted a long prayer to Manitou. In it, he thanked the
Great Spirit sending him twelve guests, and gave reasons (in Ojibwe) why
each one was present: the four elders; the two detectives (Harvey Winik and
Göran Svenson), the resident artist and anthropologist (Anna Ravitch and
Red Hawk), the sons of two elders (Jimmy Brave Heart and Anthony 'Rabbit'
Waabooz), and their sworn brothers, Dmitri Zarvopoulos and David
Gabrioli. David came last but not least. "David Niizho-manitou, he of Two
Spirits," he called him, "sent to help us unravel a mystery."

	After the prayer, everyone moved aside to make room for Dmitri's
acrobatic Greek dance, accompanied by boom-box music and the line-dance of
David, Jimmy, and Tony. The neophytes held their own, while Dmitri
astonished the group with acrobatic maneuvers. The first dance, syrtos
handioditos, was surprising for its novelty, and for the spectacle of
eagle-feathers swaying to the rhythms of a dance that seemed more energetic
than any Ojibwe equivalent. The boys removed their headdresses and danced
the kalamatianos, faster and faster, an even more energetic dance. Dark
Eagle beamed with pride. Everyone else looked astonished. The beadwork on
vests, shirts, trousers, and moccasins seemed to flash colored lights,
reflected by firelight, or was it the first onset of peyote visions?  When
the boys doffed their vests and danced a zorba, the music was familiar but
the dance dazzled more than anything they remembered from Zorba the
Greek. (That was peyote influence, for sure!) They removed their shirts for
the akrobatikos. This was Dmitri's dance, more than any other. Only he
could perform it. Tony Waabooz did his part, with a red hand towel wrapped
around his hand, supporting Dmitri's weight during tricky jumps and
squats. Without Tony's help, Dmitri would have fallen to the floor, but he
was an experienced dancer, and didn't miss a beat. It seemed to his
spectators that Dmitri's feet never touched the floor when he moved, except
when he squatted on one foot, with his butt an inch from the ceremonial
carpet, and sprung into the air like an eagle. The turquoise necklace
picked up colors from his torso and from firelight, in peyote-perfected
perfection.

	It was time for the syrtos eroticos, the last dance. Dmitri stepped
out of his deerskin trousers and his shorts. Tony, David, and Jimmy
followed his example. Everyone applauded and cheered. Dressed in turquoise
necklaces and beaded moccasins, they danced the erotikos, a slow, romantic
dance. Here it must be said that the boys improvised some erotic moves that
had never been seen at a Greek wedding: mock-fondling, mock-fucking,
frontal flaunting of genitalia, and curvaceous displays of naked butt.

	When the dance was over, Dark Eagle directed the boys to sit
Indian-style on the ceremonial carpet. David was North, at Dark Eagle's
feet. Dmitri was South. Jimmy Brave Heart was East. Tony Waabooz was
West. Harvey Winik sat next to Jimmy Brave Heart. Matt Aseban sat next to
Dmitri. Göran Svenson and Jim Beaver Trail sat together, between David
and Tony Waabooz. Peter Brave Heart and Steve Waabooz, sat between Dmitri
and Jimmy. Dark Eagle sat apart on the love seat, between Red Hawk and
Mrs. Ravitch. Peter Brave Heart distributed peyote chips and whisky to the
dancers, and towels for them to wipe down their sweat. Dark Eagle told them
to get closer in the circle. "Your arms and legs much touch the men on each
side of you," he said. He lit the calumet, smoked, and passed it to
Mrs. Ravitch and Red Hawk, who brought it to the ten men in the circle. The
calumet circulated three times. By the third round, everyone seemed eager
to help his neighbor with the pipe. They got giddy and handsy. The ceiling
floated toward them and away.

	Dark Eagle uttered an improvised prayer in English. It was part of
the ritual, but he made it a long prayer, to give the dancers time to get
their bearings:

      Manitou, Manitou!
      As You are the Spirit of Life,
      We of the Ojibwe have never slain any living thing as a sacrifice to
You.
      We respect your sacred birds:
      the Eagle, the Hawk, the Osprey, the Crane, the Owl, and the Loon.
      We respect your sacred animals: the Wolf and the Bear.
      We respect all human life.
      We welcome wayfarers as guests. Sometimes You speak through them.
      Because You are Spirit, we worship no graven images.
      Our gifts to you are friendship in the sweat lodge and in the sacred
wigwam.
      Speak to us now, in our peyote ritual.
      You sent David Gabrioli, he of Two Spirits.
      You sent Dmitri Zarvopoulos, his guardian.
      We honor them as sons.
      Jimmy Brave Heart and Anthony Waabooz are their brothers.
      David is North. Dmitri is South. Jimmy and Tony are East and West.
      Evil has come to the Island of Eight Eagles.
      You sent David and Dmitri there to disclose it.
      They've done their part, and they will do more with our help.
      Speak to us now. Tell us what we must do.

Dark Eagle continued in prose: "Twenty years ago, Manitou foresaw that evil
would come to the Island of Eight Eagles. He sent a shaman's spirit to
David Niizho-manitou Gabrioli. He sent a warrior's spirit to Dmitri
Zarvopoulos, to be his guardian."
	Dark Eagle had his critics in other Indian nations, who faulted him
for three heresies: he turned the sweat lodge into a sauna, he admitted
non-Indian elements and non-Indian participants in the peyote ritual, and
he allowed gay sex as part of the ritual. The first charge was untrue, for
it was the Ojibwe people, not Dark Eagle, who secularized the sweat
lodge. But it is true that Dark Eagle took advantage of this, realizing
that companionship in the sweat lodge would attract more Ojibwe to
shamanism. Indeed, he revived shamanism and made it stronger among the
Ojibwe compared to other Indian nations-partly because of his 'ecumenical'
views, as he called them. "There is no theological conflict between
shamanism and the Judeo-Christian tradition," he claimed. "Any shamanist
can be Christian without giving up shamanism, for Manitou is one of the
names of God." Most Christians wouldn't agree, but then, most Christians
don't accept equal rights for gay people, either, so established Christian
churches have little credibility when it comes to what is or is not
acceptable.

      Then, too, Dark Eagle had a unique ability to detect two-spirited
men, manifestations of Niizho-manitou. It was a spiritualized form of
gaydar. When he found men of two spirits, he incorporated them into Ojibwe
rituals. His acceptance of gay sex generated a spirit of toleration in the
Ojibwe nation. With the possible exception of Anna Ravitch, no one knew
anything about Dark Eagle's sexual orientation-an improper speculation in
any case.

      Dark Eagle rose to Native American fame when the Ojibwe Monument was
discovered on Jake Preston's farm on the Rice River. Jake gave him use of
the farm for a museum and a visitors' center, and for the Summer Solstice
Powwow. It was a personal gift from Jake to Dark Eagle, although the Ojibwe
nation would inherit the farm eventually. With Jake's help, Dark Eagle
purchased other land in Ashawa-abandoned farms and lakefront lots. These he
ceded to the Ojibwe nation. Moreover, the peyote rituals over which he
presided had a reputation for eliciting authentic prophecies from
Manitou. So Dark Eagle had more supporters than critics, because he
attracted allies who did good things for the Ojibwe.

	So it was neither heresy nor sacrilege when Jimmy Brave Heart and
Tony Waabooz lay on either side of Harvey Winik and offered him double
sodomy. Winik penetrated Jimmy first.  "Go easy on him," Jimmy said when
Winik turned to Tony and knelt between his legs. "Go easy on him, he's a
virgin," Jimmy said when Winik edged toward Tony with a cock already Jimmy-
coated with lube. Winik tested Tony's portal with his mushroomy wet
head. "I've never popped cherry before. Do you want to give it up to your
old uncle Harv?" Tony responded by placing his hands on Winik's thighs and
drawing him close. An unexpected landslide occurred. Winik's shaft drove
all the way in. Tony howled like a wolf, but the pain subsided in
peyote-visions of spirally colors and stars. Steve Waabooz was minded to
rescue his son from the arms of a cherry- bandit, but Svenson distracted
him with an invitation to spend the night with him at the Lodge.  "We'll be
a threesome, you, me, and Jim Beaver Trail," he said. Svenson guided
Steve's hand to his naked butt. "You can get into this," he said. Winik was
so delirious fucking Tony that he didn't notice Jimmy behind him, and in
him. Winik arched and winced at the dull thud of cockhead followed by the
unstoppable slide of shaft. His fucking-moves into Tony gave Jimmy the
stimulation he needed. Winik planted his seed inside Tony. Only then did he
realize that he'd been spooged, too.

	Dmitri and Göran had promises to keep and pipers to pay. They
lay side by side while Matt Aseban and Jim Beaver Trail missioned them
tandemly, then flipped them and fucked from behind. Matt and Jim spoke
Ojibwe words, sharing untranslatable remarks about male pussy, mounds of
moon under their command, big dicks tucked under while Ojibwe dick plowed
the field, the silken squeeze of sphincter around their shafts. Matt used
his hands to part Dmitri's ass-cheeks so Jim could see his
shaft-action. "All right, you've convinced me. Let's trade," Jim said. A
minute later, Jim was fucking Dmitri and Matt was fucking Svenson. "They
really are different, but sensational," Jim Beaver Trail said. He was
getting ready to spooge Dmitri, when David was heard calling, "Dmitri!"
Dmitri was startled. Jim Beaver Trail's cock sprung out of its target and
jizzed on Dmitri's torso, while Matt Aseban filled Svenson's tunnel with
spooge.

	Dmitri walked over to David and helped him to his feet. He picked
David up. David wrapped his legs around Dmitri's hips. Dmitri's cock plowed
David's butt. They fucked furiously while Dmitri held David by the butt and
David clung to Dmitri's neck. Dmitri spooged David while David shot jizz
over Dmitri's torso. Spoogy white gobs contrasted the tawny dark of his
body. They stood in a lovers' embrace, oblivious to everyone around them,
and whispered words that no one else could hear. My speculation is that
Dmitri asked David if he wanted to continue with the ritual. If David had
said no, Dmitri would have picked him up and carried him back to the
wigwam. But David said yes. Dmitri helped David into his deerskin trousers,
and got into trousers himself. He helped David into his place on the
ceremonial carpet-this time facing Dark Eagle.

	Dark Eagle raised his right hand. Everyone was silent. Dark Eagle
gazed at David. David returned Dark Eagle's gaze. Ten, fifteen, twenty
minutes went by. David was in deep concentration. "Some thoughts have come
to me," he said at last. "Maybe they come from Manitou, maybe they come
from my own experience. That's for the shaman to judge. They are random
thoughts, but I must speak them as they come. The evil that you speak of
will return to the Island of Eight Eagles. A shaman was sacrificed. He was
not Ojibwe, but he was a shaman.  He came from an arid place of mountains,
red rocks, and desert. The island must be claimed by the Ojibwe nation, and
purified. The Eight Eagles must be protected. The hawk must be
protected. The shaman that was sacrificed was a healer, not a prophet. If
the hawk is not protected, the Eight Eagles will leave the island."

	Svenson was so riveted that he forgot he was naked. He reached for
a pen and paper, but found that he had no trousers. He sighed with relief
when he saw Red Hawk taking notes.

	David continued: "The evil one has a dark companion. They travel
like an apparition and its shadow, from place to place, east to west and
west to east. The hawk must be protected. West and further west they go, to
a mountain forest. They have three places of sacrifice. One is for water,
two is for sand, three is for the sun setting over the mountains. That's
where my thoughts come to an end. I'm sorry I don't have more, Dark
Eagle. I'm sorry if I failed you."