She answered a phone call from her own number. And that wasn't even the strangest thing to happen to her.


Mara Songbird is a black indigenous woman working as an educator. Her career is immaculate, having taught English courses at the best colleges in the country and several highschools, middle schools, and a few elementary schools. She doesn't tell many people, because she doesn't want to sound pretentious, but she's also a Princess by blood. A few years ago, after her proud indigenous father died, she decided to start researching her ancestry and, many moons later, she traced her lineage back to King Redfeather. Redfeather was a legendary indigenous monarch who once presided over a huge territory in California state and was also a renowned shaman. The knowledge of her roots made her feel whole and complete...


But it didnt explain the Shadow, as Mara called it.


No matter where Mara went, or where she worked, it was there. A woman who looked exactly like her and would perform tasks and even talk to her friends and coworkers before she would arrive to a work or an afternoon brunch. This Shadow unnerved her deeply. She had never seen it in person, only heard about it from others. Most recently, Mara was running late to a conference at South LA Highschool where she currently worked, having woken up late due to going to her older brother's birthday celebration at a techno club the night before. As she rushed to find a parking spot in front of the highschool, she suddenly had a strange feeling of dread and she knew that the Shadow was near.


All her urgency was drained away as she slowly walked through the front office and headed for the conference room. The friendly clerk said hello to her but she was too dazed to notice. As she walked down the hallway, her eyes glanced left and right, looking for any sign of the Shadow. Mara had never seen her Shadow before, but she lived in fear that one day they would meet and something disastrous would occur. Finally, she opened the door to the conference room just as the meeting was about to start. A couple of her fellow teachers waved hello and she responded with a shaky smile before taking the only available seat and focusing Principal Johnson who had turned on a projector and was starting a presentation.


After the thirty minute long meeting, all the teachers were standing and heading to their classrooms to prepare for the day when Ms June, the art teacher, stepped in front of her. "Hey, Mara," June said with a big friendly smile. "I saw you in the hall earlier, before the meeting. I waved at you, but you seemed to be lost in your own inner thoughts..."


Mara forced herself to smile to keep up appearances but on the inside she was a storm of emotions.


"I thought you'd be here before me, because I went to make coffee in the teacher's lounge and the coffee makers took a long time to get started," June continued, completely unaware of Mara's emotional state. "What were you so preoccupied about, if you don't mind me asking?"


"Uh..." Mara struggled to come up with a lie on the spot. She was a terrible liar, but she had lied many times before to cover up the existence of her Shadow so she simple searched her memory for one of her past lies and regurgitated it. "I left my phone in my desk the day before, so I was running to go get it," Mara said in a rush, trying to sound nonchalant. To distract from herself, she asked June about the upcoming student art show and June completely forgot about the Shadow sighting and started rambling on about her plans and how much work she still had to complete.


At the end of the day, Mara had completely forgotten about the Shadow incident and was only thinking about whether she wanted to cook for dinner or order out from a local vegan restaurant that had just opened up. She decided on the vegan spot and was heading to her car when she received a phone call. Her first thought was that it was her brother, probably calling to see how she was doing after drinking five tequila shots last night, but as she rummaged in her purse for the phone that familiar nauseating feeling overcame her. She knew in her bones that this wasn't a normal phone call before she even looked at the flashing screen. And when she saw that the caller had an identical number to her own, she stopped dead in her tracks.


Mara knew, without a doubt, that this was her Shadow calling.


Her finger shook as she answered the phone and held it to her ear without saying anything, just waiting for a voice. At last, the caller answered, "Don't go home tonight." Then it hung up. Mara shakily replaced the phone in her cluttered purse and sat down heavily on a bench alongside the wall, staring blankly at the tiled floor. The voice had unmistakably been her own voice. She was shaken to her core, frozen in shock.


"Hey there, Mara!" It was June again, waltzing up the hall carrying her usual tote bag stuffed to the brim with art supplies. "I was thinking of going to Barton's Bookstore downtown, do you want to tag along? I'll buy you a drink at the wine bar inside. My treat."


Mara looked up at June with an ashen expression, then remembered to act casual and forced herself to smile pleasantly. "That sounds great," she said, her voice cracking slightly.


June's eyebrows drew together in consternation. "You...don't look well. Are you feeling okay?"


Mara nodded energetically and smiled wider, trying harder to look nonplussed. "I just had a cramp, it's nothing. Barton's Bookstore, you said? I haven't been there in over a month. I'm excited to check out the poetry section, the last book of poems I got was an amazing find." She stood and hooked arms with June and they started walking to their cars while Mara rattled on about how much she loved poetry.


***


An hour later, Mara and June were sitting at the wine bar after walking all over Barton's Bookstore. June had bought two gigantic headcover art books, one full of photographs of LA graffiti and the other full of classical statues. Mara found a a new poetry book by a French poet that looked promising. When their wine glasses arrived, Mara sipped heartily and June laughed at how she gulped half the glass in a few seconds.


"Someone needed a drink!" June teased.


Mara grinned and wiped her lips with a napkin. The bartender reminded them that if they needed anything to just ring the bell on the countertop and then walked away. There was a large mirror behind the bar between two stacked shelves of wine bottles, and when the bartender moved Mara looked at her reflection and nearly fell out of her seat in pure horror. When she realized it was just her reflection, Mara calmed down and placed her hand over her jackhammering heart.


"What in the Lord's name is wrong with you!?" June asked with huge eyes, mouth hanging open.


Mara pulled herself fully onto the stool and leaned forward onto the counter, breathing shallowing. "I...I thought...I thought I saw..." She gulped and decided to do something she had never done before. She opened up. "I thought I saw my Shadow," Mara said in a hushed tone. Then she continued to tell June all about it while staring into her half-full wine glass, how the Shadow had followed her all over the country, how she had changed jobs continuously for over a decade because she was trying to escape it. "That's why I began researching my lineage, hoping it would somehow reveal some answers," Mara finished, shaking her head. "But all it revealed is that I'm a Princess of a long-forgotten tribe or whatever." She glanced at June with a nervous half-smile. "I hope you don't think I'm crazy...?"


June grinned and squeezed Mara's shoulder comfortingly. "Sweetie, I lived on a hippie commune growing up and took mushrooms at music festivals for most of my twenties! I'm the last person who would call someone crazy!"


They both shared a laugh and Mara drank the rest of her wine before ringing the bell for the bartender to give her a refill.


"You know, your Shadow sounds like a Doppelganger, but not exactly." June rubbed her pointy chin in deep thought. "I read a book on ancient cultures last summer that touched on this subject. I don't think you have a Doppelganger, I think you have a Vardoger, also called a 'First-Comer Spirit'. Unlike Doppelgangers, they aren't considered evil. The First-Comer Spirit arrives at places before you and often spreads cheer instead of turmoil. The book I read had a few historical accounts of Vardogers and they never seemed to be mean-spirited at all. Heck, I wished I had a Vardoger. They sounds awesome to me!" June laughed and rubbed Mara's back. "Does that make you feel any better, sweetie?"


Mara nodded. Truthfully, this new revelation made her more relaxed and took down the title of that book that June mentioned to order online. When June left to go feed her cat, Mara hung behind to finish her wine and on the way out thought to ask a worker if they had the Vardoger book in stock. The worker instructed her to try looking in the Spiritual Books section upstairs and Mara pounced up the stairs in search of it. She didn't find the book she was looking for but came across a book on indigenous spirituality that looked interesting so she bought it before leaving.


On the freeway headed home, Mara suddenly remembered the mysterious phone call. "Don't go home tonight." So, she passed up her turn off point and decided to go to her brother Michael's house nearby. He was happy to see her and readily allowed her to spend the night in his guest room without any probing questions. They had always been close and enjoyed each others company immensely.


After they watched a comedy movie on his impressive big screen TV and ate Chinese food leftovers, Mara took a quick shower and changed into a pair of Michaels pajamas to get ready for bed. After going over her lesson plans for tomorrow on her laptop, she snuggled under the cozy blanket and cracked open the indigenous spirituality book she had bought earlier. On the third chapter, when she was beginning to doze off to bed, she read a passage on how the American Indians used rituals to venerate their ancestors. On a hunch, Mara decided to try it: she grabbed some incense from a drawer in the main room, lit it on the oven top, and placed it in a burner on the bedside table.


Taking a deep breath she said a short prayer directed to her ancestor King Redfeather, asking for his protection and guidance in all matters. "Please, tell me what this First-Comer Spirit thing is all about," she muttered as she fell asleep.


That night, she dreamed that she was walking through a forest ith a full orange moon overhead. When she reached a clearing, she saw a tall, muscular Indian man wearing dozens of white feathers in his long braid hair. Instinct told her that he was King Redfeather.


"I was waiting for you to reach out to me," the imposing man said in a serious tone.


Mara stared up at him, too hesitant to approach and too shocked to formulate a reply.


"Our people have been fighting the Dark Shaman Kabal for time immemorial," Redfeather continued without prompting. He walked forward with measured, long strides and handed her a bundle of dried sage and a huge spotted feather. "These are your spiritual tools. You will need them to protect yourself. I will visit you in your dreams and teach you how to use your ancestral powers. It is time for you to claim your natural gifts and defeat Kabal, once and for all."


Mara stared down at the feather and the sage bundle curiously, then looked back up at King Redfeather who towered over her, emanating immense strength and power. "Is...is that why my First-Comer Spirit told me not to go home?" she asked.


King Redfeather nodded solemnly. "Yes. Kabal was lying there in wait and he would have killed you the moment you walked through the door. You must become powerful enough to face him. It is your destiny, and your brother's. Upon waking, turn to page 32 in your book and do the Daily Blessing Ritual. It will help keep you safe until it is time to face the Dark Shaman."


BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!


Mara jerked awake at the sound of the alarm she had set on her cellphone. She rolled over groggily to turn off the alarm and was surprised to see the feather and the sage bundle laying next to her on the blanket. Mara stroked the feather in wonderment. "How is this possible?" she whispered to herself. After several moments of staring in shock, she finally sat up and quickly thumbed through her book to page 32 and recited the Daily Blessing Ritual.


Knock, knock! "Hey, its Michael. I heard your alarm go off. I'm going to make breakfast before you leave. Do egg sandwiches sound okay? You can bring it with you to your house. I'm assuming you want to change clothes before work, right?" He chuckled good-naturedly and walked off to the kitchen to start cooking.


Mara smiled at the door and looked back down at the feather and the sage bundle again for many moments. Finally, she took a deep breath, closed her book, and held the feather and the sage bundle in both hands. "I'm ready to face my destiny," she said allowed in a fierce whisper.