Why Not Murder

56. Rayelle

56. Rayelle

"Fascinating," Maya commented as she looked up from the page to the face of Rayelle, the younger, "I do want to know more. I have heard some of the rumours and there is some discrepancy. I heard it said that your grandmother believed she was the reincarnation of Riel but in her own story, she is visited by Riel many times so I don't understand how she could consider herself a reincarnation."

"It's complicated," Rayelle said, "I'm confused too and I am trying to sort that out for myself by writing down and organizing the information I have and my thoughts about it. I'll tell you what I have concluded so far, but I may change my mind upon further thinking. Keep in mind that rumours inevitably distort the truth. The story gets told over and over again and each time is changed in perhaps a very small way but which accumulates over time. Even in your own mind, memories change imperceptibly. Then too, you think you've expressed yourself clearly in words but it becomes apparent when the person you were speaking to talks, that you miscommunicated your message. I don't know what my grandmother thought. I think she believed that she was being visited by the reincarnation of Riel. She wrote her book after she came back to live in her old home. I think she thought the Riel she saw was a real being and not just a product of her own mind. The last part of the first chapter that you read when she was arrested, hung and rescued by Riel, was what she hoped would come true. I found her writings when I was living in the cabin by myself sometime after my parents both died. I don't in any way feel like I am the reincarnation of Riel, although that's been said often enough by others and I have denied it, people still go on believing so. It's a very persistent rumour."

"So when did your grandmother give birth to your father?" Maya said.

"Now we come to what is the real miracle," Rayelle continued, "The hangman sympathized with my grandmother greatly and so did his brother who was a doctor and an undertaker. It was a small town and professions were doubled up on. When the hangman put the noose around my grandmother's neck, he did so in a way that would seem no different from the usual, but the knot would slowly ease open, not so that she could slip out from the noose but that it would not close tightly enough to completely kill her. It must have been unbearably painful and when the floor dropped from under her, she passed out. The doctor took her body down and declared she was dead. He took the body to his place of business where a coffin was waiting for her. No one was allowed to see her body, mostly to protect her body from the disrespect of others and also it was explained, her face was so disfigured by the hanging that it had to be kept covered. The brothers were with her when she regained consciousness. She was completely bewildered as she expected to be with Riel. Her coffin was buried with no one in it. While healing, she was kept hidden in the home of the two brothers. When healed, the brothers took her deep into the forest and let her go free. They did as they had done, they told her and she eventually told my father who eventually told me, because rather than believing she was a witch, the brothers believed she was a saint. She found her way back to the cabin and soon after realized she was pregnant. She didn't know who the father was. She and my father lived there, never disturbed or seen by anyone even the brothers. She never saw Riel in all that time. According to my father, she died a peaceful death."

"Is this the same cabin where you grew up?" Maya asked.

"Yes," Rayelle answered, "After my grandmother's death, sometime later, my father left on a journey to find a wife. After two years canoeing many rivers and lakes, he met and fell in love with my mother. She was the youngest of twelve children, six of whom were girls, born to a fur trader. She eloped with my father and they came back to the cabin. They led an isolated life as did many in those days. When that is such a part of your history, it is hard to understand why so many people choose to live in cities."