A long time ago Bastante Solipsis Marquez got lost. He got so lost he couldn't find himself. He discovered one day that he was sleeping in a ditch. He went out to the road and stuck out his thumb, to hitchhike anywhere. Nobody drove by. After a long time passed he crossed the road to hitchhike anywhere else.
He was that lost.
He was so lost, he lost the ability to speak. Days and weeks and months went by and Bastante observed them pass without speaking. He had gone silent.
Sleeping by a creek, one day he met a Native American who saw him clearly and took him home. He was adopted by a Cherokee clan, the Clan of the Cave Bear. They took him in and kept him fed and helped him find work and let him sleep in the yard. They taught him how to pray, and they taught him how to sweat, and they taught him how to carry himself as he traveled the Red Road.
The clan mother was White Wolf, and the clan elder was Black Wolf. Bastante's brother was Traveling Wolf. Uncle Moon and Uncle Eagle, and Grey Wolf and Crazy Bear, and Medicine Eagle and Red Bear were also in the clan. Buffalo Woman and Auntie Fish Eagle and Two Coyotes and Earth Man with a Good Heart and Huitzilopochli were from different tribes, but they were close relatives, who sat up and prayed with Bastante. Even though they were from other tribes, they were part of the clan.
They gave him a Cherokee name. They called him Silent Bear.
This is a true story.
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