Blood of the Rainbow (34 page)

“I just wished I could remember some of that. How realistic were your dreams? I mean, how far
did
we…?”

Jared took her hand and studied her eyes. “Are you asking me if I made love to you?” Sara nodded.

Jared grinned. “That’s my secret. I’m not spoiling anything for you, or myself. When that time comes, it will be as new and special for me as it will be for you.” He kissed her again.

The sun was starting to drop behind the mountains. Jared held Sara on his lap, with his arms wrapped around her as they gazed at the brilliant sunset. “We’ll need to get back home soon, or Mother will have a search party out looking for us.”

“I’ll bet the view is spectacular at night. You could probably see all the way into eternity from here.”

“Maybe not eternity, but… it is pretty up here, especially during a meteor shower.”

Sara turned, surprised. “You’ve been up here at night during a meteor shower?”

“I’ve spent many hours here Sara. Day and night. I used to come here to sketch my dreams of you, and think things through. It’s special and private to me. That’s why I shared it with you. We could come back and spend the night here sometimes, would you like that?”

“Yes, I would.”

Jared chuckled, and raised an eyebrow at Sara. “I thought you were afraid of heights.”

“I am, but I’m getting braver. Just make sure, when we come to camp out, we get here in full daylight and don’t leave till the next morning. I wouldn’t want to try and climb the mountain in the dark.”

“Nor would I. But Sara,” he said, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck. “That would mean you’d have to spend the night with me.”

“And?”

“The
whole
night, Sara. Alone… with me… in the dark.”

Sara sighed. “What’s the matter - can’t trust yourself?”

“Around you? In one word – no!” he said, honestly and stood, holding out his hand for Sara.

They walked over to the ledge. Once again, the ground seemed to pulsate up and down, and an old, familiar feeling of nausea crept up the back of Sara’s throat. She decided maybe she wasn’t quite over her fear of heights after all.

Jared studied Sara’s fear filled eyes. “All right… I’ll give you two choices. I can either lower you down, or go down, and you can fall into my arms.”

Sara gulped. She didn’t like either choice, but apart from spending the rest of her life up there on that mountain, she had to choose one. Sara chose the first. There was no way, no matter how much she trusted Jared, that she could make herself free-fall over the ledge into his, or anybody else’s arms. Besides, she was afraid she might knock him off balance.

Jared lowered Sara down. She waited for him to lead the way.  It wasn’t as tiring going down, but Sara was happy, when rock turned to sand beneath her feet.

They poured water in their hands from the canteens and let the horses drink. Then they mounted them. “Ok Angel, I know you were scared up there, but be honest. Was it worth it?”

Sara smiled, remembering how it felt when he kissed her. “It was worth it Jared. I’m glad you shared it with me.”

After they had shared a long and lingering kiss, they headed back for the ranch.

------------

Jared had been right. Nadine was about ready to send Myra looking for them.

Jared kissed Nadine’s cheek. “Mother, I might have moved away, but I haven’t forgotten how to get around the place!”

Nadine smiled. “So, did you have a good time? Where did you take her?”

“I took her up on Mother’s Mountain, and yes, we had a good time.” Jared failed to mention anything about the climb, or the perch on the side of the mountain.

“What did you think, Sara? It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I don’t know why Jared felt he had to leave.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “Mother, we’ve been over this before. I had to find Sara.” He reached out and took Sara’s hand. “And I
did
find her.”

Nadine smiled at Sara. “Yes, you did, and we’re not letting her get away, are we?”

“No, I’m not!”

Sara wondered if Jared would be telling Nadine about their engagement now, or would wait until Tom was there.

Nadine reached for Jared’s sketchpad. “So what did you sketch today?”

Jared sighed. “Mother insists on seeing my drawings. I have to watch her, or she’ll swipe them, and put them in a frame.”

She glared at Jared. “If I hadn’t kept some of them… the sketches would have been gone long ago.” Nadine flipped the cover back and gasped. “
Nizhoni
,
Shiyaazh
!”

There are those two words again,
Sara thought.

Jared took back his sketchpad and tucked it under his arm. “Yes Mother, they are, but, you can’t have these! They’re for mine and Sara’s collection.”

Nadine looked disappointed, but finally smiled knowingly. “Ah – I see. I’ll fix you two a snack. You missed dinner, but I saved some for you. I figured you’d be starving when you got back.” Nadine went into the kitchen.

“Thanks Mother.”

Sara waited until Nadine was out of earshot, and leaned close to Jared. She didn’t want Nadine to overhear. “I need to know something,” Sara whispered. “Those two words she used when she looked at your sketches. What do they mean?”

 Jared smiled. “You mean
Nizhoni
and
Shiyaazh
?” Sara nodded. Jared put his arm around Sara’s waist and kissed the top of her head. “They’re Navajo. “
Nizhoni
means ‘beautiful or pretty’ and
Shiyaazh
means ‘my son’, when spoken by a mother. When the word ‘son’ is used by a father, it is
Shiye
.”

The words rolled off Jared’s tongue like honey. Sara would have trouble remembering how to pronounce them, never mind what they stood for. She looked deeply into his eyes. “Tell me how to say I love you,” she whispered on his lips.

Jared grinned. “I – love - you.”

Sara narrowed her eyes. “That wasn’t what I meant.”

Jared softly chuckled, tilted her face up and smiled. “Ayor anosh'ni,” he whispered.

“Ayor anosh'ni,” Sara repeated and kissed him.

Sara was naturally curious. “Jared… would you teach me, about your people and your language? I hate looking stupid when somebody says something I don’t understand.”

Jared smiled. “They are not just
my
people Sara. They’re yours now too, and trust me,” he smiled and kissed her again. “I’ll teach you – at least the ones you need to know. There are only a few. We don’t use the language that much in our generation, but the older generation still do. Regardless of what you do, you could
never
look stupid. But, it won’t be something you can just pick up in a day. You’ll have to practice, and I’ll expect you to study.”

“When can we start?” Sara asked with eagerness.

Jared laughed and pulled her toward the kitchen. “Can you wait until after we’ve finished our snack? Mother was right, I’m starving!”

------------

Nadine had put some plates of sandwich stuff and a pitcher of iced tea on the table. Sara didn’t realize how hungry she was until she saw the food.

Jared gave Sara a choice. “Which do you want, white or brown, and do you want everything on your sandwich?”

“Yes please, and I prefer brown bread to white.”

Jared fixed Sara a roast beef sandwich, and without asking her, cut it into quarters, and handed it to her. They sat down and started eating. Sara thought the sandwich was delicious. Jared said his mother had grilled the roast over hickory chips. That was what gave the meat its unique flavor.

“Jared, have you ever thought about buying a house, and moving back to Arizona?”

Jared raised an eyebrow. “Not really – why?”

“Oh, no reason, I was just curious.”

Jared eyed Sara over the top of his sandwich. One of his sketches flashed through his mind. He tried to put her off. “Do you
really
like it here? It’s awfully hot and dry and not to mention, dusty.”

“I
had
noticed that part. But yes, I do like it here. You belong here. You fit in – like the land is part of you or you’re part of it.”

Jared stood and washed his hands at the sink. “Now
don’t
you start too! I have enough trouble with Mother and Myra. I thought you liked living at Wisteria Hall,” he grumbled.

“I do, for the amount of time I’ve lived there. But, what if I’d lived in Arizona, do you think you and Eve still would have - I mean, would you still have left?”

Jared finished drying his hands on the towel, and tossed it angrily on the counter, turning. Sara could tell by the look on his face, he was getting upset. “I don’t know Sara. Does it really matter?”

“Well, yes, it does – to me anyway.”

Jared pressed his lips to a thin line. “Why?”

“I don’t know - it just does.” Sara replied, exasperated. She hated how Jared avoided subjects he wasn’t comfortable with. She stood and started gathering things together to put them away. She had no idea where they went, but it was a force of habit. She’d been cleaning up after herself since she was seven.

Jared sighed, calming a little. His tone softened, and his eyes stopped glowing. “I don’t know.” He walked up behind Sara, and put his arms around her shoulders, holding her tight against his body. He kissed along her shoulder and up the side of her neck, and then turned her. He tilted her chin up, looking straight into her eyes. “One thing’s for certain,” he softly said.

“What’s that?”

“If you had been here, I never would have left.” He leaned closer, brushing his lips over hers, teasing her. His hot breath sending shivers down her spine, as she anxiously awaited his kiss. But he didn’t kiss her. Sara wasn’t sure which was more effective; Jared’s kiss or her expectation of it. Jared seemed to enjoy teasing her that way. He must. He did it a lot!

“Jared, how long are we going to be here?”

Jared grinned. “You
do
like it here,” he said, making an assumption. “Don’t you?”

Sara nodded. “Yes, I do.”

Jared smiled. “Well, we’ve got to go back for the gig, but then we can come back, and stay until after the convention, if you want to. I’m off work for the next two months. Because of the funeral, I took some of my accumulated sick leave, and vacation time.”

“And they didn’t care?” Sara smiled anxiously. She wanted to see more of Arizona, than she’d seen, before they had to go back to Shreveport.

Jared narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Yeah. Just don’t get
too
used to it Sara. Arizona has a way of growing on you. She’ll steal your dreams if you let her.”

“I don’t think that would be so bad, I could learn to like it here.”

“Oh, you could, could you?” He playfully flicked the tip of Sara’s nose.

“When are we telling your parents?

“When did you want to?”

“I don’t know. They’re your parents. I thought you would know when would be a good time.”

Jared laughed. “Sara,
any
time would be a good time for us to talk to them about our getting married. They love you and to be honest, they’ve been waiting for this day as much as I have. Well, maybe not as much as I have but.…”

“So when do you want to do it then?”

“I think maybe after the funeral, when things have had a chance to get back to normal. I don’t want to be disrespectful.”

“That makes sense.”

“Have you decided where you want to get married? Here, back at the Hall, or in a church?”

“Considering my fear of heights, I know this is going to sound strange, but I wouldn’t mind getting married on Mother’s Mountain.”

Jared scoffed. “Mother’s Mountain! My God Sara, could you pick a harder place to get to?” He laughed.

Sara smiled. “I know we can’t, it was just a thought. We could spend our honeymoon there, couldn’t we?”

Jared laughed out loud. “Sure, if you don’t mind roughing it.”

“I don’t mind.”

“So does that mean you want to get married here then?”

“I’d love to, but I would want you to check with your parents first.”

------------

The next day was taken up by the funeral. Jared wanted to stay home with Sara, but she finally managed to convince him that it would be better on his family for him to be there. Jared kissed her several times, hating the idea of being away from her. Sara hated it too, but there were going to be times they would have to be away from each other, so Sara decided it might as well be now.

Jared crawled behind the driver’s seat of his father’s Mercedes. The rest of the family got in, and they left.

Sara felt guilty about what she was doing, but she didn’t see that she had a choice. Not if she genuinely wanted to know. She went to her bedroom and retrieved the secret book.

Sara sat in the middle of the bed with her legs crossed, leaning her back against the headboard. For the first time, she got a close look at the illustration on the cover page. She gasped, cold chills running up and down her spine. Sara had seen the same totem pole in one of her dreams. She ran her fingers over it and opened the front cover. There was no writing on the outside of the book.
That’s odd – not even the author’s name.

Sara had already decided regardless of what was in the book, it wouldn’t matter to her. Even, if Jared
had
turned out to be some kind of mythical creature that rose straight off the pages of history, it wouldn’t change the way she felt about him. She opened the cover, and there was the title and the author’s name.

‘
Forgotten
Ancient Secrets of The Dine’é Yá and The Dine'é Kay-Yah by George Washington Thundercloud.
’

“What?” Sara mused. “This was supposed to be about the Navajo. Did Joel sell me the wrong book on purpose? This isn’t what I wanted! Who the hell are the Dine’é Yá and The Dine'é Kay-Yah? What do they have to do with Jared and his grandfather?”

Sara ran her index finger over the raised calligraphic lettering. It felt strange, almost as if it had been charged with static electricity. It made Sara’s finger tingle where she touched the letters. She looked at her fingertips and rubbed them together curiously. They had a fine layer of white dust on them that glittered in the sunlight. It reminded Sara of the pollen from the purple flower she’d dreamed about. Sara decided it must be the ink, and the fact that the book was old. The pages were slightly yellowed.