Red Mesa (7 page)

“We’d like you to speak to our after-school club about traditional Navajo medicine,” Wilson asked Clifford.

“Not only that, but the philosophy behind traditional medicine,” Wilson’s co-worker added. His speech patterns and lack of Navajo “accent” suggested he’d spent a lot of time off the Rez, and his knit sport shirt and gray slacks supported that notion. He had a narrow face for
a Navajo and sharply defined features that gave him an intense look.

The new professor continued. “Our kids just don’t get enough of that part of our culture. They learn biology and life sciences in middle and high school, but they don’t hear about herbs and Navajo medicine, which has been practiced for hundreds of years. We want to expose the kids to our ways, not just what’s in the Anglo textbooks.”

Clifford gave them a puzzled look. “But you’re both modernists. Whatever’s new that seems to benefit the
Dineh,
The People, you see as progress.”

Wilson’s companion spoke slowly. “I believe, and I think my colleague will agree, that in order to choose their own paths, the children have to know both ways. The kids are under constant bombardment from television and magazines and they’re learning
about the Anglo world all the time, but our ways are harder for them to understand. We need to make our traditions known to young people, and expose them to our beliefs and customs, or we’re going to lose our children.”

“I’ll be very happy to talk to the kids, but I’d prefer not to do it in a classroom setting,” Clifford said. “Bring them here. Let them see a
hataalii
at work, not just be lectured
by one. They should experience The Way, not just hear about it.”

“That’s a great idea,” Wilson said. “But there are nearly thirty of them. Are you sure you’re up to that here?”

“Let me think about it, then I’ll let you know for sure.”

Hearing another vehicle outside, Clifford went to the entrance. “I’ll have to ask all of you to excuse me now. I have a patient coming.” He handed Ella a small
bag containing more herbs for brewing tea. “Let me know how my niece does.”

“Thanks, brother.” Ella picked up Dawn and led Wilson and his friend out of the hogan.

FIVE

Wilson and his friend stopped by Ella’s Jeep. “This is Professor Jeremiah Manyfarms,” Wilson said now that they were outside the medicine hogan and not in the
hataalii
’s presence.

Ella still didn’t shake hands, but nodded. “It’s good to meet you.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Ms. Clah,” Manyfarms said. “Your background sounds similar to mine.”

“How’s that?”

“We walk a difficult line
between the old and the new. I received some emergency medical training in the army, but I see the advantages of Navajo healing, and I use it sometimes in tandem, and at other times exclusively.”

“I’m that way, too. It just depends on the situation.” She told them about Dawn’s cough, then added, “The tea my brother gave her has worked. She’s stopped coughing.”

Jeremiah smiled at Dawn as she
squirmed, anxious to be put down. Ella complied and watched her daughter tottering clumsily after a lizard who’d darted into some bushes.

“I’m glad we’ve finally had the opportunity to meet. I hope things will get better around the station soon,” Jeremiah said.

Ella’s radar for trouble went up. “Excuse me?”

“Well, I understand you and your second cousin Justine have been having problems at
work. It must be difficult to work with someone when trust is an issue,” Jeremiah said offhandedly.

“I trust Justine implicitly,” she said coldly.

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m sure you’ll be able to work things out with her then.”

“How did you hear about this?” Ella asked pointedly.

“Justine hasn’t kept it a secret to her close friends,” he answered easily. “Was it supposed to be one?”

“Depends
how much you know.”

“Well, the shooting incident is common knowledge, Ella,” he said, calling her by her first name, something that for some reason she couldn’t explain bothered her. “But some people have said that it was a bit of confusion that got blown way out of proportion.”

“Who said?”

“The clerk at the convenience store, for one,” Jeremiah responded. “Don’t be so surprised. People talk.
When you’re troubled, I’m sure you have your own circle of friends that you trust and confide in. A beautiful woman like you never lacks for friends.”

Professor Manyfarms was annoying her. Ella glanced at Wilson and saw that he shared her sentiments.

“We better go back to the college,” Wilson said, gesturing back to his SUV.

“I’ll catch you later, Ella,” Jeremiah said with a casual wave of
his hand.

Ella watched them go. Wilson had floored the vehicle, leaving a trail of dust behind him. There was nothing except friendship between Wilson and her, but he still didn’t like it when a man paid too much attention to her.

There had been a time when Wilson had hoped a romance would develop between them, but the spark had never been there. Romantic love was not something any Navajo expected,
but a match between them had seemed a bad idea to her. Wilson would have expected more from his wife than she, as a full-time cop, would ever be able to give him.

Still, there were times when she wished it could have been different. They’d grown up together and were as close as friends could be. She’d always been comfortable around Wilson.

She pushed the thought aside. At times she could barely
cope with the demands her mother made, let alone the ones a husband would make on her. What she had in her life was enough.

Ella headed home, trying to force herself to relax, and taking care not to bounce the truck around on the dirt track. Dawn, as always, no matter how bumpy the road, fell asleep. She envied her daughter’s ability to shut out the world and relax so totally.

After hitting
the main road, Ella glanced in the rearview mirror. It was an ingrained habit drilled into her after a decade of police work. Off in the distance she could see one vehicle leaving a thin trail of dust on the graveled road. Employing the aggressive caution she’d developed over the years, she avoided taking the turnoff that would lead her straight home. When she reached the next side road, running parallel
to a natural-gas pipe line, she chose it immediately.

The vehicle stayed with her, even after she’d changed roads again, this time back toward a small lake. Despite that, she wasn’t sure if it was a threat. The driver was certainly not trying to narrow the gap between them. She considered calling in, but with the department’s current manpower problems, she didn’t want to take another cop away
from his patrol for what could turn out to be nothing more than coincidence or joyriding teens.

Ella had to make sure that someone was really tailing her, not just heading in the same direction. Trying to ditch it with so few road choices made things tough. She headed east back to the paved highway, devising a plan.

The vehicle remained half a mile behind, and from this distance she couldn’t
even be sure of the make and model. Ella slowed her speed, proceeding at half the posted limit. Then, suddenly, after she went around a sharp curve in the road, she slammed down on the accelerator and roared down the road.

Ella raced over the next hill, then lost sight of the vehicle behind her momentarily. Slowing down, she inched along, waiting for the vehicle to clear the hill and come racing
after her, trying to catch up. She’d get a good look at him then.

Seconds went by and her pursuer failed to appear. With no other traffic around, Ella turned around and raced back in the opposite direction, hoping to still catch a glimpse of the car. After a moment she saw it off in the distance, heading toward Shiprock. Even if she floored her truck, she’d never catch it before it reached town.
Reluctantly she decided to head home.

Ella looked at her daughter, who was still sleeping in the car seat without a care in the world. The thought that someone might come after her for real when Dawn was with her worried Ella. Maybe it would be better if she stopped taking Dawn on outings for a while. She hated the thought of making any concessions out of fear, but she wouldn’t risk Dawn.

Ten
minutes later, Ella put her daughter to bed, and sometime during Ella’s reading of
The Little Lamb,
Dawn fell asleep again.

Rose met Ella out in the hallway. “Why do you make the child sleep when she doesn’t want to?”

“I don’t think you can
make
a child go to sleep if she’s not sleepy. But if she takes a nap now, she won’t be as crabby later. Kids get tired, but they don’t always know it until
they’re put to bed.”

“Spoken like an Anglo.”

Ella closed her eyes and opened them again. “Mom, if you don’t start agreeing with me on some rules, she’s going to be hopelessly spoiled.”

“You and your brother seem to have turned out all right,” Rose shot back, annoyed.

Ella smiled grudgingly. “But we’re not talking about me or Clifford. Mom, Short Stuff’s a very active kid. If you’d set regular
hours for her, it would be easier for you, too.”

“I know what she needs,” Rose said flatly. “That child needs to be raised like a Navajo.”

“She is. But learning a few things from the Anglos wouldn’t hurt.”

Rose sat down slowly, and grimaced as she settled against the chair cushion.

“Mom, are you okay?”

“Some days are better than others. My legs can still ache from time to time.” Rose reached
around and removed a crocheted shawl from atop the back of her chair and draped it over her legs.

Since the accident when a drunk driver had smashed into her mother’s old pickup, Rose often had difficulty getting around. She could go for several days without pain, but when the weather turned cool as it was doing now, her joints seemed to give her a lot of problems.

“You really have to let me
hire someone to come here to help you with my kid. She’s almost too much to handle some days, Mom.”

“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of her when you’re at work. Don’t insult me.”

Ella knew that to Rose, bringing someone else into her home to help with the work was tantamount to admitting she was growing old. Ella had no desire to hurt her mother’s feelings, but she had to find a way to
get her to face facts.

“Mom, we could hire a young woman from a traditionalist family.”

Rose shook her head. “They would never come to work for us.”

Ella took a deep breath, then let it out again. Rose was right. Their “legacy” had made them pariahs to many. “But not all the traditionalists feel that way. Many of the clans see our family as a force for good.”

“Since the time of Mist Eagle,
our family has been feared and shunned by others. But now that you and your brother have each had only one child, many are afraid that both children will turn to evil. It was always believed that two children in each family would keep the scales balanced. With only one, the balance is gone, and they’re afraid of what two evil forces will do if they combine. They’re watching all of us carefully to
make sure we don’t attempt to hide anything that could endanger the tribe.”

“I’m not evil and neither is my brother, so why do they think the kids will be?”

“That’s just it, daughter. They believe one of you has already chosen evil, and the remaining one might be persuaded to follow. If that happens the children will be corrupted. They already know what gifts you and your brother have, but the
children still represent an unknown, and that terrifies many. Just be careful what you do or say.”

“Are you sure about this?”

Rose nodded once. “It started when people saw you push your brother off the roof during the confrontation with those terrible people. Since no one could prove your actions saved your brother’s life, people are waiting and watching, looking for a clearer sign. They haven’t
passed judgment yet, but that could come at any time.”

Ella nodded slowly. “That will complicate things. Finding someone to come and help you won’t be as easy as I’d hoped.”

“I’ll take care of my granddaughter. I don’t want a stranger in my house.”

Ella said nothing, but decided to go ahead with her search anyway. Rose needed help, and not just with Dawn.

Ella watched her mother stare at her
cane. “It’s no shame to use that, you know,” Ella said.

“It slows me down.”

“I’m home today, Mom. I’ll take care of things. Just relax.”

She saw her mother trying to get up, then slipping back into the chair cushion. Ella handed her the cane, then held out her hand, but Rose pulled away. “I am not helpless.”

“Mom, you were hurt in a really bad car accident, and for a while we didn’t know if
you’d ever be able to walk again at all. This isn’t about being helpless. This is about being human. We’re family, and it’s okay if we help each other. How many times did you help me when I got the flu, or when I sprained my ankle one time trying to beat Clifford in a race?”

Rose smiled. “You were only twelve, but even then you were the most stubborn child I’d ever seen—until now. My granddaughter
is a lot like you in that way. When she decides that she wants to do something, that girl acts like nothing in the world can stop her.”

Hearing Dawn moving around in the nursery, Ella left her mother and went to her daughter.

Hoping to get Dawn to expend some of her excess energy, Ella took her out for a walk along a path leading to an old pasture, holding her tiny hand and letting Dawn set
the pace. Two, the family mutt, ambled along beside them. As they reached the shelter made of cottonwood branches that had once served as a lean-to for sheep, Two suddenly stopped and bared his teeth.

Ella picked Dawn up instantly. She’d expected Dawn to start crying or show fear, but as if she, too, had seen or sensed danger, Dawn became very still.

Ella only had the backup .22 derringer in
her boot. She made it a point not to wear a holster when she was with her daughter, afraid that the little girl would reach for the weapon.

Now, as she watched the bushy terrain ahead, she couldn’t sense or see anything other than a few sparrows and a mourning dove. But another look at Two convinced her that something or someone was nearby. The animal’s hackles were raised and his deep-throated
growl signaled he was ready to fight.