Chapter 21

Two of the Deer Horn brothers left after the meal was done. I could hear the labored start of their pickup. Frank, Sr. and his wife went home after a Shoshone language exchange with the Chief and Dark Wolf. Toni was clearing the table, and I offered to help. She laughed. “No, I don’t think so.”

That left Marylou and me, watching Robbie finish the last of the chocolate cream pie. Robbie handed his plate to Toni, and said, “White Owl, how are you going to get around while sis and me are out building the kiln?” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “You don’t want to depend on Dark Wolf for transportation. He never goes anywhere, except the Powwow.”

“I don’t know. You got any suggestions?”

Marylou broke into our conversation. “She could borrow my old scooter. She’s big enough, barely, to handle it. I never use it anymore.”

“Great!” Robbie was enthusiastic. “She can’t get too lost around town.”

“I need an office, though,” Marylou said. “I share a place with Robbie, and there’s no room there.”

Dark Wolf overheard this last. “You could use the extra bedroom in the back. I never use it, except to collect dust.”

Marylou looked at Robbie. “Do ya think we could wire a phone extension to there?”

“I’m sure we could.” He got up and looked at the phone connection on Dark Wolf’s little desk. “Oh yeah. Easy peasy. The wire will show, but it’ll be only temporary.” He walked down the hall to the bedrooms. “Which one is going to be the office?” he called back over his shoulder.

“Last on the left,” answered Dark Wolf. Robbie was staring at the wall as he walked down the hall. “Sis, c’mon over here. How you going to set up your office?”

These two didn’t waste much time getting started on things. I could hear them talking. “We’ll put a door on some blocks over here.” “Move the bed that way.” “So the phone on the new desk, then?” and so on.

They came back out and went on outside. I heard the rumble of Robbie’s truck head off into the distance.

That was quick.

The Chief looked at me. “So, you had some information from Red?”

“Yes. He said that he can get a transfer of $10,000 to your Shoshone Development Charitable Foundation on Monday. It will come from a...” I pretended to stumble for the name. “ ... a Mr. Zoltoff, personally. Can we keep his name out it?”

“We never publish the names of people who donate to the Foundation. Do we have to sign any papers or anything?”

“Red didn’t say anything about that.”

“It will all be used as intended,” said the Chief.

“Antonia!” Dark Wolf shouted. She came out of the kitchen with rubber gloves on. “You’re going to use that accounting degree you’ve got. The new company needs someone to keep the books.”

“Grandpa, it’s only an Associate Degree from the Tribal Community College.”

“You’re the closest we’ve got to the head of Merrill Lynch,” he laughed. “You’re gonna make sure the money we take in all goes to the project.”

“What project is that?” she asked. It was a good question. Everybody was looking at me.

“Shoshone Resources?” I suggested.

The Chief spoke up. “Already got one of those. They were drilling for oil. Didn’t find any, but the name stuck.”

I looked out the window. “Name it after him,” I said, pointing at the giant eagle. “‘Spirit of the Hunter.’ Bet you don’t have one of those.”

“You call him by name? Hunter?” asked an astonished Dark Wolf.

“Um ... Well, I named him. He seemed like a Hunter, to me. It just came to me.”

“It is a good name,” said the Chief. “Spirit of the Hunter. Aaha.” He cleared his throat.

A couple of hours of TV time passed quietly. Mike Douglas in the afternoons. Gahh! I just realized how long it had been since I’d seen TV. No TV for fifteen years in life #1 while I was in the Mexican brothels. The news was just the same as it always was. They filled the half hour of news with fires at so-and-so address, a missing child, a gas station was robbed. They wanted to scare the viewers. Blah, blah, blah. If they REALLY wanted to scare some folks, they could talk about the poverty among the Shoshone.

The news ended as Robbie’s big diesel roared up in a cloud of dust. Marylou opened the door, her arms full of papers. Robbie came in with a big cement block in each hand. That was about fifty pounds each, and he wasn’t struggling at all! He strode in to the ‘office’ and I heard two big ‘thumps’. He made two more trips with blocks, while Marylou was unloading a powder blue scooter. I went out to watch and help where I could. Turns out there wasn’t much I could do.

She explained to me the location of the few controls on the scooter. “It’ll go about 20 mph, but it’ll get you there. And it won’t be illegal! Shoshone police leave scooters alone. All you’ll have to worry about is getting lost. As long as you don’t crash it.”

When that was accomplished, and while I was practicing starting and stopping, Marylou took the ramp we used for the scooter, hoisted it over her head and walked into the home. When I looked at it, it was a door, destined to become her desktop.

When I got done with playing with the scooter, I went inside. All I could see of Robbie was his butt. He was on hands and knees fiddling with the phone connections under Dark Wolf’s desk. He eventually finished and began stapling a run of wire to the wall. In due course, it led to the office and – voila! – there was a phone in the offices of the Spirit of the Hunter company.

While we were enjoying the sunset that evening, I asked Dark Wolf if he’d cash a check for me, so I’d have some of my own money to shop with tomorrow.