Chapter 36

The puppies were adorable. Three males and two females – probably. It was difficult to tell since they were newborn and Shen was very protective. She wouldn’t let them out of her sight, and would allow Toni to handle them only briefly. They all looked like miniature versions of their mother. Their paws were really big, so I knew that when they grew into their feet, they’d be huge. Three pups had mom’s blue eyes, one was going to have green eyes most likely – she hadn’t fully opened her eyes yet – and one inherited dad’s brown eyes. All in all, a nice-looking bunch.

“Have you decided what to call them?” Toni asked. “I don’t need names for them now, not for a couple of weeks. But it’ll be easier to train them with their permanent names.” She was a dog trainer, in addition to a bookkeeper and Dark Wolf’s chief cook and bottle washer. We’d discussed the subject of training the pups before.

“What do you think of Gwina, Doyobi, and Hoagande for the males, and Sewai and Ogoe for the females.”

“Those are great! I was afraid you’d want to name them Spot and Rover and junk like that. But Gwina, Doyobi, Hoagande, Sewai and Ogoe are good Shoshone names. Gwina is the eagle, and I know why your chose that one.” She smiled. “Doyobi is for the mountains here. Hoagande is the warrior. Sewai and Ogoe are named after the wind and river of our reservation. Good names!”

I stayed all afternoon and got the pups used to my smell and touch. Eventually, even Shen got used to me. The puppies all took after me, too. They wanted to be sucking down nourishment and then sleeping. That’s a good regimen – eat and sleep.

...

In the next few days, there were three different members of the ‘Maritsuki squad’ of students who drove me around. They were guarding me carefully against the threats that did not materialize. Sun Bear was there every step of the way. I kept going back to the site where the residences were to be; and the workforce that turned up each day included more women. And I kept going back to get the puppies used to me.

Women had always been an important part of making shelter for tribe members. That participation had largely been eroded when the Shoshone stopped being a nomadic tribe. Modern Shoshone build houses, or lived in trailers, and that was it. Now, with the need for a new town, the women of the tribe had a mission: they were making places for people to live, and they were taking an active part in the planning. The heavy lifting and digging they left for the stronger members of the tribe. The men could dig, it kept them busy.

Over at McKesson’s Hollow, the site of the test kiln, Margu was up to her elbows in the mortar to hold the firebrick in place. And she was having a blast. She’d rented a pickup for herself and was either out at the site or hauling something. There was now a group of masons-in-training.

I watched the crew make a dry run – or should I say a cold run. They loaded almost a ton of dirt into the kiln, ran it through the trays that Marylou had designed, and pulled it out again. That part worked.

For me, I worked out with Soon-san and Sun Bear every day. I braced Sensei one day and insisted that he take a salaried position with Spirit, Inc., as I was calling it. He said ‘no.’ I said ‘yes.’ We went back and forth. Turns out I was more stubborn than he was. I finally persuaded him. I now had a security consultant for the Wyoming branch, and an overall Chief of Security, who was currently looking after things in Arizona. Someday soon, I’d have to get them together.

I made arrangements with Cap to fly up and pick me up, on Friday. Unfortunately, Sun Bear was present when I called down to Crownpoint. He announced that, since his father had placed him in charge of my well-being, he was going with me.

I wondered how much his father had to do with it, and how much was me. In the almost three weeks I’d been up here, I’d grown another inch. Well, ... almost an inch. My boobies had gotten larger, and I had to go buy a larger bra size. Being an A cup was much improved over being in a ‘training bra.’ Maybe now, Bear would notice. Did I say that? Who cared if hi noticed? Not me. Now I had to call them boobies, and not itty-bitty-boobies. I’d watched the transformation with the forty-something eyes from life #1, and I could evaluate Sun Bear with at least a somewhat objective point of view. I discarded the evaluations from life #1 or me.

“No,” I said, “you can’t come down to the Naabeehó Bináhásdzo, the Navajo reservation. I already have security down there.” I thought of Painted Rock and how he’d react to Bear’s appearance. But was I just putting off the inevitable? That lie to myself came straight from the hormones of life #2, and I knew it.

“This is not a question if you have adequate protection,” he argued. “This is a question of me following the instruction of my Sensei and my father. If you can explain it to him, then I will stay here.”

I tried to talk to Sensei about it. He wouldn’t be swayed. “I have been given a mission by a man I respect, Dark Wolf. I am glad you have some security down there, but I have my responsibility, too. The LEAST I can do is send Sun Bear to go with you. It might be different if I knew them – your security team.”

That’s a thought! “Sensei, can you come down for a day or two, this weekend, on a private jet? If I can arrange it?”

“Umm ... yes. I could do that. I think it would be good to get your whole security team all together in one place, even if only for a while.”

I picked up my radio-phone and called Cap again. Could he come up and get a party on Friday, and bring some of them back on Sunday? Yeah, sure. He didn’t have anything better to do, and he liked flying anyway.

I called Linc. He said he’d be available when I needed. One more call, to the Navajo Council and Bill Clearwater. I needed to borrow one of the Broncos that were painted in a riot of colors. We were all set for a flying visit in and out.

So now, I’d have to have a little chat with Mr. Adam Sun Bear. He was driving me back to Dark Wolf’s place. “Sun Bear, you got a minute?”

“Yeah, well, I’m driving, but go ahead.”

“We’ve kinda been joined at the hip for a couple of weeks now. I’ve gotten to know you and you’ve gotten to know me,” I began. “And I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings between us.”

“Ooookay,” he replied.

“I mean ... if I get involved with you. I’m just a young girl and if I get to meeting another guy, well...”

“What? You think I wanna get something going with you?” He sounded insulted. “You’re way too young for me. I’m just doing this for my father, right?”

“Okay. I just wanted to be upfront with you.” Cheeze! How could I have messed up this bad? Now I look like I’ve got a case of the crazy-girl syndrome. Or a crush.

Life #1’s voice sounded in my head. ‘OR ... he’s just covering himself because he didn’t want to look bad to a girl who was walking out on him.’ Maybe I was right – the ‘I’ that was talking to me from my past, which was in the future. Trying to sort that out was making my teeth hurt.

I didn’t want to make him more stand-off-ish. So, I’d go back to the mild flirting that had made the last few weeks more pleasant, and to hell with looking like maybe I was having a crush. And further to hell with maybe I WAS crushing on him.

He was here. Red said he’d be part of my life for a while, and Red could read the news from the future. About the same thing he’d said about Painted Rock. They’d have to learn about each other sometime.