Chapter 2

The construction equipment dealership that Tall Grass had purchased in Amarillo found a used drill rig for him. He purchased the drill rig and arranged for the dealership to deliver the drill rig and a backhoe with a front-end loader to his home site. Tall Grass decided to wait at Dolph's for items to be delivered.

Tall Grass planned to spend two weeks in the Western Land. He wanted to drill water wells and do the excavation for the house. He hired the Kiowa, who made the adobe bricks for the village centers, to make bricks for his house. He arranged for the Kiowa construction company that helped build the village centers to pour the concrete floors and basement walls and to put on an insulated metal roof. In eight weeks, he planned to have the exterior completed and the interior livable.

The night before they were due to leave, Princess crawled into to bed with him, "Daddy, can I sleep with you?"

"Why do you ask that Princess?" he asked.

"Anna said she was her father's favorite. I want to be your favorite woman," she said.

"The Kiowa, Mexicans, and Anglos view father and daughter loving differently," he said.

"Maria sleeps with you," she said.

"Maria isn't my daughter and she is older than you are," he said. He thought, I have made a mess of this.

"I am old enough," she said.

"Princess, you just had your seventh birthday. Seven is not old enough for sex," he said.

"Why not?" she said.

"Your body isn't developed enough," he said.

"I don't look that much different from Anna," she said.

"Anna had sex too early," he said.

"She said her father and brothers really liked it," she said.

"Anna was too young. It could have hurt her," he said.

"Can I sleep with you when I am older?" she said.

"No. I was brought up to believe sex with your daughter is not right," he said.

"Warrior isn't big. Can Warrior sleep with me?" she asked.

"No sex with your brother either and Warrior is too young for sex," he said.

"Anna said her father and brothers taught her to be a woman. Don't you love me?" she asked.

"I love you very much," he said.

"If I get scared, can I sleep with you?" she asked.

"Sure, we can love each other without having sex," he said.

"Okay. I don't want you not to like me," she said.

Princess is afraid I won't love her if she doesn't give me her sex. I am sure it was like that with Maria and Anna. It is the way it was for them. Princess has no concept of sex.

"Come here." He hugged her and said, "I will always like you. Daddies and their daughters have a special love without sex," He kissed her forehead, "I will always love you."

"And I will always love you," she said.

"If something happens to me, your Uncle Dolph and Aunt Dawn will take care of you and Warrior," he said.

This is going to be a challenge. The Kiowa older men and women introduced the young to sex. And incest was not a big thing especially with the rural Mexicans. I don't want to be judgmental about what the Mexican and Kiowa do, but I need to prepare the children to live with Anglos too. I should have resisted Maria. That wasn't smart on my part.

Tall Grass went to Rosa. "I have a problem. We will be living in Albuquerque while I am in law school. The children need to fit into Anglo society where sex among family members isn't acceptable. I need your help to make sure everyone understands."

Rosa nodded. "I will speak to Maria and Anna."

They left at dawn for the Western Land. At ten, they met the two trucks from the equipment company at the intersection of Route 150 and the road to their home site. One truck had the well drilling rig and the second had well pipe and a trailer with the backhoe behind the truck. The drivers unloaded the well pipes and showed Tall Grass how the tractor and backhoe operated. Then both drivers got in one of the trucks and returned to Amarillo.

Tall Grass and the girls set up a tent. After the tent was up, Tall Grass got the kitchen equipment from the truck. Rosa setup a field kitchen next to the tent. Inside the tent, she fixed a place to eat.

Tall Grass drilled a well. The water from the first well had a strong sulfur smell. I hope I can find better water than this.

After lunch he and Maria drilled a deep-water well. The artesian well's water was clear and the flow rate was excellent. The water was cool and tasted good.

The views were magnificent from their home site. The gorge and river were interesting, but the sunrise and sunsets were majestic.

Tall Grass, Maria and Rosa slept on cots in the tent. Anna, Warrior, and Princess slept on blown up air mattresses in the covered truck bed. Tall Grass and Maria slept soundly after the hard day of drilling work.

Tall Grass excavated two feet below the freeze line and dug foundation footers around the edge. He dug trenches below the freeze depth for the water pipe from the well, and two trenches for the sewer pipes. He had separate systems for the grey water and bathroom waste lines. He had the pipes in place so the concrete for the basement walls could be poured around them. He had a thick plastic sheet under the basement floor and drain fields under the plastic.

Then he took everyone back. He dropped Rosa, Maria, and Anna at Black Eagle's village, then he drove Princess and Warrior to Dolph's.

They spent two days making Black Eagle's old house livable and moved Rosa and Anna into it. Tall Grass and Maria returned to the building site.

The Kiowa construction crew put in the footers, poured the floor, and the basement walls. Tall Grass finished the basement floor so that it looked like a slate floor. He tarred the outside of the foundation walls, put in gravel drain paths at the bottom of the walls, and backfilled against the walls. The roof overhang angle allowed the winter sun to hit the dark concrete floor, but keep the steeper angled summer sunlight out. The dark concrete floor stored the sun's heat in the winter. He drilled several shallow irrigation wells west of the home site.

The construction crew put up the same type of metal roof that had learned to build at the community centers. The Kiowa crew laid the adobe bricks for the walls like they did on the community centers.

Tall Grass bought high quality insulated windows to retain heat. On the west side of the house, he built a solar still and a large underground cistern to store the warm water. The house was large by Kiowa standards, but it wasn't as big as the lake house where he had gone for high school parties in Pennsylvania. From the front, the house was very unassuming.

Tall Grass got up early every morning. He ran, meditated and ate before dawn. He had Maria and Anna exercise with him. Warrior was constant motion and didn't need exercise. Princess helped Rosa with the breakfast. He and Princess walked every evening. The walks were enough exercise for her and gave them time to talk privately.

He didn't sleep in the same bed with Maria, but he hooked up with her when he felt the need. And he felt the need often.

Maria and Anna worked hard on English. By the end of the summer, they were ready for school. The Albuquerque schools had ESL programs that Tall Grass didn't like. He felt the programs were an excuse not to do well in school. He enrolled Maria and Anna in the public school near their home.

He told them, "You are Kiowa now. I expect that you will do well in school and I don't expect any trouble with boys."

Their school was small. Tall Grass went with them for enrollment. The boys saw the way Tall Grass carried himself and the big knife. None of them wanted any part of an angry Tall Grass.

The school staff wasn't stupid. A chief in law school wasn't to be messed with. He could come at them from a variety of directions.

Tall Grass was courteous with the school staff. But he told them that he had very high expectations of Maria and Anna's progress and he wanted the school to work them hard.

"If there are any difficulties, let me know. I shall expect excellent effort and behavior on my girls' part. I do not expect they will have a problem."

And he noticed that one of the first year teachers was attractive. He saw that she had looked him over too.

Tall Grass enrolled Warrior and Princess in the University of New Mexico's lab school. It wasn't far from the law school. He planned to take them to school everyday. A bus took them to the after school program at the married students apartment in the afternoon.

Tall Grass sealed the adobe and got most of the interior finished. In July, they were connected to electrical power.

In August, Tall Grass got a letter from Brooke.

"Howie, I would like to take over your account. It is a large account and my father will help me. Of course, I won't, if you have any objections.

"I am taking finance at Wharton and working with my father. I really enjoy the work.

"I feel better, but I am not dating. In the fall, I am going to become active with my sorority's chapter at Penn. I haven't dated but probably will when I start going to sorority functions. I hope you are well."