Chapter 15

Twenty minutes later Jason and Maria both left. She was headed to the university to try to pick up the academic pieces of her life while her grandfather headed for a discount department store to purchase some basic clothes for Hawk.

Jason returned to the apartment a short time later. He and Andy put a bronzing dye on Hawk. When they were finished Hawk quickly dressed, and he and Jason left to deal with Robert’s body. The first hour was rather quiet with both men considering what needed to be said, or at least asked. About the time Hawk was ready to start Jason asked if he was hungry. “I’m beginning to be. What are you thinking?”

“We’re coming up on the Camp Verde area. There’s a restaurant there owned by some friends. I thought we’d get a bite to eat.”

Hawk responded, “That sounds good to me.”

At the next interchange they exited the Interstate, turned left, and drove two or three miles. Near the beginning of a business area Jason turned into a small diner that had begun its life as a service station. It was obvious additional space had been added over the years. Instead of using the front parking lot Jason pulled around to the back. They entered the diner through the back door into the kitchen area. Almost immediately a lovely young Indian girl of about fourteen excitedly came up and hugged Jason. “Longbow, are you ready to carry me off to be your bride?”

“Not yet, little darlin, ‘ I can’t afford the bride price your daddy wants.” Then pointing to Hawk, he added, “Bright Star, this is Hawk. He’s ‘family.’ Is your father around?”

“No, Sir. He had to run to get some supplies that didn’t get delivered on time, and Mom’s gone to the bank.”

“What do you have fixed that’s good?”

“Longbow, you know that everything here is good.”

“Yes, Darlin, ‘ but I also know some things are better than others.”

“Well, I made some braised short ribs this morning as an experiment for the evening menu. I thought they were pretty good. Maybe you and Hawk would sample them, and give us your opinion.”

Jason looked questioningly at Hawk, who nodded in response. Jason then answered, “Darlin, ‘ we’d be honored to try them for you.”

“Good, then what else do you want?”

Jason picked her up in his arms and twirled her around like a loving grandfather would do for his granddaughter. He answered, “Darlin, ‘ we will be happy for most anything you would normally server a diner. Can we use your daddy’s office? Hawk and I need to have a family talk.”

A sad look came over her face as she asked, “Is he in trouble?”

Jason tickled her ribs and replied, “No, he’s not in trouble. We need to discuss some things, and do some planning, away from prying eyes and listening ears.”

“Does that include mine?”

“Little one, I’m afraid this time, it does. But there will be other times.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Yes, Sweetheart, that’s a promise.”

“OK, then. Go on in. I’ll bring you some iced tea right away. Your meals will be ready in about ten minutes.” Jason offered Hawk a chair at the small table in the back corner of the office. After she brought them glasses of iced tea, Jason sat back and relaxed.

“Hawk, I know you’re nervous, and I’m not ignorant of the world around me. I know you’re John Grayson, convicted pedophile and murderer. At the same time you’ve Mary Beth Saunders, the prison Warden, on your side, plus her Niece, and others, in this. You’ve done nothing that would make me not trust you, and have done much to make me want to support you. Do you want to talk about it?”

Surprised at how much Jason knew Hawk answered, “There’s much I don’t understand myself. Mary Beth and her group are convinced I was framed by my ex-wife. I must’ve been drugged in all this, or something, because most of everything that happened after my wife told me she shot her boss in self-defense is blurred in my memory. I think they can probably explain it better, and I’ll have them do it for both you and Maria. That way you both will know what appears to have happened.”

“Then you really are innocent?”

“Jason, I never purposely hurt another human being in my life until I attacked the prisoner who was trying to rape Brenda.”

“What about the escape? How did you set that up?

Before Hawk could answer, there was a knock at the door. A man and a young woman (who was probably his wife) entered, carrying trays of food. John introduced Hawk to his friends, who then excused themselves. They closed the door as they left. Over the next few minutes Hawk explained about the work on the prison’s computer system while Jason and Hawk ate the excellent meal. He spoke of Mary Beth’s mild stroke, the attitude of the governor, and the accident with the tractor-trailer. He told of the actions of the Highway Patrol car, of finding a dying hitchhiker on the truck, and of the promise to look out for the young man’s sisters. Finally, he explained what he’d done to substitute the hitchhiker’s body for his, and what he’d done to convince everyone it was his body in the van. When Hawk had finished Jason’s face showed amazement when he said, “You can probably guess I’ve been on covert missions all around the world. Many have taken months of planning and coordination. To me it’s almost impossible to believe all of what has happened here could have been ‘just circumstance.’“

“I know at least part of what was done against me was planned. As for me, I just seemed to be going with the flow and following my instincts.”

“Well, you’ve good instincts. You did everything right.”

“I don’t know about that, Jason. I married Candice, and I thought we loved each other. I think that mistake was greater than all of the things I’ve done right.”

“I know about the will, and the child you knew nothing about. What was your ex-wife like?”

“Beautiful, blonde, and brilliant. A good way to describe it was I was like a young seal, happily swimming and playing in my ocean while she was a shark just waiting to feed. She was greedy, manipulative, and vengeful. That was especially true when she didn’t get her way, or when a lesser person, which was most everyone, got in her way.” Jason shook his head, trying to imagine what life would’ve been like for this innocent young man linked to such a woman. He could see her playing Hawk like a piano. Hawk continued, “There was a guy down the cell-block from me who played the guitar. One of the songs he used to sing described her perfectly. It was about ‘something’ Salad Annie. The quote was, ‘a mean, spiteful, straight-razor totin’ woman.’“

“So, if you found her what would you do?”

“Would I kill her? Only in self-defense. Would I find some other way to exact revenge? You betcha! In a New York minute!”

“So, what do you plan to do now?”

“I made that choice when I awoke the first morning in your cabin. I’m not actively trying to find Candice, though I suspect Julian, Brenda, and the others may well be. Instead, I’ve placed all my assets in a trust to help the Apache, though I’ll use some of the funds for my own needs.”

Jason replied, “I knew something about the trust from the lunch I had with Julian, Mary Beth, and Zed. I just wasn’t sure of your motives, or your plans.”

“Jason, I was already sympathetic toward the Apache because of some programs I’d seen on cable. I guess part of the rest came from Maria. In the middle of her enslavement she risked her life to help me. To help me who was a perfect stranger, and a white man to boot. The rest came from seeing how they were living, and realizing so many others live that same way. I want to find some way to help.”

“Do you have any plan?”

“In the past, as a problem solver, I first tried to understand the problem. I want to learn what it means to be an Apache. I want to see first hand the prejudice, the poverty, and the hopelessness. You said that your blood in my body makes me an Apache. If that’s true, I want to learn from you the history and ways of ‘my’ people. I want to fully become an Apache. Then, as a group, we’ll attack the problems we’ve identified.”

“Hawk, you honor me and my people. Our problems are many, and have been building for more than a century. Do you think you, or a small group, can really make a difference? Or are you into jousting windmills, deluded into believing they’re dragons?”

“I think we can make a difference. One key is we need to learn to defeat the white man on his turf, not just try to keep from losing. We need to find a way to create jobs, and build hope, yet not turn the Apache into brown-skinned whites.”

Jason sadly interjected, “Brown skinned whites is a good description of what the government and the missionaries have been trying to do to us since the first peace treaty was signed, and our people were placed on the reservation. I don’t know how we can do it.”

“I don’t have all the answers, either, Jason. Hell, I don’t even know most of the questions, but I’ve resources that have never been used before. I think we’ll develop those answers as we go along. But we’ll develop them from the underlying commitment not to betray our basic heritage.”

Jason nodded, and said, “I’d say that would be a good start.

Jason reached in his pocket and pulled out a small medicine bottle, containing ten capsules. “Hawk, I truly believe your desire to take your rightful place among your people. I want you to take one of these daily for the next ten days.”

“What is it?”

“It contains some plants we’ve learned will alter the skin pigment of the white to closely match ours. You’ll need to get as much sun as possible and continue to take one a month for the rest of your life. This is the modern version of what we used to give kidnapped white children. In a few weeks you’ll not have to worry about a skin dye. Now, tell me about your resources.”

Hawk downed one of the pills, and said, “First, I’m fairly well off. The money and stock that will be placed in the trust is more than sixty million dollars. And I suspect we’ll soon have access to much more.” A surprised Jason uttered a short whistle. “Also, I’ve some friends and supporters who’re extraordinary lawyers and businessmen. They’ve many powerful contacts, as well as brilliant minds of their own.” After pausing to take a swallow of tea, Hawk said, “Finally, I’ve the ability to tap into virtually any computer system in the country, leaving no trace. We’ll be able to anticipate moves, discover ‘where the bodies are buried’ and maybe even manipulate the systems for our own benefit. We’ll take the stealth tactics of the Apache’s past, and move them into today’s digital world.”

Jason countered, “But our biggest problem is the Federal Government, and the Bureau that’s supposed to be our advocate, but is usually our jailer. How can we fight them?”

“By attacking or using for our own purposes the four pillars that keep their house from crumbling: money, public opinion, public apathy and ignorance, plus, finally, the courts.”

“OK, I can see three. What’s the difference between public opinion and public apathy and ignorance?”

“Oh, I agree they’re somewhat related. But the key is you deal with them differently. Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that created a woman’s right to an abortion was issued more than thirty years ago. Public Opinion is divided over the issue, but still a majority of the people oppose it. On the other hand, not enough of those people care sufficiently to push the issue, or to learn underlying truths. That’s ignorance and apathy.”

“I think I understand. You build on public opinion, and educate the ignorant, until a majority is no longer apathetic.”

“When they get to that point the congressmen will act, or they’ll be voted out of office.”

“Only it sounds like propaganda to me.”

“Jason, it should, because that’s exactly what it is. There’s nothing inherently wrong with propaganda, as long as it’s bound in truth. Look at all the war movies during World War Two. Hell, even Daffy Duck got into the act. They were just as much propaganda as Tokyo Rose.”

“I guess you’re right, but I still don’t see how it’ll help us.”

Hawk asked, “Did you watch westerns when you were younger?”

“When I was a kid we had no TV. I was in the Army before I saw my first movie, other than something in school. As for westerns, I still enjoy them today. Though, as I told the girls this morning, I feel almost like a Cub’s fan, by hoping the Indians will finally win one, but knowing they won’t.”

“That’s also propaganda. Have you ever seen a movie where the Indians were the good guys, and the whites were the ones committing the atrocities?”

“The only one to come close was the Dancing Wolf thing Costner did.”

“So what happens when we educate the people about the way the Indians have been treated? What if we show the lies, the underhanded cheating, the greed, and the general lack of principles or justice?”

“I guess it could definitely raise the consciousness. But a lot of that stuff has been on the cable before, with little result.”

“I agree, but it did have a cumulative result. It opened my eyes, and prepared me for a call to make a decision. At the same time, if some of these stories ended up in a mini-series or a major motion picture we’d see a larger shift in the public’s attitude. What we need is our own version of the mini-series: Roots. That show was a classic of propaganda! It changed opinion, educated, and then motivated people to act.”

A smiling Jason said, “Son, I like how you think. Now, changing the subject, what are your feelings about Maria?”

“Jason, I honestly don’t know at this point. I know I’d never hurt her. I also picked up enough today to know she’s pregnant with Robert’s child. I’ll raise it as if it was my own. As for Brenda, it seems like she and Maria are reaching some sort of accord. Candice, though, is an entirely different matter. If she’s located I’ll definitely try to see justice is done.”

“Son, I can’t argue with any of that. I guess we need to get on the road.”

When they left the room Jason tried to pay for the meal. His friends insisted it was free since they wanted Jason’s opinion on the new menu item. He and Hawk both told them that it’d be a great addition to the menu, and they were looking forward to eating it again. Jason did slip Bright Star a five-dollar bill when her parents weren’t looking.

While they got in Jason’s truck and drove out of the parking lot Hawk said, “There’s one more thing you should know. There’s very likely a treasure in the cave.”

“Hawk, if those weapons you had the other night are any indication of what’s there, the treasure is probably bigger than you can imagine. That big knife you used was an original Bowie Knife. It was made by the same blacksmith Jim Bowie used.”

“Really? Wow! There was at least an entire case of those rifles, maybe several cases. The was a Gatling Gun, still in its case, and what looked like boxes and metal strong boxes of something, probably bullion or coins. I think the mine part dates back to the Spanish Conquistadors.”

Jason cautiously asked, “So, what are your plans for the treasure you’ve found?”

“Add it to our war chest.”

Somewhat surprised at that answer Jason responded, “But think of all the things that you can buy with that. You could live like a king.”

“Jason, I could live like a king with what I already have. I grew up lower middle class. We weren’t poor, but were constantly struggling and little was left over for luxuries. Then, when I was really making money I still wanted to live simply. That was one of the things that drove Candice nuts. This feels right to me.”

When they turned back on the Interstate Jason smiled, and said, “Then I’ve a story to tell you. When I was a young teen I became fascinated with stories of the English Longbow. My friends all scoffed at the idea of a bow that was that powerful. So, I became determined to make one.”

Hawk interrupted, “And that’s how you got the name ‘Longbow‘?”

“Indirectly. It wasn’t from my fascination with the bow, but because I actually made one. Anyway, the first thing I needed was yew wood. I researched the library, and found though the yew is plentiful in much of Europe it’s fairly rare in this country. There were some stands on the east coast planted by some of the early settlers, but that was too far away. Same for those mentioned in Oregon and Washington.”

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Mike Lowe aka The Scot

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