Chapter 15

Greetings had been exchanged and the guests shown their rooms in the Carter home. The next order of business was to relax. William stripped off his clothes and headed towards the pool. He jumped in feet first, reveling in the feel of cool water against his bare skin. Lucy and Ann, naked as well, slipped into the pool right behind him.

Before they had even moved a dozen feet from the edge, Betsy charged into the poolroom throwing off her clothes even as she ran. Without pause, she jumped into the pool while shouting, "Chicken fight!"

Ann turned and looked at the young woman swimming towards her. At the last moment, Betsy stopped, stood up, and, excitedly said, "Climb on my shoulders. We'll show them what we can do."

"I'm too heavy," Ann started to say. Even before she had managed to complete the words, she felt Betsy's head between her legs. Less than a second later, she was on Betsy's shoulders and moving towards William. She waved her arms around trying to maintain her balance.

Knowing that Betsy was not to be denied, William helped Lucy onto his shoulders. They didn't stand a chance against the charging dynamo. Before they had even gotten set, Betsy was there in front of them. With a gentle push and a very large smile, Ann sent Lucy into the water. Lucy came up sputtering and trying to clear her hair out of her face.

Despite the strangeness associated with being naked while a young woman had her head between her legs, Ann was laughing at the expression on William's face. She could tell that he was going to say they cheated. She said, "All's fair in love and war. I do believe that Chicken Fights do count as war."

Betsy echoed her amusement with laughter. William rolled his eyes and, with a smile, said, "I guess it was a war, although I would have chosen the term ambush."

Lunging forward to hug William, Betsy said, "Ah, it's good to see you smiling William."

Ann found herself falling back into the water when Betsy moved out from under her. With the reversal of the previous situation, she found she was the one sputtering while Lucy was laughing.

Ever moving, Betsy circled around them like a shark cutting through the water. She said, "You guys are fun."

Winking at Lucy, William said, "How about a race, Betsy?"

"Normal rules?" asked the young woman with a glow in her eyes.

"Yes," answered William as he moved to the end of the pool. He took his time knowing that no matter how fast he moved that Betsy would beat him there. She danced in place waiting for him.

"On your mark, get set, go!" shouted Betsy as she took off.

Without even making the effort of swimming a lap, William watched his sister generate waves as she cut through the water. Seeing that he was still standing there, Lucy asked, "What are normal rules?"

"She swims three laps for every lap I'm to swim," answered William.

"Why aren't you swimming?" Lucy asked watching the girl cut through the water. Betsy was already at the other end of the pool and on her way back. There was no way William could win even under those rules.

"I don't need to swim. We just take it for granted that I lose."

Lucy burst out laughing at his flat delivery of the statement. Pointing to Betsy, Lucy asked, "Does she know that you don't swim?"

"Of course," William answered. Even when they were little, he could find ways for her to keep busy without requiring him to put in half the energy used by Ling to achieve the same result. It drove Ling nuts.

Ann had listened to the exchange with a grin. She couldn't believe that the thirteen-year-old girl had such energy. She swam over to William and asked, "Is she going to compete in the Olympics?"

"My brother Eddie is helping her train in track and field. She'll be ready in two years," answered William.

"Does she ever slow down?" Ann asked watching her cut through the water. It looked to her like Betsy had started moving faster after the first lap.

"Only when she goes to bed. She goes from moving to absolutely still in one minute," William answered.

"How about in school?"

"She's always moving, even in school. Finding a way of keeping her there was tough. After considering a lot of options, we settled on setting up an exercise bike in the back of the room. It cost a small fortune to create one that was quiet enough not to disturb the class. It works and allows her to attend school like a normal kid," Ling answered from poolside. She had entered the room in time to hear the last exchange between William and Ann.

"Is she like William?" Ann asked wanting to know if she was as smart as William.

"Nobody's like William," Ling said as she striped out of her clothes. She meant it in every way possible.

"Thanks, Mom," said William taking it as a compliment.

Ling entered the pool at the same time Betsy arrived next to William and announced, "I won. Do you want to race again?"

After three races in which William hadn't even moved, William, Lucy, and Ann left pool with him claiming that so much racing had tired him out. They relaxed and watched Betsy swim laps at a furious pace. Still in the water, Ling coached Betsy despite the fact that the girl didn't need any help.

Ann and Lucy exchanged meaningful looks with Ann nodding her head and Lucy shaking hers. Deciding to take the initiative that Lucy wouldn't take, Ann asked, "Why don't you show Lucy your bedroom? I'm sure she would love to see the room that you grew up in."

"I really haven't spent much time at this house. Although this was my home, it isn't really the place where I grew up," answered William ducking the real intent of her suggestion. He didn't like the idea of sneaking off for a furtive grope. When he and Lucy were going to engage in physical intimacy for the first time, he wanted it to be an act of love and not lust. He said, "I lived nine years at the Druid College, four years at the Native American College, and a year on the reservation."

It has hard for Ann and Lucy to know how to react. On the one hand, what he said reflected a life that was sad in many ways and deserved comment. On the other hand, it sounded like he was totally oblivious to the opportunity that was being given him and that deserved comment. Ann and Lucy exchanged another glance. Finally, Lucy said, "That's sad."

"That's one of the things about my childhood that made my mothers unhappy, but it was for the best. I'd have gone crazy without the opportunity to develop to my full potential," said William.

Ann was about to make a comment to the effect that he had missed her point, but William raised a hand to stop her from speaking. In a very serious tone of voice, he said, "I'm not totally oblivious to the implications of your suggestion for taking her to my bedroom. However, I'd rather pursue that at a time and place of my own choosing."

Turning to face Lucy, he asked, "Would you care to walk through the garden with me?"

"Yes," answered Lucy, grateful for the distraction. She had not wanted her mother to make the suggestion since she shared William's attitude that their first time together should be special.

Ann watched the young couple leave the poolroom. From beside her, Ling said, "I see that William hasn't lost his touch in driving people crazy."

"What is it? I give him a chance to be alone with Lucy and he totally ignores it. You'd think that after a year of being with her, he'd be a little horny by now," Ann said.

Resting a hand on Ann's arm, Ling said, "He understands the difference between lust and love, sex and making love. When he and Lucy finally get together, it is going to be special."

"Oh." She didn't know if she believed that.

"In a way, I envy her. I thought it was love the first time I was ever with a man, but I was wrong. It was lust and I was crushed as a result."

Ann understood what Ling was saying. Her first time had been disappointing. She'd been too young and too eager to satisfy a young man interested in only one thing. Nodding, she said, "Same here."

"Lucy is going to experience heaven. He's going to take her to places that few women have ever been," said Ling with a sigh. She hadn't experienced that kind of heaven until she had slept with John Carter. That had been a magic evening.

"What about him?"

"William will take care of William," answered Ling knowing there was a lot of truth in that statement.

The next day, Ann sat at the end of the conference table listening to Cathy, Linda, and Ling discuss the wedding. Her jaw dropped when Cathy said, "I think a budget of ten million should be sufficient. Of course, that depends on the location."

Ling said, "We've got double that allocated, so don't worry about location. Any place is fine with me, but I'm not all that wild about the reservations or colleges. They are just too isolated."

"I want the best for William," said Linda. Seeing the questioning expression on Ling's, she said, "I agree that the last places we should consider are the reservations and the colleges."

Satisfied with Linda's answer, Ling turned to Ann and asked, "Where would you like it?"

"I have no idea," Ann answered barely able to breathe. Her mind had gone blank upon hearing them talk about spending twenty million dollars on the wedding.

"You've got the whole world to choose from," said Linda.

"The whole world?" Ann looked over at Cathy as if lost.

"If there are a couple of places that Lucy has always wanted to visit, we could have the wedding in one and they could have the honeymoon in the other," said Ling. Seeing the look on Ann's face, she added, "That's what we did for Beth and John."

"Oh."

Linda said, "We can just ask William. He'll know where it is going to be held."

"You're kidding?" Ann asked looking as the other women around the table nodded their heads in agreement.

"Not at all. William knows everything we decide before we even decide it," said Linda.

Ann laughed in disbelief. Joking, she said, "So throw a dart at a map and pick the nearest large city. We'll have the wedding there."

Ling and Linda looked at each other for a few seconds as smiles grew on their faces. Even if William knew where it was going to be held, it would bug him trying to figure out why it was held there. Linda said, "I'll get the map."

"I'll get a knife," said Ling.

Seeing that her joke was being taken seriously, Ann stared as the women left the room. Cathy was laughing and said, "I'm sure you didn't mean it, but after being outguessed by William for years your idea is perfect."

Ten minutes later, Ann stepped back, ripped off her blindfold, and declared, "The wedding will be held in Cheyenne, Wyoming."

Ann's voice had faltered when she announced the name of the town. She bent down and examined the map with a frown. Ling stepped over and looked down at the map. Looking up, Ling asked, "Cheyenne Wyoming?"

"What's in Cheyenne Wyoming?" Ann asked.

"I've got no idea," Cathy said looking at the map. The knife had cut the map right over the center of the town. Shaking her head, she said, "I don't think it will support an event this big."

"The nearest large city is Denver," said Linda.

"Denver is good," Ann said.

"I agree, Denver is good."

Cathy made a note on her pad of paper and said, "Denver it is. I'll identify a couple of wedding consultants from Denver and have them fly in for an interview. We should be ready to interview them in three or four days. How would you like to handle the interviews?"

When Cathy turned to look at her, Ann didn't know how to answer the question. She'd never interviewed anyone before. Lost by everything that had happened, she asked, "What do you suggest?"

"I suggest that we give each of them an idea of the scale of the wedding and allow each to tell us what they would do. You pick the one whose vision is the closest to what you would like," answered Cathy.

"Okay," Ann replied thinking that it sounded easy enough.

While the mother's were selecting the city where the wedding would be held, Walt stopped the van in front of the sign advertising that the property was for sale. Gesturing to the wide open space around them, he said, "We're here."

The real estate agent, Natalie, was seated next to Walt in the front of the van. She was in her early forties and basically unhappy. She wasn't an unattractive woman, although she wore her makeup a little heavy to hide the lines on her face. Divorced by a cheating husband, she had gone into real estate out of necessity. She was desperate for a big sale and didn't know what to make of having a pair of teenagers for clients. Natalie said, "The owner said he'd meet us out here."

"How much land is it?" asked William.

"Forty square miles. That's 25660 acres of land," answered Natalie checking her property sheet. The sheet had all of the vital statistics about the property, a map, and an aerial photograph. It was a lot of land with nothing on it as far as she was concerned. Frowning, she said, "It's not very productive. I guess that explains the asking price of fifty an acre."

"You say it is adjacent to the reservation."

"Yes, it has about a mile border with it," answered Natalie. She looked out over the land and wondered who would want to buy such a desolate place.

William turned to Lucy and asked, "What do you think of it?"

"I don't know. It's kind of big and flat," said Lucy looking out the window of the van.

A black sedan, less than a year old, approached from down the road and parked in front of the van. A couple in their mid-thirties got out of the sedan and approached them. Walt got out and went around to the passenger side opening the door for the couple. Gesturing to the interior, he said, "Come on out of the hot."

The couple got into the van. Once they were seated, the man said, "I'm Mark Dunning and this is my wife Morgan."

"I'm William Redman Carter and this is my fiancee, Lucille Desi Wilkins."

"I guess you want to look at the property," said Mark wondering if he was wasting his time showing a couple of teenagers the old family place.

"Yes, we do," answered William. From the road, the place didn't look like much, but Ed had recommended they visit it. No one knew Arizona better than his father and such a recommendation was worthy of being followed.

Walt navigated the van across the cattle guard and along the remains of a dirt road. A huge plume of dust boiled up into the air behind the van. When they had gone about a mile, William was looking out one side of the van when he heard Lucy say, "Oh my goodness!"

Turning to see what had prompted her exclamation, he saw the edge of a canyon opening beside the road. The view was breath taking. William leaned forward and said, "Walt, stop the van."

Once the van was stopped, William and Lucy exited and walked as close to the edge as Lucy was comfortable. She looked out over the canyon for a full minute without saying a word. Turning to William, she said, "I could wake up to this view every morning for the rest of my life."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she answered as she squeezed his hand. By all that she had known to that day, she should have hated it. The land was rough, wild, and raw. It did not bear the lash marks of cultivation. It bore no resemblance to a park. She had never been taken by a place in the way this one had reached out and grabbed her. It was love at first sight.

Smiling at the positive confidence in her voice, William said, "It's going to take some time to find the best view."

"I don't know if I could take it if the view was any better," said Lucy finding it hard to tear her eyes away from the panorama spread out in front of her.

Pointing in a direction that was parallel to the edge of the canyon, William said, "Let's walk up that way."

"Why?"

"I'd like to check out a couple of locations for the house," answered William. He was confident there was a place ahead where the sight would take her breath away.

"It would be impossible to have a better view than this," said Lucy.

The young couple made their way along the edge of the canyon. As they walked along, more of the canyon opened before them. Lucy couldn't believe that it was possible, but, with each step, the view she beheld increased in beauty. In the canyon below there was a thin strip of water surrounded by a lush growth of trees. She spotted a deer standing by the water.

The sound of a rattle coming from beside them caused both of them to stop. Lucy gasped at her first encounter with a rattlesnake and was tempted to run away. The fact that the snake was coiled directly in front of William was the only thing that kept her in place. Far enough away from the snake to avoid being bit, she didn't want her movement to cause it to strike William. Heart pounding, she stood in place.

With a calmness that amazed Lucy, William knelt down and looked at the snake. It was a large specimen that was at least eight feet in length with the diamond-back markings of its kind. The snake, once it had his attention, shifted so that the rattle was beating against a small rock. After a few seconds, half of the rattle broke off and fell to the ground.

In a sign that Lucy recognized as respect, the snake lowered and raised its head before it slithered away. William picked up the rattle left behind. He put it into his shirt pocket with care. It was a gift for his medicine bag. Watching the snake disappear into the desert, he called out, "Thank you for the gift."

Voice trembling as an echo of her fear, Lucy asked, "What just happened?"

"The snake gave me half of its rattle for use on my medicine bag," answered William.

"Like the eagle gave you three feathers?" Lucy asked.

"Exactly."

"Wow," said the young woman. If she hadn't seen the snake and how it behaved towards him, she wouldn't have believed it.

Feeling that he was close to the site where they would build their house, William pointed to a location a hundred yards away and said, "Let's go over there."

When they reached the spot, William looked out over the canyon. Lucy's grip on his hand tightened as she looked at the view. Lifting his hand, he patted the back of Lucy's hand as he said, "This is where we will build our house."

Awed by the vista, Lucy agreed by nodding her head. She stood on the edge of the canyon and gazed upon the panorama before her. She knew that it wasn't the Grand Canyon. The canyon wasn't that deep, it wasn't that wide, and it wasn't as long, but the impact was just as soul shattering. Taking a deep breath, she said, "This is the place where I want to live until I grow old and die."

Satisfied with her answer, William pulled out his cell phone even as he winked at Lucy. Opening it, he dialed his sister. When she answered, he said, "Beth, this is William. Lucy and I just found the perfect place for our future house."

Lucy looked around wondering what kind of house would allow them to take in the view. The best place to build it would be along the edge of the canyon, but that would not leave them with much of a back yard. She turned to look behind her and realized they were going to have a huge front yard.

She listened as William said, "I really need a house that fits this location. It's going to have to be built on the edge of canyon and blend in with the environment. Whoever designs the house is going to have to be the very best architect in the world. Can you recommend someone who can handle the challenge?"

Lucy smiled at the way he made the request. She knew he considered Beth to be the best architect in the world. It was also clear that Beth knew that he felt that way. She almost burst out laughing when, in a shocked voice, he asked, "Really? You're the best architect for the job?"

"You don't say? Well, I might have to check out your portfolio," said William grinning at Lucy. He added, "I seem to remember you making a D in your desert building design class. Didn't your adobe house fall down?"

Lucy could hear Beth even though she was standing a good distance from the phone held by William. She couldn't make out what his sister was saying, but it was said in a mock abusive voice. It amazed her how the siblings teased each other.

"I've got to buy it yet," said William after his sister had calmed down.

Although she knew as soon as he had made the call to his sister that he was going to buy the property, his putting it into words sent a thrill through her body. She looked out over the canyon and smiled at the idea that one day this would be hers.

"Okay, you'll see me in a week. At least if I don't see you first."

When he closed the phone, Lucy burst out laughing and asked, "She's going to design the house?"

"Of course," he answered slipping the phone back into his pocket.

Moving to stand beside him with her hand in his, she looked over the view and asked, "When do we move in?"

"It'll take about four years to build," said William. His father would do the geological survey to assure that the location was stable enough to support a house. His sister's design would have the first floor at surface level and the three lower floors built into the wall of the canyon. He could see the house in his mind. Nodding his head, he said, "It's going to be a house for the ages."

Later in the apartment of Linda, Lucy and Linda were seated on a couch. Lucy was sewing together the parts to create a small leather pouch. She stuck her finger with the needle while trying to sew the sides closed. Sticking her finger in her mouth, she said, "It's hard to sew leather."

"You're doing fine," Linda said looking over the pouch.

Curious, Lucy asked, "Are you sure that I'm supposed to make the pouch for William?"

"It is the duty of a squaw to do this," Linda answered.

Lucy frowned and said, "I'm not sure that I would like to be called a squaw. It sounds rather derogatory."

"It has come to be derogatory because it has been used that way for many years. When the whites first married women of the Massachusett and other Algonquin tribes, they called their wives squaws because that is what the women called themselves. The word, squa, meant woman. Because other whites didn't recognize the marriages, the wives were treated as if they were whores. Squaw came to mean a subservient woman who could be easily mistreated. Some have even suggested that it means cunt," Linda said.

"So why..."

Interrupting Lucy before she could ask the question, Linda said, "Since William freed us from the curse, many of us have examined the past and found much about which we can be proud. Some of us have taken to using the old words among ourselves out of pride for our past. Squaw is one of those terms even though it is a word from a tribe that no longer exists."

"Pride?"

"Many Native American tribes were matriarchal. Did you know that?"

"No," Lucy answered as she worked on the leather bag.

"Native American women were not servants to their husbands, but proud women." Linda looked over at the bag and nodded her approval.

"So what happened to cause Native American women to be looked upon as servants?"

"During the Age of the Great Curse, our culture clashed with the culture of the white and we lost. We lost because our culture had been weakened. Disease had destroyed entire families. The old had died without passing all they knew to the young. The young were faced with a culture they didn't understand."

Lucy looked up from her work and asked, "What didn't they understand?"

"White men farmed and their wives cooked. Our braves hunted and fought to protect us while we raised our families. We were a culture of hunters and meat kept our families alive. Our braves looked down on the white men because they worked the soil. White men looked down on our braves because the women of our tribes worked the land to augment our diet with grains. The women were viewed as subservient to lazy men and that made them even less deserving of respect then the men."

"What about stealing the land?"

"Our culture was based on hunting rather than farming. You can't stay in one spot and hunt sufficient game to feed even a small tribe year round. It requires that you move according to the season. It takes a lot of land to support a small tribe."

"The white culture was based on farming. Seeing land that had been abandoned and was suitable for farming, the Whites would move in while we were gone and establish a homestead. They didn't move away when the season changed and our people returned. Instead, they fought to keep our people from trespassing on land that they had worked hard to develop. Their presence depleted game and made life more difficult for our people."

Lucy observed, "It was a matter of life and death for all of the individuals involved."

"You're exactly right. In a way, it makes sense that we lost the battles over land. We had to keep moving to stay fed. The settlers were fighting from a more stable position. They stayed in one place and raised their crops. The more intensive use of land allowed a higher density of people. The next group of settlers would eat away a little more of our land."

Lucy looked over at Linda in surprise at the suggestion that farming was such a major source of misunderstanding. She had never heard any of that in her history courses. She'd been taught that the Native Americans had taught the early settlers how to grow corn. Older books presented Native Americans as savages while the newer books presented the Whites as savages. She had always figured the truth was somewhere in between.

"Once we had lost, the White's tried to change our culture to theirs. Our braves were made to do women's work and it destroyed all that had made them warriors. Our women were at a loss as to what they were to do. They denied us our languages, our customs, and our culture."

"You must hate Whites," Lucy said.

"No. I think that many of the Whites meant well. By everything they knew to be right and proper, our men were lazy and our women didn't act like a woman was supposed to behave. The more we resisted their efforts to mold us into their vision of how people were to act, the worse we appeared to them. They just didn't understand what they were doing to us."

"Why do you think that they misunderstood each other so much?"

"The Great Curse was upon us," Linda answered confident that the curse explained everything. She paused and said, "Thanks to William, those days are in the past. Now, I can be proud to be a squaw."

After Linda had been quiet for a minute, Lucy held up the bag and asked, "What do you think?"

"Ah, it looks good. William will like it very much," Linda answered with a smile.

Smiling at her future mother-in-law, Lucy said, "Maybe I'll be a good squaw one of these days."