Chapter 12

"She's not with me, Frank", I explained as he opened the door. "Bernie's at my house. I needed to talk to you alone."

"Nothin' bad, I hope? Y'all ain't in no trouble, are you?"

"That remains to be seen", I said with a smile full of trepidation. "I just need to ask you a question. I know it might seem a bit sudden, but I want to ask you for permission to marry your daughter."

When he managed to close his mouth enough to talk, he began to answer. At least he was calm. "I don't know, Paul", he sighed. "Her ma and me got married young, and that didn't work out so well. What makes you believe you two will be any different?"

"Well, Frank", I explained, "besides the fact that I love her more than air, we have common dreams and goals. We've got college all planned out, and intend to spend our lives here. Bernie has made it clear that to her, 'Till death do us part' has real meaning. I feel the same way. Whether we get married next year, or ten years from now, we'll be spending the rest of our lives together. I just don't want to waste a minute of it by waiting. I know I can't support a family yet, but when I can, it will be with Bernie."

I could tell he was trying to fight it, but the smile won out. "I know, son", he admitted. "Bernice has made it clear to me that the two of you were gonna get hitched. In fact, she told me the day I caught you two all latched together that first day. I know better than to doubt her, but I'd like to thank you for askin' me. For what it's worth, you have my blessing. If you can clear it with your folks, it's fine with me. You might want to ask Bernie, though."

I saw his gaze was directed over my shoulder, and turned around to see what he was looking at. Bernie had just came in, and caught his last words. "Ask Bernie what?", she said as she stared at us. Frank nodded towards her, and left the kitchen.

I had wanted a much more romantic setting, but I was trapped. "This isn't what I had planned, love", I sighed. "I came here to ask your father for your hand."

She looked stern, and asked "And what was his answer?"

"He gave us his blessing, but said I needed to be asking you."

She stood there with her arms folded, and tapping her foot. After a minute of that, she said "Well? Are you gonna ask me, or not?"

I tried to salvage all of the romance I could, by going to one knee. That looked just plain goofy, and Bernie cracked up. She was damn near six feet tall, and on my knees, I was at about the level of her belly button.

She pulled me up by my ears, and laid a kiss on me that made smoke come out my ears. She then pulled me away (by the ears, again!), and said "That was a yes, in case you haven't guessed. You really need to work on this proposal thing. I bet you haven't even looked at a ring yet, have you?"

"Hold on there, sweetie", I said in my defense. "I only came here for your dad's blessing. I didn't expect to be asking you today. This didn't go at all like I wanted it to."

"Oh, Paul", she huffed, "don't you understand? It doesn't matter to me how you asked, only that you did! If it makes you feel any better, you can ask me again after you get a ring. That part IS important. I don't care how big or expensive it is, but I want an engagement ring. I want a real wedding, and there has to be a reception afterwards. Are you OK with that?"

I wasn't. I hated crowds and attention. I could fake it, though. "Sure, babe", I said, "anything you want. As long as I have you after it's over, I can handle it."

She laid another one on me, and cooed "You're learning! We've got a long time to plan things, anyway. It's not like we can actually afford to get married for a while. Being engaged will have its advantages, though. We can still be inseparable!"

Bernie and I got a hug and a handshake, respectively, from Frank. We then went back to my house to spread the news. The folks seemed happier about it when we explained that the wedding would have to wait until I was actually making money. Ann and Denise were both happy, and sad. They were happy for us, but sad that they couldn't marry us, too.

I had an attack of conscience Monday. When I walked into the lunchroom, I saw Gail sitting all by herself. She wasn't eating, and she looked miserable. I detached myself from the girls, and sat across from her.

She didn't notice me at first. When she did, she snarled "If you came over here to gloat, fuck off. Isn't it enough that you ruined my life?"

This girl needed to learn a few facts, so I tried. "Look, Gail", I said, "the only person who has done you any harm, is you. No one forced you to act the way you did. You did that all on your own. It doesn't have to be this way, you know."

That caught her attention. "What do you mean? Everybody in the whole damn school hates me, now! Everybody who I thought was my friend dropped me like I was a leper! How can it NOT be that way?"

"Two simple words, Gail", I replied. "Start with those. Saying 'I'm sorry' goes a long way, provided you really mean it. Nothing is wrong that can't be fixed. All you have to do is try. Begin by apologizing, then treat people the way you want them to treat you. It will take a while, but it will work. You have to want to change the way you treat people though. Faking it won't work, they'll know."

I could barely hear her when she said "I am, you know? Sorry, I mean. I've done a lot of thinking, and I really don't blame people for hating me. I've been a bitch for a long time. Hell, I've been pushing people around since grade school. I can't believe I got away with it that long." She looked at me then, and asked "If I apologize to you, and everyone at your table, can I sit with you? If you let me do that, it will go a long way towards other people accepting me again."

"If no one with me objects, I won't", I replied.

She smiled, and followed me back to my table. We made room for her, and even got her to laugh about Bernie's 'iron jaw', before lunch was over. Maybe there was hope for her, after all. I could tell it took some effort, but she seemed to be letting a different person out. Only time would tell, I guess.

What worried me more, were her questions about our winged friends. She didn't think we had anything to do with it, of course, but she was baffled.

"I felt like Tippi Hedron in 'The Birds'", she complained. "It was worse than the broken wrist! I had to wash my hair before we went to the emergency room, and mom had to pull the car into the garage. Every time I stuck my damn head out the front door, I got dive bombed!. I had to run into the hospital, even with us parking right in front of the door. It was freaky!"

I felt bad about laughing, until I realized she was too. It's a good thing birds have a short attention span. They quit by the time she had her cast on and went home.

Practice seemed to get better every day. For the first time in years, Timber Lake was 4-0. It must have been the pride of accomplishment feeding their desire to get better. I know it sure was for me. Glencross was next on the schedule, and we were determined to make it a win. I know some of you will say 'Hey! you already played them!' You would be correct. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as far as I was concerned, we lived out in the back end of nowhere. We played every team within driving distance twice, and still only had eight games on the schedule.

The down side was that since our competition was limited, even if we went undefeated, we would still probably get a low seed in the playoffs. That was the biggest reason that the team dad was on reaching the semi-finals was such a shock. They had to go through the best teams to get there. According to him and Frank, if they had been seeded like most teams were, they might have won it all. By the time they lost, there were so many injuries that they could barely field a team.

This is where all those new plays we had practiced, but never used, turned out to be the difference. Everyone knew we ran the option, so the plan was one of confusion. We barely practiced the option all week. Instead, Coach Nelson had us running what he called the 'Pro Set' offense. We were still going to run a lot, but I was going to be throwing a lot more passes than before. Most of them would be off of fakes, but I was looking forward to it. Our receivers were really fast, so if I got a little time, it could be fun.

Coach also brought two more ninth graders to the varsity. Both of them were 'farm boys', and even though they looked a little small, they were strong. I thought we looked pretty good, and when I saw the coach smiling, I knew I was right. It was something he didn't do very often.

When we got home, dad told us he had a number for the Zuni reservation. He had quite a few friends among the Sioux, and they had provided the information. I wasn't able to actually speak to Wise Bird, but everyone got excited when we learned that he did, in fact, exist! I left the name, and our number. Hopefully, he would call. They couldn't say when that might be, as Wise Bird only dropped by occasionally.

The discussion after I hung up was lively. The fact that I had received the information in a dream was the main topic. Dad had confided this to his friend, and the man had seemed deadly serious when he told him that I must have 'great medicine', for this to have happened. I had no idea what that actually meant, but the folks and grandpa seemed to be impressed by it. Grandpa was especially impressed by the invitation extended by the medicine man, Kohkahycumest, or White Antelope, in English. He seemed anxious to meet me, for some reason.

I started riding more, if not longer. The days were pretty cool. It didn't bother Diablo, but my face about froze off when he ran. The girls, including Bernie, often went with me. We bagged a couple of elk and an older buck, though Bernie and Ann did most of the nasty work. I still didn't know how to field dress an animal. Maybe it was because I didn't want to know. I felt kind of guilty about that.

The women were busy planning our future. Because of the cave, they had all but decided we should build a house close to the line cabin, on the western boundary. I tried to point out the obvious problem, but they shot it down.

"We know it's a lot further to the main road", Bernie explained, "but it's closer to pa's place. We'll just have to make a new road. Besides, we want to be as far away from everyone except family as we can get. We don't want nosy visitors!"