The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by Jessica Anya Blau

Author:Jessica Anya Blau [Blau, Jessica Anya]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780061452024
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Are those mine?” Allen looked down at the slippers.

“The floors are cold in the morning,” Betty said, “and he has only one pair of shoes.”

“So those are my slippers?”

“They remind me of the moccasins my grandmother 156 ■ Jessica Anya Blau

sewed for me when I was just a small boy.” Dog Feather looked up from his oatmeal.

“Did she use a seal bone needle and the skin of an elk?

Did she chew the thread from whale fat?” Jamie laughed, but no on else did.

“You know, I’ll go with you to the museum,” Allen said.

He sat at the counter and poured himself a bowl of cereal.

“Jamie’s not even coming,” Betty said.

“How do you know I’m not coming?” Jamie said.

“You just said a couple minutes ago that you’ve probably been to that museum three hundred times.”

“I’ve been three hundred times because I like it there.”

“So you’re coming too?” Betty wasn’t even trying to look pleased.

“No,” Jamie said. “I’ll stay home.”

“Come,” Allen said.

“Why don’t you stay home with her,” Betty said. “She never has father-daughter time.”

“Yeah, Dad,” Jamie said. “It will be like when we were in Indian Maidens.”

Dog Feather looked up.

“Don’t say Indian,” Betty said.

“That’s what it was called,” Jamie said. “It was Indian Maidens.”

“What’s Indian Maidens?” Dog Feather asked.

“It was a father/daughter club,” Allen explained. “I think it was through the Girls Club of America. Or maybe it was the YMCA.”

“They should call it Native American Maidens,” Betty said.

Allen rolled his eyes.

“I don’t understand why Indian is a bad word,” Jamie said.

“The people in India are Indian,” Dog Feather said.

The Summer of Naked Swim Parties ■ 157

“So, you can be Indian too.”

“But I’m not from India,” Dog Feather said. “I’m from the United States of America. My people were the first people here. This land belongs to my people.”

“This land belonged to the Chumash, not the Pomo.” If she were Chumash, Jamie thought, she’d start a tribal war against Dog Feather.

Betty slurped her coffee while staring at her daughter. Allen ate his cereal while looking alternately into the bowl and down at his slippers on Dog Feather’s feet. Dog Feather smiled at Betty.

Renee walked into the kitchen. Since returning from Outward Bound she had spoken to Jamie only to discuss their mutual dislike of Dog Feather. Renee poured a bowl of cereal and sat on a stool on the other side of Allen.

“Renee,” Jamie said.

“Farrah,” Renee said.

“Do you think it’s bad to say Indian?”

“Indian.”

“See,” Jamie said, “that wasn’t so awful. I mean it’s not like saying fuck or shit.”

“Or motherfucker,” Renee said.

“Or mother shit fucker,” Jamie said, and she and her sister laughed while Allen and Betty looked at each other with bemused smiles.

“Sweetheart,” Allen said to Renee, “do you want to go to the natural history museum with us today?”

“No.”

“You can look at the Indian exhibit,” Jamie said. “You know, those life-sized models of Chumash Indians picking up acorns, making fires, shooting arrows at mountain lions.”

“She’s too old for the museum,” Betty said.

“She’s younger than you,” Jamie said.

158 ■ Jessica Anya Blau

“Yeah, Mom,” Renee said.

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