Boy Made of Dawn by R Allen Chappell

Author:R Allen Chappell [Chappell, R Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781492358442
Published: 2013-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Lucy Tallwoman left a message for Thomas’s uncle, John Nez, at the chapter house at Navajo Mountain. She said only he was needed immediately.

She knew she could not leave her father there alone in order to deliver the boy to Navajo Mountain herself, especially so soon after Paul’s recent illness. Then, of course, there were the sheep. Always there were the sheep.

Early the following morning John Nez and his white friend, anthropologist Marissa Key, pulled up in front of Lucy’s hogan. John had driven all night to get there despite Marissa saying they could wait till the next morning. She had hardly had time to get any clothes together for the two of them, she said.

Lucy was a little nervous when she saw Marissa had come along. She didn’t know what an educated white woman would think of their more humble way of living out there on Tortilla Flats, as her father liked to refer to it. Then she thought of the new generator Thomas bought when he went back to work and felt better. The generator was exactly like the one Marissa had at John Nez’s place up at Navajo Mountain. Lucy didn’t have a propane kitchen range like Marissa, but they were working on that. Thomas said they needed to step into the twenty-first century at some point, and this was as good a time as any.

He had said, “When those people up at Navajo Mountain start getting more modern stuff than we have down here, it is a wakeup call!”

Lucy reminded him that Marissa was the only one up there who had much in the way of modern conveniences, and she had bought them all herself.

“Well then,” Thomas had stated, “it is a wakeup call for all those other people up at Navajo Mountain, too.”

John Nez and Marissa settled their belongings in the “summer hogan”—just a brush arbor really, often the focal point of family life in the warmer summer months. Lucy usually set up her loom there in the dog days of summer. The brush shelter made for handy guest accommodations too, given good weather.

“This is sort of like camping out, isn’t it,” Marissa whispered, looking doubtfully at the army cots along the sparse, brushy walls.

John just looked at her. “You will be surprised how nice it is sleeping out here.” He hoped she would not insist on going to town for accommodations—that would be an embarrassment. “You can see the stars right through the roof,” he offered. He often thought white women made for troublesome companions. He sometimes wondered if the wear and tear on his head was worth it.

They all gathered there in the shade and sipped the sodas John Nez brought in his cooler. The boy was called from his work of teaching the dog to retrieve a stick. Secretly, the dog thought he was teaching the boy to throw it. They both came to the call rather reluctantly as each felt himself just on the verge of success.

John Nez watched the boy approach and nodded approvingly.

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