poemtry and prose

Daniel put on his best and widest smile and entered the room after a few more minutes of chit chatting from the two woman, "Sorry to interrupt miasoa, but theh stew is ready and I wanted you to be able to eat it while it was warm." He flashed another wide smile at them and worked to help free the aging shaman from her bed. He resented the conversation but still attempted to do his best to show that he cared for the woman like she was his own grandmother, who had already passed away some time ago.

With each young person at her side, Serena made it swiftly to the dining area where Daniel had set up three bowls, all steaming hot with the stew he prepared. "I hope you do not mind, Kaylee, but she knew you were going to arrive, so she had me prepare your favorite meal."

Kaylee shook her head at both him and her gran, "No, thank you. That is very sweet of you to have done so. I have not eaten since I left today. Wanted to make good time getting down here and all."

Something did not seem right with Daniel. It was as if he was being overly sweet to her. She could not detect any disdain or unhappiness towards either one of them. Which she felt was a bit too odd considering what her gran believed her to be. She figured that he would probably want to talk to her at some point about all this. And if he did not aproach her then she planned on going to him about it all. After all, she wanted to be proactive and was not really feeling the very model shaman that her gran thought of her to become.

They ate in almost total silence. Daniel helped his mentor by cutting up the bread into chunks and then carefully placing them in her stew. Kaylee was amazed at his cooking skills for the stew almost tasted as if it had been made by gran herself. She forced herself to savor each and every bite and marveled at just how long it had really been since she really did have a good bowl of home cooked soup. The chunks of meat, vennison, felt soft and tender in her mouth and the bread was soft and warm. It made a nice compliment to the meal and while she was still tired from all that driving, her body felt happy being fed.

When dinner was all done, Kaylee and Daniel helped Serena back into her bed. The old woman nestled down and smiled, "I am very proud to have you both standing next to me, and by my side. This has been a long time coming. It has also worn me out quite a bit. I need my rest. Daniel, would you be so kind to show my little one where her room is?"

"Sure thing," he replied, while blowing out the candles in the room. "Kaylee, if you could help me make it dark for miasoa to sleep, I will take you upstairs."

Kaylee noded and thought to herself, "Here it is. He is going to use this time to deal with me, I am almost sure of it." She took a deep breath and then walked out behimd him, out of her gran's room. "Good night, little one," her gran said to her from the total darkness.

"Good night, gran," she replied.

Daniel led her up the rickety old stairs. It seemed as if they had never really used the stairs for they were covered in dust.

"It has been a long time since we have had any guests here, as you can see. Do not worry. The stairs only sound old, they are still quite sturdy. You will not be falling. I am a bit surprised that you actually came back. I was almost sure from the phone call a few nights ago that you were not going to take me seriously."

"I take my gran very seriously," Kaylee retored. "I just had to figure out whether or not you were serious. I do not make a lot of money and I am putting myself in dire straights just taking the time off that I was able to manage. She does seem better, though. Do you not see it?"

Daniel nodded and pointed to the room on the left, "That is your room. And yes, she does seem to look a bit chipper. But I promise you, that will not stay for long. When old friends come to visit her, as they did awhile ago, it was the same thing. But her body is old, even though her mind stays young, and it wants her to take a nice long rest. That sounds colder than I meant it, I am sorry."

Kaylee turned her head and looked inside "her" new room. "No, I know what you are trying to say. And I also know that this cannot be easy for you. Especially considering all she believes. I am sure that she has told you what she wants me to do. And I am not sure I can do what she is asking me to do. You have spent a lifetime learning what I shy away from. "

"Yes but that is not in our power to decide. The great spirits and the spider have made the decision for us. And while I shall continue my duties as best as I can in assisting miasoa, I have also learned that the power is greater than both of us and when it wants something, it wants something. I cannot change that. No matter what," he rambled on.

"Anyways, this is your room. I trust you are tired from your trip, so I will leave you to get rest. If you need anything, I am downstiars. Good night and welcome home."

She nodded and shut the door to her room behind her. He had brought her backpack up earlier and already had one candle light. The room had very little decorations. A single bed sat in one corner. It was piled with blankets and a small furry deerskin rested on top of the blankets. Next to the bed was a handmade night stand, with a candle resting on top. She recalled her gran telling her that it had been made by her father, when he was about the age she left the reservation. Another skin covered the hardwood floor. It was big and she had a hard time identifying exactly which beast it came from.

Kaylee inhaled deep. The air smelled both musty and yet perfectly clean at the same time. She felt ackward being in her gran's house, both a stranger and a welcomed guest at the same time. She stretched her arms out to the sky and attempted to feel more comfortable in her skin. She contemplated reading a book but decided against it due to poor lighting.

"I think I will just go to bed and figure out how I will be getting my car tomorrow. The we will see what to do from there."

Morning came and Kaylee continued to sleep. The drive down to the reservation lands took a lot out of her. The midmorning light shone brightly into the small and high set window and cast her face in a warmth glow. The heat was what woke her up. Covered under all those blankets made her warm. She lingered in bed as her memory fought to recall exactly where she was again. Once she regained her memory, she threw the blankets off her and pulled on her clothes. She ran the brush quickly through her matted hair and then put it up in a high style pony tail.

Then she left the room and quietly slipped down stairs to see what was going on. Daniel was outside chopping more wood for the fireplace and her gran seemed to be sleeping in more. She moved outside and sat down on the back porch, watching Daniel cut the wood.

"Good morning," he said, small puffs of mist coming from his mouth as the warm exhalation met the cool air. "I trust you slept well?"

Kaylee nodded, "Yes, I did. Thank you. Um, is there a phone anywhere. I need to figure out how I will get my car over here. If it is okay with you, I believe I will stay another day or two."

"David told me last night he would be back this afternoon so you could get your car. And no, we really do not use phones around her. Miasoa does not believe in that magic, as you know. She prefers to allow the spirits to contact her and guide others when she needs them."

Kaylee knew perfectly well how her gran felt about any new fandangled device the white man attempted to bring. First electricity, and then the phone and then computers. She had turned all of them down, complaining that the noize from the poles did not help her talk and connect to the nature. She even went as far as to call it witchery and did not want any part of it. When Kaylee was younger, she called her gran foolish and ancient as her ways. But now, having been away from work and the city and the flashy lights and the stupid microphone for a day, she sort of liked the quiet solitude.

She sat and watched Daniel chop wood for a few more minutes. He would stand a round log on its side and then swing the axe over his head. Pausing to suck in a lungful of air, he brought the axe down with a swooshing sound where it connected with the log to create a loud cracking noise. He would toss the smaller piece on the pile of fire ready wood and then grab the next log and repeat the process all over again.

"Hey," she said feeling a bit self aware, "I do not want to seem like a bother or anything but I figure that if I am going to stay around here for a few days, is there anything I can do to help out around here? You know, like earn my keep?"

Daniel set the axe down next to him and cocked his head at her. It was like he heard her but was not understanding. He turned his head and looked back at his house, trying to figure out what exactly she could do to help out.

"Um, I have no idea. We have been busy gathering food and wood for the coming winter. Apparently, the weather people say it may get bad this year. Um, you could go to the store when David gets here and pick up our weekly order of food supplies. But I guess if you do want to help me now, you are more than welcome to work on stacking these pieces of wood up beyond the shed over there."

He stretched out his right arm and pointed towards the small shack off to the right of the property line.

"Okay," she said hopping onto her feet, "Yeah I can do that."

He was a bit taken back by her egarness but shuck it off thinking it was the guilt that she carried inside for all those years not having been back on the reservation where she belonged with her gran.

By the time David showed up, they had managed to get through half of the pile of logs that Daniel pulled out to chop for the winter. They were both panting when they walked inside the house.

After a quick lunch and a brief and light chat with her gran, Kaylee found herself off again; driving back into the main drag of the reservation with David. The Jeep rocked and bounced on the rocky road and they chatted a bit about how she was doing and what it felt to be back again after being used to life in the fast lane.

She told him a bit of her life in Port Riverbend and what she could recall havin been in the city for the first time. She realized just how long it had been since she got to actually connect to someone like her. Who knew what it felt to be a minority and coming from a different background. And in a way it felt very good and very right.