Amy and I had spent time packing things getting ready for the move. I didn’t think we had so much stuff.

On Friday, Naainish was here for dinner and to do the House Blessing Ceremony. And, Friday night was our first night in the house.

Saturday had been moving day, and with the help of my aunt, uncle, Charlie, Jackie, and the guys from the resort, it went smoothly. And we’d received our first house warming gift from my aunt and uncle, a wall hanging of the Wolf Prayer.

Sunday we’d had our first dinner party when we had our six closest friends here in New Mexico over. We’d learned that there was a possibility that the current Dean of the nursing school might retire at the end of the year. And that Vickie would probably be on the shortlist for her replacement.

We had also had a talk with Jackie about her and Charlie fitting in with our little group of friends.

Then I'd asked if I should light the fire. And there was a resounding yes.

As I lit the fire, Chief Tom said, “You know it’s nice to be able to sit around a fire this way. Enjoy a nice evening with good friends.”

“It is Tom.”, Amy said. “Wait until the twilight is gone, then you'll be able to see so many stars.”

“That has to be nice.”

“It’s wonderful.”

We sat there just talking and waiting for the twilight to diminish. Finally, the brighter stars started to appear. Some were probably planets. Then more and more stars appeared, and Mary said, “I never knew there were so many stars.”

“Out here you can see them all.”, I said.

“Kai, we’re looking west. Aren’t we?”, Chief Tom asked.

“Yes, towards Arizona. And I don’t know if you can see Arizona or not from here.”

We sat there, star watched, and played spot the constellation until about eight-thirty. Then, Chief Tom and Vickie said that they had better get going as Vickie had an early morning meeting. Everyone else then agreed that it was getting late and decided to call it a night.

So, the eight of us walked together to the front door, and as we stood in the entrance way saying so long, Jackie saw the Wolf Prayer wall hanging. And she said, “I love what you did with the Wolf Prayer wall hanging.”

Amy said, “Kai said that we’re going to spotlight it.”

“What’s the Wolf Prayer?”, Vickie asked.

“I did a special ceremony with a group of medicine men, and when it was over one of the medicine men told me that prayer.”, I said. “I loved it. And my aunt had this made for us as a house warming present.”

“But, why the two wolf heads on it?”, Chief Tom asked.

“One represents Ajie and the other me. Naainish told me that the wolf represents my male spirit, and the Eagle my female spirit. And my Aunt Ruth said that the more she read the prayer, the more she also saw Ajie in it. I guess it’s something to do with the healing power of the wolf.”

“That’s interesting.”, Mary said. “Is that because of Ajie’s nursing and how she treats her patients?”

“Interesting question, Mary.”, Amy said. “I’m going going to have to ask Naainish.”

I opened the two front door, and the eight of us walked out onto the stone porch, and of course, Dr. Joe had to pull the doorbell rope. As he did, he said, “I just love that.”

“I’ll get you one for your birthday, Dr. Joe.”, I quipped.

“No, you won’t.”, Mary said. “I don’t want that waking the baby up.”

Amy and I walked our six friends to the gate in the adobe wall and said goodnight. We waved as they all drove off down the driveway. Then Amy said, “That was fun.”

“Yes, it was.”, I said. “Our first dinner party in our new house.”

I locked the gate, and as we walked back towards the house, Amy asked, “Kai, why is Aunt Ruth seeing my spirit as a wolf spirit. And Naainish sees your male spirit as the wolf. Is my spirit a male spirit?”

“No, love.”, I said. “Believe me when I say that your spirit is not a male spirit. I don’t think that Aunt Ruth sees your spirit as the Wolf. I think she sees the wolf in you because you are a healer. It’s your love of people, your love of nursing, and how you use nursing to help people.

“Remember what Naainish told you. He said that the Eagle represents your spirit.”

She took my arm, hugged it tightly, and said, “Honey, you are wonderful, and I love you so much.”

We stopped on the front porch. I took Amy in my arms and kissed her.

A little later as we walked into the house, I locked the front doors, and Amy said, “We’d better get things cleaned up, and get to bed. I have an eight o’clock class tomorrow.”

“That means we should be out of here by seven.”, I said.

Seven o’clock on Monday morning, Amy and I were in the ‘67 Chevy heading to the university. And just before seven-thirty, we pulled into one of the faculty parking lots. We parked the car and then started walking towards Amy’s classroom. As we walked, I said, “That wasn’t bad.”

“No.”, Amy said. “Not bad. It’ll just take a little getting used to.”

“It will.”

“But, riding down here brought me to the reality that we have different schedules.”

“That we do.”

“And I think that the second car is going to be more of a necessity than a luxury.”

“I know. When do you want to look at one.”

“Soon.”, Amy said.

“I’d say this afternoon.”, I said. “But, I have to get started on the project.”

“I know. Are the car dealers open in the evenings?”

“Some are. I know the one Chevy dealer is. If you want a Chevy?”

“Might as well be a Chevy.”, Amy said. “Anything else would feel like the odd man out with all the other Chevies in the garage.”

“Who said it would be in the garage.”, I said. “If it isn’t a Chevy, it would have to sleep outside.”

“Outside!”

“Sure.”, I said with a little smile. “Can’t have anything other than a Chevy in the garage.”

Shaking her head, Amy said, “Kai! Now you’re being silly.”

“Sorry. But I need to do that from time to time.”

“I know. So, we could meet at five, go look at cars, and then have dinner.”

“We could do that.”, I said. “And if you get bored after your classes, take the car back home.”

“I just might do that and do some more unpacking.”

“If you do. When you come back, come to Dr. Joe’s office. But, if we have anything from the project out, you won’t be able to come in until we put it away. But, knock, and tell us that it’s you, and we’ll put things away.”

“It’s that secret?”

“It may not be, and we don’t know. But we have to treat it as it is. And, this week I feel we’ll just be reading and planning. And, I figure that Dr. Joe has the write up completely read by now. So, I’ll have to play catch up.”

I dropped Amy at her classroom and went to the Student Housing Office. As I was dropping off the keys, I told them, that we’d left a leather couch, two overstuffed leather chairs, and end tables in the living room and that I’d installed a garage door opener and that I’d left both controllers on the kitchen counter.

They wondered why we were leaving the living room furniture, and I told them that the house that we bought came with furniture if we wanted it and that that furniture fit the house better than the furniture that we’d left in the apartment.

I then taught my two classes and attended my grad level class. Then I stopped in the student center and picked up a sandwich and something to drink. And I went to Dr. Joe’s office. He wasn’t there, so I let myself in. I then retrieved the documentation for the project from the file cabinet, sat at Dr. Joe’s desk, and started reading the documentation and eating lunch. I also started making notes on various things about the project.

I’d been reading the documentation for about two hours when I heard a key in the door. As the door opened, I looked up, and it was Dr. Joe and Dean Rutherford. I said, “Hello, Dr. Joe. Dean Rutherford.”

“Miss Nez.”, Dean Rutherford said. “It’s good to see you back and hard at work.”

“Dean, after spending last week moving this is a vacation.”

“How is the new house?”

“It’s wonderful. We’ve spent three nights there, and it has been amazing. With the windows open, you can hear the sounds of the night.”

“Sounds of the night, Miss Nez.”

“Yes, sir. Silence. No city noises. And this morning as the sun was coming up we heard coyotes.”

“You like being out in the wild. Don’t you?”

“Yes, sir. Very much.”

“So, how’s the project coming?”

“I’ve only had time to read part of it, but I’m getting some ideas.”

“That’s good. I’ll leave you two to get at it. Let me know if there’s anything that you need.”

“We will, Dean.”, Dr. Joe said.

Dean Rutherford left us, Dr. Joe locked the door, and asked, “Well, Kai. What do you think of this project?”

“I still have a lot more to read, but it’s doable. We’ll need to have a couple of skull sessions and some serious planning.”

“I agree. I’ve been through it once, and want to reread it.”

“I figure that I have another few hours of reading to do.”

“Okay. I’ll let you have the desk, and I’ll do my work on the work table.”

I read until just about five o’clock, and both of us were ready to call it a day when there was a soft knock on the door. Dr. Joe said, “Who is it?”

“It’s Amy. Is Kai still here.”

“I’m here.”, I replied. “Give me a minute to put this away, and I’ll let you in.”

A minute later, I was unlocking the door and letting Amy in. As she walked in, Dr. Joe said, “Hi, Amy. So, what are you two up to tonight?”

“Hi, Dr. Joe. We’re going looking for a car.”

“You already have two.”

“Kai, won’t let me drive the ‘57 to campus.”

“Do you blame him?”

“Not at all.”

“So, what are you looking for?”, Dr. Joe asked.

“Oh, maybe a Mustang.”, Amy said.

I saw that little twinkle in her eyes, so I said, “Sure thing.”

“What! You’d let me buy a Ford?”

“Of course not.”

“I didn’t think so. Brat.”

“You two fight like an old married couple.”, Dr. Joe said.

“Well, we have been married three and a half years.”, I said.

“You’ve got ten years to go to catch up with Mary and me.”

“We might make it.”

That got me a punch in the arm from Amy.

“You two had better get out of here before it gets any more physical.”, Dr. Joe ordered.

“Yes, sir.”, I said, as I got up, grabbed my purse, and my briefcase. Then I said, “Let’s go find you a Toyota.”

That got me a third punch in the arm.

Amy and I did go to the Chevrolet dealer where I’d taken the cars before. And as we walked into the showroom, the salesman that we’d met when we had the Corvette in was there and spotted us. He walked over and said, “I remember you two. You had that ‘53 Vet in here.”

“Yes, we did.”, I replied.

“What can I do for you?”

“We’re looking for a car for Amy.”

“New or used.”

“New.”

We looked at everything from an Impala to a Chevelle to a Camaro. With a Corvette and a Suburban thrown in. We only test drove the Impala, and the Chevelle.

Amy settled on a white Chevelle coupe, and no not the SS 396. We picked one with the 250 horsepower Turbo-Fire 327 engine, an automatic transmission, and of course air conditioning. We gave them a down payment on the car and said we’d pay the remainder when we picked up the car on Thursday.

We stopped at the drive-in for dinner and then headed to the house. As we pulled into the driveway, I stopped and checked the mailbox and no mail. I pulled up to the garage and put the car into its stall. And as I was pulling down the door, Amy asked, “When are you going to install the door openers.”

“Maybe this weekend if I can get the wiring done ahead of time. And maybe I can get Charlie to come up and help me.”, I replied. “And if I get the wiring done then all we’d have to do is mount the openers.

“Plus, I need to set up the answering machine.”

“Where are you going to put that?”, Amy asked.

“Well, since there’s an extension phone in the bedroom that we’re going to use for the office. I was thinking of putting it in there for now.”

“Wouldn’t it be better out where we can see it, like in the kitchen?”

“Yes, it probably would.”, I replied, “It’s a wall-mounted phone, but that shouldn’t be a problem. And there’s an electric outlet right there. And it’s by the door to the laundry, and it should be out of the way.

“And it shouldn’t take long. I should be able to do it this evening.”

And, it didn’t take long to install the answering machine once I’d changed out of my teaching clothes and then found the box that the answering machine was in. And the answering machine was installed.

Amy and I then sat out on the back courtyard and watched the stars. As we were cuddled together, Amy said, “They want me to work a split tomorrow from one to nine. How do you want to do this?”

“I have an eight o’clock tomorrow morning, and I know you don’t want to sit at the university from eight till one.”, I said.

“You’re right.”

“Well, you could run me into the university, come back here, then come back at one, and let me know where you parked.”

“Or, you can go to the university and do your classes, come back here and get me, and take me to the hospital. That will give me a chance to do some more things here in the morning.”

“Okay, that should work.”

Tuesday morning Amy and I had breakfast together, and then I headed, alone, to the university. I taught my classes, attended my one class, and stopped in at Dr. Joe’s office and told him what I was doing. Then I went home. Hmm, home. That sounds so good.

When I was home, I ran into the house, quickly changed out of my teaching clothes, and into a long skirt, a nice blouse, and moccasins. As Amy and I walked out of the house, we locked it up, got in the car, and headed to the university.

As I pulled into the faculty parking lot, I said, “I’ll be in Dr. Joe’s office until just before nine. Then I’ll come over to the ER.”

“Okay.”, Amy said. “I’ll take a dinner break at five if you’d like to eat in the hospital’s cafeteria?”

“I’ll see you there at five.”

I walked Amy to the ER and then went to Dr. Joe’s office. It was dark. He’d told me that he might be gone by the time I got back. And, he was. So, I settled into his desk chair and continued with my reading. At a little before five, I headed for the hospital and the hospital’s cafeteria, and Amy was there waiting for me.

We went through the line and got our food, and then we found a table. As we ate, we talked about our day. Amy's day was relatively quiet. And, mine was boring to anyone that wasn’t involved in the research program. I walked Amy back to the ER, and I said, “Ayóó'áníínísh'ní, Ajie. Hágoónee'.” - (I love you, Ajie. See you later.)

Amy smiled and said, “Hágoónee', Kai. Ayóó aníínísh’ní aldó’.” - (See you later, Kai. I love you too.)

Oh Great Spirit, I so want to kiss this girl.

I walked back to Dr. Joe’s office and went back to reading the technical information on the research project. As I read, I was getting ideas on how to tackle this thing. I’ll have to discuss these with Dr. Joe.

Just before nine o’clock, I put everything away in the file cabinet. Made sure it was locked. I left the office, locking the door behind me, and headed to the Emergency Room.

As I walked into the ER waiting room, Amy was walking out of the ER. She walked up to me and said, “Come on, let’s go home. I need a shower.”

I smiled, and said, “I like that word,”

“What word is that?”

“Home.”

“You know. So, do I.”

As Amy was taking her shower, no, I didn’t join her, I played around with the TV and rabbit ears. The reception from the Albuquerque television stations was excellent. The stations from Santa Fe weren’t good. A lot of ghosts. It would take an outside antenna to be able to watch them. But we don’t watch that much TV, so I wasn’t too worried about it. But, maybe we’ll look into a color console TV.

Amy came out of the master suite wearing her robe and saw what I was doing. And she asked, “How’s the reception?”

“Good enough that it might be worthwhile buying a color set. But, Santa Fe would take an outside antenna.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that.”

“I was thinking along those lines.”

“I wish it wasn’t so late.”, Amy said.

“Why?”, I asked.

“I’d like to sit outside and stargaze.”

“That would be nice. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Well, then my Prince. Shall we retire to my bedchamber?”

“My Queen. Is your handmaiden keeping the King busy?”

“Yes, my Prince. We won’t have to worry about him. Lock up the castle, my love, and I’ll be awaiting you.”

Today was Wednesday, May 1st, May Day. And, there were no classes. Why? I don’t know, but it was a good reason to have a university holiday in the middle of the quarter, and it was a good day for us to have off so we could get more done at the house. We’d even talked with Charlie and Jackie about spending the day with us. Amy promised them frybread breakfast tacos if they came for breakfast. And Charlie said that he’d bring his tools with them and we could work on the garage projects.

Charlie and Jackie were here early, almost before we were out of bed. And the four of us worked together to build the breakfast tacos.

As we sat at the breakfast bar eating, Amy asked, “Kai, did you ever call Hosteen Tl'izilani and find out the proper way to mount something on an adobe wall?”

“No, but I will right after breakfast.”, I replied.

As the others were cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I found Hosteen Tl'izilani’s phone number and called him. We talked for a minute, and I asked him about mounting things on adobe.

I went back into the kitchen and sat back at the breakfast bar and said, “Hosteen said that it’s easy.”

“So? What do we do?”, Amy asked.

“You drill a hole. And, he suggested a one-inch hole for anything other than a big picture. Then you cut a piece of dowel rod the same diameter as the hole and put that in the hole and put a screw into the dowel rod.”

“Did he say how deep to drill?”, Charlie asked.

“He said that four inches would be more than enough.”, I replied.

“That dowel should probably be a tight fit, so the hole should be slightly smaller than the dowel. So, something like a fifteen-sixteenth drill and then we may have to sand the dowel a little bit so as not to force it too much.”

“I’ll have to get some dowel rods.”

“I’ve got the drills that we need.”

“It’s sure nice to have a friend that is a woodworker.”

“You would have figured it out.”

“Nope. Electronics yes, woodworking no. That’s yours and my dad's thing. You’ll like my dad when you meet him.”

“That’s right. Your parents are coming out here this summer.”

“Yes, you two will have a lot to talk about.”

“Shall we get started in the garage?”, Charlie asked.

Charlie and I went to the garage, moved the cars out so that we could work, and we quickly had the safe bolted to the garage floor. Then we opened one of the boxes that contained a garage door opener, and read the mounting instructions and figured out where we had to mount the two-by-fours on the ceiling rafters. The roof of the garage was like the rest of the house, flat with open beams made out of logs covered with latticework and adobe. So mounting the two-by-fours to the rafters was easy with lag bolts. And we got the two-by-fours installed for all three doors.

Then we ran the electrical wiring from the electric box to a single switch mounted on the electrical box, then in a single parallel circuit to each of the three mounting points for the openers with an electrical box with two outlets in each. Then we had time to mount the hardware on the garage door itself and the header above the door on two of the doors.

Just as we finished mounting the hardware, Amy and Jackie walked into the garage, and Amy said, “Are you at a point where you can stop for lunch.”

“Sure.”, I said. “This is a good place to stop. And, we should be able to have both openers mounted this afternoon.”

“Jackie and I kind of thought we could go to Taos and The Rug House after lunch.”

I looked at Charlie, then said, “I think we can do that. And I can finish this later.”

Charlie then said, “I could come back up Saturday and help you, and we can also install the dowels to hang the pictures and wall hangings on.”

“You don’t need to do that. I installed the opener at the apartment by myself.”

“I know. But I’d like to help you. Besides, it’ll go faster with two of us. And I know Amy wants to mount those pictures and wall hangings.”

Charlie and I cleaned up the garage, and then we cleaned ourselves up. The four of us had a quick lunch and headed towards Taos in the ‘67 Chevy after I put the ‘57 back in the garage. We had been on the road for about a half an hour when Amy said, “I’ve been thinking.”

“Uh oh.”, I said. “I’m in trouble.”

“Oh, be quiet. You’re not in trouble. Yet!”

“So, what have you been thinking about.”

“About hanging the pictures and wall hangings.”

“What about them?”

“The pictures won’t be a problem because they’ll hide the dowel rod. But, the wall hangings won’t. And I don’t want to see the end of a dowel rod. It would ruin the effect.”

“I see what you mean. Any ideas?”

“Not yet.”

“Amy.”, Jackie said. “You know something fancy, a little bigger than the end of the dowel rod, with a hook and a hole to put a screw through would look good.”

“Like what?”

“If you want to keep it southwestern.”, I said. “And I know you do. How about a small Concho.”

Amy thought for a few seconds, then said, “I like that. And we could use them wherever we hang a wall hanging. Even on the inside walls.”

“And, since we’re going to be in Taos, we could stop in and see Mr. Yazzie.”

“Want to go there first?”

“No. Let’s go to the rug shop first and then Mr. Yazzie’s shop. And then depending on the time, we can stop at Doc Martin’s Restaurant for dinner.”

“Won’t that get us back to your house awful late?”, Jackie asked.

“I don’t think so.”, Amy said. “But if it’s late, you can spend the night.”

When Amy said that I felt something, and I didn’t know what it was. Then I said, “You know, I think it would be fun to have you as our first overnight house guests.”

“We don’t have any clothes with us.”

“What time are you first classes on Thursday?”

“I’ve got one at nine and Charlie has one at ten.”

“If you spend the night, Kai has to leave at seven for her eight o’clock. So, if you leave at the same time she does, you’ll have time to go to your apartment and change. You could even shower at the house either tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“What do you think, Charlie?”, Jackie asked.

“I guess we could do that.”, Charlie replied.

We crossed the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, then I just before the turnoff to Taos we turned south and then followed some dirt roads.

“Kai.”, Charlie said. “I sure hope you know where you're going.”

“We’ve been here a few times.”, I said.

After we’d driven on a number of dirt roads, we came to a small community. And to a building that had a sign that said ‘The Rug House’ in both English and Navajo on it. We parked, and the four of us went into the building. I saw Mrs. Tsosi, the owner, talking with one of the four customers that were in the shop. She looked at us and said, “Welcome. Please look around and ask if you have any questions.”

I said, “Yá’át’ééh, Sialea-lea Tsosi. - (It is good, Sialea-lea Tsosi.)”

She looked back at us, and said, “Yá’át’ééh, … Oh! Yá’át’ééh, Kai Nez.”

I smiled. Then she said, “I’ll be with you shortly.”

“Take your time.”

The four of us started looking around, and Jackie said, “I can’t believe all of these rugs and blankets.”

“I know.”, Amy said. “And they’re all hand made by locals.”

“That’s amazing.”

“I know. We felt the same way the first time we were here.”

We first walked over to where we knew that she had baby and christening blankets and looked at a few. Jackie couldn’t get over how soft they were. Then Mrs. Tsosi joined us and said, “It is so good to see you again.”

“And, it's nice to see you too.”, I said.

“What can I help you with?”

“Two things.”, Amy said. “We need two blankets for christenings. And we’ve purchased a house, and we need some rugs, and I have a list.”

“You’re in the right place for the baby blankets. Give me your list, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Amy opened her purse, took out the list, and handed it to Mrs. Tsosi. Mrs. Tsosi looked at it and said, “This is some list.”

“Yes, it is. We need rugs for the master bedroom, one bathroom, a powder room, the front door, and the big room.”, Amy replied.

“Look at the blankets, and then we’ll see what we can find for the others.”

“Who’s having a baby?”, Jackie asked Amy.

“Dr. Joe’s wife Mary, and a friend back in Ohio.”

I’m glad that the ‘67 Chevy has a big trunk because when we left the Rug House, we had everything that Amy was looking for. We then headed for Taos and Mr. Yazzie’s shop.

As we drove through Taos, we drove past the Kit Carson House, and Charlie asked, “Kai, have you ever been in the Kit Carson House?”

“No, Charlie, I haven’t.”, I replied. “And probably will never go there.”

“Oh. That’s right. Carson didn’t treat the Navajo people very well.”

“No, he didn’t.”

A few minutes later, we were walking into Mr. Yazzie’s shop, and he saw us and smiled. I said, “Yá’át’ééh, Mr. Yazzie.”

“Yá'át'ééh t'áá ájíltso.- (Hello, everyone.)”, Mr. Yazzie said. “My heart is now happy.”

“I’m glad, Mr. Yazzie.”

“What can I do for you.”

“We’ve moved into our house.”, Amy replied. “And we want to hang some wall hangings, and the exterior walls are adobe.”

“That has to be a nice house. So, how can I help you hang these things?”

“We were told to drill one-inch holes in the adobe, put dowel rods in the holes, and a screw into the dowel rods. And, we think that would look ugly.”

“I think your right, Ajie.”

“So, on the way up here, we talked and came up with the idea of covering the end of the dowel rod with a small Concho.”, Ajie said. “And the Concho would need to have a hook to hang the wall hanging from, and a hole in the middle to run the screw through.”

“Hmm. Interesting fix. Silver would be too soft to make a hook strong enough to hold a rug. But, if I took some small stiff stainless steel rod and made hooks from that. Then you could run the screw through the Concho, the eye of the hook, and into the dowel rod. What do you think?”

“I like it, Mr. Yazzie.”, I said.

“Me too.”, Ajie said. Then Amy looked at Jackie and said, “What do you think, Jackie?”

“I like it too.”, Jackie replied.

“How many of these will you need?”, Mr. Yazzie asked.

“Oh. Maybe a dozen.”, Amy replied.

“We don’t have that many wall hangings.”, I said.

With a cute smile, Amy said, “Not yet we don’t.”

I frowned at her, but said, “Mr. Yazzie, you heard the lady. A dozen.”

“Why not make it eighteen?”

“Okay. Eighteen.”

Mr. Yazzie was grinning, and he said, “Okay, eighteen. Now let me show you something.”

Mr. Yazzie walked over to one of the cases and took out a tray and set it on the counter. On that tray were a few small Conchos without any turquoise or any other stone mounted on them. There were round ones, oval ones, and square ones. And they looked to be between an inch and a half and two inches wide. Then he said, “Right now I have eight like this. So, I’d only have to make ten more. Drill holes in the center and make the hooks. Do you want all the Conchos the same?”

“I don’t think so.”, Amy said. “It would probably wouldn’t hurt if they’re somewhat different in size and the design was different.”

“I can do that.”

“How much time do you need?”

“Give me a week.”

“That sounds good.”

We said hágoónee' – (see you later) to Mr. Yazzie. And, walked out to the car. As we stood by the car, I said, “Charlie and Jackie. It’s a little after four. We can stay here and walk around the city a little, have dinner, and then you two can spend the night at the house. Or we could head to the house, fix dinner, and you can go to your apartment. It’s your call.”

Jackie looked at Charlie and said, “I think it would be fun to be their first house guests.”

Charlie looked at me and said, “I guess we’re going to be your first house guests.”

I smiled and said, “I’m glad.”

So, we walked around Taos for a little while and then went to Doc Martin’s for dinner. And we had a nice dinner. Then we headed back to the house. It was dark by the time we got there. Amy showed Charlie and Jackie to their bedroom and showed them the bathroom. While Charlie took a shower, I went out onto the back courtyard, laid a fire, and lit it. Then I went to take my shower.

When I came back out after my shower, the three of them were sitting around the fire. I sat down next to Amy, and Jackie said, “Kai, I was telling Amy that I now know why you moved out here. It’s just so nice. Sitting here, enjoying a nice fire and looking at the stars.”

I just smiled.

We sat there until the fire died down, then Jackie said, “I think I’m going to turn in.”

“I’ll go with you.”, Charlie said.

We said goodnight and Amy and I stayed out on the back courtyard a little longer. After Jackie and Charlie had gone to bed, I said, “You know back when you suggested that they spend the night I felt something.”

“What?”, Amy asked.

“I’m not sure. But it was a happy feeling. Like it would be a good thing if they stayed.”