Then I had a deep talk with Quah Ah about how she felt about her mother's death. And I found out that until I talked with her that she was very distraught over it, almost to the point of causing herself physical harm. Hopefully, I put an end to that.

We’d also had a meeting with the people from Los Alamos. They wanted me to drop everything and move to Los Alamos while I, yes, just little old me, worked on this project. That wasn’t going to happen. They even said that they’d fly me to the university every day by helicopter. No way was that going to happen. Then they decided that I could work on it here at the university if I were the only one in the office, and I was the only one to have a key to the fireproof file cabinet. That’s right, Dr. Joe wouldn’t be working on this project. Bummer.

Wednesday was going to be interesting. The new project from Los Alamos was going to be delivered this afternoon. So after my classes, I went to the office, and Dr. Joe was there. As I walked in, I said, “Good morning, Dr. Joe.”

“Morning, Kai.”, Dr. Joe answered.

“I’m going to miss working with you on this next project.”

“Yes, probably as much as I’m going to miss working on it. And I figure that you’re going to be digging into it every spare minute.”

“I’d like to.”

“I’m going to move my things down the hall to the empty office so that you can have all the time you need.”

“You don’t need to do that.”, I said.

“Yes, I do.”, Dr. Joe said. “I can’t be here, and I figure that it would be best.”

“You’re the boss.”

“No, the Dean is. We just do his bidding.”

“I guess.”

“I’m just going to take what I know I’ll need because when you finish this, I’ll be back.”

“You’d better be.”

Dr. Joe and I spent some time moving some of his things two doors down the hall to an empty office. By one o’clock, I was standing in the office by myself. At least it still said, Dr. J. Oshie on the door.

I sat at the desk and just thought about all of this. At two o’clock, the phone rang, and I answered it, “Dr. Oshie and Miss Nez’s office.” … “Oh, hi, Sara.” … “Yes, I’m expecting some people.” … “I’ll be right down.” … “Bye.”

I got up and went down to the Dean’s office. As I walked in, I saw Dr. Fontheim and two other men sitting in the reception area. The other two looked like security types, not my favorite people. One of the two men was carrying a metal briefcase. I walked up to Dr. Fontheim and said, “Hello, Dr. Fontheim.”

Dr. Fontheim stood, and we shook hands. Then he said, “Miss Nez, could we go to your office?”

“Of course.”

The four of us went up to the office, and as I unlocked the door, Dr. Fontheim said to the other two men, “You can stay out here.”

“But, Dr. Fontheim.”, one of the men said. “We’re supposed to stay with the case until Miss Nez signs for it.”

“Where’s it going to go other than into this office. Just stay out here.”

“Okay, Dr. Fontheim. We’ll be right out here.”

As Dr. Fontheim and I walked into the office, I reset the alarm, closed and locked the door, then turned on the lights. We walked over to the work table, and Dr. Fontheim set the metal case on the work table. Then he took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to me. I took it, looked at it, and Dr. Fontheim said, “It’s the combination to the locks.”

I opened the envelope, took out the piece of paper, looked at it, and it had two five-digit numbers on it. Dr. Fontheim then said, “Memorize them and then destroy it.”

“As usual.”, I said.

“Go on, open it.”

I set the combinations on the locks and opened the case. Inside was a binder with a sheet of paper paper-clipped to it. Dr. Fontheim picked up the binder and said, “If you’d sign the form indicating that you’ve received this, then we can talk.”

I read over the delivery receipt and signed it. Then after Dr. Fontheim signed it, he handed me a copy.

Dr. Fontheim then said, “As before we can’t talk about this over the phone, so if we need to talk, we’ll set up a meeting. Also, you cannot damage or destroy the printed circuit board or any of its parts.”

I nodded, yes.

Then Dr. Fontheim said, “The binder contains as much information as we know. It will describe what we know of the input to this unit and the same with the output.”

Then I asked, “Is anyone else working on a part of this?”

“Yes. We have part of what provides the input, and they’re trying to reconstruct it. And the output, as you’ll see, is digital. We have what that’s going into, and we’re trying to salvage that.

“What we need to know is what is happening to the input and why? The documentation in the binder will provide you with everything that we know.”

“So some heavy reading before I get into it.”

“Yes. And, remember, none of what’s in this case can leave this room.”

“Yes, sir, I know.”

“And, Kai, I appreciate that you’re doing this.”

“I like a good challenge.”

“We know you do. And this will challenge you.”

Dr. Fontheim and I said so long to each other. I unlocked the door and opened it. The other two men were standing outside the door. Dr. Fontheim and I again shook hands. As they walked away from the office, I closed and locked the door.

I walked over to the work table, picked up the binder, and took a quick look through it. Then I picked up the printed circuit board and looked at it. What writing that was on it, I couldn’t read. I’d seen this type of writing before but couldn’t place it.

The printed circuit board had six integrated circuits mounted on it. Four of them had typical nomenclature on them, but the other two had the strange writing on them. I set the printed circuit board back in the case, picked up the binder, and started reading. Like I said, heavy reading.

Just before five, I took the printed circuits board out of the case and copied some of the lettering from one of the integrated circuits onto a piece of paper. I put everything but that piece of paper into the metal case, locked it, then I put the metal case into the fireproof file cabinet and locked the file cabinet. Then the piece of paper went into my bra.

As I walked out of the office, I set the alarm, turned off the lights, unlocked and opened the door, then closed and locked the door. Then I saw Dr. Joe walking out of the office he’s using, and I said, “Hi, Dr. Joe.”

Dr. Joe looked at me and said, “Am I allowed to talk to you?”

“Dr. Joe!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s lonely without you around.”

“I know, I don’t have anyone to harass.”

“So, how is it?”

“Like I thought it would be, heavy reading.”

Then we walked to the faculty parking lot and said so long to each other. I headed home, and when I got there, Ajie gave me a very warm welcome.

As we were working on dinner, I said, “You know a lot of things.”

“I guess I do.”, Ajie replied.

I reached into my bra, pulled out the piece of paper, and as I showed it to Ajie, I said, “Any idea what language this is?”

“Carrying it in your bra?”

“Isn’t that the safest place?”

“I guess.”

Then Ajie looked at what was on the paper, and said, “I think the letters are Cyrillic. Why?”

“Don’t ask.”, I replied.

“Oh.”

“Know where I can find an English-Cyrillic dictionary?”

“Maybe the college library.”

“That’s no good. It’ll be a reference book, and I couldn’t take it out.”

“I doubt that the university bookstore would have anything like that.”

“True.”

“Could you go to the language department?”, Ajie asked.

“No.”, I replied.

“There is a good book store in downtown Albuquerque.”

“Want to go for a ride?”

After we’d cleaned up the dinner dishes, we headed into downtown Albuquerque. We parked and walked from a city parking lot to the main street. And then to a big book store. We went in and started looking through the reference section. Ajie spotted it first, an English-Cyrillic dictionary. We purchased it and headed home via the drive-in and a ginger ale milkshake and fries.

When we were back home, the dictionary and the piece of paper went right into my briefcase. Then it was out into the back courtyard to cuddle up with Ajie and just enjoy the night until it got too cold.

Thursday after my classes, I was back to reading the information in the binder. When I got tired of that, I attempted to translate the Cyrillic on the printed circuit board. I was able to do some of it, and most importantly, I was able to translate the part numbers on the two integrated circuits. Information on the four integrated circuits with English nomenclature were reasonably easy to find, and all four of them were common ones. The fun part will be finding information on the two that had the Cyrillic markings. At five o’clock, I locked everything up and headed home to an empty house. Ajie was working in the ER until ten.

When I was home, I walked out into the backyard with the binoculars and looked at the Eagle’s nest. The nest was there, but I wasn’t seeing the Eagle. I watched for a while and still no Eagle.

When Ajie came home, she asked, “Did you hear about the protest against the draft on campus today?”

“No.”, I replied. “What happened?”

“I guess this was National Turn in Your Draft Card Day, and a bunch of students burned their draft cards. And a couple of them got arrested.”

“Arrested for burning their draft card?”

“No, by not listening to what the cops told them and getting a little rowdy. And I guess it got a little physical. They brought a couple of the students into the ER who decided to fight with the cops.”

“I think I’m going to Canada with Jimmy Davidson.”, I said.

“You don’t have to go to Canada with your carhop boyfriend. You have a deferment.”, Ajie said.

“He’s not my boyfriend. And I just don’t like the way some of these demonstrations are turning violent.”

“I don’t either. The two guys that they brought in weren’t hurt bad, but they carted them off to jail when we finished with them.”

Friday was almost a duplicate of Thursday, except that I was able to translate the Cyrillic part numbers on the two integrated circuits. The next problem was going to be to try and find technical information on them. I also read some more, and I was beginning to see something. I started making notes.

I was able to quickly find the technical data on the four integrated circuits with English part numbers. I felt secure enough in what I've learned from reading the information in the binder and studying the printed circuit board that I was going to be able to start working on a reverse-engineered schematic for this project early next week. And then maybe I could begin to make heads or tails about what it does and how.

Ajie and I were going up to the resort, but not until Saturday morning. So I didn’t rush out of the university. But at a little after five, I drove out of the faculty parking lot and headed home. As I pulled up to the house, there was a pickup truck parked by the house. It was from the Albuquerque Parks Department, so I figured that Lt. Zimmerman was here to change the cameras. As I pulled into the garage, Ajie didn’t meet me at the door.

I walked into the house and saw Ajie, sitting at the breakfast bar with Lt. Zimmerman and Ranger Franklin, who was drinking coffee. They looked at me, and Ajie said, “Hi Kai.”

“Hi yourself.”, I said. “It’s good to see you again, Zimm and Ranger Franklin.”

“Hello, Kai.”, Zimm said. “I’m glad that you made it before we left.”

I set my briefcase down and asked, “What’s up.”

“We think that the Golden Eagle may have abandoned the nest site.”

“I hope not. But you know I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“The film from last week didn’t have the Eagle in any of the shots taken the last three days.”

“That’s not good.”

“No, it isn’t. Where going to take the camera down, but if we find that he’s on the film that’s in it, we may put it back up.”

“Okay.”

“Could we walk back to the nest site?”, Zimm asked.

“Of course.”, I said. I was followed by Ajie, Zimm, and Ranger Franklin as we walked out through the courtyard, through the gate, and into the backyard. Then to the back of the yard where it meets the National Forest.

As we got close, Zimm stopped, took out a pair of binoculars, and looked at the nest. Then he said, “I’m not seeing anything in the nest, and most of the branches look like they’ve been there a while.”

“So, he may be gone.”, I said.

“He maybe.”

“That’s sad.”, Ajie said.

“In a way it is.”, Zimm said. “Something might have bothered him about being here, or he found a better site for his nest.”

“I hope he comes back.”

“He may. Let's walk up to the tree.”

We continued walking up to the tree. When we were there, Zimm and Ranger Franklin looked around the base of the tree, then Zimm said, “He hasn’t been here for a while.”

As we walked back to the house, Zimm spotted the hogan and said, “That’s a fancy hogan.”

“A little.”, I said. “It’s built from the plans that the original owners were going to use and never did. We use it as a fifth bedroom, and we’ve held a couple of ceremonies in it.”

“Does it have a smoke hole?”

“As a tribal elder once told us, ‘when all the smoke holes are gone, the old religion will die.’ So, it has a smoke hole. And there's no electric, but kerosene lanterns.

“Want to see inside?”

“Why not.”

We walked over to the hogan’s door, and I opened it. I went in first and lit a couple of the lanterns. Then Ajie and the two park rangers walked in. Zimm let his eyes adjust to the dim light, then looked around, and said, “Nice. But it’s not your typical hogan.”

“No. But we like it. It’s so quiet in here that the only thing that wakes you up is the sun coming through the smoke hole.”

“I can believe it.”

We then watched as Zimm and Ranger Franklin took down the camera and loaded everything into their pickup. And as we were saying so long, I told him that if we saw the Eagle again that we’d call him.

When Ajie and I were back in the house, I asked, “Would you like to go out for dinner?”

“That would be nice.”, Ajie replied.

“How about Nunzio's?”

“That would be good. Except it’s a Friday, and there’s a home football game on Saturday, and it’s a big game. So, there’s a lot of alumni here.”

“That’s right. It’s against Arizona.”

“Oh yeah. Everyone’s been talking about it.”

“Isn’t the trophy some kind of gun?”, I asked.

“Yeah. And you won’t like it.”, Ajie said.

“Why?”

“It’s the Kit Carson Gun.”

“And that’s a football trophy!?”

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

“I hope we lose.”

“That’s not a good attitude. You should support your team.”

“Not when they play for a trophy that has to do with Carson.”

“It’s only a game.”, Ajie said.

“It may only be a game, but the winner gets a gun that represents someone that did some nasty things to the Native peoples.”

“I think we’d better eat at home tonight.”

“You’re probably right. I think all the restaurants are going to be busy.”

Ajie and I dug through the refrigerator and the pantry and came up with a good dinner. Then we just relaxed. We were going to the resort early on Saturday morning, so we turned in early. And of course, we didn’t get to sleep right away.

After breakfast, we got ready to head to the resort. We took along the new silver that we’d found that my Grandfather Tse had made. We were going to stop at Cousin Ahiga’s shop in Old Town on the way home on Sunday and show him our new finds. Plus, we were going to run to Santa Fe and see Niyol Hatathli and show him the silver. We also took along Grandfather Tse’s maker’s marking tool.

As we headed north on I-25, we noticed more traffic than usual heading south. We figured that they were heading for the game.

When we pulled into the resort, we parked at my aunt and uncle’s house. And Naainish’s pickup was parked outside. When we walked in, Naainish was sitting with my aunt in the kitchen. After our usual greetings, I looked at Naainish and said, “You’re looking like you’re back to your old self, Naainish Yazzie.”

“I am, Kai Nez.”, Naainish said. “The doctor cut me loose earlier this week.”

“I’m glad.

“The only thing that bothers me is the leg that I broke. And that just aches once in a while.”

“Using it and soaking in the thermal pool will help it.”, Ajie said.

“I’m doing that, Ajie.”

“Good. Just give it time.”

“So what are you two up to this weekend?”, my aunt asked.

“We came up to see you and just relax.”, I replied. “We did bring the silver that we found at that consignment shop with us and thought that we might run into Santa Fe after lunch and see Niyol Hatathli, the silversmith.”

“Do you think that he’ll be interested in it?”

“I think so. He’s a collector and has a couple of pieces of Grandpa Tse’s silver in his collection.”

“Will he part with them?”

“No. But, I think he might trade one of them for a piece of Grandpa Kilchii’s silver. He doesn’t have any in his collection.”

“So, do you have anything to trade.”

“Nothing that I’d want to part with. I’d have to have an almost duplicate piece to want to part with one of them.”

“So, if you had two pieces of Grandpa Kilchii’s that were identical, you’d trade one for one of Grandpa Tse’s work?”

“I would. Because I don’t have many.”

“What does this Niyol Hatathli have of Grandpa Tse’s work?”

“He has a ring and a bracelet. And the makers mark on the ring is hand engraved, so it’s older than the bracelet.”

“So, you’d want the ring?”

“I’d like to have both, but I’d settle for the ring.”

As Aunt Ruth got up, she said, “I’ll be right back.”

While she was gone, I asked, “Naainish, are you going to the gathering.”

“Yes.”, Naainish replied. “Besides, my clan is one of the ones putting it on.”

“You’ve never told me what clan that you’re a member of.”

“It’s the T l 'ááshchí'í clan.”

“The Red Bottom People clan?”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the name.

“And I assume that you and Ajie are coming?”, Naainish asked me.

“Of course.”, I replied. “We wouldn’t miss it. And I think some of our friends are coming too.”

“Who?”

“Chief Tahoma Etsitty and his wife. Joe Oshie and his wife, they’re Ojibwa. And of course, Charlie and Jackie.”

“That is good.”`

Aunt Ruth came back and joined us. She set two rings on the table and asked, “Are these two identical?”

I picked them up and looked at them and said, “Yes, as close to identical as you can get for hand made work except for the maker's marks. One is stamped, and one is engraved.”

“So, the engraved one is older?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think that Niyol Hatathli would trade the ring that he has for my ring with the stamped maker’s mark?”

“He might. But you don’t want to give up one of Grandpa Kilchii’s pieces. Do you?”

“Yes, if I could get one Grandpa Tse’s pieces in its place.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, besides, we’d know where the piece was. And we’d have another piece of Tse’s work.”

“I guess that we can find out. Do you want to come with us?”

“No, I trust you two to make the best trade that you can.”

“So, the ring for the ring?”

“Yes. And then we’ll put it in the case in the hotel lobby.”

Ajie and I helped Aunt Ruth make lunch, and then she told us to run over to Santa Fe, and that Naainish and Uncle Paul would do the dishes. That got some grumbles from both of them.

Ajie and I grabbed the camera bag, I put Aunt Ruth’s ring in it, and we headed to Santa Fe. An hour later, we’d parked the car, and were walking to Niyol Hatathli’s shop. As we walked into the shop, there was a ding-dong much like what we hear when someone walked through the front courtyard gate at home.

Mr. Hatathli looked up from his work and said, “Hello again.”

I said, “Yá’át’ééh - (it is good), Mr. Hatathli.”

“So, what can I do for you two ladies.”

“Well, we have some things to show you. You remember us telling you about my Grandpa Tse?”

“Of course. You solved the mystery for me of who made those two pieces of silver that are in my collection.”

“That’s him. Well, we found six pieces of his work and something else.”

“Do you have them with you?”

As I set the camera bag on the counter, I said, “Yes.”

I opened the bag and took out the six pieces of Grandpa Tse’s work. Mr. Hatathli asked, “Can I look at them?”

“Of course.”

Mr. Hatathli carefully picked up each piece and looked at it. When he was finished, he said, “What a great find. Where did you find them?”

“Not far from here.”

“Oh. Where?”

“Have you ever heard of the Antique Consignment shop?”

“Yes. Don’t tell me that you found all of this there?”

“Yes. The woman said that she’d had them for a couple of years, and no one ever looked at them.”

“I can’t believe that.”, Mr. Hatathli said.

“Neither could we.”, I said. “And we found something else there.”

“What was that?”

As I reached into the Camera bag and took out something wrapped in a cloth, I said, “Along with the jewelry was a cloth bag. And in that cloth bag were some tools used by silversmiths and this.”

I unwrapped what I’d taken out of the camera bag, and showed him Grandpa Tse’s maker’s marking tool. Mr. Hatathli took it from me, looked at it, and said, “This is a real find.”

“I know.”, I said. “We’ve also found Kilchii Nez’s maker’s marking tool a while ago.”

“You two have some great luck.”

“It feels that way. Now, when we were in here the last time, we saw the two pieces of Tse Nez’s work in your collection.”, I said.

“Yes.”, Mr. Hatathli said.

“And we asked if you’d sell one. And you told us no.”

“Yes.”

“But you said that you might trade one of Tse’s pieces for one of Kilchii’s pieces.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Are you still willing to do that?”

“Are you saying that you have one of Kilchii’s pieces that you are willing to trade?”, Mr. Hatathli asked.

“Yes.”, I replied.

“What do you have?”

I reached into the camera bag again and took out something else wrapped in a cloth and unwrapped it. Mr. Hatathli looked at it and said, “That a beautiful piece of work.”

“It is, and so is the ring of Tse’s that you have.”

“Yes, it is. So you’re willing to trade one ring for the other?”

“Yes.”

“But, you’ll be losing one of Kilchii’s pieces.”

“It’s almost a duplicate of another one that we have. And we’ll be gaining another of Tse’s pieces. We only have a few of Tse’s pieces. Besides, we’ll know where this piece is.”

“So, an even trade?”

“Yes, one ring for the other.”

Mr. Hatathli thought for a minute, then said, “I’ll do it.”

I smiled as I said, “Thank you. We really appreciate it.”

“And, so do I. I will have a piece from another old master.”

“Yes, you will.”

Mr. Hatathli wrote up an agreement for the trade, and we both signed it. We shook hands. I wrapped up Tse’s ring and placed it in the camera case. We said ahéhee’ - (thank you) and hágoónee' - (see you later) to Mr. Hatathli and headed back to the resort. On the way, I said, “I wasn’t expecting to do that while we were up here. But I’m glad we could make the trade.”

“I know.”, Ajie said. “Aunt Ruth really surprised me when she offered that ring for a trade.”

“I think she knows how important it is to the family to have some more of Tse’s work.”

“I think your right.”

When we were back at the resort, we told my aunt and uncle what went on with Mr. Hatathli. Then I handed Aunt Ruth the ring. She took it, looked it over, and said, “This is gorgeous.”

“That it is.”, Ajie said.

“We’re eating in the restaurant tonight. Be sure that we take the ring with us and put it in the display case.”

“Are you sure, Aunt Ruth?”

“Yes, it needs to be seen. But the next time I go to Taos, I’ll take it and have it appraised.”

“Good idea. We have to do that with the six pieces that we found too.”

When we went to the restaurant for dinner, we took the ring that Tse Nez had made with us. We walked past the registration desk and up to the display case. I unlocked the case, and Aunt Ruth placed the ring in the case. I closed the case, locked it, stood back, looked at the case, and said, “That ring looks good in there.”

“Honey, it does.”, Aunt Ruth said.

After dinner, Ajie and I did what I said we’d do, we relaxed. We soaked in one of the thermal pools for a while. And then we relaxed with my aunt and uncle in front of a nice fire in the fireplace.

And it was sure nice to cuddle up with Ajie that night. What more could I ask for.

Sunday morning Ajie and I were up before my aunt and uncle. We knew that Aunt Ruth was planning frybread breakfast tacos for breakfast, so Ajie and I started gathering everything together. And we started putting everything together. When Aunt Ruth came into the kitchen, she said, “You two have been busy this morning.”

“We just wanted to get things ready.”, I said.

After breakfast, Ajie and I took a hike. Yes, it’s cold, but when you dress for it, it’s not a problem. We hiked the trail that takes you up onto the cliff, then down to just north of the remote hogan, and then following the Rio Ojo Caliente stream back to the resort proper.

When we were back, we went to change out of our hiking clothes, and Aunt Ruth followed us down the hall towards our room. As we approach our room, Aunt Ruth said, “Wait a minute, kids.”

“What’s up, Aunt Ruth.”, I asked.

“Come into the other spare bedroom for a minute.”

We followed Aunt Ruth into the other spare bedroom. When she turned on the lights, we saw a crib. An adorable crib. And I asked, “What’s that for?”

“For the twins when you come to visit.”, Aunt Ruth said.

“You shouldn’t have.”, Ajie said.

“Yes, we should have. You’ll need a crib for them when you come up here.”

“I know. We were going to get one for up here.”

“The twin's great uncle and great aunt had to get them something.”

“Thank you very much, Aunt Ruth.”

“It’s our pleasure, kids.”

After Ajie and I changed, we went into the den where my aunt and uncle were. As we walked in, my uncle said, “Kai, your team lost yesterday.”

“I don’t have a team.”, I replied.

“You don’t support the University of New Mexico’s Lobos football team?”

“No. Why?”

“They got beat by Arizona nineteen to six.”

“Good. At least the gun will be in Arizona.”

“Gun? What gun?”, my uncle asked.

“Don’t get her started, Uncle Paul.”, Ajie started. “I guess the trophy for winning the game is the Kit Carson Rifle.”

“Sorry, Kai.”, my uncle said. “I didn’t know that was the trophy for the game.”

“That’s okay, Uncle Paul.”, I said. “I shouldn’t let it get to me that way.”

“No, you shouldn’t.”, Ajie said.

Then Ajie asked, “Aunt Ruth, are you and Uncle Paul going to the gathering this year?”

“Of course, honey.”, Aunt Ruth answered.

“Are you also going away like you did last year?”

“Oh, yes. We’re going to Hawaii.”

“Hawaii!?”, I said.

“Yes, I got talking to your mother about it, and she told me how much fun they had. So we decided to go. And we’ll be flying out on Friday.”

“That’s wonderful. Would you mind if we did like we did last year? And come up on Wednesday, go to the gathering, and then spend the weekend.”

“Not at all. Are you going to bring Charlie and Jackie with you?”

“If you don’t mind?”, I asked.

“No, we don’t mind at all.”, my aunt said.

Later we helped Aunt Ruth with lunch. It was just the four of us.

After we’d cleaned up the lunch dishes, Ajie and I headed back to Albuquerque and home. On the way south, Ajie said, “Speaking of Charlie and Jackie, why don’t we see if they want to come over for dinner?”

“Do we have enough food in the house?”

“Yes, we can put something together.”

When we were back in Albuquerque, we drove past the exit for Tramway Drive on I-25 and drove to the downtown exit. We were going to stop at Cousin Ahiga’s shop and show him Tse’s jewelry. But as we pulled up in front of the shop, it was dark. And the sign in the door window said, ‘Closed.’ So we went on home.

Once we were home, as I put things away, Ajie called Charlie and Jackie. And when Ajie found me, she said, “Charlie and Jackie will be here at six.”

“Good.”, I replied. “What are we having?”

“I was thinking of an Enchilada casserole and cheesy corn spoon bread.”

“Anything for dessert?”

“Oh! Run down to the store and see if they have any Churros or something else good. And I’ll start on the rest.”

I made a quick trip to the grocery store and luckily they had some Churros in the bakery. When I was back at the house, Ajie put me to work on the cheesy corn spoon bread.

While things were cooking and we were waiting for Charlie and Jackie, we made our Sunday calls to our parents. One question that both of our mothers asked was how the birth mother was doing? And both times we answered with, we haven’t heard anything for a little while, but we’d find out and let them know.

Then just before six, we heard the ding from the sensor in the driveway, then shortly we heard the ding-dong from the sensor on the gate to the front courtyard, and finally, as we were walking to the front door, we heard the doorbell ring. I opened the door, and like we expected Charlie and Jackie were standing there, and Ajie and I said, “Yá’át’ééh. T'áá shoodí wóshde´e´’. - (It is good. Please come in.)”

We got hugs, and Jackie said, “It’s been too long.”

“It has.”, Ajie said.

Charlie, Jackie, Ajie, and I had a lovely meal and a nice chat. We discussed the weekend of the gathering. And like last year we were going up together, and they’d come to the house on Wednesday right after their last class. The university closes at Noon on that Wednesday.

Then we got talking about the twins, and of course, Jackie wondered how everything was going with the mother. Ajie told her like we’d told our parents that we hadn’t heard anything, but we’d let them know when we did.

After dinner, we went to the spare bedroom, where we’d moved all the baby things, and Ajie showed Jackie and Charlie what we’d purchased. Charlie wasn't very interested, but Jackie was surprised as to the beautiful things that we’d gotten.

While we were looking at the baby things, Jackie said, “We’ve been talking about having a baby shower for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”, Ajie said.

“Yes, we do.”

“Who is we?”

“Oh, Dean Etsitty, Mary Oshie, me, and a few others.”

“Why don’t you wait until after they’re here. That way, we’ll be sure everything has worked out.”

“Why? Don’t you think it will?”, Jackie asked.

“We’re ninety-nine percent sure that it will happen.”, Ajie replied.

“What could stop it?”

“Any number of things. The girl, the Navajo Children and Family Services people, the judge, or who knows.”

“Doesn’t that bother you?”, Jackie asked.

“No, we knew from the start that things could happen.”, Ajie said. “And if we don’t have the twins, I’m sure that something else will be done.”

“You seem so at ease with this whole thing.”

“We are. We know that what is meant to happen will happen. And the Great Spirit will do what is best for everyone. Us, the girl, and the babies.”

“You two are something else. I’d be a nervous wreck going through what you’re going through. But, you are so at ease with it.”

“I guess it’s just who we are.”