We went up to the Crest to walk and relax, and we had our first lovers quarrel. Then after a talk, a pizza, and a bottle of wine things we were back to normal.

Amy had talked to Vickie, and after she hung up, Amy said, “I guess that the woman from the nursing licensing board that gave me a hard time is related to Peshlakai.”

“What!?”, I exclaimed.

“Yeah. Tom was going through some of the stuff that Peshlakai had left, and ran across the woman’s name and remembered what had happened to me. So he looked into it and found that she’s Peshlakai sister-in-law.”

“Is she an American Indian?”

“She didn’t look like a native. I guess she’s married to Peshlakai’s brother.”

“But her name wasn’t Peshlakai.”, I asked. “Was it?”

“No.”, Amy replied. “It was Richardson. But she might have been using her maiden name.”

“I thought that we were finished with Peshlakai.”

“So did I.”

“Why did she pick on you? We didn’t get him arrested.”

“I know. Maybe it was because of us coming out about the scholarship.”

“But that didn’t get him arrested either.”

“It could be because we’re the only ones that he can take it out on.”

“Why would he do that?”, I asked.

“Because he’s vindictive.”, Amy replied.

“Yeah. Maybe. Think we need to talk to someone?”

“Like who?”

“Oh.”, I said “Uncle Paul, Aunt Ruth, Chief Tom, Vickie. Maybe Chief Kinlicheeny. Maybe Naainish. Maybe even Uncle Gaagii.”

“Uncle Gaagii.”, Amy said. “Why Uncle Gaagii?”

“Well, he was the Chief of the Navajo Nation Police Department. And he probably knows a lot of people.”

“Oh. Right. He might be the best person to talk to.”

I called my Aunt Ruth and told her what was going on with Peshlakai and how we felt he had something to do with what happened to Amy with the lady from the nursing board. She was shocked and angry. I also told her that we wouldn’t be in until right about lunch time as we had to stop and pick up Ajie’s nurse’s uniforms.

Saturday as Amy and I were just about ready to leave for the uniform shop and then the resort, the phone rang. I answered, “Hello.”

And I heard Vickie say, “Hi Tom. It’s Vickie. I’m glad I caught you before you left.”

“Oh, hi Vickie. I’ll get Amy.”

“No. Wait. I want to talk to you.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I wanted to let you know that I checked into Dr. Kilmer.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, I found that they've had problems with him before because of his attitude towards the native people. But nothing that went as far as what yours did. I think that they may bring him up before the faculty review board.”

“Serves him right.”

“Yes, it does. You two have a safe drive and try to relax. And we’ll see you when you get back.”

“Thanks, Vickie. I’m glad you called and told me about Dr. Kilmer. And relaxing is exactly what we plan on doing.”

“Say hi to Amy for me. Bye.”

“Will do. Bye, Vickie.”

As I hung up the phone, Amy asked, “What did Vickie want?”

“To tell me what she found out about Dr. Kilmer.”, I replied. “It appears that he’s had other problems with native people and that he’ll probably be brought up before the faculty review board.”

“A bigot.”

“Yep.”

We stopped at the uniform store that Vickie had told Amy about. And when we left the store, we had three uniforms, another pair of shoes, and a bunch of white nylons.

About two hours later, just before Noon, we were pulling into the resort and up to my aunt and uncle’s house. And there were other cars there. Naainish’s pickup was there. There was a car with Arizona plates. And another car with New Mexico plates.

As Ajie and I walked into the house, we heard voices in the living room. And as we walked into the living room, I saw everyone, and both Ajie and I said, “Yá’át’ééh abiní.” (good morning)

And seven people returned the Yá’át’ééh abiní.

Ajie and I saw my grandmother, Aunt Ruth, Uncle Paul, Aunt Ginny, Uncle Gaagii, Naainish, and Chief Kinlicheeny sitting there and looking at us.

Chief Kinlicheeny then said, “Ajie, we understand that you had a problem with obtaining your New Mexico nurse’s license.”

“A little one.”, Ajie replied. “But, it’s been taken care of.”

“I’ve heard that it was more than a little problem. I’ve spoken with Chief Etsitty and his wife, and know the details. I’ve also heard that the woman that caused the problem is related to Peshlakai.”

“I’ve heard that too, Chief.”

“What would you like to do about it?”

Ajie looked at me, and I said, “We would like Peshlakai as far out of our lives as possible. He’s interfered with us a little too much. The last time he did it almost caused us to move back to Ohio. And we don’t want that to happen.

“We visited a special place, and the spirits showed Ajie how strong she is, and it helped her overcome the interference. But the stress of all of this has been hard on both of us.”

“I understand that, Kai.”, Chief Kinlicheeny said. “Peshlakai hasn’t gone to trial yet, but he will be busy answering to the charges from the Navajo Nation shortly, and immediately after that he has to worry about the Federal charges against him.”

“I was worried that what happened to me yesterday was caused by Peshlakai, but we’ve found out that the guy is a real bigot and has something against all native people.”

“Yes, I heard about that earlier this morning. I think that the university is taking the proper steps.”

“I think they are too, Chief.”

“Along with the trials, we’re going to keep a close eye on your situations too. Hopefully, they will find him guilty on all charges brought by the Nation and the Federal Government.”

“Ajie and I feel that he's vindictive towards us because of us coming out about the scholarship.”

“That’s possible.”, Chief Kinlicheeny said. “And it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“The only legal thing that you can do right now.”, Uncle Gaagii said. “Is to obtain a restraining order.”

“I was wondering about that.”, I said.

“We’ll talk about that later.”

We talked a little longer. Then Chief Kinlicheeny said, “Kai and Ajie, you have the support of everyone in this room and others. So I wouldn’t worry too much about Peshlakai. He’s going to be too busy trying to stay out of prison. If he can.”

“I hope you’re right, Chief.”, I said. “And, both Ajie and I appreciate everyone's support.”

My Uncle Paul offered to take us all to the restaurant for lunch. Before we left the house, I took the camera bag to our bedroom and put what silver that we’d brought with us into the floor safe.

On the walk to the restaurant, my Uncle Gaagii took Ajie and me aside, and said, “If Peshlakai bothers you any more let me know. I have someone that will, shall we say, talk to him.”

“Talk to him?”, I asked.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Oh.”

While we ate, we continued to talk. And Uncle Gaagii filled us in on how to obtain a restraining order and that he’d help us do it.

After we finished eating, Ajie and I excused ourselves and went back to the house. We brought our suitcase in from the car and changed into our bathing suits, and then we headed to the thermal pools. When we got there, we looked at the various pools and decided on the mud pool. The mud in this pool is supposed to help releases the toxins in your pores. So, we soaked in the mud for a little while and covered ourselves with it, and then got out of the pool and let the sun bake the mud dry. It was fun walking to the showers to rinse the mud off. Luckily for me, the showers were private, so stripping out of my swimsuit wasn’t a problem. I wish the showers were big enough for two so that Ajie and I could wash the mud off of each other.

After we’d removed all the mud of our bodies, and had our swimsuits rinsed out and back on, we headed back to the house. We decided to go for a hike before dinner, so we changed into our hiking clothes, filled the canteens, and headed to the Joseph’s Mica Mines. It’s about a four-mile round trip.

We were back at my aunt and uncle’s house just as Aunt Ruth was starting dinner. We helped her put together a good Southwestern chicken dinner. As we ate, Uncle Paul said, “Next Friday is the final barbecue of the season.”

“What!?”, I said.

“Yes. Tourist season is about over and it will start getting to cold to hold them.”

“I’m going to miss those. What about the bonfires?”

“We miss the barbecues too. But we continue the bonfires until it gets really cold.”

“Do you close the resort?”

“Oh no. We’re open year around.”

“It get cold out here.”

“Sure. And we average two feet of snow a year.”

“And people still come out for the thermal pools?”

“Sure. In the winter a lot of them are skiers. They’ll stay here, go skiing, come back here, and relax in the pools. They love the skiing out here, but after a day on the slopes they don’t want to put up with the craziness of the ski resorts, so they stay here.”

“Wouldn’t that be a cold run from the pools to the showers to your room.”

“They tell me that’s part of the draw.”

I just shook my head.

After we helped clean up the dinner dishes, Ajie and I changed into long skirts, blouses, and wrap moccasins. Our hair was already in braids, so we just added fancy wraps to the ends, and then we added the braided leather headbands with the Eagle feathers. I added a Concho belt, Ajie didn’t. But she went with a few rings and a bracelet.

We walked the trail to the cliff top. Then we walked over to where the little tree was, it looked good, and it appeared to have grown a little. We stood there and looked at it for a minute or so.

Then we walked back over to where some guests were standing, talking, and waiting for the Sunset. We joined them, and we had an enjoyable talk. We were asked about the way we were dressed, and we explained about the long skirts, light blouses, and wrap moccasins. Then we answered questions about the area around the resort.

I looked to the west and saw thunderheads growing, and you could just start to hear the thunder off in the distance. So I mentioned it and added that there might not be a bonfire tonight.

As the storms moved closer, we watched the Sunset. I finally said, loud enough for everyone up here to hear it, “I think we’d better get off this cliff before the storms get here.”

Almost everyone listened to me, and we started down the cliff trail in mass. The one exception was one guy that was taking pictures of the storms. Ajie and I had waited to encourage anyone that hung back to follow us. I finally yelled at the guy, “You’d better get off the cliff top.”

He waved, and said, “I’ll be right along.”

On the way down, we noticed that there was no bonfire. We made it down to the hotel just as the rain, accompanied by lightning, started. Ajie and I continued to my aunt and uncle’s house. And, in the short run from the hotel to my aunt and uncle’s house, we got soaked. Once at the house, we changed out of our wet clothes, and put on dry shorts, blouses, and moccasins.

We went and joined my aunt in the living room, and cuddled together as the storm rolled through. Ajie, of course, jumped with every flash of lightning or clap of thunder. There were one or two bright flashes of lightning followed quickly by really loud claps of thunder. And just after the major part of the storm had rolled through, the phone rang, Aunt Ruth got up and answered it, “Hello.” … “Yes, Paul, they’re here.” … “Okay.” … “Okay.” … “I’ll tell them.” And she hung up the phone.

Aunt Ruth turned to us, and said, “Kids, they have a report of someone being hit by lightning up on the cliff, and your Uncle Paul needs your help. He’ll be here in a couple of minutes to drive you up there.”

I said, “Damn it. I told that guy not to stay up there.”

And, Ajie, being Ajie or really Amy, said, “We can’t wait for Uncle Paul. It’ll be quicker for us to run up the cliff trail. When Uncle Paul gets here tell him that we ran up there.”

As we headed out the door, Aunt Ruth handed us two rain slickers with hoods and a flashlight. As it was still raining we slipped on the slickers. The main part of the storm was now east of us. I knew that Ajie could run, but she was getting ahead of me going up the trail. When we got to the cliff top, using the flashlight, we looked around, and finally saw two people waving at us, we ran over to them and saw a man laying on the ground. It was the man that had been taking pictures of the storm.

Ajie quickly became nurse Ajie. And she was in charge. She was on her knees and checking on the guy. She said, “No breath. No pulse.”

Ajie looked at the two guys, and asked, “Did you do CPR on him?”

One of the guys said, “No. we don’t know how.”

Ajie then quickly gave the guy on the ground a thump to the chest, then started pressing on his chest, after a few presses she moved to his head, adjusted his head, and blew into his mouth, then went to his chest and started pressing it again. She quickly said, “Kai, get down here and help me. Do what I’m doing, and I’ll do the mouth to mouth.”

I quickly knelt down on the other side of the guy from Ajie, she showed me how to place my hands, and said, “Do one compression a second.”

Then she moved back to his head and started blowing into his mouth every few compressions. After we’d done that for a little while, she said, “Kai, stop for a minute.”

Ajie rechecked for a pulse and breathing, and then she said, “Nothing. Keep going.”

I continued with the compressions, and Ajie kept blowing into his mouth.

After we’d done that for a while, Uncle Paul arrived in the resort’s truck along with one of the employees. Uncle Paul ran up, and asked, “Ajie, how is he?”

“Not good.”, Ajie replied. After another couple of breaths, Ajie said, “Uncle Paul, do you know how to do CPR?”

“Yes.”, Uncle Paul replied.

“Get down here and take over for me.”

Uncle Paul got down next to Ajie and took over doing the breaths. Ajie then checked the guy out thoroughly, when she finished, she said, “This isn’t good. It looks like the lightning hit the top of his head and went right out through his boots.”

Ajie then asked the two guys that were standing there, “Do you know how long he was down before we got here?”

“No.”, one of them said. “We found him and sent someone to get help. And it was probably fifteen or twenty minutes before you got here.”

“How did you know to come up here?”

“We’re friends, and his wife said that they came up here to watch the Sunset. She came back down with everyone else when someone said that they’d better get off the cliff. And Mat stayed up here to take some more pictures.

“Then when they were back in the hotel for a while, a big lightning strike hit the cliff. And she became worried because she couldn’t find him. Three of us volunteered to look for him. And we found him here.”

Then we heard sirens and saw red flashing lights pull into the resort. And Uncle Paul said, “That should be the fire department.”

Ajie then said, “I’m sorry to say this. But I think he’s gone. If his heart stopped when the lightning hit him, which it probably did, then it’s been too long. So Kai, Uncle Paul, you can stop.”

The friend that had answered Ajie’s question asked, “How do you know that he’s gone?”

“Sir, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m an Emergency Room Nurse, and I’ve seen death. But nothing like this. And, his heart has been stopped for too long. I can’t pronounce him, that takes a doctor.”

Just then a woman walked up and screamed, “Mat! No!”. The two friends walked over to her and tried to comfort her. Ajie got up, walked over, took the woman’s hands in hers, and talked to her. Then Ajie put her arm around the woman, guided her away from the area, spoke to her a little more, then they hugged. Ajie then motioned for the friends to take her back to the hotel.

As they started walking down the trail, four guys from the fire department showed up in their truck. It appeared that they knew Uncle Paul because they walked over to him and started talking to him. Then Uncle Paul looked at Ajie, and said, “Ajie, could you come over here.”

Ajie walked over to where Uncle Paul and the firemen were standing. I stood up and joined them. Uncle Paul introduced them and told the fireman that Ajie was an ER nurse. And, Ajie and the officer from the fire department discussed what had happened and what she had done. When she finished, they agreed that she’d done the right thing.

Then she asked if they had a stethoscope with them. They did, and one of the guys took it out of their first aid case and handed it to Ajie. Ajie knelt back down next to the guy that had been hit by lightning, put the ends of the stethoscope in her ears, opened the guy's shirt, placed the end of the stethoscope on his chest, and carefully listened.

Ajie listened for a minute, shook her head, and offered the stethoscope to the officer from the fire department. He took it, knelt down, used the stethoscope to listen to the guy's chest, looked at Ajie, and shook his head.

Ajie said, “Sorry, Uncle Paul. But we both feel that he’s gone. I’m going to leave this to you and the fire department, and I’m going to see if I can help his wife.”

“Kai. Ajie.”, Uncle Paul said. “Thank you for your help.”

“We weren’t much help.”, Ajie said. “But we tried.”

“You did what you could.”

Ajie and I walked down the cliff trail and to the hotel. We walked inside and saw a sheriff’s deputy sitting and talking with the woman. The three guys who were their friends were standing behind her with three women. Maybe their wives.

We stood at the registration desk with Shilah who was the room clerk tonight. Shilah was the one who saved me from the guy who attacked me out here a while back. Shilah asked, “Was it bad?”

Ajie replied, “It wasn’t good. The lightning hit his head, and I don’t think he knew what hit him. I feel he was gone before he hit the ground.”

“That’s bad.”

The sheriff’s deputy walked over to the registration desk, and asked, “Shilah, do you have anyone registered with the first name of Ajie?”

“That would be me.”, Ajie said.

“And you are?”

“Ajie Nez.”

“Were you up there?”

“Yes. Our Uncle Paul … ”

“Is that Paul Biakeddy?”

“Yes, we were at his house, he called and told us about the accident. And we ran up there and tried to help.”

“Why would he call you?”

“I’m an ER nurse or will be on Monday when I start at the hospital in Albuquerque. I did all my clinicals in college at a large ER.”

“So you pronounced him?”

“No, I can’t do that. I’m not a doctor. But even before Kai and I got to him, I feel that his heart had been stopped for maybe a half-an-hour. Plus it looked like the lightning had hit his head. There was a burn mark on the right side of his head, and it appeared that it came out through the bottom of his boots.

“We worked on him for about twenty minutes with no response. The guys from the fire department agreed with me that he was gone.”

Just then I saw Uncle Paul walk in. He came over to us, and said, “Hi Rich. Is there a problem?”

“Hi, Paul.”, the deputy said. “No, I was just getting their information.”

“Rich, these are my nieces, Kai Nez and Ajie Nez. Ajie just graduated from college with a nursing degree. And she knows what she’s talking about.”

“It sounds that way, Paul. But we’ll let the coroner make the final call.”

“As it should be.”, Ajie said.

Uncle Paul said, “The guys from the fire department told me to tell you that they were taking his body to the coroner’s office in Santa Fe.”

“Thanks, Paul.”, the deputy said.

“If you want to see the scene, I’ll take you up there.”

“Thanks Paul, but I’ll just get a copy of the fire department’s report.”

Ajie and I looked over to where the woman was sitting, and it appeared that her friends were comforting her. She saw us, got up, walked over, and said, “You were the two girls that were there. Weren’t you?”

Ajie said, “Yes ma’am.”

“I … I want to thank you for trying to help Mat.”

“We’re very sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you. I know you did your best.”

“We tried.”

The woman turned and walked away. Uncle Paul turned to Shilah, and said, “Shilah, comp their full stay.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Biakeddy.”, Shilah replied.

The three of us walked back to the house, and as we walked in, Aunt Ruth looked at us, and said, “Didn’t make it. Did he?”

Uncle Paul shook his head, and said, “No.”

“I made you three something.”

“It smells good. What did you make?”

“Cinnamon crisps with a fruit salad.”

“Do you have any wine?”, Ajie asked.”

“Yes, honey. We do. Would you like some?”

“Yes. Please.”

We sat, ate the cinnamon crisps and fruit salad, and drank wine in silence for a few minutes. Then Uncle Paul said, “Ajie, I’m sorry I put you in the middle of that.”

“Uncle Paul.”, Ajie said. “Don’t worry about it. You needed help and thought of me. And that’s fine. I like to help people. I just hope I helped that woman a little.”

“I think you did. Thank you again.”

Ajie just smiled.

We finished the desert and wine, then Ajie and I went to bed. As we cuddled in bed, I asked, “Honey, are you all right?”

Ajie rolled over, looked at me, smiled, and said, “Yeah. It’s just sad to see someone die. Especially needlessly. If he would have listened, he’d be alive.”

“I know. I should have been more forceful with him.”

“Honey, you did more than you had to do. He didn’t listen.”

“You’re right.”

“All I wanted to do this weekend was come up here and relax. And look what happens.”

“I know love.”, I said. “And if I have my way, that’s the way tomorrow is going to be.”

Ajie kissed me, turned over, cuddled up to me, and I pulled her closer. I knew she was ready to go to sleep, so I whispered, “Sleep tight, sweetheart.”

“You too, lover.”, Ajie whispered.