Then we went to the shop next to Mr. Yazzie’s new shop, Ajie found a piece of pottery to replace the piece of pottery that had been broken when the apartment was broken in to. It had a beautiful representation of the Yei spirits.

The bonfire was interesting. We were surprised by Naainish and Quah Ah being there and chanting for us. For some reason, I felt strong medicine at the bonfire, and Ajie also felt the spirits. And, I had a vision of my favorite student, Mr. Uintillie.

On the way back to Albuquerque we decided to stop at the Jemez Canyon Reservoir to visit the Eagle’s nest.

When we reached the Jemez Canyon Reservoir and the parking lot for the loop trail, there was no one else there. We parked the car and headed down the trail towards the Eagle’s nest. As we walked up to the area of the nest, the nest was empty.

But, it wasn’t empty for long. One of the Eagles quickly showed up, landed in the nest, and looked down at us. We looked at each other for less than a minute before the other Eagle showed up.

This was the closest that we’d ever been to them, and we visited with them for about five minutes. There was just something about visiting with them that made me feel good, and I think Amy felt he same way. We then hiked back to the parking lot and headed to Albuquerque.

When we were back at the apartment, we unloaded the car and put everything away. Then we made some lunch. And, as Amy was cleaning up the dishes, I glanced at the answering machine, and the light indicating that we had a message was blinking. So, I said, “It looks like we have a message.”

“So, listen to it.”, Amy replied.

I started to rewind the tape and noticed that there was probably more than one message. When the tape was rewound, I pressed play, and the first message we heard was, “Guys. It’s Maria. Please call me as soon as you get this. It’s very important.”

I let the tape continue to play, and the next message was, “Guys. It’s Maria again. It’s Friday about six. Please call me. It’s very important.”

By now Amy was standing next to me, and the third message played, it was Maria again, and she said, “Please. Please. Call me as soon as you can. It’s Saturday at eight in the morning.”

Without a word, Amy walked over to the phone, picked up the receiver, and dialed.

I heard Amy’s side of the conversation, and it went like this, “Hello Maria, it’s Amy.” … “Honey, what’s wrong?”

All the blood rushed out of Amy’s face, she sat hard on a chair, and the tears started. And she said, “Oh my God no! What happened?” … “Oh God. Mark must be a wreck.”

I looked at Amy, and mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

Amy said, “Maria, hang on a second and let me tell Kai what happened.”

Then Amy looked at me, and said, “Honey, you’d better sit down.”

I sat. And Amy continued with, “Max Roberts was killed in Vietnam.”

My tears started, as I said, “No! What … What happened?”

“Let me finish talking to Maria.”

Max Roberts is the twin brother of Mark Roberts who is Maria’s husband. We’d all been friends for a very long time, before and through junior high school, high school, and college.

Amy and Maria talked for another ten minutes or so. And after she said so long to Maria, she just looked at me. I finally said, “For God’s sake, what happened.”

“Maria said, that they don’t have all the details. But Max and his unit were on a night patrol, and were ambushed. Max was killed instantly by an explosion of some kind. And, most of the rest of the guys in his patrol were also killed. They’re planning for the funeral next Saturday.”

“May the Great Spirit protect his spirit. How’s Mark taking it.”

“Really hard. He’s a major wreck. Maria’s worried sick about him.”

“May the Great Spirit help him. We need to go home. I’ve got to see if I can help Mark.”

“I knew you’d say that. So, I told Maria that we’d be home as soon as we could.”

“We’d better call our parents and tell them what we’re planning.”

“What are we planning? What about the classes we’re teaching and talking?”

“Maybe we can get out of here Wednesday afternoon. I could probably get Dr. Joe to take care of my Thursday and Friday classes. All he’d have to do is give the mid-term exams.”

“That’s all I’m doing on Friday.”, Amy said. “Giving the mid-term exam, and I could probably get Vickie to do that.”

“Okay.”, I said. “Then we’d need to get a flight out of here early on Wednesday afternoon and come back on Sunday.”

“Okay. We should probably start with Vickie and Dr. Joe.”

Amy called Vickie and explained what was going on, and she readily agreed to do Amy’s classes on Friday. And of course, Vickie told Amy how sorry she was. I then called Dr. Joe and filled him in, and he said he’d also take care of my classes. And to not worry about the project.

I told him, “Dr. Joe. I need to do something to take my mind off of Mark and Max. So, I'll be there on Monday and Tuesday.”

“I don’t want you to rush doing the board.”, Dr. Joe said.

“Don’t worry. I won’t rush. I’m meticulous when it comes to this sort of thing. We may not get it finished until next week, but it’ll be early next week. Call Dr. Fontheim at Las Alamos and tell him. And hope he understands.”

“He will.”

“Okay. I’ll see you on Monday. So long.”

Then I called the airlines and got us round trip tickets. Flying out on Wednesday afternoon and coming back on Sunday.

Then we called our mothers and told them what was going on. They both had heard about what had happened to Max and figured that we’d be coming home. We also said that it would be Kai coming home, and to not be surprised with Amy’s look.

“Think we should tell Jackie and Charlie what’s going on?”, Amy asked.

“Yeah. They need to know that we’ll be gone the last half of the week.”

“I’ve got a few things to do for class. Then maybe we can run over there and talk with them.”

“I’ve got some things to do too, so that’ll work.”

At about dinner time, Amy and I walked next door to Jackie and Charlie’s place. I knocked on the door, and Jackie answered it. Jackie started to say, “Hi guys. Come on … What’s wrong? You look like you’ve lost your best friend.”

“Jackie.”, Amy said. “You don’t know how close to the truth you are.”

“Oh. Sorry. Come on in.”

We went in sat with Jackie and Charlie and told them the story of our group of friends. And that one of them, Max, had just been killed in Vietnam. You could see the sorrow in Jackie’s face. And, Charlie just shook his head.

We sat there in silence for a little while, then Amy said, “Guys, I need some wine. Anyone want to go to Nunzio's for dinner on us?”

“Amy.”, Jackie said. “We’ve got to stop sponging off of you.”

“Honey, you’re not sponging. We enjoy your company. And you can probably help get our minds off of this mess.”

“But, we’ll never be able to repay you.”

“Never is a long time. And I figure that you’re getting tired of eating Ramen Noddles all of the time.”

Jackie smiled, and said, “You’re right. But thanks to Charlie's job and the resident hall dining room, we don’t eat Ramen Noodles that often.”

“So, go with us anyway and keep us company.”

“Okay.”

We walked over to Nunzio's and stood in line for about half an hour. Yes, the pizza is worth standing in line that long for. We were finally seated at a table. Amy and I ordered our favorite pizza and two bottles of wine, and Jackie and Charlie ordered their favorite pizza, pop to drink, and with a side of anchovies for Jackie.

As we waited for our order, we chatted about our trip to the resort, and Taos. And we also told them about our time with Quah Ah from the Taos Pueblo, and how we’d talked about visiting her and taking them along so that Charlie and Governor Cochiti could get together.

“He was just being nice the other day.”, Charlie said. “He doesn’t want me to come up there. Does he?”

“Charlie.”, I said. “Quah Ah said that he’s talked about you coming up.”

“I just thought he was being nice to me.”

“He took a liking to you. And you have something in common. Woodworking.”

“I guess we could go up there.”

“We’ll see what we can work out when we get back.”

“That would be great.”

We all enjoyed our pizzas, Jackie enjoyed her little fish, and Amy and I went through both bottles of wine.

As we walked back to the apartments, I said, “Jackie and Charlie, it really helped that you came along. It got our minds off of everything. And we will go to Taos as soon as possible.”

“Thanks for taking us. We enjoy our times with you.”, Jackie said.

“And we enjoy our times with you too.”, Amy said.

Later that night as Amy and I were lying in bed, I said, “You know, this is going to be a hard trip.”

“I know. These things are always hard.”

Amy cuddled close, and we were soon asleep.

Monday and Tuesday were as normal as they could get, we both taught our classes, and I went to my grad-level classes, as did Amy. On Tuesday Amy worked the seven to three shift in the ER.

On Monday we received our printed circuit board, and Dr. Joe and I went over it carefully, and it looked good. So, I started building the circuit. Carefully choosing the proper integrated circuit sockets, resistors, capacitors, and so on to be mounted on the circuit board. I got started mounting and soldering the sockets, and that’s all I got done on Monday.

As Dr. Joe and I were walking out of the engineering building, we noticed copies of the universities student newspaper on a table by the door. I think that it was the headline that caught our attention. It said, ‘Dr. Edwin Cox, Chairman of the Board of Regents, Resigns.’

We both picked up copies of the paper and read the article, which didn’t say much other than his resignation was sudden and unexpected, and was followed by the resignations of three other members of the Board of Regents.

Dr. Joe looked at me, and said, “Kai, I think this came to the end that was needed.”

“I think you’re right, Dr. Joe.”, I said. “I just hope they did this to save face and aren’t planning something.”

“Kai, I don’t believe that Dr. Lingham would let anything happen. He had a real dislike for Dr. Cox.”

“I hope you’re right.” But, I thought to myself, I’ll still keep my guard up.

We both took copies of the paper with us. When I was back at the apartment, Amy was already there, and as I walked through the door, I said, “Did you see today's school paper?”

“I did. That was a fascinating article. They never did give a reason for their resignations.”

“And, they probably never will.”

On Tuesday Dr. Joe had talked with Dr. Fontheim of the Las Alamos National Laboratory and told him about what was going on. Dr. Joe told me that Dr. Fontheim had said that we were so far ahead of the rest of the project that it wouldn’t be a problem and that he’d look forward to seeing us next week.

I or we continued working on the circuit board on Tuesday. When Dr. Joe and I called it quits on Tuesday, we had the board about half done. I know I’m slow, but I’m also careful. Plus I’m working from schematics.

Tuesday evening we needed to relax, so we decided to take a walk along the Rio Grande River. We hiked north to our favorite bench and sat. We figured that the Eagles wouldn’t show up. But, a few minutes after we’d gotten there one of the Eagles showed up and landed in the tree on the island. We looked at each other for a few minutes, and then the other Eagle joined us.

Amy and I felt that they knew we were troubled. They stayed and kept us company longer than usual. When they left the circled over us of a couple of times before they headed north.

I looked at Amy, and said, “They know don’t they?”

“I think they do.”, Amy replied. “They just seemed to be concerned for us.”

“I felt that too.”

Wednesday morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I wasn’t looking forward to what the evening would bring. But, I finally did. Amy and I taught our classes and met at the apartment right after our last class. We quickly changed clothes, both of us dressed in long skirts, fancy blouses, and moccasins. And we went light on the jewelry, but we did take the camera bag with us with some other pieces of jewelry in it. Both Amy and I wore our hair in ponytails.

Our flight left at one-thirty, and somehow we made it to the airport at twelve-thirty. We checked in, gave them the two bags that we were taking with us. And we only carried the camera bag, our purses, and our coats with us to the gate. We had a fifteen minutes wait before we boarded.

It was after six in the evening, our time, when we landed in Columbus and taxied to the gate. I’m glad that we’d brought coats with us, it was on the cold side. We walked down the boarding stairs and across the tarmac to the gate.

Our parents were standing there waiting for us, and we got some wonderful hugs. Amy’s father looked at her, frowned, and said, “Amylin, I don’t know if I like you with black hair.”

“Daddy.”, Amy said. “We spend a lot of time with the native people. They accept me this way. And I feel better when I fit in, and having my hair this way helps me do that.”

“Honey.”, Amy’s mother said. “With your tan complexion, you look good with black hair.”

“Thanks, mom.”

“I still don’t like it.”, Amy’s dad said.

“Fred, get over it.”, Amy’s mother said to Amy’s dad.

We stopped at the baggage claim area and grabbed our two suitcases. Then we headed to the parking lot. Dad had brought the station wagon, so the six of us were able to fit with ease. But, I didn’t like climbing into the third seat, especially in a skirt.

On the way home, my mother said, “Kids, I spoke with Maria about Mark, and he’s still having a lot of problems with Max’s death. She’s really worried about him.”

“I was afraid of this.”, I said. “They were very close.”

“Think we should go and see them tonight.”, Amy asked.

“It might be for the best.” I asked my dad, “Dad. Is the ‘57 Chevy in good shape?”

“Of course.”, my dad said. “I’ve driven it on a regular basis and just had it serviced last week.”

“Good. We may need it tonight.”

When we were at the house, Amy’s mom and dad said good night and went home. We went into the house. I ran the camera case down to the basement and put it in the safe. Then Amy and I took our bags to our bedroom.

As we walked back down the hall, I said, “I’m not looking forward to making this call.”

“I know honey.”, Amy said. “But, you may be able to help Mark.”

“I hope we can.”

“Honey, if anyone can it’s you.”

When Amy and I were back in the kitchen, I called Mark and Maria’s number, and it rang about five times before Maria answered. She said, “Hello.”

“Hi, Maria.”, I said. “It’s Kai.”

“Kai!?”

“Tommy.”

“Oh my God. Tommy, are you home?”

“Yes.”

“Thank God!”

“What’s wrong!?”

“Mark collapsed, and the ambulance just took him to the emergency room. I’m just getting ready to go there.”

“Stay where you are, and we’ll pick you up.”

“Please make it quick.”, Maria said.

“As quick as we can. Bye.”, I said.

“Bye.”

As I hung up the phone, I said, “Amy, let’s go.”

“What’s wrong?”, my mom asked.

“Mark just collapsed, and the ambulance is taking him to the hospital. Dad, where are the car keys?”

“Hanging by the door.”, my dad said.

As I was grabbing for my coat, my mom asked, “Honey, do you think you can help Mark?”

“Mom.”, I said. “I don’t know, but if the Great Spirit will allow it I will.”

I put my coat on, grabbed my purse, and with Amy on my heels, I headed for the garage. As I went past where we hang keys, I grabbed the keys for the ‘57 Chevy. In the garage, I opened the garage door, Amy and I then jumped into the car, and we were off to pick up Maria. Hopefully dad will close the garage door.

Quickly we were at Maria and Mark’s apartment, and she was outside shivering and waiting for us. When we pulled up, she jumped in, and said, “Where … Where’s Tommy? And who’s this?”

“I’m right here, Maria.”, I replied. “But, I’m Kai.”

“Oh God yes. I forgot. I’m sorry.”

“Honey.”, Amy said. “Right now don’t worry about it.”

“You don’t know how good it is to have you guys here.”

“What happened.”

“Mark hasn’t been eating or sleeping since we learned about Max, and it caught up with him. He got dizzy, fell, and I’m afraid that he hit his head.”

I hadn’t wasted any time, and while we were talking, I was headed to the hospital. And I’m glad I didn’t get stopped by the local police. And, it wasn’t long until we were pulling into the hospital ER’s parking lot, and the three of us almost ran into the ER. We stopped at the information desk and told the nurse there that we were looking for Mark Roberts. She told us to have a seat, and someone would be out to talk to us.

Amy then asked the nurse, “Is Patty Jeter working tonight?”

“Yes, she is.”

“Would you tell here that Amy Young is here.”

“Amy Young?”

“Yes, Amy Young.”

“Yes, Miss. Have a seat with your friends, and I’ll tell her.”

“Thank you.”

Amy walked over to us and sat. I could tell that Maria was a bundle of nerves.

“Who’s Patty Jeter?”, Maria asked.

“She’s a friend and a nurse here in the ER, and I think we might be able to get more information from her than anyone else.”

It wasn’t much later that Patty walked into the waiting room, and looked around. She had a puzzled look on her face. Amy stood up, and said, “Patty.”

Patty looked at Amy, and said, “Amy. Is that you?”

“Yes, Patty.”

“With the black hair and darker skin tone, I didn’t recognize you.”

“The darker skin comes from living in New Mexico and being in the Sun all the time. The black hair comes from being accepted by the native people and wanting to fit in.”

“Okay. What are you doing here?”

“We came in with Mark Roberts. This is his wife, Maria. What can you tell us about him?”

“I’ll have to check. I’ll be right back.”

Patty went back into the ER, and a few minutes later she was back, and said, “Come with me to one of the private rooms so we can talk.”

We got up and followed Patty to one of the private rooms, and a doctor joined us. The doctor told us, that Mark was dehydrated and weak from not eating, and that he may have hit his head when he fell and that they were going to do x-rays. Then the doctor said, “He also appears to be very depressed. Do you know of any reason why he might be that way?”

Maria looked at Amy and said, “Amy. Honey, could you tell them?”

“Sure.”, Amy said. And she went on tell Patty and the doctor about Mark and Max being twins, and Max having just been killed in Vietnam. The doctor shook his head, and under her breath, I heard Patty say “Damn war.”

Then looking at Patty, Amy said, “That’s why Kai and I are here.”

Patty looked at me, smiled a little, and said, “Kai. … Oh, I see, Kai.”

I saw Amy nod her head.

Then Maria asked, “When can we see him?”

As the doctor was leaving the room, he said, “When he comes back from x-ray.”

“Patty.”, Amy said. “Neither you or Maria may understand or believe this. But Kai may be able to help Mark with his depression. Kai is a two spirit person or as the Navajo call them a Nádleeh, and she is a special Nádleeh, she has the power of the wolf. That allows her to bring harmony and peace to the ill.

“I watched her do this when her grandmother was dying and having problems with her passing. When her grandmother saw Kai and talked with her, she became at ease with her passing.

“And, we think that Kai might be able to help Mark with the passing of his brother.”

“You’re serious. Aren’t you?”, Patty asked.

“Very serious. Remember when Kai sensed something about her father?”

“Yes.”

“This is just a continuation of that. We also saw it in her the first time we went to New Mexico when Kai’s grandmother had her heart attack. Her grandmother recovered quicker than the doctors thought she could.

“At that time we didn’t know much about what a Nádleeh was or even that Kai was one. But the more we learned, the more we saw it in her and accepted it.

“I also saw Kai with her grandmother when she had her stroke and was dying. I witnessed Kai help her pass on. It was amazing to see. She was even able to help the rest of the family with grandmas dying. She’s even helped someone else.”

Maria looked at me, and asked, “Tommy, is this all true?”

“Yes.”, I replied. “I’m not sure that I can help Mark. But, when I heard about what happened and his reaction to it, I felt that I could help him. I felt that my spirits could help.

“The power of the wolf not only lets me help those who are dying and not accepting their passing, but it also allows me to help those who are ill get better. But, I can’t do this for everyone. I can only do it for certain people, like relatives and close friends. Can I help Mark accept Max’s death? I don’t know, but with the help of the Great Spirit, I’ll sure as hell try.

“I won’t be able to make the pain go away, that will take time. But I should be able to help him accept what happened.”

“Kai.”, Patty said. “In a way, you scare me, but in another way, I have a feeling that you can do this. Why I feel this way, I have no idea.

“I have to get back to work. You three go back to the waiting room, and I’ll come and get you when Mark comes back from x-ray.”

Patty left the room. And Maria said, “Kai, you really believe that you can help Mark. Don’t you?”

“Maria.”, I said. “I think I can. And if I can, I will."

The three of us went out to the waiting room. The ER was unusually quiet for a Wednesday night. We sat together in a somewhat secluded area waiting for Patty to come and get us. Maria was sitting between Amy and me. And we waited.