Komatke Gold. Benjamin Vance

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СКАЧАТЬ you’ve been saving our country and the Res from the scourge of the rag-heads all these years. Me and Myra been pretty close you know, and Myra is a smart cookie and Lew-Lew is a self-serving bitch most of the time. So, don’t you think Myra can think for herself?”

      “I see where you’re going. I just don’t want her to tell Myra the wrong stuff or mislead her.”

      “Shit, you’re one to talk. Where you been all these years while Myra was raisin’ two-no, three-kids including her ex?”

       I felt my ears get hot and all I could see was the loss of my one and hypothetical ally. I hadn’t expected this angle from Cristal. Since the best defense is an active offense I fired back.

      “I guess that’s what you guys do huh? Cry on each other’s shoulder and join the mutual ‘hate all men society’. Well what have you been doing all these years? Having kids, working for the tribe and gettin’ fat? That is something you’ll be remembered for isn’t it Cristal?” I slammed down the phone. It didn’t ring again. I was pissed, embarrassed and didn’t care. It was a real change from her attitude the day before, it was confusing and I was confused enough.

      I shaved, showered and walked to Dave’s’ Diner, hungry for a delicious ham and cheese omelet and Texas toast. I wasn’t disappointed. Talk was small, but I asked the waitress if there was a gym around where I could work out later. She smiled and told me there was only the YMCA, but they were pretty well outfitted. I finished, drank my milk with ice, tipped her well and walked out the door into a glorious Arizona morning. I thought for a fleeting instant it would be nice to share it with someone who had the intelligence and heart to appreciate it. But, on second thought what the hell, there’s not too many of those around!

      The short walk to the motel was cool and drier, with a ruby-throated humming bird who seemed to like my colorful cap, keeping me company part way. What beautiful little flashing gems they are in the early morning sun.

      As I rounded the corner next to the motel office I saw a woman getting into the passenger side of one of the last model K-Cars. It was near my room, but … I stopped dead while my mind sought to catch up. I remember vaguely thinking, “Well at least it isn’t Lew-Lew with a gun and a ‘gorilla’ to run me off the reservation.” It was someone with a vaguely familiar profile though.

      I started walking again and in the eternity it took me to close the distance and attempt to clear the confusion, my senses began to reward the fraction of my soul that must be “hope”. The woman turned and looked at me, then diverted her eyes to the ground and got out and stood by the car as if for support. As I got closer and she looked directly at me with those copper eyes, they quickly became whirl pools. My heart started to pound, my breath came in short gasps and I tried to choke back the years of regret, remorse and loneliness. Even with weak knees and tingling skin I was inexorably drawn forward. Then suddenly as if finally blessed, I could accept that it was my Myra standing there in front of me!

      I saw that her eyes were moist and red. Involuntary tears began to pour down my face and when she saw, she began to cry in earnest as I found my strength for her weakness and ran the last few steps to enfold her in my arms. She was my love and my life, the beautiful brown reason I’d lived until that moment. I felt as though all my years had brought me to that day. I softly kissed her face, her neck, her ears, and her lips, uncontrolled. As we held each other; touched, kissed and drank each other in, she smiled and cried and quietly mumbled words I didn’t understand. I thought I heard someone else crying too and through the tears I vaguely recognized Cristal sitting in the driver’s seat with her face in her hands.

      As the tears and wet kisses slowly gave way to blowing noses, smiling, and holding hands, Cristal and I began to apologize all at once. Myra shushed us both and told me not to be mad at Cristal; that Cristal had always tried to protect her from hurt, though she’d rarely succeeded.

      It was quiet for a few heartbeats as we gazed at each other, then Myra looked at the ground and said, “Puwsungwa, I’ve gotten fat.”

      I said, “You are beautiful! I love you; I have always loved you. Only you! It’s tragic that this old man tries to replace the young one who fell in love with you, but I’ll try to make it up if you’ll let me.”

      She sobbed and held me with her teary gaze, “I just want to hold you again … forever.”

      I kissed her hands and sought solace in the copper eyes. We said things and whispered things that I’d never tell. That you wouldn’t tell. I felt the warmth and sense of her begin to revive the decay that had been my heart and my soul.

      Chapter 10.

      Many overflowing days followed. I listened, and talked little. My eyes, ears, heart and soul feasted and could never be sated. Home! I was finally home! Every day was like a rebirth. The days turned into weeks and I was never leaving.

      I sought Uncle Preston’s sage advice about etiquette and Native American sensibilities. He wasn’t one for bullshit though. He advised me to treat everyone as I would any round eye. I think he appreciated my concern and my intent to treat Myra and her kin with the utmost sincerity and warmth, no matter the reciprocation.

      As for Myra and me, it was difficult to make up for lost time. She had a couple of nice kids. They were a bit unruly at times, but show me a teenager who isn’t. Her daughter’s name is Rainbo and her son’s Raymond. She was 13 and he was barely 15 when we first met. They’d seen firsthand what their father did to Myra, so with the help of their mother, it was fairly easy to win their friendship, if not their trust.

      Myra wasn’t wealthy by any means, but she had a nice house, purchased with the help of the council. It was a three bedroom, two bath cinder-block home just suited to the three of them, and that’s the way it stayed. I rented a small, second story apartment with a small balcony close to downtown and the diner. I optimistically rented on a monthly basis.

      Myra and I got to know each other again over the following weeks. I also got to know my D.C. boss a bit better. Charlie was a retired brigadier and had been through hell in ‘Nam. He had round scars on his back and chest where Kalashnikov rounds went cleanly through his body. We’d been through a lot and he knew enough about my behavior to know I sounded happy. He confirmed he could get along without me. Everything else was just fine too, until Lew Lew got back into the picture. For some reason that’s when the feces hit the swamp cooler! It was about two weeks after I hit town.

      Chapter 11.

      Lew Lew got a warrant to search my apartment, ostensibly looking for contraband. I’d been cleaning up my father’s grave site and was not at my best when I arrived at the apartment and found the La Paz County Sheriff’s Deputy knocking on my door. He showed his warrant, with Lew Lew’s signature, and a judge’s signature, and I let him in. He brought no one else and somehow I found that disturbing. I called Cristal, since Myra was on duty. She was there in about ten minutes. Although the deputy didn’t comment, he didn’t seem to appreciate her presence. It was puzzling! I was worried he would plant something incriminating so I followed him closely. After about 25 minutes of searching he thanked us and left.

      Cristal and I looked at each other and without a word or moments’ hesitation, began to search the apartment. We found nothing! I called Lew Lew and could not get past her flunky. So, I did the next most natural man thing; I went to her office and barged in. In the presence of her Para-legal she explained that she’d received some confidential information that I was in illegal possession of Native American artifacts, but also that she could have been misinformed. Although I thought I noticed some change in her demeanor from previous encounters, she did not apologize. I thought it may СКАЧАТЬ