Once a Father by Kathleen Eagle Page A

complicated.”
    â€œIt’s life. It’s the way we live. It became complicated when they tried to make us live differently. Not just with the reservation system, but when they took our kids so they could get religion or training or new parents, whatever they thought we should be trading our way of life for—well, they pulled the rug out from under us, our whole foundation. Nearly destroyed us.” He gestured impatiently. “Hell, you grew up just down the road from us. You must know.”
    â€œI should know more,” she said quietly. “I should know a whole lot more.”
    â€œYou had your own life. It’s understandable.” He closed the trailer door and slid the bolt. “For a kid.”
    â€œFunny how you have to go away for a while, see a little bit of the world, and when you come back you realize nothing’s really changed but it all looks different.”
    â€œBecause you’ve changed?” He searched her eyes. “I didn’t know you before, so I’m just asking.”
    â€œI feel different.”
    â€œHow’s that?”
    He needed to know. He liked her. He liked her so much it was beginning to bother him. Bother his mind at odd times. And even times. Bother his deep down inner core almost all the time.
    â€œI’m not scared.” She said it as though it should come as a surprise, as though it was even news toher. “I know I can handle myself, do what needs to be done, what’s right. What’s right for me.”
    â€œHard to imagine you any other way.”
    â€œBecause you didn’t know me before. And I lived right down the road and didn’t know you.”
    â€œTwenty miles and ten years difference.” He put his hand up to his ear. “Can you hear me now?”
    She laughed. “Loud and clear.”
    He looked at her for a moment, smiling up at him, making him feel different. Not different in years or experience or even lifestyle, whatever that meant. Just different from the way he’d felt a week ago.
    He put his arm around her shoulders. “Then let’s lock and load.”

Chapter Six
    â€œH ey, Sal!” Mary crossed paths with a calico cat as she let herself into the Drexler house through the mudroom. “Do we want the cat out?”
    â€œOnly if we have something against birds,” Sally called out from the kitchen.
    â€œCome back here, kitty.” Too late. Taking to the grass, the calico was on the prowl. “No meadowlarks!” Mary called after her as she closed the screen door.
    She greeted Sally in the kitchen with a wave of her digital camera. “I took some pictures of the camp. Can we download them on to your computer? Maybe there’s something in here you can use.” She winced. “Does she really hunt birds?”
    â€œEvery time somebody lets her out. She’s supposed to be a house cat. I’m trying to get her to acquire a taste for mouse. Coffee?”
    â€œLove some. I’ll take one of those muffins, unless they’re already spoken for.” She grabbed a cup from the cabinet and a napkin from the wooden holder Sally had made in eighth grade shop class. Mary had made one just like it. She’d given it to her mother and hadn’t seen it in years. Hidden away, probably. Mother never threw anything out, but if it prompted her husband’s disapproval, it disappeared.
    â€œTake two. They’re small.” Sally led the way through the living room, walking with a noticeable hitch in her step. “Come on. I want you to tell me everything while we download.” She turned, grinning as she backpedaled. “You named the mustang Adobe. Love that. You’ve been hanging out. You’ve already started training him. The horse, not the man. This isn’t boot camp. You have to be subtle.”
    â€œWhen is it going to be my turn?”
    â€œJump in anytime.” She started plugging the camera into her system and