They had hurried out to the car which, due to law-enforcement privilege, had been parked on the usually vehicle-free pedestrian mall.
'I hate this,' Davy said, settling into the seat, slamming his door, and then staring out the window.
'What do you hate?'
'Having old people for friends and having them die on me. First Father John, then Looks At Nothing, and now Rita.'
At age ninety-five, Looks At Nothing had avoided the threat of being placed in a hospital by simply walking off into the desert one hot summer's day. They had found his desiccated body weeks later, baking in the hot sand of a desert wash not a thousand yards from his home.
'I'm sorry,' Brandon said, and meant it.
At the house, Davy had gone straight into Rita's room. He had stayed there for only ten minutes or so. He had come out carrying Rita's prized but aged medicine basket. His face was pale but he was dry-eyed. 'I'm ready to go back now,' he said.
He and Brandon had set out in the car. 'She gave me her basket,' Davy said a few minutes later.
'I know,' Brandon said. 'I saw you carrying it.'
'But it's not mine to keep,' Davy added.
Brandon Walker glanced at his stepson. His jaw was set, but now there were tears glimmering on his face. 'I get to have Father John's rosary and Rita's son's Purple Heart. Everything else goes to Lani. It isn't fair!'
Brandon was tempted to point out that very little in life is fair, but he didn't. 'Why, then, did she give it to you today?' he asked.
'Because Lani's only seven, or at least she will be tomorrow. She can't have the rest of it until she's older.'
'When are you supposed to give it to her?'
Davy brushed the tears from his face. 'That's what I asked Rita. She said that I'd know when it was time.'
Brandon pulled up in front of the dorm, but Davy made no effort to get out. Instead, he opened the basket, picked through it, and removed two separate items, both of which he shoved in his pocket. Then he put the frayed cover back on the basket.
'Dad,' he said. 'Would you do me a favor?'
'What's that?' Brandon asked.
'I can't take this into the dorm. No one would understand. And somebody might try to steal it or something. You and Mom have a safety deposit box down at the bank, don't you?'
'Yes.'
'Would you mind putting this in there and keeping it? I mean, if it isn't really mine, I don't want to lose it. I need to keep it safe-for Lani.'
'Sure, Davy,' Brandon said. 'I'll be glad to. If you want me to, I'll drop it off this morning on my way to the department.'
'Thanks,' Davy said, handing the basket over. 'And tell Fat Crack that I'll come back out to the house as soon as I'm done with my last class. I should be done by three at the latest.'
But Rita Antone was gone long before then. She died within half an hour of the time her little Olhoni left, taking Understanding Woman's medicine basket with him.
Nine years later, the bank had gone through several different mergers and had ended up as part of Wells Fargo. The bank had changed, but not the medicine basket, at least not noticeably. Maybe it was somewhat more frayed than it had been a decade earlier, but the power Oks Amichuda had woven into it years before still remained and still waited to be let out.
The day after Nana Dahd died was the worst birthday Lani ever remembered. It seemed to her that a terrible empty place had opened up in her life. The cake had been ordered well in advance, and everyone had tried to go through the motions of a party, just as Rita would have wanted them to. When it came time to blow out the candles, however, Lani had fled the room in tears, leaving the lighted candles still burning.
Brandon was the one who had come to find her, sitting in the playhouse he had built for her in the far corner of the backyard.
'Lani,' he called. 'Come here. What's the matter?'
She crept outside and fell, weeping, against him.
'Nana Dahd's dead, and Davy's mad at me,' she sobbed. 'I wish I were dead, too.'
'No, you don't,' he said soothingly. 'Rita wouldn't want you to be unhappy. We were lucky to have had her for as long as we did, but now it's time to let her go. She was suffering, Lani. She was in terrible pain. It would be selfish for us to want her to stay any longer.'
'I know,' Lani said, 'but…'
'Wait a minute. What's that in your hand?'
'Her owij, ' Lani answered. 'Her awl. She gave it to me yesterday. She said I must always keep making baskets.'
'Good.'
'But why was Davy so mean to me?' Lani asked. 'I called him at the dorm and asked him if he was going to come have cake with us. He said he was too busy, but I think he just didn't want to. He sounded mad, but why would he be? What have I done?'
'Nothing, Lani,' Brandon said. 'He's upset about Rita, the same as you are. He'll get over it. We just have to be patient with each other. Come on, let's go back inside and have some of that cake.'
Obligingly Lani had followed him into the house. The candles were already out. She managed to choke down a few bites of cake, but that was all.
Three days later, at the funeral at San Xavier Mission, Lani was shocked to see Rita lying in the casket with her head propped up on a pillow.
'But Nana Dahd doesn't like pillows,' Lani had insisted, tugging at her father's hand. 'She never uses a pillow.'
'Shhhh,' Brandon Walker had said. 'Not now.'
On the face of it, that was all there was to it. There was never any further discussion. Brandon's 'not now' became 'not ever,' except for one small thing.
From that day on, Dolores Lanita Walker never again used a pillow.
Not until now.
10
On the Fourth Day I'itoi made the Sun-Tash. And Elder Brother went with Tash to show him the way, just as Sun travels today.
For a long timeTash walked close to the earth, and it was very hot.Juhk O'othham — Rain Man-refused to follow his brother,Chewagi O'othham — Cloud Man-over the land, andHewel O'othham — Wind Man-was angry and only made things hotter and dryer.
All the desert world needed water. The Desert People were so thirsty and cross that they quarreled. Whenu'uwhig — the Birds-came too near each other, they pulled feathers.Tohbi — Cottontail Rabbit-andKo'owi — Rattlesnake, andJewho — Gopher-could no longer live together. SoJewho became very busy digging new holes.
When the animals had quarreled until only the strongest were left, a strange people came out of the old deserted gopher holes.
These were thePaDaj O'othham — Bad People-who were moved by the Spirit of Evil. They came from the big water in the far southwest, and they spread all over the land, killing the people as they came until every man felt that he lived in a black hole.
The Desert People were so sad that at last they cried out to the Great Spirit for help. And whenI'itoi saw that thePaDaj O'othham were in the land, he took some good spirits of the other world and made warriors out of
