'Be it so ordered,' Judge Juan said, whacking her desk with the gavel. 'Next case.'
13
Then all the people near the village of Gurli Put Vo-Dead Man's Pond-were told to come to a council so they could arrange for the protection of their fields. Everything that flies and all the animals came with the Indians to the council. And everybody promised to watch carefully so that the Bad People of the south should not again surprise them.
WhenPaDaj O'othham had eaten all the corn which they had stolen, they were soon hungry again. So they began once more to think of the nice fields of the Desert People. They began to wish they could steal the harvest, but they did not know how to accomplish this because, as you know, the Indians and their friends, the Flying People and all the animals, were on guard.
Then a wise old bad man toldPaDaj O'othham what to do.
Now when the Desert People held that council to arrange for the protection of their fields, they were so excited that they called only the people who live aboveground. So this wise old bad man toldPaDaj O'othham to call all the people who live under the ground: Ko'owi — the Snakes,Nanakshel — the Scorpions,Hiani — the Tarantulas,Jewho — the Gophers,Chichdag — the Gila Monsters, andChuk — the Jackrabbits. The Bad People said they would give all these people who live under the ground good food and beautiful clothes if they would go through the ground to the fields of the Desert People and fight theTohono O'othham while the Bad People stole the crops.
Chuk — Jackrabbit-did not like this plan. The Indians had always been good toChuk, and he did not want to fight them. But Jackrabbit did not know what to do.
Some bumblebees were sitting in a nearby tree.Hu'udagi — the Bumblebees-toldChuk to run with all his speed to the Desert People and tell them how PaDaj O'othham were planning to steal their harvest. The Bumblebees said they would tell U'uwhig — the Birds.
So Jackrabbit ran. He went in such a hurry that he took longer and longer jumps. As he jumped longer and longer, his legs grew longer and longer. That is why, my friend, even to this day, Jackrabbit's legs are so much longer than the legs of his brother rabbit,Tohbi — the Cottontail.
Lani awakened in the dark. She was hot. Salt, leached from her sweat-stained shirt, had seeped into the raw wound on her breast. The smoldering pain from that was what had wakened her, and it seemed to expand with every breath, filling her eyes with tears. Her whole body was stiff. Her back ached from lying on what seemed to be uneven grooves in the floor beneath her.
While she had been asleep, she had been dreaming again, dreaming about Nana Dahd. In the dream Lani had been a child again. She and Rita had been walking together somewhere, walking and talking, although that was impossible. By the time Lani first knew Rita Antone, Nana Dahd was already confined to a wheelchair.
Lani emerged from Rita's comforting presence in the dream, and she longed to return there, but this time when she wakened, she didn't seem to emerge gradually. There was no lingering fog of confusion the way there had been before. She knew at once that she was a prisoner and that she had been drugged. Perhaps the man named Vega had given her a much smaller dose this time, or perhaps some of the effect had been evacuated out of her system-sweated out of her pores by the perspiration that soaked her clothing.
Lani felt around her, trying to assess the hot, dark cage in which she was imprisoned-a huge wooden crate from the feel of it. Her searching fingers reached out and touched sturdy walls a foot or so on either side of her. They refused to give or even so much as creak when she tried pushing against them. Then she pounded on the wood until her knuckles bled, but if anyone heard, no one came to her aid.
The darkness around her at first seemed absolute, but at last she noticed rays of yellow light penetrating the darkness. The light, as if from street lights, told her that it was still night. She was near a road. She could hear the muffled roar of traffic-the sounds of heavy trucks, anyway. Periodically the box shook with what had to be the earth-shaking rumble of a nearby passing train.
For a while Lani tried yelling for help, but the heavy wooden box swallowed the sound, locking the noise inside with her. Her shouting, like the pounding that had preceded it, brought no help. No one would come, she realized at last. Rescue, if it came at all, would have to come from inside, from Lani herself. Otherwise, she would simply lie in this overheated box until the heat got to her or until she died of thirst or starvation.
As she had done countless times in the past, she reached up to her throat to touch her kushpo ho'oma — her hair charm-only to discover it was missing. At first, when her fingertips touched only the naked gold chain, she thought she had lost the medallion and she was bereft. Seconds later, though, she remembered taking it off and putting it in her pocket-hiding it there in hopes of keeping it out of the hands of the evil man who had hurt her so badly.
It was still there in her pocket, exactly where she had hidden it. That reassured her. At least Vega hadn't stripped off her clothes again, hadn't discovered where she had hidden the charm, so perhaps, this time, he had left her alone.
She had no idea how long she had been asleep. From that moment early in the morning-some morning-when she sat down on the rock for him to begin sketching her until now could have been one day or several, for all she knew. For one thing, she had been out of it long enough for him to draw that second picture. Just thinking about that-about lying there naked in front of him all that time, for what must have been hours-made her wince with shame. And if Lani didn't remember any of that, there might be other things the man had done to her that she didn't remember, either.
She lay very still and tried to sense the condition of her body. Other than the damaged breast and what felt like a series of splinters in her back, she seemed to be intact. If he had raped her, she would feel it, wouldn't she? There was a sudden feeling of relief that deserted her a moment later. Of course he hadn't raped her. Not yet. That was why she was still here. That was what awaited her once he came back-that and more.
In that moment, Lani saw it all with appalling clarity. Of course Vega would return for her. He had no intention of her staying in the box forever until she died of heat prostration or thirst or starvation. He had locked her in the crate for a reason-so she would be available to him, helpless and waiting, when it was time for whatever came next.
Sooner or later, Vega would come back for her. Closing her eyes in the darkness, she saw him again, with an almost gleeful smile on his face, standing over her with the overheated tongs in his hand. Vega was a man who enjoyed inflicting pain. When he came back, Lani knew full well that he would hurt her again.
Had she been standing upright, that awful realization might have tumbled her to the ground. As a child Lani had heard the stories of Ohbsgam Ho'ok — Apachelike Monster-who lived around Rattlesnake Skull and who carried young girls away with him, never to be seen again. Vega was like Ohbsgam Ho'ok. They were different only in that Vega was real. He was a bully-strong and mean and powerful. Lani was alone and helpless.
'The best thing to do with a bully is to ignore him,' Davy had told Lani once. After yet another run-in with Danny Jenkins at school, she had turned to her older brother for advice.
'Those guys thrive on attention,' Davy had continued. 'That's usually all they want. If you treat 'em like they don't exist, eventually they melt into the woodwork. The only way to get the best of them is to try to understand them, to figure out what their weaknesses are. Then, the next time they come after you, you'll know what to do.'
Following Davy's suggestions, Lani had made a show of ignoring Danny Jenkins all the while she studied him. It didn't take long for her to realize that he was desperately afraid of not being accepted, of not fitting in. Bullying was his sole defense, his weapon against being bullied himself. Once Lani understood all that, she had been able to use that knowledge to turn Danny Jenkins into a friend.
But how could she understand someone like Mr. Vega? And did she want to? How was it possible to comprehend a person who was capable of such cruelty? Trying to find a more comfortable position for her aching back, she settled herself on the rough floor and pulled the cloth of the shirt away from the singed skin of her breast. Then she closed her eyes and tried to think.
Just like Danny Jenkins, Vega thrived on power and on other people's pain. He had hurt her, yes, and he would do so again, but hurting her wasn't the real point, or, at least, not the only one. She sensed that what he had
