Some new clothes.

Now, after presenting myself to this group of people, I was sitting in a room across the hall from a conference room where my fate, so to say, was being determined.

I sat there thinking, even if they allow Kai to teach, can I teach a bunch of guys with me looking like a girl? No, not looking like, but being Kai. Could Kai do this? Yes!

When I’d gotten home from being with the old sheep rancher, I’d checked the answering machine. I was hoping that I’d hear from my advisor, Mr. Robertson, about my grad assistant position. But no such luck.

We went up to the Crest to walk and relax, and we had our first lovers quarrel. Then after a talk, a pizza, and a bottle of wine things we were back to normal.

Saturday, Ajie and I had overslept and didn’t get breakfast before we left for the dance competition. When we were finally there and were walking through the vendor area, we stopped at one of the vendors that sells beaded jewelry and pottery, but they happened to have a hair-pipe bone choker with silver for sale. We bought it and took it to Mr. Yazzie. And we found out from him that Kilchii Nez had made part of it. Ajie and I went back to the vendor that we’d purchased the choker from and found that they had a wooden box that they had gotten at an estate sale.

What was in this box?

A trip to Taos turned interesting when we ran into Uncle Paul’s Cousin Ahiga at Mr. Yazzie’s shop as Mr. Yazzie was trading for another piece of my Great-Great-Grandfather Kilchii Nez’s silver pieces.

Earlier we’d found out that the members of The Big Medicine People Clan were undecided about how to replace Chief Peshlakai. My grandmother wants me to go to a meeting of the clan and try to sway them to accept the real winner of the last election.

When we were back at the resort, Naainish filled us in on the Eagle feathers. And I filled him, my aunt and uncle, and Maria and Mark in on the Eagles back home. Was this too much information for Mark and Maria.

After we’d finished shopping, we paid a call on Mr. Yazzie the silversmith. It was a surprise, as he didn’t know that Ajie and I were in town. We joked around with him about the two rings that he’d slipped into our goodie bag last year. He’d also shown us a lovely piece of work that my Great-Great-Grandfather Kilchii Nez had done. It was a small silver box with a round turquoise piece in the center of the top.

After we were out of that mess, we finished the drive to Albuquerque. I was so mad at myself for setting the camera bag down that I was ready to put all the jewelry in the safe and weld the safe shut. But calmer heads prevailed, Amy calmed me down. And she suggested that we find someplace to watch a sunset. That place was an hours drive and five-thousand feet higher then we are in Albuquerque. But it was worth the trip. But what was even better was finding a drive-in afterward that served ginger ale milkshakes and great fries. Now if their hamburgers are just as good.

We’d had also found maps of the parks in Albuquerque, and one of the parks had a trail that sounded interesting, and we’d taken a two-and-a-half mile hike on a loop trail. And we found out that we haven’t adjusted to the climate and altitude in the area. Albuquerque is a little over five-thousand feet above sea level, and back home is only about nine-hundred feet.

Then today, Tuesday, we had meetings with my advisor for my master’s program, and Amy’s preceptor for her master’s program who was Dr. Etsitty. And during our talk with Dr. Etsitty, she told us that she knew I was Kai. Which, for some reason, didn’t upset me. And as we talked, we found out that Chief Peshlakai was up to his old tricks. Now that did upset me just a little bit. Yeah right. It upset me a hell of a lot!

After dinner, we watched a Sunset and then went to the bonfire. Naainish was there, and after greeting us, he had said in Navajo, “Kai, I sense trouble. Is everything good?”