by C C Daniels
While Honaw dished up the sandwiches, I switched on MawMaw’s tiny kitchen radio, one thing that the thugs hadn’t thrown to the floor. It sat on the windowsill right where it always was. When she worked in the kitchen, MawMaw listened to the same jazz station that Ms. Savage liked. I turned it up a bit so the deputy outside couldn’t hear our conversation.
Then we sat down to eat.
“Tell me about the legend you were thinking of earlier,” I demanded before anyone had a chance to take a bite.
Kanaan looked at Honaw. “Go for it, big brother,” he said and tore into his sandwich.
“Kanaan doesn’t believe,” Honaw said.
I raised an eyebrow in Kanaan’s direction. “I thought you were all about tradition?”
He swallowed and shrugged. “Tradition and mythical analogies, yes. Magic not so much.” He took another bite.
My jaw dropped open. Kanaan winked at me. Maybe we weren’t so different after all.
Honaw swallowed a bite before he started. He kept his voice down, so I had to lean in to hear. “There’s an old story that was passed down from the ancient ones, said to have originated from Chief Tuwa.” According to Ute myth, Chief Tuwa was the first chief with a given name. Honaw continued, “I was very young, not even in school yet, and still allowed in the elders’ tent. The elder who told this story was very old, a hundred years perhaps.”
I nodded to encourage Honaw.
“The elder had said that Chief Tuwa spoke of beings who came from the sky. They came before the time of fire and walked among the ancient ones. The beings claimed they were kin with the Nuutsiu. It was those beings who taught the Nuutsiu how to make fire. The ancient ones described the sky people as gods and goddesses with great powers.”
I smirked. Kanaan had a small smile on his lips too.
Honaw stopped. “Do you want to hear it or not?”
“Sure. Sorry. Go on.”
“When Kanaan asked if I ever heard of a legend about weird skulls, it reminded me of that story. The elder said that when the gods who walked with the ancients died, their flesh died too.” Honaw picked up his sandwich. “But their bones never did.” He bit into his sandwich.
I picked off a crusty corner of mine. “Did the legend include a color description of the bones?”
Honaw chewed and swallowed before speaking. “Luminous. Like the shells of abalone,” he said.
I couldn’t eat. That sounded a lot like the skull, and the newly discovered piece in MawMaw's bedpost. “The so-called sky beings could have just been more advanced humanoids.” I pushed my plate away.
“That became extinct.” Kanaan pushed my plate back to me with a motion that I should eat.
“If they were that advanced, wouldn’t the Nuutsiu be extinct before them?” Honaw had a point.
“What else does the legend say?” I asked.
“That’s all I heard at that powwow,” he said. “I was older and shooed away from the elders’ tipi at the next powwow.”
Toddlers and infants were allowed in the elders tipi. School-aged kids weren’t. He wasn’t telling everything he knew. I couldn’t see his thought that time, but I sensed it.
“I want to see that skull for myself.” Honaw popped the rest of his grilled cheese in his mouth.
I nodded in agreement.
“Eat.” Kanaan pushed my plate even closer.
“And.” Honaw swallowed before continuing. “The fewer people who know about it the better.” His eyes drifted to the bullet holes in the ceiling.
For sure. No one else needed to be shot at. I nodded my agreement again. And, that time, heard a strange hum of his thoughts. Kanaan smiled when I picked up my sandwich and bit off another corner. After we ate, I turned off the radio. Kanaan and Honaw crashed in the living room for the night.
I picked up my room a little before I fell into bed, hopeful that being worn out would let me sleep deeply. It was definitely wishful thinking. The skull was mystery enough. Why would there be a hunk of the same material hidden in MawMaw’s four-poster bed? Did she even know it was there? Was it there when it was my parents’ bed? Is that what the gunmen wanted in New York? The last question seemed to be a yes.
Then, there were the issues of Mr. Smith, tattooed man, and Honaw’s story of people who came from the sky. I finally dozed off in the early hours of the morning, with more questions than answers swirling in my mind.
When I woke the next morning, the first thing I did was reach for my phone to call the hospital. MawMaw was scheduled for a final round of tests, the nurse on duty told me. She wouldn’t be back in her room until later in the morning. I texted MawMaw so when she returned to her room, she’d see my message on her phone.
I took the phone with me and headed for the bathroom. Completely forgetting that I had houseguests, I barged right in.
There was Kanaan, bare-chested with a towel wrapped around his waist. I blinked and stared—and stopped breathing. I was surprised how broad his shoulders were. I stared at his muscular torso. He had six-pack abs worthy of a fitness magazine cover. The phone in my hand chimed.
Kanaan grinned back at me. “Are you going to answer that?”
I looked into his face and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror behind him. Horrified at my bed-head hair sticking up everywhere, I spun around and slammed the door shut. I heard him laugh. My phone rang again. It was Amaya.
“Hey,” I answered. I went back to my bedroom and closed the door.
“My parents are about thirty minutes from home,” Amaya said. “My aunt will drive us to our house to be there when they arrive. By the way, my aunt called school. She excused me and you for today. They know that MawMaw’s in the hospital.”
“Tell her thanks for me,” I said.
There was a knock at my bedroom door. “The bathroom’s all yours,” Kanaan said through the door.
“Who was that?” Amaya asked.
“Kanaan,” I answered.
“Oh, really?” She responded with a smile in her voice.
“It’s not like that.” I swung my legs off the bed. “Anyway, I have to go get ready to meet you.”
“Okay, see you in a bit.” Amaya hung up.
I took a superfast shower, brushed my teeth, and hurried to get dressed. Uncle Jun, Honaw, and Kanaan were having scrambled eggs when I got to the kitchen. Honaw offered to make me some too. “Thanks, but just toast for me. I’ll eat on the walk over to Amaya’s.”
While at the toaster, I noticed a different officer standing guard outside. I sighed turning to the males sitting at the table. “Isn’t this police protection unusual?”
“They had semiautomatic weapons that they actually fired,” Kanaan explained. “I think that’s a big deal.”
My toast popped. I smeared it with a thick spread of apple butter. The thugs didn’t even touch the fridge, for which I was grateful. I wrapped the bread in a paper towel to eat on the way.
I turned around to see Kanaan at the back door holding my jacket. “Ready?” he asked.
“Where do you kids think you’re going?” Uncle Jun asked as he rinsed his plate and washed his hands at the sink.
Kanaan and I locked eyes, not knowing what to say.
Honaw stood. “They’ve got a history project they’re working on with Amaya.”
That was as close to the truth as possible.
“I’ll walk them over and come back to help you with the ceiling,” Honaw added coming to the door.
Uncle Jun turned to dry his hands on a towel. “I’m under strict orders from MawMaw.”
I kissed Uncle Jun on the cheek knowing that would put him at a disadvantage. He wasn’t a big physical-expressions kind of guy. “I’ll be fine. Kanaan and Amaya will be with me. And Amaya’s parents and aunt will be there too.”
He sighed, begrudgingly. “All right.”
“But first, I have to feed Ella,” I said.
“Done,” Kanaan said.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“While you were getting ready,”
he added.
I grabbed a few cubes from the sugar jar. Uncle Jun narrowed his eyes, so I put them back. From the fruit drawer in the fridge, I took an apple for Ella instead.
Uncle Jun smiled and nodded.
Ella liked apples, but she liked sugar cubes more. Just like me, she had an undeniable sweet tooth. I walked outside ahead of the boys and straight to the barn. Ella met me outside in her small corral. “Good morning, sweetie.” She smelled the apple in my hand. I gave her the treat, keeping my toast out of her reach, and petted her before hurrying down the street with the Lykota boys.
Amaya and her aunt were already standing outside. Her parents drove past us and pulled into the driveway as we neared the house. Amaya smiled at us and flashed us a quick thumbs-up on the sly.
Chapter 9
Kenta Harjo-Bell, Amaya’s mom, was my mom’s best friend in high school. But teenage Kenta liked my dad, too, MawMaw told me. So when Dad started dating Mom, the young women became frenemies.
The situation resolved when Amaya’s dad came to town and her parents fell madly in love. Ever since their senior year in high school, the two couples—and later their daughters—were close. Even when we moved to New York, our families often visited back and forth.
That friendship, I believed, was why Mrs. Bell regularly helped MawMaw after we moved to the East Coast. Even though Mrs. Bell didn’t like MawMaw, she’d make sure stuff like house maintenance happened and that the truck had an oil change every once in a while. Why Amaya’s mom didn’t like MawMaw was something I couldn’t figure out. Everyone liked MawMaw.
Amaya hugged her dad. “Any news?” She looked at him hopefully.
He glanced at Mrs. Bell before they shook their heads.
Like Gertie, Mrs. Bell consistently wore a necklace with pretty green beads. She fingered those beads and watched Kanaan and Honaw help Mr. Bell lift Kai from the van to his wheelchair.
“No one knows anything,” Mrs. Bell said, a bitter curl in her upper lip. “Modern medicine is useless to us.” Her voice ended on her mean tone, the one that warned everyone to step back.
MawMaw said to forgive her when she was like that, and that Mrs. Bell had changed when Kai had gotten sick and that it was completely understandable. I didn’t understand, but maybe I would if I had children someday.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Honaw closed the car door.
Mr. Bell opened the back to get their suitcases.
“We’re going to the garage,” Amaya said. “Wanna come, Kai?”
Kai smiled big. “Yeah!” He aimed his wheelchair and rolled it fast toward the garage.
Kai impressed me. Always cheerful, he never let his illness get the best of him. He was a sweet boy who didn’t deserve to be sick. I rubbed my arm wondering again if the skull flakes could actually heal him too.
Mrs. Bell stopped midstep, almost hitting her own heels with the carry-on bag she was rolling up the zigzag wheelchair ramp.
“What did you just say?” she asked
I looked behind me. I hadn’t heard anyone say anything. The boys had followed Amaya and Kai to the garage.
“Wray?” Mrs. Bell pursed her lips.
“Me?” I shook my head. “I didn’t say anything.”
Her lips pressed into a tight thin line and I backed away from her stepping closer to the safety of the garage.
Mr. Bell closed the trunk and rolled two bigger suitcases onto the ramp leading to their back door.
“Amaya told us about the home invasion and MawMaw’s injury. We’re so sorry,” he said.
“Thank you,” I replied.
“Any idea what the gunmen wanted?”
I shrugged, neither a no nor a yes.
After a long, not-so-pleasant glance at me, Mrs. Bell turned and walked away. “Come on, honey. I want to see the baby.”
“Well, let MawMaw know that if there’s anything we can do to help…” Mr. Bell trailed off.
“I will. Thanks.” I spun and hurried the last few steps. I breathed a sigh of relief at the threshold of the garage. Relief to be away from Mrs. Bell—and to see that nothing had been disturbed in the garage. I looked at the globe on the shelf.
“Umm, Kai,” said Honaw. “Would you go outside and—”
“Nope.” Amaya cut him off. “Kai stays. This is more important to him than any of us.”
Kanaan’s jaw twitched. He turned gently to Kai. “Whatever you see here, right now has to be a secret. Do you understand?”
“What secret?” Kai asked with a happy grin.
Amaya knelt in front of his chair. “We found something. Well, Wray found something and it’s pretty neat.”
“It’s so neat that other people might want to steal it,” Kanaan added with a smile. “So it has to be top secret. Got it, bro?”
“I love secrets! I got it, bro.” He and Kanaan knocked fists.
“Where is it?” Honaw asked.
I looked at Amaya.
That tin globe had been our secret hiding place. We pinkie swore that as long as we lived and breathed, we’d never reveal it to another living soul.
“It’s in here.” She began to remove books and other items from the top of the old trunk that they used as a coffee table.
Honaw, Kanaan, and I helped her. My friend was smart. She had taken it out of the globe before we got there. Beneath the trunk lid, resting on a stack of old board games, was the skull. Bare hands, Amaya took it out. I closed the trunk, and she set it on top.
“Oh, cool!” Kai remarked. “Is it for Halloween?”
Amaya shook her head. “It’s much more special than that.”
Honaw moved around the trunk. He leaned down to get a good look at the skull from all angles, but he didn’t touch it.
Amaya went to the small kitchenette part of the garage. From a narrow cabinet next to the fridge, she fetched a plastic bin. She brought it to the trunk and set it next to the skull. Then she dug in her pocket. And before anyone could stop her, she unfolded a pocketknife and cut her forearm—pretty deep, too.
“Amaya!” Honaw reached for the first aid kit on top of the fridge.
“Don’t need it.” She shook her head. “I need to show Kai what this skull can do.” Amaya held her blood-dripping arm over the bin, she crouched to be level with the skull.
“Amaya, we still don’t know what the side effects are to this,” I said.
“Who says there are any?” she said.
“There are always side effects to quirks like this.” I crossed my arms. “Always.”
Amaya paused her movements. “You call them quirks. I call them power. And”—with a blink, she looked up at me—“I believe everyone is obligated to use whatever power is provided to them.” Apparently, the skull agreed. While Amaya and I stared at each other, it put out an atmosphere of approval. Unaffected, Amaya’s attention went back to the skull.
The Lykota boys too. Neither of them seemed to be aware of—much less affected by—its energy either. But Kai? He must have felt it. Lips pressed together, he nodded slowly at the skull.
“Watch this,” Amaya whispered. She scraped the pearly surface with the knife angling her cut so that it caught most of the flakes.
Mesmerized by the sparkling, Kai’s and Honaw’s eyes were as big as saucers, as if mesmerized by the sparkling. When the skull finished healing itself, Honaw’s jaw dropped.
“Oh.” Amaya wiggled a little. “It tickles.”
Everyone focused on her arm. The flakes in her wound flashed and flickered. So did the bits that fell into the bloody plastic bin. Within twenty seconds or so, all the sparkling stopped.
Amaya lifted her arm. The cut had vanished without a trace. No scar. No blood—on her or in the bin. It was like the cut never even happened.
Honaw jumped back and blinked a lot.
“Incredible.” Kanaan took a seat on the sofa.
“Bones that never die,” Honaw whispered.
Kai had observed it all with quiet concentration. His eyes moved from the sku
ll—still putting out vibes—to Amaya’s arm and back again. “It can heal me,” he said in an awed, hushed voice.
“Kai, we don’t know that for sure. We’ve only seen it heal flesh wounds, nothing else. And, we have no idea what the long-range effect of that sparkly dust is,” I cautioned.
Amaya flashed me an angry frown.
I threw up my hands, exasperated with her nonchalant attitude. “Well, we don’t.”
“True.” Nodding, Kai shifted his attention from his sister to me. “But we do know what the long-range effect of my disease is going to be.” He said it with a grown-up tone that only sick children develop.
My breath caught. I couldn’t argue against that.
“I want to try it.” Kai was already pulling up his sleeves. “Cut me open and scrape some in.”
“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.” Honaw, with his hands up, stepped between Amaya’s knife and Kai. “Don’t you think your parents should be in on this?”
“No.” Kanaan shook his head. “We just agreed that the fewer people who know about this skull, the better.”
The sigh from Honaw was deep.
“I’d rather men in black didn’t show up here,” Amaya insisted.
Kai looked sideways at her. “Who?”
“Men in black ski masks with guns busted into Wray’s house yesterday,” Kanaan explained.
“They’re why MawMaw’s in the hospital,” I added.
“They shot MawMaw?” Kai was near tears.
“No. No. Thank goodness.” I touched his shoulder to calm him. “They hit her pretty hard, though.”
“Then, we can’t tell anyone about this thing.” He pointed at the skull. “What if they hurt someone else?”
“I think we all agree on that.” I looked around the group. No one dissented. I kept the polished piece in MawMaw’s bedpost to myself for the exact same reason. I wasn’t sure which piece the gunmen were looking for. They searched my backpack, but they also ransacked the house.
Ms. Savage and Mr. Smith. Both knew about the skull. I trusted Ms. Savage. Mr. Smith, though? Would he send men with guns to get what he wanted? I wasn’t sure. One thing that I was sure of: the fewer people who knew about either of the pieces, the better—especially since tattooed man was a link to my parents’ murders.