“Well, you are, and I get it now. My mother’s people have lots of stories like this to teach kids the right way to do things.”
“Right. So which one do you want to use? One of Aesop’s Fables? Or maybe one of your mother’s stories?”
She’s giving me the choice? “Well, I like both of this Aesop guy’s stories, so one of his.” Sam relaxed a little. “Slow and steady wins the race or united we stand, divided we fall, right?” At her nod, he continued on. “I like the united thing. Let’s use The Four Oxen and the Lion.”
Mina gave him a guarded smile before turning her attention back to the notebook. “The Four Oxen and the Lion it is.”
She should smile more often. It changed her whole face; she usually looked way too serious. She has blue eyes. Gray-blue to be exact. He smiled in return.
Mina pulled her notebook closer. “We know our theme is going to be united we stand, divided we fall.” She wrote it across the top of the page. “Great. Now, let’s talk about some different ideas we might be able to write about.”
Sam was surprised when the bell rang for dismissal. The afternoon flew by for the first time since coming to this school. Not once had he thought about not being able to read. Even better, Mina hadn’t brought it up again. He smiled. “Thanks, that was fun.” Sam went back to his desk. Blair sat there with a sulky expression until he sat down. Putting her books away, she smiled at him. “Too bad you got stuck with Mina. Sometimes I think she’s as odd as her mother.”
Sam’s smile disappeared. What’d she mean about Mina’s mother? “She’s a smart girl.”
“Yeah, that’s true, but why shouldn’t she be? All she does is study. I don’t think she goes anywhere, and I know she doesn’t have any friends.”
“Yes, she does,” he said, and even Blair, who lived in the World of Blair got the message. But, at the same time, being Blair, she brushed it off. “Well anyway…good luck working with her.” The bell rang and she got up to leave. “See you tomorrow.”
A few minutes later, he spotted Mina on the playground talking to a little girl. Skinny with flyaway straight blond hair in sagging pony tails, she looked nothing like Mina. He watched as she bent down and tied both of the little girl’s shoes and tightened up her ponytails with a quick tug on each. That must be her sister. He compared their identical dress. On the little girl it seemed to fit, while on Mina it looked strange. Did she like dressing like that? Or was this one of those odd things Blair had mentioned about Mina’s mother? Did Mina’s mother dress like that too? Weird. He couldn’t picture it. Sam studied Mina for a few minutes. She was a little chubby and those long curls looked like something from one of the old country music album covers his grandma Miller used to listen to. Even so, today he didn’t really care how she looked or who her mother was. She didn’t make him feel stupid, and Sam hadn’t felt like that in a long time.
Mina bent down so the little girl could whisper in her ear. She straightened and gave a nod, and the little girl took off toward the swings. Sam’s eyes followed Mina’s progress toward the building until she disappeared through the side door of the gym. I know where she’s going. Sure enough, she was perched atop the dusty pile of mats in the corner. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
She had the same notebook from class this afternoon out; the words she’d written earlier were scrawled across the top of the page. “Are you working on the project?”
She nodded.
“Well, I should be helping.” He flopped down on the mats too.
Mina stared at him.
She’d gone rigid as soon as Sam dropped onto the mat. What’d I do? Do I stink? He nonchalantly rubbed his chin against his shoulder, taking a quick sniff. Nope. I don’t smell any sweat. Sam decided to ignore it and rolled onto his back to stare at the light fixtures in the gym ceiling. “Okay, where’d we leave off?” She seemed to relax a little then and was soon asking questions. He’d answer, and she’d write. Occasionally, Mina would disagree with him and say their character wouldn’t act that way and explain her reasoning; she was usually right. At least she hasn’t mentioned my reading.
They’d been working about twenty minutes when the older of Sam’s two sisters walked in. “Hau,” he greeted her. “Mina, this is my sister Winona. Winona, this is Mina.” His sister was as shy as Mina.
She smiled and said, “Hi.”
“Hi,” Mina said back.
Sam could see the two of them back over the top of his head, Mina on the mat, his sister stood like a statue. How long could they stay like that? Two deer frozen in the headlights of a car—without the car. “Have a seat, Nona. You don’t mind, do you, Mina?”
Mina shook her head, and Winona slid onto the edge of the pile of mats and leaned back against the painted cinder block wall of the gym. She pulled a book out of her backpack.
“I read that book last year.” Mina fiddled with her pencil a few moments. “It’s good.”
“Yeah, I like it a lot.” Winona fell silent and then cleared her throat. “I’m almost finished.”
They’d make great friends. “Mina likes books, I think about as much as you do, Nona,” Sam said in an attempt to orchestrate the conversation. He and Winona were close; she knew about his reading problem. He knew besides being shy, Winona felt very out of place here, awkward about being the only brown-skinned kids in school. Back home, everyone pretty much looked like them, and Winona had friends. She’d complained kids stared at them here. Most of them seemed nice enough, but the gawking got on her nerves. He’d tried to make a joke out of it, telling her it was because they were beautiful people of the Lakota nation. She just shook her head and said she didn’t like it, but never told anyone but him.
“Really? You like to read?” Winona asked.
Mina nodded. “If you like that book, you should read…” and continued on, listing a couple of more titles and then stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tell you what you should read. You’ve probably already read them.”
“No, I haven’t. Can I ask you for the titles again when I get this book finished?”
“Sure.” Mina smiled in response to the other girl’s smile. “Anytime.”
Winona returned to her book while Sam and Mina continued to work on their story. Soon Winona listened and shyly made suggestions, her reading forgotten.
This started a daily routine. At first they worked on their project. When it was done and turned in early, Sam felt great and let down at the same time. I’m just going over there to see what’s up, he thought to himself after school. Maybe Winona’s over there. She was, and so was Mina, their heads together, laughing at something. He took his usual spot on the mats, and pulled out the homework assignment Mina was already working on. By unspoken agreement, they continued to work on homework every day. Most times Winona would join them, and on rare occasions, when they could tear themselves away from the playground, Sarah and Emma would come in and sit for a few minutes.
Sam enjoyed this time more than he was willing to admit to anyone. He’d learned more from Mina than any teacher he’d ever had; she had a way of explaining things so they made sense, especially about reading. She wasn’t like the other girls he’d known—back home or here. Most girls’ behavior ranged from coy to brazen and everything in between. Not Mina. She didn’t flirt at all, and Sam couldn’t have been happier about it.
One day they sat at the picnic table on the edge of the playground waiting for the bus. It was only the two of them, Winona was home with a cold, and the little girls were over swinging, their favorite pastime. They’d just finished some math word problems Sam had been worried about. He’d read most of them out loud at Mina’s urging. It wasn’t that bad, I guess, he thought, still glad it was over. Mina never pushed him, but had been encouraging and never lost her patience, no matter how many times he stumbled over a word. They sat munching on apples, enjoying the sunshine.
“Winona was supposed to ask you today if you and Emma wanted to come over for dinner.”
Mi
na swallowed a half-chewed bite of apple and coughed. “What?”
“You and Emma. Dinner. Our house,” Sam repeated.
“Uh, when?”
“I don’t know. When do you want to come over?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with my mother. Hey…” Mina dug around in her backpack. “I have this great book, I thought you might like to read.”
Now it was Sam’s turn to say, “What?” in shock.
“A book. It’s called The Indian in the Cupboard.”
He frowned. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope, it’s good. Trust me.” Setting her apple down on the table, Mina opened the book and started to read out loud.
Sam crossed his arms on the table and rested his chin there, lulled by the warm sun on his back and her voice. He liked to listen to her read, disappointed twenty minutes later when the bell rang to load the buses. He wanted to know more about Little Bear. “More tomorrow after school?”
“‘Fraid not.” Mina tucked a scrap of paper in the book where she left off before sliding it toward him across the table. “Tomorrow is Saturday. Besides, you need to keep reading it.”
He looked at the book as if it was a snake and shook his head. “No.”
“Yes,” she insisted. “Look, you’re plenty smart enough, your reading is already much better. You need to practice. This is practice.” She pushed it closer to him.
“No. I can’t do this. I can’t. It won’t work.” He hated the almost pleading tone he heard in his own voice.
“It will. Relax and just read. This isn’t an assignment, there’s no homework, so no pressure. Read to enjoy it…it will work. Try it, please.”
He reluctantly took the book as they got up to board their buses.
“Tell Winona I hope she feels better. See you Monday.”
Monday morning, Sam searched the school yard, locating Mina on the covered area reading a book. “Morning.” He dropped down beside her and yawned as he leaned his head against the wall.
“Hi. Are you okay?” she asked after his second yawn.
“Yeah. I stayed up too late last night.”
“Were you sick?”
“Not really. It’s this book,” he said, pulling it out of his pocket. The scrap of paper was still there, but now about a third of the way through the book. “I can’t seem to put it down. Besides chores, it’s about all I did this weekend.”
“Good.” She smiled. “There are more books in the series.”
He groaned. “Oh great. I’m never going to sleep again.” Sam yawned for yet a third time. “What’d you do this weekend?” he asked after a few minutes.
“Firewood. It was hot, lots of bugs, and my arms feel like rubber.”
“All weekend?”
She nodded. “Except for about two hours on Sunday morning when I went to church.”
“Your family goes to church?”
“No. Not my parents, they don’t really get out much. Just Emma and I. I used to hear the singing on Sunday morning sometimes when my Dad and I stopped at the store. It sounded warm, and,” she shrugged, “I don’t know, good somehow. So I started walking to church on Sundays to attend the service.”
“Your parents don’t mind?”
She shook her head. “Not as long as I get myself back and forth and don’t rely on anyone for a ride. Pretty soon Emma started going too.”
“Isn’t it boring?”
“No. I don’t know.” Mina shrugged. “I like it. The sermon is okay. Our minister is old, sometimes he rambles, and I have a hard time following, and then Emma starts to fidget, but I like the music. The people are nice, and the building itself is very peaceful. You know, the church is unlocked during the day, and sometimes during the week, I walk there and sit in a pew.” She kept her voice low as if confessing.
“And do what?”
“Nothing. I just sit. I told you, I like the building. Everything’s in its place.”
“That good, huh? I can’t see it.” Sam shook his head. “I like sleeping in on Sunday too much.” Mina shifted on the pavement, and Sam caught her wince. “You all done with wood?”
“Don’t I wish.” Mina scratched a bite behind her ear. “Sometimes it takes most of the summer and part of the fall to get it, depending on the weather.”
“Do you need more help? I could come over and–”
“No, that’s okay,” Mina cut him off.
“Okay, but let me know if you need help.”
“I will. Thanks.”
He opened the book to read, and they sat that way for a while. “Did you ask your mother about coming over to the house?”
Mina didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “I haven’t had a chance, what with doing wood and all, but I will.”
Maybe she doesn’t want to come over. “You don’t have to. Ina thought it’d be nice since you guys are all the girls talk about.” He would’ve liked to have told them about Mina helping him to read. Yeah, right. Ori and Joe would be all over that.
“No, no, that’s not it. I just have to ask. I’m not sure what my mother will say. We don’t visit much.”
“Whadda ya mean?”
“Well, once in third grade I went to Cecile Vinson’s house for supper. It was well kept, but she moved away after that year.”
Once? In the third grade? Is she kidding?
“And we’ve been to my Uncle Stanley and Aunt Rosemary’s house to visit for the day.”
It was a couple of moments before he realized she was done. “That’s it? What about other uncles or aunts?” She shook her head. “Cousins?” She shook her head again. “Why not?”
“We don’t have any. My Dad was brought up in an orphanage, and Uncle Stanley is my mother’s only brother. He and my Aunt Rosemary don’t have any kids.”
“Man, I can’t imagine. Back home we have family everywhere, both on and off the rez. And with five of us kids, we were always hangin’ out somewhere, or somebody was hangin’ out at our house. Who do you hang with?”
“Emma.”
“No, I mean from school.”
“No one. My mother doesn’t like a lot of company. My own brother doesn’t come—” Mina stopped, keeping her eyes trained on the pavement between her shoes.
“What about your brother?”
Mina shook her head. “Nothing. It’s not important. Ina? You call your mother by her first name?”
Is she changing the subject? Okay…“No, my mom’s name is Lilith; Ina means mother in Lakota.”
“Do you have a special name for your father?”
“Yeah…Dad.” Sam laughed when she rolled her eyes, jumping up when the bell rang.
Thursday afternoon, Emma burst through the front door when they got home. “Ma, guess what? Ma?” Their mother wasn’t in the living room. Emma headed toward the kitchen.
What’s she so excited about? Mina wondered, trailing along behind. She skirted a box and several bags in her path. They weren’t here this morning. “Ma, where’d you get this stuff from?”
“Down the road at the Smith place. The sign said Free.” Their mother sat at the kitchen table, engrossed in a cookbook.
Mina could never figure it out. Ma read cookbooks the way other people read novels. And not once had she ever tried a recipe; she cooked the same food over and over. Her coarse gray hair hung limply to her shoulders, and she wore the same stained old house dress she’d had on yesterday.
“Ma,” Emma said again. “Guess what?”
“What?” Ma asked, but didn’t look up, her half glasses trained on the book.
“Sarah wants us to come over to her house.”
Well, thanks for blurting that out, Em. Mina hadn’t figured out how to broach the subject with her mother yet, and hadn’t mentioned the invitation to Emma, in case Ma said no. Must be Sarah told her.
“Who?”
“Sarah…my new friend at school. They want Mina and me to come over for supper.”
“Mina?” Her mother looked at her o
ver the top of her glasses. “What’s she talkin’ about?”
“The Millers. Remember, the ones that moved into the camp on Gooseneck Road?” Mina tried to keep her voice nonchalant. “Emma and Sarah are in the same class, and play together after school.”
“Why’d they invite you too?”
“Winona is Sarah’s older sister. She’s a year behind me, but we sometimes hang out while we’re waiting for the bus.” Mina hoped it would be enough of an explanation. “It’s not a big deal. It’s just for supper.” But it was a big deal.
“Hang out?” her mother questioned in a disapproving tone and went back to reading the cookbook again. They waited, Emma shifting from foot to foot. Ma perused three more pages before waving them off with her hand. “Fine. You can go, but someone will have to give you a ride home. Your father can’t be counted on to pick you up.”
“Okay. I’ll ask about a ride.” Mina turned to leave. She couldn’t believe it had been that easy.
“Also…”
Mina stopped, turning to face her mother.
“I want you to remember that just because you go over there, you know better than to ask if they can come here, and you’d better be on your best behavior.”
Mina nodded. As if we’re ever anything other than polite. She felt guilty for not mentioning Sam, but she knew if her mother found out there was a boy there, not to mention three, if you counted Sam’s two older brothers, she’d never let them go. Good thing Em didn’t mention them.
When Mina called the Millers’ later that evening, she hoped Sam would answer, so she could tell him, but at the same time she hoped he wouldn’t because her mother sat right around the corner from the phone. Winona answered. “Hi. My mother said we can come over.” Mina hesitated. “There’s one thing though. My father isn’t going to be home, so she said someone would need to give us a ride home. Do you think that’s possible?” Mina hated to ask anyone for anything, but she saw no way around it. It was too far to walk, and Emma really wanted to go. Be honest. So do you.
“Hold on.”
Winona conferred with someone in the background.
My Mother Grows Wallflowers Page 3