Coyote's Wife (12 page)

“Why don’t you join us in the old living room? We haven’t had a real family evening in a while.”

“Not tonight, daughter. My granddaughter has things to talk to you about.”

Now Ella knew for sure that there were problems brewing. Rose left, walking into the new wing she shared with Herman,
as Ella stepped into the kitchen.

“You can fill me in on whatever is going on while I eat, daughter.” She wasn’t particularly hungry but if she didn’t eat, Rose would have a million questions.

She brought a covered casserole dish full of tasty mutton stew out of the oven, then retrieved a plastic bag from the crisper that contained four pieces of golden brown fry bread.

“I won’t mind if you
want to share,” Dawn commented, bringing two bowls and dessert plates out of the cupboard.

Ella looked at her kid and laughed.

“She ate already,” came Rose’s voice from the sitting room down the hall. “It’s your turn.”

Ella smiled. Of course Rose wouldn’t have gone far, not when something was up. Two minutes later, Ella ladled some stew into the bowls.

Silently signaling her daughter to dig
in, they divided up the pieces of fry bread, and enjoyed the stew, hot and delicious—filled with chunks of mutton, chopped potatoes, and green chile.

“So tell me what’s going on,” Ella said, feeling the invigorating effects of Rose’s home-cooked meal.

“My friend Sara told me you’d be getting a letter, too, just like the one her mom got yesterday. I kinda wanted to talk to you about that.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble you forgot to tell me about?”

“No, it’s not like that at all. Valley Academy—over by Farmington—awards two scholarships a year. Sara got one, and her mom was told that the second one was mine.” Dawn ran into the living room and came back with a letter addressed to Ella on Valley Academy stationery.

Ella opened it and verified that it was just as Dawn had said—a
full scholarship, including fees, uniforms, and room and board at the academy dormitory. The last part made her stomach drop. “And how do you feel about this? Is Sara accepting?”

“Oh yeah, Mom. It’s a big deal at her house. Her mom’s
Anglo and she wanted Sara to go to a school off the reservation.”

“But do
you
want to go?”

“They teach riding, Mom!” she said, in a tone so filled with yearning
Ella had to smile. Any mom on the planet knew that sound by heart.

Ella skimmed the letter. “It says here the scholarship will be extended all through high school if you keep your grade point average at a B or better.”

“That school is thirty miles away!” Rose called out, now in sight of the kitchen, having come into the hall. “And they’ll require her to stay there from Monday to Friday. It’s
a boarding school, daughter, like the ones they used to have for Navajo children who lived way out on the reservation.”

Ella had grown up a generation too late for the tribal boarding schools, and, living close to Shiprock, she would have never been forced to go anyway. But she’d heard some of the horror stories.

Ella looked back at Dawn. “Are you aware that you’d have to live at this school,
not just go to classes?”

“Yeah, but, Mom, that’ll make it easier to do homework and stuff. That’s why they do it.”

“And what if she got sick?” Rose said, coming into the kitchen.

Dawn shrugged and looked at Ella. “Then they’d take me to the doctors in Farmington, I guess. And I’d make sure they called you so you wouldn’t get worried. It’s not like you couldn’t come and check on me, right?”

“Does that mean you want to accept, Dawn?” Ella asked, sensing that she still wasn’t getting the whole story.

“You’re not really considering sending your daughter to an Anglo school!” Rose said quickly.

“Mom, relax. What do you think they’ll do, turn her into a blue-eyed blonde? I’m not saying yes or no to anything
yet. First, I want to know what my daughter wants,” Ella said.

Rose gave her
a look of pure outrage. “How can you even consider this? I just don’t understand either of you!” she said, and stormed back out of the kitchen.

Ella knew that her exit had been for show. She’d be willing to bet her last dime that her mother was just out of sight, still close enough to listen to every word.

“Okay, kid. What do
you
want to do?”

“I really like that they have riding lessons, and
Sara’s my best friend …but I’d miss my other friends, and home, too,” she added slowly.

“You can take riding lessons here, from Boots and anyone else we can find. You’ve been doing that for years.”

“But they have riding competitions on Saturday that really sound like a lot of fun, Mom,” Dawn said, a trace of hesitancy in her voice.

“So is that a yes?” Ella pressed gently. “Or do you want to
find out more about it first? There’s a good and a bad side to everything in life, so think about it long and hard before you make up your mind.”

“So it’s up to me?”

Ella smiled. “No, I’m your parent, and I have to make the final decision. I’ll have to think about this, too—long and hard.”

Dawn nodded. “I thought you’d say that. What about Dad?”

“I’ll be talking to him later tonight and I’ll
tell him about it then,” Ella said. And not just about Dawn’s school. She also wanted to get a better handle on Roxanne. “Daughter, are you sure you’ve never heard of Roxanne Dixon?”

Dawn’s eyebrows knitted together as she mulled it over. “Dad used to have a girlfriend by the name of Roxie. I never knew her last name. Is that who you mean?”

“I don’t know. Tell me about her.”

Dawn made a face.
“She was always pretending to be nice, Mom, like some girls do just before they tell on you,” she said. “For a while she was coming over every weekend. I remember one time we were making cookies and she kept asking me about you.”

“And what did you say?”

Dawn shrugged. “I told her what
Shimasání
always says, that one Navajo doesn’t speak for another. But that didn’t stop her.”

“What kind of
questions was she asking you?” Ella pressed.

“She wanted to know if you and Reverend Tome were dating a lot, and if you were going to be marrying him,” Dawn said, then paused. “But, Mom, she was really weird. Whenever Dad came into the room, she’d stop asking about you. All she’d do then was tell me how pretty I was and stuff like that, just like we were best friends. She thought I was too stupid
to know she was making it up for Dad to hear.”

“Make sure that if you ever see her at school, you tell an adult immediately,” Ella said.

“Okay.” Dawn started to leave the room, then stopped. “Mom, I forgot to ask you. What time do you want to start out this weekend?”

It was only Thursday and Ella hadn’t even begun to think about the weekend. “Say again?”

Dawn’s mouth fell open and her eyes
grew wide as saucers. “You didn’t forget, did you?”

Ella blinked, searching her mind.

“Don’t you remember our trail ride?” Dawn wailed.

“Oh… I just started a case,” she began, then saw Dawn’s shoulders slump. “If there’s any way I can get away, you and
I will take off a few hours on Saturday to go riding. But we may have to get a really early start, okay?”

“That’s okay. We’d have to be back
home by noon anyway. I’m going on that class field trip to the water treatment plant in the afternoon, remember? But we’ll have a breakfast ride and it’ll be fun!”

“If you’re thinking of a simple breakfast, like a snack bar, then yes,” Ella said with a smile. Her daughter knew how to push better than anyone else on the planet.

“Okay, simple,” Dawn said, her eyes dancing. “And we’ll take apples
in our saddlebags for Wind and Chieftain.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ella said, her thoughts already on Kevin. She shouldn’t wait any longer, it was already nine forty-five in Washington. She’d call him next.

As soon as her daughter went into her room to play on her computer, Ella picked up the phone and dialed Kevin’s cell. She got him on the first ring.

“What’s up?” Kevin asked, immediately picking
up on the tautness of her voice.

“Several things. First, our daughter’s been offered a full scholarship to Valley Academy, starting next semester.”

“That’s great! I went to Valley. I’m still on the board there too. Maybe that’s why they took a close look at Dawn.”

“Wait—you’ve been lobbying for this?”

“Not really, no. I assumed you and your mother wouldn’t let her leave for boarding school
until she got much older. But the only reason I stayed a trustee was in hopes that we could get Dawn in there someday.”

“I haven’t made any decision on this yet. It’s one of the reasons I’m calling.”

“If this scholarship just fell into her lap, it may be because they’re looking to add more minority students to their enrollment. Face it, offering scholarships to minorities also
generates good
PR. But Valley Academy has stiff requirements. They only accept students with a three-point-five grade point average or above—so Dawn wasn’t offered this just because of me—or you.”

“Two scholarships were awarded—one to our daughter and one to her friend, Sara,” Ella said. “But Dawn isn’t sure she wants to go yet, though the horseback riding angle really appeals to her.”

“Wait a second. You’re
not letting her make a decision like this on her own, are you? She’s just a child. Graduating from Valley can open all kinds of doors for her. With the credentials that school has to offer, if Dawn keeps her grades up, she’ll be able to get into any college she chooses. Ella, this is a terrific opportunity.”

“I know. That’s the only reason I’m seriously considering it.”

“What’s bothering you?
Are you worried because this means she’ll be going to a boarding school, or because it’s going to have mostly Anglo students and it’s off the Rez?” he asked.

“The first reason. I’d like to keep her closer to home because she’s still very young, and I don’t know if she’s ready for this. Some of those kids, Anglo or not, come from very wealthy families. Snobbery crosses racial lines, and some of
the privileged kids may look down on someone in my income level who would never have been able to afford the tuition. Also keep in mind that Dawn has never come face to face with racial prejudice of any kind—at least not in school. I’m not sure if she’s prepared for that.”

“There was some of that when I was there eons ago,” he admitted after a long pause. “But it really wasn’t all that bad. It
was more along the lines of class snobbery than racial snobbery. From what I’ve heard here and there, that hasn’t changed, but Dawn won’t be alone. The scholarship kids will
probably hang out together.” He paused, then continued. “This is a golden opportunity for her, Ella, and it’s practically being handed to her on a platter.”

“Kev, life isn’t about what you’re handed. It’s about what you strive
for. To really succeed in life, Dawn will need to find a dream. Then she’ll need the hope and courage it’ll take to follow her heart and make her dream come true.”

“Oh, please. To really get anywhere in this world what she’ll need is
connections.
That’s the only way to get ahead. Right now she dreams of being just like you. But I’d like to see her get further ahead and I’m sure you would, too.”

Ella swallowed back the surge of anger that suddenly filled her. This was one of the many reasons Kevin and she hadn’t made it. “I love my job, Kevin,” Ella said quietly. “I dreamed of becoming a law enforcement officer for years, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for her. She’ll have to find her own way in life. I’ll support whatever decision she makes when the time comes, but you’re getting way
ahead of yourself.”

“Valley is an important step. Don’t kid yourself,” Kevin added.

“I’ll let you know what we end up deciding. But I won’t push her. Should our daughter decide that she doesn’t want to go, that’ll be the end of it,” Ella said flatly.

Kevin had made a good point and she knew it, but the truth was that, in her heart, she wasn’t ready to let Dawn go. Yet, if it turned out that
her daughter really wanted to attend Valley, she wouldn’t stand in her way. Though she’d be worried about Dawn constantly, she wouldn’t prevent her from following her heart.

“There’s something else you and I need to talk about, Kevin.” First Ella related the news about Dawn’s science fair project, then she told him about Roxanne and their runin at the school, withholding only the gossip she’d
heard via Justine.

Kevin said nothing for a long time. “Thanks for not giving Roxie my cell phone number. What we had—such as it was—is completely over.”

“Yet she still showed up at Dawn’s school. Think hard. Could Roxanne Dixon become a threat in any way to our daughter?”

“No, I don’t think so, but she may have it in for you,” he said. “Here’s the story. I stopped dating Roxanne about a month
before I left for Washington. She’d become much too possessive, trying to keep tabs on me round the clock, and calling me constantly at work. I also found out she had a problem with alcohol. The more tense things got between us, the more she seemed to drink. Then about a week before I left, she showed up drunk at my office. I had to threaten to call the police before she finally left.

“After
I came to D.C. she began sending me e-mails to our office here, two or three a day, all marked ‘personal’ in the subject line. I never read any of them, which is probably why she tried tricking you into giving her my home telephone number.” He paused then added, “By the way, don’t give her my private e-mail address either, okay?”

“No problem. By any chance do you happen to know why Roxanne left
the department?” Ella asked. “Was it because of her drinking?”

“That would be my guess, but I don’t know that for a fact,” Kevin said. “I think she mentioned something about a supervisor who had it in for her. But it was no loss for the department, believe me. Between her drinking and psychological problems, she’s far from stable.”

“Okay.”

“If she gives our daughter a problem, let me know,”
Kevin said.

“What could you possibly do from so far away?”

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t go through legal channels to
make my point. I’m a lawyer, so I know a piece of paper won’t stop a nutcase,” he said in a hard voice.