When we get back to the school supplies distribution canopies, Awenasa looks us up and down with a small laugh. “Hello, puppy. Have fun? You’re covered in dirt.” She reaches up to brush her thumb over my brow. “And you’re sweaty.”
“Yeah, it was a good run. Is everything done or is there something you need my help with?”
She takes my hand, and as we start walking to a recently set up refreshment area, she answers, “Everything is done.” She fills a paper cup from a big blue dispensing jug for me, then fills two for Alek and Niko, who promptly thank her. As I’m taking a sip, she dabs at my forehead, cheeks, and the back of my neck with a napkin, gently lifting away the sweat.
“Thanks, babe.”
She smiles as she leans in and gives me a soft, lingering kiss on my lips. As she pulls away staring in my eyes, she places her hand on the center of my chest, and I feel her energy surge across my chest. I inhale deeply and try to lean in to pull her into a real kiss, but her smile curls more as she applies just enough pressure to my chest to know I have to wait.
“My mom told me they’re moving close to us after the school year ends so the three of you can have better control over your herbal business. And Dad’s retiring at the end of the year so he can support her.”
Awenasa’s smile widens as she grips my tee shirt and yanks me forward, pulling me into a wonderful kiss. Electricity races through my body, making every nerve tingle, and my head becomes fuzzy. I wrap my arms around her, and as I inadvertently tug on Aura’s leash, I feel her move right up against my leg.
After a couple of minutes, Awenasa pulls away, and as I try to lean back in, she places two fingers on my chin, holding me at bay. “She had hinted that they may move when we discussed Cherokee as a possible location for the main farm and product facility. I’m so glad she chose to move close to us instead. I know the reservation could use the income, but it would be so hard for Shannon and me to be involved like we need to be if our main location is anywhere other than our home town.”
“I know. I was really worried about that, but I didn’t want to bring it up and stress any of you out. I’m really excited. I want to find them a nice place with land. Mom likes to have a big garden, so she needs plenty of space for that. And preferably someplace connected to some woods, like ours. Our family likes taking walks in the woods. Oh! And guess what! We’ll be able to go on more date nights because you know she’ll want to watch the babies for us.”
Awenasa laughs hard and Alek and Niko release quiet chuckles next to us. Their backs are to us, but they’re close enough that they can hear everything we’re saying. I don’t mind though. Alek and Niko have been my bodyguards for years, so they’re basically like family.
“I love how excited you are, but it’s time to get excited again about where we are and why we’re here. A couple of vehicles just pulled into the overflow parking lot.”
“Okay. Do you think it’s okay to keep Aura out for a while longer?”
“Yes, but if anyone appears to be afraid of her or it gets too crowded, you should let her go play with the babies.”
“Okay. Should we go check on Jess?”
Awenasa nods as she takes my hand and we start walking across the parking lot. As we pass groups of contractors and volunteers from the army, they point and smile at Aura and make comments about how big and beautiful she is. Some even take their cellphones out to take pictures. I can’t blame them or be upset about them being excited and wanting to take her picture. Being this close to a real full-blooded wolf is very rare, and even rarer to be in close proximity to a wolf who has been born and raised in captivity and trained so well that she’s not a threat. Well, there are scenarios that she would become a threat, but that would require someone to do something pretty awful to me and my loved ones or to her.
Every time I’m in a crowd of people I don’t know, I become nervous that one of those scenarios could play out and I’d lose her forever. But I also hate having to keep her cooped up indoors for long periods of time. Aura likes hanging out with us in the house and prefers to sleep indoors, but when we’re back home, she spends most of the day playing in the yard, the woods, and lounging on the deck or by the swimming pool. I’ll keep her with me for as long as I think it’s safe, but if this crowd grows too large, too quickly, I’ll have to bring her back to the bus.
“Kayla!”
From across the parking lot and through a gap between a couple of groups, I see Kym getting out of a faded red sedan with three adults. I wave to her, and she turns to say something to the adults, then comes skipping towards us with shoulder-length pigtail braids bouncing with each hop. She stops at least six feet in front of Aura and smiles with her bottom lip between her teeth.
“She’s so big.” Compared to six-year-old Kym, she is massive. With Aura on all fours, Kym is only a few inches taller. But if Aura was to stand on her hindlegs, she is as tall as me. “Can I pet her?”
“Yes.”
Kym looks nervous, so Awenasa steps forward to take her hand and walks her forward. Awenasa squats down to pet Aura to show it’s safe to do so, then Kym smiles as she gently runs her hand over Aura’s head and back.
“She’s so soft. And she is really pretty. Does she eat chickens?”
Awenasa and I laugh, and I answer, “Sometimes, but not living chickens. She mostly eats red meat and fish. She really like raw salmon with mashed blackberries. And she likes to catch and eat grasshoppers and crickets.”
“That’s funny.” Kym laughs as she continues to pet Aura. “My chickens ate bugs too. Before the coyotes ate them.” She looks up at me with a huge grin, and asks, “Did you buy me chickens? Someone told me you were buying me chickens.”
“We did.”
She squeals as she jumps up and down over and over again, then darts around Awenasa and throws her arms around my waist, giving me a super tight hug with her head laying on my stomach. I rub her upper back to try to return her embrace, and she looks up with a huge smile.
“You’re cool.” I laugh and she giggles as she pulls away. “Thank you. Where are my chickens?” She looks side to side. “Can I see them now?”
“Hello.” I look up at the adults that arrived with Kym, and the man hesitantly steps forward with his hand extended, and says, “I’m Jon, Kym’s father.”
As Awenasa stands upright, both of us shake his hand, and I say, “It’s nice to meet you. I was just about to let Kym pick her chickens out, if that is okay with you.”
He smiles as he ruffles her hair, then chuckles as she swats his hand away and smooths out her hair. Before he can answer, Kym takes my hand and tugs on it.
“Come on, let’s go see the chickens.”
“Okay. You see all of these awesome people standing around us?”
“Yeah.” She looks up at me, and asks, “What about them?”
“They’re going to help make your chickens safer from the coyotes.”
“All of them? Kayla, it does not take this many people to make a chicken coop.”
All of us laugh, including the groups of contractors and army volunteers closest to us.
“No, not all of them, silly. But some of them. And if you need anything else done around the house, they might be able to help with that too.”
After looking both ways, we cross the street to the vehicles parked and waiting for members of the tribal council to escort them to the location for the micro-farm.
“Hey, Tobin.”
He looks up from a clipboard and smiles broadly. “This must be Kym.”
She releases a bashful giggle and looks up at me, and asks, “He knows me?”
“You’re a star. Didn’t you know that?”
“You’re so silly.” She looks back at Tobin, and says, “Hi. Do you have my chickens?”
“I sure do. Follow me this way, little missy.”
We follow him to an animal transport tractor trailer. The sides are partially open with big box fans in the top quarter of the sides. And as we’re walking along the side, we can hear the chickens moving and clucking. Kym starts skipping and her smile is growing bigger and bigger the closer we get to the back of the trailer. Tobin unlocks the backend, then pulls a ramp down so we can walk inside.
“I’m going to stay out here with Aura, but you and your family can go in and pick your chickens.”
Bouncing up the ramp with her hands clasped in front of herself, she asks, “How many can I have?”
“Do you have room for ten?”
She beams as she looks at her dad, and Jon answers, “We can maintain ten.”
“Yay! I get ten chickens!” She sprints up the ramp and all of us laugh. She skips between the rows of straw lined cages looking at the vibrant, healthy, young hens and roosters, oohing and awing at them. “They’re so pretty!”
I have never seen a kid get so excited over chickens, especially if they’re not in nugget form. It’s so beautiful to watch. There are over five hundred chickens in this truck, all destined to be split between three reservations, so it could take all day for her to pick just ten. But I’m not about to be the one to try to rush her and spoil her fun.
When I contacted Tobin about the plans for the micro-farms and wanting to give some chickens to Kym, he was very helpful in quickly determining how many animals we would need to be able to provide a truly sustainable food source for all of the families on all three reservations. A healthy, well cared for hen can lay an egg a day, but some hens might be a little slower and only produce one every other day. We tried to veer on the side of excess with the number of hens each reservation will receive.
The tribal council has already determined that any food they produce that the members of the tribe do not need will either be donated to non-Native locals in need, or may be sold at local farmer’s markets to support other initiatives for the tribe. We’ve worked out a contract with Tobin for a regular delivery schedule for animal feed, nutritional supplements, and other odds and ends that they’ll need to care for the animals, so the tribe won’t have to deal with the financial burden of the farms.
After a few minutes of walking up and down the length of the trailer, and talking it over with her dad about the ones she likes, Kym starts telling Tobin which hens she wants. In just ten minutes, she has selected her ten chickens.
After he unlocks the individual cages from the shelving system, they bring the chickens outside to set on the ground, and Tobin says, “Let me just lock this truck back up, then we’ll get someone to help you take these ladies home and build them a secure, coyote-proof hen house.”
While Tobin locks the truck and talks to a few guys, Kym is sat squatting in front of her chickens, talking to them and thinking of names for them aloud. When he’s ready, Tobin and Jon grab two cages, and a few more guys grab the rest, then they walk over to a pickup truck that’s partially loaded with lumber, chicken wire, sheets of galvanized steel, sacks of chicken feed, and other supplies and tools. They load the cages and secure them well, then Tobin turns to shake Jon’s hand.
“Hope these gals give you lots of good eggs. My guys will follow you home when you’re ready and they’ll get these ladies tucked in for you.” He jerks a thumb back towards the tribal council building. “I don’t know if you checked it out yet, but there’s a host of able bodies over there just itching to do some work, if you need help with anything else.”
“Thank you. We’ll check it out.”
“Oh, I nearly forgot.” He looks at Kym, and explains, “I have one more thing for you.”
He jogs down the row of pickup trucks, pulls a brown paper wrapped item from the front seat of his truck, then jogs back and offers it to Kym. “My son Levi, he’s about your age, he helped me make this for you.”
Excitedly, Kym sets the long package on the ground and squats over it to rip the paper off. As soon as the wooden sign is revealed, she squeals and shoots into the air, making all of us laugh and Tobin’s smile spreads from ear to ear and even curls the corners of his eyes. It’s a beautiful, long slab of wood with the natural bark still attached, and it has Kym’s Chicken Lodge carved into it. It’s stained and sealed and looks like it should last for a long time.
“This is so cool! Daddy, look!”
Jon smiles as he picks the board and paper up off of the ground. “This is very nice. Thank you, Tobin.”
“It was a fun project to do with my son, so it was a total pleasure.”
Two of the Big Pine tribal council leaders, including Chairwoman Eva Morningstar, walk over, and Eva says, “Pardon the interruption, Tobin, but we’re ready to bring you to the location for the community farm.”
“Fantastic.” He turns to Kym, and says, “Okay, little lady, you enjoy those hens. Give them lots of love and they’ll love you back and give you lots of eggs.”
“I can do that.”
“I’m sure you can.” Tobin tips the brim of his baseball cap. “It was a pleasure meeting all of you.”
After another farewell, we walk back across the street, and quietly Jon and his wife decide he’s going to talk to the home-repair crew, while she and her mother bring Kym to the school supply canopy. Kym skips ahead of us to get in line behind a few families who are already being helped. But instead of waiting in line, Kym squeezes between the adults to stand at the table with two other kids and she starts chatting with them.
“I love that girl. She has so much spirit and confidence.”
Her mother smiles proudly, and tells me, “Thank you. I’m Amara, by the way. And this is my mother, Willa.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t ask your names sooner.”
Willa waves a hand towards Kym, and answers, “That fireball didn’t give you much of a chance.” While looking around at all of the vehicles and people, she adds, “You must have a big hat.” My brow furrows, and she grins, as if enjoying my confusion. “Don’t watch magic acts much, huh?”
“Oh.” I laugh and blush for not getting the joke. “Yeah, I, uh, just got very lucky that so many people were able to come together so quickly.”
Kym wiggles between us and thrusts a clipboard up at her mother. “You have to do this.” Startled, Amara takes the clipboard to look at it, and Kym presses, “Hurry. I have my bag picked.”
It takes everything in me not to laugh from Kym’s excitement because Amara looks taken off guard and I don’t want to embarrass her.
“Okay, give me a minute to read it.”
Kym is bouncing again, so I tell her, “Don’t worry, you won’t lose your bag,” and she grins as she stops bouncing and starts twisting her torso with her hands behind her back.
“Kayla!” I turn to see Elliot running over with his parents trailing behind him, walking, not running. I bend down some just before he reaches me and return his tight hug. As he pulls away, he says, “Guess what.”
I scrunch my face in thought, then wager, “You got a cool new strap for your glasses so they don’t fall off?”
He grins and shakes his head, and because of the strap that he didn’t have on the last time I saw him, his glasses remain on his face. “Nope. Try again.”
“You were accepted into art college and you’re skipping high school?”
He laughs and shakes his head. “That would be crazy. I’m having the procedure done to fix my eyes next week. They said I probably only have to stay in the hospital for one day. And I shouldn’t need these glasses anymore.”
“That’s great, buddy. Can I come see you afterwards?”
“Really? Yeah, that would be awesome!” He finally notices Aura, and his eyes get huge, and he gasps, “Oh, wow!”
Kym hops forward to stand next to Elliot, and says, “You can pet her. I did. She’s really soft.”
I have Aura sit on her hindlegs and motion Elliot forward. He tentatively reaches his hand forward and lightly brushes over her fur down the side of her neck. Since she doesn’t flinch or do anything menacing, he repeats the stroke a bit firmer.
“Wow, she is soft.”
“Elliot, come look. You can pick a new bookbag.”
Kym takes his hand and tugs on him, and he reluctantly allows her to pull him away from Aura. That girl definitely is a fireball – full of energy and light. After they have squeezed through the adults waiting with their children, Elliot’s parents step forward to fill the gap.
“Hello, Kayla and Awenasa. It’s nice to meet you both in person.” We shake hands with them, then Sage, Elliot’s mother, continues, “I can’t thank you all enough for what you’re doing for our boy and for the tribe. Elliot’s surgery is on Wednesday at 8am. We can text you when he’s awake and able to receive visitors. If you’re able to make it, I know it will make him very happy.”
“I definitely want to be there. I don’t have much on my schedule this week, but if I have something going on Wednesday, I’ll see if it’s possible to reschedule.”
Just as Elliot and Kym are returning, with Elliot carrying a clipboard for his parents, I hear the sound of drums approaching. I crane my neck to see above everyone and smile really big. The mid-sized passenger bus we bought for the learning center has pulled up in front of the parking lot and adults are filing out of it dressed in simple, traditional Shoshone attire, carrying drums, flutes, and rattles. After twenty of them have descended, they begin playing, singing, and chanting in harmony.
I whisper to Awenasa, “We need to see if Sam is already asleep and bring her, the babies, and our moms off the bus for this.”
She nods, kisses my cheek, then rushes to the bus with Alek close to her side. Not even a minute later, they all come back, and we’re soon joined by the rest of our wives. We move closer to get a better view, and I spot the Cruz brothers – Jorge and Branson in the mix. Jorge catches my eyes and smiles with a friendly nod of hello.