Chapter 10

‘What was all that about?’ Asha fixed Rita with her single-raised-eyebrow look, the one that made her seem about twenty years older than she was.

‘Ah, just Daryl Meeks waving his money around as usual. What you want for supper? Bear in mind this’ll be your last chance of free food for a while so knock yourself out.’

‘Anything I want?’

Rita waved at the board. ‘If it’s up there and we got any of it left it’s yours.’

‘Cool. I’ll have a … cheeseburger. Fries. Chocolate shake. And vanilla ice cream on hot waffles to finish.’

Rita smiled. ‘Good choice, though we’re out of ice cream and waffles.’

She passed through the counter hatch and into the kitchen, threw a beef patty on the grill and dropped some fries in oil. The cook had already gone; she’d let him off early and they’d exchanged an awkward hug and half-hearted words about keeping in touch. It all seemed unreal somehow, the notion that this time tomorrow all of this might belong to someone else and she and Asha would be heading down the road to who knew where.

She flipped the burger, shook the fries and thought about Meeks’s offer. Now she was no longer facing him and his smooth lawyer friend she didn’t feel so pressured or hostile to the idea of selling to him. She looked out at Asha, hunched over the counter and frowning at some game on her tablet, looking every inch an eight-year-old kid again. Why hadn’t she taken the deal? It was a lot of money. If it had been anyone other than Meeks she might have done. It was only his bullshit, greasy salesman routine that had made her act defensive, that and the way he had reacted so coldly when he’d seen what was on her phone.

She pulled it from her pocket, the website for the University of Colorado still displayed on it. Why would he react at all unless he recognized the website and knew why she might be looking it up? But if Meeks had checked out the stranger’s story and discovered the land was more valuable, then so could she. She scrolled down, found the general number for the university switchboard and dialled it. The phone beeped in her ear and she checked the signal. Nothing.

‘Shit!’

‘I heard that,’ Asha said without taking her eyes from her screen.

‘Well you shouldn’t be listening.’

She moved out of the kitchen and grabbed the old payphone from the wall by the countertop, keeping her eye on the burger and fries through the kitchen door as she dialled the number for the University of Colorado. The phone connected and an automated switchboard gave her a list of options. She chose one for the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies and holding music started playing in her ear. She ducked quickly back into the kitchen, flipped the burger and dropped a square of Monterey Jack on it and was back on the phone again just as it connected and she finally got through to a human.

‘You’ve reached the CNAIS, can I help you?’ The woman’s voice sounded old and dry and reminded Rita of her old kindergarten teacher who’d spent most of her time telling the kids not to slouch.

‘Yes, could you put me through to a Doctor Andrea Thompson, please.’ Rita found herself standing up straight as she spoke.

‘Doctor Thompson is working from home today. I can put you through to her office extension so you can leave a message if you like?’

‘I really need to talk to her now if that’s possible.’

‘I’m afraid not. Let me put you through to her office.’

‘No wait, do you have another nu—’

The line cut out and Rita listened to static and clicks as she was redirected. At least if this Doctor Thompson wasn’t in the office it meant Daryl Meeks couldn’t have talked to her either. So he’d been taking a risk, offering her ten thousand dollars above guide price to take it off the table. Though ten thousand dollars was hardly a risk for someone with his money.

‘Hi, you’ve reached Andrea Thompson,’ a soft voice purred in Rita’s ear. ‘I’m sorry I can’t answer the phone right now. Please leave your name, number and the purpose of your call and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.’

There was a click and a beep.

‘Hi, yes. My name is Rita Treepoint. My people are Western Suma and I was hoping you might look at some petroglyphs I have on my land. I can send you pictures but I think someone from your department came out here maybe ten years back and took some then, so you should have them in an archive or something. Anyway, the name of the place is Broken Promise, West Texas, and my number is 555-89703. If you could get back to me urgently I would really appreciate it. The thing is, this land is due to be sold tomorrow morning and I need to know if the message changes the value. I’ll explain when you call back. Thank you.’

She hung up and stared at the phone. If she could somehow get in contact with Doctor Thompson tonight and confirm the message on the cave wall was a genuine treaty between her ancestors and Cabeza deVaca then it would be worth cancelling the auction and re-listing it. Federally recognized Indian ancestral lands, with all the potentially lucrative things that came with it concerning gaming licences and possible casino development, would quadruple the value. More. She could always cancel the auction until after she’d spoken to her, though doing so this late would incur a penalty of two percent of the guide price plus tax – roughly twelve hundred dollars she didn’t have. She needed to talk to her tonight.

She went back in the kitchen, swept the burger into a bun, drained the fries and tipped them onto a plate and took it out to her daughter.

‘Borrow this for a second,’ Rita swapped Asha’s tablet for the burger and fries.

‘You want to play Minecraft?’

‘No, wiseass, I want to use the camera, it’s way better than the one on my phone.’

‘Everything in the world is better than your phone,’ Asha murmured, squirting ketchup into the bun and taking a big bite.

‘That’s because I’m an awesome mom who buys her daughter iPads instead of getting herself a fancy new phone.’ She held up the tablet and framed the photograph of the petroglyphs, making sure it filled the frame and was in focus before she took a picture. She looked at the image on the tablet. It was as good as the original, which meant it looked sun-faded and the edges fell away to darkness where the flash hadn’t quite reached. She’d always intended to go out to the caves one day to take better pictures. Now she had no days left. It would have to do.

‘How do I email this to someone?’

‘I can do it,’ Asha said. ‘Who d’ya wanna send it to?’

Rita handed the tablet back and looked through the University of Colorado website on her phone for an email address for Doctor Thompson.

‘All the emails listed here are general enquiry ones for different departments. I need to send it to someone specific.’

‘Lemme see.’ Asha took her phone and laid it on the counter next to the tablet, her brow creased in concentration as her nimble fingers navigated the site. Rita felt an almost painful surge of love as she watched her. She never got tired of looking at her daughter. She was luminous and ever changing and beautiful, like staring into a fire at night.

‘They don’t have email addresses,’ Asha said, her fingers still searching the site. ‘Except for this one I found for the Dean. It’s just his name in small writing so I guess they’ll all be like that. Who d’you want to send this to again?’

‘Doctor Andrea Thompson.’

‘OK. I’ll bet they probably drop the doctor bit to keep it short.’ She opened up an email with the photo already attached and addressed it to andreathompson@coloradoU.com.

‘What’s the subject?’

‘Let me type it.’ Rita took the tablet back and typed ‘WESTERN SUMA PETROGLYPHS’ in the subject line and added ‘URGENT’.

‘I think you should add six or seven exclamation points,’ Asha said, ‘and maybe a shocked face emoji.’

Rita smiled. ‘Let’s not overdo it.’

She clicked on the message space and typed: ‘I left a message on your voicemail about the attached. Please get back to me as soon as you can. Regards, Rita Treepoint.’ She added her cellphone number and also the number of the payphone in the diner in case the signal dropped out, then she read it all through and hit Return.

‘If it pings back we know we got the address wrong,’ Asha said.

They watched the tablet. Waited. Nothing happened.

‘Who’s Doctor Thompson?’ Asha asked.

Rita pulled out a stool and sat down. ‘Someone who might tell us what the writing in Three Arrow Cave says.’

‘Cool!’ Asha frowned. ‘But I thought no one could speak that language any more.’

‘Apparently they figured it out.’

Asha’s eyes went wide. ‘What if it’s, like, some kind of treasure map and we find a ton of gold and don’t have to sell up after all?’

Rita smiled then frowned. ‘Don’t you want to get out of here?’

Asha shrugged. ‘I guess. There’s not much to do here. Only thing that bothers me about going is …’ she paused and chewed her lip.

‘Your dad,’ Rita said. ‘You think if we stick around maybe he might swing through again one day?’

Asha nodded.

‘Honey, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.’

‘You don’t know that. Maybe he will come back.’

‘Or maybe he won’t. Maybe he got a new family. Maybe he’s in prison. Or maybe …’

‘Maybe he’s dead?’ Asha whispered, her eyes clouding a little.

Rita felt an ache deep in the centre of her body, the pain of having to tell an ugly truth to someone you loved.

‘Honey, it’s fine to have these ideas about your dad, who he might be and what it would be like if he came back. Every kid has them, even ones who have their parents around imagine they might really be the kids of kings and stuff like that. But they’re just fantasies and you can’t go hanging your life on them. When I told your dad I was expecting you, he promised me he’d look after us. Said he had all kinds of plans about fixing this place up and making a go of it together, though he never told me what those plans were. Then one night he headed out and never came back. I thought he might show up again once you arrived, that he might’ve worked out whatever crap was going on in his head made him take off like that. But that was eight years ago now. And there comes a point when you just got to let things go. We can’t keep waiting around here forever, hoping he still might show up one day. We need to move on with our lives. I need to move on.’

Asha took a deep breath, nodded then looked down at the tablet. ‘That email didn’t ping back. Let’s hope all those exclamation points did the trick and she writes back. Maybe there will be treasure in those caves after all.’

‘Whatever it says, they’ll always be part of our history, our story.’ Rita looked around at the few customers still lingering, a new idea forming in her mind. ‘What say we close up and hike out to the cave one last time?’

Asha smiled. ‘I’d like that.’

‘Me too. Finish your burger and go grab some warm clothes. And bring your tablet, I want to make sure we have some proper pictures of the cave. That way we’ll always have it with us, wherever we end up.’