Mia Darien - Good Things

He tipped back his hat, as if to peer better into the car. Jemi sunk back in her seat, trying to hide. “It is okay, Jemi. We will handle this,” Gabby said softly, then rolled down her window. “Hello, can you help us?” she asked, smiling brightly at the officer.

“That is my job, ma’am,” the man responded with a smile that broke the shadows of his face with gleaming white. “I am sorry if Mica startled you. We were at home and the next thing I knew, he was off down the road.” He stepped around to the driver’s side. “I would joke that you are not from around here but the Colorado plates give that away. If you are looking for the casino, it is further down the road.”

Jemi shrunk back further in her seat as he leaned over to look in the car, “Shit, you are Slade’s girl, aren’t you? You are who Taku Skanskan told us to watch for. Come on, both of you, follow me. My house is just up the block. The old woman is going to be very happy to see you.”

Without waiting for them to say anything, he just turned on the heel of his cowboy boot. “Do you know him?” Gabby asked, looking at Jemi.

“No,” the girl responded. She had been so afraid of any authority on her trip home, but now it seemed she had no choice.

“Slade is your father, right?” the older woman asked as she turned the car to follow him slowly up the road, though his long stride was sure and she didn’t have to follow for long.

Jemi swallowed. “Yeah, my dad, but Gran and Auntie always called him Twohorn.”

Gabby took a slow breath. “We needed someone with answers and he seems to have them, but we can leave if you want.”

“No,” Jemi said, then paused. “He knows the name of my father, and he called his dog Mica, coyote spirit. Maybe he knows Winterhawk.” It was hard to trust anyone but Gabby, but she knew Gabby would take her and leave if necessary.

He led them up north to where the road turned into a four-wheel drive path, then to a house that sat at the edge of town. A tribal police car was parked there and in the shade was a table with a plate of half-eaten food and a pitcher of water, catching the late afternoon sun in the condensation on its side. Waving them in to park next to a white truck, he nodded and picked up the plate before walking inside.

The women got out of the car and Jemi looked around. This home once belonged to Jerimiah Two Wind. He had been a friend of her grandmother and great-aunt, and had sat next to Jemi when Child Protective Services had brought her to the church for the funeral. Mica walked over to them both, sniffing Gabby but circling Jemi and shoving his head under her hand.

That deep male voice interrupted, “He was who told me you were there. I was enjoying my dinner break and then he was off down the road like he was chasing a rabbit.”

Jemi looked up at the tall man. “Did you know my dad?”

“I did. My little brother and him went to high school together. I am sorry you lost him and Mary. My dad told me about you when I came home to help him,” he said, and Jemi could see a sadness in his eyes as he spoke. “I am Tobias Two Wind.”

As she petted the dog, she asked, “Jerimiah was your father?”

“He was, miss,” Tobias said gently. “I was practicing law in New York when he began to have some health troubles, so I came home. It was shortly after your grandmother died and he and your great-aunt were trying to locate you, but you had already been placed and they sealed the records.”

“A lawyer in New York to tribal police?” Gabby asked as she looked into his dark eyes. “Seems a pretty big change. I am Gabby Williams, Jemi is a friend of mine.” Gabby offered her hand and he took it. Jemi watched as the two sized each other up, then Gabby drew her hand back with a smile.

“A big change, but I was working with some tribal law advocates in the city, so not too big of a shift to come home and see what I had been working for all my life, in the flesh, so to speak,” he said, then gestured to the table. “I would ask you in but the breeze is starting and it will cool the afternoon.”

He looked up into the sun as it was lowering, then he and Gabby spoke at once, “It will be a full moon tonight.” The two looked at each other and laughed, then Gabby blushed slightly and looked to Jemi. “Want to sit? If Mica lets you, of course.” Another small laugh escaped her as the dog pressed into Jemi’s hand again.

She nodded with a smile. Touching the dog calmed her, but she was curious now. Jemi followed behind Tobias and Gabby, then sat at Gabby’s side. “Do you know where Winterhawk is?” she asked as Mica put his head in her lap.

Tobias smiled at Jemi, then at Gabby. “She has been out on a walk for a week. She has been staying at Mary’s home, hoping one day you would come back.” He stopped and his eyes narrowed as he took off his hat. “No, she knew you would be back. She told me a little while ago to keep my eyes out as the spirit of the wind was blowing someone home, but she didn’t know it would be you or she would have said.”

“Is that why you said Taku Skanskan told you to watch?” Jemi asked, then turned to Gabby. “Taku Skanskan is the master of the winds, and Wolf is one of his creatures.”

Gabby nodded, but turned to Tobias as he spoke, “Yes. In our last sweat lodge, he guided me that I would be welcoming a leaf upon the wind. It was pretty vague to be honest, but then the spirits usually are.”

Gabby laughed, and Jemi felt she should explain Gabby to him for some reason. She looked to the older woman, who seemed to know what she was asking and nodded. “Gabby is a druid. She honors other spirits than ours, but holds the ones of the land here sacred as well, just has never talked with them. I was with her one night watching her when Wolf came to me, and since then, Gabby has been helping me find my way back.”

The almost cocky grin the lawman had turned into a warm smile, dimples creasing his cheeks. “Then our people are in your debt, druid.”

Blushing softly, Gabby smiled. “Jemi is my friend, no one owes me a thing.”

He looked back at Jemi and asked, “You are what? Sixteen?”

Her comfort shrunk as he spoke. The legality of her being there was a problem and she knew it. “Yes, I couldn’t stay with the home I was in though.” She wouldn’t talk of the abuse she had taken there, but she was sure the pain and shame was in her eyes as she dropped them.

She had never told anyone, not even Gabby. The other woman placed an arm around her shoulder and hugged her gently. “She needed to find her family, and I will work with the courts to become her guardian, if necessary, to ensure she has what she needs.”

The woman’s words were fierce and protective and exactly the support Jemi needed, but in case it wasn’t enough, Mica pressed up on the bench and licked her face. “Is he really a coyote?”

Tobias’ eyes were on them, Jemi felt it and saw the thoughts flash through them. She wondered what they might be, then he spoke, “He is, found him out in the prairie. His mother had been poisoned and he was sick from her milk, so I took him in.”

As if knowing he was being talked about, the coyote looked across at the man, then sat and pressed his side into Jemi’s legs as his tongue lolled out of his mouth in a wolfish grin. “He is very well behaved,” Gabby said. “You have trained him well.”

“More he trained me, these are his visitor manners. He is much more a spirit of hospitality than I am, and Jemi there seems to have a way with him,” Tobias said. “I was going to put in a couple extra hours tonight, but with the full moon and all, should be a good night to try and find Winterhawk, don’t you all think?”

Jemi’s eyes lit up and her head bobbed. “You can do that? You know where she is?”