We then got caught in a surprise rain storm and went back to the house to finish studying. After lunch, we hiked one of the trails behind the resort, and then went and soaked in one of the thermal pools.

As we were soaking, we talked. We talked about hiking around the Albuquerque area. Then the subject of our blue eyes came up, and we explained about the recessive gene. And Jackie and Charlie learn that I’m also a blue-eyed blond even though I look like a native.

After dinner, Ajie and I had gotten dressed up for the bonfire. Biil dresses, wrap moccasins, silver jewelry, and all. Our fancy dress surprised Jackie and Charlie. After Ajie and I had meditated, we’d turned Jackie and Charlie over to Naainish to have a little talk.

Then Uncle Paul surprised us by introducing us to four gentlemen. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. It was who they work for.

As we walked up to the men, Uncle Paul said, “Kai and Ajie. I’d like you to meet Dr. Gerling, Dr. Davidson, Dr. Fontheim, and Dr. Höllmann.

“Gentlemen, these are my nieces Kai Nez and Ajie Nez.

“Kai and Ajie these gentlemen are with the retreat that is here this weekend. And when I told them that Kai was working on her master in electrical engineering at the University of New Mexico and was also working on a research project, they wanted to meet you.”

Uncle Paul then walked away, to speak with some other guests.

Dr. Gerling who seemed to be the spokesman for the four, then said, “Miss Nez, when your uncle told us that you, a girl, were working on your masters in electrical engineering we just had to meet you.”

“Why is that, sir?”, I asked.

“There are not many women in that field. And especially pretty girls. Where did you receive your undergraduate degree from?”

“Ohio State.”

“Wonderful school.”

“We think so too. Gentlemen, where are you from?”

“The Los Alamos National Laboratory.”, Dr. Gerling replied.

“Oh!”

“Is something wrong, Miss Nez?”

“No, you just surprised me.”

“Why is that?”

“Part of my master’s work is on a research project for you.”

“That’s nice to hear. Dr. Fontheim is heading up that project.”

I looked at Dr. Fontheim, and said, “That’s good to know. And I have seen that name before.”

“Where have you seen my name, Miss Nez?”, Dr. Fontheim asked.

“On the cover page of the research project that I’m working on. And it’s just nice to know who you’re working for.”

“I see. And how is your research going?”

“Dr. Oshie and I have made some good progress, and I think that next week we can start the final testing phase. And if everything meets your requirements, there is a possibility that we might be finished by the end of the week.”

“That’s good to hear. And if you are where you say you are, you’re ahead of schedule.

“But, I thought that Dr. Kilmer was heading up the research at the University.”, Dr. Fontheim said.

“He isn’t. Dr. Oshie is.”, I replied.

“Can I ask why?”

“I think that is a question that you need to ask Dean Rutherford, of the engineering school.”

“I see. You know, but won’t say.”

“Now, can I ask you how many other parts there are to this project?”

“No. I can’t reveal that.”

“And I figure that you can’t tell me what the final use of it is either?”

“You’re correct young lady. You appear to be a very curious person.”

“Yes, sir. I am. And, I’m curious as to what we’re working on.”

“You will know in time.”

One of the others, then said, “We have an evening meeting that we’re late for. So, if you ladies will excuse us.”

“Of course.”, I said. “It’s been nice meeting you.”

“And, you too, Miss Nez. Hopefully, we’ll see you again.”

As they walked away, I said, “That was interesting.”

“Yeah.”, Ajie said. “But neither of you said much.”

“They know that Dr. Kilmer was probably removed from the project under duress. And I learned that we’re working on a project that if I knew the whole project, I’d have to have a top security clearance.”

“Oh!”

“Yeah, oh.

“Let’s go see if we still have two friends after Naainish finished with them.”

“I think we will.”, I replied.

“I do too.”, Ajie said.

We looked around for Jackie and Charlie. Ajie pointed, and said, “Ah, Kai, they’re over there. And, the three of them are still talking.”

“That’s not good.”, I said.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

We walked over to where my aunt and uncle were. When we got there, my uncle asked, “Kai, was meeting those four men okay?”

“Yes, Uncle Paul.”, I said. “We had a very interesting conversation.”

“I thought that you would like to meet them.”

“I did. And, I think we provided each other with some food for thought.”

Just then I saw Jackie and Charlie walking towards us. Ajie and I watched them. As the walked up, I couldn’t read their expressions, they stood there, and we just looked at each other. Then Jackie looked at me, and said, “Kai, I had my eyes opened as to who you are. You are special. You’re people think very highly of you. And some of the things you and Ajie have done. You amaze me.”

“What she said.”, Charlie added.

I just shrugged my shoulders.

“Naainish also said that you were a very humble person, and I believe that too.”, Jackie then said, “And, Ajie. You are also special in your own way, and are probably more humble than Kai is.”

Ajie did the same thing that I did, and she shrugged her shoulders.

The four of us continued walking around the bonfire, talking to guests. Well, Ajie and I talked, Jackie and Charles just listened. As the bonfire started to die down, it started getting cooler. Wearing a Bill dress and wrap moccasins, I didn’t notice it, and I don’t think Ajie did either.

Finally, Jackie said, “I’m getting cold. I think I’m going back to the house.”

“It is getting late.”, Ajie said. “I think I’ll join you.”

“Why don’t we all go back to the house.”, I said. “Besides, I want to call Dr. Joe.”

The four of us walked back to the house, Ajie and Jackie made us some tea to help us warm up. And I called Dr. Joe.

When Dr. Joe answered the phone, I said, “Dr. Joe, it’s Kai. Did you get a chance to switch modules?”

“Hi Kai.”, Dr. Joe replied. “Yes I did, and that, so far, appears to have fixed it. We were lucky the lab’s store room had one. And I see what you mean about the ‘e’ and the ‘c’ in the part number. It’s easy to make a mistake.”

“That’s great. Yeah, one wrong character in a long part number can mess things up.”

“I think that Monday that we should set it up to run a long-term test.”

“Sounds good to me. I also wanted to let you know that I met some interesting people tonight.”

“Oh! Who?”

“A Dr. Gerling, a Dr. Davidson, a Dr. Fontheim, and a Dr. Höllmann.”

“Who are they.”

“They all work for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.”

“Oh!”

“And, if you look at the cover page of our research project, you’ll see Dr. Fontheim’s name. He’s heading up the project that we’re working on.”

“How did you meet them!?”

“They’re here at the resort on a retreat of some kind, and my uncle introduced us.”

“Kai, if I know you, you tried to pick their brains.”

“I tried to pick Dr. Fontheims’ and they tried to pick mine.”

“Well?”

“They wanted to know why you were heading up the research and not Dr. Kilmer? I told them that they’d have to ask Dean Rutherford about that.”

“Excellent, Kai. Let them hear that from the horse's mouth.”

“He also wanted to know how the research was going. And, I told him that we might have some information for them at the end of next week.”

“Aren’t you pushing it a little, Kai?”

“I don’t think so. We had good results out of all but that one output, and I think we’ve figured that out. I also think if our testing at the first of the week works out that we’re good to go.”

“I hope that you’re right, Dr. Nez.”

“I do. And stop the doctor stuff.”

“We’ll see. Did you get anything out of them?”

“I asked them how many parts there were to this project, and he wouldn’t answer me. I also asked him what the end product was, and he wouldn’t answer that either.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”, Dr. Joe said.

“I got the feeling, that if we knew the answers to those questions that we’d have to have a top security clearance.”

“No surprise there.”

“Okay. I’ll see you on Monday, and we’ll get the tests running on that circuit.”

“Okay, Dr. Nez, I’ll see you Monday.”

“Will you stop with the Dr. Nez stuff.”

“Bye. Kai.”

“Hágoónee', Naat'áanii Oshie.”

As I hung up the phone, I heard Dr. Joe start to say, “Kai, what did you … ”

I was smiling as I walked back over to where the other three were sitting. Charlie asked, “What’s with the Dr. Nez stuff?”

“Dr. Oshie thinks I should drop my masters and go right after a doctoral. And he keeps kidding me about it, by calling me Dr. Nez.”

“Are you going to do it?”

“I wasn’t going to do my masters until Ajie decided to do hers out here. So, I don’t think so.”

“I think you should.”, Ajie added.

“You can stop too.”

“What was the Hágoóe', Naatnii Oshie about?”, Jackie asked.

I chuckled, as I said, “You mean, Hágoónee', Naat'áanii Oshie.”

“Yeah, that.”

“It was a dig back at Dr. Joe for his Dr. Nez thing. What I said was, ‘So long, Chief Oshie.’”

“But, he’s an Indian, wouldn’t he know what you said?”

“He’s an Indian, but he’s a member of the Ojibwa tribe. He would have known what the ‘Hágoónee'’ was, and that’s because he’s heard it before. But not the Naat'áanii.”

“I thought all Indians spoke the same language.”

“Oh no. North of the Mexican border there’s probably more than one hundred and fifty Indian languages that are still spoken. And, south of the border there are many more.”

“Wow! Why so many?”

“Many different peoples.”

“Now you two.”, Charlie said. “Naainish told us some interesting things.”

“Uh oh.”, I said. “Are we still friends?”

“Of course.”

“What did he tell you?”

“Kai, he told us how special you are to your people, just by being you.”, Jackie said. “I’ll never completely understand what a Nádleeh is. But it’s special.”

“Jackie, I don’t understand it either, and I don’t think I ever will.”, I replied.

“He told us about the way that you can help the dying accept that they are dying. And even help some living people.”

“Did he explain that it doesn’t work with everyone?”

“Yes. Naainish said that it has to be someone close to you. Like a relative or very close friend.”

“What else?”

“He told us about the scholarship for the Navajo children. And why you chose the first recipient the way you did.”

“Did he tell you where the money came from?”, I asked.

“Yes, something about a trust fund.”, Jackie replied.

“My grandparents set them up for all their grandchildren, and my dad found a great investment counselor for mine.”

“So, you’re rich?”

“No. Do we have a lot of money invested for us? Yes. Can we access it? Only in certain circumstances, like school and setting up that trust fund, until we’re twenty-five.”

I know I lied to Jackie and Charlie about the trust fund, but they don’t have to know everything.

I continued with, “But, we are rich in an area that’s better than money. And, that’s the friends that we have. The friends we have back home and the friends that we have here. They’re worth more to us than money.”

“Naainish was right.”, Charlie said. “You two are special.”

“No, we're not.”, Ajie said. “We’re just us. Yes, we’ve done some things for the people we know. But, it was because we love them.”

“But, you are special.”, Jackie said. “There aren’t many people like the two of you. Look at what you did for the Indian girl. You hardly knew her. What you did for Naainish’s father, and you didn’t even know that he was Naainish’s father. And, Naainish said that you made it easier for your grandmother to pass. That had to be hard on you.

“And, you don’t know us that well, but you’ve done things for us, like bringing us here to hopefully get us some furniture.”

“We don’t need to know someone to help them.”, I said. “We just need to feel that there is a need. We knew that you didn’t have much furniture and we knew someone that had some that they wanted to get rid.

“Besides, we do know you. We’ve spent time together. We’ve talked. And I feel that you are good people. And if we didn’t feel this way about you, you wouldn’t know what you know about us.”

“Kai, I just hope that we don’t disappoint you.”

“You won’t.”

“Kai.”, Charlie asked. ”Did you have anything to do with me getting the student assistant job?”

“Charlie. Jackie.”, I said. “The only thing that we did was talk with Dr. Etsitty. Even though Ajie and I are only graduate students, we’re both instructors and are concerned for our students. And, we were concerned about you, we didn’t want to see either of you having to drop out of school.

“If it had been some other student, in either of our classes, we’d have talked to someone about them. And, it just happened that we know you.”

“Is that the Dr. Vickie Etsitty that’s the Assistant Dean of the nursing school?”, Jackie asked.

“Yes.”, Ajie replied. “Her husband, Tahoma, was also there. And he’s also on the faculty of the University and may have said something to someone about Charlie wanting a student assistant job, and they knew of something.”

“What about my scholarship?”, Jackie asked.

“I guess as the letter said, they came up with additional money in the scholarship.”, Ajie said. “Maybe an investment paid better than they thought it would.”

I know, Ajie had lied to Jackie. But, we did want to keep it as quiet as possible.

“One last thing.”, Jackie said.

“Uh oh.”, I said.

“No, Kai. It was just watching everyone when you and Ajie were sitting, meditating, and chanting. Everyone stopped talking and just watched. It was like they respected what you were doing. I know I did, and I also felt something listening to you. It was a peaceful feeling.”

“That’s interesting, Jackie. I know that most of the time when I, or we, are meditating at the bonfire that anyone around the fire becomes quiet. And, I’m happy that you enjoyed it.”

“We did.”

Just then my aunt and uncle walked into the house, and my aunt asked, “Did you guys get cold?”

“Jackie did.”, Ajie said. “And Kai wanted to call Dr. Joe about meeting the men from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.”

“That’s Kai’s professor at the University. Right?”

“Kind of, Aunt Ruth.”, I replied. “He’s my preceptor for my masters. And he and I are working on that research project together.”

Later that night as Ajie and I were in bed, Ajie said, “I felt terrible lying to Jackie and Charlie.”

“I know.”, I said. “I could feel that you did. But, we didn’t lie about Charlie's job. It was Chief Tom that did that.”

“I know, but Jackie is such a sweetheart.”

“Yes. But we need to keep things like that quiet.”

“You’re right. … Make love to me.”

She didn’t have to ask me twice.

When we crawled out of bed on Sunday morning, it was after Sunrise, and Ajie and I got dressed. We knew that the meeting was planned for ten o’clock, but not who was going to be there. So, we both dressed in fancy long skirts, fancy blouses, and wrap moccasins. Our hair was in braids, so we left them in, but no fancy wraps. Neither of us wore a choker, just our meteorite necklaces, but we did wear Concho belts, bracelets, and rings. Ajie wore her beaded bead band, and I wore one of the braided leather headbands with the Eagle feather.

We walked out into the kitchen, and my aunt, uncle, Jackie, and Charlie were sitting around the kitchen table. Uncle Paul looked at us, and said, “It’s about time you two got up.”

“Uncle Paul.”, I said. “This is a resort, and you’re not supposed to be up before Noon.”

“With you two I believe that.”

I just frowned at my uncle. Then he said, “We were about to go look at the furniture without you.”

“Let us get some breakfast first.”

“Oh. We already made breakfast tacos.”, Jackie said with a smile.

“You what!?”, I said.

“Aunt Ruth showed us how to make breakfast tacos with frybread tacos.”

I just looked at my Aunt Ruth, and she was grinning. Then she said, “Kai. Honey. Don’t worry. We saved you some. Give me a minute, and I’ll put a couple together for you and Ajie.”

“Let me help you, Aunt Ruth.”, Jackie said.

A short time later Ajie and I were sitting down to a frybread taco breakfast.

As we were finishing up, Uncle Paul said, “Are you four ready to go to the storage barn?”

“I guess.”, Charlie said. “I just don’t know if we can pay you what you’ll want.”

“Charlie.”, Uncle Paul said. “Don’t worry. We’ll work something out.”

The five of us walked over to the storage barn. And, half an hour later we were walking towards the hotel. As we walked, Charlie said, “Uncle Paul, are you sure that’s enough.”

“Charlie.”, Uncle Paul said. “It’s plenty. I’m just happy to get rid of the stuff. And, I’m glad you took that mattress too. We’re going to Albuquerque for supplies on Wednesday, and we’ll bring everything down.”

“That’s fantastic. And it’s really okay if we pay you then?”

“No problem.”

As we walked into the hotel, the room clerk said, “Mr. Biakeddy, the rest of the people for the meeting are in the meeting room.”

“Thank you, Maria.”, my uncle replied.

Then Jackie said, “Are you sure it’s okay for us to be in this meeting?”

“Yes, Jackie it’s fine.”, I said. “Charlie was the one who alerted us to the letter that the Board of Regents received about me. Just sit in the back, and listen. But, I will introduce you to everyone.”

As we walked into the meeting room, I froze. I couldn’t believe the people who were sitting around the table. Some I expected to see like Chief Kinlicheeny, Naainish, my Uncle Gaagii, my Aunt Ginny, and of course my Aunt Ruth. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Bylilly, who is Dibe’s father and the assistant editor of the Navajo Times. But there were four other men there. They were all natives. Two of them, by their dress, I figured for Navajo. But the other two. Who are they?