My students surprised me when they ask me not to have Dr. Joe fill in for me again. They had told me that Dr. Joe was a good teacher and knew the subject. But, that he was out of his league in teaching my class. I better never let Dr. Joe know that they said that.

We stopped by to see Charlie and Jackie and ended up sending Charlie to the hospital by ambulance. He had a ruptured appendix. And, Amy being Amy ended up going to surgery with Charlie, and I sat and comforted Jackie.

While I was sitting with Jackie, she learned that, with certain people, I could sense when they’re sick.

Charlie made it through the surgery, but could still end up with an infection. And Amy was going to tell me all about it while she and I were eating dinner, and I told her to not to because I wanted to enjoy my meal.

Sleep came quickly that night.

Saturday morning, late Saturday morning, after Amy and I were up, dressed, and had breakfast, we walked next door to see if Jackie had made it home. I knocked lightly on the door, no answer. I knocked a little harder and looked in the window, still no answer. I looked at Amy, and said, “I’ll bet she’s still at the hospital.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”, Amy replied.

I smiled at Amy as I said, “Maybe she’s like someone I know when I got beat up.”

“It’s true love, lover.”

“I know. Is it too soon to go to the hospital to see Charlie?”

“Not really.”

“Want to go to the bookstore with me first?”

“Sure. What are you looking for?”

“I want them to order some books so that I can start looking for a book on computer circuit design.”

Amy and I walked over to the bookstore, the manager wasn’t there, but one of the clerks on duty was one of the ones that did some of the ordering. I explained to her what I was doing, developing a new course, and she found a listing of all the technical books with a summary of its contents. And one of the subsections was on computers. She made a copy of those pages for me and gave me the copies. I thanked her, and Amy and I headed for the hospital.

As we walked into Charlie's room, he was lying in bed still hooked up to an IV, and Jackie was sitting in a chair next to him, and she was looking tired. Charlie was the first to see us, and said, “Amy. Kai. Thank you for making me come here. But, would you please make Jackie go home and get some rest.”

“Hi, Charlie.”, Amy said. “I’m glad to see you looking better than you did yesterday. And, we’ll take Jackie with us when we leave.”

“Amy, Jackie said you were with me through the surgery?”

“You asked me to be. So, I was.”

“I did?”

“Uh huh. And, when I told the doctors I was a nurse and would like to observe the surgery, they let me. They also allowed me to assist a little.”

“I don’t remember asking you.”

“Charlie, you were out of it. They’d given you some medication in the ER to help relax you.”

“I guess I should have gotten help before you guys did it for me.”

“You guess.”, Jackie said. “You guess! Buddy boy, if you ever do something like that again … ”

“I promise you that I’ll never be that stupid again. And, I’m making that promise it in front of witnesses.”

“Okay, you two.”, Amy said, “Enough! Charlie needs his rest and to not be upset.”

“I’m sorry that I yelled.”, Jackie said. “I was just so worried that I was going to lose you.” And, the tears started.

Amy walked over to Jackie and hugged her, then Charlie said, “Jackie. Honey, I know. And I’m sorry that I scared you that way.”

Jackie then walked over to Charlie's bed, took his hand in hers, bent down, and kissed him. Then she said, “I love you.”

And of course, Charlie said, “I love you too.”

After things had calmed down, Jackie asked, “What made you two come over yesterday when you did?”

“We had something to tell you.”, Amy replied.

“What was it?”

“It’s not important now.”

“Sure it is. What was it?”

Amy looked at me and said, “Go on tell them.”

“I’m no longer a graduate assistant.”, I said.

“They fired you?”, Charlie asked.

Amy and I laughed a little, then I said, “No, they didn’t fire me. Just the opposite. I’m now a part-time instructor and also have a research fellowship.”

“Congratulations, Kai. That’s great!”, Jackie said.

“Yeah. Congratulations.”, Charlie said. “So you’re a member of the faculty. What brought this on?”

“They had an open position, and I guess they like the way I teach.”

“And, a research fellowship?”, Jackie asked.

“Yeah. I’m not sure about that.”, I replied. "You usually have to have a doctoral. So I’m not sure what’s going on.”

With a little smile, Amy said, “Honey, you have a way of selling yourself short. And, maybe it’s a hint from those who realize your abilities, and along with what Dr. Fontheim offered you, perhaps those people are trying to get you to recognize your talents.

“I know that you are never happy with the status quo. You are always looking at a way to improve things. To learn things. And, you can’t stop reading.”

“This conversation just got deep.”, I said.

“Dr. Fontheim.”, Jackie asked. “Who’s he?”

“Nobody.”

“Nobody! Yeah. Right.”, Amy said. “He’s only a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. And they offered Kai a job after she received her masters.”

“Kai, you said yes. Didn’t you?”, Charlie said.

“No.”, I replied.

“Why not for God’s sake?”

I looked at Charlie, and said, “They do background checks.”

“So?”

“Charlie, who am. Who am I really?”

“Oh! … Yeah.”

I just nodded my head. Then I added, “Besides I like the university atmosphere. I can teach here, also do some research, and have free time for Amy and other things.”

“You’ve come to like teaching.”, Jackie asked. “Haven’t you?”

“A lot more than I thought I would.”

“Kai is also putting together a new class in computer circuit design.”, Amy said.

“It’s just an introductory course.”, I added. “So, it won’t be too technical.”

“I’ll never understand computers.”, Charlie said.

“Charlie, one day they’ll be everywhere.”

“If you say so.”

We visited a little longer, then Amy noticed that Charlie was getting tired, so she said, “I think we need to go and let Charlie get some rest.”

“No, I’m fine.”, Charlie said.

“Charlie, you had major surgery, and need to rest. So, we’re going and taking Jackie with us. She can come back after dinner.”

“Oh, all right. I am a little tired.”

Amy and I left Jackie and Charlie to say so long. As we stood in the hall, I said, “You know, why don’t we have Jackie over for an early dinner tonight.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”, Amy replied.

When Jackie joined us, we started walking back to the apartments, and Amy said, “Jackie, honey. Why don’t you take a nice shower, get some rest, and join us for an early dinner? Then we can walk you over to see Charlie.”

“No.”, Jackie said. “You’ve done enough. I can’t impose on you.”

“You’re not imposing on us. We’ve got to cook for two, and it’s no problem to cook for three.”

“I don’t know about you two. But, okay. I’ll see you for dinner.”

After we were at the apartments, we got hugs from Jackie, and she thanked us again for helping Charlie. And we told her to think nothing of it and that we’d see her at four-thirty.

We spent the rest of the day studying and getting ready for our next week's classes. I also looked through the list of books that I’d obtained from the bookstore, and it was easy to delete a lot of them from what I was interested in for the class. At first look, I was able to narrow it down to twenty-one books. Then I carefully read the synopsis of each of the twenty-one books again and ranked them. When I finished, out of the twenty-one I’d found nine books that interested me. I marked each one so that I could quickly identify them when I went back to the bookstore on Monday.

At about four, there was a knock on the door, I opened the door, and it was Jackie. She said, “Hi, Kai. I thought I’d come over early and maybe help with dinner.”

“Come on in, Jackie.”, I said. “I know that Amy will find something for you to do.”

Amy and Jackie put together a nice dinner for us, and as we ate, I said, “Can you get me a list of Charlie’s classes?”

“Sure.”, Jackie said. “But, why?”

“I’ll see what I can do so that he doesn’t lose too much class time.”

“You’d do that?”

“Sure. I had it done for me.”

“You had it done for you?”

Amy explained to Jackie what had happened to me during my sophomore year at Ohio State. My getting beat up, then the surgery on my testicles, and my recovery. When Amy finished telling Jackie my story, Jackie looked at me, shook her head, and said, “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“I guess I am. But, I had good doctors and Amy.”

A short time later as Amy and I were taking the dishes to the sink, I whispered, “Should we bring up the other thing?”

“If you mean, the lying about the scholarship.”, Amy said. “Then, yes.”

As we were enjoying dessert, I said, “Jackie, we have something that we need to tell you.”

“You’re going to move?”, Jackie said.

“No, I only wish it was that simple.”

“Sounds serious.”

“In a way it is. I hope that it doesn’t hurt our friendship.”

“Kai, with everything that has happened between us lately I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

“I hope. … Okay, you remember us telling you all about the Chief Nastas Todachine Memorial Scholarship and how we used our trust fund to start it?”

“Of course.”

“Well, it’s not a trust fund. We were given total control over it when we married, but we’ve left most of the money in investments.”

“Okay.”

“Well, I, we, told you a lie and it’s been eating at me. And when we were at the Taos Pueblo, you said, ‘I don’t think Charlie and I could ask for better friends.’ It made me feel bad that we’d lied to you and Charlie.”

“Kai, I don’t understand.”

“Hear me out. The University of New Mexico gave Amy a full ride scholarship to come out here, which they didn’t have to do, as we could have paid for it. But, we accepted it. We also decided that if we found someone that we could help like we did Dibe Bylilly, then we’d do it. And we did find someone.”

I could tell, by the look on her face, that Jackie was beginning to understand.

I continued with, “That person moved in right next door to us.”

“That … that was us.”, Jackie said. “Wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“You took pity on us. Didn’t you?”

“No, Jackie, we didn’t take pity on you.”, Amy said. “Kai had sensed that there was someone who had the ability, drive, and want to do something useful with their life and needed help doing it. And, that was you. You wanting to become a nurse. And, we couldn’t see you fail. So with the help of friends we put some money into your scholarship.

“It’s not a gift. But, you don’t have to pay it back to us. Like we did with Dibe, and anyone else that would be awarded that scholarship, all we ask is that sometime in the future you pay it back by helping someone else. No matter if it’s directly or indirectly.

“And, if we happen to find someone else that we feel the same way about, friend or not, we’d do the same thing.”

“I was starting to get mad at the two of you.”, Jackie said. “But, I now see what you two are all about. You enjoy helping. No matter if it’s people or animals, like the Eagles or the boy that was bitten by the snake. You jump in and help. It’s something special about you.

“And, I know it’s not pity. Amy, it’s you being a nurse and seeing the things as a nurse would. And, Kai, I’ve learned a lot about the native people, from you, Amy, Naainish, your aunt and uncle, and others. And Kai there is something about you, the Navajo you, and being a Nádleeh that brings out the need to help others.

“I only have two words, thank you, and I will pay it back by helping others.”

I smiled at Jackie, and said, “That’s more than two words.”

“Don’t be a smart aleck, Kai.”, Amy said.

“I was so worried that you weren’t going to see this the way we meant it.”, I said. “And we’d lose you and Charlie as friends.”

“Kai.”, Jackie said. “As I said before, it would take a lot to lose us as friends.”

“I’m beginning to believe that.”

“How about walking me to the hospital?”

After we’d cleaned up the dinner dishes, we walked Jackie over to the hospital and up to Charlie’s room. He was looking better than he did this morning. We only stayed for a short time, and as Amy and I were leaving, Jackie said, “How about you two coming back at eight and walking me back home?”

“We’ll see you at eight.”, Amy said.

“Can we bring you anything?”, I asked Charlie.

“Something to read.”, Charlie replied.

“I’ve got some copies of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics you can borrow.”

“Those would be great.”

“Okay, see you at eight.”

As Amy and I were walking back to the apartment, Amy said, “I’ll bet that Jackie is going to tell Charlie about our little talk.”

“No bet from me.”, I said.

Back at the apartment, I put together a half a dozen of the latest issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. My dad would always send his copies to me when he finished with them, and I’d read them and keep them.

When I walked back into the living room, Amy said, “You know, our parents don’t know about your new job. Think we should call them?”

I looked at the clock, and it wasn’t too late back home, so I said, “Why not.”

I picked up the phone and called my mom and dad. Amy ran upstairs and got on the extension. My mother answered the phone, and I said, “Hi mom.”

“Kai, is something wrong?”, my mother asked.

“No, mom. Why?”

“You never call on Saturday night.”

“Sorry. We just had some news to share. Do you want us to call back tomorrow.”

“Kai! No. What’s the news?”

“Is dad home?”

“Sure. I’ll get him on the extension.”

A minute later, I heard my dad say, “So, what’s the news?”

“Well, hello to you too daddy.”, I said.

“I’m sorry. Hello. How are you guys doing?”

“We’re doing great. How about you.”

“We’re doing great too.”

Then my mom said, “So, you have some news?”

“Yes.”, I said. And I went on to tell them about the part-time teaching job and the research fellowship. My dad commented about me getting the fellowship without having a doctoral. And I told him that we wondered about it too.

Then Amy mentioned the job offer from the Los Alamos. My dad went crazy when I told him that I’d turned it down. But, when I explained the reason that I turned it down, he understood.

We chatted a little longer, then said good night and that we’d call them again tomorrow night. Then we called Amy’s mom and dad, and the call was almost identical.

At about a quarter to eight, we walked out of the apartment and started for the hospital. And a short time later we walked into Charlie’s hospital room. Charlie and Jackie looked at us, and Charlie said, “Well, hello you two. I sure got an ear full this evening.”

“Oh.”, I said. “About?”

“About what you two did.”

“Mad?”

“Actually. No. Jackie explained everything. And I started to see her point of view. And, I’m okay with it.

“But, just how much did you have to do with me getting my student assistant job?”

“Not much. We mentioned that you were looking for a part-time or student assistant job at the university to a friend. He must have known that they were looking for help in that department, he dropped your name, and the rest is history.”

“And, the furniture?”

“As I’ve said, I knew my uncle wanted to get rid of some furniture after remodeling a few of the resort’s rooms, and I just put the two of you together.”

“You didn’t pay anything additional for our furniture. Did you?”

“Not one red cent. My uncle was just happy to get rid of the furniture.”

I didn’t mention the tip that I gave to Francisco and the guys for delivering the furniture. That’s not paying for the furniture. Is it?

Then I handed Charlie the issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that I’d brought with me, and said, “This should keep you occupied for a little while.”

“Oh, they will. Thanks, Kai.”

“Just don’t throw them out. I like to keep them for reference.”

“So that’s how you keep up with all the new stuff.”

“Those and some technical publications that the university’s library gets.”

“I never thought that I’d use this word with a girl. But, you are a nerd. Aren’t you?”

“I guess.”

“But, you sure don’t dress like one.”

I just smiled.

“And, I guess I have to thank you and Amy for what you did for Jackie. And, I’m glad that someone else, other than me, saw in Jackie her love for nursing. During high school, she scraped together nickels and dimes so that she could be a Candy Striper at our local hospital. And, she looked so cute in that uniform.”

“So, you were a Candy Striped too, Jackie?”, Amy said.

“Yeah. Were you one, Amy?”, Jackie replied.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know that?”, I said.”

“I haven’t told you about everything I did in high school.”

“Hmm. Keeping secrets.”

“Only that one.”

Just then they announced the visiting hours would end in ten minutes. And I told Charlie that I was going to try and get the class notes from his professors so that he wouldn’t miss too much.

“Do you have to?”, he said with a smile. “I’m enjoying my rest.”

“Yes, I have to. Besides isn’t this a hard way to get a vacation from school.”

“Yeah. And, I’ll never do it again.”

Again, after saying so long to Charlie, Amy and I waited in the hall for Jackie and Charlie to say good night. Then we walked Jackie back to her apartment.

As we were saying goodnight to Jackie, she said, “You know. I was right when I said, ‘I don’t think Charlie and I could ask for better friends.’ You two are special.”

Then we both received hugs.

Later as we were crawling into bed, Amy said, “My prince, the King has gone on a quest. Please stay the night in my bedchamber?”

“My lady.”, I replied. “It would be my pleasure to spend the night and to do my lady’s bidding.”

Sunday morning as we were eating breakfast, we decided that we needed to go for a hike. We chose the trail that ran along the Rio Grande River. So, a short time later, dressed for the colder weather, we were walking north along the river. We walked further north than we ever had, maybe a mile further. There were no benches this far up. So, we turned around and headed back south.

When we reached the bench that was across the river from the island, we sat and watched the water. And, it wasn’t long until we had company. Both Eagles showed up together and landed in the dead tree on the island. We looked at them, and I said, “I know we haven’t seen you in a while and we’re sorry. But, I think we saw one of your young when we were back home.”

One of the Eagles screeched as if it understood me. A few minutes later the two Eagles took off together, and they circled overhead twice. Then as the headed back north, we saw two feathers fall from them.

Just like last time the two feathers floated down towards the river, Amy and I ran towards the river and were able to catch the feathers just before they hit the water. These feathers were different than the other two feathers that we’d gotten here. The first two were pure white and about twelve inches long. Both of these were about eighteen inches long and dark gray with a white patch at the end.

I looked at them, and said, “I’ll bet these are flight feathers.”

“You may be right. They're different than the others.”, Amy replied.

We watched as Eagles disappeared into the distance. And, I wondered out loud, “Why two more feathers?”

“It’s beyond me.”, Amy said.

We finished our walk carrying the two feathers as we walked into the almost deserted parking lot, I said, “No Park Rangers today.”

“That’s good. We won’t have to explain having the feathers again.”

“So, what do you think we should do with them?”

“Display them.”

“Of course. But, how?”, I asked.

“We could add them to the other two that are on the clan certificates. Or, maybe add them to the headbands.”, Amy replied.

“So, two feathers on the headbands.”

“Yeah. Let's try it and see if we like it.”

Once back at the apartment, I took one of the new Eagle feathers and walked halfway up the stairs and held it next to one of the clan certificates, and said, “What do you think?”

“You know, they look good there.”, Amy replied. “I think that the feathers may be a too big to use with the headbands.”

“Okay. We’ll mount them to the frames.

“Want to go see Charlie?”

“Sure. Then we can grab some lunch.”

Just then the phone rang, I answered it, “Hello” … “Oh hi, Chief Tom.” … “No, we don’t have any plans for dinner.” … “Sure. Your place at six. We’ll be there." … “Yá’át’ééh alní'íní, Naat'áanii Tahoma. - (It is good, Chief Tom.)”

“So, we’re going to the Etsitty’s for dinner?”