We’ve started having fun with the twins by taking them for short walks in their cradleboards. Ajie had found out that she’d be defending her dissertation on Thursday.

I’d received a pleasant surprise in the way of a picture of the Earthrise taken by Apollo 8 crew, and they all had signed it. And it was sent by Dr. Clark of N.A.S.A.

I’d given my dissertation to Dean Rutherford’s secretary, Sara, to type, and when I’d gotten it back, it appeared that she’d done a fantastic job.

Ajie had successfully defended her dissertation on Thursday and thank the Great Spirit that my mom was still here to watch the twins. Ajie had been very nervous, and I made her sit and meditate with me, and that helped. Then I’d driven her to the university, while mom watched the twins, and I waited while she’d had her meeting. When she’d come out of the meeting, it was no longer Miss Ajie Nez. It was now Ajie Nez, RN BSN PhD or Dr. Ajie Nez.

The twins had their first checkup. And they came through that with flying colors. Then I learned that we were going to have a new project, and it was going to be for N.A.S.A. This could be interesting.

I worked on my dissertation, proofreading what Sara had typed, and Ajie and I had taken pictures to include in it.

The university had gone into lockdown on Monday because of an anti-war demonstration. So I was stuck being with Dr. Joe for a couple of hours. When I was finally back home, playing with the twins took my mind off of everything but them.

Tuesday, Dr. Joe and I have an afternoon meeting with our people from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Dr. Clark from N.A.S.A. So as Ajie and I were eating breakfast, I said, “I’ll be home as soon as I can, but knowing the people from Los Alamos, they’ll want to go out to dinner.”

“Don’t worry.”, Ajie said. “The twins will be no problems. But with a two o’clock meeting, won’t it be too early for dinner?”

“Not for these guys. When they’re down here, they like to eat at the restaurants here in Albuquerque.”

“Just don’t bring them here like you did that one time.”

“I won’t unless they’re willing to change diapers.”

With a smile, Ajie said, “I’ll bet that they won’t.”

When I dressed for the university, it was a little more upscale than usual. It was a long skirt, but it was also a fancy long skirt. And my blouse was also a fancy one. I was even wearing wrap moccasins. My hair was in a single braid with a fancy end. I wore a simple braided leather headband but had my fancy braided headband with the Eagle feathers in my briefcase for later. My earrings were the ones that my grandfather had made, the ones with the silver rounds with three small gold feathers hanging from them. I wore only one bracelet and three rings, but I had others in my briefcase. And of course, I was wearing a Concho belt.

Later I was sitting at the desk in my classroom waiting for my class to start, and I watched as the students for my eight o’clock class began to file in and take their seats. When the bell rang, I noticed a few empty seats. One or two yes, but not a half a dozen.

I got up, walked in front of my desk, and said, “Good morning, gentleman. I know that there was an anti-war demonstration on campus yesterday. And I see a few more empty seats than normal. I hope that it’s not because of the demonstration.”

I saw a hand go up, and he said, “Miss Nez.”

“Yes.”, I said.

“I’m afraid that it is. I know that at least Walter Brown is in jail. And Frank Lewis is in the hospital.”

I sat back against my desk, shook my head, and said, “Damn war! I hate seeing any of you getting hurt in these demonstrations. But I know many of you have strong feelings about the war, as do I. But please be careful out there. I lost one friend to the war, and I don’t want to lose any more.”

“But, Miss Nez, don’t you also do work for the Los Alamos National Laboratory?”

“No, I do not work for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, but we do research for them through the university. And part of that agreement is that we will not research military projects.

“Anything else on this gentlemen? … Okay, we have a lot to cover today.”

I went on to teach this class and my nine o’clock class. My nine o’clock class started just about like this one did. I only had one grad level class, and it met once a week on Tuesdays at ten, so after teaching my nine o'clock class, I walked over to the education building for my class. This class is a discussion class and guess what the main discussion was about? You’re right. It was about the demonstration and the war. And I put in my two cents worth into that discussion. And as the professor that teaches this class will tell you, I always put my two cents, sometimes even ten cents, worth into any of the discussions that we have.

After my nine o’clock class ended, I stopped in the Dean’s office to pick up what Sara had typed for me. Sara did have the two pages retyped, and I thanked her. Then I took the rest of my dissertation out of my briefcase, put the two pages where they belonged, and asked Sara to make me three copies, which she did.

Then I headed to the office, and as I walked in, Dr. Joe and the Dean were there, they looked at me, and the Dean said, “Well, Miss Nez, you’re not as dressed up as you usually are for a meeting.”

With a sly smile, I replied, “It’s not two o’clock yet, Dean.”

“I should have known. By the way, the people from Los Alamos called and needed to move the meeting to one. Is that a problem?”

“Fine with me.”, Dr. Joe said.

“Me too. And I have copies of the final version of my dissertation, would either of you care to proofread it for me.”

“I’ll be happy to, Miss Nez.”, Dean Rutherford said. And I handed him a copy of it.

“Kai.”, Dr. Joe said. “I was duly impressed by what I read earlier. But I’ll go over it to see if Sara made any mistakes. And I seriously doubt that she did.”

“Was it good, Dr. Oshie?”, the Dean asked.

“Dean.”, Dr. Joe said. “I’m going to let you read it and make a decision for yourself.”

“The pictures mentioned in the text aren’t ready yet.”, I said.

“That’s fine as long as they’re with the final.”

“They will be.”, I said, and I handed Dr. Joe a copy of my dissertation.

“Well, if our meeting is at one, we have time for lunch.”, the Dean said.

“I was going to run home and check on Ajie and the twins.”, I said.

“How are they doing?”

“Great. They passed their one-month checkup with flying colors.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Go ahead and run home.”, Dr. Joe said. “That way, the Dean and I can talk about you.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t.”, I said. “Maybe I should stay here and protect my good name.”

“Kai, run on home and see the kids.”

I did run home and was surprised to see Charlie and Jackie’s car in the driveway. I parked in the garage, and Ajie stuck her head out the door from the house, and said, “What are you doing home?”

“I just came home to check on you.”, I replied.

“You didn’t need to.”

“I know. But I missed the three of you. Are Charlie and Jackie here?”

“Just Jackie. She only had two classes this morning. So she came up to see the kids and me.”

Before I walked to where Ajie was, I went over to the safe, opened it, and put the original and one copy of my dissertation into it. Ajie watched me and asked, “Your dissertation?”

“Yes, the original and a copy.”, I replied. “Dr. Joe and the Dean also have copies.”

Then I walked over to the door to the house, and I received one of Ajie’s sweet kisses. We then walked into the house. The twins were in their playpen, and Jackie was playing with them. I walked over, looked down at the twins, smiled, and said, “Yá’át’ééh, shi awéé’ at’ééd dóó shi awéé’ ashkii. - (Hello, my baby girl and my baby boy.)”

“Going to teach them Navajo?”, Jackie asked.

“And English.”, I replied.

“And maybe Spanish.”, Ajie added.

“That could be interesting.”, Jackie said.

“Yeah.”, I said. “Then the three of them could talk behind my back in Spanish.”

“Learn Spanish.”, Jackie said.

“Maybe when I have some time.”

“Staying for lunch?”, Ajie asked.

“I wish I could. But since they moved the meeting up, I’d better get going.”, I replied.

Ajie walked with me to the car, and as we hugged, she said, “I loved your surprise.”

“What surprise?”, I asked.

“Coming home as you did.”

“I had to check on my three little ones.”

“You’re sweet.”

“I’ll see you as soon as I can.”

When I was back at the university, I went to my office, and Dr. Joe was there. I said, “So, did you and the Dean talk about me?”

“No.”, Dr. Joe said. “But he glanced through your dissertation and was impressed by what he was seeing.”

“So, it’s good.”

“You know it is.”

“Yeah, but I still worry about what the committee is going to think.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “We’ll see.”

Then I proceeded to add a few pieces of silver jewelry that I had in my briefcase. A few rings and a couple of bracelets. Then I removed the simple headband that I was wearing and replaced it with the fancy braided leather headband with the Eagle feathers hanging from it.

Dr. Joe had watched me, and when I finished, he shook his head and said, “I think the Dean spoke too soon about you not being dressed up for this meeting.”

I just smiled.

A few minutes later, the phone rang, and Dr. Joe answered it. It was Sara calling to tell us that our guests were here. Dr. Joe and I walked down to the Dean’s office. Sara told us to go on back to the meeting room.

When we reached the meeting room, Dr. Joe knocked, and we heard a, “Come.”

Dr. Joe opened the door for me, and we walked in. As we did, everyone stood. Along with Dr. Clark from N.A.S.A., there was Dr. Fontheim, who is our liaison with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Dr. Höllmann, who is head of research at Los Alamos. And of course, Dean Rutherford was also here.

Everyone knew everyone, so we all just said hello to each other. Then we sat down at the table. Dr. Fontheim then said, “Miss Nez and Dr. Oshie, we were just telling Dean Rutherford about what we have for you. And I’ll let Dr. Clark tell you. Dr. Clark.”

“Miss Nez, Dr. Oshie.”, Dr. Clark said. “It’s wonderful to see you again.”

“Thank you.”, Dr. Joe said.

“It is good to see you again, Dr. Clark.”, I said. “And I want to thank you for the picture.”

“Miss Nez.”, Dr. Clark said. “It was the least we could do.”

“You gave me the circuits from the project that we worked on. That would have been enough.”

“Miss Nez, I don’t know if it is enough. You still amaze me. I’m sitting here with a native American girl. No, I’m sitting here with a woman who has a degree in electrical engineering and can do research better than any man that I’ve ever met. And she’s about to earn her doctorate at a young age.”

I didn’t know what to say. I just sat there and looked at Dr. Clark.

Then Dr. Clark said, “I’m sorry, Miss Nez. I’ve embarrassed you.”

“No, sir. Not at all. I just don’t know what to say. Other than thank you.”

“I guess we’d better get down to business.”

“That would be good.”

As Dr. Clark set three binders on the table, he said, “We, N.A.S.A., are working on a new project, and we’d like your help. We have something that we need that has never been done before, and we feel that you might be able to come up with what we need. It’ll be a challenge, but we feel that you can handle it. This currently falls into the secret category. We have an initial write up for you to read and decide if you’d like to attempt it.”

Then Dr. Fontheim said, “Paper clipped to the cover of each binder is our usual nondisclosure agreement. Before you read the contents of the binders, please read over the agreement and sign it.”

Dr. Clark then moved one binder in front of me, one in front of Dr. Joe, and one in front of Dean Rutherford. We all looked over the agreement and signed it, and then we read the contents of the binder.

I was the first to finish reading the binder. Then I sat there in thought. Dr. Joe was the next to finish, then Dean Rutherford. Dr. Joe looked at me and asked, “What do you think, Kai.”

“He did say it would be a challenge.”, I replied. “So, how long would we have to do this?”

“Three months.”, Dr. Clark replied.

“I think that’s enough time. Are we building the final module of this to go into Skylab, or are you?”

Dr. Clark looked at me, then looked at Dr. Fontheim, then looked back at me, and asked, “Miss Nez, how did you know about Skylab?”

“I read a lot.”

“But nothing in those documents even point to something like that.”

“Along with other things, in a way it does. You work for the Manned Spacecraft Center. So this has something to do with a manned mission. The Apollo spacecrafts are all built or close to completion. So, it wouldn’t be for them. The next N.A.S.A. program is Skylab, which is still in the preliminary stages. And the one after that is still in the first stages of planning. And it hasn’t even been named yet. So it makes sense that this is for Skylab.”

Dr. Clark sat back in his chair, looked at me, and slowly shook his head. Then he said, “We’ll need three of the circuits. All three have a possibility of going into space.”

“So, you’d want them sealed?”

“No, we’ll do that after it’s finally installed and tested with everything else.”

Dr. Höllman then looked at Dr. Clark and said, “I told you that she’d know.”

“That you did.”, Dr. Clark said.

“Well, Miss Nez.”, Dean Rutherford said. “What do you think?”

“Let’s do it.”, I replied.

“Dr. Oshie?”

“You heard her.”

Dean Rutherford then said, “Dr. Clark, we’ll be happy to work on the project.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”, Dr. Clark said. “We’ll be sending you the sensors and indicators that we’ll be using along with all the necessary technical documentation by a courier. They should be here the first of next week, and they’ll have to be signed for by one of you three. And as I said earlier, this is still secret, or so I thought, and everything will need to be kept in your secure office or laboratory.”

“We understand that.”, Dean Rutherford said.

“And the reason Dr. Höllmann and Dr. Fontheim are with us is that we are working through them with you on the contract that they have with you.”

“That’s fine.”

Then looking at me, Dr. Clark said, “Now, Miss Nez, you mentioned the project after Skylab. What do you know about it?”

“Not that much, Dr. Clark.”, I said. “Just that it has something to do with the Russians.”

Dr. Clark shook his head, then said, “I suppose you read that someplace.”

“No, not directly. But putting enough information together and reading between the lines, it became obvious.”

“When are you going to come and work for us, so we don’t have to keep things from you?”

“Probably never.”, I said. “I enjoy it here at the university. I like the way we do research here, and I enjoy teaching. Plus, here I’m close to my people and can work with them. Not to mention that we love this part of the country.”

“I can understand that, Miss Nez. With you here at the university, we can at least use your talents to help with our research.”

I smiled and said, “I think that we would be more than happy to work with you, Dr. Clark.”

I looked at Dean Rutherford, and he had a little smile. And he said, “Yes, we would.”

Then Dr. Höllman said, “We missed lunch, would the three of you like to join us, as our guest, for a late lunch?”

“We’d love to.”, Dean Rutherford said.

I looked at Dr. Joe and rolled my eyes. Dr. Joe picked up on it and said, “Miss Nez has two new members of the household at home, and her cousin is alone with them.”

“Two new members of the family?”, Dr. Clark asked.

“Yes, my cousin and her husband adopted twins, and they’re only five weeks old.”, I replied.

“So, you’re helping her with them?”

“Yes, her husband is in Vietnam, and I’m staying with her. And I’d like to get home to them.”

“Her cousin is one heck of a good cook.”, Dr. Fontheim said.

To get him off of that subject, I said, “There are a couple of restaurants that we like, that won’t be too busy at this time of day.”

“Which one’s?”, Dean Rutherford asked.

“There’s Nunzio's, that’s a pizza place, and they are just off-campus. And they have things other than pizza. There’s the High Noon Restaurant and Saloon, but that’s more of a place for dinner. And then there’s La Placita Dining Rooms in Old Town Albuquerque.”

And as I figured they picked La Placita Dining Rooms and we had a late lunch. We had all driven in separate cars, me by myself, the Dean and Dr. Joe were together, and the people from Los Alamos and Dr. Clark were together. So, after a nice lunch, Dr. Joe and the Dean headed back to the university, the people from Los Alamos and Dr. Clark headed to Los Alamos after dropping Dr. Clark at the Kirtland Air Force Base, and I headed home.

When I was back home, Jackie was gone, and I was met at the door to the house by Ajie with a big hug and an even bigger kiss. After we broke the kiss, I asked, “So, how was your day?”

“It was fine.”, Ajie said. “The twins were good, and it was fun having Jackie here. But I think she came up to see the twins and not me.”

“I was wondering about that.”

“But, we had fun talking.”

“It was nice that she did that.”

“It was.”

We went into the house, and I put my briefcase in the office. The twins were out in their playpen, so I went into the master suite, removed all my jewelry, and changed clothes. I put on a pair of slacks and a comfortable blouse. Then I went out into the big room and found Ajie with the twins, she looked at me, and said, “Let's take them for a walk.”

A few minutes later, the twins were all bundled up, and we were strapping them into their cradleboards. They seemed to know what we were going to do, so they acted as excited as a five-week-old baby could. Ajie helped me put Haseya on my back, and I helped her put Tsé on her back.

Then we walked out the front door of the house and walked to the street. We then walked down the road to the street that ours runs off of, turned around, and headed back. As we walked, I told Ajie as much as I could about my day and how I surprised Dr. Clark from N.A.S.A. and his reaction to it. Ajie asked, “Did you really know that the project was for Skylab?”

“Yes.”, I replied. “I knew that the next manned project was Skylab, and it included the use of the Apollo capsules. It was something that was planned to coincide with the Apollo project so that they could use those capsules to ferry astronauts and supplies to Skylab.”

“And how did you know that?”

“By putting together things that I read in different publications.”

Ajie took ahold of my arm, and we finished the walk that way. When we were in the house, it was time for dinner. No, not Ajies and mine, but the two little people’s dinner. After they’d eaten, Ajie and I ate. We then had them in their seats in the big room. We were listening to music, reading, and had a nice fire burning in the fireplace.

We put the twins to bed after their nine o’clock feeding. Then Ajie and I cuddled together on the couch. We were still listening to music, but only enjoying the fire and each other's company.

We quietly went to bed, even knowing that we’d probably be up at midnight for a feeding. But we were still awake when the two little ones started to stir at midnight. We’d spent that hour enjoying each other.

Wednesday, after I’d taught my classes, I headed to the office. Dr. Joe was there, and he said, “Well, are you ready for the project.”

“Yeah.”, I replied. “But I’m going to take six weeks off before we start.”

“Wait a minute. You can’t do that. We only have three months to finish this.”

“I know. But after reading what Dr. Clark supplied, this shouldn’t be that hard. I’ll know more after I read all of the documentation.”

“So, what are you thinking?”

“If this is what I think it is, there are several integrated circuits that we can use. And if so, it should be an easy design. If not, it’ll just be a little harder.”

“We’ll see.

“And I’ve gone over your dissertation, and Sara did an excellent job of typing it for you.”

“I thought so too. I’m just nervous about this whole thing.”

“I know you are, but you don’t need to be. You’ve done a great job on your dissertation. And knowing you, you will have a great defense for it.”

“Thanks, Dr. Joe. That makes me feel better.”

Just then there was a knock at the door. Dr. Joe said, “Come.”

The door opened, and Dean Rutherford walked in and said, “Good. You’re both here.”

“What did we do now?”, I asked.

“Miss Nez, just because I’m here doesn’t mean you did something wrong.”

With a smile, I said, “I know.”

“First, Miss Nez, I read your dissertation. And you know that I’m a mechanical engineer and not an electrical engineer. But I just can’t believe the amount of detail that you went into and the way you explained everything. It made even me understand it.”

“I just put into it what needed to be done, what I did to make it happen, and what it could be expanded into.”

“That you did, Miss Nez.

“Now, how soon will you be ready to present your dissertation?”

“Well.”, I said. “I should have the pictures back on Friday. Then I’ll have to pick out the ones that I want to use, and have those enlarged to look good on an eight-and-a-half by eleven format.

“After that, it should be ready. Maybe early next week.”

“That would be good. Once you’re ready, give it to Dr. Oshie. He’ll take it to the proper people at the Graduate School. And they’ll take it from there.”

I sighed and said, “I still have one class to finish.”

“Is that going to be a problem?”, the Dean asked.

“I don’t think so. All we do is discuss and debate various topics.”

“Knowing you, Miss Nez, you could probably teach that class.”

I just shrugged my shoulders.

As he walked towards the door, the Dean said, “Keep me informed as to how things are going.”

“I’ll do that, Dean.”, I said.

“You too, Dr. Oshie.”

“Yes, sir.”, Dr. Joe replied.

As the door closed, I said, “Is he pushing this a little.”

“I don’t think so.”, Dr. Joe said. “I think he’s as excited as you are about you doing this. Besides, it’ll be another feather in his cap.”

I’d been standing up through all of this, then as the door closed and in a somewhat serious tone, Dr. Joe said, “Have a seat.”

I looked at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Have a seat. I have something to tell you.”

As I sat, I said, “Okay. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”, Dr. Joe said. “Something’s going on that I think I should tell you about.”

“You're not leaving the university. Are you?”

“No. Now, just be quiet and listen.”

“Okay.”

The College of Engineering is growing, and they’ve decided that Dean Rutherford needs help. So, they’re in the process of putting together positions for two assistant deans. One will take care of the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department and the Computer Science Departments, and one will take care of the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department and the Nuclear Engineering Department.”

“I didn’t know that we had a Nuclear Engineering Department.”, I said.

“We do.”, Dr. Joe said. “Now, be quiet and let me finish. They’ve talked to me about becoming one of the assistant deans, and I told them that I’m interested. But they haven’t made a formal offer.”

I just sat there and said nothing. Finally, Dr. Joe said, “Kai, say something.”

“You told me to be quiet.”, I replied.

“Kai!”

“Sorry. So, when could this happen?”

“At any time.”

“So, I’ll be losing my roomie?”

“No. There isn’t any room in the college office for one, let alone two offices. So, I figured that I’d just stay here and throw you out.”

“What!?”

“Kidding.”, Dr. Joe said.

“You’d better be.”, I replied.

“I am. I’d miss you. You do teach me things.”

“I do?”

“Yes. I’ve even started reading more.”

“That’s good. Have you told Mary yet?”

“Yes, and she was happy.”

“And it’ll help with the new baby coming.”

“Yes, it will.”, Dr. Joe said. “But don’t tell anyone.”

“Not even Ajie?”, I asked.

“Well, maybe her. But no one else.”

“You know. I think this will be a good thing.”

“I do too. I’ve noticed the Dean was being rushed at times.”

“He does seem to be harried at times. But, won’t you need the office for meetings and stuff.”

“No, since this is a secure office, all meetings will be downstairs. Besides, you’ll need the office to work in.”

“I could move down the hall.”

“No, I’ll want you here if I get the position.”

“The assistant dean’s assistant.”

“Kai!”

“I couldn’t resist. But, you’ll get the position.”

“We’ll see.”

Dr. Joe and I went to lunch at the faculty dining room. Then he went back to the office, and I headed home. I wasn’t greeted at the door from the house to the garage, and I didn’t see anyone in the main part of the house, but when I walked into the master suite to change, I found out why. It was diaper changing time. So I helped Ajie finish changing the twins. And I chatted with Haseya as I changed her. It was a one-way chat except for a couple of baby noises. No, not from me. From Haseya.

Then I went and fixed the bottles as Ajie brought the twins out and put them in their chairs. And then we fed them. After they’d eaten, I went and changed, and Ajie and I had lunch.

As we ate, I said, “They’re creating two assistant dean positions in the College of Engineering. And guess who they're talking about taking one of the positions?”

“You.”, Ajie said.

I looked at Ajie, and she was grinning, so I said, “Are you kidding me. No way. I’m too outspoken. They’re looking at Dr. Joe.”

“I figured it had to be Dr. Joe.”

“Oh, I’m not good enough?”

“You are good enough. You just haven’t been around long enough.”

“And don’t say anything to anyone, not even Vickie, about this.”, I said.

“The twins overheard us.”, Ajie replied.

“They’re sleeping.”

“Probably faking it.”

“And who would they tell?”

“Their friends.”

“Who?”, I asked. “Dr. Joe’s boy, Mark?” Mark is only six months old.

“Who else.”, Ajie said.

“Let’s stop being silly and take these two for a walk.”

Wednesday was about the same as Tuesday, as far as teaching was concerned. I didn’t stop at the office since I knew that nothing was going to happen on the project for N.A.S.A. until next week.

Thursday started out the same way that Wednesday had. But on the way home, I’d gotten off the Interstate at Tramway Road and headed east. As I turned off of Tramway onto the road that went into where we lived, I noticed a car follow me. At first, I thought nothing of it. But as I made the turn to go up our road, Blue Spring Circle, they followed me. Okay, who was this? Maybe it’s one of the neighbors.

Then I turned into our driveway, and they followed me. I stopped, got out of the car, and headed back to the other car to confront the driver. As I got to the car, I saw that it was Mrs. Biakeddy of the Navajo Children and Family Services. As I walked up to the car, she rolled down the window and said, “Hello, Miss Nez.”

“Oh, hello, Mrs. Biakeddy. I didn’t know who was following me.”, I replied.

“We were both going to the same place.”

“So, we were. Let’s finish the drive.”

I walked back to the car and drove up the driveway to the house, as I did, I saw Ajie standing at the gate in the front courtyard. Instead of pulling into the garage, I parked near the gate and got out. Mrs. Biakeddy parked next to me. As I walked up to Ajie, she said, “I heard two dings and was wondering what was going on.”

“It’s Mrs. Biakeddy, and I think Mrs. Deschinny is with her.”, I said. “They followed me from the Interstate, and I didn’t know who it was, so when they followed me into the driveway, I stopped and was going to confront them.”

We watched as Mrs. Biakeddy and Mrs. Deschinny got out of the car and walked over to us. As they walked up, Mrs. Biakeddy said, “I’m glad I spotted you getting off the Interstate, Miss Nez. I forgot how to get here. So I followed you.”

“That’s all right, Mrs. Biakeddy.”, I said. “I’m glad you didn’t get lost. Come on in.”

Ajie and I, followed by Mrs. Biakeddy and Mrs. Deschinny, walked into the house. And they accompanied us to the big room. I saw that the twins were in the playpen. So I walked over, bent down, and said, “Yá’át’ééh, shi awéé’ at’ééd dóó shi awéé’ ashkii. - (Hello my baby girl and my baby boy.)”

Mrs. Deschinny said, “Teaching them a little Navajo already?”

“It’s never too early to start. And we also talk to them in English.”

“That’s good.”

“We’re making one of our unannounced visits just to see how things are.”

“I think they're going well.”, Ajie said. “They passed their one-month checkup with flying colors.”

“Who did they see?”, Mrs. Deschinny asked.

“Dr. Eve Clark at the university hospital.”

“Good choice. She’s a wonderful doctor.”

“Yes, she is.”

We then talked for about half an hour about what we were doing with the twins, and the two ladies were happy with everything. Then as they were leaving, Mrs. Biakeddy said, “Well, Miss Nez and Miss Nez, I think that we’re happy with everything we’ve seen, and the twins appear to be happy. So you’ll have a good report.”

Ajie said, “Thank you very much.”

Then I pointed at Ajie and said, “Dr. Nez.”

“Dr. Nez?”, Mrs. Biakeddy said.

“Yes.”, Ajie said. “But, Miss Nez or Ajie is okay too.”

“Is this a PhD in nursing?”

“Yes.”

“Then Dr. Ajie Nez it is.”

“Thank you.” Then Ajie pointed at me and said, “This one should also have her PhD soon.”

Looking at me, Mrs. Biakeddy said, “Will it also be a PhD in nursing?”

“No.”, I said. “Electrical engineering.”

“Oh, that’s right, I remember now.”

Ajie and I walked over, and each of us picked up one of the twins. Then we walked Mrs. Biakeddy and Mrs. Deschinny to the door. As we said so long, the two ladies said goodbye to the twins. And Ajie explained that we never said goodbye as it was too permanent, so we always say hágoónee' - (see you later). So the two ladies, being Navajo, said hágoónee' to us and the twins.

As we walked back into the house, I said, “I was ready to confront them for following me.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”, Ajie said.

“Me too.”

After dinner, we took the twins for another walk. It was out in the back yard and around the outside of the house. Then it was time for them to sit with us while we read and listened to music.

Friday, after I finished teaching, I stopped by the office and dropped off my briefcase. Then I walked to the camera shop, which is just off campus, where I’d dropped off the roll of film. After I’d picked up the envelope with the pictures and negatives in it, I opened it, took out the photos, and looked at them.

I couldn’t help but smile at the pictures of the twins. But I was looking for the photographs that Ajie and I had taken of the three circuits. The two that I’d built for N.A.S.A., and the final full guidance printed circuit board with mine mounted on it.

I found the nine pictures that Ajie and I had taken. We’d taken three of each circuit. I picked out the best one of each set of three. Then I walked over to the counter, and I told the guy behind the counter, “What I’d like to do, is blow these three pictures up so that they look good on an eight-and-a-half by eleven format. And we could put the pictures of the two smaller circuits on one page.”

“We can do that for you, ma’am.”, the guy said.

We picked the three negatives off the strips of film, and I showed him how the two pictures should go on the one page. Then the guy took a close look at the pictures. Ajie and I had put tags on each printed circuit board, one of which said ‘Apollo Guidance System.’

The guy asked, “I’m a student at the university and work here part-time. Are you the teacher that put on that television show about the Apollo?”

“That was me.”

“That was very interesting.”

“Thank you.”

Pointing at the pictures, he asked, “Is this the circuit that you designed?”

“Yes, it is.”, I replied.

“A girl doing something like that is just so cool.”

“Thanks. A lot of people don’t think a girl can do something like this.”

“And I know that’s not true.”, the guy said. “My mother’s a doctor.”

“Good for her.”, I said.

He then told me that they'd have them for me tomorrow afternoon. I told him to make me three copies of each one.

Then I headed back to the university and the office to pickup my briefcase. Dr. Joe wasn’t there, so I headed home. When I was home, I showed Ajie the pictures, and she loved the ones that she’d taken of the twins. And she also liked the ones of the printed circuit boards.

We did something a little different this evening. I wanted to meditate after dinner. So, after we’d eaten, we bundled up the two little ones, put them in there awéétsááls or cradleboards, and took them for a short walk. Then we went into the hogan, and after lighting a couple of the kerosene lanterns, we removed their cradleboards from our shoulders and propped them up so that the twins could see us as we sat at the fire pit. I knew that they probably couldn’t focus on us at this distance, but they could hear us.

I laid a small fire and lit it while Ajie retrieved a couple of rugs and placed them on either side of the fire.

As Ajie and I sat on the opposite side of the fire pit, I looked at the twins. What we were doing had kept their attention. Then I started meditating, and a chant came to me. So, I quietly began to chant. Ajie joined me in the chant. I saw a vision of the Indian maiden. She was sitting under the tree. The wolf was lying next to her with his head in her lap. And the Eagle was there holding the single meteorite necklace.

The chant was a short one. When we finished, I looked over at the twins, and they were both asleep. So I whispered, “We must have bored them, they’re asleep.”

Ajie looked at them and whispered, “That’s so cute. Stay here. I want to get the camera.”

Ajie got up and ran to the house and back quickly with her camera. She took her time taking several pictures of the twins asleep in their awéétsááls – (cradleboards).

Then we carefully picked up the twins and carried them into the house and set them, still in their cradleboards, on the couch, and they were still asleep. I ran back out to the hogan, extinguished the kerosene lanterns and the fire in the fire pit.

The twins woke up for their nine o’clock feeding, and then we put them to bed, and we weren’t far behind them.

Of course, we were up early on Saturday morning with the twins. We did some housework in the morning, and at about nine, we heard the ding from the driveway. I looked at Ajie and said, “That must be the load of firewood that I ordered. It’s supposed to be here this morning.”

“Could be.”, Ajie replied.

I grabbed the checkbook and a pen and went outside, and I was right. It was a dump truck full of wood. I watched as they dumped it next to the dwindling pile of wood that we already had. Then I wrote a check to the guy that was delivering the wood. I gave the guy the check and thanked him.

After I was back inside, Ajie decided to go grocery shopping. So I had charge of the twins. When she left, they were up and in their playpen. So I put on some music, it was the university's radio station, and they were playing a mix of 60’s rock and roll, and taking requests. And they got several requests for some of the antiwar songs.

After Ajie was back and we’d put the groceries away, the four of us had lunch, and I ran into town to the camera shop. I parked and walked towards the shop. Then I noticed that there was a new store on the same block. A record shop. Hmm. Before I made it to the camera shop, I stopped in the record shop and looked at their offerings. You name the genre and the year, and they had it. They even had 78s. They had rock, jazz, musical theater, folk, country, dance, swing, classical, march, bagpipe, and more.

I must have spent an hour in the record store and walked out with a couple of albums to start our vinyl collection. I’d picked up ‘The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds’, ‘The Beatles, The Beatles’, and ‘Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited’. And I’d spotted something special to me. It was a complete box set of ’Victory at Sea’ LPs. This was one of my favorite TV shows back in the ‘50s, and I loved the music. The documentary series was about naval warfare during World War II. I know I don’t like war, but there was just something about this series that grabbed my attention. So, I bought that set of records too. And there were many more that grabbed my attention, but I’d stopped with the box set and three albums.

I took the records back to the car, then went to the camera shop. As I walk in, the guy that had waited on me yesterday spotted me and said, “I’ve got those prints ready for you.”

I walked over to him and said, “Great. Let’s see them.”

He went to the back of the shop and was quickly back with a large manila envelope. He opened the envelope and removed the pictures and set them on the counter. I looked at them and said, “Perfect! What do I owe you?”

I paid him and headed back home. When I pulled into the garage, Ajie was standing at the door. As I got out of the car, she said, “I was getting worried. Where have you been?”

“There’s a new shop downtown.”, I replied.

“A new shop. What kind of shop?”

“A record shop. It’s only been there a few weeks.”

“A record shop. That’s nice to know. I suppose that you bought them out.”

“Not quite.”

I took everything out of the car and carried it into the house. I set it on the breakfast counter and walked over and said hello to the twins. They were in their playpen, so I wound up their mobile for them, and that made them happy.

Then I showed Ajie what I’d bought. And she thought that I’d made some great choices, but she questioned the ‘Victory at Sea’ set until I told her about them. She then said, “We’ll see if I like them after I hear them.”

Ajie then looked at the enlargements that I had done at the camera shop, and she liked what she saw. Then she said, “I’d like to choose a picture that I’ve taken of each of the twins, have that blown up to eight by ten, find some nice frames, and hang them on a wall.”

“Let’s do it.”, I said.

“Okay, we’ll pick out something after dinner.”

After dinner, we looked through the pictures that we had of the twins. After we’d been through them twice, Ajie said, “You know. All of those pictures are good. But, I think I want to wait until I see the ones of them that we took in the hogan with them in their cradleboards.”

“Okay, we’ll wait.”, I said.

I had put all the records in the cabinet with the stereo equipment. So tonight, instead of listening to a radio station, I fired up the record player for the first time. Then I carefully took the first volume of Victory at Sea out of its slipcase and placed it on the turntable, turned the turntable drive on, picked up the tonearm off its rest, and placed it on the record. And nothing. What the heck.

I looked over everything, and all the wires were connected, then I saw it. You dummy, you need to select the record player. So I changed the source selector from FM to Aux-1, and all of a sudden, we had music. I’m glad the volume wasn't turned up too far.

I walked over and sat next to Ajie on the couch. The twins were still up, so they were in their playpen. As we listened, Ajie was quiet at first, then she asked, “What orchestra is that?”

“The NBC Symphony Orchestra.”, I replied.

Again she was quiet for a little while, then she said, “I like it.”

“Good.”

“I wouldn’t want to listen to all of it at once.”

“Neither would I. It’s a lot of good music, though.”

“So is everything else that you bought.”

“Thanks.”

“Now I’ll have to go and see what I can find.”, Ajie said.

“Have fun.”, I replied.

“It would be more fun doing it with you.”

“It would be fun doing it with you too. Maybe when the twins are a little older, we could take them with us.”

“Did they have any records for little kids?”

“You name it, and they have it. But it would have to be a thirty-three. That’s all this player does.”

Sunday was a cold and snowy day. Kind of unusual for here, but it happens. So, it was do everything inside. And the most significant thing we did, other than play with the twins and listen to the records that I’d bought, was put together my dissertation. Ajie and I went over it, and I added the pictures to it. Then, using the envelope that the enlarged photographs had come in, I slipped my dissertation into it. And I placed that into the safe until tomorrow morning. My first class is at nine, so hopefully, I can give it to Dr. Joe before class.

As we were eating breakfast on Monday morning, I reminded Ajie that I might not be home until dinner time as we were receiving the case from N.A.S.A. with the things for the new research project. She said that she figured as much and she’d have a nice dinner for us. After breakfast, I said so long to the twins and Ajie. Then I grabbed my dissertation out of the safe and headed to the university.

I was on campus just before eight. And I walked to the office, the light was on, so Dr. Joe should be here. And he was. I walked in and said, “Good morning Dr. Joe.”

“Morin’, Kai.”, Dr. Joe replied.

“I have something for you.”

“What’s that?”

I opened my briefcase, took out the envelope, handed it to Dr. Joe, and said, “My dissertation.”

As he took it, Dr. Joe said, “It’s about time.”

“Dr. Joe. You know everything that’s gone on.”

“I know.”

Dr. Joe opened the envelope and pulled out my dissertation and looked through it. When he saw the pictures, he said, “You did a good job on these,”

“Ajie took the pictures.”, I replied. “I just set them up.”

“You both did a good job.”

“Thanks. So what’s next?”

“I take this to the proper people at the Grad School. They make copies and have them bound. Then they do some other things, including setting up the committee that you’ll need to defend your dissertation in front of.”

“How long will it take?”, I asked.

“It could take two, three, four weeks.”, Dr. Joe replied.

“Why did Ajies move so fast once she told Vickie that she was ready?”

“Remember the twins showed up in the middle of the whole thing. So, the Grad School had everything ready.”

“That’s right.”, I said. “The committee that cross-examined Ajie questioned her about being so young. They were concerned that she might be too immature to earn a doctorate. Am I going to run into that?”

“You might.”, Dr. Joe replied. “But if you go in there with a serious mindset, you’ll blow them away.”

“Serious mindset?”

“I’ve heard you speak to people when something is important. Like this is.”

“Like what have you heard me say?

“I didn’t hear the beginning of it, but when I heard you talk to Dr. Höllmann and Dr. Fontheim in a very serious and commanding way when you were telling them that you found out that the one project was a military one. You effectively made your point. I was glad I was on your side on that one.”

“The dissertation is important, so I can probably find my serious side for that meeting.”

“Kai, if you do find your serious side, you’ll blow them away.”, Dr. Joe said. “They won’t know how to handle you. I remember back to when you confronted the Board of Regents. You had them befuddled. They had no idea how to handle you.”

“Why did you bring that up.”, I said. “I try not to remember it.”

“You should remember it. It showed where your heart, soul, and spirit are. They know what's right and how to fight for it.”

I sat there and looked at Dr. Joe for a minute, then I said, “You’re right. And that’s spirits.”

“I know I am right. Miss two spirits.”

“Okay. Get that thing to the Grad School, and I’ll just wait to get the word.”