While we were at the resort, I’d been able to have some quiet time at the remote hogan. That quiet time had allowed me to think through the new project and had given me some ideas, good ideas.

We had our friends, Dr. Joe and Mary, Chief Tom and Vickie, and Charlie and Jackie over, and they brought pizza, and we had a good time. We learned that Chief Tom was going to start on his master’s degree and that Dr. Joe was officially one of the new Assistant Dean’s of the Engineering College.

With Ajie teaching during the coming Spring quarter, she went to visit the university's daycare. And she liked what she saw. So the twins are all set for two days a week starting in the spring quarter.

And with me having to defend my dissertation, we went back to the resort for a short stay and for me to relax. A soak in a thermal pool and a massage does wonders.

On a Monday afternoon at one, I’d defended my dissertation.

After I’d successfully defended my dissertation, I’d called home from the Graduate School’s offices. It rang about three times, and I heard a sweet voice say, “Hello. Nez residence.”

I’d smiled as I said, “Hello, Dr. Nez. This is the other Dr. Nez.”

I’d heard a loud, “Yes! I’m so proud of you!”, from Ajie.

“I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Ayóó' áníínísh'ní! - (I love you!)”, Ajie had said.

“Ayóó' áníínísh'ní aldó’! - (I love you too!) Hágoónee'. - (See you later.)”, I’d replied to her.

Hágoónee'. - (See you later.)

And I’d hung up the phone.

As Dr. Joe and I were walking out of the Grad School building, Dr. Joe said, “Come on, we need to go to the Dean’s office.”

“Why?”, I asked.

“Don’t you think that he might want to congratulate his first woman PhD?”

“If only.”

“If only. What?”

“If only I were a woman.”

“Kai. You are who you are. And you accept who you are very well. You may be a boy under there, but your female spirit brings out a very strong, beautiful, smart woman.”

I stopped walking, Dr. Joe stopped walking, we looked at each other, and I said, “I know. It just comes to the surface once in a while that I’m not what I portray. And I need to realize that it’s what it is.”

“You do. Be who you are and accept it. I accept you for who you are, and so do many other people.”

We finished walking over to the engineering building and the Dean’s office. When we walked in, Sara looked at me and said, “Congratulations, Dr. Nez.”

“Thank you, Sara.”, I replied. “But, I hope that it can still be just Kai?”

“I think it can. Go on back. The Dean is expecting you. Oh, be prepared, there is someone from the Daily Lobo back there.”

I stopped and said, “I’m not going back there.”

“Kai.”, Dr. Joe said. “You’re news.”

“I don’t want the publicity.”

“It’s only the school paper.”

“Yeah. And that’ll get picked up by the Albuquerque paper and probably the Navajo paper. And who knows who else.”

“So?”

“All right. Let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t go in there with an attitude.”

“I won’t.”

I led Dr. Joe to the Dean’s office. The door was open, so we just walked in. The Dean saw us and said, “Congratulations, Dr. Nez.”

“Thank you, Dean Rutherford.”, I replied.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I have a photojournalist from the Daily Lobo here. We feel that this is a good news article.”

“I understand, sir.”

So I posed with Dean Rutherford and Assistant Dean Oshie, better known as Dr. Joe. And then I answered a few questions from the photojournalist. In one of the pictures that they took, the Dean was handing me a nameplate for my desk. What desk? The nameplate said, ‘Dr. Kai Nez, Research Associate’. I thanked the Dean.

Dr. Joe and I were finally able to get away from the Dean and back to our office. I looked at our names on the door, and at least they hadn’t added the doctor to my name. Yet.

I sat behind my desk, the work table, took the nameplate that the Dean had given me, and placed it on the work table. Then Dr. Joe said, “We need to get you a real desk.”

“Nope.”, I said. “I do my best work here. But I may get a new chair.”

“Want me to requisition one for you?”

“No, I want to pick it out, and I saw something at the office store downtown that I liked.”

“Pick it out and let me know what it is. And we’ll get it.”

“Now, Dr. Joe, who were all these unexpected letters of recommendation from?”

“I shouldn’t tell you.”, Dr. Joe said. “But, the committee was more than surprised when they received letters from Chief Kinlicheeny, Chief Clah, our people at Los Alamos, and some people at N.A.S.A.”

“People at N.A.S.A.?”

“Dr. Clark and one of the Apollo 7 astronauts.”

“What. I’ve never met any of the astronauts. Who was it?”

“Walter Schirra.”

“Wally Schirra, the commander of Apollo 7! Why?”

“It appeared that he was impressed with your work.”

I just sat there for a minute. Then I said, “I’ve got to get home.”

“What’s stopping you?”, Dr. Joe asked with a smile.

“You telling me all of this.”

“Oh. One last thing.”, Dr. Joe said. “You, bringing that technical journal with the article about the integrated circuit in it, was the icing on the cake. The committee was impressed that you were mentioned in the article.”

“I was surprised when I found it. I had no idea that they were going to release the integrated circuit so soon. But, it was perfectly timed.”

“Also remember that you need to publish your dissertation. And don’t forget to change your name on the title page to Kai Nez, PhD.”

“I know, and I’ll work on publishing it.”

After putting the technical journal in my briefcase, I locked the metal briefcase in the file cabinet, grabbed my briefcase and purse, and said, “See you tomorrow, Dr. Joe.”

“See you tomorrow, Dr. Kai. You know that has a nice sound to it.”

“So does Dean Oshie.”, I replied.

“Go on. Get out of here. And say hi to Ajie for me.”

I headed home. And when I pulled into the garage, I kind of expected Ajie to meet me at the door from the house, but she didn’t. She must be busy with the twins.

I went into the house, and Ajie attacked me. She wrapped her arms around me, and our lips met in a deep kiss. The kiss lasted a long time. And when we broke it, Ajie said, “I am just so proud of you!”

“No, more than I’m proud of you.”, I replied.

“What are we going to do to celebrate?”

“Frybread tacos for dinner and maybe fried ice cream for dessert?”

“I knew you were going to say that. Do you also want some sangria?”

“That’s a given.”, I said.

“I’ll need to run to the store.”, Ajie said.

“First, where are the twins?”

“Taking a nap in their playpen.”

“Now, let me show you something.”

“What?”

We walked into the kitchen, I set my briefcase on the breakfast counter, opened it, and took out the technical journal. Then I told Ajie about going into the office before the meeting to defend my dissertation and finding this technical journal.

Then I turned to the page where the article started, and said, “I didn’t know that N.A.S.A. was ready to release the circuit that I designed until I read this article. But what was interesting was this.”

I turned to the final page of the article and pointed to where they thanked me. Ajie looked at it and said, “They thanked you by name.”

“I know. And Dr. Joe told me that when the committee saw that, it was the icing on the cake.”

“Who’s this research team that they mention?”

“Dr. Joe.”

“That’s funny. And you know, now you need to publish your dissertation.”

“Yes, I know.”

“You should get permission to include the article in what you publish.”

“Good thought.”

“If we’re having frybread tacos for dinner, I’d better run to the store.”

“Okay, I’ve got some phone calls to make. But, I’ll wait until later to call Ohio so that everyone will be home.”

“Call away. The twins should sleep for another hour. And I shouldn’t be gone much longer than that.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”

Ajie ran to the store. And before I went and changed out of the fancy clothes into something comfortable, I checked on the twins, and they were sleeping like babies. Well, I guess they would sleep like babies. They are babies.

After I’d changed, I laid a fire in the fireplace and lit it, and then I found some nice music on the stereo. I rechecked the twins, and they were still snoozing. Then I went and called Aunt Ruth and told her the news. She was very happy for me. And we talked for a little while. And I knew that with the Navajo hotline that I wouldn’t need to call anyone else here in New Mexico. The whole Nation would know within an hour.

Then I looked at the technical journal and found a phone number for the publisher, and called them. I told them who I was and that I wanted to include the article when I published my doctoral dissertation. They told me that I’d have to contact the author of the article. I also asked if they could send me a couple of copies of that journal. They said they would, and I gave them my address at the university.

I looked at the article and found the author’s name, and it didn’t surprise me as to who it was. It was Dr. Clark. So, now all I needed to do now was find his phone number, and that meant a call to Los Alamos.

Before I could do that, the twins were heard from. So I went over to the playpen, picked up Haseya, smiled at her, and said, “There’s my little girl.”

Then I kissed her on the forehead, took her to the master suite, and laid her down in the crib. Then I went back out, picked up Tsé, smiled at him, and said, “There’s my little boy.”

I also kissed him on the forehead, and then he joined his sister in the crib. And I changed two stinky diapers. When I had them both changed, I took the twins one at a time out to the big room and put them in their seats. Then I made up their bottles.

As I started feeding them, we heard the ding from the driveway. So Ajie might be home. A minute or two later, Ajie walked in and said, “I’m home.”

“I’m feeding the twins.”, I said.

“I’ll be there in a minute and help.”

“That’s okay. We’re doing fine.”

“Okay, Dr. Nez, I’ll leave you to feed them.”

I heard Ajie bring the groceries into the house and put them away. Then she came into the big room, helped me burp the kids, and put them in the playpen.

Then Ajie asked, “Did you call anyone?”

“Just Aunt Ruth.”, I said. “And I figure the whole Navajo Nation knows by now.”

“That’s not nice.”

“But it’s probably true.”

“You’re so bad.”, Ajie said.

“Now I need to try and get ahold of Dr. Clark from N.A.S.A.”, I said.

“Why?”

“To get permission to include the article when I publish my dissertation.”

“How do you do that?”

“Call Dr. Fontheim at Los Alamos and get Dr. Clark's phone number.”

“So, call him.”

I looked at the time and said, “He may still be there.”

I went and got his business card out of my wallet, sat down on the couch, and dialed his number, and once I got through the operator at Los Alamos and his secretary, I heard, “This is Dr. Fontheim.”

So I said, “Dr. Fontheim, this is Dr. Kai Nez.”

There was a moment of silence, then I heard, “You finished your PhD!?”

“Yes sir, just this afternoon.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you, sir.”

Then I went on to explain why I was calling. And without hesitation, Dr. Fontheim gave me Dr. Clark’s phone number. And he asked me to send him a copy of my dissertation when it was published.

I called the number that Dr. Fontheim gave me, and after jumping through all the hoops at N.A.S.A., I got to Dr. Clark’s secretary. She asked who was calling, so I told her, “It’s Dr. Kai Nez from the University of New Mexico.”

She told me to please hold, and a minute later, I heard a familiar man’s voice say, “Dr. Kai Nez. Congratulations, you did it.”

“Thank you.”, I said. “And it was with your help and the help of N.A.S.A.”

“Well, what can I do for you, Dr. Kai Nez?”

I went on to explain what I needed and why. I also told him about finding the article in a technical journal just hours before I had to defend my dissertation and what I did with it. He got a kick out of it.

Dr. Clark told me that it wasn’t a problem getting permission, and I’d have a letter in the mail within the week. I thanked him and said that I’d send him a copy of my dissertation when it was published.

Then just as I was ready to say so long to Dr. Clark, he said, “One last thing, Dr. Nez.”

“Yes, Sir.”, I replied.

“We’ve applied for a patent on that circuit. And we put your name, and Dr. Oshie’s name on the application. I'll correct your name to Dr. Kai Nez.”

“Thank you. I didn’t even think about a patent since N.A.S.A. owns the circuit.”

“That’s true, we do, but you could have patented it as the inventor as long as it’s useful, novel, and non-obvious. You or the person or company that you’ve assigned it to can also patent it.”

“I’ll remember that.”, I said.

Then Dr. Clark added, “And if the project that you’re now working on is as good as I know it’ll be, we’ll also be patenting it even though it will never be released to the public.”

“How do you do that with a circuit that’s supposed to be secret?”

“We have our ways.”

“I won’t ask.”

“Good, because I couldn’t answer you.”

Dr. Clark and I said so long to each other.

Ajie, who’d overheard the conversation, asked, “What’s this about a patent?”

“N.A.S.A. has applied for a patent on the circuit and has put my name on it as the inventor.”

“That’s interesting.”

“It is.”

Then Ajie and I started putting together dinner. I made the sangria and got it into the refrigerator, then we both went to work on the frybread tacos.

After a wonderful dinner and dessert, plus taking care of the twins, I made some phone calls. First I called my parents, when the phone was answered, as I hoped it would be, my dad, answered it with, “Hello. Young residence.”

“Hello.”, I said. “Is this Dr. Young?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Well, Dr. Young, this is Dr. Kai Nez.”

There was silence for a few seconds, and then I heard my dad say, “Kai. You defended your dissertation.”

“Yes, I successfully defended it.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you.”, I said. “So, I guess you’ll be coming out for winter graduation.”

“Try and stop us.”, my dad said. “Here’s mom.”

“Honey.”, I heard my mother say. “We’re so proud of you and Ajie.”

“Thanks, mom. I feel like a load has been taken off my shoulders.”

“I bet you do. When is graduation?”

“March twenty-fourth. And you’ll be staying with us.”

“We sure will.”

My mother and I talked a little longer, then I said, “I need to make some more phone calls. We’ll talk to you more on Sunday.”

“Don’t you dare hang up until you tell me how my two grandchildren are.”, my mom said.

“They’re wonderful.”, I replied. “We think that they might be giving up their three AM feeding.”

“That’ll be wonderful when they sleep through the night.”

“Yes, it will.”

“Okay, honey. We’ll talk to you on Sunday. So long.”

“Hágoónee' – (see you later), mom.”

“Hágoónee', honey.”

We hung up, then I called Ajie’s parents, and the conversation went just about like the conversation with my parents did. Except that I didn’t mess with them like I did my dad. And they were also coming out for graduation.

After we hung up with Ajie’s parents, Ajie said, “You know we’re going to have to get our graduation regalia.”

“I know. Rent or buy?”, I asked.

“We may have to buy them. The hoods are special for each college.”

“I’ll stop by the bookstore tomorrow and see what we have to do.”

By now, it was close to the twin's bedtime, so we changed them, and fed them, and put them to bed. Just as we came out into the big room, the phone rang. I walked over and answered it. It was Chief Tom wanting to congratulate me. We talked for a few minutes, then said good night.

Then I called Charlie and Jackie and told them. They were excited for me.

Ajie and I stayed up until midnight and took care of the twins. Then we crawled into bed. I must have been tired because as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

We didn’t hear from the twins until five o’clock Tuesday morning. That was two nights in a row. Could we be that lucky? Are the twins sleeping through the night? Ajie and I looked at each other, and I started to say, “Do you think … ”

“Don’t say it.”, Ajie said. “You’ll jinx us.”

I put my hand over my mouth.

We got up and took care of the twins, then put them back to bed. Then we had breakfast. After breakfast, I quietly went into the master suite and dressed for the university. Then at seven o’clock, I helped Ajie get the twins up and put them into their playpen.

Then Ajie and I shared a sweet kiss, and I headed for the university. My first class was at eight, so I was on campus just a little after seven-thirty. And as I walked into the engineering building today’s issue of the Daily Lobo, the university’s paper, was lying on the table outside the Dean’s office. I picked up a paper, and there it was a picture of me on the front page. And the headline read, ‘First woman earns PhD in Engineering.’ I picked up three more copies and put them in my briefcase.

Then I walked up to my classroom and the desk at the front of the room. I set my briefcase on the desk and took my notes for today and the copy of the Daily Lobo. I quickly skimmed the article about me, and the reporter had done a nice job.

Finally, some of my students started coming in and taking their seats. When the bell rang, and before I could say anything, one of my students said, “Congratulations, Dr. Nez.”

I looked at him and said, “It sounds like the cat’s out of the bag.”

“Frontpage news.”

“I was hoping that it would have been buried deep inside. And for those of you that haven’t seen the Daily Lobo yet, I successfully defended my dissertation, and I’m now Dr. Nez.”

There was some polite applause. And I said thank you. My second class was just about the same.

The grad level class that I was taking was a little different. As usual, I was the last one in the room. And as I took my seat, the professor looked at me and said, “Well, I understand we have a new PhD with us today. Don’t we, Dr. Nez.”

Everyone in the class looked at me.

I replied, “Almost, sir. I still have to complete your course.”

“Do you think that that is going to be a problem, Dr. Nez?”

“No, sir, I don’t think it will be.”

“Neither do I. See me after class.”

“Yes, sir.”

After the class, I walked up to the professor, and he said, “Dr. Nez, you are young to have a PhD.”

“Yes, sir, I know.”, I replied.

“But I’m not surprised. After having you in this class, which I feel that you could teach, I saw it in you. Plus, what I know of your research prowess. I feel that it’s well deserved. Welcome to the club, Dr. Nez.”

The professor reached out his right hand, and we shook hands. And as we did, he said, “And if you don’t want to finish this class, I’ll understand, and you’ll earn an A.”

“Thank you for that, sir. But I feel that I should finish the class.”

He smiled and said, “That’s your call. And, in doing that, it says a lot about you.”

I thanked him, and then I walked over to the student union and the book store. I told one of the clerks that I was interested in ordering doctoral regalia for winter graduation. She went and got me an order form, and said, “Fill this out and bring it back before Friday, which is the deadline to order them. And the cost is one-hundred and thirty dollars.”

“Okay.”, I said. “I take it with that amount of money that I’m buying it and not renting it.”

“Yes.”, the clerk said. “The hood is made for each college.”

“I’ll need another form for my cousin.”

She went and got me another order form. I thanked her and headed to the office.

As I walked towards the door to the office, I saw a guy kneeling on the floor, doing something to our door. As I walked up, he stood, and I saw what he’d been doing. There was now a “Dr.” in front of my name. It sure hadn’t taken them long to do this.

I didn’t want to disturb the guy lettering the door, so I didn’t go into the office but walked on by. I came back about ten minutes later, and the guy had finished and was gone. I looked at the door with my name and title on it, unlocked and opened the door, turned on the light, reset the alarm, and closed and locked the door.

Then I went to work on the project. I was close to finishing the breadboard and probably would finish it tomorrow. Then we can start some preliminary testing. I set up all the sensors and indicators on plugs so that it would be easier to hook them up and disconnect them one at a time while we were testing.

As I was getting ready to leave, Dr. Joe showed up. As he walked in, he said, “I hate meetings.”

“Well hello to you, Dr. Joe.”, I said.

“Sorry, Dr. Kai. Good afternoon. But, I just sat through a meeting that didn’t solve one thing.”

“That’s why I try to stay away from them.”

“I wish I could, but it goes along with the new job.”

“Better you than me.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“By the way. It’s just Kai.”, I said.

“I said Dr. Kai out of respect.”, Dr. Joe said.

“If you want to, okay. But I’d prefer Kai.”

“So, why don’t you call me Joe?”

“Out of respect and because you're my boss. And I’ve been doing it since day one, and it would be a hard habit to break.”

Then to change the subject, I went on to fill Dr. Joe in on how the project was going. And he seemed happy with what I was telling him. And when I told him that I’d like him here to help with testing, he seemed happier. I figured that he thought that it might get him out of a meeting or two.

He looked at my work on the breadboard and said, “I still marvel at your work.”

“Thanks.”, I said. “I just find that if it’s neat that it’s easier to build without making mistakes, and if there is a problem that it’s easier to find and fix the error.”

“That is a big breadboard.”

“It is. It does a lot of things that are interconnected. And I’m still a little concerned about putting it into the footprint that they want.”

“Talk to Bill.”, Dr. Joe said. “If anyone can figure it out, he can.” Bill is the technician that works in one of the electronics labs and is a whiz at designing printed circuit boards.

“I was thinking of doing that.”, I replied. “Now I’m out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr. Joe.”

“Say hi to Ajie and the twins for me.”

“I will. Say hi to Mary and Mark for me.”

“Will do.”

As I opened the door to leave, I said, “By the way, I talked to Dr. Clark at N.A.S.A. yesterday.”

“Why?”, Dr. Joe asked.

“To get permission to include the article that he wrote for that technical journal.”

“Did you get it?”

“Yes, and he told me something else.”

“What was that?”

“N.A.S.A. has applied for a patent on that circuit that I designed.”, I said. “And our names are on the application.”

Dr. Joe smiled as he said, “I don’t hold a patent. So, this will be a new thing for me.”

“Maybe your name will also be on this one when they patent it.”

“They’re going to patent this one too?”

“That’s what Dr. Clark said.”

“But I didn’t do that much.”

With a grin, I said, “But, you’re my research team.”

“Will you just go home.”

“Okay. I’m out of here. See you tomorrow.”

“So long, Kai.

When I was home, I stopped at the end of the driveway and picked up the paper and the mail. I looked at the paper and smiled as I saw the front page. I wasn’t on it. I looked at the local section, and I was on the front of that. The headline was about the same as it was in the Daily Lobo, ‘First woman earns a PhD in Engineering at UNM.’

When I walked into the house, and I said hello to Ajie and the twins. Then I told Ajie what I’d found out about the regalia for graduation. The first thing she said was, “We have to buy them!?”

“That’s what they told me.”, I said. “It’s something about the hoods being different for each college.”, I replied.

“Like with the tassels.”

“The tassels for undergraduate degrees, yes. But, the doctoral tassel is the same for everyone, it’s a silky old gold tassel.”

“That’s probably because we’re graduating from the Graduate School.”, Ajie said. “At least we won’t have to rent them for the graduations that we’ll be attending in the future. And we’ll just write them a check to cover the cost.

“I was also reading in the faculty handbook that we can’t wear our undergraduate honor cords.”

“What about your honor cords from the Honor Society of Nursing?”, I asked.

“Nope.”, Ajie said as she shook her head. “It says in the handbook, that what’s important in a doctoral degree is that you have successfully defended your dissertation.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yes, it does.”

After dinner, Ajie and I filled out our regalia order forms, and I wrote two checks to the book store.

Today, Wednesday, the twins are ten weeks old, and they had slept from midnight to five in the morning, and so did Ajie and I. That’s three days in a row. Now, if we can get them to drop their midnight feeding.

My two classes this morning knew that I’d successfully defended my dissertation, as a number of my students as they came into the room said various things, from “Good morning, Dr. Nez.” to “Congratulations, Dr. Nez.”

After my nine o’clock class I went to the book store and turned in orders for our regalia. And they told me that they’d be ready for pickup on Monday, March seventeenth.

Then it was to the office to finish up the breadboard circuit. It didn’t take me long to finish what I needed to do, and just as I was ready to head to the electronics lab to pick up some test equipment, Dr. Joe walked in. And we exchanged greetings. Then Dr. Joe asked, “Are you about ready to start testing?”

“Yep.”, I replied. “I was just going to get some test equipment. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here.”

I was back in the office in about ten minutes, then Dr. Joe and I set up the beginning tests on the circuits. We carefully applied power to the circuit, and carefully watched for anything bad to happen. And nothing did. So I started taking readings at several test points, and they all appeared to be good except one.

I shut off the power to the circuit and disconnected everything. I carefully went over the components in the area of the test point and how I installed them. And at first, I didn’t see anything. Then I did see something. So I got out the lighted magnifying glass, took a closer look, and said, “Damn sloppy solder job.”

“What?”, Dr. Joe asked.

“I messed up a solder point and bridged it with another point. Damn sloppy.”

“Kai, it happens.”

“I know, but I should have caught it.”

“Did it hurt anything?”

“I don’t think so, but after I fix it, I’ll want to check a few other things before we test it again.”

“Tomorrow?”, Dr. Joe asked.

I looked at the time and said, “Yeah, tomorrow. I’ll be fresh and maybe not so mad at myself.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Try to get a good night's sleep.”

“It’s helped that the twins are now sleeping from midnight till five.”

“When did this start?”

“Just a few days ago. And I hope I didn’t jinx it by saying something.”

“You probably didn’t.”, Dr. Joe said. “When Mark started sleeping through the night, he didn’t go back.”

“I hope the twins are that way. Knock on wood.”

“They will be. Now get out of here, and I’ll put everything away.”

“Okay. I’ll see you after class tomorrow.”

I grabbed my purse and briefcase, and as I walked out of the door, I said, “Hágoónee', - (See you later,) Dr. Joe.”

“See you tomorrow, Kai.”, Dr. Joe replied.

I drove home, and as I pulled into the driveway, I stopped and grabbed the newspaper and the mail, then as I drove up to the house, there was a strange car parked by the house. But as I got closer, the car looked familiar. Mrs. Biakeddy, that’s who it belongs to. Mrs. Biakeddy from the Navajo Children and Family Services.

I pulled into the garage and went into the house. I dropped my purse and briefcase off in the office, then went into the big room, and I found Ajie sitting there with Mrs. Biakeddy and Mrs. Deschinny. I saw the twins in their playpen.

Ajie saw me and said, “Kai, good your home. We have company.”

“So, I see. Hello Mrs. Biakeddy and Mrs. Deschinny.”, I said.

“Hello, Miss Nez.”, Mrs. Biakeddy said. “We stopped by for a quick visit.”

“It’s good seeing you again. But, like with Ajie, it’s now Dr. Nez.”

“Oh! I didn’t know. Congratulations.”

“Thank you. It just happened Monday.”

“Now I remember.”, Mrs. Deschinny said. “There was an article in the Navajo Times.”

“So, how are we doing with the twins?”, I asked.

“You two are doing a wonderful job.”, Mrs. Biakeddy said. “I even talked with their doctor, and she is very happy with what she’s seeing.”

“That's good to hear. Ajie, have you shown them the paperwork on the trust funds?”, I asked.

“Not yet.”, Ajie replied. “I wanted to wait for you.”

As I headed back to our office, I said, “I’ll be right back.”

I went and retrieved the paperwork on the trust funds for the twins and was quickly back in the big room. As I sat down, I handed the paperwork to Mrs. Biakeddy and said, “This is what we’ve set up for the twins. It’s set up for education, but if they don’t go to college, they still receive the money, but not until they’re twenty-five.”

Mrs. Biakeddy looked at the paperwork, and then as she handed it to Mrs. Deschinny, she said, “I’m impressed. This is very nice.”

“We feel that they should be able to pursue their dreams.”

“I see.”

“Did the girl get the trust fund?”, I asked.

“Yes.”, Mrs. Biakeddy said. “And she was in tears when she figured out what it was. And she told us to tell you, thank you so much. And she promised to put it to good use.

“Did you get the bill from the hospital?”

“Yes, just for the twins and it’s been taken care of.”, I said.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“I’m glad that we could do it.”

“We’re thinking of having the final adoption decree hearing in the middle of March.”, Mrs. Biakeddy said.

“That’s wonderful.”, Ajie said. “Has a new judge been appointed?”

“Yes. Do you remember Mr. Uskilith?”

“Of course. I didn’t know he was a lawyer.”

“He isn’t, but his brother is. He’s the new judge.”

“Is he nice?”, Ajie asked.

“Very nice.”. Mrs. Biakeddy replied. “He’s old school Navajo.”

“We should be there. Shouldn’t we?”

“Yes, you should.”

“Where would we have to go?”, I asked.

“Possibly to Children’s Court in Window Rock.”

“That’s about two and a half hours from here. Isn’t it.”

“Yes.”

“Do the twins need to be there?”, Ajie asked.

“It’s not necessary, but it would be good if they were.”, Mrs. Deschinny said.

I sat there and thought, then asked. “Would it be possible to do it on a Monday morning?”

“We can only ask. But why?”

“I’m thinking about the twins traveling that far in one day and my classes. We could run over to Window Rock on Sunday and stay with my Aunt Ginny and Uncle Gaagii. Do the court thing on Monday morning, and then come back home.

“That way, the twins wouldn’t have to travel too far in one day. And I would only have to cancel or find someone to cover my two Monday classes instead of two days of classes.”

“Two good reasons, Dr. Nez. We’ll see what we can do.”, Mrs. Biakeddy said.

“Thank you.”, I said.

“Can I ask you something?”, Mrs. Deschinny asked.

“Of course.”

“Your uncle in Window Rock. What’s his last name?”

“Why?”

“The name Gaagii isn’t very common.”

I smiled as I said, “His last name is Haskie.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, he’s that Gaagii Haskie.”

“Can I ask who he is?”, Mrs. Biakeddy asked.

“He was the Chief of the Navajo Nation Police Department for a long time.”, Mrs. Deschinny said.

“I see.”

“Is that a problem?”, I asked.

“No, not at all.”, Mrs. Biakeddy replied.

As we were walking Mrs. Biakeddy and Mrs. Deschinny to the front door, Mrs. Biakeddy said, “As soon as we know a date and time for the hearing, we’ll let you know.”

“That’ll be good.”, I said. “Oh. Monday the twenty-fourth could be a problem. The twenty-third is graduation, and we have to be there. Plus, we’ll have company from out of town.”

“I understand. Any graduation is important.”

“It is, but so is the adoption of the twins, and I’d say that the adoption is more important. And if we need to be there on the twenty-fourth. We’ll be there.”

Mrs. Biakeddy smiled and said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Then we all said, hágoónee' - (see you later) to each other.

As we watched the two women walk through the front gate, Ajie said, “That was an interesting reaction to Uncle Gaagii?”

“It was.”, I replied. “I bet there’s more to that story than we know?”

“Probably. And we may never know what.

“Won’t the Monday of finals week be a problem?”

“No, I don’t have any exams to give on that Monday.”, I replied.

“So only the third and the tenth would be problems?”

“And the twenty-fourth. And not a problem that can't be solved for the twin's sake.”

Speaking of the twins, it was their dinner time, and they were letting us know that it was. After the twins ate, we put them in their playpen while Ajie and I had dinner. Then after we’d eaten, we took them for a walk, down the road, and back up.

When we were back from the walk, I called Aunt Ginny, and of course, she congratulated me on my PhD. Then I told her what we were thinking of doing for the final adoption decree hearing for the twins. And she told me that it wouldn’t be a problem. Then she asked me what the twins would need to sleep in. I told her that they slept together in the same crib and with us in our room. And I had to explain why.

Aunt Ginny told me that she thought that she knew where she could borrow a crib. Then I told her that as soon as we knew the day that I’d call her.

As I hung up with Aunt Ginny, I said, “Well, that’s taken care of. Now, all we have to do is find out the date.”

“You know.”, Ajie said. “The sooner this happens, the better.”

“I agree.”

“You know what would be fun?”

“What’s that.”

“Spend the night with the twins in your uncle's hogan.”

“It would. We could do that here too.”, I said.

“That would be fun.”, Ajie said.

“Hmm. We might need to try that one night.”

Then at nine, we put the twins to bed, and we joined them at ten. But as usual, they were back up at midnight, and we took care of them. And again, they slept until five in the morning.

After we’d fed the twins at five on Thursday morning, we put them back to bed and made our breakfast. At seven, I helped Ajie get the twins up and into their playpen, and then I headed to the university. And after teaching my two classes, it was to the office to work on the project.

When I got to the office, Dr. Joe wasn’t there, so I got everything out and put the breadboard circuit under the lighted magnifying glass again. I found the solder bridge again, and carefully remove it with a soldering pencil and a piece of desoldering braid. Then, I carefully went over the whole board, looking for other problems. Did I find any? No. Could there be one? Yes.

By the time Dr. Joe was here, I was ready to set up the tests that I wanted to run today.

Dr. Joe walked into the office and said, “It looks like you’ve been hard at it, Kai.”

“I have.”, I replied. “I fixed the problem that I found yesterday, and rechecked everything else. And I’m ready to start the tests again.”

“After lunch?”

“That sounds good.”

We carefully put everything away and went to the faculty dining room. As we ate, I filled Dr. Joe in on what we’d talked to the ladies from the Navajo Children and Family Services about. After we’d discussed it a little, Dr. Joe said, “I’ve covered for you a couple of times, and your students weren’t happy. So, if this meeting with the judge ends up falling on a Monday like you hope it does, I would say cancel the classes.”

“You think I should do that?”, I asked.

“Yes, and I know you can adjust your lectures so that everything that you need to cover is covered.”

“I guess I can.”

After we’d finished eating, it was back to the office, and we started with the tests. This time everything was looking good. I was seeing the readings that I expected to. Now we need to start testing each of the five sensors and seven displays, and that had to start with doing them one at a time.

We hooked up all seven displays, and with the time we had, we were able to do the preliminary testing on two of the sensors, and they worked per the specifications. We’d start on the other three tomorrow.

Then Dr. Joe and I headed home for the day.

It was too cold to take the twins for a walk today, so it was playtime. We liked to do a lot face to face talking with the twins. Of course, it was a one-way conversation. We’d talk, and the twins would make baby noises.

We could make them smile or look at different things. They both had a favorite stuffed toy. Tsé’s favorite was a little bear, and we’d show that to him, and say, “Shash” or “Bear.” He would look at it and smile. Haseya had a little stuffed lamb or dibé yázhíand – (young sheep), and we’d do the same thing with her. And they’d both reach for their toys and sometimes grab it.

When either Ajie or I had our hair in braids, we’d dangle the end of the braid in front of the twins or tickle their noses with it, and they’d smile, and reach for them. Sometimes they’d grab ahold of them, and pull.

We also had tummy time. This helped their motor skills and other things.

Thursday night into Friday morning, the twins slept all night again. Hmm, is this for real? Let’s hope.

My Friday classes are the same ones that meet on Mondays, so before I started my lecture, I said, “Gentlemen, I need to be away from the university on one of the Mondays in March. It could be either the third or the tenth. And I’ll give you the option of canceling the class on that day, or I’ll find someone to cover for me. If we cancel the class, I’ll guarantee that by the end of the quarter that all the information that I have for you will be covered.”

A hand went up. I pointed at him and said, “Yes?”

One of my students stood up and asked, “Who might be covering for you?”

“It would probably be Assistant Dean Oshie.

“Any other questions?”

No more hands went up. So, I said, “We’ll do this with a show of hands. Can I see the hands of everyone that would like me to cancel the class that day?”

I watched as about every hand in the classroom went up. Then I asked, “Who would like someone to cover for me?”

No, hands went up. So, I said, “Well, that answers that. We’ll cancel the class that day, as long as the other class agrees with you.” And they did.

After my ten o’clock class, it was back to the office to run tests. As Dr. Joe and I set up the tests, I told him the consensus was that I should cancel the class on the Monday that I needed to be gone.

Then we ran the tests on the final three sensors. When we finished, I sat back and said, “This scares me.”

“What scares you?”, Dr. Joe asked.

“That everything went so well.”

“There was that one minor problem.”

“I know, but that wasn’t during the actual circuit testing.”

“Don’t count yourself short, Kai. You are good at these things.”

“If you say so, Dr. Joe.”, I said.

“I and others say so, Dr. Kai.”, Dr. Joe replied.

“Okay. I give. I’d like to wait until Monday to start testing everything.

“No problem.”

As we were putting things away, Dr. Joe said, “Think we should stop and see Bill today?” In case you forgot, Bill is the technician who is a wizard at designing printed circuit boards.

“That might be a good idea.”, I said. “We could give him a heads up on what’s coming and see if he has any ideas.”

We put everything but the schematic and the breadboard circuit away, and we took those with us to see Bill in the electronics lab. We sat down with Bill for a little while and showed him the schematic and told him what the space requirements were. He whistled, then looked at the breadboard circuit, and said, “I see five circuits here, but they’re interconnected in one way or another. And, Miss Nez, as she usually does, drew a very clear schematic that’ll be easy to follow.”

“Bill.”, Dr. Joe said. “It’s Dr. Nez now.”

“That’s right. I’m sorry, I forgot.”

“Bill.”, I said. “That’s not important right now. What’s important is fitting that circuit into the footprint that they want.”

“Have you thought of stacking the boards with standoffs and interconnecting them using connectors. I think this total unit will lend itself to that.”

I thought for a second or two, then said, “Interesting concept, Bill. How tall do you think it will end up being?”

Bill looked at the schematic and the breadboard again, then said, “No more than six inches.”

“That would work.”, I replied.

“It’ll be interesting to build.”

“I know we only have to build three, but we’ll build a fourth as a backup.”

“Who’s building them?”, Bill asked.

I raised my hand and said, “Me.”

“It’ll take time, but knowing you and how you work, it’ll be done properly.”

“Thanks, Bill. As soon as we do the final testing on the breadboard and I have another good look at the schematic, we’ll get it to you to design the printed circuit boards.”

“Sounds good, Dr. Nez.”, Bill replied.

“Now the stumbling block, Bill.”, Dr Joe said. “Because of what this is, we can’t let it out of our sight. So, could you work on this in our office?”

“I don’t see why not.”, Bill said. “But can I work on it?”

“I think so. But we’ll find out.”

Dr. Joe and I then took the schematic and the breadboard circuit back to the office and locked it away until Monday. Then as we walked to the faculty parking lot, I told Dr. Joe about our plans to sleep with the twins in the hogan. Dr. Joe asked, “Why?”

“I guess just to see how they take to it.”, I said. “And to see if we could do that when we go to my Aunt Ginny and Uncle Gaagii’s house.”

“That could be fun.”

“That’s what Ajie and I thought.”

When I was home and had said hello to Ajie and the twins, I asked Ajie, “Want to try the twins in the hogan tonight?”

Ajie smiled and said, “Sure.”

“I need to be sure that the baby monitor will work from there.”

“It did before.”

“Yes, with the transmitter in the master suite.”

“So, you want to see it will work with the transmitter in the hogan?”

“Exactly.”

So, after the twins ate, I went to take the baby monitor out to the hogan, and it hit me. There’s no electricity in the hogan. But there’s electricity in the back courtyard. So I went back into the house, and Ajie saw me and asked, “Did it work?”

“There’s no electric in the hogan, so I’m going to run an extension cord from the courtyard.”

And that’s what I did. Once I had it run, I plugged in the baby monitor, made sure that it was on, and went back into the house. Then I had Ajie go out to the hogan, and start counting.

When I heard Ajie on the baby monitor's receiver, I started moving around the house, and I had no problems hearing her. Then I went to the hogan and told Ajie that it was working fine. I filled and lit a couple of the kerosene lanterns, then I laid and lit a fire in the fire pit to warm up the hogan. So, we’re good to go.

The next thing we did, and that wasn’t the easiest thing, was to move their crib out to the hogan. Then at nine o’clock, bedtime for the twins, we bundled up the twins and took them out to the hogan and laid them in their crib. I turned the lanterns down, and Ajie and I went back into the house after wishing the twins, sweet dreams.

As we closed the door to the hogan, we heard more noises from the twins than we usually did when we put them to bed. We stood there and listened for a little while, and the twins were not happy. Then the crying started. I looked at Ajie and said, “This isn’t going to happen.”

“No, it isn’t.”, Ajie said. “Let’s go rescue them.”

Ajie and I went back into the hogan and walked over to the crib. The twins looked up at us and stopped crying. Ajie picked up Haseya and comforted her, and I picked up Tsé and comforted him. We carried them back into the big room and laid them in their playpen. I went out to the hogan and took the baby monitor back to the master suite and set it up. Then Ajie helped me move the crib back into the master suite.

As we walked back into the big room to carry the twins to the master suite and their crib, I said, “Well, that ended that experiment.”

“It sure did.”, Ajie said.