Cora wipes the sweat out of her eyes as she hammers the two x fours into the wall frame. She and some young Mexican girl by the name of Samatra were working on it. The girl only stood five feet tall and had her long black hair tied back in a ponytail. Her hair had a purple hue to it, and she had emerald, green eyes. No one knew her real name or where she came from.

Lucy Todicheene had found her at the perimeter of the reservation property wearing oversized clothes and confused. The poor girl couldn’t even remember her name or what happened to her.

“That’s one down and several more to go, Samatra.” Cora looks at the wall frame they just finished.

Samatra looks over towards Cora when she speaks “how many do we have left?”

“Several more.” Cora and Samatra were going to stay busy building wall frames.

“Then, we better get working.” Samatra starts getting the wood they needed to continue.

Cora grabs some more nails and their hammers. Some of the other workers were using nail guns to work on the house, but she and Samatra still used old fashion hammers. To build the walls and such with.

For the next few hours, Cora and Samatra build the outside walls and interior walls for the house. All the flooring was done. By early afternoon, Cora and Samatra had all the outer wall frames built and they were being put up and secured. The two of them start working on the inner walls after lunch.

Cora stops and takes a sip of cold water from her waterskin. She looks over towards Samatra as she wipes the sweat from her forehead. Cora walks over to her and hands her waterskin to Samatra “here, you must be thirsty.”

Samatra accepts the waterskin and gulps it. She is surprised by how cold and refreshing the water is inside. She looks at Cora with a puzzled look on her face “where did you get this water? It’s so pure and cold.”

“Believe it or not. That waterskin was given to me by the spirits.” Cora watches Samatra’s reaction.

“What do you mean given to you by the spirits?” Samatra was puzzled by Cora’s statement.

“It means, Cora was chosen by the spirits to be their warrior.” Charlie comes walking over to them.

Samatra looks even more confused. Lucy hadn’t told her anything about the spirits.

“The spirits are what we use to worship before the white man decided to convert us to Christianity.” Charlie wasn’t a strong believer in the spirits, or the god Christianity said existed either.

“Are they real?” Samatra looks at Cora for an answer.

“Yes, they are very real and some of their children walk among us.” Cora knew the spirits were real and she had a feeling that there are several children from the spirits walking among them.

“I doubt that you’re telling the truth, Cora.” Charlie didn’t believe in the spirits or that they had children walking among them.

Cora looks at Charlie and lets her eyes flash to red and in a voice that wasn’t hers, “it doesn’t matter if you believe or not, Charlie Moon Bush. We are here and look after our children.” Cora’s eyes go back to normal.

Samatra was startled by what just happened. She had heard stories about Cora but didn’t believe them. She looks at Charlie and noticed he looked at Cora with disbelief on his face.

A smirk appears on Cora’s face. She had felt the spirits enter her and used her body to shut Charlie up. She knew how they felt and sometimes it disappoints them when their children no longer believe in them. As it was, the old languages and legends were going extinct because there was no one around to teach them, because of the white man.

Cora knew even the young have forgotten the old ways or don’t believe in them. The children of the spirits will have been taught the old ways like she was.

“Charlie, don’t ever bad mouth the spirits in front of me. I am their vessel and what I hear and see, they hear and see.” Cora didn’t mind the spirits using her. If it wasn’t for them, she would still be lost in her head.

“I have other things to do.” Charlie walks away and heads towards another house that was going up.

“Well, let’s get back to work. This house isn’t going to finish itself.” Cora starts working on the next project.

By the time everyone was stopping, Cora and Samatra were tired. Cora picks up her tools and put them in the back of her pickup truck. She bought the truck at an auto auction. It still had the original owner's name on the side of it, Hardy’s Contracting.

“Hey guys, before you leave to go home. Jack Kleiman is cooking for everyone. So, follow me back to his place.” Running Rabbit looks toward Cora and Samatra.

“Alright.” Cora looks towards Samatra “get in, you can ride with me.”

“Alright.” Samatra gets into Cora’s pickup truck.

She notices it had a GPS, CB, and a police scanner inside of it. There was also a place for Cora to put a small laptop as well. She looks at
Cora when she gets in “what do you use this truck for?”

“It’s set up to do surveillance.” Cora starts the engine and follows Running Rabbit to Jack’s place.

When she pulls up to Jack’s place, everyone that was at the construction site, was there. She finds a place she can park.

“This should be fun.” Cora looks at Samatra as she exits from the truck.

Samatra follows Cora towards Jack’s place. The smell of barbecue was in the air. Several grills were going at once.

“Oh, boy. This should be fun.” Cora walks up to Jack’s house.

Cora and Samatra mingle with everyone at the cookout. There were a lot of homemade side dishes and other foods that were made. The two women help themselves and fill their plates.

Cora and Samatra stay late into the night. Cora doesn’t drink any of the alcohol offered up. She makes sure Samatra doesn’t drink too much alcohol either.

Later in the night, Cora escorts Samatra back to Lucy’s place. The poor girl was tipsy after having two beers. Cora looks at Samatra as they walk up and into Lucy’s house.

“I’ll be by tomorrow, to pick you up.” Cora felt sorry for Samatra.

Samatra looks at Cora “thank you.” As her words come out slurred.

“You’re welcome, Samatra.” Cora makes sure Samatra makes it to her bedroom.

Once Samatra is in her bedroom and passed out on her bed. Cora walks out and drives towards her place. She notices that George was home and spots his car in the driveway.

Cora just walks into her trailer. She’ll drop in tomorrow morning and speak to George. She hangs her car keys up and slips her work boots off.

Afterward, Cora heads into her bedroom and gets ready for bed.