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MIDNIGHT Ep. 42: TOMahawk
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Lillian Dawn Bearpaw made it back to the REZ as ordered by her new Kami Nick Sanchez. He had spoken to her soul through her former master Tomas Sylver in ways she simply couldn’t explain. Tom had died not long ago after two years of her faithful servitude, lost until found again. Not expecting a new life so soon after jumpstarting what she had just been forced to exist in as a normal citizen again, her heart quickly gravitated towards the man in black. Nick knew exactly what to say, what to do, defending her as his own before even laying claim. After a few days of denial then an equally swift acceptance she was high on peyote without the drug. Nick was far more potent. If he was a hallucination, she would gladly follow him off of a cliff.
Reaching the Civic Center on the Santee reservation at 8:00 and parking the Raptor under a well-lit light pole for safety she sat in the truck wearing only her Gogo boots up to her knees. Her clothing left behind at her grandparents’ house to prove she obeyed his command. This was not going to go well, but she concluded the truth was necessary from here on out.
“Grandfather will know I’m naked the second I walk in without grandmother even raising a stink. I know I will bring shame into the house, but I will not fail our Kami.” She included her slave sister Midnight like a good little girl. Mainly because they got along so well in the past. Too well, almost as if they were sisters. Now there was no choice in the matter if they were to be HIS! Maybe the license plate on the Raptor did have a duel meaning. What was originally Tom’s was now Nick’s by gift of loyalty, the plate HIS was duality to begin with. HIS being Tom’s property, Lillian being Tom’s as well. Now in Nick’s hands she was HIS. As was the Bird of Prey she was allowed to drive.
“Lord, I hope Lukas Porcupine is at his trailer. Walking in naked… ” She paused to sigh, “… does it matter? Come tomorrow when I walk or crawl The Shoals for Kami, Lukas, members of the Santee… oh God, my father, they will see me in all of my, in Kami’s glory. Dad will have a cow, but like my grandparent’s I must make him understand. Maybe by Nick giving dad money to buy that jewelry for my mom and their wedding anniversary that might at least settle him down. That is until the men of our tribe start howling at me. At Midnight!” Nibbling her lower lip she smiled, “TOMorrow will be incredible.”
Having wasted ten minutes to reflect and build her confidence Dawn climbed down from the Raptor and locked it up tight. Not a soul in sight she wiggled her way up the sidewalk and to the home of Newton and Rayna Waterfall. Lights still on meant they were awake, or at the very least her grandmother. Quiet as a mouse she crept up on the deck to peek through the living room window. “No Lukas at least. Only grandmother sewing in her recliner. Shoot! Spoke too soon there’s grandpa with a piece of watermelon. NCIS is on, their favorite TV show. At least it’s better than their Matlock days.” As if sensing her, Newton’s acute hearing drew his attention toward the front door. Setting his melon on a TV tray he stood idle with his hands behind his back. “Crap! He already knows. His frown is going to kill me. Here goes! Worst case scenario I go camp out with Lukas and hear him beat off all night.” Tonight, tomorrow, the sessions all bled together. Opening the door, she just walked on in holding her breath. Rayna didn’t even look her way. Ouch! “You’re both still up. I figured you might be in bed by now.”
“It has been a long day.” Newton did offer communication, “Longer still it seems.”
“Please don’t be angry. We need to talk.”
“Of course, we do.” Rayna sighed, “Would you like to borrow this shawl I am knitting? It is almost done. Surely, you must be cold.”
“Not really! Sweating bullets to be honest.” Her nipples were definitely shell casings.
“You will not take a seat.” Newton spoke then countered his order by sitting himself and lifting his wedge of melon to his mouth. It was delicious.
“Can you at least hear me out?”
“We know enough.” Rayna concluded, “People talk Lillian, of your day at Harbinger Shoals.”
“News travels fast.”
“Nudes travel fast.” Rayna huffed her cheeks. “Between photos on phones and poor Lukas fawning over you with stories what did you expect?”
“I won’t go back on what little I did today. Tomorrow will be far worse. Please… just listen to me I have much to tell you. Not just about Nick… but about Tom.”
“Tomas Sylver. Your professor. We already know of the life you led in Charleston.” Newt chewed and spoke at the same time, spitting up a seed upon his plate. “Did you think I would not enquire what your future would be?”
“Wait! You had someone spying on me?”
“Of course not! I merely asked Mister Sylver of his intentions. He spoke of ownership and treating you well. You always came home happy.”
“He made me very happy.”
“And left you with much for a slave who wanted nothing but his approval.” Rayna peered up briefly. “While we did not like that word slave, we did come to realize he was good for you, and to you. What we know at least. I am certain there is much we do not.”
“Nicky is a good man. He will be a fine replacement for Tomas.” Newton continued slobbering melon juice without a napkin, his shirt finding wet stains. “If I did not sense good in the man, I would not have defended him and accepted his help in feeding our people. I would hope you would trust my judgment.”
“Of course, grandfather.”
“I am less trustful, but I will side with my man.”
“Let him prove himself, please.”
“By parading you around naked in front of our fellow Santee. Lillian, I thought I raised you better than that.”
“You raised me far better than my parents would have, and I love you for that. I just like the freedom.”
“Freedom, you say. Yet you are referred to as a slave. That part I do not understand. Mister Sanchez possesses Irene’s daughter Midnight already. That I can accept, Midnight Amador being a half-breed. We love her nonetheless but that is a fact. You are not half, yet you align with a man not of our tribe. Men of our tribe. This Tomas was also a half-breed if I am not mistaken. If not Santee.”
“He was, yes!” She sat her keys on a table next to the front door and stood proudly. “Tom molded me with a confidence I didn’t know existed. He got me through school with straight A’s. That has to speak for something. I got my job at the Historical Society on my own. To which I return to in a few days.”
“How will you serve this man by living in Charleston?” Rayna asked.
“I won’t be there for long. I’m selling Kami, Tom’s home which I also inherited. He is even paying more than it is likely worth and that could easily rival what he paid for the Shoals. Not only that he wants me to run an idea by you grandfather.”
“I have only my ears.”
“Nick offered to build the REZ a smaller scale outlet of the Historical Society. I will move home here and run it.”
“History is rich.”
“So, is Nick.”
“Our people cannot always make the journey to Charleston. Money is tight. If I consider this society then there will be no charging them to enter, it is knowledge that should invoke freedom as the eagle flies.”
“No, of course not. I’ll have the money from the house to live off of even though I will have no need for money anymore. Actually, I have a strong hunch I’ll be moving to the Shoals to better serve my master and be released each day to run the society. Nick is good for our community grandfather.”
“Of this I know. The other elders might not agree at first, especially with your disregard for clothing. Your reputation will as they say take a shit.”
“Hit?”
“Either or.”
“I understand this is not easy, but I have to live my own life.”
“Again, that is a conflictive statement. How is being a slave living YOUR own life and not HIS as he sees fit?” Hearing HIS, Dawn once more reflected on the Raptor’s license plate. Pride oozed through her pores.
“It is my life to devote, and I choose to devote it to Kami. I am certain I will bring further shame as time goes on. If you must disown me, I will understand. If the society is only a dream, I will see it built even if I do not get to run it. Our people deserve that much.”
“We will discuss this over the coming days. For now, on the REZ at least you will wear clothing.” Newton finished his melon and burped, tapping his chest as a result. “Respect your true home for as long as you are here.”
“Nick demanded I wear nothing, ever, even on the REZ. My true home is with Nick wherever that may be. If I must pack and live in the truck… ”
“Enough! Let her be what the white man wants.” Rayna sat her shawl and yarn aside. Knitting? Sewing? It was all the same to Dawn. “Humiliate yourself. Be our guest.” It wasn’t like Veronica Redmane and Will Gullivant didn’t humiliate themselves in front of the Santee workers. They had sex on the road out front of the Shoals. But again, V’s grandfather was not a tribal elder.
“No, Grandmother! I am not humiliated by my body. Only you I fear I will humiliate. I will pack my things and find a hotel room. I will decide my home after I return to Charleston.”
“And what if Nicky insists you roam naked in Charleston?”
“I did that for Tom. I’m used to that. Unless you mean at my job. Then, I would have to give up my position. My home is with him in the coming weeks. As soon as Harbinger is fit to reside in, I will live there with Midnight. With Irene it appears.”
“Irene is moving in with Mister Sanchez? Knowing what he will do to her daughter?” Rayna sat up straight in her recliner. “Perhaps the Spaniard gave Irene brain damage.”
“She has no place to go. Nick cares, even though he sets the rules. Midnight will make her mother understand.”
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