There There(67)

“When did you get here?” Harvey says.

“I was the first one, well, one of two of the first people here,” Edwin says.

“You pretty serious about powwows then?” Harvey says.

“I helped put this all together. Remember?”

“That’s right. Sorry. Oh, this here’s Jacquie Red Feather,” Harvey says, pointing to the woman sitting down next to where Harvey was sitting before he stood up to give Edwin a hug.

“Edwin,” Edwin says, and reaches his hand out to her.

“Jacquie,” she says.

“Blue,” Edwin says with a hand half cupped around his mouth like she’s far away, and like he’s yelling it.

Blue walks over. She looks stressed.

    “Blue, meet my dad, Harvey, and this is his, his friend Jacquie, what was it?”

“Red Feather,” Jacquie says.

“Right, and this is Blue,” Edwin says.

Blue’s face goes white. She reaches out her hand and goes for a smile, but it looks more like she’s trying not to throw up.

“It’s so nice to meet you both, but, Edwin, we should get back—”

“C’mon, we just got here,” Edwin says, and looks at his dad like: Right?

“I know, and we can come back, we have the whole day, we’ll just be right over there,” Blue says, pointing to where they’d come from.

“All right,” Edwin says, and reaches out one more time for a shake with his dad. Then they both wave and walk away.

“Okay, two things,” Blue says as they walk back to their table.

“That was crazy,” Edwin says. He’s smiling a smile he can’t contain.

“I think that woman was my mom,” Blue says.

“What?”

“Jacquie.”

“Who?”

“The woman with your dad just now?”

“Oh. Wait, what?”

“I know. I don’t know. I don’t know what the fuck is happening right now, Ed.”

They walk back to the table. Edwin looks over to Blue and tries for a smile, but Blue, she’s ghost-white.





Thomas Frank





“YOU GOOD?” Bobby Big Medicine says after the song is over. Thomas had been looking off, or not off but down and like he could see through the ground and like he could see something specific there.

“I think. Getting somewhere,” Thomas says.

“Still drinking?” Bobby says.

“Doing better,” Thomas says.

“Get all that junk out for this one,” Bobby says, and rotates his drumstick in a circle.

“I feel good,” Thomas says.

“It’s not enough to feel good. You gotta drum good for them,” he says, and points with his drumstick out at the field.

“Do I know all the songs we’re gonna sing today?”

“Most. You’ll catch up,” he says.

“Thanks, brother,” Thomas says.

“Put your thanks in there,” Bobby says, and points to the middle of the drum.

    “I just mean for asking me to come out here,” Thomas says, but Bobby doesn’t hear. He’s talking to one of the other drummers. Bobby’s like that. With you all the way and then gone. He doesn’t think of it like doing a personal favor. He wanted a drummer. He likes the way Thomas drums and sings. Thomas stands up to stretch. He really does feel good. Singing and drumming had done that thing, that all-the-way-there thing he needs to feel that full, that complete feeling, like you’re right where you’re supposed to be right now—in the song and about what the song’s about.

Thomas walks around to various vendors, jewelry and blanket booths. He’s keeping an eye out for anyone from the Indian Center. He should just find Blue and apologize. It would make drumming the rest of the day better. It would make his drumming better, more true. He sees her. But there’s someone yelling. Thomas can’t tell from where.





Loother and Lony





THE SUN BEAT DOWN on Loother and Lony up in the stands. They’d run out of things to complain about to each other, and lost patience for the silence slowly growing between them. Without having to say it, they stand up and walk down to look for Orvil. Lony had said he wanted to get closer to the drum, see what it sounds like up close.

“It’s just hella loud,” Loother had said.

“Yeah, but I wanna see.”

“You wanna hear,” Loother said.

“You know what I mean.”

They make their way toward the drum—Loother’s head on a swivel looking for Orvil. He told Lony they could go listen if they could stop to get a lemonade first. Lony hadn’t shown interest in any of the powwow stuff Orvil had gotten into until this moment. Something about the drum, he’d said. He hadn’t realized it’d be so loud, and that the singers sounded like that in real life.

    “It’s the singing, you hear that?” he’d said to Loother before they went down.

“Yeah, I hear it, and it sounds just like we heard a hundred times coming from Orvil’s earphones,” Loother said.

They pass dancers and look up and almost flinch. People don’t notice them, which makes them have to dodge the dancers coming their way. Lony keeps drifting toward the drum. And Loother keeps grabbing him by the shirt to pull him toward the lemonade. They’re almost to the lemonade stand when they both turn around at what they think is the sound of people screaming.