A Different Blue(162)

I looked down at a picture that had a faintly yellow cast. The clothing and the cars in the

background dated it sometime in the '70s. A man and a woman were in the shot, and for a moment

my eyes were delayed by young Stella Hidalgo, slim and smiling in a deep red dress, her hair

hanging over one shoulder. She looked so much like me that my head swam. Wilson stiffened beside

me, clearly noting the resemblance as well. Then my gaze moved to the man standing next to her,

and time ceased its steady ticking.

Jimmy looked up at me from a decade long past. His hair was a deep black and hung around his

shoulders from a center part. He wore jeans and a brown patterned shirt with the large pointed

collars that were popular in that day. He looked so young and handsome, and though his eyes were

on the person taking the picture, his hand was wrapped around Stella's, and she clung to his arm

with her free hand.

“Is that the Jimmy Echohawk who raised you?” Stella demanded again.

My eyes shot to hers, unable to comprehend the meaning of what I was seeing. I nodded dumbly.

“Blue?” Wilson questioned, completely confused.

“What are you trying to tell me? What is this?” I gasped, finding my voice and shoving the

book toward Stella, who still knelt in front of me.

“Jimmy Echohawk was Winona's father!” Stella cried out, “He wasn't just a..a . . . random

stranger!” Stella opened the book once more. Her shock was as clearly as pronounced as my own.

[page]“Bloody 'ell!” Wilson swore next to me, his curse ringing out in the little sitting room

that had turned into a house of mirrors.

“Ms. Hidalgo, you need to start talking,” Wilson insisted, his voice firm and his hand tight

on mine. “I don't know what kind of game you think this is –”

“I'm not playing games, young man!” Stella cried. “I don't know what this means. All I know

is that I met Jimmy Echohawk when I was twenty-one years old. It was 1975. I had just graduated

from college, and I accompanied my father to several Indian reservations throughout Oklahoma.”

Stella shook her head as she spoke, as if she couldn't believe what she was saying.

“My father was a member of a tribal council that was trying to get federal status restored to

the Paiute people. The Paiute tribes had had their Federal status terminated in the 1950s. Which

meant maintaining our lands and our water rights – what little we had – was almost impossible.

The Southern Paiutes had dwindled to near extinction. We went to several different reservations

in addition to the remaining bands of Paiutes trying to build support among other tribes for our

cause.”

My head was swimming, and the plight of the Paiute people was, sadly, way down on my list of

things-I-need-to-know-at-this-very-minute.

“Ms. Hidalgo, you're going to need to move this story along a little,” Wilson prompted.

Stella nodded, obviously at a loss as to where to start or what was even relevant.

“It was love at first sight. I was reserved, and so was he. Yet, we were instantly comfortable

with each other. We weren't in Oklahoma long, and my father did not like Jimmy. He was worried

that I would be distracted from the future I had planned.” She shrugged her shoulders. “He was

right to be worried. I had dreamed of being the the next Sarah Winnemucca, and all at once the