Free Beauty and the Brain by Alice Duncan

that’s
stupid, and you never did anything like that. It’s for the
pictures, you know. They like to make a drama out of
everything.”
    The man said, “Uh . . .” and seemed to run
out of inspiration.
    She got the feeling she was confusing her
audience and was irked with herself. “I’m sorry to blather on so.
But it’s very nice to meet you. I hope we can all get to be
friends. What’s your name?”
    “Jerry Begay.”
    That didn’t sound very Indian to Brenda,
although she knew herself to be ignorant about such things—which
was partly Colin’s fault, blast him. “Mr. Begay. Well, it’s very
nice to meet you.”
    He nodded. The other fourteen red men had
gathered behind Begay and were staring at Brenda with faces empty
of emotion. Accustomed as she was to adjusting her behavior
according to the signs she detected in her audience, Brenda found
this lack of visual and emotional clues as to what these men were
thinking disconcerting. Feeling more nervous than usual, she took a
step back and looked at Colin.
    He was glaring at her as if he considered
her the biggest ass in the world, and she resented it. She was only
trying to make these people feel welcome. Which, in her considered
opinion, was a lot better than what anyone else connected with
Peerless was doing.
    Nevertheless, she gestured to Colin. “Mr.
Begay, this gentleman is Mr. Colin Peters. He’s studied a lot about
various Indian cultures.”
    Begay looked at Colin, and Brenda thought
she detected something in his eyes, although she couldn’t recognize
what it was. He nodded at Colin.
    Colin, nudged out of his stiff posture by
Brenda and Begay, walked over and held out his hand. “Hello, Jerry.
Good to see you again.”
    Brenda felt her eyes widen. “Good heavens,
do you mean to tell me you two already know each other?”
    “Yes,” said Colin, looking at her with
displeasure. “It was to my great benefit that Mr. Begay allowed me
to stay with his family for a month two summers in succession while
I was in school. This was in Arizona Territory.”
    “Right,” said Begay, shaking Colin’s hand.
He had a gruff, sandy voice that reminded Brenda of the desert from
whence he came.
    “How’s the family?” Colin asked, as if he’d
only just then remembered the social custom of inquiring about
people’s personal lives when one hadn’t seen them for a while.
    “Good.”
    Conversation ceased and both men stood
there, Colin looking uncomfortable, Begay just looking. Once more
Brenda stepped into the breach. “Well, isn’t it nice to renew
acquaintances?”
    Neither man agreed or disagreed, and she
felt like socking both of them for being impossible clods. Instead,
she caught Martin’s eye. “Let me introduce you to the man who’s
putting this whole picture together, Mr. Begay. This is Martin
Tafft. Martin, meet Mr. Jerry Begay.” She beamed at the two of
them, hoping some of the tension surrounding this meeting would
snap.
    Martin shook Begay’s hand. “Pleased to meet
you, Mr. Begay. Glad you could come. We had trouble finding
enough—er—Indians to play the number of roles we had to fill.”
    Begay shrugged. “I seen pictures where they
just dress whites up in buckskin and pass ‘em off that way.”
    So had Brenda. She smothered a giggle. She
did, however, begin to sense that there were depths to Mr. Begay
that she hadn’t at first fathomed.
    Martin shifted uneasily. “Ahem. We at
Peerless try to be more accurate in our depictions.”
    Colin uttered a scornful huff. Again, Brenda
felt like smacking him She was pleased to note that Mr. Begay
seemed to have some manners. He only nodded at Martin and didn’t
even look skeptical.
    Another silence fell over the group, rather
like a smothering fog, and Brenda decided to take matters into her
own hands. “Well,” she said brightly, clasping her hands and
smiling gamely at Begay and his men, “why don’t you come with me
and I’ll take you into the lodge.” She gave Martin a quick,