Free Whispering Spirits by Rita Karnopp Page A

at his apartment? Tired of waiting for him,
she went to Dukes Bar around the corner. Hadn’t she seen Jordan
with Ali? That was it! Summer did see them together…he denied
it…but now she was certain of it.
    How long after that did Dee say she saw the
two of them together at Duddley’s Bar? Barely a month before he was
murdered? Maybe Ali wasn’t Joshua’s girlfriend after all. It hurt
to know, even though they had decided to just be friends. He could
have been honest.
    “I’m sorry…I don’t mean to intrude on your
sorrow…but I really want to talk to you.”
    She quickly wiped the moisture from her skin.
“You’re not interrupting my sorrow, Running Crane. You’re
interrupting my accountability of what a fool I’ve been.” She
slipped from the rock and walked to the grassy hill to where he
stood. She sat and wiped her feet dry, then pulled on simple, white
flats. “I never realized Jordan was cheating on me. I believed his
every lie. We haven’t been a couple for months, just friends.
Looking at it from a distance…I can’t believe what a fool I’d
been.”
    He sat down beside her. “It’s hard to see
what we don’t want to see. I’ve been there myself. It doesn’t make
us fools, it just makes us trusting and vulnerable.”
    “You’ve been cheated on?” She looked at him,
wondering why she hadn’t noticed how handsome he was before. He’d
been blessed with all the best Native features possible. Like many
Native men, his hair hung in two, long braids, the bottoms wrapped
in sacred red strips. If he was dressed right now in Native
clothes, he’d fit in any pictures of the eighteen hundreds, even
earlier. A thin, white, leather string held a single bear claw. She
wondered if he killed it himself. She wouldn’t doubt it.
    “Either you’re impressed with my bear claw or
appalled.”
    She smiled and looked into his deep, dark
eyes and it seemed they drew her into them…refusing to let her go.
She blinked, then said, “I was just wondering if you killed the
bear it came from.”
    “No, this,” he held it up for her inspection,
“is a sacred animal helper claw that has been passed down for ages.
I’m not too sure how old it is. My father wore it until last year,
when he gave it to me. He gave me the middle claw, one on each side
of this one he gave to each of my brothers, Terry and Lewis. How
come you haven’t asked me about Terry?”
    “What’s to ask? I understand he’s married and
has two sons. I’m happy for him. We were never meant to be
together. He wanted…nothing more than to stay on the res and live
the simple life. He had no aspirations to improve himself or his
people. Maybe he’s changed.” Summer watched Running Crane think
over her comment before responding. It was a quality she loved
about her people. Something she long forgot…and would work on
changing. One should always think before speaking.
    “Terry and I have never been all that close.
Lewis and I on the other hand are. He listens and tries to stay out
of trouble. He’ll be going to college in the fall…his drive is to
help our people for generations to come.”
    “What’s his major?” Summer smiled, happy
whenever she heard someone from the res was going to college.
    “He’s going into corporate law.”
    “Really? That’s surprising. How…I’m confused
as to why. How can that help the people?”
    “Maybe you should be asking yourself that
question. You had great aspirations when we were kids. I remember
you boasting how you were going to become a professor and teach
Native American History. You were inspired by some movie…what was
it? Yes, it was Last of the Dogmen with Barbara Hershey and
Tom Berenger. You wanted to be a professor that would share what
life was truly like for the Blackfeet and how their world was
stolen from them.”
    “How on earth did you ever remember that? I
haven’t thought about that in so long. I…also had a love for
writing. I could teach about my people, or I could