Free Nightway by Janet Dailey Page B

days there before his father came to take him back. Hawk wasn’t unhappy to leave his mother’s relatives. Almost a year away from them had produced significant changes within himself. The absence of modern conveniences like electricity, running water, and indoor toilets didn’t bother him as much as the meager amount of food on the table; he also missed the nightly showers and having clean clothes to wear each day.

PART
II
    “He stirs, he stirs, he stirs, he stirs.
Among the lands of dawning, he stirs, he stirs;
The pollen of the dawning, he stirs, he stirs;
Now in old age wandering, he stirs, he stirs;
Now on the trail of beauty, he stirs, he stirs;
He stirs, he stirs, he stirs, he stirs.
    .. Happily my head becomes cool.”

Chapter V
    During his senior year of high school, Hawk was informed by his father that he would be attending an eastern university in the fall. The decision and choice of college was made by his father. A more mature Hawk was not excited by the prospect of being uprooted a second time in his life and thrust into an alien atmosphere. Yet he was aware there was much to be gained from both the experience and the education. When the time came, he went without protest. Only Carol, now a willowy teen-ager, had tears in her eyes when he left.
    His father accompanied him to the airport, full of last-minute instructions and advice. Hawk listened as he had always done, then sifted out what was worthwhile and threw the rest away. That was one thing his father had taught him indirectly—to think for himself.
    Although Hawk saw his father whenever he visited the ranch, their relationship wasn’t close. The way his father had dealt with Hawk’s illegitimacy and mixed heritage had created a chasm that his father was unwilling to repair. When they were together, they talked about the ranch, school, or his father’s business dealings in Phoenix.
    There were always rumors circulating about J. B.Faulkner’s activities. His time seemed to be devoted to acquiring chunks of land in Phoenix, selling some for huge profits, developing others into housing tracts, and constructing commercial buildings on the rest. He dabbled in citrus groves and bought shares in copper mines. It was joked that Faulkner intended to own the state of Arizona before he died.
    After starting college, Hawk returned to the ranch each summer to work. Never asking for special favors and accepting his share of the dirty jobs, he earned the respect of his fellow cowboys. Yet there was a barrier between Hawk and the others that he was never able to overcome. He was the bastard son of a multimillionaire. It was a fact the cowboys rarely forgot, and one Hawk could never overcome. There were several he would have liked to call friends, but none that he truthfully could.
    Only among the Navahos could he walk as a mere man. Their only distrust came because he was half-white. They didn’t care which side of the blanket he’d been born on or how much money his father had. Since that Fourth of July night years ago when Hawk had run away to the Reservation, his father had given his consent to allow Hawk to spend two weeks each summer visiting his mother’s relatives.
    This summer he had left his pickup at the hogan of a cousin, borrowed a horse, and ridden into the high country where his Uncle Crooked Leg had taken his sheep. Although his main hogan was the one a few miles from where Hawk had lived as a boy, his uncle had several dwellings scattered over the country because of the need to have grazing land and water for his sheep. The air was cooler in the higher elevations away from the desert floor, the summer heat less uncomfortable.
    The two weeks always passed so swiftly. Duringthem, Hawk followed the customs of The People, observing their life-style and taboos. He used water sparingly, washing his hands and face as everyone did, since cleanliness was important. It was bathing that was so rare because of the large amount of water required. Since it