“Good morning,” Rowan said awkwardly. “Oh,” she added as if remembering her own name, “I’m Rowan. Birdsong. Though… I guess you might already know that. Victor’s my Dad, if you know him too.”
“Ahh,” Gloria chuckled and clucked her tongue against her teeth. “I see the family resemblance. You might look like his younger twin if you had a long braid down your back.”
“Yeah.”
Gloria smiled warmly at Rowan’s endearingly quiet response. “You look an awful lot like your Mama too. Pretty girl, she sure was.”
Rowan shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back on her feet. “Thank you.”
Juniper caught herself staring at all the little idiosyncrasies she found so mesmerizing. Instead of listening to her intrusive thoughts urging her to crawl out of her skin and into Rowan’s just to get as close to her as inhumanly possible, she decided to change the subject. “We have our Tribal Council presentation tonight.”
“Oh, that’s right. You two have to march in front of Council to present your case for expanding the Tribal gardens tonight, huh?” Gloria beckoned them closer with a finger, and they leaned in as she raised her eyebrows to nearly meet her hairline. “I saw Councilwoman Lightfoot printing out a big ol’ stack of papers in Council Chambers last week. Make sure you know that proposal forward and backward.”
Rowan turned to face Juniper with a similar raised eyebrow look as Gloria, although this one had the fear of a deer inheadlights. Juniper laughed quietly and covered her mouth to muffle her voice.
“Councilwoman Lightfoot is kind of a hard ass. I’ve been to a hundred of these meetings, and she always asks the toughest questions. Each Councilperson leads the discussion of a different proposal, which is why we had to submit it last week so they can prepare. Looks like she’ll be doing that for ours. We call her the General, by the way.”
Rowan lowered her voice and her raised eyebrows moved to crease in the center. “Got it. The General. Sounds tough.”
“Remember though, this is mostly an opportunity to answer Council’s questions. And even if they vote no, they’ll give us feedback, and we can get back on the schedule for the next meeting. No need to be nervous.”
“Then why are we whispering?”
“Good point.” Juniper straightened up.
Gloria chuckled and tapped the coffee pot box to redirect their attention. “That’s my girl, taking matters into your own hands.”
“Who even makes the coffee in the break room? That’s nice and all, but it’s actually awful.”
Gloria made a retching sound as a joke. “I’ll get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, I have a gift for you two.”
Gloria dropped her readers, and they swung from the pearl chain around her neck as she got up and sashayed her hips through the open door behind her. When she returned, she had three mugs looped around the fingers of her left hand.
“One for you. One for theformerheartbreaker.” She winked at Rowan and counted out the mugs as she set them on the counter between them. “I guess the third gift is a gift to me,” she chuckled as she tapped the third one. “I’m taking my coffee upstairs from now on.”
Juniper twisted a mug around to take in the design.Runapewak Indian Tribeencircled their official governmental seal featuring a rendering of their waterways and plant and animal life found alongside it. Even though a mug seemed likean insignificant thing to get emotional over, Juniper smiled at all the little and big things alike that had changed over the last few years. It showed their unity as a government, as a people.
Rowan grabbed the mugs. “Thanks, Gloria. These are really cool. If there’s extra, can I pay for one to give to my Dad?”
Gloria shooed her like the request was silly. “Oh, please, I do the inventory around here.”
After procuring the fourth mug, Juniper and Rowan ascended the stairs.
“Please tell me she doesn’t hate me?” Rowan asked timidly, her eyes trained on Juniper’s.
“She doesn’t hate you. She just loves me a lot.”
Rowan sighed. “That’s easy to understand. You are the most lovable person I’ve ever known.”
Juniper kept her smile to herself and watched her feet walk down the hallway.
Rowan opened Juniper’s office door and let her pass through. “Oh, I wanted to ask you something.”
Juniper set the box and bag down on the middle table in her office. “Sure, help me move this table.” She nodded toward a smaller table in the corner that had previously been unused.
They aligned themselves on opposite ends of the table and lifted it to carry across the room.
“A few weeks ago I was asked to present at the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to share about what we’ve worked on here. This year’s call to action is about climate change and our community-level solutions to what’s happening around us. This year is going to be major and have high-powered people from all across the world, from what my friend Manny was telling me.”
