"Yes. Our men of mystery can speak to people without words, and distance has nothing to do with the mind-to-mind talk. Our scouts also use this form of communication, but often the scout must learn it. For me, I have never known a time when I wasn't able to talk using only one's mind to speak. Sometimes people hear me and talk back to me. Sometimes they do not.
"This, now, is how I came to be a brother to the wolves of the prairie and how I was able to speak to you at a distance."
She was quiet for some time, and, after several moments, he raised his eyes and looked at her. She gazed back at him, saying and signing, "This is a fascinating story. Did you ever feel, yourself, that you were 'strange'?"
"Saa, I did not. Many times what I am able to do has been useful to my people. But, come, now that I have shared a bit of myself with you, won't you tell me a little about you?"
"I will if you want, but it's not as interesting a story as yours."
"I disagree." He both signed and spoke the words in Blackfeet. "How were you able to hear me and speak back to me?"
She frowned. "I...I don't know. At first I thought I was dying and you might be an angel."
"What is this 'angel'?"
"An angel is a messenger from God."
"God?" he asked in sign.
"God is the Creator of our world. Now, it took me several moments to realize I was speaking to you, and I only knew it was you and not an angel because you told me who you were and that you were coming to help me. Aren't you glad I knew your name? Do you remember you did not tell it to me when we first spoke to one another?" She looked away from him as though she were upset with him about this. "Even though I had asked you?"
He said and signed, "It is wrong for a man to speak his name to a woman who is not his wife. It is thought to be bragging. How did you learn what I am called?"
"From the trader."
"Did you ask him?" He grinned at her shamelessly. "Did I impress you enough to be curious about me?"
Again, she glanced away from him and looked down. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He laughed aloud, but said nothing. He was impressed; she had asked another about him. Perhaps, she had liked him a little.
His attraction to her suddenly felt full and warm within him. But, he suppressed the lure of her, because, much as he might like to know her more intimately, he did not believe it wise to marry her, and a man of mystery did not have "relations" with a woman who was not his wife.
And so, instead of letting his eyes linger upon the beauty of her face, he asked her a question verbally, and, when she looked around to read his signs, he used his hands to say, "Have you ever been able to use the mind-to-mind talk with anyone else?"
"I don't remember doing so. Why I could hear you and talk back to you, I don't know. Perhaps it was an act of God. This could be because I was praying to God to help me. And, I now believe your talking to me and me speaking back to you saved my life."
"Áa."
"Do you think I will always be able to talk to you in this way?"
"Áa.I believe," he signed, speaking also in Blackfeet, "this way of talking to one another might never leave you. Once I had learned to speak to others with thoughts, I found I could listen and hear all of life chattering to me."
"All of life... What a beautiful and poetic observation you make." She spoke the words and gestured their meaning. "There was a time," she continued, "when I might have thought you strange for this ability you have. But, you are not strange. You are a man of honor and a man any woman would be proud to call her own."
He swallowed hard and was silent for many moments, his tongue feeling large within his mouth. At length, however, he asked in sign, "Are you offering to be this to me?"
She retreated into silence, and he waited. At last, she shook her head and said, "No." And, in response, his spirits plummeted.
But, she was continuing and said with signs, "I am already engaged to marry another man. When I said you are a man any woman would be proud to call her own, I was speaking to you as a mother might talk to her son in order to give him courage."
He frowned at her. "I do not look upon you as my mother."
She laughed a little. "I am glad to hear this." She used both words and signs to speak. "I am, after all, younger than you."
He responded to her words with another question, asking with signs, "If you had not already given your word to marry this other man, would you consider me?"
He caught her eye. There it was. He knew he did not intend to marry her—he had even told her this—yet, he had this moment asked her to do so. True, he had said it in an indirect way, but still he had asked.
