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“Now you look part Navaho,” Sage said, laughing softly as he rose to his full height, towering over Trevor, who looked devotedly up at him, smiling broadly.
“Take me to see the surprise now,” Trevor said, lifting a hand to Sage to be held. He glanced over at Leonida, lifting his other hand to her.
Smiling down at him, touched by this child’s innocence and sweetness, Leonida took his hand, and they went outside.
In the shadows of early morning, Trevor moved slowly toward the brown-spotted palomino pony whose dark-brown eyes were looking trustingly at the child. Reaching a hand out, he gently touched the pony’s nose, then squealed when the pony nuzzled his hand playfully.
“The pony is yours,” Sage said, going to lift Trevor onto the back of the animal. “Forever it is yours. You will grow into the saddle that I will give you. The pony will know you always by your touch and smell. You will become as one when you ride with the wind beneath the sun, moon, and stars.”
Sage took one of Trevor’s hands and placed it on the pony’s mane. “Familiarize yourself with him, my son,” he said. “Give him a name. Never will he be called by anything else.”
Trevor’s eyes became as wide as silver dollars as he began lovingly stroking the pony’s mane. He looked trustingly over at Sage and revealed his choice of names for his pony. “Can I call him Spottie?” he asked. “I once had a doggie named Spottie but he ran away.”
“Spottie is a good name,” Sage said, nodding his approval. He lifted Trevor down from the pony as Pure Blossom came walking toward them, carrying a steaming pot of food.
Leonida hurried to her and eased the pot from her frail hands. “Let me help you with that,” she murmured, Pure Blossom smiling up at Leonida from her awkward, twisted position.
Leonida inhaled the wondrous fragrance of the food in the pot. “Who is the lucky one that gets this for breakfast?” she teased, in awe that Pure Blossom would have been up so early in the morning preparing food. She glanced down into the pot. It contained meat from the backbone of a yearling calf boiled with corn. Never had she smelled anything as delicious, yet she knew that it was only because she was so hungry. Right now anything would smell and taste good.
“I prepared food for you, Sage, and the child,” Pure Blossom said, pulling a round, rubbery loaf of bread from a deep, large pocket of her skirt. “Soon I will teach you how to cook the food of the Navaho. Until then you eat what I prepare. Does that please you, Leonida?”
“Yes, that pleases me very much,” Leonida said. Her smile faded as she took a closer look at Pure Blossom and noticed that her usual pallor was even worse today and her eyes were sunk in.
“Are you all right, Pure Blossom?” Leonida asked as they all turned to enter the hogan. She was glad when Sage took the heavy pot from her and took it inside, Trevor trailing devotedly behind him.
“Pure Blossom never feels good,” Pure Blossom said, shrugging.
Just before entering the hogan, Leonida put a hand on her brow and was relieved that Pure Blossom did not show any signs of having a temperature.
“If you start to feel worse, be sure to tell me or Sage,” Leonida said, placing a gentle hand on Pure Blossom’s frail face. “We want to make sure nothing happens to you. You’re special, Pure Blossom. So very, very special.”
Pure Blossom blushed and ducked her head, then followed Leonida into the hogan.
Once inside, as they were all getting settled on the mats around the fire, Pure Blossom reached a hand to Leonida’s arm. “You like Navaho clothes and moccasins?” she asked, her eyes shining. “They made by my own hands.”
“I like them very much,” Leonida said, smiling over at her. “I do appreciate having them. Thank you.”
“The blanket your white pony soldier paid for should be finished soon,” Pure Blossom said. An awkward silence fell, and Sage scowled at her.
Pure Blossom looked shyly from her brother to Leonida. “You do not want the blanket?” she innocently asked. “The white pony soldier paid well for it. Should I send it to him by a Navaho messenger?”
/> “Burn the blanket,” Sage said. “It was intended for a wedding between the white man and my woman. There is to be a wedding, but not the one planned by the white man. The marriage ceremony will be performed in our village between Sage and Leonida, and Sage does not have to offer gifts paid for by the white man. Sage’s gifts will be from Sage.”
Leonida smiled weakly over at Pure Blossom as she gaped openly at her. Leonida had to wonder if Pure Blossom approved or disapproved. It was important to Leonida that she be accepted first by Sage’s sister. The acceptance of the rest of the people would, she hoped, follow shortly after.
She sighed with relief when Pure Blossom leaned over and gave her a big hug.
“Pure Blossom has always wanted a sister,” she murmured. “Even that your skin is white does not matter. You have proven that you have the heart and soul of a Navaho.”
Sage smiled, then moved in front of the fire and the large pot of food hanging from a spit over it. “It is time to bless the hogan, and then we eat,” he said, drawing Leonida and Pure Blossom apart.
Trevor got on his knees and crawled to Sage. His eyes were large as he watched Sage sprinkle white cornmeal and then white powder made from prayer sticks into the fire.
Then everyone enjoyed the breakfast, the time spent in eating and talking cheerfully. Afterwards, Sage took Trevor to introduce him to other children of his same age, while Pure Blossom took Leonida to her hogan and showed her how she wove yarn into blankets and other wearing apparel, then how to make bread, the Navaho delicacy. Leonida watched as Pure Blossom spread with her hands a thin batter of blue-corn meal on a smoking-hot griddle, allowed it to bake a few seconds, then lifted it off. Pure Blossom told her that it took years of practice to smear the batter onto the griddle without burning one’s fingers. She bragged that her stone griddle was one of her most treasured possessions, having been handed down for generations.
After several batches of bread had been made, Leonida ate some of it, and found that she didn’t like the taste as much as the smell.
The day passed quickly. Trevor was ready to go to bed even before the sun set behind the mountain. It was a day of Leonida’s being introduced to Sage’s people and accepted by them for they accepted everything of their leader’s choice, even if his choice of a wife was a white woman.
