Secrets: The Truth is Slowly Revealed - 19. Chapter 19 S1

Chapter 19 – More About the Navajo

When we finished cleaning up after breakfast, my dad suggested we head out to our next destination.

To our surprise, we found ourselves at a go-kart track, and it wasn’t merely an ordinary go-kart facility either. Rather than having an oval track, as is standard for these types of places, this one was designed as a miniature grand prix course instead. The track consisted of multiple turns, both right and left, and it had a long straightaway as it headed toward the finish line, so it was much more challenging than an oval track where you only had to turn left. Not only that, but along with the regular go-karts this place had high-performance go-karts as well, and of course Devin and I were anxious to try them.

Fortunately, we’d arrived before the crowds started to form, so for the most part we had the place to ourselves. And since my mom and dad knew Devin and I were planning to race, they suggested we take a test run on the regular go-karts first, to see what the track was like. We thought that was a great idea, so after we were assigned to our go-karts, we drove out onto the track.

My parents gave us a slight lead before they followed, but it wasn’t really necessary. It wasn’t as if Devin and I were driving slowly, but we weren’t exactly racing either. We were merely examining the track to see how it was laid out and where the most promising places to pass were located. When we finished that run, we announced we were ready to try out the high performance go-karts next.

We had to show our drivers licenses to those in charge, because they wanted to make certain we didn’t merely have learner’s permits or underage licenses before they let us use the faster go-karts. As soon as they were satisfied, we all got into a different go-kart and drove them onto the track for another run.

Once again, my parents allowed us to go first and then they followed behind. They gave us plenty of room since they didn’t want to get involved or interfere with our race, and Devin and I were determined to beat each other and we gave it our best shot.

I’ll admit that we came close to colliding on occasion while we were attempting to pass, and things got more than a little wild when we gunned it on the straightaway heading to the finish line. However, in the end it was impossible to tell who crossed the finish line first, but it didn’t make a difference to us. We each claimed victory, but seeing it was actually undetermined, we wanted to go again.

This time my parents let us go out by ourselves and waited near the start/finish line to see if they could declare a winner. Devin and I were both determined to win and erase any doubt as to who was the victor, so we were even more daring in our attempts to pass and gain the lead. Once again, we were neck-and-neck most of the way, and basically crossed the finished line at the same time.

“If this was a horserace,” my dad announced, “it would have been declared a photo-finish and they’d be scrutinizing the various photos right now. I’m afraid your mother and I didn’t use our phones to take any photos or a video, so we’ll have to call it a tie.”

Neither Devin nor I were happy about this, but we accepted their decision. We also threatened that we’d beat the other one the next time we did this.

After we left there, my parents took us out to lunch, and as soon as we ordered Devin and I resumed arguing about who had actually won both races. We felt that one of us had to be a fraction ahead of the other one when we crossed the finish line, and once again we both claimed to be the winner.

“Enough of this childish bickering,” my dad chastised us, since he had his fill of listening to us argue. “They were both dead-heats and there was no winner, so drop it and fill your mouths with food instead.”

I don’t know if he thought we were being serious, because we were just having fun teasing each other, but we heeded his advice and concentrated on our meal instead.

As soon as we finished eating, my parents took us to the cinema complex and they let his choose the movie. Devin and I agreed to go to an action flick, and I’ll admit that all of our eyes were glued to the screen the entire time. I was sitting between Devin and my mom and noticed that she jumped whenever the action got really exciting or something unexpected happened. Oh, Devin and I jumped a few times as well, although not nearly as often or as severely as my mom did, and when the movie ended we were all glad that we’d done this.

After we left the cinema complex, my dad drove us back to the house, because my mom was going to prepare a meal. I believe both of my parents felt they’d spent enough money for one weekend, since they’d let us talk them into bowling a third game and allowed us to take an additional run on the go-karts. It was just their way of not complaining about spending so much money or making a big deal about it, and Devin and I had no problem with this either. We merely enjoyed the meal my mom prepared, and after we ate Devin and I cleared the table and did the dishes. It was our way of showing our appreciation for everything they had done for us.

When we went in to join them after we’d finished up, my mom made a comment. “If you boys are willing to get up before we leave for work in the morning, I’ll fix breakfast for all of us.”

“No, you’ve done enough already and we really appreciate it,” I said.

“Yeah, we can fix our own breakfast or go out to get something,” Devin added. “I also want to thank you for this fun weekend and I’ll see you again when I return on May 26^th.”

“We’re glad you enjoyed your time with us.”

“Just remember to drive carefully on your way home,” my dad added.

“Don’t worry, I will.”

We knew my parents would be turning in early since they had to go to work in the morning, so after we said goodnight to them, Devin and I waited until we thought they had fallen asleep before we went up to my room. And then to make Devin happy, we took turns making love to each other before we went through our nightly ritual and cuddled in bed as we drifted off to sleep.

My parents had already left for work by the time we woke up, so we decided to just have cereal and an apple before Devin left.

“I really wish you could stay here until we leave on the trip,” I said.

“I know, but my parents want to spend some time with me as well.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m wondering if we’ll be able to spend any time together once we’re on the reservation. From what Grandpa Isaac told me, he had to stay alone with the shaman the entire time.”

“Yeah, I know, and I’m worried about that as well, but I just want to be close to you while you’re doing this.”

“Who else will be going beside Grandpa Isaac?”

“Just me and Grandpa Jacob. My dad is going to stay back and take care of the family business for them, as well as dealing with his own clients.”

“Ok and it will be nice to know that the three of you are somewhere nearby.”

I hugged and kissed Devin before I walked him out to his SUV, then I waved as he drove off. As soon as he was out of sight, I went back inside and got on my laptop to find out as much as I could about the Navajos in New Mexico.

During my investigation, I learned that the Navajos had originally been part of a larger group of Native Americans, the Athapaskans that lived in western Canada. Although members of the Athapaskans still live in western Canada, a group had broken off from the main body and traveled southward, eventually settling in the southwestern portion of the United States.

This group became the Navajo tribe, but eventually they split into two distinct groups as well, due to where they settled and the different experiences to which they were exposed. In the end, they became the Navajo and Apache tribes, and later the Apaches also split into smaller groups, such as the Mescalero, Jicarilla, Chiracahua, Lipan, and Kiowa to name a few. However, the languages they spoke were all derived from the same basic language group, which was different from the other Native American tribes.

I’d spent so much time with Devin earlier in the day that this was all I had time to learn. There was something else I wanted to do, which was something special for my mom, so I went to the kitchen and looked to see if there was anything I could fix for supper to save her from having to do it. I came upon a few items I could use that wouldn’t be too difficult to prepare, so I got to work. As soon as my mom walked through the door, a huge grin spread across her face.

“It smells as if someone has started dinner for me,” she said.

“Not only started it, but it’s nearly ready. We’re going to have spaghetti and meatballs, a green salad with Italian dressing, and garlic bread, which I found in the freezer along with the ground beef. You still have time to change and freshen up before we sit down to eat, if you want.”

“I didn’t know you knew how to make meatballs.”

“I used one of your cookbooks and just followed the directions. You already had everything else I needed to do it.”

“It sounds wonderful and an absolute feast,” she gushed, and then she and dad went up to their room to change and freshen up before we sat down to eat.

“This is pretty good,” my dad said with his mouth half full.

“It wasn’t too difficult and the hardest part was making the meatballs. Once I did that, I arranged them on a pizza pan and placed them in the oven to bake before putting it all together.”

“Well, you did a marvelous job,” my mom stated. “Did you have time to do anything else?”

“Yes, I’ve been doing some research about the area Devin and I will be going to this summer. I felt it would be good to know as much as I can about it.” Hey, it wasn’t a lie, but we obviously weren’t thinking about the same areas when I said this.

“Yes, that’s probably a wise thing to do,” my dad agreed.

As soon as we finished eating, I cleared the table and washed the dishes before I watched a couple of TV shows with my parents and then we went to bed.

When I woke up the following morning, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then got back on my laptop. This time I read about the Navajos and Apaches coming into contact with the early Spanish explorers, and this is when the Navajo were introduced to goats, sheep, and horses. Up until this time the Navajo had been hunter-gatherers, but they quickly adapted and soon began raising herds of goats and sheep instead. They also took up riding horses, like many of the other tribes, and this not only made traveling much faster and easier, but it also allowed them to raid other tribes to secure food and to enslave their people. Unfortunately, this was probably something else they’d learned from the Spaniards.

In 1680, the Navajo and Apache united with the Pueblo tribe and engaged in the Pueblo Revolt to reclaim their independence from the Spanish, who had enslaved and brutalized them for decades. The revolt forced the Spaniards to retreat into Mexico, but a decade later the Spanish conquered the area again. The Pueblo and Navajo tribes remained together after this and their cultures intermixed. It was during this time that the Navajo also learned how to cultivate crops from the Pueblo, primarily blue corn, beans, and squash. This, together with raising goats and sheep, helped them develop a new way of living.

As soon as I finished going over this material, I went to see if there was something else I could fix for supper, but I didn’t come across anything that I felt I’d be able to prepare. I apologized to my mom about it when she came home.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find anything I thought I’d be able to prepare for tonight’s supper.”

“That’s ok, honey. I didn’t expect you to fix supper every night while you were home.”

“I know, but I still wanted to do it for you, if I could.”

After I cleared the table and did the dishes, I asked my dad if I could borrow the SUV so I could go to the store.

“What do you have to get?” he asked.

“You’ll find out tomorrow, because I’m going to prepare supper again so mom won’t have to.”

He merely grinned as he handed me the key. “You know you’re going to spoil her,” he said and then chuckled.

“Yeah, well she deserves it. She works hard,” I replied and then I ran my errand.

After I ate breakfast the next morning, I returned to my research on the Navajo. This time I discovered it didn’t take very long after the Navajo were forced to live on a reservation with specified boundaries that they came into conflict with other Native American tribes. This involved the Hopi, Zuni, and Utes, all of whom they had lived in peace with for centuries. However, now that they were forced to remain together on the same plot of land with these other tribes, or the boarder of the reservations they’d been assigned to abutted that of one of the other tribes, problems soon arose. The majority of these conflicts were created by the fact that they were forced to compete for the limited resources available there. Quarrels and fights soon broke out over the right to utilize these resources and these conflicts soon caused them to become bitter enemies.

This situation was aggravated by the fact that the Hopi, Zuni, and Utes had also worked as scouts for the U.S. Army and had helped to locate the Navajos that were trying to avoid them. The Navajo did this because they’d seen how the army had forced the Apaches to go to the reservation and many Apaches had died during the process. For that reason, the Navajos were attempting to evade the army so they wouldn’t be forced to live on a reservation, and the Hopi, Zuni, and Utes were being used to track them down.

During that process, the Hopi, Zuni, and Utes were guilty of many crimes against the Navajo, under the direction of the army. Those tribes destroyed many of the Navajo homes, much of their equipment, and large portions of their crops and livestock in order to draw them out of hiding. This destruction only served to deepen the Navajos’ hatred of them, and I suspect this occurred during the same period when Grandpa Isaac was helping to protect the shaman and other members of his tribe.

I had to make sure to finish my research well before my parents arrived home, and even though my mom knew I had gone out to buy what I needed to prepare supper tonight, she still acted surprised.

“Something smells good again,” she said as she walked through the door.”

“I hope so. Tonight I’ve prepared ham steaks with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries on each one, along with candied yams, Pillsbury dinner rolls, and Caesar salad.”

“It sounds wonderful,” she gushed.

“Then go get ready and I’ll have it on the table when you and dad get back.”

It wasn’t long before they returned and we were sitting at the dining room table filling our bellies. While we were eating, my mom began asking me questions.

“Did you have a good day?’

“Yes, it was quite enjoyable,”

“What did you do?”

“I’ve been doing more research on various things I might need to know for the upcoming trip.” I didn’t exactly lie – it just wasn’t for the trip she thought I was taking.

As we were finishing our meal, my dad made a comment. “This meal was excellent, but it would have been even better if you had arranged for a dessert as well.”

“I did. I bought Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream for dessert.”

“Great! That will definitely go very well with this meal.”

The next day I started doing more research to see what else I could learn about the Navajos, and this time I discovered something that really intrigued me. It had to do with the Navajo view of gender identity and I quickly realized the Navajo were more advanced in this area than most others. First of all, the Navajo believe there are more genders than just two. The first gender is the females, since the Navajo are a matriarchal or matrilineal society, and the second is the males, and the third is the nádleehí. These are people that are born male but function in the role of a girl starting in early childhood, and then they fill the role of a woman as an adult. This means they prefer the duties associated with women over those assigned to males, and that’s completely acceptable in Navajo society.

The Navajo also allow for Two-Spirit individuals that combine the qualities and activities of both men and women, which we might classify as an intersexual person. For this reason, the Navajo accept those filling four distinct gender roles, and they include a feminine woman, a masculine woman, a feminine man, and a masculine man. I believe there are many in the LGBTQ community that would be very happy if everyone was this accepting.

I realized I had to finish up early tonight so I could get ready to go to dinner with my parents, since they’d told me they were going to do this before they went to bed the previous evening. I certainly didn’t want to hold them up, but I felt I could take a moment to see if my grades had been posted yet. To my dismay, they hadn’t and I was really bummed out. Devin and I had left Fort Collins the week before and I’d hoped seven days would be long enough for the professors to turn in our grades so they could be posted, but obviously I was wrong.

I wanted to call Devin so I could talk to him about this and release some of my frustration, but I knew it was impossible now that he was at the cabin. Since I also realized that nothing more would happen over the weekend, my only consolation was that he’d be returning on Monday to pick me up. We’d be able to check if our grades had been posted then, and if not, we’d have to figure out another alternative. We’d be at the cabin until it was time to leave for New Mexico, and since they don’t have the internet there, I wasn’t sure if we’d have a chance to check again before we left.

By the time my parents arrived home, I was dressed and ready to go out to eat. Once we got to the restaurant and had placed our orders, I asked a question.

“What are we going to do this weekend?”

“Seeing this might be the only time we’ll get an opportunity to do it, we’ve decided to take you shopping for clothes for the next school year,” my mom answered. “We’re afraid that if we don’t do it now, we may not have time when you return from your trip, since you’re not sure when you’ll be returning home.”

“Ok, that’s fine with me and I can use some new clothes, but are we going to be doing that both days?”

“No, I think we can do everything tomorrow and then we’ll let you decide what you want to do on Sunday. I know you’d enjoy the activities more if Devin was here with you, but since he won’t be, we thought you’d prefer to choose what we do so you might actually enjoy it.”

“Ok, but I’ll have to think about it.”

“You’ll have tonight and all day tomorrow to decide,” my dad stated, “but I’d prefer if you told me what you have in mind before we go to bed tomorrow night.”

“Ok, I should be able to do that.”

Then my mom asked, “Did you get your grades yet?”

“No, not yet. I’m hoping to have them by the time Devin returns to pick me up, but I’m beginning to doubt it.”

“That’s too bad. I hope it doesn’t ruin your trip.”

“It won’t ruin it, because I doubt we’ll have time to think about it for very long. There will be too much else to do.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

“When we returned home, I got on my laptop and started looking for things we could do in the area on Sunday. It’s when I discovered something very interesting.

“I just went online and discovered the community group that is using the old movie theater is giving a matinee performance of Rent at 2:00 on Sunday. I’d really like to see it, if that’s ok with you.”

My parents looked at each other before they answered. “We have no idea what it’s about,” my dad responded, “but it’s fine with us, if that’s what you want to do.”

“It is. It’s a rock musical that is loosely based on the Puccini’s opera La Boheme. It’s set in New York City, not far from Greenwich Village, and it addresses the topics of poverty, homelessness, and AIDS, and some of the characters are gay and drag queens. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it and I’ve wanted to see it for quite a while and now here’s my chance.”

“That’s fine with us, dear, and your father will do what he can to get tickets so we can go to it.”

“Thanks, and it probably won’t be too hard to get tickets. I doubt many people will want to spend their time indoors on a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon. I checked the weather forecast and tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be beautiful.”

“Great, then we’ll do some grocery shopping after we do the other shopping,” my dad stated, “so we can have a barbeque before we go watch the show.”

“It sounds good to me, but I know Devin’s going to be bummed out that he didn’t get to go with us, seeing he won’t be returning until Monday. We’ve talked about wanting to see this for quite a while and hoped a CSU theater group or some other organization would put it on while we were there, but that hasn’t happened.”

“Maybe you’ll also get to see it another time then, when you can take Devin with you,” my mom offered.

“Yeah, I hope that’s what happens.”

I actually went to sleep that night looking forward to the weekend, even though Devin wouldn’t be here with me.

When I woke up the next morning, I had a huge breakfast with my parents, and then we headed out to do the shopping. My mom and dad took me to several stores to get all of the items I would need, from socks and underwear to pants and shirts, and I even got a new pair of athletic shoes. After we finished our shopping, we stopped at the grocery store and purchased the items for the barbecue. It’s too bad it will only include the three of us.

After we took everything into the house and put it away, my dad suggested we get take out for dinner and we agreed on Chinese. He ordered containers of sweet and sour chicken and orange chicken, along with containers of rice and lo mein and some egg rolls.

“Would you like to go to see a movie after we finish eating?” my mom asked.

“Only if that’s what you and dad want to do. I’ll be happy either way.”

“I am kind of tired as well and wouldn’t mind staying home. In fact, I just thought of something. One of the girls I work with was my secret Santa this year and she gave me a DVD of The Martian as a present. Your father and I haven’t seen it yet, so we could always watch that.”

“Yeah, that would be great.”

I’d actually seen the movie before, but we watched it and enjoyed every minute. I even picked up on some things I hadn’t noticed the first time I saw it, so I was happy. However, the entire time I was watching it I kept thinking of Devin and how he would be working on similar spacecraft one day that would be taking astronauts to Mars and beyond.

Shortly after the DVD ended, we decided to turn in, because it had been a long and very busy day.

When we woke up the following morning, we had a nice breakfast together, and then I helped my dad set up the grill for later. We’d only purchased ground beef to make hamburgers and a package of sausages, since there were just the three of us, and mom purchased some store salads and a frozen Stouffer’s family size package of macaroni and cheese to go with it. We also purchased a frozen Mrs. Smith’s apple pie that we could heat up for dessert and some vanilla ice cream to put on it, so my mom wouldn’t have to do any cooking, She’d merely have to heat up a couple of items in the oven.

When lunchtime rolled around, Dad put the meat on the grill and I helped Mom take everything else out to the picnic table. Once it was all ready, we sat down to eat.

“This was a great idea,” I told my dad.

“And if you don’t mind, we can do it again after we go to see the play,” he offered.

“It’s a musical, but yeah, we can do this again for supper, since there is plenty left over.”

“And I’ve gone the entire weekend without having to cook a meal,” my mom stated gleefully.

“But you fixed our breakfast both days and you had to heat up the macaroni and cheese and the apple pie in the oven.”

“Breakfast isn’t really a big deal and heating up those items was a cinch. It wasn’t like having to prepare an entire meal.”

“I suppose we all won then. We had great food with very little work.”

As soon as we were done, Dad turned off the grill and we took the leftovers inside and put them away for later. And then we changed so we could go watch Rent.

I was really impressed with the production and thought the local theater group, had done an admirable job. However, I’d still like to see a more professional performance sometime with Devin.

When it ended, we returned home and relaxed outside and enjoyed the weather for a short time before Dad fired up the grill again and we had the leftovers. It was actually just as good as when we had the same things earlier, and my mom, dad, and I all got what we wanted. My mom didn’t have to prepare any meals, my dad got to use the grill, and I got to fill my belly both before and after watching Rent. All was good.