Big Yellow Taxi

Okaga's wind

The bike ride back to her home went better than the ride away from it had gone.  Rowan wasn't as nervous as she had been before and she was able to relax and enjoy the wind whipping in her hair as they rode.  When they were at Daniel's trailer he had packed a small bag.  Rowan forced herself not to get too excited and certainly not to comment on it, but she had noticed that Daniel had packed several days worth of clothing.  She hoped that meant he planned to stay with her a while.  

Daniel's things were packed for their camping trip but Rowan needed to stop at her house and pack a bag for herself.  She also needed to collect her dogs before Tank drove her mother crazy running around and chewing things up.  To Daniel's horror they arrived just as both of Rowan's parents were sitting down for a picnic lunch on the lawn near one of the herb gardens.  Of course they invited the young couple to join them.  Daniel wasn't really an expert on proper etiquette but even he had enough sense to know that turning them down would have been unforgivably rude.  

He was hungry.  But not only had Daniel never eaten a meal with a girl's parents before, he had never even been introduced to a girl's parents before.  His general appearance and demeanor didn't exactly scream take me home to meet your mother.  He wasn’t sure if he could eat.  His stomach felt like a giant bat was flapping around inside of it.

Daniel was tense and nervous, but after a few minutes he was able to relax.  He had been expecting Rowan's parents to bombard him with questions that he would rather not answer like he was at some sort of hellish job interview.  But that didn't happen at all.  Daniel sat next to Rowan and ate his watermelon in silence while she and her father caught up on what they had missed in each other's lives over the last year.  Her father talked a bit about the new casino that was going up on his reservation and the mixed feelings he had about it.  Rowan talked to her father about her animals, about how the summer's harvest had gone, and about some new hydroponic tomato gardening business venture that she was helping Eron and Jeff with.  

Daniel found himself interested in what Rowan was saying and not just because he wanted to sleep with her again.  He was pleasantly surprised by her.  Daniel thought all girls cared about was stupid s**t like clothes and makeup.  He had never heard one talk about a bumper crop of strawberries before.  While he wasn't much of a gardener Daniel could at least understand and follow the conversation.  He liked how serious Rowan was about the subjects she spoke on.  And he really enjoyed the expression of sheer joy she got on her face when she talked about her animals.  

Rowan headed inside to help her mother clean up the lunch mess, leaving Daniel alone with her father.  Daniel tensed up a little, the same way he had when they originally sat down to eat.  He had just got done f*****g this man's daughter.  Who he had only just met the day before.  He figured being in that situation would make anyone nervous.  But Rowan's father didn't seem to have any interest in discussing Daniel's intentions for his daughter.  Quite the contrary the man had seen Daniel's bow and wanted to talk about hunting.  

Hunting was the one subject that Daniel could talk about all day long to anyone that would listen.  And having someone who was educated on the subject to talk to made it all the more enjoyable.  They talked a little about tracking and the behavior patterns of different animals.  Rowan's father made sure to comment on how much he thought Daniel might enjoy a trip out to his reservation, a subtle invitation to visit that was not lost on Daniel.  Some people made shallow invitations just to be polite but Daniel got the feeling that this man was not one of them.  Daniel could tell the man liked him and it made him feel good inside in the same way that being with Rowan made him feel good.  He had never met a group of people that made him feel so accepted before.  Like he could just be himself and that was enough for them.  

When Rowan reappeared with her dogs and a bag over her shoulder, Daniel and her father were talking about bow hunting.  She tried not to laugh.  Her father could talk about hunting all day long.  The only other subject he was that enthusiastic about was philosophy.  What really made her giggle was how engrossed with the conversation Daniel seemed to be.  She had no idea that hunting with a longbow and hunting with a crossbow were so different.  Rowan was afraid she was going to have to drag the two men apart to get them to stop talking.  

To say that Rowan's father never approved of any of her boyfriends was the understatement of the year.  He had pretty much hated every single man she had ever introduced him to on sight.  To his credit he had never been cruel or demeaning to any of them.  He would just patiently wait until they were gone and he was alone with Rowan.  Then he would say the same thing he always said.  He's not the one for you.  And Rowan responded in the same way she always did which was to promptly ignore her father's sound advice.  This time was different.  She could see it in her father's eyes.  

It was about a five mile walk up to the cabin. And that was from the far edge of one of the larger corn fields.  So it was really more like ten miles.  Daniel had been concerned for Rowan, unsure if the girl was used to walking that far in a stretch.  But she made the walk without complaint despite the rather impractical looking beaded  leather sandals she was wearing.  They had stopped half way through the corn field and picked a few ripe ears of sweet corn to eat later.  Rowan also picked Daniel an ear of the most vibrantly colored indian corn he had ever seen.  She called it glass gem corn.  

The dogs were having a grand time racing around in the woods.  Rowan was a little worried about her puppy at first.  If Lily ran off and got lost there was a good chance Rowan might never find her again.  But soon it became clear that Tank had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the younger dog, herding her back towards his mistress with a few well placed nips to her hindquarters if she started straying too far away.  

Daniel loved the woods the whole year through.  But autumn was his favorite season by far.  The leaves were just starting to change color, painting the forest in different shades of red and gold.  He had gone hunting with his brother lots of times.  But being in the woods with Rowan had a totally different feel to it.  Marv was always in a hurry.  Rowan's presence at his side was calming.  When Daniel stopped her to point out a tree that looked prettier than the rest she didn't mock him in the way that Marv would have.  And she didn't pretend to be interested the way another girl might have.  She simply enjoyed the scenery with him.  As they stared up at the brilliantly scarlet leaves she grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers with his.  A peacefulness washed over him.  Daniel had never felt anything quite like it before in his life.  I'm right where I need to be.  He wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere or do anything.  For maybe the first time in his life he was able to just relax and be present in the moment.  

"Look," Rowan whispered, her voice barely audible.  She pointed with the hand Daniel wasn't holding, the rest of her body as still as the trees around her.  A whole flock of wild turkeys was heading their way, the larger ones leading the way for the smaller birds in the flock.  Daniel's first impulse was to try and kill one of the birds.  He cast a hesitant glance at the woman next to him, unsure of what her reaction would be to such an action.  "You should try and get one," Rowan whispered, speaking as if she read the question from his mind.

Daniel moved as slowly and silently as he could, swinging his bow down off his back and pulling the string back.  Before he could reach behind him into his bag and grab a bolt Rowan had already done it for him.  She held the bolt shaft carefully between her thumb and forefinger bringing the small metal tip up towards her mouth.  Daniel expected her to kiss it but just before it reached the soft pads of her lips she closed her eyes and blew on it instead.  Her long lashes blinked open and her pursed lips curved up into a smile.  Daniel couldn't help but smile back as he took the bolt from her hands and loaded it into his bow.  

The clunk of the bolt being loosed startled the birds.  But by the time the small flock scattered it was already too late for two of them.  The bolt had passed through the eye of the first bird and hit the second one straight through the gobble and into the middle of its skinny neck.  It was a one in a million shot.  One that Daniel was sure he couldn't make again if his life depended on it.  

The small flock of birds gathered back together a few yards away only to be pounced on by Rowan's large brown puppy.  Lily snapped and barked at the silly fat birds as they flapped up into the trees to get away from her.  She sat down at the base of the tree where most of them had flown into to hide and let out a mournful howl.  Rowan laughed.  Lily wanted the birds to come back and play with her some more.  

"Com'ere Lily," Daniel called, "got an extra bird just for you."  Lily raced over, eager for whatever the man had to offer.  Daniel made her sit and wait while he started field dressing the larger of the two birds.  He pulled his hunting knife from its sheath and flipped the bird over onto its back, wringing its neck a little first to make sure it was all the way dead and not still dying.  

To Daniel's great shock and surprise Rowan dropped to her knees beside him and grabbed the smaller turkey by the feet, dragging it over in front of her.  She rummaged through her bag before pulling out a very ornate looking knife.  The sheath was fringed leather and covered in blue and white beads.  It looked more like something that would be displayed in a glass case rather than put to everyday use.  But when she pulled the knife out the blade looked sharp and serviceable enough.  She got about halfway done dressing the bird when she looked up to find that Daniel was staring at her with his mouth hanging wide open.  

"What?," she asked, a giggle escaping from between her lips.  

"Where'd ya learn ta do that?," Daniel asked her.  

"I do live on a farm," she teased, reminding Daniel of what he already knew about her before adding some new information.  "And even if I didn't, my dad taught me a long time ago."  

Daniel snapped his open mouth shut and smiled at her.  He had seen Rowan pick up a live chicken without any fear so he should have guessed she would know what to do with a dead bird.  But seeing such a pretty girl reach inside a turkey and pull the guts out of it without hesitation struck him as unusual and almost magical.  Where did she come from?  He liked it.  And he had the strong urge to pull her close to him and kiss her.  So he did it.  Rowan held him awkwardly, not wanting to smear his clothing with raw turkey guts.  But her lips parted invitingly.  

A high pitched noise squeaked out of her and Rowan yanked away from Daniel just in time to stop Lily from making off with the turkey she had been dressing.  Rowan scolded the dog but there was no real anger behind her tone.  Lily yipped and dashed off to go find Tank, leaving Rowan to shake her head at what a silly dog she was.  

"You hunt with your dad a lot?," Daniel asked.  No longer sitting in awe at the work Rowan was doing he looked down and got to work on the bird he was taking care of.  

"Not that much anymore," Rowan answered, adding a shrug of her shoulders.  "They do a big ceremonial hunt on his reservation every year.  So I still go to that...  We don't go hunting together very much anymore.  I'm not really sure why."  

During the last two summers that Rowan had visited her father he had been much more interested in introducing her to men from his reservation that he hoped she might take a liking to.  And there was always someone there to visit with.  Or cook with.  Or do crafts with.  Her father never really came out and said it but she guessed that maybe in his community it wasn't considered proper anymore for a woman of her age to be running around out in the woods trying to kill things with tiny pointy sticks.  Most of the Sioux women her age already had a few children running around to care for.  Rowan had never been a very good hunter but she missed the bonding time that the sport had given her with her father.  

"I'll take you huntin' anytime you want," Daniel offered.  He immediately regretted his words.  The bold statement popped right out of his mouth before he had a chance to think and decide it was a stupid thing to say.  It wasn't like him to offer to take a girl anywhere, let alone hunting.  But Rowan's face lit up with such a beautiful smile that he ended up being happy about what he said.  

"I'm better at the butchering than I am at hitting what I aim for," she warned with a musical laugh.  Daniel laughed with her.  

"What were you doin' before," he asked, "when ya blew on the end of my bolt."  

"Showing you what I plan to do to your other bolt later," Rowan told him with a wiggle of her dark eyebrows.  

It took Daniel a few seconds to figure out what she was implying, during which his entire face turned red.  Rowan had never seen a man his age blush over s*x before.  Particularly one she had already slept with.  It was just about the sexiest thing she had ever seen.  Rowan leaned forward and kissed him.  The tip of her tongue flicked out to trace the line of his lips before she backed off a fraction of an inch and blew on them the same way she had blown on the tip of his crossbow bolt.  

"Want to know the real reason?," Rowan asked, sitting back on her folded legs.  Daniel nodded.  He liked the pretend reason she had made up but he was still curious as to what her real reason was.  People all had their own rituals to ensure a successful hunt but blowing on the tip of an arrow was one he had never seen before.  "I was giving it Okaga's wind," Rowan explained.  The name was unfamiliar to Daniel and spoken with a thicker accent.  "She's the goddess of the south winds," Rowan added after she noticed his obvious confusion, "I gave the bolt the goddess's breath to make sure it would fly true."  

"Damn and I thought I was just that good of a shot," Daniel joked.  He picked the bolt up from where he had tossed it and turned it around in his hands, examining it.  "Ya think ya could blow on all uh'my bolts like that?," he asked.  He was only half joking.  Daniel didn't believe in magic or goddesses or whoever Rowan had been talking about but he did believe in good luck.  And Rowan seemed to have enough of that to give away.  

"I'll do better than that," she said, plucking a stay turkey feather up from between her knees, "I'll blow on your bow."  With that she placed the feather in her flattened palm and blew, sending it up into the air.  It swirled around in the small space between them, caught in a whirling draft that neither of Rowan nor Daniel could feel.  As the feather floated closer to him, Daniel raised his hand and held it open.  The feather fluttered down, settling onto his open palm like that's where it had been heading all along.