JC: William Redman Carter Noble Savage Chapter 42 By Lazlo Zalezac Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005 The gymnasium of the activity center was empty except for a long table at which the tribal elders of all the local tribes were seated. All eyes were watching the door at the far end of the room for their visitor. The tension in the room was high. Most of them expected their visitor to argue with them about their conservative stance and they were not looking forward to it. They were sure that they would lose this argument with this particular visitor. Looking around the room, Robert White Feather felt that he needed to defend his invitation. He said, “He’s a member of this tribe. We have to hear him out.” “There have been too many changes of late. We have to protect the tribe,” Johnny Whitetail, the oldest man on the tribal council, replied. He snorted and said, “Just lock him out.” Shaking his head, Awa Tsireh said, “We said that he would be welcome at any gathering of tribal elders. Just because he is coming to tell us things that we’d rather not hear is no reason to send him away.” “We tremble like old women just hearing that he is coming to talk with us,” Robert White Feather said angrily. Tensions had been high in the tribe for a long time and it was beginning to affect the council. “You know he’s going to tell us to do what all the young men and women are saying. They want us to stop holding them back.” “He’s young. His word carries a little more weight than that of most, but he can’t force us to do what we think is wrong,” Johnny Whitetail said crossing his arms. Sam Martin, the newest member of the council, said, “He’s Talks with Animals. He lifted the curse that has held us back. He was the first voice of the White Buffalo. If he adds his voice to the others, we have to back down.” The door opened at the far end of the room and a brave entered. He said, “Kotyit and Talks with Animals have come to address the council of elders.” The news that William was coming with Kotyit was doubly bad. Robert White Feather looked down the table at the unhappy expressions on the faces of the men and women gathered there. With Kotyit backing William, they would not be able to argue that it was youth speaking. He sighed and said, “Let them enter.” William entered the gym behind Kotyit, giving the older man the honor of leading the way to the council members. He carried a carton of cigarettes in one hand and moved with an easy step. There was a twinkle in his eye as he looked over the tense men and women at the table. It was obvious that they had been arguing. When Kotyit stopped, William continued to the table and placed the carton of cigarettes in front of Robert White Feather. Kotyit said, “We have come to address the council of elders. I see that elders from nearby tribes have come here as well.” Watching William walk back to stand beside Kotyit, Robert White Feather said, “All tribes are interested in what you have to say to us.” William smiled at the diplomatic answer. William had suggested that Kotyit talk last so that he could temper the message of the young. Kotyit smiled and said, “I will allow the younger of us to speak first.” “What have you come to tell us?” “I have come to discuss the increased tension between the younger members of the tribe and the elders,” William answered. The men and women at the table shifted uncomfortably. William continued, “Our tribe is not the only one that suffers from such tensions.” “That is true.” “We all know that this is not good.” Receiving glares from the other council members, Robert White Feather nodded his head and said, “You are correct in saying that it is not good for our tribe.” “As the council of elders for the tribe, it falls upon you to resolve the tension,” William said. “You want us to give into their demands,” charged Johnny Whitetail. “Not at all. New found freedoms are easily lost through the foolish actions of well meaning people. If anyone must be strong, it is the council,” William answered with a gesture to include all of the men and women at the table. The stunned silence in the room spoke volumes. Johnny Whitetail stared at William as if he had just declared that the moon was made of cheese. Kotyit, who hadn’t been fully aware of what William was going to say, turned and looked at his companion in surprise. The first to recover was Awa Tsireh. He asked, “What are you recommending?” “I’m recommending that rather than trying to stop the younger members of the tribe from being foolish that you direct them in a more beneficial direction. We can not have individuals of the tribe over extend their resources. They will lose all that they hope to gain if that is allowed,” William said. Robert White Feather sat back in his chair and studied William carefully. He had known the young man his whole life and William was still able to surprise him. He said, “You support our goals, but not how we are attempting to achieve them. Am I correct?” “Yes,” William answered. “We did not expect to hear that from you,” Johnny Whitetail said. It was a trait of the young that if they didn’t like how they were being treated to argue against the goals that motivated the treatment. He decided that William was not as young as he looked. “Neither did I,” Kotyit admitted. Despite the fact that William had assured him that all would work out alright, he had been worried. For one, he wasn’t comfortable with how quickly things were changing and was afraid that he’d have to disagree with William on this matter. Leaning forward, Robert White Feather asked, “What are you suggesting that we do?” “Stop trying to keep the younger members of the tribe from being foolish and direct them in a more beneficial direction,” William answered knowing that his answer was going to irritate them. “Just how should we do that?” “I don’t know. You are the tribal elders. You know the people far better than I. It is not my place to lead them. It is up to you,” William answered throwing his arms out to his sides in a gesture of helplessness. He looked from one person to the next and then added, “There is almost two thousand years of experience in dealing with people gathered in this room. If a means to reduce the tensions in the tribe is to be found, then it is to be found here.” “You have not told us anything that we did not know.” “But I did,” William said. “What?” “I told you that I support your goals. I’m sure that there were doubts about that before I came here,” William answered. From the expressions on their faces, he knew that he had stated the truth. It was an important thing to know and the entire council knew it. They knew that soon the younger members of the tribe would have turned to William to have him speak for them. Nodding to the council, William started to turn away. He paused and said, “I will leave you to your discussions.” The council watched William leave the room. Kotyit chuckled at the thought that arguing with William was a lot like trying to put an arm lock on a snake. Once William had left the room, he turned to the council with a smile on his face. In a matter of fact voice, he said, “He was a difficult student.” Outside, William sat down on the bench on one of the picnic tables that were scattered around in front of the activity center. Danny White Feather, his cousin, was seated across the table from him. He was guarding the door of the activity center, but that didn’t require him to stand in front of it. With a grin, Danny said, “You stirred up a hornet’s nest. You can hear them arguing from here. Maybe they will ease up a little. They’ve been treating a lot of the tribal members like children.” Rather than reply, William dug into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He took one and handed the pack to Danny. After lighting a cigarette, William asked, “Do you remember that time you fought your father and tried to hit him?” “Yeah. He knocked me flat on my ass,” Danny answered while taking a cigarette out of the pack. He handed the pack to William and shook his head at the memory. “How was he able to do that?” William asked looking at his cousin out of the corner of his eye. “He was bigger and stronger than I was,” Danny answered. He bent down and lit the cigarette using a wooden match. The flame of his match lit the features of his face. The light from the match reflected off his tribal police badge. After blowing out the match, he put the box of matches in the pocket of his uniform. “He was also more experienced.” “True.” William asked, “Why did you fight him?” “To make him respect me and start treating me like an equal, I guess,” Danny answered wondering what William’s point was. “Did it work?” “No.” “It seems to me that you’ve gained your father’s respect. Now that you’re working with him, he’s given you tribal responsibilities,” William said. “I’ve worked my ass off to do it,” Danny answered with a little pride. He had been very proud the day he had been sworn into office. “There’s a lesson to be learned there,” William said. He took a drag off his cigarette and exhaled into the night sky. He searched the night sky for the big dipper, finding it without much difficulty. Although it was usually more comfortable watching the summer sky, William preferred the winter sky. There seemed to be more stars in winter. Danny smoked his cigarette while thinking about what William had said. He glanced at his cousin and saw him watching the stars. Although William was younger than him, he had always felt as though William was the older of the two. He knew that William was saying that you don’t earn respect by fighting against those you want to respect you, but that you have to earn their respect by working with them. Shaking his head, he said, “I’ll tell the others.” “I was sure that you would,” William replied. He took a drag off his cigarette and pointed to the corner of the building. When he had visited the reservation for a year, he had spent a lot of time playing in that corner. He asked, “Do the kids still play with the radio controlled cars?” “All of the time,” Danny answered with a smile, realizing that he was no longer talking with Talks with Animals, but was now talking to his cousin, William. He added, “Hunt the Bug-eyed Monsters is still the most popular pastime here.” “I’m glad to hear that,” William said. Looking around the activity center, he said, “I really enjoyed my time here.” “Hey, it was fun having you around. I was afraid that you’d be some stuck up rich kid, but you weren’t,” Danny said. It had taken most of the kids their age a couple of weeks to figure out how to deal with William. He wasn’t what any of them had expected. He didn’t act like a rich brat, he didn’t act humble or apologetic, and he didn’t pretend to be anything except who he was. He also had his BS in physics from the Druid College by then. “Now that you’re a tribal cop, are you going to marry Donna?” “I’m thinking about it, but it isn’t the right time to ask her. She’s still training to be a paralegal.” Winking at him, William said, “Don’t wait too long. Some young buck will start chasing her as soon as she has a job.” Danny laughed and said, “I’ll just have to throw them in jail for trespassing if they do that.” “You have to stake a claim first and you know what that means.” Danny shook his head and said, “You mean I have to propose to her.” “She’s a nice lady. You could do a lot worse and I doubt you could do better than marrying her.” “I tend to agree with you,” Danny answered. He took a drag off his cigarette and looked up at the night sky. The stars were bright. He decided that William was probably right. It was about time that he proposed to Donna. “I’m going to be a neighbor as soon as they finish building the house,” William said after putting out his cigarette. “I was over by your place the other day checking it out. At first I thought you were building it a little close to the edge of that canyon. Then I realized you were building it down the canyon. It is an amazing building,” Danny said. “Beth designed it,” William said. “That’s a smart sister you have,” Danny said, “She volunteered to design a new activity center for us. I think the tribe is afraid to accept her offer.” “Why?” “It’ll make the rest of the reservation look like hell,” Danny answered with a smile. William laughed at the joke and said, “You could ask her to design an ugly building so that the rest of the place looks good in comparison.” The door of the activity center opened and Kotyit emerged. Taking it as a sign that the meeting was ending, Danny said, “I better get back to the door.” William watched his cousin walk over to the door of the activity building. Kotyit looked around and spotted him at the picnic table. He wandered over and sat down. Looking over at the younger man, he said, “You surprised me.” “You know that I’d never undermine the elders,” William said. “Still, I expected you to tell them to lighten up a little,” Kotyit said. He shook his head and said, “I had a whole speech prepared trying to undo the damage and didn’t have a chance to use it.” “Aw, I’m sure you’re disappointed,” William said with a grin. He held out his pack of cigarettes for Kotyit. The elderly man took a cigarette and returned the pack to William. Lighting it, he took a puff and then said, “I told them that you were a difficult student.” “I’m sure that they all nodded their heads in agreement.” Kotyit laughed. He looked up at the sky and sighed. There were times when he felt old and today had been one of those times. He remembered when he had been young and full of energy. Now, it seemed that he had to take care in how he moved or he’d break a bone. Watching his friend, William asked, “What’s the matter?” “You’re so young and yet so wise. It makes me feel old,” Kotyit said. “I’m not so wise,” William said shrugging his shoulders. “Your comments in there shook up the council of elders. They’d forgotten what they were trying to achieve. You reminded them of what was important. That’s not such an easy thing to do,” Kotyit said. There were times when he was guilty of the same thing. It was easy to get lost while focusing on one goal to the exclusion of all else. Usually, he’d achieve his goal only to discover that everything else had gone wrong. “We’ll see how the other tribes respond,” William said. He looked over at the activity center and realized that he would have to return in a couple of weeks to see what the council had decided to do. He’d at least be able to take their solution to the other tribes when it was time to visit them. “Word will get out about what was decided here,” Kotyit said. Realizing that the other councils of elders would probably want William to announce his support for them in public, he laughed and said, “I expect you’ll be speaking to much larger crowds. The other tribes are liable to give you a chance to speak in their public forum.” “I guess I’ll just have to prepare a different speech for next time,” William said with a grin. “Why do I have a bad feeling about that?” “Because you know me too well,” William answered. He didn’t like to be manipulated into giving the powerful more power than it already had. Above all else, he had to protect the weak from the strong. “I heard that when you are finished solving our problems, you’re heading off to the Middle East to solve theirs,” Kotyit said making reference to the recent news stories he had heard about William. Chuckling, William said, “I’ll just go over there and tell all the animals to go on strike until there is peace there.” “That would work,” Kotyit said. He could imagine the camels refusing to act like camels. He looked over at the Hugger and watched Colt for a moment. Pointing to the bodyguard, he asked, “Is he necessary?” “So far no one has tried to kill me, but the press has been horrible.” Curious, Kotyit asked, “So who is the one?” William, using hand gestures of the trade language, answered that Kotyit knew who the one was. He waved an arm and, aloud, said, “The desert may look deserted, but appearances can be deceiving.” Kotyit stared at William and then realized that he did know who it was going to be. He had been hired by the Druid College to teach one of their students about the Great Spirit. Eyes widening, he asked, “You don’t mean…” “I do,” William answered with a nod of his head. Kotyit thought about the responsibility the Druids had given him if what he believed was true. He was to help train the man who would bring peace to the Middle East. His thoughts were interrupted when William called out in his Native American language, “Go away. It is not safe for you here. If you stay here, you will be turned into a belt and sold to a tourist.” He looked in the direction that William was looking and saw the sidewinder move away. The undulating movement as it slithered towards the desert was almost hypnotic. Chuckling, he said, “I doubt the snake knows what a belt is. They tend to have narrow hips.” “I’m sure you’re right. It was the part about getting sold to a tourist that scared him away,” William answered with a laugh. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. There was enough time to have one more before heading back to the house. After William had lit up, Kotyit asked, “Where’s Dale?” “He’s telling the younger members of the tribe to have patience with the elders,” William answered. Sighing, Kotyit knew that Dale was another young man who was old before his time. He said, “Too many of your friends are old. You should have more friends your own age; friends like Dale.” “Why?” “You will lose too many of your friends as time passes,” Kotyit answered. He knew that the majority of people who were important to William were old. He included himself in that number, but he wasn’t the oldest of them. The problem with young men having old friends was that old friends died long before the young grew old. It could lead to a long lonely life. “I have Doug and Dale,” William said looking over at his friend. “Who ever heard of a war party with just three warriors?” Sighing, William knew that Kotyit was right. He took a drag off his cigarette and exhaled to the sky. He said, “I will try to do better.”