Little Hawk, half peer and half parent; and when it came to his grandchildren, he took charge right away, acquiring their school records and accompanying them to doctors' appointments and, most importantly, making sure none of them tried to run away and live with the coyotes. I wish I could say that Annie consequently found time to relax, but with her mother's death so freshly imprinted on her memory, she was more prone to bouts of pensive silence than ever before. Very shortly after Grandpa Little Hawk's arrival was the date of the annual ghost dance. The date was a Sunday, which meant no work, no group dinner--and oddly, no church. Reverend Silver Wolf stopped by with his Bible to bless the house, but I didn't understand what for, and Granny didn't feel the need to explain. I was so nervous, I couldn't eat for fear of throwing up. Granny, annoyed, force-fed me several cups of sagebrush tea in compensation. I spent most of the evening in the outhouse. Granny sat by the window and watched the sky until it filled with stars. She stood up, beckoning for me to follow. We left the house at the same time as countless families around us were leaving theirs. I didn't know where we were going; the nightly bonfire wasn't lit. I wrapped my arm around Granny's and she leaned against me. We followed the families north, to the badlands. Crossing the rough terrain without fear was somehow more feasible when everyone else was doing it. Whoever was at the front of the group must have known a more trustworthy route than the ones Rafael and I had taken on our afternoon trips to the promontory, because Granny and I seldom experienced any of the sliding rocks and crumbling clay I had grown accustomed to. Before long, the promontory was behind us. We were in a part of the badlands that I had never been to before. The ground between the canyons was smooth, a small grove of southern oaks standing in the distance. A bonfire raged high in a stone firepit. A member of the tribal council tossed pitch into the flames and they burned taller, brighter. Granny tromped away and left me standing alone on the edge of the congregation. I toyed nervously with the flute hanging from my throat. I watched the Plains men and Plains women gather around the fire. A little boy about Lila's age trundled over to me, an ornamental flute in his hands. "Hello, Mr.
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