Fatal Intent - Jamie Jeffries Page 0,39
sparklers?” Paul asked. He disappeared into the house and came out minutes later with a box of fireworks that Dylan thought might rival those going off in the town square. For a while, he forgot to watch Wanda and Alex as he helped the boys with their sparklers.
~~~
Alex had been filling Wanda in on Dawn Redbird’s condition and in general trying to pick her brain about why the Patriots would be involved in harassing the Native American activist group she led. Wanda professed not to know either, but Alex sensed she was holding back, and continued to press her with questions from different angles.
“What about the Tohono O’odham ancestral lands being cut in half by the border?” she asked, knowing it was a hot button for Wanda. The facts of the issue were also the reason so many of the local tribe had Latino last names. It was difficult to tell which ethnic heritage an individual might claim, with the prevalence of almost-black hair, dark eyes and dark skin tones among Latinos and Natives both. Wanda’s contention was that along these borderlands, there was little difference.
“You know, a lot of the Akimel O’odham have Latino names as well,” Alex observed. “Why is that?”
“Child, trade across what is now the border was going on long before there was a United States of America. The Spanish conquered the entire region and imposed their names, and then the people mixed with other tribes. We’re all related anyway. The Pima are just a different group of the O’odham. Think of it like Europe. A few lines on a map don’t keep people from one side of the line from knowing, loving and marrying people from another side. Our names simply identified how we chose to interact with the earth in the places where we lived.”
Wanda’s lessons had become more impassioned since the death of her husband at the hands of members of a minor cartel the previous fall. Without Hector to balance her, she seemed determined to spend her remaining years forcing people to see history the way she did. More and more, she railed against those ‘lines on a map’ that prevented her and many others of her people from seeing relatives on the wrong side of the line.
Alex worried about Wanda when she began to wheeze. “Wanda, where’s your inhaler? I’ve let you get too riled up.”
“In my purse, dear. Would you get it? I’ll try to calm down.” Wanda sat back, looking a bit gray, as Alex went into the house to fetch the purse.
A glance over her shoulder as Alex went inside revealed the men still playing fireworks with the little boys and paying no attention to her and Wanda. When she returned, Wanda rummaged in the purse for her inhaler and breathed deeply for a while.
“Tell me about school,” she said.
Alex gave her a worried look. “Not much to tell. I got a couple more required classes out of the way during the first summer term, but then I decided to come home and save the rest of my prize money for next semester. Dylan’s trying to transfer to an office in Scottsdale or Mesa, and if that happens, I’ll be able to live with him and go to school. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
“You’re not planning to marry?” Wanda asked, a frown creasing her forehead.
“Well, he hasn’t asked me again lately. But just between you and me, next time he does I’m going to say yes. We’ll probably wait until I’m done with school to actually tie the knot, though.”
“Don’t waste time, kiddo,” Wanda said.
Why does everyone decide to call me whatever cockamamie nickname Dad comes up with?
“Wanda, I’m only twenty. There’s plenty of time.”
“So you think now,” Wanda answered, wistfulness coloring her tone.
To change the subject, Alex brought up the mystery she’d discovered a couple of weeks before. “Wanda, did you ever know a Sarah Davis?”
“No, I don’t think so. Who is she?” Wanda asked.
“Funny coincidence, I guess you could say. When I moved in with Lisa and Nat, Lisa mentioned their previous housemate had disappeared while they were out of town. They figured she'd changed her mind about school, packed her stuff and went back home.
I got curious and tracked down her parents, and found out she knew Dawn, so I asked Dawn about her. She was part of the group, but she was Caucasian. Her parents told me she used to post about the group on Facebook. No one has seen her, even her parents,