Chapter 1
"Tahlia Call! Stop dancing around in that mirror and get ready. The bonfire is going to start soon" my mother yelled. I turned down the sounds of Louis Armstrong's voice on the radio and looked at myself once more, my dress was still a little big but my mother had btought it in as best she could, Joy Ateara had a much bigger chest than I did but it was still nice of her to give me her old dresses. "I'll be out soon mama, I'm just putting on my shoes" I told her. While the dress was a little frumpy my shoes were not, Joshua Uley had been making leather sandals for a long time and they were always better than any shoes mama or papa would find in Port Angeles. They were also a lot cheaper. I was so excited when he gave them to me for my birthday.
My mama was frantically running up and down the house trying to get it neat and tidy, Chief Black and Mrs Sarah would be here any minute to drive us down to the beach in that big red truck of theirs, usually we would walk but papa was still in pain from his fishing accident last week. "Grab the desserts and the bread rolls, we'll take them with us" mama said quickly, just as the loud rumbling of the truck appeared in our driveway. Mama and Chief Black helped my father into the front of the truck before she hopped into the back of it with me. Chief Black was one of the few people who had cars on the Res; Mr Ateara, Harry Clearwater and some other members had some too. Joshua talked about how he would need one now that he had gotten a mystery girl pregnant.
The beach was filled with members of the tribe, not all of them happy to see us, we had only been invited because my father had the most successful fishing business here. We had left the Makah Reservation for a better life and we had found it here, papa could even afford a car now-but he always said that it would be a waste to sepend money on things we didn't need. That also meant that we still wore hand-me-downs and that the food wasn't any better than before, he was always saving up for something but I didn't know what that was exactly. I didn't think that mama knew either.
"Come with Magda, let your Tahlia join the other girls for a little bit. We'll set up the food here" Mrs Sarah said to my mother and she led her to a set of tables that someone had brought, I hated that dhd had insisted on sending me away, the girls here didn't like me. My father wasn't the only fisherman in La Push but he was the only successful one, and he refused to hire any of the other men who were struggling. They held it against me.
"Tah-lia" I heard someone stretch out my name, it was Harry Clearwater's longtime girlfriend Susan. "Hello Sue" I smiled shyly. She put her hands on her hips, "It's Susan, only my friends call me Sue" she reminded me. And if there was anything I knew it was that we were not friends. "Right. Sorry" I said. "I was just wondering what you were doing here this is a tribe event, after all" she stated. I repressed a sigh, so it was going to be one of those days. "The council invited us here" I informed her, and I sounded braver than I felt.
"What's going on here?" Joy Ateara asked with a smile. She was kinder than Sue, Susan, was but usually when we were alone or around our parents, in front of everyone else all bets were off. It made me nervous that the two of them were here together, especially because they were friends. "Traitor, I mean Tahlia was just telling me about how her father bought them into a tribal event" Sue told her, and then she gave a small smile before she walked towards Harry and Young Quil.
"Sue really is nice if you give her the chance to be" Joy smiled, and then she followed Sue across the beach to where her new husband was waiting for her. Instead of extending my torture by following them I sat down on a log next to Old Quil, that old man had always been kind. He was still hoping that Joy would give him grandchildren but the story had gone around that she was struggling and he looked for anyone willing to let him play grandfather.
"Having fun Tahlia?" his eyes were shining with mischief like they always were, he was like the grandfather I had always hoped I had had. My grandparents were long gone when I was old enough to know what grandparents were, whether they had passed on or just lost contact with us I never knew. My parents never spoke about it and I had never asked. "I'm excited to hear the legends" I said instead, it was better than the disappointing truth and I was truly excited. "You didn't answer my question" he pointed out.
"I...don't fit in" I shrugged. He knew this, everyone in the tribe knew this. The Ateara general store was the only place in La Push that we bought at, every other place was always conveniently out of whatever we wanted. Even the diner that the Clearwater's owned would run out of breakfast. "People are just worried because you're new, and nothing ever changes down here. It will all settle down soon" he whispered. I didn't even want to remind him that we had been here for almost two years.
"Tahlia, Old Quil it's lovely to see you again I hope that you're keeping well, Tahlia go sit with the other kids. The Chief is about to tell the legends" my mother suddenly said. I hadn't seen her come up to me, if I had I would have hidden, she didn't seem to understand that people didn't want us here. Or maybe she did and she didn't care. "Yes mama" I nodded and I took a deep breath before walking towards an undeserved punishment.
The legends were amazing, it was incredible how creative and magical those stories were. It was clear by the looks on everyone else's faces that they had heard these many, many times before but I couldn't see how it could ever get boring. The Chief came alive when he spoke and Old Quil would add in commentary about pieces of information he had forgotten, the two of them turned it into a performance I couldn't turn away from. It was perfection.
"Go ahead and see if the Chief is done so that we can get going" my mother instructed. The Chief was still busy talking to the other members of the council but Mrs Sarah was standing by herself near the treeline and looked much more approachable. "Mrs Sarah...am I interrupting?" I asked quietly. She looked startled...and dazed and even a little off balance. "Tahlia, Tahlia, Tahlia. Shouldn't you be with the other little girls?" she slurred. She didn't smell drunk but she seemed it.
"My mama sent me, she wanted to know when you and the Chief would be ready to go" I said slowly. She laughed quietly and pressed her hand to her chest, "Of course she does. Tell her that my husband is still busy, Quil will take her home" she said slyly. I gave a quick nod and walked back to my mother, not really understanding what Mrs Sarah had been trying to tell me.