The word 'speeding' didn't cover exactly what she was doing. Every stop sign was only reason for her to speed up, thankfully at 5:30 in the morning the streets were mostly empty. Top speed on these cars, according to the manufacturer, was 110 miles per hour. After her father had finished tinkering with it, it got to a hundred before it started shaking violently. Sophie watched as the speedometer tracked her going 105.
"Come on you piece of crap, POWER!" She yelled pressing her foot even harder into the floor.
"Sophie, slow down." Jasper commanded in a soft yet authoritative voice.
She hit the break lightly to compensate for a slight turn in the road before she got on the highway and Jasper must have thought she was slowing down because he leaned forward and looked like he was going to start speaking. Sophie raised her hand at the same time pressing on the throttle reaching max speed. The car was going to fall apart; she could hear something rattling but couldn't be bothered to slow down to figure out what it was. If she was late and showed up with a stranger wearing daisy dukes not only would her aunt bail but also she wouldn't get the money she needed. No there would be no slowing down.
"Jasper, trust me I know this car." She used her raised hand to pat the red leather dashboard. "She can do it. I don't think you understand the pressure I'm under here. If I'm late that will be it for my aunt. She will leave and I'll be stuck taking care of my Dad without help because the reservation isn't going to kick in jack shit if I don't get there. I know I'm braking some safety laws but really who am I going to hurt?" She looked around at the empty highway.
"Sophie there is a cop about three miles up the road. I'm trying to save you a ticket." Jasper sounded slightly annoyed.
"Oh." Sophie whispered as she backed off on the gas with just enough time to spare. She had gotten down to seventy miles by the time she passed the cop cruiser that was partially obstructed under an overpass. "Thanks." She whispered finally, still feeling a little bit stupid for not just listening to him.
"I don't have a problem with you speeding a little. I actually can't wait to take you for a drive in a car that was actually meant to go fast." Jasper smirked.
"Plastic cars with too many nobs and buttons, imported from who's it's and what's it's out there. No thank you. This is as American as you can get, this is cherry pie." Sophie smirked.
"You would rethink that with me behind the wheel of one of my imported plastic cars." Jasper chuckled. "I would have you in a puddle at my feet within ten minutes." He cooed softly, his face somehow millimeters away from her ear.
"It would take you that long?" Sophie cocked an eyebrow because the only way she knew how to deal with remarks like that without pulling over on the highway was to send them right back where they came from. "So I was thinking, once I was done with this mess you might take me to see Bella?" Sophie stated as if it were a totally normal request.
Jasper nodded like he was thinking about something important and Sophie just continued to babble.
"It's just I feel like we got really close and now we don't see each other at all, I was just thinking it would be nice to relax together without having to worry about letting it slip that we are actually from a place that didn't exist yet." Sophie's eyebrows rose into her hairline as she tilted her head to the side a little.
"It did exist, it was just Mexico at the time." Jasper laughed.
"Somehow I doubt I could impress the confederate with my Spanish skills." Sophie muttered and she could feel Jasper tense beside her.
"Is that why you lied about where you came from? Were you afraid of me?" Jasper whispered.
"Not once I got to know you, no. But when you first walked up in your funny grey uniform and nasty yellow hanky with a sword at your side, yes I was. Jasper you have to understand, I was taught from a very young age that confederacy equaled evil. I had a history professor state that the Battle of Antietam was a 'smashing victory' for both the union and human civilization. My skin is a lot of things but white it isn't."
"You saw the way we treated our-" Jasper paused and Sophie looked over at him.
"Exactly, Jasper, they were slaves. You didn't pay them; they weren't really people, that little Lila girl had to move out of the main house when she was ten to avoid getting raped. On the scale of slave treatment you get a gold star, but I didn't want that for me. You really, honestly, think you would have pursued a relationship with me if you thought of me the same way you did Nettie?"
Jasper groaned and placed a hand over his eyes as if she were giving him a headache.
"I would have never thought of you like I did Nettie." Jasper's voice returned to a normal pitch after a moment. "She was like my grandmother!" he sounded exasperated.
"But she wasn't like your grandmother because she couldn't say no to you, you owned her!" Sophie sounded just as exasperated.
"It wasn't like we were the only ones that owned slaves and you know that wasn't why I was fighting the war!" Jasper was yelling now and Sophie found herself matching his tone.
"Are you seriously trying to justify slavery to me right now?" she asked incredulously.
"No, I'm just saying everyone of the laborers on the plantation wanted to be there."
"Only because they knew the alternative was a slow death!"
"If you didn't like what I was fighting for why did you pursue a relationship with me?" Jasper asked after taking several breaths.
"Because I saw you. I saw the man that fell asleep at his brothers bedside in the hospital, the man that was so passionate and charmingly oblivious to his own charm, I saw the man I was supposed to make a family with and I made a conscious decision to look past all of the differences to get to know you."
She took the exit leading towards the Barrea casino and looked down at her watch. She had made it with three minutes to spare. She pulled into visitor parking and saw Ralph's familiar smug face grinning at her. Sophie tried her best to cover her scowl but she had a feeling that it leaked through as she saw his clothing. He was dressed head to toe in faux buckskin with thick plaits tied into his dark brown hair.
"Taken a break out of exploiting your culture for me? I'm touched." Sophie scoffed. "Wait, wait, let me guess, you're the red man."
"Don't flatter yourself." Ralph kept his grin but the malice came though in his voice. "I promised the kids they could meet their cousin. Emily and Anders came to meet cousin Sophie and her, client?" Ralph tilted his head over to Jasper. "Mom told me what you do for a living. Is it really a surprise you got shot, don't tell me he's married?"
Sophie felt Jasper lurch forward and she quickly placed her hand on his shoulder.
"He's not worth it. He's just trying to get a rise out of me." Sophie whispered so low that only Jasper could hear her.
"Watch your mouth our I will rip your innards out through your throat and I'll make your children watch." She smiled as she said it and batted her eyelashes a couple times. "I don't have time to meet your little brats, I have a meeting."
"I know I've been called in to be your vote in the matter. You have to at least recognize your culture in order to get a vote."
"Yeah I wasn't born with a dick so I don't get a vote but I honestly think I got the better end of the deal, you were born with your dick up your ass." She walked away from him, grasping her hand in Jasper's for dear life.
"You really want to start talking about dicks up your ass?" Ralph questioned as he caught up with them. Sophie was able to close her eyes and remember why she was there but for Jasper that was one poke too many.
Before Sophie could stop him or even realize what was happening Jasper had Ralph pinned against the wall of a small building.
"Now just what are you saying about my fiancé?" Jasper fixed him with a glare and if fear had a smell Sophie was sure she would have been able to smell it from her place five feet away. "Because it sounded a lot like you were calling her a whore, and I don't really much like that."
"No, no, you're right man, I crossed a line. I'm sorry I didn't realize you were her fiancé." Ralph tried to backtrack a little but the damage was done.
"Bit it was never something you should say to any woman, especially family." Jasper's grasp on him didn't loosen and Sophie was starting to worry that they would never actually get to the meeting on time.
"Jasper please, I don't care what he said let's just go." Sophie called, half hoping that Jasper would just kill him and get it over with. "Look you can kill him if that's what floats your boat but I need to get to this meeting." Sophie turned away still keeping her ear open to the conversation they were having behind her back.
"You will vote in whichever way she tells you to, understood? You will apologize for your words and then you will fade away into the background. Am I clear?" Jasper's voice was eerily calm but Sophie could tell from Ralph's panicked agreement he was sill a terrifying sight.
Only a minute later Sophie felt Jasper slid his hand against hers and she brought it up to place a light kiss on it.
"Thank you." She whispered before letting his hand drop. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jasper beam with pride before he nodded slightly.
The meeting went poorly. Sophie, Jasper, and Ralph showed up at 6:05 and everyone looked at her like she carried the plague. She sat between her father and Jasper who looked like they were having a staring contest throughout the whole thing. Her aunt was glaring at Sophie as she sat with her son and it took everything in Sophie's power not to shoot her the bird across the table. The old man at the end of the table spoke sparingly, preferring to let others speak out against her. She had no idea that this was a formal meeting and twenty other people would be involved.
They wanted her to work part time at the casino and hold a home on the reservation. This was after Sophie had talked them down from an insane about of 'overdue tribal service fees' and her working full time at the casino and living on the reservation.
She argument against the idea was simple. If she were forced to both live and work full time on the reservation she would be guilty of several violent and very bloody murders and the bodies would never be found. After she mentioned that the woman pushing the idea seemed to back down a bit but her original idea still stood for the most part.
"Look, if you don't want to accept me into your tribe that's fine. Personally I don't hold much of an interest in joining. But my father is very, very sick and I have been taking care of him since I was twelve years old. He had gotten worse and I can't take care of him any more. You don't want to give me the benefits of membership and I'm not asking for it, my father is, and my father has helped each and every one of you around this table. You owe it to him, it's not about me or your money, it's about doing the right thing!"
"You talk of doing the right thing when you bring him to the meeting?" the old man finally said something.
"You have brought your family." Sophie gestured around the table. "I have brought mine." Sophie leveled him with a glare and to her surprise he didn't back down.
"This man cannot know family. You bring him to our house; to the lands he and his kind have forced on us, you bring him to our most sacred of places, and you call him family." The man snorted.
Sophie wasn't sure what the man was trying to get at. He might just have been referring to white men in general, but the way he said it with so much malice directed specifically at Jasper Sophie couldn't help but wonder if this old man believed the stories.
"It is time for us to take a break. We will deliberate and call you back to inform you of the conclusion we have come to." The man declared, his voice was dry and rough like he needed a long drink of water but Sophie suspected it had something to do with his age.
As they filed out of the elaborate boardroom Samuel began to speak.
"Oh Margret it was wonderful to hear you speaking with such authority in there, I can remember when you wouldn't even step onto the reservation territory." He chortled and Sophie's heart broke a little.
"Papa, it's me, it's Sophie, remember? Margret was your wife, she passed, Papa, do you remember?" Sophie crouched next to his chair once she had rolled him into the hall.
"Of course I remember, my Sophie, always so opinionated Mija. You may look like your mother but you inherited your abuela's mouth. James it's good to see you again!" Sophie hung her head and tried to hide the tears she was feeling as she saw her father hold his hand out to Jasper.
"Papa, Uncle James is still in England. This is my," Sophie frowned at Jasper trying to find the right words. "This is Jasper." She finally decided no title was better than a false title.
"That's right, that's right. Jasper, we have met before right?" He was still all smiles and Sophie had to cover her mouth and squeeze her eyes shut to block the barrage of tears that were threatening to fall.
"No sir I don't think we have." Jasper sounded happy but Sophie couldn't open her eyes to be sure. "It is nice to meet you, I have head only the best."
"Then I reckon you haven't heard much!" Her father howled at his own joke and Sophie couldn't take it anymore. The floodgates broke and tears poured a path down her cheek. She hated crying in front of people and she made a mad dash for the door.
Couching down between a bush and the burn auburn faux adobe wall she fumbled in her purse for a cigarette. She had just found one and lit it before she heard footsteps mixed with the familiar smell of honey and spice. Jasper crouched down beside her looking skeptically at the cigarette.
"This is a good hiding spot." He finally spoke before throwing his arm around her shoulder. "A smoking bush is never conspicuous."
"Oh shut up." She sniffled a little and rested her head on his shoulder. "It wasn't always this bad. He was a great man; he would always help people even if he couldn't really afford to help them." She could remember when she was small and men would drive from the reservation to their house for him to look at their cars. Because he would fix them for free no matter what it would cost him.
"Margret was your mother?" Jasper asked but Sophie sensed he really didn't need her answer to know the truth.
"Yes, I killed her." Sophie looked at the cigarette in her hand as she said it. "Maybe that's why I can look past your past. I have been a murderer since the day I was born." She didn't really believe she was a murderer but she couldn't help thinking that it had contributed to her father's health issues, and that she could never forgive herself for.
Maybe he saw it as a subject he would never be able to convince her otherwise, or maybe he agreed with her statement either way he was quick to change the subject.
"Do you think the council will have decided in favour of you?" he asked softly.
"I want them too. My father has helped the community for years; the only thing he ever did wrong was marrying a white woman. But I think they will only give me the money if I live here and work here and find a nice Native American boy to have lots of babies with, and I just won't do it. I'll scrub pots at the bar till my fingers bleed before I do that." Sophie made a face. "This whole thing was a waste of time, it was Andrea's idea but it was never going to work."
"Well I'm glad to hear you won't be taking them up on that deal because I am the only one you will be with babies or no." Jasper placed a kiss on the top of her head but she could pick up some of the very real stress in his voice.
"That's right," Sophie entwined their free hands. "Me and you till the world stops spinning."
"The old man just came out of the room. They came to a decision." Jasper told her suddenly.
"Let's go get this over with then." Sophie rolled her eyes but stood up before she extinguished the cancer stick against the side of the wall. "I'm ready for whatever they have to say."