Author's Note: After some additional research, I've made an edit to the previous chapter. I discovered that the Seattle Convention Center was not opened until 1988, which is three years after this story, so the paramedics could not have had their convention there. Instead, they are meeting in the convention rooms of the hotel where the ill-favored Mr. Gerard works.

Another note is due about Choctaw pronunciation. You will notice the letter 'v' used in Choctaw words in a way that looks unpronounceable to the English speaker. In Choctaw, the letter 'v' does not exist as a consonant. Instead, it is used to signify a short u sound (as in bus).

Thank you to all who read and review and to those who simply read as well. And many thanks as always to katbybee and Piscean6724, my awesome beta readers! To all my readers in the USA, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

UPDATE: Thank you to sillygirl19682004 for catching an inconsistency in this chapter, which I have now corrected!

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains a depiction of abusive physical discipline of a child in the context of a memory.

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Chapter 3

Glossary (Choctaw – English)

Svshki – (My) mother, mama

Ishki – (His/her/their) mother

Vllatek – little girl, female child

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Dressed in her favorite blue jeans and a turquoise sweater, her long black hair neatly brushed and pulled back into a ponytail, Sarah Kate pushed open the lobby door and stepped inside.

Gemma Donovan smiled at her across the front desk. "Good morning, Sarah Kate! Is your dad off to work already?"

Sarah Kate nodded. "Yeah. He's always gone when I wake up." Well, that was the truth anyway, even if Gemma didn't understand it the right way. Daddy had been in this hotel exactly one time, and that was the day early in the summer when he brought Sarah Kate here and paid in advance for a room for four months. Then he left for work and never came back. Sarah Kate found the envelope with his note when she got back from the library.

Hey, Kitten, he'd written. I had to go away, but it won't be for long. You're a smart kid — you'll be fine. Just don't let anyone know you're alone. This hotel is a good safe place and I promise to call you every week. For a while he kept his promise, calling her every Wednesday night, but the phone hadn't rung since mid-July and she didn't know how to call him. She didn't even know where he was. But he had left her some money and strict instructions to be careful with it. Breakfast was provided by the hotel, and she could generally squirrel away bagels and fruit and those little boxes of Frosted Flakes to have in her room for dinner.

She'd practiced her dad's signature until she could write it almost exactly like his and when school started, she signed all the paperwork with his name. No one asked any questions, and she even managed to get herself on the free lunch plan. Now she just had to make it through the rest of this month and then Daddy had to come back, because that was when the four months in the hotel ran out. Sarah Kate worried that they wouldn't let her extend her stay if he wasn't here, and then she would be found out and they would ship her off to Child Services and she'd end up in a foster home and Daddy wouldn't know where to find her. For now, though, she would just keep on doing what she had been doing. As long as she didn't cause trouble or make a scene, most people were too busy to notice her.

"Well, go and get your breakfast, Honey," Gemma said, waving her into the breakfast room.

Sarah Kate grabbed a bagel and a banana and stowed them in her lunch box when Ramona wasn't looking. Then she went to the French toast bar. Thursday morning was French toast day, Sarah Kate's favorite. Before Mom walked out on them, Daddy used to make French toast every Saturday, so it brought back happy memories. Ramona made it and she'd taught Sarah Kate her recipe. Ramona was the only person in the world who knew Sarah Kate's secret. She'd figured it out because she was the one who cleaned the room, and she could tell only one person was living there. The two of them had a deal — Sarah Kate would help her out from time to time, and Ramona wouldn't tell anyone that she was living at the hotel all by herself.

"You eat quick," Ramona said, handing her a plate of French toast with extra powdered sugar, strawberries, and whipped cream. "Then you help me clear tables before you catch your bus."

"Yes'm," Sarah Kate said cheerfully. She didn't mind helping. It made things feel kind of normal.

Holding her plate, she surveyed the room. At seven fifteen, it was only moderately full of guests. Sarah Kate thought the three men in the corner were the ones who had come in late last night, even though they didn't have the rest of their group with them. They were dressed like they were going to work. She moved to a table close to theirs so that she could listen in. She wanted to find out more about them. Sarah Kate loved to eavesdrop because it gave her all sorts of ideas for writing stories, and it would help her get to know them later if she learned something about them first.

The older man with the dark hair was talking in between bites of his French toast. "Last time we were in Seattle, Matt," he said, his eyes on the young man who kind of looked like her friend Chelsea's big brother, "a guy got stuck at the top of the Kingdome. It sure took some doing to get him down."

The other one with the strawberry-blond hair waved a hand. "C'mon, Junior, that was nothing. Matt, a ferry caught fire right out there on Puget Sound. We ended up helping with that rescue, though we couldn't do much because we're not certified here."

Matt pushed at the hashed browns on his plate. "You know, Cap… and Cap… you've told me all these stories before."

Junior waggled a finger. "Ahh, but did we tell you about the biggest rescue of all? Roy helped a pregnant female in distress." He was talking with his mouth full. Sarah Kate grinned, thinking of how Gramma used to scold Daddy for that very thing.

Matt's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said you couldn't do anything because you weren't certified here."

Sarah Kate took a bite of her French toast and glanced at her watch. She had twenty minutes before her bus came. She needed to hurry. But she also wanted to hear the story. Actually, she wanted to know more about the fire on the boat — that sounded exciting! Maybe Mrs. Bostwick, the school librarian and Sarah Kate's favorite person in the whole school, could help her find out more about it.

Junior shrugged. "I didn't say it was a human female." Then he laughed. "Roy helped deliver a breech calf." He held up his glass of milk and pointed to it, a crooked grin creeping across his face. "It could be, this very milk comes from Swede Halverson's dairy farm… maybe even from the calf ol' Roy helped save… she'd be all grown up by now." He took a drink, then turned to Roy. "Do you think Swede will be at the conference?"

Roy nodded. "As a matter of fact, he's leading our round table this afternoon. We've kept in touch. He's training paramedics now, just like us. And get this — his son just graduated from the fire academy."

Sarah Kate finished her French toast and cleared her place, every so often looking back at the three men. They didn't seem to notice her, and she liked watching them. As she moved from one empty table to another, picking up abandoned dishes, she listened to them talk. Once the one called Matt noticed her and he stared for a minute, his brow wrinkling till she thought maybe she had food on her chin or something. Then he smiled and gave her a small wave and went back to the conversation. Sarah Kate grabbed a napkin and rubbed at her chin, but nothing was there. Then she emptied the plates she'd cleared into the trash bin and carried the dishes into the small kitchen off the breakfast room, where she deposited them in the sink. She checked her watch again. Ten minutes. Time to get going.

"French toast was totally awesome, Ramona," she said on her way out of the kitchen. "Thanks! I gotta go, but I'll help more when I get home."

She walked to the bus stop, thinking over everything the men had been talking about. From the way they talked, they had to be paramedics… or used to be since Roy and Junior said they were training people now. She knew something about paramedics because a pair had visited her school just a few weeks ago. And it was a good thing they came, too, because right in the middle of their talk, Kevin Mahoney started choking on the gum he wasn't supposed to be chewing in class and they had to do the Heimlich on him. Kevin got to ride in the ambulance and everything. All the kids were jealous of him, until he got detention after he came back because of the gum.

She grabbed her backpack and jacket, then hurried out to the front of the hotel, taking a last glance back at the paramedics. They came out behind her and started walking down the street just as she climbed into her bus.

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Throughout the morning sessions, which included a boring lecture on airway management that introduced absolutely no new information and an even duller talk on defibrillation, Matt couldn't get that little girl's face out of his mind. He felt like he should know her, but he didn't know why. There was just something about those bright, intelligent eyes and those dark wispy curls that had escaped her ponytail to frame her small, round face that seemed… well… familiar.

He ducked out of the defibrillator talk early, only to spot Roy and Johnny exiting the lobby. Matt followed them to the cafe next door, where they all took a seat by the front window. "So, captains play hooky too, huh? I thought you were all excited about Dr. Cavendish's talk."

Johnny shook his head as he gulped his coffee. "Believe me, Matt… it was not nearly as interesting as it looked in the program. I had to drag Roy out before he started snoring." He chuckled. "Roy always thinks he'll go to a conference and learn something, but he ends up realizing that it's just as boring as I predicted it would be." He lifted his coffee cup. "Remember San Francisco in… what was it… seventy-eight?"

Roy nodded. "Seventy-eight, yeah… just before we were promoted.* And yes, I'll admit it… you were right. It was incredibly boring." He sipped his coffee and then shook his head. "Things got much more interesting when we decided to tag along with Pete's crew instead."

"Well, this year we don't have that option." Johnny frowned as he checked his watch. "Not when we're giving the presentation. We'd better get going. You joining us, Matt? I promise we'll be more interesting than what you've seen so far."

Roy socked him on the shoulder. "Don't you go making promises you can't keep, Junior." All three men laughed as they cleared their table and headed to the conference room together.

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Nita was grateful that Nashoba had crept out quietly without waking her. The twins, tired from yesterday's travels, let her sleep until nine in the morning, when JoJo woke her with a plaintive, "'Chaffo, Svshki, 'chaffo!" Always hungry, that girl was, lately!

Thankfully, breakfast in the lobby was served until nine thirty. Nita washed and dressed quickly, changed and dressed JoJo and Jamie, and then headed to the lobby. She wasn't surprised to see that JoAnne, DJ, and Melissa were all just sitting down to breakfast. The family vacation wasn't quite complete with Chris and Megan DeSoto staying in Los Angeles — they both had activities over the weekend that they couldn't miss — but still, it promised to be a good time. It would have been even better, Nita mused as she settled Jamie and JoJo into highchairs on either side of JoAnne and then fetched their breakfast, if we hadn't had that fiasco at the other hotel last night. Even so, she liked this hotel better. She had felt out of place the moment she stepped into that fancy monstrosity where the convention was taking place. This little hotel, built around a central courtyard that boasted a playground, a pool, and a picnic area with several grills, was far more pleasant in her opinion.

But in spite of the calm and peace of this place, she was still rattled after the previous night. Once the twins had their food, she filled her own plate and sat quietly, staring out the window, wishing she could blot out the dark memories the experience had dredged up.

"Anita Folsom, bend over." Mr. Parkinson had caught her speaking Choctaw during recess, and now she was paying the consequences. Her teacher, Miss Gardner, would have overlooked the infraction or simply assigned her some unappealing chore, but the new principal was adamant that students at his school speak only English, even the little ones who barely knew the language. When little Millie Krebs fell down at recess and skinned her knee, Nita had instinctively comforted her in words Millie could understand.

Suddenly she felt Mr. Parkinson's cold, slender fingers on her neck. He tugged her to her feet and marched her into the small school building. And now, he forced Nita to bend forward in front of the entire class. She gripped the edge of Miss Gardner's desk to steady herself, waiting for the paddle to whoosh through the air. Gritting her teeth, she determined not to cry when it caught her on the posterior. She could hear Millie whimpering in her seat in the front row. Steeling herself, her jaw clenched, Nita counted the blows. One… two… three. She refused to cry out, but she couldn't help wincing or emitting a soft gasp of pain. Four… five. Her eyes flooded with tears. She tried to blink them away. At this point, she was clutching the side of the desk so hard her knuckles were almost white.

"Please, sir," Miss Gardner protested. "Surely that's —"

"Silence, woman!" Parkinson thundered. "You are entirely too soft with these miscreants. If the girl cannot obey the rules, she must accept her punishment."

Six. Seven. Eight. Nita's resolve crumbled. She shuddered. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she sobbed.

After two more hard swats to her backside, Mr. Parkinson stepped away. When Nita looked up, his mouth had twisted into a hateful sneer. He pointed to the corner by the blackboard and instructed her to spend the rest of the day standing there. She didn't think she could have sat if she'd been allowed to.

Mr. Parkinson's image in Nita's memory faded away, to be replaced by the image of the hotel desk clerk, wearing the same sneer, his eyes glittering with the same hatred. The incident with Mr. Parkinson had happened in the days when Ishki was still living, just before Nashoba was sent away to boarding school. Nashoba wasn't in the classroom that day to see what happened — in Mississippi, Choctaw schools did not admit mixed-race children.** Neither did the white schools. Before Mr. Parkinson came to serve as principal, Miss Gardner and Mr. Howard had ignored that rule and welcomed Nashoba and other mixed children into the classroom, but Mr. Parkinson changed all that. That's why Nashoba's father had decided to send him away to boarding school in Oklahoma. Well… that, and James Roderick Gage knew that he was sick and didn't want his son to watch him die.

When Nita trudged down the steps of the schoolhouse later that afternoon, subdued and in pain, she had found Nashoba waiting to walk her home. He knew right away that something was wrong. When she told him what had happened, his face grew stone hard. His brow furrowed, his brown eyes smoldered, and he grabbed Nita's hand. "Come on!" He marched up the stairs and into the schoolhouse with her. Pushing past Mr. Parkinson, he went to the front of the room and snatched the paddle from its hook on the wall. Taking three long strides toward the principal, he held up the paddle. Mr. Parkinson cowered back. Nita didn't blame him — the look on Nashoba's face was murderous, and at age twelve, he was already tall, wiry, and strong. But he never actually swung the paddle. He just propped a foot up on a desk chair, then snapped the cruel device in half across his knee. "I don't care what you do to me, Mr. Parkinson," he seethed, "but don't you ever touch Nita Folsom or any other girl in this school again." Then he tossed the broken pieces on the floor, took Nita's hand again, and strode down the aisle and out the door.

They had gone straight from the school to Nita's grandfather, Preacher Folsom, and told him what had happened. Preacher Folsom was an influential man in the community. The Bureau of Indian Affairs agent listened to him. Within the week, Mr. Parkinson had been replaced, and the new principal did away with the paddle altogether. By that time, Nashoba had already been sent away to Oklahoma. Almost twenty years would pass before Nita saw him again.

"Nita?"

The touch of a hand on her shoulder drew Nita with a jolt out of her memories. She shuddered slightly, then turned to her friends, mentally shoving the past back where it belonged. "I'm sorry… just… thinking." She caught sight of JoJo, face and shirt all smeared with whipped cream and crumbs from her French toast, and couldn't hold back a half laugh, half groan. "Oh, my goodness, vllatek! If it were a little warmer, I would have to throw you in the swimming pool to get you clean!"

Before Nita could get up to fetch a stack of napkins, a hotel worker was at her elbow with a wet washcloth. "Here you go, ma'am," she said with a soft smile. She ran a hand across JoJo's curls. "Such a pretty little girl."

Nita bristled slightly. She didn't like strangers touching her children. On the other hand, the woman — Ramona, her name tag said — sounded kind, and she did work for the hotel. Surely, she meant well. Nita accepted the washcloth with a curt "Thank you," and cleaned her daughter's face.

"If you don't mind, Nita, we were thinking today we could just take it easy," JoAnne said. "Melissa was saying she's really tired, and DJ just wants to go to the playground. Roy suggested a cookout in the picnic area this evening, and I think that's a great idea."

Nita nodded. "Yes, it's a good plan." She was quite happy to stay at the hotel and relax today. Tomorrow would be soon enough to see the city.

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NOTES:

*The movie Greatest Rescues of Emergency!, in which Gage and DeSoto are promoted to Captain, came out in 1978, well before The Convention, which aired in July 1979. However, it seems clear to me that Johnny and Roy are still paramedics in The Convention, and so I've chosen to place that trip to San Francisco shortly before their promotion.

**In my research of the schools provided for the Mississippi Choctaw during the 1950s, when Johnny and Nita would have been attending, I was quite surprised to discover that Johnny, being half-Choctaw (in my conception of his backstory) would not have been allowed to enroll in either the Choctaw or the white schools. In Stirring the Ashes of Memory, I had imagined him and Nita attending school together. Now I know that was not possible unless someone chose to look the other way. I have not been able to find whether the same rule was enforced in Oklahoma, but I have chosen to use some license and imagine that it was not. According to the rules teachers and principals were supposed to follow, corporal punishment was supposed to be reserved for the most egregious violations. However, there were teachers and principals who, like Mr. Parkinson, chose to ignore this.