Sequoya walked up the stairwell with Aaron safely tucked in her arms. She was surprised that the hotel clerk hadn't said a word of protest when he saw her walking in through the front entrance with a small alien. However, she was thankful that he didn't seem to mind, and he went about his business shuffling papers on his desk or whatever he was doing.

When she reached the second floor, she rushed through the hallway to her hotel room, hoping that no one else would see them together, particularly people who hate the Poleepkwa. After entering the room, she sat Aaron on the bed and shut her door. She stood there for a moment as she began thinking about what they would do next.

"You have a nice room," Aaron said as he looked around.

"Thanks," Sequoya replied, not so enthusiastically, and walked towards the opened window. She saw only an empty street with no human or Poleepkwa in sight. Even though there was no one around, she had a feeling that she was being watched. She quickly closed the window and shut the curtains.

"Aaron, what were you doing outside the hotel?" she asked as she turned around to look at him.

"I was coming to see you." He replied.

"Yeah, I figured that, but why didn't you just wait for me?"

"I couldn't wait for you. I was being watched."

"You were being watched by Arus?"

"No. It was another Poleepkwa. His little brother bumped into me. He got mad and pushed me, so I tripped him and made him cry." Aaron's antennas drooped down, and he lowered his head. "I didn't mean to make him cry. I tried to help him, but his big brother pushed me down and yelled at me. He was another Poleepkwan gang member. That is why I came to the hotel to get away from there."

By this time, Sequoya had already sat down next to him. She grew a little concerned for the youngling. "Did he hurt you?"

"No. I'm okay." He replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Sequoya wrapped her arms gently around him, embracing him. "Then I'm glad you're okay. You worried me."

"I did not mean to worry you," Aaron said as he looked up at her with apologetic eyes.

"It's okay, Aaron. I can't help but worry about you sometimes."

"It is you I'm worried about."

Sequoya met his gaze and could see the worried look in his eyes. She was becoming more familiar with his emotions just by looking into his eyes. "What did Arus tell you?" she asked.

"He said that you knew about him watching us at the park. Is that true?"

"Yeah, he told me himself. That day, I thought you had come to the hotel and asked to see me. It turned out to be Arus. I didn't realize he was a Poleepkwan gang member. He said he only wanted to be my friend, and I accepted." Sequoya turned away and began cursing herself for it. Then she turned back to Aaron, who stared at the ground. She knew he had something on his mind.

"Did Arus say anything else to you?" she asked.

"Yes. He wanted me to join his gang." Aaron answered without taking his eyes off the ground.

"Did you refuse?" she asked, more likely knowing that he did.

"I did not give him an answer, so he told me to think about it. But I will never join his gang of Prawns."

Sequoya was taken aback by his use of the word "Prawn." She would have never thought that a Poleepkwa would use such a term to refer to their kind. Even she would never refer to her race with a racial slur, but then she began to think about it more and more. Aaron thought so little of the Poleepkwan gang that he did not consider them to be his kind. But, of course, they weren't. Aaron is a much better person than them.

She began thinking about her cousin Aaron. The true outcast of her family. He was in a gang called the "Deuce Crew," a relatively small gang not to be taken seriously. Their graffiti can be seen on traffic signs all over the reservation with the letters "DC" and the Roman numeral "II." She remembered how much he hated white people and refused to live by their ways. He claimed that being in a gang made him feel like a warrior when really he was just a dumb-ass juvenile delinquent, a boy without a conscience. Aaron was sent to prison after killing a member of his own gang, also a member of his own tribe. He had disgraced himself. The Deuce Crew had been Aaron's gang of Squaws.

They were silent for a while. Sequoya wondered how she was going to get Aaron back home safely without running into any gang members along the way. She wondered if she should tell him about the strange dream last night.

"Aaron." she nearly whispered. He turned his head and looked at her. "What do you know about the Poleepkwan gang? Besides the fact that they're dangerous."

"My brother knows more about them than I do, but I know that they are criminals who think they own District 9. So the brave Poleepkwa stay out of their way. Only the cowards join them for protection."

"Do you know how many Poleepkwa are in the gang?"

"Not too many, but I hear that many young Poleepkwa has joined them, and more will join them."

"Poleepkwa as young as you?"

"Yes. That is why my brother told me to stay away from them, especially Arus."

"Why him?"

"He is one of the leaders of the gang. That is all I know."

"Now that explains a lot. I knew he had to be some kind of leader. There were two other Poleepkwa that approached him and talked with him. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but they treated Arus like the boss. Do you know any other Poleepkwan gang members I should watch out for?"

Aaron looked off to the side as he thought about it for a moment. Then he shrugged at her. "I say watch out for them all. Any Poleepkwa associating with them are bad news. Any human they associate with are in deep trouble."

"Then I already screwed myself over."

Sequoya stood up and began pacing the room, thinking about what she should do about Arus. It was hard enough for her to sneak off to District 9, but to avoid someone who had been watching her the whole time would be impossible unless she could come up with a different solution.

"What am I going to do? Think," she said to herself. "How am I gonna get you back to the district without Arus watching me?"

"We can find a different path?" Aaron suggested.

"True, but I haven't been here long enough to explore the different paths we can take. I don't know where to start. It can take all day just to figure out how to sneak out of the hotel without Arus watching. And that's the other problem. I don't know when he's watching. He could have the whole hotel under the surveillance of his gang members."

"If he has, then I would be able to sense them."

"That's great, but we're gonna have to find a different place to meet from now on."

Sequoya partially opened the curtain covering the window and took a peek outside. There were several Poleepkwa gathered near the alleyway. They were in a shaded area where she couldn't tell if they were gang members or not. She quickly shut the curtain when one of them looked up toward her as if he sensed her watching them.

"Sequoya. I wanted to tell you something. I had a strange dream about you last night." Aaron said as Sequoya turned around to look at him.

"What did you dream about?" she asked, hoping that hearing about Aaron's dream would relieve her stress.

"We met in a grassland where I found you praying under the stars. You told me to come with you, and then we walked away from the grassland. We walked on a river, and you said it was to cover our tracks. So you took me to a secret hiding place in a cave behind a waterfall."

Sequoya's eyes widened in astonishment as Aaron continued to unfold the story of his dream. The place he described sounded similar to a place where she used to go to as a child.

She lived near the Rocky Mountains, where she would wander far off into the forest. There, she found a river that led to the beautiful waterfall and the hidden cave. She pushed the thought in the back of her mind, thinking that it was just a coincidence.

"You showed me a glowing pond and said that the light comes from our love of friendship."

"Okay. That's just weird." she interrupted.

"What is weird? You did not let me finish."

"I'm sorry. I'll tell you about it later. Please continue."

"I don't know if I want to continue. That is when the dream turns to a nightmare."

Sequoya studied Aaron's fearful expression. "You don't have to tell me if it frightens you so much."

"But I want you to know. You were taken away by a Poleepkwa. You did not try to escape, and you let him take you away. I tried to go after you, but another Poleepkwa was holding me back, and he had no face. I was so scared."

She watched Aaron's antennas droop pitifully, and he shrank onto the bed as he relived the nightmare all over again.

"It felt so real," he said as tears welled up in his eyes.

Sequoya lifted him and hugged him to comfort him. She knew how it felt as a child to have a nightmare scare the living shit out of you so much that it could make you cry.

"It wasn't real," she spoke softly to him, trying to comfort him with words. "I know it's hard to forget, but try not to think about it."

She could feel his fast-paced breathing as she placed her hand gently on his back. He slightly flinched at her touch, and his breathing began to slow as he calmed down.

Sequoya sat on the bed and began rocking back and forth. She hummed a song to him that her mother sang to her. She didn't remember the words, but she remembered the tune. It was an old Shoshone song that her great-grandmother made to sing to her children.

After she finished the song, she peered at Aaron, who had his head resting on her shoulder. She could have sworn he heard him purring like a kitten while she hummed the song. He looked at her with eyes so friendly and innocent. Then she saw the smile appear on his face. She smiled back.

"I made you smile," she said. "How do you feel now?"

"Safe." Aaron simply replied.

"Good. I want you to feel safe."

"But what about the dream? You said there was something weird about it."

"Oh, yeah. The weirdness. You said I took you to a secret hiding place with the glowing pond, right? The river, the waterfall, the hidden cave. Did this place look like it was in the mountains?"

"I don't know. The grassland was so big, but many trees were beside the river. And the inside of the cave was so mysterious."

"This glowing light from the pond. Was it blue?"

"Yes." Aaron widened his eyes. "How did you know?"

"I used to wander off into the mountains back home. I followed the river upstream until I found a waterfall. I found the cave, and inside that cave was this small pond. This pond is very deep, like an abyss. I found out later that my great grandparents were healers and used the pond water for healing purposes. My grandmother told me that when the moon shines through the waterfall and into the cave, it illuminates everything within it, including the pond. There are hidden crystals in the pond that create the glowing light when the moonlight is reflected from the cave walls."

"But in my dream, you said that the light came from love, not the moonlight."

"It doesn't matter what I said in your dream. This place you dreamed about is real. I just need to find out what it means."

"I thought dreams were meaningless."

"What makes you think so?"

"My brother told me."

"All dreams have a meaning to them whether you know it or not. So I think your brother's wrong."

Sequoya sat Aaron down on the bed and turned on the TV in front of them. "Here, you can watch cartoons while I make a long-distance call."

Aaron scooted himself closer to the foot of the bed as he watched curiously and attentively at the TV. Sequoya called home, but unfortunately, nobody answered, so she left a message on the answering machine, saying that she'd call back later. She pulled out the city map from under the bed and began contemplating which alternative route they could take to District 9.

She planned to go through the hotel's back door and go around the buildings on the other side of the street that was usually crowded. Then they would have to make their way to District 9 without running into any gangs. It was a simple plan, but Sequoya had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy.

Later that evening before sundown….

Sequoya and Aaron walked out of the room to the elevator on the opposite end from the stairwell. Sequoya never used the elevator, fearing that it would somehow malfunction and lock her inside with no way out. It wasn't that she was claustrophobic or anything. She just hated elevators. She had a bad experience once when the electricity went out while in an elevator by herself. After that, she felt a little more at ease, knowing that Aaron would be with her.

They walked into the elevator when they saw that it was empty with the doors open. So someone had used it, and now it was waiting for someone else on the second floor to use it.

"This one is small," Aaron said, looking into the elevator. "The MNU have larger ones."

"They do?" she asked. Aaron nodded his head as they walked into the elevator and made their way to the first floor.

"I don't understand. Why are we using an elevator instead of walking down the stairs?"

"The stairwell leads to the front desk where the glass doors are. When I'm coming back from District 9, I can see the stairwell through the glass doors from across the hotel's street. If those gang members are still out there, they'll see us walking down the steps and spot us leaving. I don't want them to detect us sneaking out the back way."

When the elevator doors opened, they walked out into the hallway and toward the end where the back door was. There were two narrow corridors on each side when they reached the end. Sequoya knew that the right corridor led to a utility room, and the left led outside into the crowded street. She took the opportunity to talk to the hotel clerk while Aaron watched cartoons for a few hours. He told her about the back door, which most of his customers used when leaving the hotel. She learned that his name is Ojaji, and he has two children living in Kenya. He told her about his oldest daughter, whom the Poleepkwan gang kidnapped. She was missing for two weeks until she was found dead. She had been beaten and raped repeatedly, and then she was strangled to death and thrown in a dumpster. She was only 14 years old.

The Poleepkwan gang were also known to kidnap young men who meet the same fate.

Sequoya grasped Aaron's hand as they exited through the back door and the street. It wasn't as crowded as it was during the day, but there were still enough people roaming around to call it a crowd. While Sequoya led the way, Aaron peered around the street. A few people gawked at them while the others paid no attention to them.

They walked twenty blocks from the hotel and turned right down another street toward District 9. Sequoya had hoped that this was far enough. At least she felt much safer being among the crowd of people. However, she noticed that the further they walked, the more Poleepkwa she saw in the crowd.

Suddenly, she felt Aaron slip his hand out of her grasp and dash behind her. She turned and looked down at the younglings, who seemed so frightened.

"What's wrong?"

"My brother …..he is standing over there," Aaron said and pointed out.

Sequoya looked in the direction where he was pointing toward the building. By the local shop were several Poleepkwa loitering outside the building and socializing.

"Which one is he?"

"The red one."

Sequoya peered at the red Poleepkwa, who appeared to be doing most of the talking, unaware that they were watching him.

"What are you afraid of? I thought you told him about us."

"I only told him your name. He doesn't know you are human."

Sequoya glanced back at the red Poleepkwa. "I take it he hates humans, right?"

"Yes. If he finds out, I'm here with you. He will punish me."

"Why don't you just tell him? He has to know sometime."

"Not right now. I want to leave."

She saw the desperation in Aaron's face and glanced back once more to make sure that David didn't spot them yet.

"Okay, let's go," she said and took Aaron by the hand and walked into an alley between buildings to get out of sight. Just before they reached the alleyway, Sequoya took one last look at the red Poleepkwa and met his gaze. She knew that someday they would have to meet face to face.