the 'lectric

It was way back, I think when one day a woman by the name of Tabaha
and her family moved back from the city to the rez, they had a small
one room hogan to live in, and since it was way out on the rez there
was no electricity or running water. It was a pretty place, a long
sloping valley running to a mountain on the west, and there were
cedars, juniper trees, and up high pinon pines and douglas fir trees.

Tabaha worked in town and wanted to have furniture, and a small metal
cabinet, she was proud of. It was where she put her broom, mop, soap,
buckets and scrub brushes. Since the place was too small to store
their furnitures they put them away. One of these was an old tv, one
of the early kind with a round screen from the early 1960's. All the
things were put in a small storage shed and they stayed for a long
time. Tabaha talked about her furniture, it somehow made her more
civilized she would say.


It was in late '68 when power was brought from off the highway 16
miles away to the community there and each family had to buy their
power poles and have them put in and buy their own power lines. It
took time to do this and over times family homes one by one got
electricity.


Well the mother of the family, Tabaha went to the storage shed to find
the old tv so they wouldn't just to have to listen to the radio from
Farmington anymore. She went into the place and looked all over for
the old tv and it was gone.


She asked around amongst the relatives and no one seemed to know what
happened to it. When the family got together one time for a visit with
the old couple she went around and asked everybody and no one know
where it went.


"Does any one know what happened to the 'lectric?", the old
grandmother asked for her daughter Tabaha. Everyone looked at one
another and no one said anything about it.


"Maybe someone came from down on the Flat and took it, while everyone
was away from the place," one cousin from Farmington said.


"It was probably one of those Glahnees (winos) looking to buy cheap
wine from Sally's drive-in (local bootlegger). Everyone laughed at the
thought of it, because old Sally sold Roma wine and Garden Deluxe from
a bedroom window of her house, you just had to drive around to the
back of the place, honk and she would open the window. Then a hand
would come out from behind a black curtain and extend itself. You put
three dollars in the hand and then it would go back in and would come
back with a pint of cheap wine. People laughed that the thought of
someone reaching out for money and then handed a bulky old t.v. from a
truck window would be a funny site to see.


After a while they talked about how high an antenna would have to be
to get some kind of picture on the lectric. Some talked about putting
up on the ridge, but running a line from there to the house would too
far.


Some talked about a guy who somehow became a medicineman over night
down the road a few miles. People from the local area wondered where
he got his teaching from, since he was not attached to any known
Singers in the area.


Someone said, "He took the 'lectric, when he goes into the hogan to
pray for people he won't let anyone in there with him."


"Maybe it's cuz he just looks at the 'lectric when he is in there."
Everyone laughed about it.


Tabaha kept asking about it, at every family gathering for years
afterward she would ask about the 'lectric and no one knew what
happened to it.


It was years later, when she went up the hill to visit a cousin at her
place in the cedars. It was not that far away so she walked up there
one day. She went to the screen door and knocked on it. No one came to
the door, and as she stood there she could hear voices talking like
from an 'lectric. She opened the screen door and went inside stepping
into what is the kitchen-eating area.


There was a blanket draped between that room and where the other room
was where the family slept. She called out and someone got up and the
noise stopped. Her cousin came to the kitchen stepping out of the dark
room into the light. As she came in Tabaha saw the glow from the round
tv screen and recognized the 'lectric.


"You have my 'lectric", she said to her cousin. Her cousin said, "I
don't know anything about it." Tabaha said to her, "I want you to give
it back to me, bring it back to my place. I want it back." She was
angry with her cousin for taking it.


Another year went by and Tahaha kept talking about how she found her
'lectric and wanted it back from her cousin. Tabaha kept talking about
it, and her cousin said she didn't know about it first. Pretty soon it
was the talk of the community, whether or not there really was an
'lectric sitting in the back room where her cousin stayed, a small
green house up in the cedars. Someone said they saw an antenna put
into one of the tall pinon trees not too far from the house, it looked
like one for an 'lectric.


As time went on, the cousin would let anyone into her place, since
kids and people wanted to see if she really had the 'lectric.


One day, it was summer a few years later maybe in late 70's or so, an
old pickup pulled up in front to Tabaha's hogan, It turned around that
Tabaha's cousin got out. She climbed into the bed of the pickup and
threw a rock at Tabaha's door and when Tabaha heard the sound of it
she went outside and saw her cousin parked in front and what looked
like her old 'lectric sitting in the bed of the pickup.


Tabaha said, "So you finally brought my 'lectric to me, Sister!"


Tabaha's cousin got down from the pickup and opened up the back tail
gate, then she crawled back up behind the 'lectric. She said, "you
told all these people around here I stole your 'lectric. Now when I go
somewhere that is all people wonder about. They call me, 'Lightning
Woman' and I am tired of it. So I have brought this no good thing back
to you. It doesn't work anymore."


"Do you mean you brought back cuz it won't work. It is broken now?"
Tabaha asked. Her cousin did not answer her; she just stood on the bed
of pickup. "Well, sister won't you bring it in?"


Her cousin pushed the 'lectric off the pickup and it crashed to the
ground. It broke into pieces and then she got down and drove away.


Tabaha went back inside and never mentioned the 'lectric again.


I went by their place not too long ago. I drove by old Tabaha's place,
she is old and gray now, her husband is gone and her kids have grown
up and left to live their own lives. I could see some rusted metal in
front of the hogan, it was the old 'lectric, that old t.v. what
remained of it sitting where it fell.


It is a silent reminder of how minor things can separate us from one
another. What is the price of family, to endure, to keep that tie with
one another, to look past faults and to see the best in that person. I
see their story in myself, as I go about, I sometimes look for worse
in people, and when they show me their worst it is what I remember
about them. It takes a lot of strength I think to live with one
another, to accept the faults, disappointments and hurt from those we
expect better treatment from. I would hope that I might let such a
thing pass. I can remember a time when they danced together, laughed
and talked about the small things of life, the unimportant things we
forget. I would hope that I might remind myself that at times I have
to look at myself and try to see what needs to be better done, and
those things that should be forgotten, can be even though the thought
of it stings a little..


rustywire@yahoo.com