In Law Chaser

In Law Chaser
Johnny Rustywire

Way out on the rez one day a boy walked with his father to the trading post to check the mail. He was about eight or so and his father was old and they walked up hill to the trading post at it was on a rise above them.

There was a water trough below the store and they stopped to get a cool drink from the well and sat down and looked back on where they had come. From this spot you can see down the valley and further East toward what is called "Halgai"- it means flatlands, that lie below and run east to the horizon where Chaco Canyon lies.

It was a warm summer day in June, and the sky was clear except for a small group of clouds running across the flatlands away from them, it was a quick moving summer storm. They could see the mist of rain falling to the ground below and yet all around it was clear sky.

The Old man said, "There goes an in-law chaser!" The boy looked and did not know what he was talking about. "There must be someone wanting to visit somebody down there. Those kind of clouds that move fast like that they carry rain and wind." The boy looked at the moving clouds. "You start out getting ready to go somewhere by horseback or by wagon and it's a good day, but when you get a little ways up, the weather changes and you get hit by strong winds and rain, they pound on you and cover you with dust so you forget about going to where you wanted to visit and you turn around and try to get out of there."

The two of them sat there and watched the clouds move across the flatland. "They say that when you can see them like us from this high spot here, that that person who they were going to see is glad it happened.

"Why? How come they are glad?" the boy asked his father.

The old man motioned with his hands and looked at the boy then down toward the valley. "It is because that person knows that their in-laws are coming and they no good. They just show up at the wrong time and want something and will stay and eat and bring bad feelings.... But they are your in laws and so you have to endure them because they are your family."

"Is it always like that, to have bad in laws?" the boy asked.

The Old man sat there and told him, "No, the word in-law in our way of talking has two meanings, "Shaa dah ni'". The Old man looked at the boy and looked at him and said, "When someone says that to you, you need to look at their face because it can mean...they are really glad to see you, that you are like a close relative to them, a brother and they care for you...but it can also mean that it is an insult. They are saying to you that you are like a bad in-law who comes, wanting something, trying to live off you or bringing bad feelings and they aren't glad to see you. You don't want to know those kind."

His father said, "It is the way it is used, so when you hear it you have to think how is this person speaking to me?"

They sat there watched the clouds move acroos the land and could see the flashes of lightning and it moved quickly way as if it were chasing someone.

The Old man said, "Some In-laws are getting chased back home....That is what we call those kind of storms. Maybe there is someone down there on the flat who is watching that summer storm. That person probably saw his in-laws coming from way off and was not happy they were coming, but when the storm came up, the wind and rain made the in-laws think it wasn't worth it to go see him and so they went home on their own."

The sky was brilliant blue and the ground the color of orange sandstone, it glowed under the sun, but for that dark spot down below. The Old man said as if speaking to himself, "In-law chaser weather...so remember when you see those kind you have to wonder if that isn't what is happening. There is a balance in the way things go on around us. When something happens it is good for some and bad for another that is how we look at those kind of summer storms that move fast across the flat, they seem to come from nowhere and bring a whirlwind."

Do you think that is what going on down there? "Somewhere down there, someplace someone is wishing for an in-law chaser and they got one."

The boy laughed as the old man took his sons hand and they turned to go up the trading post to check the mail....rustywire