wozhii and the fourth of july

The dump was frozen solid, the sound of crunching snow
was the only thing heard.

“Help me, Sonny,” and the young boy of seven helped
his father with the trash to be dumped out of the old
chevy pickup. His hair was thick and black, a natural
born athlete who hopped on the back of truck easily
and though quiet always seemed to have one of those
faces that smiled easily. He was strong and agile for
his age and seemed a natural always able to land on
his feet.


“I think that’s about it son.” and the tail gate was
lifted up and locked. There was a noise, it
sounded like a kitten could be heard. The cold air
made the young boys’ breath cloudy in the air.


“Look there is a kitty over there in the trash”, the
boy said. They could see it looking at them and his
father said, “It’s mother is probably around here
somewhere…we have to go.” So they got in the truck and
went home.


It was so cold that night that even the house seemed
frozen with icicles hanging to the ground, everything
was snow white and sky was crystal clear blue the next
morning. The father and the boy found themselves back
at the trash pile unloading another load and as they
were taking things out of the bed they could hear the
kitten meowing somewhere in the pile. The boy could
see the trail of small foot prints and told his
father, “Looks like the kitty is by itself.” The young
kitten stuck his small head out from the pile and was
watching them, meowing softly against the cold. “It
doesn’t have a momma kitty, and it looks cold,
Daddy….maybe we should take it home.”


“No, we better get back to the house, it is too cold
to stay here any longer.” Stew and hot biscuits were
waiting for them at home. “Come on, Sonny let’s go.”
The father jumped in the driver’s seat and they
started to head back home. The young boy was sitting
there when the father heard, meowing from inside the
cab of the truck. He looked at his son, who was
looking out the window. “What was that?” Just then a
small head stuck itself out from under the boy’s coat.
It was part Siamese looked like, with gray eyes but
had long shaggy hair, it’s eyes looked crosseyed at
him. “If the kitty stays there it will freeze tonite, Daddy.”


“I guess it’s alright.”


When they got home, the kitty walked all around
looking at everything, it did not know what warm felt
like. As they watched the kitty, it walked up to the
open door of the wood stove and stood up, putting his
small paws on the stove. The young boy grabbed him
away from there and told the kitty, “Don’t you know
what fire is, you crazy kitty?” The kitty’s ears fell
off, the cold had made them shrivel up, and her eyes
stayed crosseyed, and it never really got warm, the
hind legs were always cold, but it had found a home.


“What are you going to name it?”, his mother said.


“Wozhii, cuz it looks like one of those shaggy
caterpillars that crawl around.”


Wozhii grew up and got to know all the family,
sleeping at the feet of every bed, but she liked to
sleep with that little boy and they grew up together.


One time, when she was big, she was really meowing
around the house. The boy followed her around and ran
inside and told his mom, “She is having kittens, but
something is wrong.” Wozhii, had a small kitten stuck
halfway born and not able to deliver it all the way.
They went to the Indian clinic, and they made a chart
for her, it says Wozhii, and that boy made them
doctors operate on her, and they cut her open and she
delivered her kittens, but after that she could have
no more kids. Somehow the cold had injured her so she
couldn’t do everything other cats could do, but she
came home alright, her and her kittens.


After some years, she had a place in the family and
watched the comings and goings of everybody. She was
always there for them and she could be found laying
next to the boy finding a good place to sleep with
him.


He left for a while, and she wandered the house for a
long time and finally accepted he was gone, she didn’t
question it.


On the rez, she wandered around the place and knew
every part of it, always looking at the door. She was
everybody’s friend, and she was a gentle old cat.


It was near the Fourth of July, and everyone was
coming home, there wasn’t enough room for everybody so
people were sleeping on the floor. Somehow she got
locked out of the house and sat outside by the door
and waited till morning. There were a lot people
there.


Wozhii went to where the old couple was sitting, it
was early in the morning just before dawn. They were
drinking coffee and talking to the boy’s mom.


“How is he?”, the old lady said putting her coffee
down.


“He hasn’t said much since he got home, he looks
different…hard somehow…he walks like grandpa, like an
old man sort of, but he’s only 19,” she said., “when
he got home he went for a walk up on the mountain and
came back at nightfall and went to sleep.”


“His father was the same way when he came home from
the South Pacific, he was quiet for a long time but he
got over it. He is a man now, he has seen the worst of
it. Something happens when you go to over there. It
will take him time to get used to the place again.” ,
the old man said. He left to check on the sheep and
walked to the corrals.


“He didn’t write for a long time, he was at that VA
hospital for six-seven months, we should have gone to
see him, but no money and the truck couldn't make it”,
his mother said, sipping her coffee. Dawn was coming
over the horizon, the colors of pink, gold and light
blue made everything new.


“The Fourth of July is in a couple of days, one thing
I can say is everybody is home and I am glad,” she
continued saying, “the community is having something
over by the church, everybody is going to be there, we
have to butcher a sheep for it.”


"Hozhogi, the blessingway, it is Dawn, and everything is good, it is a
good day and all those mornings we offered corn pollen for him." The
old lady brought out the small deerskin bag, "Dawn is here and let it
find me and give me it's warmth. Let it be so, that in the beautyway we
shall go, that there is beauty before me, and that there is beauty
behind me, that there is beauty below me and above me, to the left of
me and to the right of me. That whereever I go that there might beauty,
may it always be so...."


The old woman took her pinch of corn pollen and offered it to the sky
and put some on her daughter's head and a little taste for her mouth
and blessed her by it. They had done this each day and while he was
gone faced the East and offered the cornpollen to the so that that he
might walk in beauty, in all the places he went, each day, and now he
was home, so let it continue tomorrow and for always.


The old lady got up and said, “That one fat one, I
have to go see the old man and choose it before he
takes the sheep out.” She got up and walked over to
the corral to see the old man. The mother sitting
down in the shade house finsihed her cup of coffee
watching the dawn, and then thought about the day ahead now
that her son is home.


Wozhii used her paw to open the door a crack and goes
inside and finds her way to the young man sleeping on
the floor. He is tall, and broad shouldered, his hair
thick and dark. She walks up to him and sniff him and remembers the
young boy. She walks over to his head and his outstretched
arms are layed out there on the floor. Wozhii licks his arm,
and rubs her head softly against him and slowly he
reaches out and takes hold of her like he did so many
times before without thinking, maybe out of practice
and pulls her next to him. She crumbles into a soft
ball of fur and quietly lays next to him. She can see
there are some new marks on his hands but he is home
and that it all she cares about. She quietly falls
asleep.


His mother comes to check on him quietly sleeping
there, he is no longer a child, but there he is
holding Wozhii cat just like when he was when he was a
boy. He has seen many things and been far away but he
is home, and laying just right there. Oh, how she
would like to hold him like when he was so small, but
she can’t do that anymore. My boy is home and it is
just a couple of days from the Fourth of July. The
world may be strange and conflicts may go on, but home
is home and Wozhii cat is taking care of him. She sprinkled a little
corn pollen on both of them as they layed there and turned walking
away. Maybe they should sleep a little bit more.....there are things to
do and things to make, maybe some pan fired potatoes.....


Wozhii and July 4th

rustywire