Bus Stop

Bus Stop

He sat at the bus stop on the main drag; central and smiled at me as I stepped up to wait for city bus. He was quiet at first but looked unafraid to look people in the eye way out here in the big city. downtown Phoenix Arizona is pretty rough toward evening a lot of strange types move around the street, but he sat there. His features where finely chiseled, high cheekbones, narrow eyes that had laugh lines around the edges and his perfect teeth gleamed white in the
evening light.

He said, “Where are you from?”

“Shiprock” I said and he looked at me and smiled real big. “Nataani Nez” (the Navajo way of saying Shiprock) he said and went on, “Me, I come from Tuba City, down by Moenkopi Wash; went to school there in Tuba.”

He talked about the old trading post and dorm there, the way he used to play on the bluffs behind the school up near the water tank. He said somewhere there his initials are covered on there. He originally comes from the Gap, a slice in the red rocks where he spent his youth. born for the edge of the water people he said, his teeth were sure white.

He just sat there and said hey there to everyone who came up and smiled at them; some said hello back others just stared off into space. He talked to no one really. his hair had wisps of gray around his ears and it was kind of shaggy. He finished school back in ‘62 yeh’ daahh, he said and spent his time with the Union Pacific seeing the west from the rails; and saw the west coast hitch hiking from Washington to Mexico.

He was sort of an old guy. He sat there and told me all this and so I missed the bus to listen to
him. He was from around that way, the western side of the Navajo rez cuz when he spoke of snow he said yas like they say it, instead of how the Shiprock Navajos say zas.

A young Navajo girl came up with her book bag and sat down looking tired and worn out. He smiled at her and said, where are you from?

She looked at him and turned away. H just stood there and he said to no in particular, there was a girl one time from Carino Canyon, Salt Clan she was, she could really make me laugh, her hair was long like yours. You look like her he said. Her name was Ella Mae Benally, I left to go Wingate and never saw her no more…don't know what happened to hers.

The girl looked at him and said, Yahtahey, Shi Chei I am from Tohatchi, born for the Salt people. My mother is named Ella Becenti, she used to be Ella Mae Benally she is from Chichiltah by way of Carino Canyon.

He smiled really big and said when you see her tell her you saw Begushee Beye’. The young girl looked at him and he said, she used to call me “Little Cow Eyes” and he laughed remembering a time when he was young and full of life when his spirit ran free and there was gleam in his eyes as told her your mother was a good one. She wanted to be a dental technician and went to California on Relocation, maybe it was Oakland for school, and I think…anyway that is what someone said one time.

The young woman extended her hand and shook his hand. From far across the valleys of the desert they were for a minute standing within the Four Sacred Mountains, taking a break from the city life, hustle and bustle and remembered the smell of sage, and the taste of cool water and slight breeze over sandstone.

For just a little bit they were just three Navajo sharing a little bit of home. She got on her bus and waved at him as she left and then the handicap bus pulled up and they picked him up. He said he going back to his daughters place over in Mesa and that he sometimes took the bus to just sit there at that bus stop and visit with the people who came by and then he was gone.
rustywire