Thunder

Thunder: Chapter 1

  Tama:

“Shut up Dakarai!” I yelled at him.

“Why…, I’m not touching you,” he said, staring at me with a teasing grin.

He was already seven and had learned all the ‘annoying things to get your sister mad’, and had used all of them at least twice this whole car trip. Mom said this was going to be a trip we would never forget, and all I wanted to do is forget about it and go back home to my own bed. I was a 17 year old senior girl in high school, sending out all the applications for colleges I was planning to go to when I was dragged out here to see ‘long lost family’ I had forgot about when I was nine. I looked out the window into the grassy plain. There standing in animal skin shorts was a boy. The boy had caramel skin with long, thick black hair, just like me, he had big eyes but I couldn’t see them clearly through the hair the wind was blowing in his face. He had two speckled feathers in his hair, probably from a hawk, I thought. A bow and arrow hanged loosely from his right hand while his left waved, his pinkish-brown lips twitching nervously into a smile.

As I watched I hadn’t realized that mom was asking my name, “Tama, do you know who that is?” she asked as if I were a child, “No mom, I don’t,” I answered.

 Mom keeps talking saying how we used to come to visit our family all the time when I was little and wanted to go every day. It was only when she mentioned a boy I loved to play with that I pulled myself out of my self-induced daze. She said the boys name was Taima. I recognized the name immediately as a picture of a caramel skinned boy popped into my head only this time a bit chubbier and his eyes were visible between the bangs, barely held back by the small ponytail on the back of his head. When we reached the village Dakarai hopped out of our lonely car and ran to the nearest horse, spooking the huge brown. I looked to the east. A shudder rippled through my body. There appearing from the trees, hair blowing in the stormy wind, was Taima, with blood spilling over his chin from his cheek.

۞Taima:

I stood there in the rain looking out into the stormy sky. She was coming. I could feel her very essence. She was coming with her family in a car. I could hear the car now about an hour off in the distance. It was quiet, very quiet.

Then, “Taima, why don’t you come back to the village with us to greet our family? They’re supposed to be family, at least the mother and the youngest daughter, and maybe the little boy…,”Said my big brother, Dyami.

I felt my mouth creeping into a grin when he said, “well at least that’s what I heard.”

A little bit later, after he stopped talking, Dyami headed back towards the village. I was about to follow when I heard the car coming much closer. I turned around and looked into the back window. And there she was. She was even more beautiful than I imagined or remembered. I smiled hesitantly and then picked up my left hand and waved slightly, my bow and arrow, moving slightly, was in the other hand.  At that moment my hair had chosen to blow across my face obscuring my view of her. The car drove away, leaving a dust trail behind and me alone. I started to run towards the village through a shortcut in the woods that was well worn. Being much clumsier than usual, I tripped over a log and fell hard on my arm. I felt something dribbling down my face and figured it had started to rain. I got up and started to run again through the forest being much more careful this time. I got to the clearing where the car was parked. I glanced around hurriedly, and there she was. Her mouth was open showing beautiful teeth and perfectly pink lips contrasting wonderfully with her almond skin. She looked at me with startled eyes. Why is she looking at me like that? I thought.

۞Tama:

He was totally oblivious to fact that there was a huge gash on the side of his face. He walked forward but not before a bigger boy caught him by the arm and said, “Taima what the hell happened to you?”

Taima looked at him weird and asked, “What do you mean, Dyami? I'm perfectly fine, just look at me,”

“I am. That’s why I’m asking… you have a huge cut on the side of your face”

Taima’s hand reached up and touched the cut; it came back with blood dripping off his fingertips. He looked at me and I stared back, looking into his eyes for the first time was an adventure. Our eye contact was broken when a woman stepped in front of him with some gooey looking green stuff held in a clay bowl. She dipped her fingers in the bowl and smeared it across the cut while saying some words I couldn’t understand. Taima looked at her,

“Thank you, Angeni,” With which she responded, “Any time, young one,” and she walked away towards a strange little hut, skipping slightly.

 I looked away from Taima and towards my parents who were talking to a couple that looked like they were in control of the place. “Tama…Dakarai! Come here!”

 I walked over to the rulers of my life. Dakarai was right behind me still waving at the horse.

          “Tama, Dakarai, this is Chief Tyee and his wife, Hantaywee. They are the mother and father of Taima," Mom introduced.

Chief Tyee and Hantaywee looked at me with disbelieving eyes, “You are Tama? You have grown much since I saw you last, which was… what?”

“Eight years ago,” I finished for her.

Just then Taima walked over, greeting his mother with a hug and his father with a slight bow of his head, then he turned and looked at me with big, dreamy eyes. Unexpectedly he gave me a hug. I could smell the earthy scent of him and it sent electric shocks of adrenaline through my blood, making goose-bumps on my arms. He noticed.

 “Are you cold Tama? I could take you inside by the fire, if you would like?”

 I was so shocked that he whispered this in my ear that I just nodded. “I will take Tama to the house, Mother, and have her sit by the fire,” but his mother was already talking to my mother about something. I felt him release me from the embrace and pull me towards a trail that went into the woods.

۞Taima:

She let me pull her towards the house only stopping once when she stumbled on an uplifted root. She looked at me when we got to the steps of the cabin, “Are you okay?”

I looked at her said without thinking, “Now that I'm with you, yes.”