Buffalo Mesa Mummy

Chapter 5

All three of the friends worked quickly with Peter touching up the photos and videos while Charlie placed the finished ones where they needed to be on the website. Maria helped them both, suggesting changes in detail as they worked. The work was about half finished when Mrs. Shantos called them for supper.

The twin’s Aunt Kachina, whose name meant Sacred Dancer, was visiting and so they were having traditional Navajo tacos consisting of a plate size piece of fry bread, smothered with chili, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and salsa. They also had blue corn mush and blue corn chips with Navajo tea.

“Where’s dad?” Maria asked when they were seated at the table.

“He had to go up to Santa Fe for a couple days. For some reason they needed someone that could speak traditional Apache and was familiar with Apache rock art.” Mrs. Shantos explained.

“Aunt Kachina came over to visit and help plan your Kinaalda.” Mrs. Shantos.

The Kinaalda was the coming of age ceremony for a Navajo girl. Celebrated outdoors and in the family Hogan, it was composed of four days of prayer, ritual, feasting, running, and rejoicing. Usually the Kinaalda took place when a girl reached puberty. Maria had obviously passed that point without having the ceremony. 

When her mother found out that the elders of the tribe had decided to hold a Kinaalda for girls that did not live on the reservation she asked Maria if she would be interested. More than a dozen girls near Maria’s age and even older had said they wanted to have the ceremony and Maria had been excited about taking part.

Their family attended Our Lady of the Resurrection, but the Priest had no problem with the parishioners taking part in traditional ceremonies as long as it was for a cultural experience. Father Victorio was a Navajo himself and a good friend of the Shantos. He had even helped them get over some of the cultural differences they had faced after getting married, being from two very different tribes.

“What are you young ones up to? You have been working on your computer for a long time.” Kachina asked Charlie, who was just finishing a big bowl of Navajo Peach Crisp, his favorite desert.

Charlie started to explain and then decided it would be easier to show her, so they all moved into his bedroom. His aunt found it all very interesting and was soon traveling through The Town with the computer mouse. She said that when she had been a little girl she had visited the old ghost town with her father. When Kachina had finished she left the others to finish the website while she and Maria’s mother went into the living room to talk.

Around two o’clock in the morning Peter leaned back in the chair, rubbed his eyes briskly, and announced, “That’s it.”

Maria, had been sitting cross-legged on Charlie’s bottom bunk reading about what would take place when she had her Kinaalda, She jumped up and went over to where Peter sat at the computer and checked over the finished website. Charlie had fallen asleep an hour before and snored lightly on the floor with a pillow on top of his head. 

A soft knock sounded at the door and Maria went and peeked out. Her mother stood there in a robe and she came inside when Maria pulled the door all the way open. She smiled at Charlie asleep on the floor.

“Almost done?” She asked.

“Finished. I just sent Dad an email and let him know everything is ready to go.” Peter answered, stretching and yawning.

“I am sure it’s great, but right now I think…” Mrs. Shantos said, poking Charlie with a foot and waking him. “all of you need to get a little sleep. Remember, tomorrow Father Victorio is expecting you to help move the storage shed behind the youth hall.”

Charlie moaned and slowly got to his feet, making his way to the bunk Maria had been sitting on. He collapsed on the bed and pulled his pillow over his head again. A moment later he was asleep again.

Maria followed her mother from the room as Peter pulled himself up to the top bunk and quickly fell asleep. Maria reached back into the room and turned off the lights. She kissed her mother on the cheek and went to her room, staggering a little from exhaustion.

There were a half dozen other kids already at the youth hall when the three of them arrived. Peter was anxious to get back up to The Town with the Rover. As soon as they finished at the church Peter planned to load the Mule with the Rover and some other items and then pick up Charlie and Maria at their house.

The storage building was a ten foot square shed mounted on a palate just outside the back door of the Youth Hall at Lady of the Resurrection. The priest wanted to move it about thirty feet from where it now sat in order to make room for a basketball court. The building needed to be unloaded first and it had been several years since it had even been opened.

Once the door was unlocked and opened Peter was amazed at just how much stuff could fit in a small building. The priest organized them into two groups. Peter and Charlie were in the unloading group and Maria was in the sorting group. The unloading group began removing the items inside and laying them out in rows, where the other kids organized the stuff into piles. Most of the things that came out of the shed went immediately into the “throw this away because we are not even sure which century it was put in the shed” pile.

By the time the small building was unloaded, moved and reloaded with such items as could be of any value, it was well past noon. 

Father Victorio had the church’s large grill up and running, and a couple of the ladies were flipping hamburgers. Father Victorio laughed and remarked that he would need to plan a sermon on the need to see that children were fed properly, since by the way the burgers were disappearing, it was obvious none of them had eaten in days.

Afterwards they played some pickup basketball and as usual, the Priest trounced the rest of them. It was a lot of fun, but by the time they broke up the three friends were anxious to get going.

Charlie and Maria went to their house while Peter headed home to get the Mule and his gear. He rode fast and only an hour passed before he was pulling out of his yard, headed to the Shantos place.