PARENTHOOD

Chapter Forty Nine

(Three months later...)

Rain hugged Awinita and Nelak when they came into the house. Nelak was carrying two large bags with him while Awinita carried a smaller bag.

"Hey Sis, great to see ya," Awinita said. "Is the Doctor here?"

"No, he and Alan took Dex, Chas and Chris to some father/son festival on the planet Bana, they won't be back for awhile."

"Well, Nelak and I went to an Indian Powwow in Oklahoma City and we brought you guys some gifts, both you and Alan's family."

"How was the powwow?" Rain asked as she closed the door behind them.

"It was wonderful. I love going to them," Awinita said. "But it's kinda irritating sometimes because people are always surprised that I know so much about Cherokee history and culture when I'm this tall, blonde haired, blue eyed woman. They also get a kick outta Nelak's hair."

"Who doesn't?" Rain said, tousling his hair.

Awinita smiled when Namid and Sokanon came down the stairs toward them.

"Hi, Uncle Nelak and Aunt Awinita!" Sokanon said as she held her sister's hand.

"Hi, guys, guess what? We have some presents for you," Awinita said.

"Ooo, what?" Namid said.

"Well, sit down on the couch and we'll show you," Awinita said.

Rain, Sokanon and Namid sat down on the sofa while Nelak and Awinita sat down in the chairs next to them. She reached into one of the bigger sacks first and pulled out a large mandala. It was a rawhide shield that was stretched over a wooden frame that had rawhide wrapped around it. At the bottom of the frame were several raven feathers. She turned it around and showed her the painting on the rawhide. Rain gasped when she saw it. At the top of the mandala someone had painted her husband's head. Beside him was an identical head except the face was white with a red lighting bolt running from under his right eye to the middle of his right cheek. Next to him was Rain and around the mandala in a circle was all the Doctor's children. In the center of them all was a large raven's head. Namid oooed when Rain showed her what it looked like.

"This is gorgeous, Nita," Rain said.

"Thanks. I paid to have it done from a very talented artist who was selling a bunch of handmade ones at the arts and crafts show they had there. We had them do two of them and then came back a day later to get them. The man who painted them is also psychic and can tell people what their animal totems are. I gave the man photographs of you and the Doctor and all the kids and he painted the heads on there but he told me that he saw that your husband had the power of the thunderstorm inside him. Makes sense since he's known as the Oncoming Storm. That's what this duel image is. The lightning bolt under his eye represents his power. And the raven is his totem since the raven is the Thunderbird."

"Cool!" Sokanon said.

"And that's why he put raven's feathers underneath it. Anyway, we think it's gorgeous."

"So do I," Rain said. "He'll love this and this'll definitely go above our TV."

"And I had him paint one for Alan," Awinita said, handing her the mandala and pulling out the other one.

She held it up and turned it around. The man had painted Alan at the top with a duel image of him with a white face that had thick black lines around the eyes and mouth and two black dots on his cheeks. Rose was beside him and his children were spaced around in a circle. In the center was a coyote and hanging down from the frame were thin strips of coyote fur. Rain raised her eyebrow when she noticed that Tia was painted both in her human form and her Ulu form next to it.

"You told him that Tia was an Ulu?" she said to her.

"No, I gave him a photo of her as a human but he told me that he felt compelled to paint her in her Ulu form. Except he called it an Avatar being with white hair which is accurate, I guess. But he told me that Alan's totem is the coyote because the coyote is a trickster being who likes playing pranks and doing things out of the ordinary that to most people look like foolishness but in the end coyote's actions have great wisdom behind them. Same with the duel image. It's the Clown Kachina. Another being that acts like a fool but is in reality very wise."

"That's Alan to a tee," Rain said.

"I thought so too. We think he'll love it."

"Oh, I know he will, so will Rose. Don't know if Tia will be thrilled about her human form being on the mandala but at least he painted her real form too."

"And I think Alan will be pleased that his totem is different from the Doctor's since he's tried so hard to be a different person than him," Nelak added as Awinita nodded in agreement.

"Coyote fits him perfectly. Actually, it fits all the clones. I wonder if all of them have the same totem?" Rain said.

"Dunno, but it would be worth finding out. They'd probably like to know anyway," Awinita said. "But for the moment, I have to give Soki and Mi-mi their gifts."

Both girls leaned forward in anticipation as Awinita reached into one of the large sacks and gave them two medium sized red boxes. Both girls opened them as Rain leaned over and watched. Sokanon gasped when she saw a handmade kachina doll nestled in tissue paper.

"Oh, that's beautiful," Rain said as she pulled it out.

Namid felt around the inside of her box and pulled out another kachina doll. Rain showed her what it looked like and she ooed at it.

"What is it?" Namid asked.

"They're kachina dolls, baby," Rain said. "Yours is called the Rainbow Kachina and yours, Soki, is Corn Maiden Kachina. They're the representation of sacred Hopi and Zuni Indian spirits that live in the mountains around their pueblos. They represent many things in nature and they're very helpful beings. The Corn Maiden helped purify women who grind corn for ceremonies and Rainbow Kachinas bring peace and harmony among the tribes."

Sokanon stared at hers. It was made out of wood and depicted a dancer wearing a woman's dress with buckskin leggings. She wore a cape and had a yellow mask on with black rectangular slits for eyes. At the bottom of the mask was red cords of rope with three eagle feathers over them. The hair was in maiden's whorls which resembled Princess Leia's hairdo in Star Wars. She was carrying a plate with three ears of blue corn on it. Namid's kachina was wearing fur leggings with a buckskin loincloth. There was a tuft of fur under the white mask that had the same black eye slits in it. Above the mask was an arch of yellow blue and red colors and above that were rainbow tufts of feathers. The dancer carried two red fans in her hands. Namid held the image in her mind's eye while she ran stroked the tufts of feathers.

"We got them from two different vendors. That's why Soki's is wood and Mi-mi's is leather and fur and feathers. We figured you might like those."

Both girls got up and hugged them both tightly.

"I'm glad you like them. Now, for Chas, we got a thunder kachina since he's the Doctor's son.

She pulled out another box and showed them. The male kachina's mask was turquoise with the eye slits, an upside down triangular nose and two parallel lines on either side of the nose. Under the mask was a circular rim of fur and above it was something that resembled a boy's beanie cap with propeller. The beanie cap part was red and orange and lined in black and white and the propeller-like part was red and jutted out on four sides. It had on moccasins, leggings, a white loincloth that with black lines around the edge, two white sashes crisscrossed his bare, bluish chest. Two turquoise armbands were around his upper arms and he was holding blue and black rattles in his hands.

"And for Chris, I got him a clown kachina because of his dad."

She showed it to them. The clown kachina had the same face that Alan's painting did. It was dressed in a long outfit that resembled black and white stripped longjohns or the stereotypical prisoner's outfit. On his head was a black and white beanie-like cap with two long horn-like attachments that were also black and white with brown tufts of feathers at the end. It wore white leather boots and his hair was pulled back and tied up to resemble a sideways bow. In both hands he carried slices of watermelon. Rain and the girls admired the two male Kachinas while Awinita reached into the sack and pulled out a couple more large boxes.

"They also had food there and I brought back some fry bread and buffalo burgers for you guys," she said, giving the boxes to Rain.

"Thanks, Sis. You did get some for Alan, right?"

"Do you think I'm an idiot? I wouldn't dream of not getting that eating machine anything lest he whine," she teased.

"What did you get?" Rain asked her.

She reached into the smaller sack and showed her a small handpainted drum that had a thunderbird painted on it. It came with a small drumstick and she handed it to Rain as she and the children admired it.

"He, on the other hand, had to have this..."

She pulled out a tomahawk with a stone head, wooden handle and two eagle feathers tied to it. Rain raised her eyebrow.

"You gonna use this on your wife?" she said to Nelak.

"if she gets out of line, I will," he said as Awinita swatted him.

They put the gifts back and Rain went to warm up some of the burgers and fry bread for her and the children.

"So, how have you been?" Nelak asked the children. "Staying out of trouble?"

"Yup, we're good girls," Sokanon said.

"Why don't I believe that?" Nelak said as they giggled.

He noticed a bulge in Sokanon's jeans pocket and pointed to it.

"What's that?"

"Oh, that's Daddy's ring," she said, pulling it out and showing him the gold ring.

Nelak and Awinita glanced at each other.

"Hey, heard anything more from that princess who wants your husband?" Nelak yelled.

"No and God willing, we won't hear anything," Rain yelled back. "I doubt if they know where he's at. He's gone all the time and besides, his address is a PO box not an actual address. Who knows how long ago that thing was mailed."

She came out into the hallway.

"And if that princess does come here, I'll be using your tomahawk to scalp her ass," she said.

"I'll be sure to leave the tomahawk here then," Nelak said as the children giggled.

Rain winked at him and went back into the kitchen while he and Awinita chatted with the children.

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