Opening chapter of Lakota Skies

“Half-breed – he called me a half-breed!”  

Liah Cloud tore open the pouch of Sweetarts and spread them across the small desk in front of her. She slowly separated the candies into five assorted colors, and as usual, the majority were red. She hated the red, and sometimes she would throw them away. But Labor Day had passed, and football was about to begin – and she needed the red ones so she would have enough to set up two teams in formation on her desk. The orange and green candies made up the Miami Dolphins side – she loved the Dolphins, mainly because she loved the ocean – plus they had won the last two Super Bowls – and it’s easy to cheer for a winner. Thankfully, her mother hadn’t withheld her thirty cents allowance, and she even took her by the 7-Eleven on the way home from school. But now, Liah was confined to her room. Her performance on her first day of middle school did not make her mother happy – and now she was incarcerated with her stuffed animals waiting for supper.

“Half-breed.”

Brett Sullivan had been calling her that since the third grade. Since that day she proudly presented a poster and report on her Cherokee heritage dressed in full costume. Ms. Hammett had given her an “S+” for the project, but the teasing on the playground sent her home to cry into her pillow. That was the very same day her mother taught her to be proud of her heritage and to wear it like a ball gown. It was also the day that she unknowingly began to realize the inherent strength that came from being an integral part of a tribe.

The first day of her life at Wallace Middle School in the West Ashley borough of Charleston had been uneventful – that is until roll call in Home Room happened.

“Lee Cloud,” the teacher called.

“It’s pronounced “Lee-Ah”,” she had answered. She hated having her name said incorrectly.

Then the torment came from Brett Sullivan who was seated directly in front of her. It came quietly enough so that only she could hear.

“Half-breed.”

Liah would forever claim amnesia for the events that followed, but apparently, she stood up and swung her three-ring binder hard enough to knock Brett Sullivan out of his desk and onto the floor. He snapped back up from the floor quickly, slid back into the desk, and started laughing, but Liah could tell his ears were ringing like a five-alarm fire bell as he tried desperately to save face.

So, Liah’s mother, Dr. Mina Cloud, received a phone call downtown at Roper Hospital, and Liah went home for two days to think about her “violent behavior”.

It was starting to get dark outside now, and Liah pressed the righthand button on her fluorescent desk lamp. Then she waited…nothing. She held the button down again and then let go quickly…nothing. “Third times a charm” she thought as she pressed and held the button again…the tubular light flickered and clicked once, then twice, then came on with a loud hum. She tapped the hood over the light and the humming subsided to a low buzz. Then, she opened her desk drawer and pulled out a wrapped plank of Bazooka Joe green apple bubble gum. It cost her ten cents, but she could cut it into twenty pieces and sell them all day long for two cents apiece at school. She reached over and rattled her Tootsie Roll bank and listened to the quarters clanking together. This was her savings to get SCUBA certified when she turned fifteen in four years, because her mother was “not paying for that in my lifetime.” She loved the ocean.

Liah used her steel rounded safety scissors to cut the gum into small squares, and then she placed them all neatly into a sandwich bag, folded over the top, and tucked it in. Then she placed the little bag in her Grimace backpack…why did she still have to carry a Grimace backpack? Wasn’t it free from McDonalds? God! Her Mother was a cheapskate. She hated that too. There was a small tap at the door as it was being opened, and her mother stuck her head through.

“I’ve got some supper ready,” she turned on the overhead light. “Kevin will be home soon…and I have to go back to the hospital for a couple of hours. I can bring your supper in here, but no T.V. tonight.”

It was Tuesday night so there was a bunch of crap on anyway, and Kevin would probably be watching PBS on their only television because he’s “so smart”. Liah hated Kevin. Things were so much better when he was not around. She took the brush from her desk and pulled it through her long dark hair as she pretended to ignore her mother. Then the doorbell rang, and her mother walked away from the door but left it cracked. Liah hated that. For crying out loud close the door. Then she heard her mother’s voice…and it was soft, sweet, and sounded apologetic. She heard her mother coming back toward her room.

“It’s Brett Sullivan and his mother,” Mina pushed the door all the way open. “He would like to apologize.”

“Oh God, Mom! No!”

“Just come out and get it over with.”

“I hate him!”

“Make the peace so we can move on.”

Liah hated it when her mother said that, but she stood up anyway, and walked over to her closet to look for a better shirt to put on. Anything would be better than the tank top she was wearing with that stupid 1972 Smiley face covering the front. She hated that shirt. Her mother bought glasses with green and yellow Smiley faces on them too. She hated those – who was that happy all the time? A cream-colored turtleneck was better – so she slipped it on over the shirt and pulled her hair around to the side, so it flowed down her chest almost to her waist.

“Really?” her mother said.

“Let’s get this over with,” Liah brushed past her mother and went into the living room where Brett and his mother were seated on the Cloud’s hard, itchy, gold colored couch from Dixie Furniture. Yikes, she hated that couch. She plopped down in the matching chair on the other side of the room and leered at Brett.

“Nancy, would you like some tea?” Mina asked as she strolled back into the room trailing her daughter.

“Mom…I have stuff to do.”

“In the breakfast room – so these two can talk it out?” Liah’s mother led Brett’s mother out of the room through the folding doors and Liah heard her mother move and then fill the tea kettle before dropping it back down on the stove with a clang.

“Why are you here, Butt Sullivan?”

“I deserve that I guess,” the boy took both hands and pushed his blond Prince Valiant hair back above his forehead where it hung in clumps – Liah fought the urge to fix it. “I’m sorry,” he said with a small sigh.

“Okay – you did what your mom made you do – so you can leave now,” Liah started to stand up.

“No, Liah. I mean I’m sorry for all of it,” Brett clasped his hands in his lap and folded the gaze of his blue eyes in the same direction.

“It’s tiring,” she sat back down.

“I’m sorry for all the times I have called you, um…you know - that word, and I’m sorry for letting the air out of your tires at the park this summer.”

“That was you?” Liah groaned. “I had to walk home in the dark…pushing my bike with a flat - after the streetlights came on. I was soaking wet from the pool. You got me in trouble!”

“I’m sorry…and it won’t happen again,” Brett looked up at her with a slight grin, and his blue eyes caught her off guard. She was most surely blushing – but her olive skin would never give it away. He was the cutest boy in school. She hated that about him.

They sat in silence until the tea kettle started to whistle and then they both smiled.

“What are you doing this Saturday?” Brett spoke again – finally.

“Why?”

“Bunch of us meeting at the Ultravision to see the Love Bug again.”

“Seen it.”

“Me too, just gonna see it one more time…it’s been held over one more week.”

“So, you can make fun of me in front of your friends some more?” Liah smirked in his general direction.

“I said I was sorry – and I mean it,” she thought he looked a little sad for a brief second or two. “Truth is…” Brett looked down again, “I like you a lot…always have.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“My mom says that I’m being mean because I like you.”

“You really think that?”

“It’s true.”

“So, I should give you a chance?”

“I don’t know why I act the way I do sometimes,” Brett looked down at his Keds. “I’m stupid.”

“Because you are a boy…and boys are idiots,” Liah wondered for a moment if Brett was the one sixth grader who had figured out that acting like a horse’s ass toward girls was no way to make them like you. Some boys thought that the meaner they were – the more the girl would care. Liah hated that. “Okay…I’ll go,” she said.

“Really? that’s awesome,” Brett smiled.

“If you are tricking me, I’ll give you a wedgie so bad you won’t be able to walk until eighth grade,” Liah laughed, but she meant every word of it.

Mina closed the front door behind the Sullivans and watched them as they went down the walk and turned to head up Dartmoor Circle. When they reached the first yellow streetlight, she flipped off the front porch light. Kevin Porter was just swinging his ugly green Chevy Impala station wagon into the driveway as its’ lights splashed out onto the street across the front yard and rolled quickly past the massive hedge of azaleas across the street and behind the neighbor’s house. He jumped out of the car without noticing the movement of the bushes as he hurried through the side door, and then he let the screen door slam behind him.

The old man had turned his back to the light and pushed further into the dense patch of azaleas. He did not mind mosquitoes so much, but he was not used to the fire ants, which had unfortunately found him many times. He hated the ants. It would be a long humid night, but sleeping outside was nothing new to him. He knew how to be patient. He could wait – he had done it before many times. The man watched Liah’s window until her light went out. She was going to sleep. He knew right where she would be for the night, so he closed his own eyes. Maybe tomorrow would be the day. But he was a patient man. It would not be long now before he caught Liah Cloud all by herself.