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A ent by, and I readand afternoon as he sat quietly and listened One afternoon as I was reading, I becaot to read out loud

Sae my attention had been captured by I realized I had been reading silently for at least several seconds

"Whoops!" I giggled "Sorry about that"

He reached over and took the book from my hands "My turn," he said without rancor He found the place whereout loud in his deep baritone I had always been the one to read, so I was taken aback at his sudden willingness to be the reader

He spoke English perfectly, but his voice had a different cadence, the words delivered almost in a rhythm - and his tone stayed constant and unvaried, without the rise and fall that a storyteller adopts to convey e pulled into it as I had, just mooing to look up that word?"

I shookto admit I hadn’t the faintest idea which word I needed to look up

"Spelling?" I said evasively, to cover norance

"Where are you today?" He said "Your mind is everywhere"

"I was listening to your voice," I flushed at aveI’ve read" He countered ain He lowered his eyebrows in a scowl, not understanding me

I tried to explain to him how his voice didn’t seem to rise and fall in the saht perhaps I haddifferent, flaunting his Navajo heritage one ry if sohtful as he spoke He chose his words carefully, as if he’d never considered theuages on Earth Froe, not a written language If you don’t learn it as a child, it is al different We use four tones e speak - high, low, rising, and falling When the voice rises or falls, in Navajo, it can mean a completely different word For instance, the words ‘mouth’ and ‘medicine’ are pronounced the same, but they are said with different tones The same word, but…not the same word at all Do you understand? Maybe that is hen a Navajo speaks English he says each syllable with the saht about what he’d said for athe ansould cause hie to you when I speak?"

My heart twisted a little at his vulnerability I shook ht…I don’t think uess I have an ear for music, and the rhythm of your voice sounds like music to me, that’s all"

I smiled up at hi crowd gathered after school on the wide open field that separated the junior high fronored the excited shouts and the kids rushing to get in on the action I couldn’t see who the crowd had gathered around, but the bus had not arrived, so I found a spot next to the bus stop to wait, settingon it so I wouldn’t geta stretch of warrass stuck up here and there between icy patches It was cold enough to be unpleasant, the as alorst at the mouth of the canyon where the two schools sat Utah weather is the most sporadic, unpredictable weather in the country Folks co, only to have to replant twiceoff We’ve had snow in June and none in December in the same year It was November now, and Mother Nature had teased us with snow in October, only to have Nove the bare trees andinto thethe bus would coled her tiny self into the ht firsthand

"Mr Bracken is co!" A frantic shout went up across the field Mr Bracken was the principal of the high school and was a pretty genial and likeable sort, but no one doubted that anyone found fighting would be expelled upon discovery The kids scattered i to be questioned or reprimanded, and descended upon the bus stop in droves The bus lu and jostling for position I was not aggressive enough to maintain, hands hanging onto her thick shoulder straps to keep it in place

"Oh ushed when she was still several feet away "That indian kid was fighting three different boys Joby Jenkins and a couple of his friends were calling him half-breed and he went crazy Joby’s friends tried to hold his aruy has a chipped tooth and Joby has a bloody nose The Indian kid ht his hand on the kid’s tooth because his hand was all bloody!"