Nightway by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online

through the sand-colored hair the hat had pressed down. As he unbuttoned and shrugged out of his sheepskin-lined coat, he glanced at Hawk. “Why don’t you take your coat off, Hawk? You’ll be too warm in the house if you keep it on.”
    Unlike the white man who takes action, even if it’s wrong, it was the way of The People when caught in a situation they had never experienced to do nothing until they discovered how they were supposed to act. Rawlins’ suggestion was the first indication to Hawk as to what the correct procedure was. He stood up and began unfastening his coat.
    “Yes, and wash your hands,” the woman instructed. “In this house, we wash our hands before we eat.”
    Rawlins motioned him onto the porch, taking Hawk’s jacket and hanging it on the hook next to his. When Rawlins walked to the sink, Hawk followed him.The man turned on the faucets, letting the water run while he wet his hands and lathered them with the bar of soap. Like the white teachers, he used water as if there were a limitless supply. Hawk was silently critical of the water that was being wasted, but he said nothing, and he washed his hands, too. All white men were foolish and wasteful, he decided. It would have taken him two trips to the well to carry as much water as the man, Rawlins, was letting run away. He dried his hands on the cloth that was given to him. Returning to the kitchen in the wake of Rawlins, Hawk sat down again in the chair he had previously occupied.
    “Is the coffee hot yet, honey?” Rawlins questioned the woman.
    “It’s on the stove,” she said, nodding with her head.
    Hawk watched Rawlins take a white porcelain cup from a cupboard shelf and walk to the stove to pour a cup. Rawlins glanced up as Hawk was breathing in the aroma of the strong coffee, and he smiled.
    “Would you like a cup of coffee, Hawk?” he asked. He moved his chin downward in a single, affirmative nod, and Rawlins reached inside the cupboard for another cup like his.
    “You aren’t going to give him coffee,” the woman protested. “It will stunt his growth.”
    The man, Rawlins, just smiled and ignored her, filling the second cup with coffee and then carrying both to the table. “It will grow hair on your chest, won’t it, Hawk?” he winked. But Hawk couldn’t imagine why that should be a thing he would want, so he made no comment.
    “You really aren’t going to let him drink that!” The woman frowned in ill temper. “He’s just a boy.” She walked to the table, bringing a plate that had meat between two slices of white bread.
    “Navaho children are accustomed to drinking coffee and tea, Vera,” Rawlins explained. “Besides, after being outside in the cold, it will help warm him up.”
    His sore and swollen jaw made chewing painful and forced Hawk to eat slowly. The little girl climbed on her father’s lap while he ate some of the cookies and told her how good they were. When Hawk finished the sandwich, he ate the two cookies the girl had brought him and sipped at the scalding-hot coffee.
    “Why is he so quiet, Daddy?” The little girl twisted around on Rawlins’ lap to look up into his face.
    “Why do you talk so much?” was his teasing response.
    She giggled. “Maybe the cat’s got his tongue.”
    “I doubt it. Unlike you, he probably doesn’t talk unless he has something important to say.” Rawlins tapped a finger on the button nose of the girl.
    “Where’s your mommy and daddy?” An unblinking pair of green eyes was fixed on Hawk.
    “He’s an orphan, Carol.” Hawk’s gaze darted swiftly to the man holding the girl and answering the question for him. “He doesn’t have a mommy and daddy anymore. They went away.” The explanation confirmed what Hawk had suspected. His father was still his father, but not in the same way anymore.
    “Doesn’t he have
anybody?”
The little girl’s eyes rounded into limpid green pools.
    “I am alone,” Hawk answered truthfully. It wasn’t said in an attempt to