by Bella Knight
"You're lucky you can feel your toes," said Xenia. "You should have been paralyzed. Your brain is rewiring itself, and now you can talk. You'll have to learn to walk again, and ride again. You'll be in a wheelchair for many months. Your life is gonna suck. The point is..."
"I have a life," said Wraith.
"And a husband and a wife, and your sisters in the Valkyries, and friends from your DEA days that stop by. And me."
"And you," said Wraith."
"So, accept that it sucks. Take up coloring with one hand. Read books. Write dirty novels." Wraith laughed. "Watch every movie that's ever been made, and pop some popcorn, or drink some soda. Relax. I know that goes against our code. But, never, ever take what you have for granted. I did. I made our lives much worse because I couldn't accept things the way they were. Took the trust of a loving mother and threw it out the window.”
"You were ten," said Wraith. "A bit too young to think deep."
"Yes, but the lesson still stands. If you don't accept the current suckiness, then your life will get a lot worse as you drive everyone who loves you away. Now, give me your tablet. I'll show you how to use your library card to download eBooks."
"I can do that?" asked Wraith.
"Damn right," said Xenia. Wraith looked over her shoulder as Xenia showed her how to log in.
Brain Points
Lieutenant "Wild Bill" Williams, Corporal Thandie Wells, and Specialist Saleem Jeffries showed up on a Monday morning on the backs of Harleys from Minnesota, Washington, and Alabama. They were given billets, and brought to their jobs the first day. The two Iron Knights and the Valkyrie stayed to help. Robert helped, along with all the boys of Chayton and Nantan's household. They poured cement the first day, ate a huge lunch, and went off to help Nico with a second job before a huge dinner back at the farmhouse, and before calling it a day and heading home. The second day they learned bike fundamentals. On the third day, they added framing, extended the roof, and began roofing, under the direction of Tito's roofing subcontractor, Dalim. Dalim even had the boys up, showing them how to stand and how to pound nails. No one fell off the roof. Then, the outside walls went up, and the ducts, pipes, and wiring were installed for both the upstairs and downstairs, with the floor put down for the upstairs apartment, and then they called it a day. They learned insulation and drywall the next day, and the plumber and the electrician checked things out. The boys loved hanging the glass tile in the shared bathroom, and the bedroom got bamboo floors and closet doors.
Robert absolutely loved building his sister's place. He called Suni, and begged her to come. "My bike is in there, and there's a table and bins for me to disassemble the bike. I'm going to get the engine on the block tomorrow."
"What reason do I have to come?" said Suni. "You have a bike shop. Where is my wheel?"
"We put the wheel in the middle, right under the two windows. There's cubbies for clay, and slip, oh, and washes and paints. Then, there is the jewelry stand in the other corner, separated by a wall so the clay doesn't travel. Trays for stones, and a table and rolling chair like you enjoy --and silver solder."
"Ah," said Suni. "Who am I to be far from my people?"
"David lives here. He is the medicine man for the res. He will sing sacred songs with you."
"What of the carvings?" asked Suni. "I will miss Davis. He makes the most excellent carvings."
"He is also your love?" asked Robert.
"He is," said Suni.
"He doesn't need a huge workshop," said Robert. "He can carve while sitting outside, or when watching the horses prance."
"I will think on it," said Suni.
"You can stay where you are," said Robert. "Of course, the Zuni Nation is beautiful. It is much drier here. More wind. But, you can choose to live here, and I will help you in any way I can. You have the stories, and so does Davis. We can make books for our people with the old stories." He realized what she really wanted. "You can come visit. Bring Davis. He will like it here for a while, I think."
"We will come," said Suni. "We will spend some time thinking about what to bring."
At first, he was upset that his new friends had gone to all that work and expense, only to have his sister, who had begged to come live with him before (many times), and not stay permanently. Then, he thought of the other Soldier Pack, as the Wolfpack called them, and he realized that may end up being a blessing. She could give lessons, he thought. So could Davis. He liked Davis. Where his sister was round, Davis was tall, and with a narrow face and piercing eyes that missed nothing. His Zuni name translated to Eagle Sees, a very powerful name. The day is not over, he told himself. He began to take the mangled bike apart.
He rotated, two hours on the bike, two hours putting Zuni into books. He asked his people for pictures --there were incredible artists on the res. Painters, and Davis and his fetish carvings, and Suni and her bowls. He got Reynaldo Hawi to illustrate the books, and began typing up stories in both Zuni and English.
Vu was very excited. "Ask the illustrator how much he wants. We will pay you too, of course."
Robert was very pleased. He sent the text of his first book to Reynaldo, and asked for illustrations. "Less words, more powerful," said Reynaldo. Robert agreed, and began editing. Reynaldo asked to do two more illustrations for more money, as he liked them both, and Robert and Vu agreed.
Meanwhile, the bike's engine was mounted on his block. He went for the dusky red, and yellows and blacks of the sacred paintings, and painted the new fenders and gas tank himself. The boys were eager to help, and delighted to watch him paint with zigzags, dots for corn, lines for rain, and the lizard for rain as well. They called it the Lizard Bike. He had Ghost over to help with the kids.
"This bike be da bomb," she said. "Boys, dis be a real artist. You all watch him, ya heah?" They all nodded. "Now, see how he got the parts ready? Dis one first, den dat one?" She pointed to the table where the parts were all clean and laid out. "He be ready. No one got no bike built by bein' stupid. Be ready."
All four boys nodded. Tam asked, "How do you know what goes first?"
Ghost did a double face plant, slapping her head with each hand. "Dem boys don't know de parts o' de bike. Robert, what in de hell you been teachin' dese boys?" Robert hung his head, making them laugh. "You gotta start with da engine block. Da engine not work, da bike not go, ya heah?" All four boys nodded. "You, Josh, point to da engine." He did, and the others laughed. Ghost smiled wide. "Ya laugh now, but ya gonna get smoked pretty soon. Where's da brake line?"
Soon, the lesson went from humor to actual work. She brought five of her disassembled miniatures, and brought them to what would be his sister's jewelry table.
"Now, dese don't have all da parts. Buildin' a baby one, not da real ting. Now, ya look." She turned on the powerful lens light she used to see up close. "Dis be like a docta wit’ an oper-a-shun. Now, let's do dis." She assembled her miniature bike, in slow motion. "Dis be like the trikes me an' my wife Killa make in da Nighthawks garage. We done started rotatin' so everyone can do one o' da trikes. Robert, ya got out befo' da rotatin.' Everyone dat miss da rotation can come back an' get it. Gonna have to sleep in a hotel if ya done moved, but it be okay. So, ya come and do it, ya heah?"
"Wouldn't miss it," said Robert.
She put it together, naming the parts, and the boys all got a crack. She brought paints; black and silver, and the boys got to paint them, too.
"Be back tomorra ta get dem," she said. "You boys be real-good. If ya learn from Robert heah, ya can learn from me later. But I ain't got no time fo' no stupid folks. Ya gotta be ready."
"We'll be ready," said Nick. The other boys nodded.
"Now, we be gettin' somefin' ta eat. I heah ya Vi makes da best biscuits odda den my woman."
"She's making cheese ones today," said Robert. The boys bolted. "Wash your hands with the green soap!" he called out after them.
Robert helped Ghost clean up. "You sure are good with them," he said to her.
Ghost smiled
. "My wife be tellin' me, you don' raise da boys up right, dey become da problem, not da solution. Dey raised right, dey be da excellent lovas and fathas."
Robert nodded. "Let's get some of those biscuits before the boys eat them all." She laughed, and they headed to the main house.
Ivy handed Aiden to Robert. Aiden grabbed his shirt and babbled. Then she met Ghost with a killer hug --after they washed their hands, of course.
Robert patted his back, and Aiden let out a mighty burp. "Wow," said Robert. "Good one, little dude." Aiden smiled.
"We can't do that anymore," said Tam, disappointed. "Vi says if we burp or fart at the table, we don't get fed."
"Burping after the meal is acceptable," said Vi, putting platters of smoked chicken, biscuits, sliced fruit, and a tomato veggie sauce on the table. "Not before or during the meal." The boys went insane for the food. "Whoever eats too much doesn't get pie," said Vi, and they calmed down.
"Great motivational technique," said Robert. "Withhold food."
"Works for me," said Callie. Henry gave Kiya more Cheerios, distracting her while Callie went to hug Ghost. "Works even better on my wife."
"I resemble that remark," said Ivy, sitting back down and reaching for a biscuit. "Will work for pie."
"Will do almost anything for pie," said Robert. He put Aiden in a high chair, and tied on a bib. Vi came behind him with cheese sticks and cut-up fruit.
"Have a seat and stay awhile," said Henry, smiling at both Robert and Kiya.
"Where are the pixies?" asked Robert. He snagged a chicken leg.
"Out being schooled," said Callie. "Bao took them out for a math game tournament. Inola is with Damia in the barn."
"Of course she is," said Henry. "Girl would live there under a horse blanket."
Ivy bent her head. "We may have to. Bring her down to the big house. Damia's up at oh-god-thirty, anyway. Grace has gotten better, more reasonable, but her ADD treatment works best if she treats life like a constant video game, getting immediate reinforcement online for things gone well. We've got apps for that. So, she's still loud. Less disrespectful, but loud."
Callie took her wife's hand. "Two daughters with incompatible conditions."
"Not that incompatible," said Robert. "Both are brain differences. Both cause the girls to act in ways that those with other brains don't get or understand. Give them 'brain points' for recognizing and accommodating the other's brain. The video game is a great way to do that, for both of them. When they get enough brain points during the day, they get something within the hour or day. Long-term rewards really don't work on either one of them."
Ivy stared at Robert. "Where have you been?" she wailed. "We've needed you for months!"
Henry clapped Robert on the shoulder. "Welcome home," he said. Robert ducked his head to hide the wash of tears.
They altered a video game to make both girls "game" their lives. They got in-game points to dress up their avatars, with potions and the like. They got extra "brain" points as well. Bao contacted the game designers, who promised to add "brain points" on their next iteration. They had many customers with ADHD, and loved the concept. The girls could either use the points internal to the game, or redeem them for external points whenever their parents, or whomever they wanted to redeem them from, were not too busy. The girls loved the idea, and Hu joined in. They got homework, exercise, chore, and brain points. They soon were comparing their avatars, and specifically asked for extra chores they could do. They earned real-world money for the chores.
The Wolfpack was interested in gamification, but didn't like the "baby game." It was too retro, too old-school for them. So, they invented their own, with quests, treasure packs, tons of rewards based on the theme, and added beach, mountain, forest, desert, and city themes, and everything from biking to ultimate sports quests. It could also be set for sword-and-sorcery, modern-day, and futuristic times. Chayton and Bao fielded questions until they made them take game design courses online, and ask their actual professors. They put it under the Wolfpack company name, adding a game division, and the game had several wolves howling in unison on its opening screen. It was called Wolf Day.
"We'll be coding the whole time we're here," said April, excitedly, to Robert, who was helping Mike oversee the Wolfpack. "Get the game to market about the same time we all get our GEDs. We're using the gaming thing as a way to keep ourselves in line, and do gameplay to catch bugs as well." She pulled out her cell tablet. "I added animal and sorcerer avatars. We're thinking of adding a level based on First Nation people, but there's so many languages and cultures. We wouldn't know where to start." She held up her wolf avatar, a gorgeous she-wolf in gray and white.
"Start with the objects," suggested Robert, and carefully clipped the globular Boston lettuce at its base. "Carvings, baskets, blankets, tipis. I know not all of us lived in tipis. Many lived in hogans. Have tipis and hogans all over the place for housing. Caves too. And the Enemy Ancestor dwellings."
"Anasazi," said April, typing the plants into the checklist on her tablet. "Carve a village right into the rock."
"Yep," said Robert. "Could probably get a history paper or six out of it." He moved himself and the cart with its three shelves of baskets over to the spinach, which was coming in beautifully, in a deep green.
"Good," said April. "Thank you. This will make all my chores fly by, thinking of the levels."
"More picking and thinking," said Robert. "Get to those strawberries. If we have enough after the orders, we get strawberry pie."
"Okay," said April. "I'll tell them when we start cutting and packing. They'll get so excited!"
"Nice having a Wolfpack around when you need it," said Robert.
"At first, it was a pain in the butt to get to know everyone, and to remember the names. And the boys are gross, but we set them straight. Dock them points if they fart and burp, and/or act the fool. Now, we're pulling for each other, helping each other in math or science or English, or whatever --if someone gets stuck. We wanna be the Wolfpack that got our GEDs the fastest. We get this game to work, we be making bank, to allow us to go to scholarships. Already applying."
Robert nodded. "I never thought in a million years repairing bikes would be fun, that I could make a living just telling Zuni stories, and that my sister and her boyfriend coming to live here for a while would mean so much to me." He laughed as he finished the spinach. "I used to hate her. We liked very different things. She loves horror movies, the bloodier the scene, the more it makes her laugh. I saw war, don't find that funny at all. She's quiet until she has something to say, then it all comes out at once. She loves a man so quiet I think I've heard him speak twice in his whole life. For me, I need my partner to talk to me, you know?"
"Nope," said April. "Not dating, don't want to date. Gotta know who I am first before I start picking others to hang out with, as more than friends. Here, we're study and business partners. I know some may pair up, but not me. That's a distraction we don't need right now, and I tell them that. Get the hormones out of your head, take a cold shower or something. Once we have our GEDs and can decide where and how we want to live. That is the smart way, otherwise the other stuff can just derail you."
"Happen to someone you know?" asked Robert. He put the full basket of spinach back on the cart and got an empty basket for the radishes.
"Best friend Mimi got pregnant. Guy pretended he didn't know her, you know? Moved away. Mimi got stuck with a little kid. Dropped out. Works at the trading post for next to nothing. Barely keeps her kid in diapers."
"She can replace you here," said Robert. "You could all take turns taking care of the little one while the others study or work."
"She'd replace two of us," said April. "No one will want to room with a mom with a baby."
"You would," said Robert, selecting two more radishes.
"In a heartbeat," said April.
"If you would, so would someone else," said Robert. "Maybe someone just like her, someone with a kid.
April nodd
ed. "Uncle," she said. "We need to talk at least once a week. And rotate so the others can talk to you, too."
Robert blinked his eyes at being called Uncle. It held a special place with his people. "Okay," he said. "Anytime."
Tam, Little Nico, Josh, and Nick. They all wanted to be in on the coding, once April showed a checklisted plan on the main screen in the Wolfpack study room. April made them all invest a dollar, and insisted they do Wolfpack "training chores," like working with Nico or picking strawberries in Hydroponics. They all agreed. "You can use them for your coursework," she said. "I'm doing independent study on architecture."
"That's awesome!" said Little Nico. "The coding stuff we're doing is bor-ring. This is much more fun."
"Remember, you all have to add something First Nationish to my level," said April. "Too many Nations for me to keep up with."
"Cave paintings you actually have to interpret," said Josh. Everyone stared at him. "What?"
"It speaks," said Winnie. Josh threw a foam basketball at her. She caught it out of the air and made a three-pointer with one of the several baskets mounted all along the wall.
"Great idea," said April. "Let's fill up this checklist, and divide up into teams with their own checklists. Our new Wolfpack can find little stuff to add until they get more in the groove." Everyone added to the checklist, then it got divvied up.
"Does anyone else think it's weird that we're using our own program to write our own program?" asked Nick.
"Beta testing," said April. "Besides, this way we get a lot more points, and can play higher levels."
"Let's get some snacks and get this going," said Samma. "I've got time with Ghost tomorrow to learn to build trikes, and I need to clear the decks before that."
Everyone hit the kitchen to fill up on coffee, flavored waters, sodas, and trays of pretzels, peanut butter stuffed pretzels, chips, dips, and sliced veggies. Then, they hit up the coding. Chayton came to pick up the boys to put them in bed, but they wanted to code, and so he simply told them to come up when they were ready.
