The Sheep Walker's Daughter

by Sydney Avey

  “Okay then, you got it. I’ll go buy a really absorbent shirt.”

  Next, I think about calling Father Mike or driving to Los Altos to see him. I don’t do it though. Instead, I sit on my bench at Carmel River State Beach and talk to God. I am just learning to pray. Instead of asking questions, I pour out my sadness and frustration, anger and disappointment. These emotions are like a deep well to which I add my fear of being hurt and disappointed. I add a little hope that things might turn out well for everyone. Then I go home, seal and stamp my acceptance, and mail it.

  Valerie has been in Bakersfield for two weeks getting ready for the big day. How does she maintain her standing at Stanford? Where does she stay when she’s in Bakersfield? I imagine the possibilities. One attribute I have discovered that I hold in common with my mother is how important it is for a single woman to maintain a good reputation, but Valerie’s generation seems unconcerned with propriety. I walk a tightrope in my relationship with my adult daughter that stretches between openness and circumspection. I won’t ask. I just pray she isn’t doing anything that would jeopardize her future happiness.

  When I pull the Bel Air into the hotel parking lot, I’m so nervous that I’m shaking. I haul a big suitcase out of the trunk of my car. I couldn’t decide between three different outfits for the ceremony, so I brought them all. I check in at the desk and go up to my room. On the desk by the phone is a note from Valerie that directs me to call her the minute I get in. She’s in room 403.

  Valerie picks up the phone on the first ring. “Mom,” she says in a practiced, mature, calm voice. “Aunt Alaya is here.”

  “Here? Here in Bakersfield? Here in the hotel?”

  “Yes, she’s here in the hotel. She’s come with her husband and the twins. What do you want, Mom? Do you want to meet her alone or with her family?”

  “What does she want?”

  “I think we’ll get the two of you together first.”

  Five minutes later Valerie knocks on my door. I’m still wearing the slacks and blouse I drove here in, but I’ve combed my hair and refreshed my makeup. If I look disheveled, Valerie doesn’t comment. She takes my hand and we walk down the hallway, down the stairs, through the lobby, and through smoked-glass doors into a small parlor. I try to decide where to stand. I go to the window that faces the door and half sit on the window ledge, crossing my legs at the ankle and jiggling a foot. Valerie is making small talk, asking me about the drive, burbling on about the preparations for the ceremony.

  Two shadows appear at the door, and Valerie falls quiet. The door squeaks open and Pilar enters the room with Alaya in tow. Then Pilar signals Valerie, and they both leave.

  An electric jolt spins through my body as I look over at a trimmer version of myself standing elegant and still before me. Dressed in a white shawl-collared blouse tucked into a black pencil skirt, my sister searches my face with familiar dark chocolate eyes and I see Leora’s ironic smile begin to form on her lips. Funny, I never see anything of Leora when I look at myself in the mirror, but I see Leora written all over Alaya. I am being presented with a rare opportunity.

  Character is bred over generations. In my profound ignorance of what caused our mother to disconnect from intimate relationships and forge a solitary life, I never thought about what restless spirit drove her. Alaya and I are two sides of a coin—where she is peaceful I am restless, and those qualities both come from our mother. We both missed the opportunity to pry family history out of Leora, but now we have a chance to talk to each other, to piece together some of this puzzle that is our family.

  These thoughts occur to me in the flash it takes me to push myself up from the window ledge and move toward her. We burst into tears and fall on each other—the years fade and it’s as if we were toddlers making up after a fuss, not forty-seven-year-old strangers. We cling and sob and laugh and try to talk. We sit side by side on a settee in a corner of the room, hold hands, and marvel at how we mirror each other.

  “We are mirror twins,” Alaya says. “Papito told me that. That means we separated late in the womb. You are left-handed?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m right-handed.”

  This twin thing is a whole new universe.

  We agree that there will be time to share our experiences, to piece together our parents’ story, to fill in the missing years. I tell her that I look forward to meeting her husband and my nephews. I open her hand and place a gift in it, the sheep bell with the inscription Ardi galdua atzeman daiteke, aldi galdua berriz ez. She reads it in the old language. Then she translates for me: Lost sheep may be recovered. Lost time cannot.

  We can’t restore the past, but over time we can reconfigure the family. This weekend we will stand together and celebrate that we are Moragas, that we are Basque, and that we have a legacy to perpetuate.

  Epilogue

  Epilogue

  I n June, I meet Roger at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. He’s made dinner reservations at Tavern on the Green. We have tickets to see Cole Porter’s Silk Stockings and plans to visit as many art galleries as our feet will carry us through. I have another thought as well.

  “Roger? Do you happen to know where the Greek part of New York City is?”

  Resources

  Resources

  While “The Sheep Walker’s Daughter” is entirely a work of fiction, it is true that Basque communities thrive in the United States. Many Basque Clubs sponsor festivals and work to educate next generation Basques about their culture and heritage. To find out if there is a club in your area, visit the North American Basque Organization’s website: www.nabasque.org/new_nabo_test/index.html.

  More information about Euskara, the Basque language, can be found on the NABO website: www.nabasque.org/euskara.htm.

  Universities that feature Basque Studies programs are:

  University of Nevada, Reno: http://basque.unr.edu/

  Boise State University: http://sspa.boisestate.edu/ basquestudies/

  Be sure to view the Pinterest boards for “The Sheep Walker’s Daughter”! Start with http://www.pinterest.com/chalfonthouse/the-sheep-walkers-daughter-by-sydney-avey/

  Acknowledgments

  Acknowledgments

  Grateful thanks to the Center for Basque Studies, University of Reno and to Daniel Montero, for publishing The Sheep Walker’s Daughter as a Basque Originals. I also want to thank the people who encouraged me, The Sonora Writers Group; NaNoWriMo; Seth Harwood, author and teacher; David Hough, editor; my team at Writer’s Relief, and Lynellen Perry. Many thanks to family and friends who gave feedback on my early efforts, Peggy Andrews, Arnette Cratty, Etty Garber, Virginia Gustafson, Calder Lowe, Julie McVicker, Beth Palmer, Jeanie Pierce, April Trabucco and Cheryl von Drehle, and to the women in my Bible Study for their prayers. Finally, special thanks to Joel Avey, my aviation expert and loving husband who let me turn our lives upside down to become an author.

  Author’s Note

  Author’s Note

  Writing The Sheep Walker’s Daughter was my introduction to the Basque culture. Growing up in the post-WWII multicultural San Francisco Bay Area, I came to appreciate how a knowledge of ethnic and cultural heritage enriches people and communities. When it came time to choose a heritage for the Moraga family, I decided to choose a culture that many people know little about. Dee’s adventure of discovery became my own. That there is a vibrant Basque community in Bakersfield, CA, a half-day drive from my home, gave me an opportunity to visit the setting for my book. Not only could I view the train tracks the Basque sheepherders would have crossed to the Noriega Hotel where they boarded, I could taste the food they ate and talk to a few men who had herded sheep before moving on to other endeavors. In researching the immigrant experience of the Basques I discovered a resilience, resourcefulness, and enterprising spirit that served my story well. I also found a vegetable soup recipe that is a keeper!

  About the Author

  About the Author

  Sydney Avey writes about the human exp
erience in an uncertain world. She is the author of three historical fiction novels, “The Sheep Walker’s Daughter”, “The Lyre and the Lambs”, and “The Trials of Nellie Belle.” Her work has appeared in Foliate Oak, Forge, American Athenaeum, Unstrung, Blue Guitar Magazine, Ruminate, and MTL Magazine. She has studied at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Sydney and her airplane enthusiast husband divide their time between the Sierra Nevada foothills of Yosemite, California, and the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

  Find Sydney online:

  SydneyAvey@Gmail.com.

  www.SydneyAvey.com

  Facebook.com/YosemiteSyd

  Pinterest.com/yosemitesyd

  Twitter: @SydneyAvey.

  Other Books by Sydney Avey

  Other Books by Sydney Avey

  The Trials of Nellie Belle As the progressive era dawns, Nellie Belle abandons husband and son to make a new life in the Pacific Northwest for herself and her daughters. A self-taught wiz at shorthand, she quickly moves from courthouse stenographer to first female court reporter to travel the judicial circuit. Spirited Nellie maintains a strict sense of propriety at work. In off hours, she writes tales of love and litigation involving independent-minded lawmen, enterprising women, hard working immigrants, a senator, a number of cads, and a cross-dresser. Her stories will become her legacy. During the war years, Nellie’s daughter OPAL returns from the New York stage with a babe in arms, but no husband. She joins the Dunite artist commune and encounters a hermit who gives her a word that will bring her some peace in a changing world. The Trials of Nellie Belle is based on true stories.

  The Lyre and the Lambs explores the passions that draw people together and the faith it takes overcome trauma.

  It’s the ‘60s. Modernity and tradition clash as two newlywed couples set up house together. Dee and her daughter Valerie move with their husbands into a modern glass house Valerie built in a proudly rural Los Altos, California, neighborhood. When their young relatives start showing up and moving in, the neighbors get suspicious. Then a body is found in the backyard and the life they are trying to build comes undone.

  Father Mike is back to guide Dee through a difficult time with humor and grace, even as his own life is unraveling. Now he’s going to have to take some of his own advice about love.

  If You Liked The Sheep Walker’s Daughter

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