ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 79 - FRY BREAD & ELEPHANT EARS

Within the hour they were passing through Four Corners, the only place in the United States, where you can stand in four states (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona) at once.

“Can we stop? Can we, can we?” Dawn pleaded with Xander.

“Dawn, I don’t want to stop, I’ve barely gotten into my driving rhythm,” Xander whined.

“Please?” Dawn pleaded, “just for a few minutes?”

Xander grumbled, but relented, “I don’t want to stop for long!”

“We won’t, I promise,” Dawn said.

“Five minutes. Ten tops,” he said, knowing five minutes would be impossible anyway.

“I promise, cross my heart,” Dawn vowed, giving Buffy a wink.

The Four Corner’s Monument, signifying the intersecting spot was located on the Navajo Reservation. They got out of the RV and went into the building. Inside there was information about the area, as well as Native American vendor booths, which normally, would be selling jewelry, pottery, and traditional food. However, at 6:45am, they weren’t scheduled to be open for another 2 hours.

“Well, we can’t wait,” Xander said.

“I know,” said Dawn, “I mostly just wanted to see the monument and stand in the Four Corners, because, hey, that’s just so cool!”

“Darn, I wanted to buy some Indian Fry Bread,” said Buffy.

“What’s fry bread?” William asked.

“Sort of like an Elephant Ear,” Dawn said.

“What’s an Elephant Ear?” William asked.

“They’re a lot like this, except they sell them at carnivals, and they come with powdered sugar on them,” Dawn explained. “You’ll have to have Buffy take you to a carnival sometime.”

“Sometimes they sell them in front of Wal-Mart, too. That had a rather carnival-like atmosphere, didn’t you think?” Buffy asked, grinning at William.

Before he could answer, Dawn continued, “They’re rides, and games, farm animals, and all sort of bad-for-you-food, like ice cream, fried foods, fatty foods, red meat, etc.”

He looked at Elizabeth confused; “Those things are bad for you?”

“Well, not in moderation, but if you eat too much of them…I’ll explain all that another time, okay?” she asked, not wanting to go into the American Heart Association’s diet guidelines right then.

William just made a funny face at her and nodded. His head was beginning to hurt like it sometimes did, when they talked of things he was unfamiliar with, which actually, was most of the time. A lot of the time, he’d just tune them out, so as to not have to deal with feeling like such a stupid git. Besides, if ice cream was bad for him, he really didn’t want to know that; he loved it!

In spite of the fact that Xander had worried about stopping, they made good time as they crossed Northern Arizona, passing monumental, towering rock formations with funny names such as Mexican Hat, etc. The highway they were on, bordered Navajo and Hopi reservations.

William looked out the window at the desolate, though colorful landscape. He turned to Buffy, “This is the land the U.S. government gave the Indians?”

“Yep, this would be it,” she answered.

“How do they make a living out here? It doesn’t seem very…?”

“Hospitable?”

“Well, that’s not exactly the word I was searching for, but yes, that would be one way to describe it. It doesn’t look like good farming land or good anything else, for that matter, beautiful, though.”

Buffy sighed, “Willow, you want to take this over?”

Willow perked up and for the next half-hour, gave William a lesson on what the United States government had done to the Native Americans and how they’d gone about it.

“…and so you see, it was an governmental economic and an institutionalized racist policy, given that…”

“Willow, I think he got the point,” Buffy said, finally.

“No, that’s alright,” he said to Elizabeth, then turned back to Willow, “It’s quite interesting, and very sad, but historically, nothing new. That’s what conquering nations do. They go in, take over the best areas, either kill off or enslave the indigenous or conquered people, or at the very least, delegate them to menial, subsistence levels of work, power, and in this case, land, as well. They never really had any type of power, at least not the sort of power that is understood as power by the white, European settlers.”

Buffy looked at William, then at Willow. She’d heard Spike say something similar years ago, after their run-in with the Chumash Indians, right after he’d come to them for help, after being chipped by the Initiative. Another great governmental policy, she snorted to herself.

“What?” William and Willow both looked at her, annoyed.

“Um…nothing guys, I was just thinking about something…about someone saying something similar one Thanksgiving’s Day, when we were ‘talking’ about the Chumash Indians,” she said, looking at Willow.

Willow looked at her for a moment, then caught on, “Oh, yeah, that was some Thanksgiving’s Day, huh Buffy?”

Buffy nodded, as William just looked from Willow to her and back again.

It was only a little after 10:15am by the time that they got to Tuba City, where they stopped for gas, to check out the convenience store, and to stretch their legs.

“Hey look,” Dawn said, pointing across the roadway to a small store that said Michael’s Trading Post.

“Oh, no!” Xander said, but Dawn and Willow were already heading across the street. “What kind of an Native American name is Michael, anyway? Think about it, it’s not too late to turn around!”

“We’ll be right back,” Willow called out laughingly to Xander.

“Sure you will, Willow,” he said, looking at William for moral support.

“Um, why don’t you just drive across the street and pick them up? It will probably take you ten minutes to fill this up, right?” William asked.

Xander sighed, resigned, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Buffy, you and William can go, too if you want.”

“You sure?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Xander said, sighing again.

“I can stay here with Xander,” William said.

“No, that’s alright, William. You go ahead with Buffy,” Xander said.

William looked undecided. On the one hand, he didn’t want to feel like a ‘bird,’ himself, going and looking in shops with the women, but he was truly enjoying learning about Indian things that he’d read about as a boy. That and the chance to be with Elizabeth was always the most compelling argument.

Xander looked at William and laughed, “Go ahead, I’m fine. Really.”

William nodded a silent ‘thanks’ to Xander. He then took Elizabeth’s hand and they went across the road to join the others.

As they neared Michael’s Trading Post they could see there was a vendor outside, selling none other than fry bread.

“See,” Buffy whispered, “just like a Wal-Mart.”

William looked at her confused for a moment, then laughed, “Thought that was the other way around.”

“No. Yes. I don’t know,” she giggled.

“Then I’ll vote that Indian Fry Bread came first, just like the Native Americans,” William said.

Once inside, Buffy and William wandered into a small shop that had artwork and books. William decided to purchase two books for him and Elizabeth, one on the Navajos, and one on Mesa Verde, which he’d forgotten to do at the museum the day before.

A few minutes later, Xander wandered in himself, and wound up buying his kids a couple of small traditional Navajo toys, while Willow and Dawn each bought a pair of Hopi earrings.

On the way out, Buffy purchased five pieces of fry bread for them.

“Thanks for the greasy goodness, Buffy,” Xander said.

“You want me to drive?” Dawn asked.

“Nah, I’m fine, enjoying it, in fact,” Xander said.

“Come on Xander, you know Angela isn’t going to approve,” Dawn said.

“Really, Dawn, I’m fine, but if you want, I’ll let you drive for a while.”

“Whoopee!” Dawn said, grinning as she got behind the wheel once more.

William and Buffy were sitting on the couch when Willow came and plopped into the chair opposite them.”

“How’s the fry bread, William?”

“It’s quite good, thanks. And thank you,” he said to Elizabeth, who smiled and squeezed his hand.

William finished his fry bread and put on his glasses, before starting to read one of the books, showing Elizabeth and Willow different things from them. About a half-hour later, as Buffy and Willow were quietly talking Willow pointed to him.

His glasses had slid down his nose, and he was quietly snoring.

Buffy smiled, then motioned for Willow to follow her into the bedroom.


“What’s up, Buffy?” Willow asked as soon as she’d closed the door to the bedroom.

“I’ve been thinking about William not having any papers.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we were at the eyeglass place, they asked me for his insurance card. Of course, I told them we were just paying cash, but it got me to thinking. He’s paperless! He doesn’t have a license, no Green Card, or whatever you call those things that allow you to work or go to school.”

“Oh, I see your point. William doesn’t have anything to say he exists, does he?”

Buffy shook her head, sadly, “Only our ‘pretend,’ marriage license.”

“Well, if sounds real enough, and if Lawrence did it, maybe it is.”

“You think? I don’t know. I don’t think that it’s real, since it’s probably not registered with the State of California.”

“Well, you can find that out. If it is, then you could just add William to your insurance policy. You do have insurance through your school, right?”

Buffy nodded her head, then burst out laughing.

“What?”

“Just the idea that I’m so normal now, and that William the Bloody is so normal now, that we need insurance. Oh, the Powers must really be laughing their asses off over that one.”

“It does seem rather strange when you put it that way, but sort of nice, too.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I was wondering, though…is there any way that you can come up with some legitimate papers for him, so that if anyone needs something…”

“Oh,” Willow said. “I guess I could ‘come up’ with some, only…”

“Only what?”

“Will you be telling William that they really are his papers?”

“Sure, why would that be a problem? Oh…” Buffy stopped, thinking of the complications of that.

“You might want to at least get the day and month of his birthday for me, before I do this, unless you know it?” she looked at Buffy, questioningly.

Buffy shook her head, “Sort of compounds the lie, doesn’t it? If we come up with papers, then he’s going to believe those, and if he ever finds out, then that’s something else I’ll have to answer for. Shit!”

“You did tell him that you weren’t really married, right?”

“Yes, he knows about that. I guess I could just tell him that…I don’t know what I’ll tell him, but he’ll still need papers, no matter what I tell him.”

Willow nodded, “Well, see if you can at least get his real birth date, then I’ll see about conjuring a Green Card up for him, or Naturalized Citizenship papers, right? Either way, that should be a start. ”

“Sure, either way…Willow?”

“Yes, Buffy?”

“Do you think you could you ask him when his birthday is? I feel so stupid doing that. I mean, what’s he going to think if I ask him? He’ll think that I, of all people, should remember it, right?”

“Either that, or you could ask him, because you’re checking to see if he remembers…”

“I suppose you’re right, but when it comes to the year, I’m screwed.”

“He won’t give either of us the year that he remembers, but you know how old he was when he siresired, right?”

Buffy nodded.

“Okay, then that’s the number you have to subtract from 2008 and you’ll remind him that he’s…?”

“28,” Buffy answered, “or will be 28.”

“Good. 28, so that would mean he was born in 1980.”

“I was born in 1981,” Buffy said softly.

“Yeah, me, too. So William is really about the same age as we are.”

“Not really…”

“Well, I didn’t mean…”

“No, I’m really only 7 years old,” she said, smiling softly.

“Oh…ha-ha, yeah,” Willow said, knowing that Buffy was taking about when she’d brought her back to life. “Well, still better than him being 129 years older than you,” Willow said.

“Yeah, don’t want someone who remembers the Industrial Revolution!”

“Nope, wouldn’t want that…”

They fell into silence for a few minutes, until Willow finally added, “You know, I could probably make him up a resume of some sort, too.”

“That would be great…only he really doesn’t know much, so it wouldn’t help him getting a job.”

“That would depend on what he still remembers, I suppose.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if he k Lat Latin or Ancient History, those things would still be skills he would be able to use.”

“Oh,” Buffy said, taking time to think. “You mean if he was going to teach those things.”

“Yeah, that would probably be the only thing he could do with those skills.”

“Well, first things first. We’ll get him those papers and…”

They heard a soft knock on the bedroom door.

“Hey William, Willow and I came back here, so our talking wouldn’t disturb your nap.”

“Wasn’t napping, just resting my eyes,” he said.

“Oh, and what was that snoring sound, then?”

“Wasn’t snoring, just…I don’t snore, do I?” he asked, turning to Elizabeth.

She nodded, “A little bit, nothing obnoxious. I kinda like it, though,” she said, smiling. She wouldn’t have really cared if it had been obnoxious; she just liked hearing anything that reminded her that he was there next to her, alive!

“William,” Willow said, “what sign are you?”

“Huh?”

“You know, astrological sign?”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” he said, looking at Elizabeth.

“Well, they say that your personality is determined by when you’re born, using the stars. There’s Gemini, that’s in late May through June, Pieces is late February through March, Scorpio is late October through Novermber…”

“Oh,” he said, “I’m in August, what does that make me?”

“Beginning or end? They’re usually like from the 22nd of the month to the

“Right in the middle, August 15th.”

Willow smiled, “That would make you a Leo, that’s a very strong sign.”

“Is that right?”

“Absolutely! And Buffy, your birthday is January 21st, so that makes you an Aquarius.”

“Right,” Buffy said.

“Who’s older, you or Elizabeth?” William asked. Since the subject had come up, he was happy to find out some missing information on Elizabeth, too.

“Elizabeth is. She’ll be 28 in January; same as you’ll be next month. But I won’t be 28 until June. Nope not me, I’m just a baby.”

“Just a baby,” Buffy said, smiling at Willow, who had just pulled the whole birthday thing off so beautifully.

“Well, think I’ll go back up there,” William said.

“I’ll be right there,” Buffy said, smiling at him.

She turned back to Willow, a big grin on her face, “You. Are. A. Genius!”

Willow shrugged, “It was just too perfect an opportunity to pass up.”

“It was perfect. At least now I know when his birthday is. Crap, next month! Wish you guys were going to be around for it!”

“Well, Dawn isn’t too far away, and Clem will be there.”

“Yeah, Clem,” she said, “I told him I’d call him the morning of the evening we were going to be home, I guess that’s…tomorrow?”

“Should be, Buffy.”

“Tomorrow,” Buffy repeated and sat down on the bed, as she looked up at Willow, shaking her head.

“It’ll be alright Buffy, you’ll see,” Willow said, coming over and patting her on the back, “you and William are going to be okay, I just know it.”

Buffy swallowed, refusing to let her brain contemplate anything else than Willow’s encouraging words, “Thanks, Willow. Don’t know what I would’ve done without all your help.”

“You know I’ll always help you if I can.”

“I know you will, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.”

“Buffy, better we don’t speak of eternally or eternity, don’t you think?”

“With our track record Willow, you’re probably right!”


END CHAPTER 79