mply have to wait until Redbird
was ready to greet him.

A rack of crisscrossed wooden sticks for drying skins stood by the
closed doorway. Slowly, deliberately, he walked over to the rack, leaned
his rifle against it, and laid down his pack and bags.

Then, turning his back on the wickiup, he sat down cross-legged on the
ground.

Water Flows Fast looked at him, open-mouthed.

"Thank you for showing me the way," he said. Hiding his embarrassment,
he made himself smile at the hundred or more women gathered to watch
him.

"What are you going to do?" Water Flows Fast asked.

"I am going to rest and thank Earthmaker for seeing me here safely."

"White Bear is a man of sense," said Three Horses, smiling his approval.

"Is that all?" Water Flows Fast asked.

"I am going to wait for Sun Woman, my mother."

"Is _that_ all?"

"That _is_ all," said White Bear.

Three Horses, who was no taller than his wife, gripped her plump upper
arm firmly. "Let White Bear alone."

"But--" Water Flows Fast started to protest, and her husband jerked her
arm.

"We will leave this man in peace," he said.

Her lower lip jutting out, Water Flows Fast let Three Horses pull her
away through the crowd.

White Bear sat with his eyes downcast to discourage people from talking
to him. Gradually the rest of the crowd dispersed.

The back of his neck bristled. He knew Redbird was in the wickiup behind
him. Sooner or later she must come out.

To have her so close after all this time, to know she was there and to
hear nothing but that terrible silence, and yet to sit with his back to
that buffalo-hide curtain, all this was a torment for him. The urge to
jump up and tear the curtain away pressed against his resolve to hold
himself still. He thought he might explode like a barrel of gunpowder.

He forced himself to breathe slowly and pretend that he was hidden in
shrubbery with a bow and arrow, watching for a deer.

After a time--he could not tell how much time--a face was peering into
his. Dark and square. The brown eyes brimmed with tears.

His eyes opened wider. Sun Woman was kneeling before him.

"My son." She reached out to him, and he scrambled to embrace her. When
her strong arms held him he felt like a little boy again.

He sat back to look at her dear face, wet with tears. Resting beside her
on the ground was the familiar basket with blue cloth cover that she
used to gather herbs.

He looked around for the sun. It was low