x Adult Template Author's Note: Heaven help me! Chakotay must be one confused Native American. At various times, in various stories, I have made him a Zuni, a Hopi, a Tewa-speaking Pueblo, and now a Navajo. Forgive me for messing with his ancestry.  


Interlude, Postscript
by ragpants  (September 2004)
 

"Hodeeshnih."

Chakotay crosses his legs and settles himself a bit more comfortably on the sheepskin. He looks around the inside of the hogan. His audience today is mostly children and mostly between the ages of  three and ten, although there are  six or eight mid-teenaged girls at the back of the group. Two bounce toddlers in their laps to keep the youngsters quiet. They are the minders, no doubt charged with looking after their younger siblings and cousins. There are no boys of an equivalent age here today. The boys are out with the flocks, watching over the sheep and goats, which are a family's wealth, as the animals graze in the distant, dusty hills. Chakotay knows. He'd had the same task at that age and he remembers how much he'd hated it. He's always believed that it was that particular chore which had driven his desire to join Starfleet, to get away from the dust and the dullness, to find adventure far beyond the stars. No, he decides, that wasn't entirely true, though he may have thought so when he ran away from home. He'd always been an alní, a man in search, a man with a divided heart--until he'd found his answers. And the answers he'd  found weren't the answers he'd thought he was looking for. Hózhq had a funny way of sneaking up on a person. Beauty/harmony/well-being came when one least expected it.

With this insight, he knows he has found the theme for today's story.

He nods respectfully toward the three elderly women who sit near the door, combed wool in their laps, their fingers busy twisting yarn onto their spindles, and takes a deep breath.

"Hodeeshnih.  I will tell my story. This is the story of 'The Boy Who Walked Far' and of his journey to find his place in the world...."

Just before Chakotay reaches the climax of his story, the blanket that covers the entrance to the hogan lifts slightly as a petite figure slips inside. He acknowledges her arrival with a quick , warm glance, though he does not interrupt the recounting of his tale.

"....and so the boy found that his travels had brought him full circle, back to Diné bikéyak, to sacred land of The People, where the Four Holy Mountains held him and kept him safe."

Now that the storytelling is finished for today and his audience has departed, Chakotay greets the latecomer properly. He slides his arms around her for a hug before leaning down to kiss her cheek. "I'm glad you came, sawe."

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world," Kathryn replies, leaning into the hug. "You know how much I enjoy hearing you tell about Voyager."

They savor the contact for a moment longer, unwilling to let go just yet.  Once they step outside the hogan, public displays of affection are as inappropriate among the reserved Diné as they are on the bridge of starship.

With only a small reluctance, their hands fall to their respective sides as they step out into the sunshine.

"You know, I've heard you tell basically the same story a dozen or more times in row now and every time you tell it, it's different," Kathryn comments as they head toward the hovercar she left parked nearby.

"It's part of the storyteller's craft," Chakotay tells her seriously as they walk. "You have to know your audience, their culture, how they think, what they value. Something, I might add, that you are not always very good at."  Mischief glints in his eye. He is teasing her, but she doesn't realize it yet.

Kathryn halts and turns toward him, hands on hips, to protest.  "But I...."

Chakotay continues walking, but points Navajo style by jerking his chin toward her posture. "See, now if *I* had gone to Silgol the Tak-Tak might still be talking to the Federation."

Thoroughly had, Kathryn sputters a protest and punches Chakotay lightly in his arm.

 He grins. "None of that, bilagáana, or next time I tell my story about the journey home I'll make you the evil witch instead of the beautiful war leader."

Kathryn laughs and he thinks it is the most beautiful sound in the world. If he is lucky--and he intends to be--he will hear it everyday for the rest of his life.

________________________

 Navajo Glossary

Hodeeshnih-- I will tell my story

alní--a person who stands between two cultures or worlds

Hózhq--beauty, harmony, balance, well being, rightness, a Navajo ideal
 
Diné bikéyak--the Navajo homeland

sawe-- sweetheart, darling

Diné--"The People," the term the Navjo use when referring to themselves

bilagáana,-- an Anglo, a white person,  in this instance "white woman" as a term of affectionate teasing.


(Vocabulary courtesy of various Tony Hillerman novels, the Ella Clah mysteries by Aimee and David Thurlo, and the Navajo-English Dicrionary by Leon Wall & William Morgan)

 
 
 

The End

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