Indian Girl Returns - -hobybuchanon- Native American

"You said you'd come back for me," she said. Her voice held no accusation, only a fact, like the shape of a scar.

"I wrote you letters," Hoby said quietly. "Every month for two years. They all came back 'Addressee Unknown.'"

"The spring isn't just water, Hoby. It's the headwater of everything. Three rivers, four aquifers, and every creek that feeds this valley. Tillman thinks he's buying the land. But the land was never his to buy. Or mine. Or yours." She turned back to him. "The spring belongs to the water itself. And the water remembers who tried to poison it." -HobyBuchanon- Native American Indian Girl Returns

Hoby took off his hat, ran a hand through his silvering hair. "I did come back. Three days after they took you. The place was locked up. They said you'd been sent to the reservation school in Oklahoma. Said no forwarding address."

"I know." Hoby put his hat back on. "But you came back first. That's enough for now." "You said you'd come back for me," she said

"How did you find your way here?"

Tala laid her hand on the mare's neck. Rain blew out a soft breath and lowered her head, something she did for no one except Hoby. "Every month for two years

Hoby studied her face. He'd known her as a child, this strange, fierce, beautiful girl who had appeared out of a snowstorm and taught his sons how to track deer and read the stars. He'd watched the state tear her away. He'd spent ten years living with the hollow she'd left behind.