Both of them now stare quizzically at me. I can imagine the thought crossing their minds.

Is this skinny boy standing before us touched in his head?

I have to say something more. I bite my lip. I’m so confused that for a moment I forget my own name. I swallow, take a breath.

“Uwohali,” I blurt out. “Uwohali,” I say looking at my feet, but addressing my words to Sally Guess. “I am the son of your husband.”

I risk a quick glance up at my father, then back down at my feet. “Your son,” I say.

A hand reaches out and clasps my shoulder.

“Atsuta, my son,” my father says. “It is you. You are welcome.”

I look up, holding my breath, uncertain of what I may see in Sally’s face. But her look of uncertainty is gone. In its place is something like a smile as she looks over at my father and then at me and then at my father again.

“Hmmm,” she says, as if to herself. “I see how alike you are.”

Then she gestures toward me. “Uwohali, son of Sequoyah. You are welcome into my home.”

My father removes his hand from my shoulder. “Yes,” he says. “Come in. There is food.”

I step over the threshold. I can smell corn bread and some sort of stew. I realize that even though I ate this morning, I am already hungry again. Lately I have been so hungry that my mother has said she needs to take the bowl out of my hands when I have emptied it for fear that I will start chewing on it.

She has even joked that my appetite is more that of a hummingbird than an eagle. Eagles only eat once or twice a day, but a hummingbird never stops buzzing from flower to flower and catching insects.

Long ago, they say, Eagle and Hummingbird were invited to a feast. Eagle took a long time getting ready, making sure that his feathers were preened properly. He was the chief of the birds and wanted to look his best. But when he arrived at the feast, he found that Hummingbird had gotten there ahead of him. And Hummingbird had eaten all of the food.

Someone is tapping my elbow.

I look down. A little girl stands there. Her dark eyes shine as she looks up at me. I have never seen her close up before, but I know right away who it is. Ahyokah, my half sister.