I wait while she is thinking. Then she shakes her head.

“It will not be easy,” my mother says. “There are people whose minds are so hardened against your father that it will take much work to get them to change. There are even some who want to take matters into their own hands.”

My mother grasps my shoulders with her strong hands. “So you must be careful where you go now. Do not go into those sections of our town where those who are whispering about witchcraft live. Avoid the trails where someone might lie in wait. I cannot tell your father this. He believes that his good intentions will protect him. But you, my stubborn son, you must be wiser to protect yourself—and perhaps your innocent father, as well. So, if you are now going to follow your father’s path, you must promise me that you will take care.”

“I promise,” I say, a lump in my throat as I say it. But I say it with certainty. My mother’s words have both made me more aware of the dangers of helping my father and more certain that this is the work I must do.

My mother sighs. “Hawa,” she says. “Okay.” She presses her lips together. “Now,” she says, “you say that your friend Yugi understands this work and wants to help you.”

“Yes, but his father has told him to stay away from me.”

“Women’s work,” my mother says. “That is what is needed now.” She stands up and dusts off her apron. It’s what she always does after she has been cooking. Of course there is no flour on that apron right now that needs to be cleaned off. But I understand. She is not thinking of flour, but the foolish thoughts that need to be cleared away from the minds of our people.

“Come along,” she says. “We are going to the house of Nancy Youngbird.”

Nancy Youngbird is Yugi’s mother. My mother and Yugi’s mother are cousins and belong to the same clan—as do Yugi and I, of course. But Yugi’s mother is several years younger. As a result she has always looked up to my mother as a wiser older sister.

My mother is a very forceful person. Now that I think of it, I suppose some of my own stubbornness also comes from her. Once her mind is made up, it might as well be carved into stone.