“You need to go,” she says to me. Then she takes her hand from my shoulder and walks back into the cabin.

You need to go.

Those are the same words she spoke years ago to my father.

Those words ended their marriage. No Cherokee man would be foolish enough to try to argue when a Cherokee woman tells him that their marriage has ended. When women speak, men must always listen.

But I know that her words to me, though the same, hold a different meaning. My father will never again be her husband. But I will always be her son.

My mother says I am as stubborn as my father. She says I am like him in the way that I will not give up once my mind is set on something.

I just hope that I will succeed.

“Uwohali.”

My mother is standing at the door of the cabin with a bowl of squirrel stew in her left hand and a big piece of corn bread in her right. There is a smile on her face again.

“Your squirrels will be upset if you do not eat the stew they gave you before you leave,” she says.

CHAPTER 3

Sitting and Thinking

I am sitting with my back against an oak tree, passing my chunkey stick back and forth from one hand to the other. It did not take me long to walk here. But I have been here for some time now, long enough for the sun to climb beyond the middle of the sky. People I know have walked or ridden by me. Some have nodded or raised a hand in greeting.

“Osiyo, Uwohali.”

“Osiyo.”

But they have seen from my posture that I do not wish to be disturbed. Our people are very good at reading such subtle signs. If you do not wish to be bothered, they will leave you alone.

But that does not keep them from gossiping about you. What was cooked in a very small pot but provided more that enough for everyone to eat? The answer to that riddle is gossip. Although there are many people here in Willstown, it seems as if everyone always knows what everyone else is doing—or is said to have done. That is especially true if you are the son of the man more people are talking about now than any other person.

“I saw the son of Sequoyah. He was sitting in the cold under a tree and staring at the house where his father is staying.”

“Ah, that is sad.”

“Uu! Yes. I think that poor foolish boy hopes his crazy father may be able to teach him something.”