My father nods toward Yugi and me. “They are learning to write,” he says. “They are just beginning to learn. Soon they will be able to do as I do. I can write down anything that any of our people can say. Anything. Then I can put it aside and pick it up later and there find all of it just as it was said.”

He picks up a folded piece of paper and opens it. “This is a message that I took down over a month ago in Arkansas from Chief John Jolly. At first, like you and most of our people here, he was uncertain about what I made. But when I showed him how it worked, how it could help our people, he became convinced.

“So, asking me to use my way of writing, he spoke this message to bring to you. It says this:

“‘My cousin and clan brother Agili, this is John Jolly sending you this message. I ask if you are well. I urge you again to think of joining us here in these new lands away from the Ani-yonega. Now I send you my greetings in this new way that Sequoyah has made. Now we can have our own talking leaves just as do the Aniyonega. I will now tell you something so that you know this message is from me and no one else, I will remind you of something that only you and I know about. Do you remember when we were little boys and took that pie from the window where it was cooling? Do you remember how we took it into the woods and ate it? Do you also remember how you were then stung on the lip by a wasp that also wanted that pie? Do you remember how sad I was that you were stung because it meant I had to eat the rest of that pie all by myself?’”

Agili is smiling by the time my father finishes reading. “This is all true,” he says. “I am sure you are bringing me a message from my cousin.”

He pauses then and the smile vanishes from his face the way the sun disappears when a cloud crosses in front of it.

“But it may be,” Agili says, a suspicious tone entering his voice, “that you are not reading as do the Ani-yonega. It may be that you just are not forgetful. It may be that those marks on the paper just help you remember things the way the patterns on a wampum belt help us to remember things.”