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Far from home in a land foreign to them, kidnapped Apache
siblings Wind That Knocks Down Lodges and Cactus Flower are at the mercy of the
Army soldiers they have grown to despise. When ordered to dispose of the
children or else, the Army soldiers waste no time in depositing them at the
nearest Catholic orphanage, where unlikely alliances are forged and Knocks Down
must make a decision: conform to the Pale Face world or risk everything for an
unlikely chance at escape.
Excerpt
“A new garrison,” Cactus translated, though she didn’t have to.
I was rolling the pale face words off my tongue easier with each passing sunset.
“Wants to see the …prisoners?” Her word tweaked up at the end, turning it into a
question. She looked at me. “Do they mean us?”
Glancing over the seat again, I could see that they did. “They’re
coming with a big man that is red in the face and whose head is covered in silver
hair, like the cunning fox. Sit up and look like one of The People.”
Cactus Flower did as I said, just as the dirty canvas pulled
back. The red faced man peered in, a brown wad that looked like a fat twig clenched
in his teeth. He must have held it there often, because a brown stain from the juice
had crusted on his lips. “Kids!” he spat, flinging the wad of juicy brown paper
and leaves into the back of the wagon with us. Neither Cactus nor I flinched. “Brats!
Whelps, they are.”
Silence covered the men like the burial shroud had covered my
mother.
The big man with the hair like the silver fox continued, his
face growing redder with each breath he sucked in. “You call these Injuns prisoners? It’s no wonder why the general
saw fit to relieve you bunch of misfits. Me and my men are taking over. Now.”
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