"I know." Hoby put his hat back on. "But you came back first. That's enough for now."
Hoby took off his hat, ran a hand through his silvering hair. "I did come back. Three days after they took you. The place was locked up. They said you'd been sent to the reservation school in Oklahoma. Said no forwarding address." -HobyBuchanon- Native American Indian Girl Returns
Tala looked toward the mountain, and for a moment Hoby saw the child she'd been—the one who could speak to horses and find water in a drought and read the weather in the flight of birds. "I know
Tala reached into the folds of her blanket and pulled out a small bundle of yellowed envelopes, the ink faded but still legible. "They gave them to me the day I left. The matron thought they'd make me sad. She was right. But not the way she meant." "I did come back
"They changed my name. Said 'Tala' was too hard to pronounce. Called me 'Margaret.'" She almost smiled. "I ran away seven times. The eighth time, I stayed gone."
"One more thing," Tala said as she swung onto Rain's back with a motion as natural as breathing. "Tillman's got men watching the roads. He knows I'm back. He's afraid of what I know."
They stood together in the growing light, the mountain casting its long shadow over the ranch. Somewhere up in the pines, a hawk screamed. And the old spring, hidden and forgotten, bubbled up from the dark heart of the earth—waiting to be remembered.