Patty came back in and sat while Jim and Keyote finished up their conversation.
"It's discussion night. Lets start with today's events. Sophia, you are welcome to join in. Since this is about you as much as it is us." Patty said.
"Discussion night?" Crow asked.
"Yeah, we just talk about things and later we tell stories we either read or made up." Keyote said. "It might be boring for you, but Patty is right, we will be talking about you tonight."
"Keyote I want to know what happened to you after your Mother was murdered? Do you know who killed your Mother?" Crow said before anyone could say anything else.
"Are you ready to talk about that." Patty said. "If you aren't Key, Jim and I can fill your Aunt Sophia in as to what happened."
Keyote bit her lip. "If I tell you Aunt Crow, what happened, you'll think I'm disgusting."
"No, child. I know you were raped the night your Mother was killed. I know this is painful, but if it helps I can tell you that I was raped once." Crow felt Key had to know. It might help her to open up about her own experience.
Key didn't respond. She merely hung her head. Biting her lip.
"Key was raped after a man we only know as Andy showed Key her dead Mother." Jim said. "I can't say more, until Key is ready to share more. I feel you need to know this information."
"He made me dirty." Key sniffled as she spoke. "He--he made me dirty."
"No, we discussed this, honey. You are not dirty. You were abused by an evil man." Patty stood up, walked over to where Key sat and hugged her.
"When the men who attacked me were finished I was kicked and beaten." Crow said. "They said it was my fault. I was hurt, confused by what they did. I thought it was my fault."
"Do you still think it is your fault?" Jim asked.
"The men who raped me wanted to 'put me in my place'. I was doing what they felt was man's work. They thought by raping me they'd humiliate me to the point I wouldn't be able to face them anymore." Crow said. Talking for the first time about it outside of counseling. To someone other than Mai. "I wonder if I had done things differently, if maybe I'd of avoided what happened to me. I don't blame myself, but I wish things had been different."
"Life's unfair. That is what Patty always tells me." Keyote said.
"It is. If it was I wouldn't have spent six years missing my sister and searching for you." Crow said. "We had given up hope, we thought if we ever did find you, it would be your remains."
"Andy said Mom died because I was bad. All I remember after the first time is that he fucked me each night after that." Key said.
"Language, Key." Patty said.
"That's what he did. It hurt. I cried and cried." Key was started with the tears. "I just wanted it to stop, but he wouldn't."
"Jim, I want to talk to Key about this alone, with Patty for support." Crow said. She thought Key might be more comfortable talking to just women.
"Jim already knows. I talk to him and Patty about it." Key said.
"It hurts him more then he lets on." Patty added. "Jim doesn't like to show it."
"I can leave if you want." Jim said to Crow. "I'll respect your decision."
Crow didn't want a man hearing this particular conversation. If she sent him away, though, it might do more harm than good. She wasn't comfortable having Jim around for this conversation. Not sure about what to do, she simply shook her head.
"Go on, Keyote, and tell me what else happened." Crow said.
"I remember coming to the Casa Sombrio, where I've stayed for the last six years. Andy handed me over to a man called Jose. He did what Andy did to me all the way down here." Keyote folded in on herself a little. "They made me do it with other kids. Grown people too. So that they could take pictures. Until I was twelve."
"That was when I was told I was grown enough to work the streets. They teamed me up with a girl named Terri." Keyote stopped.
"I've heard enough, child." Crow couldn't hear anymore. It gnawed at her that someone would do this to her niece. "Let's talk about something else."
"I agree with that." Patty said. "Does music run in your family? Key is such a natural at it."
"I play the guitar. A Gibson similar to your's, only it's not as old. I bought it back in the eighties." Crow said. "I can play fairly well, but I don't sing that well."
"Maybe we can jam together some time." Key smiled, unfolding now.
Crow was amazed how Keyote had bounced back from the talk about rape and prostitution that had been so hard for her. As they continued to talk, Patty told Crow of her original ambitions of becoming a country star. Until prostitution and drugs spoiled that dream.
Keyote told how Patty had rescued her 'after a really bad date' and brought her to leave with Jim and her at this 'camp' as they called it. Crow explained how Mai had adopted Kiona and Keyote after their Mother had died. It didn't matter that Key had been missing. In order for Mai to have medical and legal access to both sisters she had to adopt them both. Jim told Crow about his anxiety disorder, how he met Patty, and how he used to sell bottled water on the streets.
Key had gone to bed. Patty and Jim retreated with Crow to the main office. The hurricane lamp placed on the desk. Jim pulled out a old bottle of Bourbon. There wasn't much left. He had two shot glasses and a small juice glass he had grabbed from the kitchen upstairs. He poured each of them a shot of bourbon.
"After a hard day, we come down here and have a couple of shots. To unwind." Jim explained.
Crow looked at the shot of bourbon. She didn't suffer from the alcoholism like some people on the reservation. There was a time, after Mexico City, where she had been raped, that she had begun to drink away the pain. Until she couldn't stand hiding behind the alcohol anymore. Crow hadn't had hard liquor since then. As she looked at the drink, it wasn't fear of not stopping, but simply sad memories of how she had been.
"You don't have to drink." Patty said. "You aren't an alcoholic are you?"
Crow shook her head. She downed the shot. It was surprisingly smooth.
"Its thirty years old. Over twice the age of Key." Jim said. "It's been aging in the bottle all this time until I cracked it open when we first found this place."
"This place smells of lavender and sage. You can't see it from the road. It's designed for people to live off the grid." Crow commented. "You seem to have everything you need. It seems very coincidental that this place seems to be custom made for your situation."
"We noticed." Patty said. "This place seems to be almost alive."
"It's as if this place anticipates our needs before we really know what we need." Jim said. "Lavender and sage are used for parasites. Bugs and mice. Yet, the smell lingers, like someone used it in this place yesterday."
"There is that dog too." Patty mentioned. "A real big nasty dog, that showed up when we all were acting pretty stupid. It wouldn't let us leave."
"Key says she found a stuffed animal here that resembled her own stuffed dog when she lived in Rapid City." Jim said. "Key also said that the house told her to call a friend of ours when Patty was really sick. I was trying to bring her fever down when our friend Bobbi came here with a nurse who saved Patty's life."
"There are sacred places in South Dakota, throughout the United States. It's possible that this house has some sacred connection to it." Crow said. "Have you noticed that the temperature is pretty constant here. It's not too hot in here, or too cold, for that matter."
As Crow came up the stairs with Jim and Patty she felt a little dizzy. It was her first buzz in a long time. Crow wasn't one to hide from life these days, so she felt little need to indulge in alcohol or drugs. Crow couldn't remember when she last drank on a social level. Not counting wine or beer on occasion with Mai. And that hadn't been for nearly two years.
Going into Key's room Crow crawled into the other bed. Keyote had left the window open, the moonlight, was like that of a full moon. Outside the stars seemed so bright. Like they did on her property where the city lights didn't drown out the starlight.
Crow laid there listening as Jim and Patty's voices filtered through the wall from the other room. Those went silent. She heard Keyote murmur something in her sleep. Crow sat up in the bed. The girl was having a nightmare of some sort.
Key suddenly bolted upright herself. Crow watched in dismay as the girl had the same sort of panic attack that Crow had on occasion. Crow sat beside Keyote who was trying to get her breathing back under control.
"Easy, child. It's just a dream. Dreams don't hurt you. Breath normal now, that's it." Crow helped Key ease her breathing. "Good, child. It's okay, I'm here."
Key buried her head in Crow's shoulder and began to violently sob. Crow cried herself, though she doubted that Key noticed. It wasn't long before Key had cried herself to sleep. Crow wiped away her own tears. That was when she saw Patty standing in the doorway. She motioned for Crow to come out of the room.
Crow walked out into the hallway. Jim stood there too.
"It's been a while since she's had one that bad." Patty said. "I suppose it's been a stressful day for her."
"You know about those attacks." Crow said to Jim. "Did you teach her the breath control to keep her from hyperventilating?"
"It's a meditative technique I found helps during my own panic attacks." Jim said. "I don't think she could have done it without you to guide her through it this time."
"She would have managed it." Crow said.
"I saw you sitting there. I know Key will be okay with you." Patty was crying a little. "I hate losing her, but it helps do know you will be good with her."
"You don't know me that well." Crow smiled. "I'm a real bitch at times."
"The important thing was that tonight you weren't." Jim said.