"That's right." Josh carefully put the guitar against the porch railing. "I liked the lyrics better like that." His gaze drifted to Hannah, who tried not to turn red. She suddenly remembered Josh had compared her to a butterfly yesterday evening. But he couldn't possibly have changed the lyrics of his traditional song with her in mind. That was absurd.
"Shall I clear the table?" she offered, so no one would stare at the blush creeping up her face. "We'll make room for the tea and apple pie." She started to clear away the plates, and was happy Emily got up to help her.
"Who's Sani?" Hannah asked curiously, while she and Em were rinsing the plates in the kitchen sink.
"You never met him?"
"Not that I'm aware of, no."
"Well, I'm not surprised. He is our traditional medicine man, our hataalii." Her voice dropped a notch. "Sani used to stay out of our affairs. That's why you probably never noticed him when you still hung out with us in Naabi'aani when we were teenagers. But lately, he's been minding our business a lot more, ever since..." She hesitated. "Ever since Josh grew closer to him. Josh is part of the same clan as I am. His father's clan is my mother's clan. It's been four years since things started to change for the Feather Clan, having to do with the special position Josh seems to have within the tribe, according to the hataalii."
Hannah's curiosity piqued. "So - what kind of position is that?" Apparently, Josh had gone through more than just one metamorphosis in the years of her absence.
"The point is, no one knows exactly. It all started when Josh came back from his vision quest. It's common that a teenager consults the elderly people in the village after returning from such a quest, so nobody batted an eyelid when he went to Sani for advice. But people did raise eyebrows when it turned out he only wanted to talk to Sani, and refused to even speak to his grandparents about what he saw."
"And now what?"
"Now? He's just part of the community in Naabi'aani. But at the same time, it feels like he's standing on the sidelines. And Sani talks about him as if we should treat him with more respect than you'd expect for a seventeen-year-old guy from a normal clan. To tell you the truth, I'm a bit puzzled Josh still hangs out with Ben like nothing changed."