The Mockingbird's Ballad - Page 87/165

Mixed reactions showed in the others' faces. Lou expected Grand to be the spokesman for the six. He wasn't. It was Mama Bear.

"I've got 21 twenty dollar gold pieces in my special place in the barn. Been building that White Man's fortune for near forty years," she smiled. Then with sternness she said, "This is a land of death - we didn't make it that but it has become that. Mockingbird is right. We can go. We'll make a new place and a new home." Her face changed from authoritative to reflective. "My people have had their homes made into places of death by others for generations. We start again, we start again." Resolve and a touch of abiding grief were in her tone, not anger. "We go in three days."

They did.