White Wing Forever

It happened somewhere north of Sedona. I was driving in a white Mustang convertible through Indian country. The land was starkly beautiful and lightening flashed through the dark skies to my east. The convertible had been a good buy. I had won two back-to-back poker tournaments and used some of the money to purchase the car.

In the distance was the outline of a café. It was the only business in that part of the country. The sign promised bean burritos, chorizo, Indian fry bread and other goodies for a price. I pulled my car to the side of the dusty road.

A little boy stood next to the lone pump in front of the building.

'You want gas, Mister,?', he said in a Hispanic accent.

'No, but thank you?''

'You wanna buy a little Indian boy an ice cream?'

I smiled. 'Sure.'

He beat me through the front door to the kitchen. A middle aged woman with white hair was cooking and a younger version of herself with flashing dark eyes and beauty was serving the food.

The boy pointed toward the older woman. 'That's my grandma. And the other one is my mother.'

The younger woman came over to me.

'I hope Pablo isn't bothering you,' she said.

'Nothing that came from such a beautiful beginning could ever bother me.'

She smiled and nodded.

'And what brings you to this part of desert paradise?', she said.

'The temptation of good food served by the hands of a nubile native such as yourself.'

She smiled. 'Those are pretty words. I am White Wing. My mother is Apache.'

I took my seat at a table and White Wing served me. I had the Indian fry bread, bean burritos with hot -- and I really mean hot -- sauce. And I washed the food down with ice-cold cerveza served Mexican style with a lime in the bottle opening.

I bought Pablo his ice cream and he wanted to reward me by showing me the wolf caves.

'We have horses and we can ride there,' he said. 'You'd have a good time.'

'I'm sure I would, Pablo, especially with you as my guide. But I don't have any place to stay --'

White Wing interrupted. 'We have a spacious room. You could stay there.'

And so that evening I unpacked my suitcase in an adobe household with an Indian princess and her mother as my escorts.

After I joined them in the café, Pablo said he was saddling horses for us to explore the wolf caves.

'You're not scared, are you?'

'No! Certainly not.'

'Good, cause I wouldn't want to embarrass you.'

We rode for a couple of miles into a mesa and stopped in front of a series of caves.

'That's where the wolves hang out,' he said. 'A big he and a she and their little ones. I come here often.'

Back at the house, White Fang was waiting. She had already prepared dinner and it smelled tantalizing.

'Are you spoken for?,' I said in amazement. 'Because if you aren't...'

'I am,' she said sweetly, 'but thank you for asking.'