Dahiná & Dusty
*Aaron & Sunny
"If I am with a white man . . . with you, I want the love and caring they* have. Can two people who once hated each other’s kind have that?”
“If we feel love for each other, we must be past some of that hate, Dahiná. I know this: I know that I want to be with you all the time, I want to hold you all the time, and I want to take care of you. I don’t want to boss you. I think once a person gits used tuh thuh other look, skin color and such, they realize if it appeals to them or not. But they got to get past the reasons to not like thuh color or the ways of another kind of people.”
“Some cannot do that, Dusty.”
“I can, Dahiná. Yur just a girl to me. Yur just a pretty girl who I love an’ cain’t do to be away from. You ain’t an Indian tuh me; yur a girl. It don’t matter.”
“But I am an Indian, Dusty. Aaron is proud that Sunny is what she is.”
“I ain’t ashamed of you, Darlin’. Yur a proud woman of a good people. I ain’t gonna try to make you a white girl. When I said yur not an Indian to me, I mean it don’t matter, it don’t get in the way. But I think I see what Aaron sees: Yur strong, brave native girls of this land. It ain’t a bad thing ‘cept to the Indian haters, an’ I ain’t one of those. What you are has an appeal tuh me. Everything about you does.”
He was apprehensive with his next words . . . to bring up a bad past; but he had to say them. He had to get something off his chest. He just hoped he wasn’t going to ruin it.
“Dahiná, that day we found you . . . I shouldn’t uh ignored you so. I am so sorry. I cain’t take it back; it’s over an’ dun. But I think now, I saw your worth an’ goodness then. I shirked my duty to yuh.”
The woman saw the pain in his face. And turning toward him on the bench, dropping the unbroken beans in her hand and accidently kicking over the pot of broken ones with a careless foot, she embraced the man. There was some little hint of tears in her eyes.