“You were at one time Fawn’s legal guardian, is that right?” Monte said.
“Yep. Long story.”
“We’re in no hurry,” Agent Shirley said.
“All right, then. When I was a kid, I was in one of them boarding schools, over in North Dakota,” Daisy began. “I still get nightmares. Used to drink trying to make ’em go away, and the drinking got me in a lot of trouble. I had me a daughter, Celia Marie, with a Lakota man over in North Dakota, but he ain’t really a part of this story. He skipped out before my Celia Marie was born. Like I said, the drinking got me into all kinds of trouble. When Celia was ten, I got into some real trouble and they sent me to jail. Well, they called it a correctional rehab center, but it was a jail. Lost my daughter. While I was there, I met some folks from White Bison. They got a wellbriety program. Uses the Medicine Wheel and Twelve Steps. They helped me get sober, and eventually I got my Celia Marie back. But by then it was too late. She was a teenager, into all kinds of craziness, drugs and the like. She already had a child, my granddaughter. Named her Fawn. Tacicala in the Lakota language cuz the father was Lakota. Only like Celia Marie’s father, he ain’t a part of this story at all. She and Fawn, they ended up here in Minnesota, and I came after ’em, trying to stay connected, trying to do what I could to help. When Fawn was twelve, the child protection people finally stepped in and took her away from Celia Marie in the same way they took Celia Marie from me. It took me a while, but I was able to get custody of Fawn. She was a sweet child, really. Helpful, you know. She was born with FAS.”
“Fetal alcohol syndrome,” Agent Shirley said.
“Yeah, but you couldn’t tell. She looked normal. Real pretty. She had some trouble tying her shoes and things, but nothing that was a big deal. Like I said, a sweet child. I hoped my daughter might get clean, like I did, and get Fawn back. But it’s hard. In our blood maybe. I heard it called blood memory, anyway. All the trauma our people have gone through somehow still in our bodies. Celia Marie, she finally ended up going missing. Just disappeared. At first, I thought she was off again, you know, doing God only knows what kind of damage to herself. She always come back, real sorry and mostly wanting to see Fawn. Only this time she didn’t come back. I think something bad musta happened to her. I don’t expect I’ll ever see her again.”
Daisy stopped for a few moments, and Nyla asked, “You okay, Granny?”
“Yeah.” Daisy took a deep breath and went on. “So, I have this diabetes. Had it a long time. Eventually, they took my leg. I had me a job. Waitress at the Blue Moose there in town. But I couldn’t work no more, so they took Fawn. Claimed I couldn’t look after her good enough. Put her in foster care. Foster hell, you ask me. She run away. Come back here, cried to me, told me they treated her real bad in that place. Sounded like the things they done to us in that boarding school. But they come and took her away again. She run and they took her and she run. You get the picture. She got picked up while she was shacking up in some rat hole of a house with a bunch of druggies in Duluth. They put her in a school for problem kids. She run away from there. This time she got picked up for prostitution, ended up in that juvenile jail.”
“North Regional Juvenile Detention.”
“Call it what you like, it’s still a jail. I think about that sweet thing having to sell her body, just kills me inside.” Daisy had been dry-eyed through her recounting of her history, but now a little glistening trail of tears ran down each of her ample cheeks. “When she got out, she was eighteen, not a juvenile no more. They had this plan for her. She was supposed to come back here, live with me, get herself a job, put together a better life for herself, you know? I got no car, so Nyla and her mom drove over to get her. I gave them a bracelet I’d beaded myself, a gift to give to Fawn.”
“She liked it, Granny. She put it on right away.”
Daisy smiled at that, then looked sad again. “They didn’t even get her back here before she ran again.”
Daniel looked at Nyla. “What happened?”
“She said she needed to use the bathroom. We stopped at a gas station. She went in, didn’t come out. I went in to look for her.” Nyla shook her head. “Gone.”
“Is that when you reported her missing?”
“Not right away,” Daisy Blacksmith said. “I mean, she run away so many times, I didn’t know what to think. So, maybe a month went by. Finally I decided I had to do something. Like I said, I’m not Shinnob, but I am Indian, so Nyla’s mom drove me up to the rez, and I talked to Chris Hayner there. You know, heads up the tribal police. He told me he couldn’t really do nothing but said I should file a missing person report with the county sheriff. Hell, that was like spitting in the ocean and thinking it’ll make a difference.”
“The sheriff’s people weren’t helpful,” Monte said.
“Took my information, said they’d get back to me. Never did. I called ’em a bunch of times, always got the same runaround. That Chris Hayner, he told me to talk to an advocate on the rez. She was helpful, called some folks in the Twin Cities—”
“Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives,” Agent Shirley said.
“Yeah, them. But…” Daisy gave a shrug. “Still nothing. Till you folks show up.” She took another deep breath and seemed to steel herself. “So, tell me about Fawn.”
Monte carefully approached telling her about the body that had been found in the blueberry patch and Waaboo’s vision of a girl named Tacicala. “We don’t have confirmation yet of her true identity,” he cautioned. “So it might not be your granddaughter.”
Daisy’s face was something carved of wood. She didn’t blink, didn’t move a muscle.
Nyla finally said, “Granny?”
“I knew.” Daisy’s words were hardly audible. “I knew. I just didn’t want to open my heart to it.”
Nyla put her arms around the woman. “I’m here for you, Granny. Me and Mom, we’re here for you.”
“Like I said, we don’t have confirmation of identity yet,” Monte offered.
“Don’t matter. I know it’s her.” Daisy patted Nyla’s hand and said, “Will you get the picture from my bedroom? You know the one.”
“Sure, Granny.” The girl disappeared into the back room and returned a moment later with a framed drawing. She handed it to Daisy, who looked at it a long time as tears began to gather in her eyes. She held it up for them to see. It was a pastel rendering of Daisy Blacksmith that made her look quite lovely.
“Fawn did this. She said she wanted to capture the true me. She said I was beautiful.”
Now the tears began to flow down her cheeks. There were several long moments of silence while Daisy wept.
“I wonder if you have a photograph of Fawn that we could take,” Monte said gently.
Daisy nodded. “On my dresser, Nyla.”
The girl came back with a framed photo of a smiling young woman proudly holding up a wooden plaque.
“She got that for a picture she drew at the school she was at for a while, the one for problem kids. Contest they had. She got first place,” Daisy said. “Can I have it back?”
“Of course, we’ll return it,” Monte assured her. He stood and took the photograph. “We’ll stay in touch,” he promised.
Daisy gave a nod.
“Thanks, Nyla,” Agent Shirley said. “Take care of her.”
“Like she’s took care of me,” Nyla promised.
Outside, the dog next door started barking again, and again the disembodied voice hollered, “Shut up, Lester.”
They stood at Monte Bonhomme’s Tahoe. From the trailer they’d just left came a long wail of sorrow.
