Natives - a short story by
Simon Dazey
Despite the fact that I have forgotten a lot of all the stuff I learnt at school, there is one thing to be sure, that I won't ever forget.
The funny thing is, I wasn't even in that particular class, when it happened. Mary and Liz told me about it during lunch.
They had been sitting in Mrs Narrow's classroom enduring a boring Geography lesson about New Zealand. They felt strange about it, for it was January and outside the snow was just covering up the dirty small town. On one side, out of the window, they saw a landscape, in which Santa could come any moment on his sleigh to bring them presents, on the other hand there were the pictures on the monitor and Mrs Narrow's monotonous voice telling them about down under in summer. Suddenly some natives appeared on the screen, Aboriginals, they were sure about it. 'Poor little creatures, just like our Red Indians'. "Those are the Maoris, the native inhabitants of New Zealand", continued the teacher. And then it happened, just at the moment when they had come to the conclusion that this would be the most boring and awful lesson that they had ever had or would have, an old Maori appeared. He stood there in the middle of the jungle, holding a short spear in his hand. "Hey, this guy looks kinda like ol' Mista Bates with his ruler!" Who that exactly said, is one of the great secrets in the history of Nye High School, but it's not really important for this story. About every boy in that class, but Will claimed the responsibility for having said it, but personally I still think it was exactly him who did it.
Anyhow, that was the end of the lesson, at least for the students. They spent the rest of it laughing. O K, I wouldn't believe it either, but I was next door in the library, trying to remember some of those awful German words like 'die Geschwister' or 'der Fu�ballweltmeisterschaftsendrundenteilnehmer' , I think you get the picture. Now have you ever tried to learn a foreign language, while there's a whole room of teenagers next door laughing their heads off? Well, don't even try it ! It's no use!
Whatever, from this day on, everybody called M. Bates the Maori, the students, the principal, the counsellor, the teachers, and rumours said, even his wife, though I doubt that.
However, I neither want to tell a story about M. Bates, nor about Mary and Liz. I just wanted to talk about myself, when I was a teenager, but my thought just faded away, and I start writing pages just for simple backround information. I guess my creative writing teacher would have killed me for this, if she hadn't been shot three years ago by a college student who ran amuck during class.
Anyhow, Mister Bates had been the Maori for about a year, when I fell in love with Wash. His full name was Washington Browner, he was a full-blooded Navajo and his family had just moved into town. He was a great football player, and we often talked with each other during bus trips, when we went to play other schools. Fortunately our school is small, so the girls playing volleyball, and the boys playing football get to ride in one bus. "Keep your hands to yourselves!", was what the coach used to say regularly during our trips all through the Sagebrush State, but we did not care, since he was as blind as a mole. Though I knew that Wash liked me, I was not sure whether he felt the same way about me that I felt about him. I just wanted him to ask me out for the Homecoming dance, that should take place on December 3rd, but somehow he just didn't do it. All my girlfriends already had dates and it was just three more weeks till the dance. I got pretty scared, it was simply impossible that an accomplished girl like me should show up at the homecoming dance all alone. Absolutely impossible. Especially because I had already refused to accompany two guys, Jonathan and Jack. Jonathan was a swot, so I didn't care, but Jack was kind of nice, but in those days, there was only one boy on my mind, Wash.
I was afraid he had already asked somebody else, and I was almost ready to help the handkerchief industry out of every crisis they would ever have, but Mary calmed me down. I was over at her place quite often that year, mainly because she had the greatest folks in town. If I wanted to get drunk, well that was exactly the place to go.
So one night we were sitting in her room, killing a bottle of Californian Zinfandel, when I suddenly bursted out in tears and told her about Wash. "Don't you worry, Jane", she said "I know exactly which couples we have to expect at the dance. Wash's still single, and I bet he loves you. He's just a little shy!"
I didn't believe her. Who has ever heard of a shy Indian?
"Well, either he is shy, or he is a fag!"
"What ?" I was a little drunk and ready to go for her throat. "How could you even think something like that? That's disgusting!"
"Cause you're the only girl he has talked to since he came here in summer."
"Right, and Bill Gates is my uncle,"
"Seriously, I mean, take a look at all the other football players, Jerry for example is changing girlfriends as others change their underwear, and Shaun has dated at least 15 girls since he started playing varsity."
"Maybe his parents do not approve of mixed relationships."
And after that there was no further talking about this subject.
I spent the rest of the week watching Wash quite closely. He really did not look at any other girl.
Well I would give him four more days, because that weekend we would be going down to Vegas for the state finals, and this time it wasn't just for the game. We started shortly after lunch. I felt really proud, when we assembled in the gym, and everybody wished us luck. We were sure to return home with the state championship.
There is only one thing I will say about sports on that weekend, we lost. Both of us lost, the boys and the girls. And that's all I'm going to say about that. So at night we sat desperately depressed in our motel rooms and got drunk. The motel was a little bit out of town, situated right at Lake Mead. If you took a look out of the window you saw the beautiful shimmering water and Arizona on the other side.
After the coach had gone through the rooms to make sure we were all asleep, we went out to sit on the landing stage. Kate and Lydia smoked, Rose mumbled something about the game nobody wanted to hear, and I was thinking about Wash. We were silent, and I enjoyed the silence.
Then I saw the small light, over at the motel complex. Was it a candle? Was it a flashlight? With my contact lenses already taken out for the night I couldn't tell.
And then they took off, and it wasn't until the following day, that I realised why and that Kate, Rose and Lydia really were the best girlfriends you could possible have. Rose had to pee, Kate wanted to get a new packet of cigarettes and Lydia wanted to sneak over and see if Jos�, her boyfriend, was still up. So I was lying alone on the stage.
After about ten minutes, I had come to the decision that they wouldn't return. I was ready to go to bed myself, but then I saw the light again. It was a flashlight, and a man, a tall man, and watching the way he was walking, I was sure he was drunk. I got pretty scared, and pressed my body on the wooden stage as hard as I could, hoping he would not see me, but in vain. He came closer, and then I realised it was Wash. I must have said something like: "Oh, it's you", and he asked if he could join me, and then he sat down and I got up and placed myself next to him. Then he grabbed my hand, and I realised that Mary had been right, there really was a shy Indian.
Then suddenly he turned around, looked straight into my eyes and asked: "Jane? Would you be my homecoming date?" Although this was exactly what I had wanted to happen, I didn't know how to react, so I simply said "Sure", just as if he had asked me if I wanted a piece of gum.
"Thanks", he said, and left. And that was it. No hot kisses and no sex before reaching majority; at least not this night.
Because I knew that I would not be able to sleep, I went swimming in the lake. Neither can I remember what else happened on that night, nor do I know how I eventually got to bed, but I've got the feeling I made all the way to Arizona and back.
The next morning we drove home, but of course not without going to an all-you-can-eat brunch for only $ 3.99. I did not want to eat that much, just two scrambled eggs and some sausages, and of course a big cup of coffee, so I was the first to sit down at a table. But neither Kate, nor Lydia or Rose joined me, instead Wash appeared with four plates full of food. "Add some leather trousers and he'd make the perfect German tourist on his first trip to Vegas", I thought, and started to laugh. He set in, without even knowing, what I was laughing about.
"Sorry", he sad after he had finished his first two pancakes "that I left yesterday, but I was so drunk, well I wasn't sure whether I would have been able to control myself, if I had stayed."
"But now you're OK, aren't you?"
"Well, yes I guess."
"Right", I leaned over and kissed him.
The next two weeks I had the feeling, that I was the luckiest girl there had ever been in the state of the mountain blue bird. Then Saturday came, and at 8 p.m. sharp an old Chevy drove up our driveway.
Wash had come to get me. The ball was supposed to take place in the community building, and it did. But somehow it wasn't the way I had imagined it to be, because suddenly Wash was missing, and so was the rest of the football team. I didn't notice it at first, since I was busy admiring Mary's new dress and laughing about Jonathan trying to dance, but then I started looking around, and asked about everybody, if they had seen Wash. Nobody had. Suddenly I wondered whether my make-up was still in place and so I went to the bathroom. I was powdering my nose when I heard a loud noise coming from the ballroom. I rushed back, and I saw a picture that was wilder than my wildest dreams, and they are pretty wild.
All the guys had dressed up as Maoris and some were carrying rulers and spears with them. Dressed up like this, they ran all around the room, chasing every female freshman and sophomore they could find.
Everybody laughed, and it was somehow funny, but I didn't like it. It was too ridiculous. But even worse, it was so disrespectful towards the Maoris. This was not the way to deal with another culture. I did not expect them to have thought about it, those stupid White Americans,all having Ds in History and Government, but Wash, being a member of a native culture himself, should have thought about it. He hadn't. He just behaved like all of them.
I was hurt, disappointed. I had always thought he was something special. Well, I had been wrong. Wrong. I felt bad. I wanted to leave. I desperately wanted to go home. But how? I was not going to ask Wash for a ride, definitely not. Then I saw Jack sitting in a corner all on his own. I went over and asked him whether he would give me a ride.
I must have been quite strange, the way I said it. It was something like: "Jack, would you do me a favour? I know I might have hurt your feelings, and I'm not going to promise you anything, but could you drive me home, por favor? I can't stand this!"
"Sure", he took his jacket and led the way.
We did not say a word till we reached my home. I opened the car door, said "Thanks, Jack", and turned his way to give him a fast kiss on his cheek, but he turned away. "Don't", he said, "I couldn't stand it. I just gave you a ride because you were helpless."
"Well, then I can't do anything, but say thanks again. Enjoy the rest of the party!"
"I am not going back."
"It that case, sleep well!"
"You, too", and then he took off.
After the car had left, I hesitated a moment, to watch the stars, and think about the day. And I was wondering what the real Maoris were like...
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