Read Online Keeper'n Me by Richard Wagamese - Free Book Online Page B

but I remember you, all right.”
    â€œAhh, get the hell outta the way, Jane, and let us meet this boy kept us waitin’ three days and twenty years anyway!” said an energetic little guy. “How you doin’, T’rana? I’m yer uncle Buddy.”
    Well, they all lined up and for the next half hour or so I was introduced to my uncles Gilbert, Archie and Joe, aunties Myrna and Ella, Chief Isaac McDonald and wife, Bertha, and the wrinkled-up old guy who said his name was Keeper and who left right away with Buddy.
    Two things really got my attention that day. The first was the way they just seemed to treat me like I was someone they’d always known. Like the twenty years didn’t matter to them or the way I was dressed, the Afro or anything. It was like I was already a part of their lives and let’s get on with it all. The second thing was the absence of my mother and my other brother, Jackie. Of all the things I was scared of, meeting my mother after all that time was the biggest and I wondered why she wasn’t there. Anyway, after all the introductions were over everybody just visited with each other and it was like the excitement was over and life was back to normal for them. Me, I was pretty confused.
    â€œTake a walk, Garnet, you, me’n Jane,” Stanley said. “Only here’s a pair of shoes to wear around till you get some of your own. Those heels’ll kill you round here.”
    I wasn’t real surprised when they fit perfectly, Stanley being the same size and all. He waved to everyone as we walked out the door and they all just waved and went back to their conversations. I shook my head and fell in between the two of them.
    â€œOkay, bro’?” Jane asked and put her arm around my shoulders.
    The words sounded strange to my ears. I mean, up to then “bro’ ” was just something you tossed around like pal or chum, buddy or dude. Now all of a sudden it had a whole different meaning. “Yeah. Yeah. I just feel weird about all this.”
    â€œS’okay,” Stanley said. “S’okay. Ev’ryone’s been waitin’ for you and they all really want you to stay with us. Me too.”
    â€œMe too,” said Jane. “Me too.”
    â€œI don’t know. I don’t know whether I can get into all this, man. I mean, I been city all my life, y’know? I guess I’m not too sure I can handle it.”
    â€œNothin’ to handle,” Stanley said. “Might be hard for you to understand, Garnet, but people been dreamin’ ’bout this day for a long time and they held onto you all the time you were away. People been prayin’ and makin’ offerin’s and that old government guy, Cary Stevens, who opened your file is like some kinda local hero around here now. So you don’t need to handle yourself around us. Just be here, man.”
    â€œS’right,” Jane said and held my hand. “Guaranteed you’re a funny-lookin’ Indyun right now, kinda lookmore like a parakeet than a Raven, but this is your home, these are your people and your family. I held you when you were just a baby. I watched you learn to crawl’n walk. You belong with us. Settle in for a bit. Let us know you.”
    â€œKnow me? Hell, I don’t even know me.”
    â€œS’what I mean,” said Stanley. “Here you don’t have to be anybody or anything. People gonna be feedin’ you and spoilin’ you just like you’re a little kid for a long time. So be a kid. Look around, learn, let them take care of you.”
    We stood there awhile in silence. The three of us taking turns glancing at each other before turning our heads to pretend we were studying something in the distance. The day was one of those bright, cloudless, windless days we get around here every once in a while and every day like that these last five years reminds me of that one moment my first day home. We started