First, Best and Always
Homecoming
Chapter 11 – Homecoming
Eric was the third of five brothers, the sons of Hehaka Naji (Standing Elk). The two oldest brothers were Aaron-- Tasunke Hinzi (Yellow Horse) and Brandon -- Chun Najin (Standing Tree). The youngest boys like Raven’s brothers were twins, Jarod -- Cetan Luta (Red Hawk) and Devon -- Wanbli Sapa (Black Eagle). Eric, at 32 was 12 years older than the twins, but younger than Aaron and Brandon by 5 and 3 years respectively. Their mother Amanda -- Wa-sna-win (Storm Woman), passed away three days after the twin's tenth birthday and their father Standing Elk, understandably devastated, never remarried. His position on marriage was, that after 30 years with one woman, no one else could ever feel like a wife to him or be a mother to his children. Eric's tribal name was Hehaka Chikala (Little Elk). His mother chose that name because at birth he looked so much like his father.
His tribal history, ancestry, and customs all went into making him an extremely proud man. His father, one of the tribal elders, and a well respected man, had raised Eric and his brothers well. Standing Elk had always been a rancher, he loved horses and ran a small successful business breaking saddle horses for dude ranches and riding schools and sometimes supplied wild unbroken horses for rodeo “rough stock” events like saddle bronc and bareback riding. Although all of his sons helped out on the land they owned, the two eldest boys and the two youngest had all decided that they preferred to work in construction. Eric knew that his life's work had to be in healing, and he chose medicine as his profession.
His older brothers had both originally gone to school to become architects, Brandon however had changed his major and opted to become and engineer. The two younger boys, decided that they'd had enough of school, (two years at a junior college) at least for the time being, and were temporarily content to work for their older brothers at their jointly owned company, Five Feathers Construction. Jarod and Devon at 20 were still pretty wild, and Standing Elk thought it best to allow them to get it out of their systems, to "sow their oats" as it were, rather than to pressure them into doing something that they weren't ready to give their full attention and concentration to.
Overall, they worked well together and even Eric pitched in at the construction company when he was home. Aaron was the “peacemaker,” he hated to see anyone arguing; particularly his brothers. His philosophy was simple, “life was too short to spend any part of it in anger.” Brandon had always been the “caretaker” of the group. Looking after all the others, even the eldest Aaron. On more than one occasion when the twins were on the job he’d have to track them down and send them back to work. It’s not that they were lazy or anything like that, it’s just that they were young and to them finishing one project often called for a rest period.
Many was the day that Brandon would find them, shirts off, sitting in the shade of a tree drinking a soda and goofing off like young men often do. He wasn’t prone to yelling, but he was always firm with them and tried to set a good example, “Okay,” he’d say “lets get after it” which was his way of saying “get the job done.” They’d moan good naturedly, and tease him about being a slave driver, but they always did what he said without an argument.
They each had a very real and clear sense of who they were as Native Americans, and of who and what they should be as men. And with only occasional slips into adolescent foolishness, (usually perpetrated by the twins), they carried themselves with dignity, honor and pride. They'd learned the ways and customs of their people at the feet of an excellent teacher, their father, and one of the most important things he'd taught them was the value of women.
For them, the woman who blessed your lodge with her presence was almost as important as your ability to continue breathing. And if worse came to worse you were expected to give up your life to keep her safe. So, it was with these thoughts in his mind that Eric came home, he’d left something behind, something more important than breathing, and he was determined to get it back…no matter what he had to do.