Chapter One:
Chapter 18:
Amanda didn't get home until after midnight. Casey and several other cousins took her to The Salish Restaurant to celebrate. Once it got around she was there, other people started to show up. Some came to socialize, others to remind her of the promises she’d made, and still more to remind her not to forget her father’s generation.
She was cornered by cousins who had voted for Mary, who pointed out to her that she ran the risk of dividing the family if she strayed from her father’s legacy too much. Amanda wanted to point out she clearly won, overwhelmingly won, in spite of the way the family voted. She decided not to, as there was another election coming in seven months.
"I just wanted to say..." A young man Amanda didn't recognize started talking to her, using a shy voice that made it hard to hear over the chatter of everybody else. "My family voted for you. We don't have anybody on council or anything and we thought you'd make a difference."
"I'm going to try, really try." Amanda said back politely.
"Is it okay if we bring you our thoughts, or issues?"
"Like what?"
"Oh, well, we don't have any right now but when we do, there's nobody on council that listens to us." The guy was caught off guard by her asking.
"You know what? I'm going to say something to the room and it's going to apply to you as well. Okay?" Amanda gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and smiled. She took a breath and stood up on the chair. "Hey! Listen up! Close your mouths and open your ears."
Amanda waited as the room stopped talking. The place was packed and all now turned their attention to her, as people relayed to the others she was talking.
"Okay." She switched to her Longhouse voice, "I'll say, definitely a big night." The room started clapping and cheering for her, giving her a nice rush, but she waved it down to quiet again. "And I thank you. I really do. I wouldn't have my position if you all didn't have your say today and it's appreciated. And will not be forgotten. I came into the election with ideas, with plans and I'm so very glad that they resonated with all of you. Thank-you, and I promise you that I will do my best to see them through."
There was more clapping. Amanda waited for it to settle. Soaking it in.
"I can't help but notice, though, as I talk to people individually, that there seems to be this underlying fear that I'll forget you. Or I won't be open to further talks. This is not the case. This gentleman here just told me that his family doesn't have anybody on the band council. This is also not the case. Just because the person you voted for didn't get elected doesn't mean you're not represented. Our council is there for you. It exists to serve you. Any one of them is someone you should feel free to talk to. And above all of them, you have the right, and the freedom to expect the same from the Chief you elected. My door will always be open...except between one and one thirty, that's my coffee fix time, it's not safe then." They laughed. "Again. Thank-you."
Amanda was helped down from the chair as the room burst into more clapping. Again, she was surrounded by people and spent the next few hours entertaining.
When she arrived home, she found that most of the lights, including the outside ones, were out except for her mother’s room and a dimmed lamp in the living room.
Inside, Mary was stretched out on the couch holding her phone up, reading off of it.
"Hey." Mary said, sitting up. "Look at you, looking a full inch taller."
Amanda grins, "It's the heels."
"No, it's the status." Mary moved around to give her sister a hug. "I'm happy for you."
Amanda accepted the hug but still had this nagging doubt that her sister wasn’t being as genuine as she claimed to be. She couldn't have known that she was going to lose by such a large margin before today, but maybe her turn about was just to save face in case she did. It was irrelevant now, and if false, then Amanda could play along, but if so, it was going to come up again in six months when they would have to start all over again.
"Where's mom?" Amanda asked as Mary sat on the back of the couch.
"In her room. She hasn't come out since I got home. Just the occasional cough." Mary checked her phone.
"So she's still up?" Amanda wondered if it was a good idea to go up and talk to her. Wouldn't be that great a conversation though? Twice as awkward if Amanda interrupted her mother in her planning phase. "Why are you still up?"
"Chatting with friends. Trying to get my social life back in order." Mary held her phone up. It's true she's been chatting with several people including Rachel. She stayed up because she was waiting for a reply from Peter that didn’t seem to be coming.
She’d texted him earlier 'I lost the election,' and he replied 'I'm sorry to hear that. Are you okay?' She replied with a long message about it being for the better, that she can go back to her life and focus on her business again. He acknowledged that it's a good idea, but when she mentioned that it also meant they could figure out where both of them stood now, she didn't get a response. That was an hour ago and she was wondering if that was too close to 'we need to talk' or 'where is this going?'
"She's going to take a few days, you know." Mary said motioning toward the stairs.
"Is she pouting?"
"When have you ever known Mom to pout?" Mary arched an eyebrow. They both knew Tracy didn't wallow. She might get taken aback on occasion, but then she’d usually be right back to scheming before the end of the minute.
"Okay, I think I'll wait till tomorrow to deal with that. I'm going to go call my boyfriend and go to bed." Amanda relented and headed for the staircase.
"Night." Mary watched her sister leave, then looked back down at her phone as if doing so would will Peter to reply.
Just as her daughters surmised, Tracy wasn't pouting. She was planning out the next steps she was going to take. She sat on her bed with her legs up, crossed at the ankles, and her back against the wall. She hadn't moved from there for several hours. She mainly stared ahead, but from time to time, would close her eyes to visualize the paperwork or conversations she would have to have.
As she went through the scenarios, she found that she had a three-sided dilemma when it came to the next month. She'd already discounted disputing the election with the department of Aboriginal affairs. Amanda won with more than eighty percent of the vote, so there'd be no second-guessing how people felt. Plus, in thirty years of elections, she was aware Duncan had never had an election over-turned.
An election dispute was also amateur as far as Tracy was concerned. It was something novices did when they couldn't get their way. Tracy felt she was above that. She knew the system better than anyone and if she resorted to calling "unfair" then she might as well retire. She wanted to make change, not be that annoying whiner.
How though? It was a very risky situation for her, as anything she did might reflect poorly on her and her family. What type of mother would she look like trying to get her daughter tossed out? She would look like a mother who couldn't keep her family together, and who wants a political dynasty that squabbles amongst themselves? Not to mention that making Amanda look bad also made her look bad… the mother who couldn't raise her right.
Tracy wondered what type of mother she was to be going after her own daughter. Even if nobody found out, she'd still know. Her daughter would know it was her, as well. What type of world did they live in that it would have to come to that?
It was justified though; at least she thought so. This wasn't a small case of having a disobedient child acting out at the grocery store. This was a daughter defying the will of the entire family. This was a young lady who openly spit on the plans and hopes of her parents for her own selfish reasons. Tracy felt she couldn't allow that to happen when so much was at stake.
There were limits to what she could do. She would have to do this while putting restraints on herself. If this had been William, or even Tony who seemed like a nice enough person, she would've found their weaknesses and exploited them happily. William had a drinking problem. She had a cousin who would happily have gotten drunk with William on the days that council met, perhaps several drunk driving charges. Even better, how about a rape charge that would stick?
Tony was another matter. He was an honest, hard-working individual according to her little birds around the reserve. But shy, Tony was deathly shy. She saw that first hand during the debates. It wouldn't have been that hard to embarrass him in front of the right people. He would never speak publicly again when she was done with him.
Amanda was different; embarrass her and you embarrass the family. Embarrass the family, and it comes down on Tracy.
What could she do? She wondered. Her daughter must have some sort of weakness, everybody did. Amanda was careful and calculating, so it'd be well hidden, but with enough digging, she could probably find it. Maybe it had something to do with that Marshal boy; was that the weak link? It would be, if it was Mary. She has always been a sucker for love and fun. Tracy frowned when she realized that she knew virtually nothing about her youngest daughter's life.
How had she kept it hidden from her for her entire life? People usually loved to talk about themselves. Tracy came to count on that when sizing them up and plotting against them. Amanda had avoided that somehow.
Tracy decided that her only option was to avoid taking on Amanda directly. Instead, she would have to use her influence on the council to limit Amanda's powers there. Through them, she could make sure that Amanda never had to vote, that they never appointed her to committees and never let her negotiate on their behalf. Done right, they could relegate Amanda to nothing more than a figure-head, at which point, she might become bored and move on.
It was two in the morning when she finally decided on her course of action, but the time didn't stop her from calling all seven members of the council. She knew they would want to know that they were still being looked after.
"Hello?" Peter sounded groggy on his end of the line.
"Hi. Good morning." Mary said. It was actually almost noon but she didn't want to nitpick, not when she felt like she was walking a tight rope. "You have a late night?"
"Yeah..."Peter tried to remember what he did last night. "Ryan came over. We played some video games. There was booze involved."
"Oh, lovely." Mary said. She hadn't left her bedroom yet today either, still dressed in her sleepwear of an oversized Doctor Who T-shirt. "That's why you stopped texting."
"No I did, I did." Peter had slept on top of his covers and realized he was still wearing his clothes from the day before. He looked at his phone but its settings didn't show him his texts so he put it back to his ear. "You lost and wanted to get back to your regular life, I thought that was a great idea."
"After that I was texting, but it was late so it doesn't matter. You got anything planned for today?" Mary chewed on her thumbnail as she waited for an answer.
"What am I doing today? What am I doing? I am getting some papers together and signed, then I have to get them downtown to the bank before they close." Peter said. "After that I don't know."
"You want to grab some dinner?"
"Yeah, I can do that." Peter answered. There was a moment of awkward silence. "You want me to text you later when I'm done what I'm doing?"
"Sure, that sounds good." Mary waited a second, "I'll see you tonight then."
"Okay, love you." Peter said and hung up. He laid it on his chest and sighed as he reflected on the first big lie he's told Mary since they started dating. Sure, he's told her little white lies about movies he didn't like but said he did, or food she made did taste good but never an outright lie. He felt bad for brushing her off but he needed some time to think before he saw her. Right at that moment, his head hurt from dehydration, so he couldn't function as he should.
He was telling the truth about Ryan coming over last night to play video games, but he didn't get into the game. He couldn't focus and spent three rounds getting slaughtered, and Ryan along with him. The two of them called it quits and spent the next hour downing beers. Peter was charmingly buzzed by seven thirty and thinking another few beers wouldn't hurt.
"I think I'm going to have to break up with Mary. What do you think?" Peter asked as Ryan kicked back in the chair, his feet going up on the coffee table as he slouched down.
"Why? I thought you liked this girl."
"I do. I do like her. I don't like this world of hers. It's a stupid world. And one she's going to be a part of tonight. I told her that if she wins, she has to keep it all over there, but who does that, and how is she going to do that?" Peter waved his arms around. "She'll have all this responsibility, and I'm telling her that she can't ever bring it up, or expect me to go over that way. I can't ask that, and I can't expect her to do that."
"Then don't ask her to do that?"
"Yeah," Peter leaned forward dangling his beer, "But I want nothing to do with it. Who is she to ask me to change who I am, and my whole world to accommodate her new thing?"
"Mary."
"What?"
"She's Mary."
"Yeah, what about her?"
"You asked me who she was?"
"Dude, you're drunk. It was a figurative question. No, not figurative. The one where you're not expecting an answer?" Peter sat back trying to remember the word. "Um...rhetorical. It was rhetorical. Either way, I think we have to end it."
"That's too bad. You're really going to miss her." Ryan said and finished off his beer in one swig.
Peter smirked as he considered what it was going to be like when he ended it with her, instantly filling his gut with adrenaline. He laid his head back on the couch to wait until this new feeling of weight dissipated.
"I don't want to do it."
"Which one? Lose her or keep her with new rules?"
"Either." Peter looked forward again. "I don't know what to do."
"Drink. Be drunk. Deal with it another night." Ryan gave the best advice sober. Drunk was another story.
Peter agreed. He downed some of his own beer.
Half an hour later, the text from Mary came in telling him she had lost. He did his best to have a conversation with her but by then, beer on an empty stomach was taking its toll.
Twenty minutes after that, he passed out, and didn't know how he got to his bed.
That morning also brought a hand delivered envelope to Amanda from the Band office. There was nothing special on the outside except her name written out in pencil. Inside she found four letters and a booklet.
The first was the official election results from the night before: how many votes in total, followed by how many for her and for Mary. There was also the percentage numbers in case people didn't know math. Duncan's signature was at the bottom.
The second was a copy of the official announcement that would be put up around the reserve. The third was a letter written on behalf of the band council congratulating her on her win and welcoming her to the team, which was signed by the entire council. The last page was the notice of the first Band Council meeting, which, to Amanda's delight was to be held tonight instead of its regular night. There were issues being held up due to the lack of a full council. On the back was the list for the proposed agenda.
The booklet was the official rules and laws dictating how the band council was run. Amanda was amused at the thought of what they were implying by sending it along; she had the booklet memorized already.
This should be a good day, she told herself before noticing that Tracy was watching her from the living room. Amanda turned toward her and lifted the items a bit.
"My first official package. It's kind of cool actually."
"Hmm." Tracy barely grunted a response before she turned and walked into the kitchen.
Amanda lowered the items, disappointed. There were days when that reaction made her feel sad, and others when it made her angry. Today it was sad.
