The Indians are not modeled after real persons living or dead, but
 as Sam said, "It is very convenient to be an Indian." The small
 towns in which the events took are not real towns, but they may
 seem familiar to anyone who has lived in small towns.


LAZARUS I



        Perhaps this was what happened, but it is only conjecture.
 No one really knows how others think.




        When he was born he wasn't breathing.  His mother kept
 praying, and the doctor slapped his bottom.  He started crying and she 
 named him Lazarus. It was the first of frequent spankings that Lazarus
 attracted. His father was a preacher for a fundamentalist sect, who
 believed that sin must be beat out of the young, when he was sober, and
 was brutal when drunk.  Lazarus didn't know what was sinful, and hence
 could not predict which act would bring a beating.  His mother was afraid
 of his father and frequently got beaten when her husband was drunk.
 Lazarus was frightened and afraid.  The words were, "That should put the
 fear of God in you". One day Lazarus asked "What is God?"  He was beaten
 for not knowing, and eventually he learned to remain silent.

        He was fearful until the age of four, when he began to experiment.
 He had heard that God was all knowing.  What happened if he did not
 pray while the others were praying? Would God know and strike him dead?
 Was that worse than the life he was leading?  In a rebellious mood he
 decided to find out.  He was sitting behind the couch at the living room
 prayer meeting and when the adults prayed, he did not close his eyes
 and join them.  Nothing happened, and he concluded that God did not know.
 By now he had a rough idea of sin.  It consisted of not wearing one's
 clothing, asking questions like, What is sin? What is the difference 
 between men and women? or perhaps peeing where one was not supposed to
 pee.  He decided to investigate all these questions, by action.  The
 result was predictable. God either didn't know or didn't care.  What
 was more fundamental was whether or not parents or other adults knew.
 From here it was a small step to other experiments.  One was, "If
 God exists may he strike me dead."  It wasn't a matter of courage.
 It was just a matter of being sinful anyway without trying, and of
 course if this God stuff was true, he was going to burn in hell. He
 didn't know how to behave. It was too unpredictable and hence it was
 better to get the dying over with.  Nothing happened. Perhaps God
 was like the Santa Claus that the neighbor's children believed in.
 It was a fiction that his mother did not think he needed, so he was
 told that Santa Claus did not exist.  Hence Lazarus became a secret
 non-believer in a religious environment.  It gave him comfort.  The
 religion was just too harsh for a small child.  He didn't tell anyone.
 He just no longer believed, but he studied how to appear to be a 
 religious little boy.  In a less harsh environment no doubt he would
 have become religious.  He had doubts about his conclusion. It
 was necessary to test the existence of the God of his father.  He
 looked for ways to be bad and became addicted to the suspense of 
 waiting for punishment.  Defiance was better. He was no longer fearful.
 he was just secretly rebellious and the experience of getting away with
 sin made him feel that he was smarter than others.

        The difference between men and women was very interesting.  His
 mother was always making herself beautiful.  His father didn't seem to
 care if he was even presentable except for Sunday.  After
 getting drunk, one evening his father came home and said to his mother.
 "Jezebel, Why do you tempt me?"  It was confusing.  His mother's name
 was Joan.  Then there was the usual beating.  That part usually made
 Lazarus afraid, however this time he reveled in the power of his father's
 emotions, because he knew he was like his father.  The beatings always
 culminated with sex and by now he had secretly observed what his father
 did with his mother. He was no longer fearful because he had identified
 with the aggressor, and as his mother wept and begged, "no! no!" He
 thought yes, yes!  He forgot the experience but even so it was the
 foundation of his sexual career.

        At the age of five he started torturing animals.  The first 
 victims were insects. He pulled their wings and legs off and watched
 them squirm.  He didn't kill them. He just dismembered them and watched
 as the ants finished them off.  As soon as he could catch them, he
 started on frogs, and skinned them alive.  Kittens were fun if he could
 find them.  By now he had a sister.  He would sneak up to her crib and
 pull her hair and pinch her when no adult was looking. His parents did
 not notice this, because he was the model child. That is quiet, religious
 and ready to do good deeds.  It was strange that the baby always cried
 when she saw him, but then she was a very excitable baby, always crying
 about something and not smart like her brother.

        At six he started school and rapidly became the teacher's favorite
 He was a nice mannerly obedient child, but the other children didn't
 seem to like him.  What the teacher saw as helpful advice about how to
 behave the other children saw as bullying, particularly because it was
 enforced by physical measures behind the teacher's back.  He was a bright
 child with plenty of time because he was ostracized because of his social
 defects.  He learned to read rapidly, and was soon reading to his Sunday
 school class.  

        His father died when he was ten in an automobile accident 
 caused by his drunken driving. Lazarus had no particular emotion except
 relief at the prospect of not being beaten so frequently until the
 funeral. There he learned that his father had been a good and righteous
 man, and that certainly the community would miss him, but now he had
 received his just reward and would continue to guide the members of his
 flock from heaven.  Lazarus was astonished. No one seemed to know about
 the wife and child beating, but how could they miss the constant
 drunkenness?  He decided to become a preacher.  It seemed to be the way
 to get away with anything.

        After his father's death, he had increased responsibility. After
 school he took care of his sister who had just started school. She was
 not bright, and it was Lazarus who took considerable pains to teach her
 to read and learn her numbers.  At times the pain was hers, and she 
 did learn since she was religious and Lazarus was preparing for his
 vocation.  He made sure that she knew it was a sin not to learn.  Even
 though she was retarded, his sister tried hard and she did learn to read
 and write.  After a successful lesson Lazarus would reward her with 
 stories.  She liked stories, and in particular she liked bible stories.
 Lazarus studied the bible, and went to Sunday school.  Besides being
 something a preacher ought to know, the lessons were useful for learning
 stories to tell his sister. 

        At puberty, he taught his sister how to play house.  She didn't
 really like the game, especially the husband and wife part, but he
 explained to her that that was how it was, and she had better get used
 to it, and she should not tell mother because mother would just spank
 her for knowing about sex and certainly she would not believe her.
 For some reason he remembered the name Jezebel and he looked
 it up in the bible.  He didn't really understand the story, but he
 told his sister that God's dogs would eat her if she told. At any
 rate, Rachel, his sister knew that she wasn't supposed to know about
 sex or talk about it particularly to her mother, so she kept quiet.
 This part was the truth and his sister Rachel, knew it was true, even
 if she was retarded.

        Lazarus soon lost interest in sex with Rachel.  She was no
 challenge.  He craved the excitement of being bad and not getting caught.
 By the time he was 12 he was after some high school girls who had a
 reputation for as they put it,(doing it). At first they laughed. He
 was still a little boy, but as he grew he became acceptable, particularly
 since he bribed them with money taken from the church collection plate.
 His excitement soon paled.  There was something about sex that was
 missing.  He had a strange urge to beat someone, and the school girls
 were just too risky to beat.  It was true that sex was bad,
 but they didn't seem to think so, and they talked to many people
 about it.

        He took enough money from the collection plate to hire a 
 prostitute.  The results were satisfactory but it was a one shot venture.
 After the beating she told her colleagues and all the prostitutes avoided
 him.  There had to be a way to get around the talking.  One solution
 was to kill his partner.  It was an exciting possibility.  Besides,
 it solved the money problem. Dead women didn't need it.  He thought
 about it for a long time, then ambushed a prostitute, beat her, raped
 her and dumped the body into the Rio Grande.  He was finally satisfied.
 It was the sort of sex he desired. For some reason again he remembered
 the word Jezebel.  He didn't know where he had heard it.  He just knew
 that he would kill again, and in the same manner. By this time he was a
 quiet studious young man attending divinity school.  Everyone agreed that
 he would make an excellent preacher.  He resisted killing another 
 victim until after he graduated with honors and obtained a position
 in a different town.

        Some of the town's girls showed an interest in the promising
 young man. He recognized that it was sexual interest and in his mind
 this made them bad.  They became fair game, and the town suffered from
 a string of murders.  All of the victims had been raped and beaten.
 Finally one woman fought back, tore his clothing, scratched his face,
 kicked him in the balls and much to his surprise and anger managed
 to escape.  She told the towns people.  The formed a posse and took
 with them whatever dogs they could find.  Some were hunting dogs, others
 were mongrels and the pack leader was a mixture of bloodhound and
 doberman.  They chased him for 3 days.  He had headed for his home
 town and finally the pack treed him in a cottonwood near his birthplace.
 They were going to catch him for a trial, however before they could,
 a single shot through his chest made him fall from the tree and the
 pack of dogs was on him.  He bled to death from his wound before they
 could be dragged off of him.  As he died , for an instant he
 was religious and realized that his whole life had been a test to
 see if God existed.

        No one knew who shot him, or if they did, they weren't talking.
 He was buried without ceremony, and no one said he was a good man.

 

        IT



        It was out there orbiting the third planet.  That was the
 planet with the large amounts of free water, the single moon. 
 and the atmosphere, It had picked this planet as the most interesting
 when It had drifted in from outer space.  For a while It observed and
 looked at phenomena such as meteors hitting the atmosphere and
 radio and TV waves.  Then It gathered material from the moon, encased
 itself in a solid rock coat and altered its trajectory to hit the
 atmosphere.  On the first try the angle was too flat and it bounced
 off, however on the second try It tried a steeper descent and it
 entered.  Its fiery path ended at the edge of a corn field.  It
 removed its coat, reached out and touched a corn root.  It began
 to copy the DNA and by morning It was a new corn plant, perfectly
 in line with the others, but in a non cultivated area just at the
 end of a row.  The farmer noticed It, and thought,  if only the
 plants that I try to grow would do as well as the accidents, 
 growing corn would be a lot less work.  The new plant was
 taken care of and harvested with the rest of the crop.  The ears
 of corn were picked as sweet corn for the market and the stalks
 were converted to silage for the dairy herd.  A particular bit
 of silage was eaten by the lead cow, Buttercup and passed through
 her intestines.  It ended up in a cow pie in a field with several
 of Buttercup's intestinal cells. It found the DNA and a few
 days later, a new cow was waiting to join the herd when Buttercup
 lead them out to pasture.  The new cow looked very much like 
 Buttercup however the holstein spots and the shape of the horns
 were distinctive.  It had learned from the experience in the corn
 field that two living organisms were seldom identical and had
 made appropriate adjustments. The new cow fit in well with the
 herd.  It obviously was a member and seemed to be subordinate to
 the leader Buttercup, but of superior rank to everyone else.  As
 far as the rest of the cows were concerned, there were now two
 Buttercups, who smelled identical, and acted alike.  The farmer's
 son reported that there was an extra cow, and for humane
 reasons they milked It with the others, while they tried to find 
 the owner. The neighbors were questioned to see if they lost a cow, and
 when the results were negative, an ad was put in the local paper.  No one
 arrived to claim the cow, so it became part of the dairy herd.  It was a
 good cow, in fact just as good as Buttercup, and soon proved to
 be capable of leading the herd on the day that Buttercup delivered
 her calf.  It seemed to be intelligent and with none of the personality
 quirks that Buttercup had. That is, It didn't have a tendency to kick,
 and obviously it got along better with the rest of the herd.  It 
 stayed with the herd for 3 years, and like the rest of the herd It
 was inseminated when it went dry and It bore a calf.  Then one day
 It wandered off and died.  In reality, It had become bored and decided
 to become something else.  The cow carcass had been partially eaten
 by a wolf pack, when the farmer found it in a wooded area.  He was
 sorry.  The extra cow had been a good addition to the herd.  Meanwhile
 It had been ingested by a pregnant she wolf and an extra cub was
 born to the alpha pair.  It was the biggest strongest female and it
 became the alpha female 2 years later after It's mother was shot by
 a hunter.  It bore several litters before It became bored, however
 one day it wondered what it was like to be prey rather than predator,
 and It was passed as a wolf stool with some deer cells and It became
 a stag.  This time it didn't bother with the developmental and
 growth process it had used with the wolf.  It was interesting
 but cumbersome, and it took a long time.  It was just easier
 to appear fully developed. It was a big stag and assembled a harem after
 much fighting in the rutting season. It sired many young but died from
 exhaustion and starvation during a severe winter.  The carcass kept a bob
 cat alive, and It copied some mouse DNA that was available in the bob
 cat's stool.  The mouse had a very brief existence before being
 caught by a hawk and of course It copied the hawk.  It was good to
 fly again.  The new hawk flew south to Texas where a teenager shot it
 from the sky with a 22.  It became a beetle for a while, a catapiller 
 which metamorphosed into a moth and then a soil bacterium. Bacteria were
 interesting.  It spent lots of time investigating the organisms in the
 soil.


LAZARUS II


 A better man



        They found him nude, sitting on a gravestone.  He didn't
 speak when spoken to, however he looked attentive.  Eventually the
 police were informed and they took him away.  They also confirmed
 what the grave diggers who found him had already noticed.  He bore
 a striking resemblance to Lazarus. In fact the resemblance was so
 strong that the police ordered the body of Lazarus exhumed,
 just to make sure it was there.  The corpse was there in all its
 putrifaction, and showing the single bullet hole in the chest.  A 
 through search of the records revealed no missing persons like Lazarus,
 and the fingerprints of the man from the graveyard were different
 than those of the deceased.  He didn't talk nor did he seem to know
 the most elementary things such as how to dress himself, how to
 use the toilet or how to eat except with his hands.  Eventually,
 for want of a better name they called him Lazarus and sent him to
 a mental hospital in the nearest city.

        When put with the other inmates he became frightened and
 agitated, and eventually after some physical restraints and
 experimentation with calming him with drugs, they isolated him and put
 him in the care of a practical nurse named Rita.  Immediately, he became
 calm and attentive, learned to use the toilet, began dressing himself and
 started to feed himself with the spoon that they furnished with his bowl.
 He began to drink from a glass, allowed his hair to be cut and his
 beard to be shaved.  In short he seemed to be adapting.  What was
 unknown to the doctors who had little time was that he also began
 to babble like a small child and soon he was expressing his needs
 with single words to Rita.  She encouraged him and rewarded his
 efforts with praise and candy. Shortly he began to speak in simple
 sentences and soon he was capable of carrying on a childish conversation
 with his keeper.  She told the doctors but they didn't believe her,
 because he never spoke when they were there.   He remembered
 the experience with the restraints and drugs and he wasn't going to
 risk showing any of his newly acquired behavior for fear of more bad
 things.

        Soon he was looking at pictures in Rita's magazines and asking
 about them. He had many questions about the outside world.  One day,
 Rita said "Poor boy, never had none." Lazarus responded, "None of what?"
 She replied, "I will show you."  Lazarus II did not have the sexual
 baggage of Lazarus I.  Certainly, there was experience.  He had been
 an artificially inseminated cow, had bonded with a calf only to lose
 it to the butcher, given birth to and raised a litter of wolf cubs,
 and he had been the stag of a harem of deer. He remembered none of it,
 but then it was no different with Lazarus I.  He also did not remember
 the experiences that molded his sexual behavior.  Lazarus II turned
 out to be an appreciative and adequate lover. His relationship with
 Rita was joyful for both of them and the experiences continued until
 Rita was caught and fired for having sex with a patient.  As for 
 Lazarus he was put back with the general population of the institution
 so that he could be more readily supervised.  He was frightened, but
 this time he was able to control the manifestations of his fear, and
 he was not given drugs or restrained.  He didn't know why he was
 frightened of the others.  The best he could do was attribute it to
 something Rita had said was bad vibes.  Sometimes he thought that it
 was the way the others smelled.  He hadn't mentioned it to Rita but
 he was capable of turning up his awareness of smells until he could
 smell as well as a wolf.  The others smelt strange and unreliable.  He
 missed Rita.  There was no one to talk to.  

        Every other day, the inmates were allowed to go into the yard
 in good weather for exercise.  On one particular occasion two of them
 started fighting and soon many more of them joined in.  Lazarus climbed
 a tree and hid among the branches.  He was missed after the fighters were
 subdued by the attendants, but no one had seen him climb the tree and
 no one thought to look there.  They locked everyone else up and searched
 for Lazarus for several hours.  Finally, they gave up with the idea that
 he would come out when he got hungry enough. 

        It was night.  Lazarus came down the tree, scaled the wall
 surrounding the institution and ran away.  His first thought was to
 put as much distance between these people and himself as possible. By 
 chance he headed North into the countryside.  The first night he covered
 seven miles, and then hid and slept all day.  When he awoke he was hungry
 and thirsty.  He sharpened his wolf-like senses and soon found water and
 prey.  The second night he covered ten miles.  He was capable of
 adjusting his conditioning.  Soon he became leaner and stronger and was
 capable of moving 20 miles North a night without undue fatigue.  He
 stayed away from roads during the day and usually hid in the desert.  As
 he moved North he began to spend part of his time observing people from a
 distance. One thing he noticed was that his hospital garb was
 distinctive. That night he stold a shirt and a pair of jeans from a
 clothesline.  Now he was dressed like anyone else.  He kept the huaraches
 that the hospital had issued. They were not distinctive. They were
 imported from Mexico and many of the men he saw wore them.  Soon he
 started carrying a plastic bottle that he had found.  Now he was not
 required to find a place with water each night.  An old straw hat that he
 found near a road completed his clothing.
	For food he stold vegetables from gardens, lived on the good things
 in the desert and occassionly hunted or found road kill.  All of
 this time he was observing his environment, learning how to live in it,
 and avoiding other human beings. He was aware that he did not have enough
 human experience not to be considered very odd.

        One day he spotted a small cornfield. He understood corn and
 decided to spend some time there.  Then he noticed a disturbing element.
 Someone was there and they were in trouble.  He looked near the fence
 which surrounded the field and found an old man with an injured leg.  He
 gave the man water from his bottle, and the man thanked him and asked him
 to get him to a hospital because of his broken leg.  Immediately the word
 hospital raised fears in Lazarus, but he asked how he was supposed
 to do this.  The man directed him to make a travois of some poles
 near a shelter at the end of the cornfield and drag him to the main road.
 Once they were at the road, a pickup truck stopped, the man whose
 name was Sam had been recognized by the driver and they put him in
 the back.  Lazarus was asked to go along, but he declined saying that
 someone had to water the corn.  Sam thanked him, and Lazarus watched
 the truck speed away.  His first encounter with humans outside of
 the mental hospital had been alright.

        Sam was in the hospital for 2 days.  Then he couldn't stand
 it anymore.  He wondered about his corn and more than that he worried
 about the horse.  His leg was broken when the horse stumbled.  He
 thought that the cause of the accident was the horse breaking a leg.  He
 probably needed to go shoot it and put it out of its misery.  Finally
 he left with a walking cast against medical advice.  It was true that
 he couldn't walk yet, but at least he could use crutches.  He was
 picked up by his daughter in law, Lola Johnson who was driving her
 pickup truck.  She had his gun as he had requested on the
 phone and she drove him to the cornfield, up the back road to the
 clearing with the shelter which was merely a roof with 4 posts holding 
 it up and the cottonwood tree. It was morning and
 Lazarus was just finishing his nocturnal hoeing of the cornfield.
 At the approach of the truck he hid.  Lola helped Sam out of the
 truck.  She knew that the gun was there to shoot the horse, and she
 didn't want to watch.  Hence she drove off to join the women of her 
 family who were doing the laundry at thelaundromat with the comment 
 that she would be back in several hours. Certainly the corn had never
 looked better, and Sam thought that the horse might have already died
 since someone has put the saddle, bridal, and blanket under the shelter
 roof.  Then he saw it outside the fence of the cornfield. It was grazing,
 and moving very badly.  Obviously, the leg was very sore, but at least it
 wasn't broken.  Someone said, "Good Morning Sam, How is your leg?"
 Lazarus was standing there with a hoe. Sam replied, "Not as good as the 
 horse's. How did you get the saddle off?"  Lazarus sighed and commented,
 "It was hard. He was frightened and hurt, and didn't know me, but he was
 just too much in pain to run away.  He seems better this morning than he
 was yesterday." Sam said, "I have no money.  I can't pay you.  In fact I
 didn't expect to see you here."  Lazarus said, " I don't want money, I
 want to know what you know." Sam protested, "I don't know nothing.  I'm
 an old ignorant Indian.  I quit school to go to work, the year after I
 learned to read and write.  What could I teach you?"  Lazarus replied, "I 
 have always wanted to meet an Indian.  I am not sure why."  Sam was
 stunned. He responded, "The Navaho reservation is West of us, the Ute
 reservation is Northwest of us and the Apache reservation is East of us.
 To the South of us, there are more reservations, and you haven't met an
 Indian.  Furthermore you didn't know that I am an Indian. How is that
 possible?  Anyway you get your wish.  I'm Sam Jack, Indian, farmer and
 former cowboy.  You are? "

        Lazarus replied, "Lazarus".  Sam asked, Do you have a last name?
 Lazarus said that if he did, he didn't know it, and in fact he really
 didn't know much of anything.  That was why he wanted Sam's knowledge.
 It would keep him out of trouble.  Sam said, "let's make some coffee,
 and you can tell me how you got this way while we drink it."
 Lazarus knew that there was coffee at the shelter.  He had smelled it,
 but he didn't know how to prepare it. Of course Sam knew how.  He 
 explained how to build a fire and heat the water.  While they drank
 the coffee, Lazarus told Sam what he knew.  Essentially it was the
 story of his experience from the day that he was discovered in the
 graveyard to the present.  Unlike the people at the hospital, Sam
 seemed to approve of his relationship with Rita, and asked what she
 had looked like.  Lazarus found this difficult to explain.  He didn't
 know the words for individual differences between people, but he
 could tell Sam that she smelled okay.  It wasn't like that unreliable
 smell that his fellow occupants of the mental institution had.  He
 also mentioned that Sam smelled okay.

        At the end of the story, Sam said, "I think we know a little
 more.  You must be a farmer who has lost his memory.  You haven't
 forgotten how to grow corn, and that horse is real trouble for anyone
 inexperienced."  Lazarus replied, "I understand corn.  I know when
 it needs water. I don't understand the horse much.  It smells different
 when it is frightened.  Does it have a name?"  Sam replied, "Spook".
 He continued, "There is something we must do.  Everyone has a last
 name. You need one. Do you remember anything about your parents?"  
 Lazarus replied, "I think my mother was a wolf.  Sam remarked, "I'm
 not surprised that they locked you up. Did you tell anyone this?"
 Lazarus replied no, "I didn't know how to talk then."  Okay, Sam
 said, "Your name is Lazarus Wolf."  Lazarus was confused. He asked,
 "What is a jack?  Is this how one gets a last name?  Sam replied ," No
 Most people take their father's name.  In my case, My father was
 Bill Jack.  They say that my family got the name sometime in the
 1800s. Many Indians only had one name.  The government decided that
 they must have two and It told them to take their father's name
 as a last name.  My grandfather's father was named Jack. Of course,
 I don't know if that is true. It might be one of them stories the white
 man tells."  Lazarus did not know what a white man was.  It was a 
 difficult concept to explain.  First of all, white men weren't really
 white in the sense that most white things were white, and it was true
 that their were Indians that looked like white men.  Sam explained that
 it was a cultural thing but Lazarus didn't know about culture. Finally,
 he told Lazarus that it depended a good deal on how one was raised.
 Lazarus wanted to know about his particular case.  As far as he knew,
 no one had raised him.  He had just found himself in a place with some
 stones and people had put him in a mental hospital.

        "Well," Sam said, "We have made you sort of an Indian. My daughter
 who lived in Canada was married to a man named Wolf, but they both died,
 and since you must have a family we are going to say that you are
 her son. Remember, your name is now Lazarus Wolf.  We call you Laz for
 short.  I am your grandfather."  Sam had to explain about families and
 particularly how his worked. When he was a cowboy, he had a wife in
 the United States and another in Canada.  They didn't know about each
 other. He said he considered it to be bad form to tell woman
 about other rivals, but now that both wives were dead, he claimed all
 the children.  He also claimed some other children from women he had
 never married.  Not all of the  children knew each other, 
 although they knew that others existed.  Lazarus could easily pass
 as a child of one of Sam's Canadian daughters.  By the time Sam finished
 explaining they heard the sound of the truck. It was Lola with a truck
 load of fresh laundry.  Sam introduced Laz to Lola, and explained that
 Laz was in charge of the cornfield until he could tend it again.  Lola
 was pleased with the arrangement, but surprised that Laz was staying with
 the corn.  Laz explained that it wouldn't be good to leave the horse
 alone.  It needed someone to water it, and since it didn't walk well,
 it was better to for someone to stay and keep an eye on it until it was
 better. Lola saw the sense of the arrangement and promised to send food
 and fresh clothing. Laz thanked her and watched Lola and Sam leave for
 town in the truck.  Sam seemed to be walking better.  That was Lazarus at
 work.  He was thinking  about making the leg better as they talked.  As
 for the horse, perhaps its leg had been broken, but Lazarus was
 capable of mending it. What he could do with his own physiology he could
 do to some small extent with others.  He hadn't mentioned that. Once he
 had cured an insect bite that Rita had.  She knew he did it and it
 frightened her.

        Lazarus watered the horse. It had a tendency to come to the
 fence when it was thirsty.  Then he went to sleep until late afternoon
 when Lola returned with the truck.  There was a new straw hat, two pairs
 of Jeans, several shirts, some underwear, and new huaraches.  There
 was also a pot of beans and fresh tortillas.  Only the hat and
 the sandals were new.  There were many people in Lola's family
 and hence an abundance of clothing which changed hands as it was
 needed.

        The next day Sam drove to the corn field in the pickup truck. 
 He had carved a hole in the rubber on the clutch pedal so that his cane
 would not slip a long time ago, because at times his arthritis was
 painful. On back roads, there were times that he operated the clutch with
 his cane, so the broken leg was not an obstacle to driving.  What he did
 notice was that his arthritis didn't seem to bother him at all recently.
 He thought possibly that was because the leg hurt and distracted his
 attention. Then again, most of the time today he only noticed that he
 had a broken leg if he did something which put an unusual amount of
 stress on it.  Lazarus awoke when the truck came close. His custom
 was to work during the night and sleep during the day.  Darkness did
 not hinder him.  He merely adjusted his visual capabilities to suit
 the light conditions.  He had learned that other people did not see
 well when it was dark and this had suited him as he had traveled North.

        Sam was amused to see that the horse was wearing Lazarus's 
 old hat which now had a couple of holes for the ears.  It was perfect.  
 Spook was light gray, and susceptible to sunburn.  It had never occurred
 to Sam that anything that wasn't tied on, would stay on Spook.  Spook had
 been a bargain.  He was a smart horse priced way below his actual value,
 because he was considered dangerous to ride.  Lola did not think that Sam
 should be riding Spook because  he was old, and was now even more
 convinced after his fall.  Sam knew that the problem was not his age, but
 that Spook had lost his footing because of a ground squirrel hole.  Sam
 did have reservations about riding the horse on days that his
 arthritis was bad.  The truck was safer.

        Sam had been busy.  He produced a wallet for Lazarus, and
 there were several documents in it.  There was a Manitoba drivers
 license, a card identifying Lazarus as a Canadian status Indians, and a
 birth certificate that said Lazarus Wolf Nose.  Lazarus didn't understand
 and part of the problem was that he didn't read.  The first step was to
 teach Lazarus how to sign his name.  He learned with one trial after
 Lazarus showed him the letters.  The next step was the content and
 meaning of the documents.  It took a while, particularly the driver's
 license was hard, since Lazarus didn't drive.  It was interesting to Sam
 that Lazarus remembered the words on the documents once that they had 
 been read to him.  What was even more interesting was that he could
 identify the same word in the other documents once he had seen it
 and heard it.  There was no question that Lazarus would learn
 to read very rapidly.  He also wanted to know about the numbers on
 the documents.  It took 30 minutes to teach him to count and to
 identify all the letters of the alphabet.  There was an old newspaper
 in the truck.  Lazarus could identify the words that he had seen,
 and he could also read the date.  The fundamental thing lacking was
 the experience to make sense of it.  For instance he had no knowledge
 of the concept of a year, or a month.  Sam began to see why Lazarus
 wanted his knowledge.  He now realized that he could teach him many
 useful things.

        One question that Lazarus asked was how one got documents.
 This was very complicated.  Sam thought he had learned forgery in prison,
 but he really didn't remember.  He had an injury in world war II
 that made it difficult for him to remember many things. Anyway,
 he saved all useful documents that he ran across just in case he
 would ever need them.  Since Lazarus had no concept of legal versus
 illegal, no knowledge of crime or prison, the question was put
 aside to be explored for another day.  Sam's brief answer was
 "The way you are not supposed to get them."  

        The next day, they explored some of the legal questions.
 First, Sam had to explain that there were laws.  That is, things
 that you were not supposed to do, and that Sam was guilty of doing
 a thing that one was not supposed to do.  He was sent to prison
 for rustling cattle in his youth and he spent two years there.  The
 concept of locking someone up was familiar to Lazarus and he asked
 if that was what had happened to him.  Sam's answer was, yes and no.
 Certainly Lazarus had been locked up for not knowing what other 
 people thought was bad, such as not wearing clothes, but in Sam's
 case it was different because Sam knew he was not supposed to steal
 cattle.  Even the concept of ownership had to be explained.  Sam
 explained that he owned Spook and the cornfield. Lazarus did ask
 why Sam stold cows.  He replied, "We was eating them."  

        Lazarus commented that he certainly didn't like hospitals,
 because the people smelled unreliable.  Sam explained that his sense
 of smell wasn't that good but he expected the same thing was true of
 prisons.  In fact prisons were very dangerous because of the people
 in them however one could learn much there. Besides silversmithing and 
 probably forgery, Sam had learned baking in the prison kitchen and how to
 read better, but the real education consisted of lessons in how to live
 with dangerous men and survive.  He explained that prison was a
 punishment for being bad and that it was supposed to make one be good but
 it probably never did.  Most people went back again and again.  Lazarus
 asked if Sam had gone back.  He replied, "No I never did.  It weren't
 that I didn't break laws if I had to.  It was just that when I was young I
 wasn't careful. Once I was married for the first time and had children, I
 worried about what trouble they would get into and I was so busy raising
 them, that I never had no time to get into trouble myself."  
 Lazarus asked if Sam was successful in raising his children.  His answer
 was, "Some of them."  Several had died before maturity from various
 causes but none had gone to prison.  He added that there were some of
 them that he couldn't get along with at all, but it seemed to him that
 that is about what happens to most parents. He added, "I hope I am
 successful in raising you.  It is like having a very smart four year old
 in a man's body around."  Lazarus replied,  "I thought about those
 numbers and days that you told me about yesterday. I remember being
 around about three months."Sam concluded that Lazarus was very bright indeed.

        The two settled down to a routine.  Lazarus arose about dusk,
 did the work in the cornfield and then slept until Sam arrived.  They
 made coffee, talked a while, ate the lunch that Lola had furnished,
 and settled down for an afternoon nap during the heat of the day. 
 As for Spook, he joined the routine, coming to the fence for water when
 he was thirsty and grazing close by the rest of the time.  Something else
 had been added by Lazarus for Spook's benefit.  It was an old bathtub
 close to the fence. Spook could reach through the fence and get water
 whenever he wanted it.  The bathtub filled itself from a rain gutter that
 lead from the artesian well on the property, with the excess going out
 the overflow hole and going back to the main stream.  The reason that the
 cornfield grew so well was the presence of the well.  The corn could be
 irrigated simply by diverting the stream into it.  It was a slow process
 since there was not much flow but Lazarus irrigated the field from late
 afternoon until midnight.

	The cornfield was growing on a gentle slope.  At the top there was a
 clearing with a cottonwood tree a vegetable garden and the shelter.  The
 shelter was in a way typical of shelters that Indians in the region had
 always made. It consisted of 4 poles and a roof.  It was however very
 different in that it was substantially constructed.  The poles were
 the size of telephone poles and it was topped by a hip roof covered
 with asphalt shingles.  The earthen floor of the shelter had had cement
 added to it to stabilize and harden it. The roof was braced with
 cross beams and half of it had a floor.  This served as an elevated
 storage area. Sam had done a good job constructing it.  If it had
 walls it would have been a small house.  Outside the shelter there
 was a fire pit and a picnic table.  Sam had dug a well, and it had
 turned out to be an artesian well.  This was no surprise to Sam who
 had picked the site with this in mind before buying it, but it was
 a big surprise to other residents of the area, since it was unusual.
 Sam had always had the ability to find water and now that word of
his well had spread, he was frequently consulted before wells were
dug. 


        The corn in the field was a specialty crop. It was indian
 corn with multicolored ears.  When it was harvested,
 a small portion of it was sold as decorations for the tourist trade.
 The rest was used to make tortillas the traditional way. The corn
 was frequently ground by hand in areas where there was no electricity.
 Some of the tortillas were sold at the trading post as a local specialty
 to tourists, but most were destined for home consumption on the Navaho
 and Apache reservations and in the towns nearby. No one had suspected
 that a crop such as this could be profitable except Sam. There was
 however a local demand for his crop. People were used to eating food of
 this sort. Sometimes he got cash for corn but other times he traded it
 for indian handicraft, produce or other goods if no money was available.
 There were instances when he gave corn away, if the need was there.
 It wasn't a crop that resulted in much cash, but it supplemented
 Sam's pension and since his activities provided corn for many 
 households in the community, his work was appreciated and he gained
 much good will.

 

CIVILIZATION

 

        Sam had to return to the hospital to get his leg looked at.  He
 decided to take Lazarus along.  The outing would help remove his
 fear of hospitals and also introduce him to others as his grandson.
 Lazarus was tutored on his role.  He was to volunteer nothing but help
 Sam whenever he was asked.  It was easy for Lazarus to keep his mouth
 shut. He had never talked to anyone except Rita, Sam and Lola.  By now
 Lazarus was looking quite presentable.  Lola had taken a good look at
 him and quickly furnished a comb, scissors, a razor and toothbrush.
 Sam showed him how to use these items.

        Sam drove the pickup to the hospital and at his request, Lazarus
 helped him out of the truck and up the front stairs.  They sat in a room
 for a while.  Lazarus looked at the magazines until a nurse called out,
 Mr. Jack.  Then he was asked to help Sam to the Xray room.  Lazarus
 knew that he was perfectly capable of getting there himself, but he 
 dutifully said, "Yes grandfather," when asked, and offered his arm to
 Sam.  Sam's leg was Xrayed as Lazarus waited, and then he helped his
 Grandfather back to the doctor's office.  The doctor looked at the
 picture and said, "remarkable.  What are you doing to heal your leg?"
 Sam replied, Nothing much,  I just try to be smart enough not to do
 nothing that hurts."  Lazarus was thinking, how interesting.  I told him
 that the horse was probably smart enough not to do anything that hurt.
 This is what he means about telling the white man what he wants to hear.
 The doctor asked, "How old are you?"  Sam replied, "I don't rightly know.
 Indian births were not always recorded when I was born.  My army records
 make me 76. They tried to guess how old I was when I got my disability
 pension, in 1948.  The doctor looked surprised.  He asked, "Mr Jack, How
 are you disabled?"  Sam replied, "I was shot in the head.  I don't
 remember the years between the end of the war and sometime in 1947.  I
 wasn't expected to recover, but I did, so they gave me a pension and sent
 me home."  The doctor asked, "What are you doing now?"  Sam replied, Very
 little.  I watch my grandson grow corn and water my horse."  The doctor
 said, "I don't understand it. You are healing like a small child.  Sam
 asked, how do they do it?  I mean what is different?"  The doctor said,
 "They are faster. Old people are slow.  As for you, I will take off that
 cast next week if you continue to make the same progress." The two left.
 The nurse remarked.  "I hadn't seen that grandson before.  What is a 
 man who looks so white doing with a full blood grandfather?"  The doctor
 shrugged, and said "It happens in the best of families", unaware that
 Lazarus had heard and recorded the comment.

        Back at the cornfield he asked, "Why am I an indian?  I look more
 like a white man."  Sam looked at him and replied, "It is very convenient 
 to be an indian. Take it from me, Everybody wants to be an Indian, You
 are an Indian because it is the only way you will get away with being
 undetected. First, you are learning from me and I have no experience of
 being anything else. Secondly, there are lots of indian tribes with
 somewhat different customs. You are an indian but you are not from around
 here.  Anything you don't know will be attributed to not being from
 around here.  You are a Blackfoot from the Alberta, Montana border, but
 due to the early death of your parents you were raised by me on a farm in
 Manitoba.  You really
 don't have to fit exactly into any particular culture.  As for being
 white, you heard the white man, It happens in the best of families.  Just
 tell him what he wants to hear."  Of course Lazarus didn't know what the
 white man wanted to hear.  The solution to this problem involved lots of
 education on Sam's part, including the things that every adult male knew
 such as cursing, drinking, lying about sexual behavior to the right
 people, as well as the distinctions between indian attitudes and what
 various varieties of whites thought of Indians. In particular, Sam made
 sure that Lazarus had a good grasp of indian folklore and customs, and he
 was careful to point out the dangers of anthropologists. Anthropologists
 studied Indians and although they hadconsiderable misinformation about
 them, perhaps they might figure out that Lazarus was different.



LAUNDRY



        Mary Whitehorse, her daughters, Lily Williams, Lola Johnson
 and her grandaughter's Suzy Johnson, Ruby Johnson, Judy and Janet
 Williams were doing the laundry at the the laundromat.  They had
 arrived with two pickup trucks full of garbage bags filled with
 laundry.  It had come from 4 households, but now was all mixed up,
 and sorted into colored, white and blue denim.  Mary in her traditional
 velveteen blouse and long calico skirt, was busy with the sorting, her
 grandchildren in their jeans were busy loading machines and the daughters
 in their cotton  dresses were busy sorting and folding the output.  They
 did not expect to spend more than a couple of hours at the laundromat.
 It was lesson time for the younger women and the lesson was spoken
 English. It was Lola's idea.

        When she had started dealing with whites at the trading post her
 knowledge of English was only what she had learned in school.  As a
 result she was frequently cheated when she sold her mocassins and
 blankets, and often insulted without really understanding what they were
 saying until later when she asked her husband.  It wasn't going to happen
 to any other family woman if Lola could prevent it. Besides,
 any woman in the family was regarded as a potential clerk for the trading
 post, hence Lola made sure that they knew all the nuances and colloquial
 expressions that were not taught in school. This included a large
 vocabulary of sexual expressions, slang and profanity. 


        Lily was inspecting a pair of jeans with the left leg split to above the
 knee. She asked, "Lola, what is going on here?"  Lola answered, "It
 belongs to Sam.  You know, broken leg with a cast.  You can put it in the
 mending pile.  He got the cast off yesterday."  Illy smiled and said, "Oh
 yes, I heard.  How about the grandson tending the cornfield? Is he really
 white?  Lola responded, "Pretty much so, You know, Sam Dick."  Everyone 
 was laughing except grandmother Whitehorse. She had learned the language
 at a school run by missionaries. Once, the matter was explained, she
 joined the laughter, and commented that she had always thought it was
 that way.  Then she asked, "Whose child is the Apache woman's girl?"
 Lolaresponded, "Most likely Sam's.  He didn't say so, but her husband left a
 long time before she became pregnant, and we know that Sam was around."
 Lily added, "It is better for the child. That good for nothing that she
 married wouldn't be a fit parent, and besides he beat her badly. Sam
 treats his women much better.How about this dress.  It is too small for
 Jenny now.  Suzy, will it fit Sarah?  Suzy responded, "I think so. I
 don't know if she will wear it much.  You know, jeans, jeans and jeans.
 We used to wear dresses to school, but the kids, I can hardly get them
 out of jeans for church. What will they become?"  Mary Whitehorse
 replied, "Mothers.  They want to be cowgirls now but that changes."  Lily
 asked, "Lola do you have any deer?"  Lola replied, "I am just about out.
 I usually ask Sam who has certain connections, but I hesitated because of
 his leg.  Perhaps now that the cast is off, he can do something."  Ruby
 asked, "What about the grandson.  Are we ever going to meet Mr. New?"  "I
 expect so," Lola replied.  He is coming to dinner Sunday.  I don't think
 you can really mistake him for white.  He is as indian as Sam in
 attitudes.  Now you be nice to him.  He was raised by Sam but he doesn't
 have any of Sam's ability with social skills.  You will find him
 decidedly odd."


DINNER



        Lazarus was dressed in his best to meet the family.  This 
 consisted of clean jeans, a shirt, and an indian necklace that Sam
 had made.  He also had a new pair of tennis shoes that Sam had bought
 at a drugstore.  Lazarus lead the horse to Jim Yazzie's pasture
 slowly.  Sam had an arrangement with Jim, the nearest neighbor to
 the cornfield.  The horse was pastured there frequently.  Then Sam
 arrived with the truck, talked to Jim a bit about the horse, and
 Sam and Lazarus went to Lola's for dinner.  Sam lived at Lola's
 but was frequently absent for one reason or another.  The family
 was Norman Johnson, husband of Lola, Ruby Johnson, unmarried teenage
 daughter of Lola and Norman, Liz, daughter of Lola and Norman
 who had married Johnny Jack, a grandson of Sam's and the Jack 
 children, Benny and Mark.  Sam explained Lazarus's origins.  He
 was a child of his daughter. Her mother was a Canadian blackfoot woman.
 Sam's daughter had married another blackfoot named Wolf Nose.
 Unfortunately, the couple had died in an automobile accident.  Hence
 Lazarus had been raised on Sam's Manitoba farm rather than at the
 blackfoot reserve in Alberta.  All of this was accepted without question.
 Sam had numerous descendants who showed up to visit him from
 time to time.

        The family was in the trading post business. Lola had started
 the business after her husband, Norman was in a mining accident.
 Although Norman recovered, he could no longer do hard physical
 work, so he joined the business. Johnny was the buyer.  He traveled to
 various indian reservations and found whatever would sell to tourists.
 His wife Liz was the head clerk and accountant.  They had met in college.
 Norman made silver jewelry. Lola made rugs. As for Sam, he usually raised
 corn, made jewelry that was sold as Navaho work, and helped in various
 ways.  Most of the time he did the buying on the Apache reservation since 
 he was very good at talking to older Apaches. In fact, they were often
 surprised to find out that he was not an Apache.

        As for the children they immediately took a liking to Lazarus. He
 read to them.  After dinner the family settled down to a relabeling
 job.  It was a shipment of mocassins from Mexico.  Rather than going
 to the trading post as "Made in Mexico" the label was being changed
 to "Genuine Indian Handicraft from Mexico." The "from Mexico" was
 in very small letters. Johnny said,  that the Indians that had
 made them did it cheaper in Mexico. Sam had some joke about Genuine Alien
 Handicraft. Liz reminded him that it didn't sell as well as Indian.


HUNTING
        

        There was a cloudburst. Lazarus and Sam were seated on a log
 under the shelter roof.  Spook was standing beside them.  They could
 see his startled reaction as lightning struck the cottonwood tree.  Sam
 said, "I planned it that way. Lightning strikes the highest point.  I
 got a wire in that tree.  Then I built the shelter so it was close but
 not too close to the tree.  I think about those things.  I have a
 souvenir from world war II.  It is a metal plate that closes the hole
 in my skull."  Lazarus smiled and replied," good thinking".  How come you
 didn't figure out how not to scare the horse?"  Then he added, "The deer
 was excellent.  Do you think Lola will invite me for Sunday dinner
 again?" Sam said," Yes, you are family but there ain't anymore deer.  I
 was supposed to get some but I busted my leg."  Lazarus pointed to the
 Northwest and said, "They are over there about a day's walk away, but you
 have the truck. Why don't we go get some?  We have nothing to do.  The
 corn won't need watering."  Sam looked at him in astonishment.  "He said,
 That is the Ute reservation.  That is where I get them, but how do you
 know that they are there."  Lazarus replied, "I smell them."  Sam said,
 "We are going.  It is illegal to hunt them, but the game wardens will 
 never think of anyone hunting them while it rains. It is raining over
 there too. They are too hard to find.  The rain spoils the tracks."

         Lazarus took the horse to Jim Yazzie's pasture, and Sam drove to
 town to pick up his hunting equipment.  Then they set out to visit a
 friend of Sam's on the Ute Reservation.  The bed of the truck
 was filled with baled hay, covered by a tarp.  They were visiting Tom
 Lonepine, a rancher.  He great ed Sam in the following fashion.  "Hello,
 Sam, what brings you to my neighborhood? I heard you were laid
 up with a broken leg."  Sam replied, "Yes, but us Indians heal quick.  I
 don't walk so good, but I was more or less planning a hunt by truck." 
 Tom looked at him, and asked, "Who is the white man?  You must be
 kidding. It has been raining."  Sam replied, "No white man, My grandson
 Lazarus. Laz says he can find deer even during a rain.  I thought we
 ought to try that out.  No game wardens!  It might give us a chance to
 stock up"  Tom grunted and hopped in the truck.  Sam began driving while
 Lazarus furnished the directions.  Soon they came upon a police jeep
 which stopped them.  Tom looked at the policeman and asked what the
 trouble was.  He replied, "The road up the canyon is partly washed out.
 Where are you going." Tom replied, "We were taking a load of hay to my
 shed at the south pasture. How bad is it?"  The policeman replied.  "I
 think you can get through." Sam replied, "no problem", and they drove up
 the canyon. The deer were exactly where Lazarus said they were.  Sam
 removed a cross bow  made from an old car spring according to directions
 furnished in "Popular Mechanics" and a hunting bow from the box in the
 bed of the truck.  "Noiseless you know", he said. Lazarus said "just a
 moment. They will run that way.  Wait until I get into position." He took
 the hunting knife from the box.  Sam got one with the crossbox, Tom was
 successful with the hunting bow and the deer  ran towards Lazarus where
 he ambushed the third with the hunting knife. He was covered in blood.
 Tom was awe struck with the success of Lazarus. He asked Sam, " Holy
 shit! Where did you raise him?"  Sam smiled and replied, "Mars, without a
 spacesuit, Expect a few more survival skills, but don't expect much
 socially"  They unloaded the hay, dressed  the deer, buried the evidence
 of the kill, and hid the deer under the tarp. 

        It was raining heavily now but Tom wanted to check on his stock.
 Lazarus located the herd, which was taking shelter from the rain in a
 wooded area.  There was a steer missing, so Lazarus picked up its trail
 by smell and they found it stuck in the mud at the river.  It was
 complaining loudly. Sam lassoed the animal and Lazarus waded into the mud
 to help pull the animal out.  As he was pulling a flash flood came down
 the canyon and covered Lazarus and the steer.  Lazarus immediately
 appeared on the surface hanging onto the rope and made his way back to
 the bank, but the steer remained stuck in the mud.  When the water
 receded,they could see  that the steer had drowned.  Tom remarked, "Oh
 hell! there goes the profits.  I was planning on selling it in a couple
 of months."  He shrugged. " Well, it is fresh meat, and it is my steer
 dead or alive" They pulled it out, gutted it and loaded it on top of the
 tarp.  Unfortunately, as they proceeded down the canyon they noticed that
 the bridge was out and
 what was worse was that there was an old woman clinging to the remnants
 in the middle of the stream.  Tom said, "Hey, that is my grandmother.
 Hang on Grandma."

        Lazarus took the rope and waded into the mud to rescue her. He carried
 her out and they put her in the truck. Tom asked, "What happened
 Grandma."  She related the following story.  "I noticed from the window
 that the river was about to wash away my vegetable garden, so I went
 out to save whatever I could, and I got caught in a flash flood.  I
 would have drowned if I hadn't hit the broken bridge downstream."
 Lazarus got in the back with the steer and the deer. It was raining, but
 it hardly made much difference since Lazarus was already wet and covered
 with mud. He seemed perfectly comfortable.
	
	Tom remarked, "Damm it,  The road is on the other side and those
 cops will come looking for us and rescue us and find the deer."  Sam
 replied, "We go back without the road-- Right over that hill."  Tom
 responded, "We will never make it--Too steep"  Sam explained, "The backup
 gear is the lowest. Grandma drives. She is lightest. We push."  The old
 woman was laughing.  "She remarked, I haven't done anything like that
 since the 40's.  We used to do that all the time with my husband's model
 A."  They unloaded the deer and the steer.  Then grandma backed the truck
 to the top of the hill with the three men pushing.  When it was on top,
 they returned and carried the deer and the steer up by hand.  From the
 top it was only a short distance to the road but very steep.  They
 worried about the brakes so they looped the rope around a couple of trees
 at the top and assisted the brakes on the truck as grandma drove it down
 backwards to take advantage of the lowest gear. Then they transported
 the meat, putting the deer under the tarp and the the steer on top. They
 returned to the roadblock with Lazarus sitting on top of the tarp with
 the dead steer, in the driving rain and reported the flash flood and the
 bridge out.  The police asked how they got out, and Sam replied that they
 had sort of made a road by driving the truck over the hill.

         The police thanked them for the information, and they
 went back to the ranch and divided the kill.  All Tom could say, was
 "Christ, He is good.  I've never seen anything like that."  Sam replied, 
 "Yeah, Lazarus Wolf Nose.  It has been shortened to Lazarus Wolf."  The
 Lazarus and Sam loaded 2 of the deer under the tarp, the cowhide on
 top and a quarter of beef and a load of bean poles to conceal the deer.
 Sam and Lazarus were about to leave when the police arrived.  The police
 wanted to know about the road over the hill that they had made to get
 out. They wanted to check on a couple of families that lived in the
 canyon, and see how they had survived the flood.  Tom offered to go
 and show them.  Lazarus remained at the ranch to do the chores.  There
 was a dairy cow that needed milking,  Sam drove the truck off the
 reservation with the excuse that he was an old man and tired from the
 effort that he had expended.  In reality, he took the truck back to
 Lola's house and participated in the butchering of the deer.  By 
 midnight much of it was cut up, labeled with a convenient date during
 hunting season and put in the freezer, however a half of deer was
 hidden in the root cellar.  This part was destined for Lily Williams,
 Lola's sister.  

        Lazarus milked the cow and fed the chickens.  Then he
 went into the house and found that Tom's grandmother was looking
 very bad.  The exertion had been too much for her, and she was
 shivering and had blue lips.  Lazarus helped her  to the couch next to
 the fireplace, built a fire, covered her with a blanket and made tea and
 a cornbread.  He had learned cooking and some baking from Sam by this
 time. Perhaps, he gave her aged physiology a little help with his powers
 of cell change. As he served the cornbread she remarked that she was
 feeling much better, and asked him how he knew what to do.  Lazarus
 replied that he had had a girl friend who was a practical nurse and he
 had learned some things from her.  For instance, one lesson had been been
 that old people
 and children needed to be kept warm in times of stress.  As for
 young adults, it didn't seem to matter as much.  He remarked that
 he just ate more and worked harder.  He did not mention the fact
 that he had been given lessons in plausible lying from Sam.

        Then Lazarus began to cook.  He made an enormous beef
 stew, with the thought that it was the best thing to cook since
 the meat was legal but not aged and hence somewhat tough, and
 also the stew could be frozen if no one was there to eat it, hence it
 wouldn't go to waste. It did not go to waste.  Tom returned with
 the police, and the two families the police had go to check on.
 The police jeep had been stuck.  It was only the knowledge of how
 to get it over the hill that Tom had learned from Sam that got 
 it back to the road.  The expedition had taken hours but everyone
 was safe, but very hungry.  Sam returned to pick up Lazarus. He
 was just in time to make biscuits to go with the stew.  It was 48 hours
 after they had arrived, when Sam and Lazarus went home.



  



SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON THE PORCH



        As the summer wore on, Spook stopped limping.  Sam reshod
 him and took up riding again.  Lazarus also learned to ride and usually
 rode him to town for Sunday dinner.  Lazarus had discovered the town
 library and now read several books a day.  

        After one Sunday dinner Lola and the men were gathered on the
 porch drinking beer.  A man walked by with a smile on his face, saw
 Spook who was standing in the shade, and called out, "Woo, Woo, Woo,
 I'm an indian too." 
 Norman -- "Huh, Who is that?"  
 Johnny --"Altsheimer's speaking. He lives a couple of blocks from here. 
 I'll take care of it."  He approached the man gravely and said, "Ugh,
 Standing Bull say time to go back to camp."  Then he took the man's arm 
 and lead him off. Norman -- "Standing Bull?  He must be full of it.  Good
 name for an indian playing indian."

 Lola -- "Pathetic, But I often wonder why most of the white
 boys born before world war II wanted to be Indians. Where did all
 the stories about the noble red man come from anyway?"
 Norman --"Perhaps, it was an attraction to extreme poverty and
 white diseases from Europe like tuberculosis."  
 Sam -- "I always thought it was envy of the children in residential
 schools run by the nice missionaries who turned out to be sexual
 perverts." 
 Norman -- "How about lack of money for soap? Small boys don't like
 washing." 
 Lola -- "They didn't know about my mother. If there wasn't any soap she
 made all of us wash without it."
 Norman -- "If you get serious about it, perhaps it was a chance to get
 away from the problems of the white world without realizing that Indians
 have troubles too."


        Then a couple of Mormon missionaries arrived. "One said,
 "Hello, Could we have a word with you."  
 Norman -- " Not me unless you want to pay.  I'm a professional Indian.
 If you want my picture it will cost you extra."  
 Sam --"I've been waiting for you to come around.  I'm Sam, small time
 crook. Have a beer.  Do you guys know anything about bigamy that I don't?
 We gotta compare notes." 
 Lazarus --"Gee Mormans, I'm Lazarus back from the dead(John 11).  "Do you
 have any morman underwear or do I have to get it from a clothesline? I'm
 going to a ghost dance later."  
 Lola --"Maybe one of you would like to come back after they sober up and
 go back to work. You must be better than drunken Indians and half
 breeds." 


 The pair left in confusion.  Everyone on the porch was laughing. 


 Norman--  "Did you see the outline of the shoulder holster
 beneath the tight suit jacket on the fat one?  Missionaries,
 like hell!"  
 Lazarus -- "What were they?  I could smell the guns."
 Sam -- "Cops of some sort most likely.  It was an awfully poor
 imitation of missionaries.  Those Morman missionaries are bright
 shiny kids just out of school.  I bet the skinny one was at least
 45."  
 Lazarus-- "What if they were gangsters?"
 Lola -- "It doesn't seem likely in this town.  There isn't
 enough worth having, to steal.  All the same it would be a serious
 error to tease them if they were gangsters. I wish we were sure."  


	A car pulled up and an old man got out.  Sam -- "I'll be dammed, Dr
 Morrison."  The old man responded, "Sam Jack, Some 40 years later. I
 didn't think you would survive at all. I was at the veteran's hospital
 visiting, (Iretired) and they told me about the insurance claim for 
 your broken leg. The clerk wasn't supposed to but they were astonished to
 learn that you were alive.  I decided to check and see if it was really
 you. I was surprised when you regained consciousness. You Indians are so 
 resilient."  
 Sam --, "Not really.  Don't forget that you only get to talk to the
 living ones."

          The doctor had joined Sam on the porch step and was drinking
 cold beer. He wanted to know about Sam's experience.Sam told him, "It was 
 pretty tough in the beginning.  When I think back on it, it must have
 been the first time in my life that I knew I was an adult.  There just
 wasn't any time left for fooling around.  I had to figure out how to help
 my family.  Norman was laughing,  He said," typical of my family crisis
 too. I woke up after the mine accident in the hospital with a crushed
 chest and broken arms and legs.  I had two small children and a pregnant
 wife, I knew I could never do hard physical labor again, and I had no
 education and no skills."  Lola added, "I was the pregnant wife.  I
 started making mocassins to sell to the trading post owners.  Norman
 became a silversmith and , and then we thought we could do a better job
 at running a trading post that the people who were doing it.  After all,
 we knew some tribal languages.   We are Navaho and I know some Ute."  She
 continued, "Then Liz grew up and went to college.  She married Johnny and
 he spoke Spanish. The business really took off when Sam got old and came
 to live with us. He knew Paiute and Apache and was acquainted with
 Blackfoot customs. He had been married to one in Canada until she died."

        The doctor said, "That is amazing. With all that damage, you
 function amazingly well.  Will you come to the veteran's hospital for
 tests. I'm retired but I know a bright young man who is really good at
 that sort of thing?" Sam refused politely,  "He was much too busy and
 besides he hated hospitals. Busy? the doctor asked.  Sam replied, "One
 has to make a living somehow."  The doctor remarked, "Surely you are
 collecting social security."  Sam laughed, "Not at all,  I
 have never had a job that social security covered.  Besides, I don't
 know how old I am.  The records were lost.  I raise corn and work for the 
 trading post with the rest of the family.  Laz, my grandson will help me 
 with the harvest this year, but then he has to go back to Canada for
 school.

        Reminds me, it is getting late. I need my rest. Please excuse
 me.  Come and see me some other day if you like."  Sam went into the
 house and ordered a pizza by phone.  Then he went out the back door
 and put his box of groceries in the truck.   


        The wife of the man with altzheimer's disease came looking for
 him. He had succeeded in wandering off again and she thought perhaps he
 had returned to see the horse. It was dark.  Lazarus found him and took
 him home.  When he returned only Sam was sitting on the porch steps.  He
 was watching the moon rise.  Lazarus sat beside him and said, "I wonder
 what it is like to be a man without a mind. That man was terribly 
 confused."  Sam replied, "It is pretty tough. When I got home from the
 war in 1948, I couldn't remember the names of my children.  My wife had
 given me up for dead.  Some guy had moved in and my wife was about to
 have his child.  My children were miserable.  There were all sorts of
 people who wanted to take care of me if I would just hand over the
 pension check. It was obvious to them that I couldn't manage by myself.
 What is worse is that they were right.  Somehow, I got a job as a hired
 hand with a rancher who had known me before, and I managed to throw out
 my wife's lover and raise the child she had as my own. There were some
 people who said, I raised her because I couldn't do arithmetic no more
 and I thought she was mine.  I knew she wasn't.  I hadn't forgotten how
 to count to nine, but I never let them know. I figured there would be
 less talk if people thought that I didn't know.  It was better for the
 child. As for the pension check, I let the bank manage it for a while.  I
 bought sensible things like food and clothing.  In fact, she was a pretty
 good wife. She would have been better if her lover hadn't taught her
 about drinking whiskey while I was gone. I got so used to having a good
 woman around that I got lonely and married another from the Canadian
 blackfoot reserve when I went to work as a cowboy in Montana."  Lazarus
 asked, "What about religion?  We seem to have been pretty hard on the
 fake missionaries."  Sam replied,"That is because they were fake.  The
 real missionaries are very idealistic.  In fact that is the problem with
 religion.  Like everything else people use it for their own purposes and
 the result is that it ain't no better or worse than the people who peddle
 it. The big problem with the real Morman missionaries is that they don't
 know much about the world.  You have give their faith a bit of credit
 for sending them out into the world to find out.  They know plenty
 by the time they finish their time as missionaries.

        Come on, I will drive you home.  Lola needs the truck,
 tomorrow morning so I will ride Spook to the cornfield."  Sam
 delivered Lazarus to the cornfield, and then picked up the
 pizza he had ordered.  He drove to a cabin close to the Apache
 Reservation. The apache woman and the little girl were waiting for him.
 They fed the small child pizza and milk and then they put her to bed.
 After talking for a couple of hours they went to bed themselves.
 Sam arose about dawn, drove the truck back to the house, saddled
 the horse, got the lunch for himself and Lazarus from the refrigerator
 and rode Spook to the cornfield.

        
 

FISH STORY
 
        

        Lazarus and Sam were sitting on the boxes under the shelter
 roof.  Lazarus was reading.  He asked Sam, "Have you ever eaten
 cooked fish?"  Sam answered, "Many times, Have you?"  Lazarus
 replied, "Maybe, They served something they said was fish at the
 mental hospital. It was square and fried in batter, but it was
 certainly nothing like the recipes in this book.  What is a
 gefullte fish"  Sam looked at the title of the book.  It was the
 "settlement cookbook." He asked, Would you read the phone book
 if you had it?  Lazarus replied, " I did yesterday at Lola's.
 It had a lot of information, but I don't know all those people."
 Sam said, "Anyway, those recipes were used in the depression.
 Maybe about 1930. There weren't any prepared frozen foods like
 square pieces of fish dipped in batter.  Gefullte fish is a Jewish way of
 cooking fish. I don't know what fish they use.  I had some in Chicago
 once. It tastes good. If we had some trout, I would cook it for you."
 Lazarus replied, "There are some in the river northeast of us.  I will
 get some tonight."  That evening, Sam told Lola what Lazarus intended to
do, and suggested that she make a lunch that would keep just in case
Lazarus was successful.  Sam got together a few items to go with fresh
trout.

        The next morning Sam noticed that spook's tub of water had
 trout swimming in it.  He asked Lazarus how he had caught them.
 Lazarus replied, "with my hands.  Is there another way?"  It was
 too early for lunch so Sam prepared by getting the frying pan
 which was hanging on a collar beam in the shelter, and laying a
 fire in the fire pit near the shelter.  Then Sam explained how
 people usually caught fish.  Lazarus didn't think it was a good
 idea.  Besides being much more trouble than just picking them up
 from the water, hooks probably hurt them.  The fish in the tub
 were not hurt and would probably keep until they wanted to cook
 them.  Sam had to agree but he also explained that few people
 were fast enough to just catch fish in the water with their hands.
 He also explained that some people used nets, especially in the
 sea. It was closer to lunch time when he had finished telling 
 Lazarus what he knew about fish. They had also explored the idea
 of making a fish pond, and stocking it.

        At that point, Lola arrived in the truck.  She was there
 with the lunch because Sam had forgotten it. She had also produced
 a side disk of potatoes and vegetables which would go well with
 fish.  Sam suggested that she stay for lunch.  There were at least
 15 fish. She agreed remarking that she had planned to do that if
 Lazarus had caught anything because she had eaten fish cooked by
 Sam before.

        Then a van that said U.S. government on the side drove
 up.  It was the pair of fake missionaries from the previous Sunday
 afternoon.  The thin one said,  "We are with narcotics.  We are looking
 for Jesus." Lola replied, well we are certainly glad you are cops.
 Lazarus had the disturbing thought that perhaps you were gangsters,
 with those guns."  The fat one asked, "How do you know about the guns?"
 Sam replied, "It is your suit jacket. It is tight enough so that the
 shoulder holster shows.  But what is all this religious stuff,
 about looking for Jesus? We wouldn't have teased you, except it was
 so easy to tell that you weren't missionaries that we just had to"
 The fat one answered, "It isn't religious stuff.  We have a warrant
 for the arrest of Jesus Cruz and information that he is at this corn
 field."  Lola replied, "Five years ago, he beat up his wife and then
 he disappeared. No one has seen him since."  The cop replied, "That
 was the story his wife gave us, but while I was talking to her,
 my partner here asked her little girl where her daddy was.  She said
 he was at a big cornfield with Lazarus Wolf Nose."  Sam started laughing
 and said, "She told the truth.  I've been living with Anita Cruz for
 a few years.  The little girl is my daughter, and she is 3 years old now.
 By the way, you pronounce Jesus like this around here, when is is
 the name of someone."  He gave the name his best Spanish pronunciation.
 You guys ain't from around here if you don't know that.  Anyway,
 stick around and have some lunch.  We have plenty and you deserve
 something for your effort. I'm Sam Jack, My grandson here is Lazarus Wolf
 if you are white, or sometimes Lazarus Wolf Nose if you are indian
 This woman who propositioned you is Lola Johnson.  What can you tell us
 of Jesus Cruz?  I've never met him and I hope I don't.  Anita, says he is
 a pretty unsavory character.  I've been a pacifist since I recovered
 from my world war II wounds,  but I would like to beat the hell out
 of Jesus Cruz, for his treatment of his wife."

        The fat cop asked, "What kind of corn is this?  I've never
 seen anything like it in Maine.  Sam replied,  "It is an indian
 corn variety with multicolored ears.  Usually it is grown without
 irrigation in dry washes that flood if it rains. Mine is much bigger
 because of the well.  Most of it gets ground locally 
 and made into tortillas, but since I grow a special multicolored
 variety that I picked myself some of it gets sold to tourists for
 decorations."

        As they sat down to lunch the thin cop asked, "How come an
 old guy like you manages to find a young woman like that?  I never
 had such luck, even when I was younger."  Sam replied, "It wasn't
 anything that I tried.  She was hungry and all beat up, and somehow
 she reminded me of one of my granddaughters.  I fed her and bought
 her some groceries.  There was a bag of flour in the groceries, and
 she didn't know much about cooking with flour except fry bread, so I
 taught her.  Then she decides, I'm the man for her, so I told her I was 
 too old.  It didn't make no difference she said, so finally I thought,
 "Oh Well, What the hell.  I've always liked women.  It's been a good
 thing for me. About the only problem was when she found out that I was a
 Paiute and not an Apache like her.  She said that I deceived her.  I
 didn't .  It is just that I speak her language well enough
 so that she deceived herself. Anyway, best woman I ever had. My
 wives were good, but the Paiute one drank too much and the Blackfoot
 was all religious. Mind you, I think it made her a better woman,
 but it sure made Sunday a pain in the ass.  Enough talk, let's
 eat."  Lazarus asked, "What is the can of tuna fish for?"  Lola
 replied, "I wondered if you would have any luck fishing.  It is
 just in case."

        Lazarus asked, "What are you guys looking for? The fat
 cop replied, cocaine."  Sam laughed, "I don't think there
 is any of that around here.  Cocaine sells for a lot of money.
 There isn't much here. It ain't as poor as it used to be, but
 still a lot people survive by living off the land and trading
 a bit.  As far as I know you might find a little marijuana if
 you looked"  The fat cop replied, "That is what we thought, but 
 then we got word of someone bringing in cocaine from Mexico.  Did you
 ever see this guy?  He showed a  picture of Jesus Cruz. Lazarus responded
 no, he had only been at the cornfield since Sam broke his leg, and he
 didn't get to town much except for Sunday dinner.

        The thin cop remarked, "We were totally confused by
 Lazarus.  I know the bible and he is certainly right on the
 quote, but what is a ghost dance?  Sam explained, In 1889 a
 Paiute named Wovoka had a vision.  If the people danced in
 together in the ghost dance, the white man would leave and
 the buffalo would return.  Wovoka was a pacifist but not
 everyone was.  Things were added to the idea, like the thought
 that the morman underwear that really religious Mormans wore,
 would stop bullets.  Indians began to steal the underwear
 off clotheslines so they could wear it into battle when they
 fought the white army.  Of course it didn't stop bullets
 and after the battle of wounded knee, the last great indian
 resistance  was over  As for the ghost dance, probably mostly Paiute
 remember.  Trust Lazarus to find something that is not well known to most
 whites. No one  steals morman underwear much anymore.  The stuff is too 
 miserable to wear with its legs that cover the knees, and arms 
 that cover the elbows for this climate." 

        They were all sitting around the picnic table eating fish when
 someone started shooting. Sam yelled, "Get down." They were hiding behind
 a mound of earth near the fence back of the tree.  The fat cop asked, Sam
 do you have a rifle?  Sam replied "Of course, It is locked in the
 gun cabinet at Lola's.  It isn't deer season you know.  The cop
 groaned.  "No gun? What kind of goody goody petty crook are you?"
 Sam replied, "cattle rustler, when I was a teenager."  The cop said, 
 "I see, how antique!"   The shooting stopped in about
 half an hour and shortly after that the sheriff arrived with
 a very drunk man in custody.  Jim Yazzie, the nearest neighbor
 had heard the gunfire and had called the sheriff.   The sheriff explained
 that the man, a neighbor, had been making whiskey and sampling it.  When
 he saw the government truck he decided that the cops must be
 revenue agents after his still and he wasn't going to let them
 destroy it.  The thin cop asked, "Is every one in this town
 that crazy?"  The sheriff answered, "Mostly, There isn't much to 
 do. you know.  The guy is really OK when he is sober."  Sam
 added, "He would have shot us at the picnic table if he had 
 really wanted to. I've been deer hunting with him when he
 was so drunk he couldn't stand. He still got his deer. He
 probably just wanted to scare us. I was afraid.  I didn't know
 it was him." The sheriff continued. "You people are a novelty. Every law
 breaker will decide that you came here just for them.  By the way,
 what are you here for?"  The fat cop took out the picture
 of Jesus Cruz and explained.  "He is a suspect in a cocaine
 smuggling ring.  We know he was living with a woman in 
 Amarillo, but he got drunk and cut her up some, and then
 the word is that he headed North."  The sheriff replied,
 "I know him but I haven't seen him for maybe 5  years.
 I hope he doesn't come back.  You mentioned crazy, That
 is the guy."  After the sheriff left the the thin cop 
 commented, "OK when sober--That is the dammdest thing
 that I ever heard. We could have ended up just as dead,
 even if he didn't mean it. This town really is crazy."





        

TRUCK
 

        The truck was blue with a red left front fender and a black
 right door.  The headlights didn't match but they were perfectly aligned.
 It wasn't clear any more just what brand the vehicle was.  Parts had
 been bought from wrecked vehicles as they were needed and as long as
 they fit or could be adapted to fit the owners were happy.  Legally,
 the owner was Lola Johnson, since she had the best driving record,
 and could get the lowest insurance rates, but the truck was used by any
 family member that needed it.  Right now it was sitting in the back yard.
 After Sam had left for the cornfield, Lola had taken it to the
 supermarket.  Norman unloaded the groceries, put his silver smithing
 tools in it and drove it to the trading post.  After he unloaded it,
 Johnny took it, filled it with gas, changed the oil and drove to the
 Navaho reservation to pick up some hand made rugs.  After that he
 drove to the house for lunch.  Lola took it, delivered the rugs,
 took the money taken in by the trading post and deposited in
the bank.  Then she went home, where Johnny was waiting to load it
 with pottery.  The pottery was taken to the trading post, and then
 Liz took it to get some black hats and cowboy boots from the warehouse.
 Then Johnny changed the spark plugs and drove it to Arizona
 to get some tanned sheep skins.  Sam rode the horse to town
 and he was waiting for the truck so that he could get the horse
 a load of hay when Johnny got back.  After that Johnny took it
 to Mexico overnight and returned with a load of huaraches and mocassins.
 It had broken down in Texas on the way back, however Johnny had found
 a clutch assembly that fit it in a convenient junk yard, and he just
 installed it at the side of the road and returned home.  Norman 
 noticed that there was a headlight burned out. He changed it.  There
 was a convenient wreak in the back yard, that furnished parts as
 they were needed.  Lola took it to visit her mother.  She took her
 some store bought groceries and picked up some tortillas  and bread
 that Mary Whitehorse had made.  They were not for the table, but genuine
 Indian products to sell at the trading post.  On the way back she
 stopped at her sister's house. Lily had been collecting the family
 laundry, so they put that in the truck and after putting away the food,
 they went to do the laundry.  Then Lola drove her sister home and
 returned to town with fresh vegetables from the garden.  Sam was waiting
 for the truck.  He put groceries and gas in it and took it to the Apache
 reservation.  What one could say about the truck is that it was 
 idle mostly for repairs, and constantly changed a little in appearance
 as parts were replaced.

        




ON THE NAVAJO RESERVATION

        

        They were visiting George Williams who ranched a bit and
 had a small flock of sheep.  Sam wanted some mutton. George sighed and
 said, "I wish I could do it, Sam, but I lost about 20 head last week.  My
 youngest left a gate open and the whole head justwalked. I've got most of
 them back, but then it rained and there are no tracks left."  Sam
 replied, "Maybe Laz could help. He is pretty good. He found
 the deer during the rain." George,replied, "Nobody is that good.  Half a 
 sheep says you ain't.  Lazarus replied, "I hate to take your food. Where 
 is the gate?" At the gate he asked Sam to walk with him to help herd them
 back.  He added, "No hurry, you won't hurt your leg.  It will be a slow
 walk."  The two men left with Lazarus indicating the approximate
 direction. George said, "I will ask Lily to cook some of the deer. You
 will be hungry by the time you come back without them.  Sam replied,
 "With potatoes carrots and onions, please.  It is under the tarp in the
 truck." They walked for an hour with Lazarus smelling the odor of sheep.
 He remarked that he could do it because he was following the
 smell of a particular ewe that he had picked up on the wind
 blowing towards the gate.  It was getting cloudy.  Lazarus, remarked,
 I think we should take shelter under that rock overhang on the
 hill over there.  We are going to have a cloudburst.  The sheep
 will take shelter as soon as the rain starts.  Soon they were
 sitting under the overhang watching the lightning.

        Lazarus said, "Confess Sam, You are no Paiute. You are
 not an indian at all. In fact you are not human." Sam thought
 a moment.  Then he answered, "Yes and no, What gives me away."  Lazarus
 replied, "Baggage.  You don't have any and humans do.  They learn certain
 things in their childhood.  After that everything else gets 
 interpreted to fit in with what they learned originally.  You are
 more like me.  No preconceptions at all.  You assess each situation for
 what it is worth.  Now you take George Williams.  He learned that
 once it rains, it becomes impossible to find animals because it
 washes away their tracks.  He is so sure that is the way it works.
 He can't imagine anyone finding the sheep by smell because he can't.
 I'm not the only one.  Dogs could do it. There are other ways. It
 is pretty open country. You might be able to see them from a high point.
 Maybe anyone could find them but he is just set in his ways.
 You?  You tried cattle rustling and got caught.  You didn't try
 again. You tried forgery and succeeded. You simply added it to
 your list of useful skills. You had one wife, but you wanted a second.
 Not a problem.  You just made sure the two didn't meet.  You do
 not look at conventional rules about good and bad.  You simply
 ask if there is a reasonable chance of whatever you want to do
 working."

        Sam smiled and said, "You are partially correct.  I
 landed with the crash at Roswell New Mexico but I am not like
 you.  I remember what I was before.  There is no real translation
 of what I am.  The best word would be an other. I do not
 have all the ability to alter my physiology that you do.  I've
 understood that you were not a farmer who lost his memory from
 the beginning, and that you needed help as much as I did. Perhaps
 you would like to hear about me." Lazarus nodded his head.

        Sam explained, "I was with one of the crew of the ship 
 that crashed at Roswell in 1947.  They were unaware of me.  I
 was just along for the ride.  My first host on earth
 was an Apache war veteran. I did not contribute to his behavior. I was
 just an internal observer.  He didn't stay healthy.  It is that baggage
 you were talking about. He could have been a great man.  He had talent
 sound ideas, kindness, and a lots of skills. But he drank a lot,
 developed liver disease and since he was a second world war hero, he was
 sent to a veteran's hospital rather than being left to die on the
 street.  He wasn't aware of me. Normally a host never is. I just
 stay in the background and try to guide. In his case I was too late
 to change anything. I do have his memories from cradle board to grave.
 I mean that litterly.  I watched his funeral as Sam. When the Apache
 died my next host was Sam Jack, the Paiute. Sam had been shot in the
 head. He was a little better than a vegetable but only capable of eating
 food he was fed and obeying simple commands like get up or lie down. He
 didn't talk. I have some but most likely not all of Sam's memories.  He
 had no sense of being an individual left.  I had to take a more active
 role than I normally would. I managed to reorganize what I could but I do
 not have your physiological ability to change.  I can not fix things
 completely.
 Anyway, there was great surprise when Sam started talking, asked about
 his wife and children and wanted to go home.  After the doctors studied
 the case for a while,  I got my/his disability pension  and went back to
 the reservation in central Nevada to resume his life.  I remembered some
 things, such as his brush with the law about rustling cattle,(He was
 young and stupid), the experience in prison, (He must have been about 16,
 but was posing as 21.), his wife, the children but not their names or how
 many there were, how to ride a horse and his language.  There were things
 that were lost forever, such as the date of his birth. Most likely Sam
 could add and subtract before being shot.  As it is I can count, but not
 add or subtract.  This is one reason I married a second wife.  She
 could, and her religion convictions made her honest.  There was a big
 measles epidemic about that time I was born and it wiped out most of the
 population including my parents. I was raised by a family that adopted
 me.  They accepted me without suspicion as Sam Jack.  If I didn't know
 something that I should, they thought it was because I was shot in the
 head. Most people who knew me before, were delighted to see me back and
 happy that I had recovered.  Once I had gained control of my life, I
 became bored and began to sign up for work away from home.  I was a
 normal thing for a cowboy to do.  You know the rest.  The rain seems to
 be stopping." Lazarus replied, "Yes, the sheep are about half a mile
 East.  Perhaps we should drive them back.  Supper must be ready. Can
 she cook?  Am I really from outer space?" Sam replied, "Yes she
 can, She is Lola's sister. They all learned.  You must be from
 outer space.  There is no human with your abilities on earth.  That
 is why George is so sure you can't find the sheep."  They drove
 back the sheep and Sam commented, "I think you owe half a sheep
 Just send it to Lola for the freezer, the next time you butcher. Is
 supper ready?"  The supper was as good as Lola's.


A BIT OF MENDING

        Lazarus was puzzled.  He asked Sam, "What is my purpose?"
 Sam replied, "I don't know.  My purpose is to be a moral influence
 on whatever species I live with. With you it doesn't seem to be like
 that."  Lazarus said, "You must be joking.  You are a bigamist
 and a forger. How is that moral?"  Sam replied, "Let me tell you
 why I continued to be a forger.  I was in Phoenix a long time ago and
 there was an indian girl about 11 years old, who was trying to become a
 hooker. I forged the papers to make her my daughter, took her to Canada
 and my wife and I raised her as our own with the rest of the children.
 No one knew except her and me that she wasn't my illegitimate child.
 We passed her off as a blackfoot and eventually she became a good
 forger with a clerical job in Alberta.  Don't worry about your
 papers.  There are copies of your birth certificate on file.  There
 are a few other things too.  For instance the status indian card
 and the Manitoba driver's license will stand inspection.  She has
 a few friends who also help.  It helped her and it has helped a
 number of other people such as you.  Tell me it isn't good work.
 As for the extra wife, she was terrified of men.  She needed to
 meet one who wouldn't hurt her and I was the right person.  I needed
 her too.  Remember, I can't add and subtract and she could.  It
 is much easier to handle money if someone in the family has those
 skills."  Lazarus thought about that for a while.  Perhaps he was
 supposed to be a healer. In the afternoon while Sam slept, he grew a
 bunch of cells in Sam's brain. Eventually Sam awoke, and began thinking,
 Two is one more than one. If there is one and then there is another one,
 there are two.  He asked, "Can you fix my left eye.  Lazarus responded,
 What is wrong with it?  Sam shrugged his shoulders and said,  "I don't
 know.  I think it sees.  It blinks at the right time when things get too
 close to it and certainly seems to follow objects but I don't know about
 what it sees." Lazarus added more cells.  It was not an immediate
 success.  Sam found the result visually confusing for a number of days.
 He had double vision and the things that he saw with his left
 eye had the colors right but they were blured. however
 in about three weeks he had adjusted well enough to drive again.
 Lazarus had done the driving during the adjustment period.  The
 numerical concepts were well entrenched in a month.  At that
 time Sam went to his bank and found out how much money he had.
 It was a surprise to him.  He had about 20 thousand dollars. It
 was a consequence of him having few needs after most of his children
 were raised and his wives were dead.  He thought about it and
 decided that it was too much money for an old indian to leave
 in the bank.  He withdrew half of it and buried it in a bottle
 under a rock near the cornfield.  Then he wrote a will, leaving the rest
 of it to his Apache daughter, with the arrangement that the bank
 would manage it until she was 18.


DANCE

        It was the middle of the summer. After Sam noticed that
 the most predominant comment about Lazarus that resulted from
 the hunting trip to the Ute reservation was, "Laz is certainly
 capable, and seems to be a good person, but he is so strange." Sam
 decided that more socialization of his student needed to be done.  

        The obvious choice was the Saturday night dance.  Lazarus
 did not dance however he learned the waltz and the fox trot easily
 once the principles had been explained by Sam.  Sam could not really
 explain the purpose of social dancing easily, but after some difficulty
 he managed to convince Lazarus that dancing was a useful skill for 
 meeting woman.  This was good enough for Lazarus since he still missed
 Rita, and was eager to meet women.  Hence they went to the dance,
 Sam in his best cowboy boots and black hat, and Lazarus in his tennis
 shoes and jeans.  

        The first thing that Lazarus noticed was that the people his
 age were not waltzing and foxtroting. There were two groups, the young
 people who danced without hardly touching each other and the older
 ones who did dance the fox trots and waltzes.  The older ones sat and
 watched or drank while the the young did a dance to fast music.  They
 stood about 3 feet apart and moved their arms and legs in a fast rhythm
 to the music.   Then the young ones watched while the older folk took
 to the floor and did a waltz or a fox trot.  After watching Sam dance
 with Lola, Lazarus decided that it was the style he would be most
 successful with and besides it got him closer to the woman.  He asked
 a woman who had danced with Sam if he could have the next dance when
 he realized that the next number was going to be a waltz.  He recognized
 the woman.  It was Rosie who ran Rosie's Mexican Cafe.  He had had
 breakfast there once with Sam.  She was surprised that he waltzed and
 asked where he had learned. He told her the truth, that Sam had showed
 him how but he had never really tried dancing a waltz with a woman.
 Rosie sighed and said yes.  It was best to be polite to the customers,
 but she was pretty sure she would not enjoy dancing with a beginner
 half her age.  Much to her surprise even though he was hesitant in
 the beginning, he seemed to be a very observant and well coordinated
 boy and by the end of the dance he was a credible waltzer. He didn't
 make small talk in the usual sense.  While they were dancing he 
 questioned her about the techniques he saw around him on the floor,
 and was soon experimenting with them himself.  In fact Rosie was so
 impressed that she asked him for the next waltz if they played another.
 While the young folks took the floor Rosie and Lazarus got acquainted.
 He learned that she was raising two sons alone because her husband
 had died.  She learned he stayed all the time at the cornfield, rather
 than bothering to sleep in town at Lola's house, because of the
 injured horse. The next waltz was definitely a success and they decided
 to pair up again for the prize waltz.  They won as the best couple
 on the floor.  Meanwhile Rosie had learned that Lazarus was a good
 cook.  He had learned from his grandfather and a relationship was
 started.  Lazarus was invited to visit Rosie's restaurant sometime.
 She was a little surprised when he came the next day.  He met
 her sons, chopped the wood and then headed off to the family Sunday
 dinner at Lola's.  She was puzzled.  She was a 40 year old widow
 with a male friend who was perhaps 20 years old  and this was a situation
 that she had not anticipated. 


HORSE 

        When Lazarus saw the truck drive up to the cornfield clearing
 he saw that it was pulling a horse trailer.  Sam was driving. He
 said get the horse. We need to take it to Jim's.  Afterwards, we
 are going to a place near Gallup to buy a horse for Johnny's children.
 I need you to help pick the horse. You have a nose for physiology,
 and you can deal with the money. It is good experience for you. 

        They stopped at Rosie's cafe for breakfast. Sam had taken
 Lazarus to Rosie's cafe originally since he thought that one thing
 much needed by Lazarus was more knowledge of social behavior. After
 the dance Lazarus had begun to visit Rosie frequently.  She worked
 long hours and hence the boys who were 5 and 7 either played around
 the cafe or were alone in the evening.  Lazarus kept them company
 and taught them reading and numbers.  The oldest boy had failed
 in the first grade because of his lack of English.  He was learning
 it from Lazarus was adding to his knowledge of Spanish.  He had
 learned some from Sam and Johnny, but now he was becoming really
 proficient. Lazarus made himself useful by cutting wood
 for Rosie and tending her garden.  It was evident that Lazarus was
 no longer sleeping in the cornfield but had found shelter and perhaps
 more elsewhere.  It had happened like this.  He had simply asked
 Rosie to have sex with him.  She had many questions.  The first was
 had he had sex with anyone before? As she put it, Was it like the
 dancing.  (Sam had explained it to him and he decided to try.)  Lazarus
 replied truthfully. He said that he had had sex with Rita.  Rosie
 was surprised.  Lazarus had left out certain details such as the
 information that Rita was his keeper in a mental institution.  Finally,
 Rosie became curious enough to consent.  She had had difficulty imagining
 Lazarus as a lover but was pleasantly surprised.



        After looking over the horse herd, Lazarus picked a small
 pinto.  It wasn't an animal that most experienced judges of horse
 flesh would pick, and was very cheap.  Sam asked, why that one?
 Lazarus explained.  First of all, it doesn't have problems with its
 hoofs like many of them.  I think maybe they were walking on lava.
 Their hoofs are worn down.  Secondly, it is very young and it is
 not afraid of people.  Many of the horses here are frightened because
 people tried to ride them and none of them had that experience before.
 This one was too small so they didn't try.  That means that we
 can do it right.  Furthermore it is healthy.  Sam had learned to
 trust Lazarus in his judgments of livestock.  They paid for it
 and arranged to return to put it in the horse trailer in the 
 afternoon when it was cooler.  Right now they just left the 
 trailer and since it was late morning they stopped at a local church.
 It wasn't for the religion.  The church was having a church
 food sale and since their horse purchase was very inexpensive they
 had money to buy lots of food.  Lola had given them a pot of beans
 and some tortillas for lunch, but the offerings here were intriguing.
 There was fried chicken, homemade bread, potato salad and many
 kinds of cakes and pies.  They ended up with much more food than they
 could eat.  Sam started a fire in a vacant lot near the  edge of town
 which was frequently used as a campground and put the pot of beans on
 to heat,  and Lazarus set off on foot to find some  drinks.  He found
 the supermarket where he bought ice and soft drinks, and a six pack of
 beer.  He had  considerable money and the wad of bills attracted the
 attention of a local prostitute when he paid the bill. She was ahead of
 him in line at the checkout counter and she immediately propositioned him
 once he was outside the store. Lazarus declined the invitation
 with the comment that his girlfriend Rosie would object but he told her
 that he and his grandfather would be pleased if she had some picnic lunch
 with them.  She was very surprised and accepted.   

        It was getting very hot now.  Sam was resting in the shade
 of the truck, when the car pulled up.  It was the two narcotics cops.
 The thin one asked, "Sam, what are you doing here?"  Sam replied, "Laz
 and I come to buy a horse but it was getting too hot to catch it and haul
 it home without making it terrible uncomfortable. We are waiting until
 about sundown.  We had money leftover and there was this big church food
 sale. We bought too much lunch.  Laz is off getting something to drink.
 Why don't you help me put up the tarp so we have some shade and help
 eat some of it.  What are you guys doing here?  The fat one said, "The
 usual, We got word that Jesus Cruz was sighted in Gallup."  He did
 pronounce the name correctly this time. "What happened to the guy who
 was shooting at us?  Sam replied, "Not much. The sheriff took away
 his batch of booze and his gun.  Then he waited until he sobered up,
 and made him dig new holes and move the outdoor toilets at the town
 campground and fill in the old holes. Then he told him it was bad
 to shoot at people and let him go.  Our town believes in community
 service, if the job is so unpleasant no one wants to do it.  The
 booze was a pretty good batch if you took it easy. The sheriff 
 brought it to the 4th of July celebration.  (It was served in
 shot glasses.) Most every adult in town had a shot or so.  It
 was a good advertisement for the guy.  It is an awful good place
 to sell booze. You know, Just a few miles from a dry reservation.
 I figure he will sell a lot more if he stays sober and doesn't
 shoot the customers."  The narcotics men were laughing. The thin one
 remarked, "We used to have that sort of creative justice in my home town
 in Maine when I was a boy.  I thought it was gone forever. How the
 hell did you get a sheriff like that?"  Sam replied, "You remember
 that remark about cattle rustling being a useless antique kind of
 crime.  It ain't so.  They do it with trucks now.  It was before
 I came South but they say it was like this. Everyone was
 pretty sure that our sheriff was one of the rustlers, but no one
 could prove anything.  They figured that if he was sheriff, he would
 have to stay in town and we would know where he was. Most everyone
 voted for him. That was maybe 15 years ago. But anyway,
 he was such a good sheriff, and he understood law breakers so well
 that nobody wants anyone but him for sheriff."


        Just then Lazarus showed up running.  He said, "Hey there is
 a guy in the ditch just down the road. You need to come help.  I left
 the drinks and the ice with him, and a woman that I met.  The narcotics
 cops said they would go.  They brought back the drinks, a hitchhiker
 who was the guy in the ditch, and the prostitute.  The 
 prostitute said, "Oh my god, Sam Jack. Lazarus, You didn't tell me you
 your grandfather was Sam Jack. Are you an Indian? He acts like
 everybody's grandfather. Are you really related to him."
 Lazarus replied, "Yes,It runs in the family. I'm Lazarus Wolf Nose.  
 You know him?"  She responded,  "Of course, He bailed me out of jail in
 Las Vegas and bought me a meal. He didn't want me as a woman.  It was
 just something he thought needed doing.  He said he had been in prison
 when he was about my age and he didn't like it much." 

        The narcotics cops were examining the hitchhiker.
 He had a bad bump on his head and his arms were scraped from hitting
 the pavement.  He had been unconscious when they had found him, but was
 sitting up and drinking water now.  He explained that he had gotten a
 ride with someone, maybe an Indian or a Mexican.  The man had been 
 drinking and he robbed him and threw him out of the car.  He didn't 
 want to go to a hospital, so the narcotics police got out a first aid
 kit and patched him up.  He was invited to stay for lunch.  After lunch,
 the cops took him to a local police station to see if he could identify
 the man who picked him up from photos.
    

 


DEATH
   

        It was morning.  Lazarus heard the truck drive up the
 back road to the shelter at the end of the cornfield. He expected
 Sam but it was Johnny. Johnny said, "Sam is dead. I just took him
 to the undertaker. I got him from the state police".
 Lazarus asked, "What happened." Johnny replied, "The Apache woman's
 husband showed up and shot her. Sam was sitting in a chair. She was
 sitting in his lap facing him and the husband shot her in the back. The
 bullets went through her and also Sam.  Lazarus smiled and said, "I see,
 not the missionary position. Johnny replied, "correct". Lazarus asked,
 What about the little girl?  Johnny replied, "Ours now I suppose.  Her
 mothers relatives are too old to raise her right.  There  is that
 illegitimate stuff. I suffered enough from it as a child.  I felt really
 bad until Sam started raising me and made me realize that I wasn't
 responsible for my parents not being married. I can help her with that
 and her mother's parents can't. They are not experienced.
 What a man. I looked up that measles epidemic he talked about once.  It
 happened in 1914.  He wasn't in his 70s like he said. He had to be at
 least in his mid-eighties. Think of it, Shot to death by a jealous
 husband at that age. Way to go!"  

        Sam had asked to buried in the clearing at the end of the
 cornfield.  Lazarus was left to dig the grave.  As he was starting,
 the man from town with Altzheimer's came to the clearing.  He said,
 "Laz, you are digging in the wrong place. You can't bury me there.
 You will just dig another well.  You have to understand how those
 artesian things work.  It is really an underground stream the comes to
 the surface when the well is dug because there is easier for the water
 to do that than follow its ordinary underground course."  Laz replied,
 "OK, I get it. You mean I should bury you somewhere away from the
 watercourse" The man replied,"I suppose so, This host is terrible. What
 was the reason? I can't keep my wits about me. There is something
 physiologically wrong. I had a hell of a time getting away from the wife.
 She is really bossy." Laz was laughing. He asked " Why do you have such
 terrible taste in hosts?  First a chronic drunk, then a man with his
 brains shot up and now a guy with Altzheimer's?" The ex-sam  replied, "It
 is all I can do.  The healthy host is resistant."  Lazarus asked, "What 
 happens if you are invited?  Come here if you can.  Then we will return
 this guy to his wife and come back and dig the grave." 

        The parts of the new Lazarus were carrying on an internal
 dialogue. "Oh my, This is nice. Nothing hurts.  You have
 kept everything in great repair here. Let us take this guy to
 Jim's place. He has a phone.  We can call the sheriff.
 Then we return and dig the hole. Do we dig well?"  "Of course we dig
 well.  We do all sorts of physical labor well.  We are in good repair. If
 anything is wrong it gets fixed during the daily sleep.  If there was
 anything seriously wrong, I would leave and make a new organism."
 Lazarus-Sam Wolf took the arm of the man with Altzheimer's disease and
 started to walk him to Jim Yazzie's place.  Internally, Sam commented,
 "You know you can make a new organism. Does that mean that you remember
 something of your previous existence?"  Lazarus replied internally,  "I
 don't think so.  Can't other people make a new organism?"  Sam replied,
 "I can't and I'm sure that humans don't except by sexual reproduction.
 Their scientists talk about it a lot though."


	Laz -- "Interesting, When I read all that late 19th and early 20th
 century fiction there was some stuff about a spirtualist movement.
 After people died they existed in another state.  Many of the Indians
 among the dead became guides who communicated between the living
 and the dead.  Is that legend a possible consequence of the existence of
 your sort of entity? Then I read that mythology book and there was
 a boatman who took the spirits of Egyptians across the river.  Is
 death different for Egyptians?  What about those Norsemen who went
 to a place called Valhala.  Sam replied, " You read a lot of
 books. Did you read anything else about death?"  Lazarus responded, "Oh
 yes, Besides  the "bible" and Mann's "The Magic Mountain", I read
 "Dante's Inferno." Moody's "Life after Death", and a bunch of others. You
 want to know about them? The treatment of the afterlife is quite
 different in each book." "Whoa", Sam replied, "Death is a serious
 emotional matter to people. You can tell me but when anyone brings it up
 you just listen to me before replying. they already think you are odd,
 and all this literary stuff will just reinforce their ideas." " Sam
 continued, "I think humans make up a lot of things because death seems so
 permanent to them. As for us, we have ten thousand dollars.  I buried it
 for a new start in case I died. There is that saying, "You can't take it
 with you."  I didn't see why not so I decided to try."  
 Laz--"I suppose we had better make a will just in case of accidental
 death." Sam-- "It is already taken care of. I made one. As long as I
 was at it, I made yours too." They reached the Yazzie place and Lazarus
 called the sheriff. Jim promised to look after the man until the sheriff
 arrived.  Lazarus-Sam walked back to the cornfield to begin digging.
   

        The government van pulled up at the cornfield.It was driven by 
 the thin narcotics cop.  His partner was dead.  The hitchhiker had
 identified the man who robbed him and threw him out of the car as Jesus
 Cruz from photographs.  At last report the car had been seen heading
 North.  The two cops headed North to warn Anita Cruz. The narcotics cops
 were the people who discovered the dying Sam and Anita. They gave chase,
 and the fat narcotics cop was shot.  The thin one killed Jesus Cruz.  The
 thin cop was overcome with grief at the loss of his partner. He had come
 to see Lazarus because of Sam's death and was surprised to see him
 without obvious signs of grief.  Lazarus slowly explained that Sam was
 very old and hurt a lot from his arthritis.  While he would certainly
 miss him, he would remember what he had learned from Sam. The thin cop
 was surprised to find such maturity and grace in a man as young as
 Lazarus, and after some talking became resigned to the loss of his
 partner. They had a long hesitant discussion since Lazarus was slow to
 express an opinion becausehe was listening to what Sam had to say, and 
 being coached by him.    



        Sam's relatives missed him. He had no known religion, hence
 the burial ceremony was brief. The will was read. The money in the
 bank was mentioned that was destined for Sam's daughter. Lazarus was 
 to have Spook since he was the onlyother person who could handle him.  
 The corn field was also given to Lazarus with thestipulation that if he 
 died accidentally it was to be given to Lazarus Jack. In this case the
 horse was also to be given to Lazarus Jack. No one knew where Lazarus
 Jack was. Lola was asked to take care of the property if necessary until
 he was found. Besides that there was a list of Sam's children that were
 to be notified of his death.  There were more than the family knew about.


INTEGRATION


	Lazarus-Sam Wolf was lonely.  He asked Rosie to marry him but she 
 said no. It was more than the difference in age.  She told him that they
 were very different.  Rosie said she knew how to cook and run a
 restaurant and that was about all.  On the other hand she had seen
 Lazarus learn things and she realized that he was capable of learning
 almost anything. She had always known that he was unusually capable but
 the tendency had really become evident since Sam's death.  She wasn't
 capable of learning to this extent and she needed to marry someone
 predictable because she couldn't adapt to be the wife of whatever sort of
 a man that Lazarus might become.  It was too much to ask.  She had met
 someone.  Recently the thin narcotics cop had been eating in the
 restaurant and she was marrying him and moving to Maine.  He had decided
 to resign from his job and return to potato growing on the family farm.
 This was a much safer occupation than police work. Rosie was hopeful that
 this  would give her boys a good place to grow up, and a mature man for a
 father who would help them become good adults.
  


        Lazarus-Sam was annoyed at being alone and  decided to return to
 Texas after the corn harvest and find out as much as he could about
 himself.  It seemed to be the right time to do it.  He had understood
 Sam's comment about not having time to worry about himself once there
 were children involved, particularly since he was partly Sam and he
 intended to marry someone upon his return. He didn't know who, but he was
 certain that he wanted children.  He left Spook with Jim Yazzie and drove
 to a small town on the outskirts of El Paso in a day.  He parked the
 truck and as he got out he was shot with a single bullet in the chest. He
 died instantly. It was Rachel, the sister of Lazarus I who did it.  The
 police asked why.  Her answer was, "He was Lazarus.  I will shot him
 again if he comes back anymore."


	While he was in the morgue, "It" found a radio transmission
 tower and beamed a message into space.   Then "It" returned to the corpse
 of Lazarus II. Meanwhile the police traced the papers found on Lazarus to
 Alberta. There had been a Wolf Nose family, but both adults had died in
 an automobile accident.  The children had been sent to live with their
 grandfather, Sam Jack in Manitoba.  No one knew what had happened to the
 children after Sam's wife died and he sold the farm.  It would take a
 while to trace them.  While they were waiting for results they traced the
 pickup truck and got an immediate response from Lola Johnson, who took
 the bus to Texas and claimed the body.  Her only comment was, "What a
 terrible waste" He was buried in the cornfield next to Sam.  "It" was
 conversing with the other.


 The other-- "So you have your memory and you are an observer".
 It-- "Yes, but I don't remember at all when I make an organism".
 The other-- "I remember everything.  That is why they always said
 that Sam could have passed for an Apache.  I knew the language
 and I had his experience.  He just wasn't aware of me.  I can't
 make an organism.  I just find one and try to guide it.  I
 am really sorry about the Apache woman.  Of all my women, she
 was the best.  I mean she didn't ask questions that would reveal
 my origin, and I finally found out about that thing the humans call
 love".  
 It-- "We do have a bit of her DNA. Unfortunately, we could not
 reconstruct her consciousness". 
 The other-- "It isn't unfortunate. She was unique. It wouldn't do
 to duplicate her.  Still the child has no parents".
 The two discussed the situation for a few hours and finally
 A bargain was struck.  It altered the DNA blueprint so that any new 
 organism would have both the abilities of  Lazarus II and Sam. Before
 the recreation "It" shared consciousness with the other so that no
 experience would be forgotten.   


LAZARUS III


 The right person


        A few hours later, a new organism appeared.  The first
 job was finding clothes.  There were some left over from Lazarus II
 at the shelter and they did the job temporally. Then he dug up the money
 under the rock and disappeared into the desert. He lacked food and
 shoes however after walking North to the Ute reservation, he ambushed
 a deer and made moccasins.  Then for a couple of days he traveled
 South until he reached Albuquerque.    Here he took a bus.
 After some days of bus riding and walking  he was at the Canadian border
 in blackfoot territory in Montana near the Alberta border.  He
 waited until darkness and sneaked across undetected. Soon he arrived
 at the door of Sam's daughter, the clerk forger with a letter which was
 apparently written by Sam. It was a request to assist in the
 documentation of his papers.  According to the papers he was carrying he
 was Lazarus Jack, a grandson of Sam Jack, and he had been prospecting in
 Alaska. He had been raised on the same Manitoba farm as Lazarus Wolf, but
 he was an American citizen.

        Sam's daughter was delighted to find a posthumous
 message from her father, and carry out the request.  He had meant a
 lot to her and she missed him. Then Lazarus went back across the border
 more or less legally in British Columbia so that there would be records
 and rented a badly constructed house for a month. It wouldn't do for
 a new person to attract attention to himself by only owning new
 things.  He bought a wrecked pickup truck, and rebuilt it with parts
 that were obtained from local junk yards.  After registering the truck,
 he bought clothing at the local thrift store, picked up
 some household items from the salvation army, loaded the truck and headed
 to New Mexico. Lazarus Sam Jack explained to Lola Johnson that he hadn't
 sent condolences at the time of Sam's death, since he had been snowed in
 in Alaska and hadn't even known about the death until later in the year
 when he left his camp to return to civilization. He was welcomed by the
 family. It was fortunate that he was in time to plant the corn for the
 next season and he  soon joined the staff of the trading post.  Lazarus
 was obviously a descendant of Sam. The resemblance was striking and even
 the mannerisms were similar.  He was soon courting the unmarried daughter
 of Lola and Norman, Ruby Johnson. They married and settled down towork 
 for the trading post and raise a family. They got along with everyone and
 seemed to be a very ordinary well-mannered couple. Lazarus III was not
 odd like Lazarus II had been. If there was anything unusual about Lazarus
 III, it was his ability to learn new things, but it never attracted attention
 the way that the ability of Lazarus II had.  Most likely this was 
 because Lazarus III knew most ordinary things that a young man would
 be expected to know and no one saw him learn any material that he was
 unacquainted with at an astonishing rate. People did wonder how he
 managed to become fluent in Apache and Navaho with such ease, but he
 explained that there were similar languages in the North, and he made
 deliberate errors in the beginning.  He also explained that his ability
 to speak with Paiutes and Utes was something he had learned from his
 grandfather, during childhood.   


        The Apache woman's child liked the couple, spent all
 the time she could with them  and was eventually adopted. Most people
 forgot that she was not their first daughter.   




EPILOGUE
        

	The transmission eventually reached its destination .  When decoded it
 said, "This is the observer reporting on the primitive radio waves from
 the planet earth. The commercials from the Mexican border
 station XERB were certainly accurate. If you remember the advertisement
 for the cheap mail order guitars, there were lots of those.  As for the
 lifelike statue of Christ that glowed in the dark, it was a best seller.
 The music was right too.  You remember the song about the man wrapped in 
 white linen dying slowly on the streets of Laredo.  I didn't see a
 similar incident.(I've never been to Laredo.),but it was certainly a gun
 culture, and it probably happened. It is typical of the customs.
 I was shot a couple of times myself.  Sometimes the shootings seem to
 be associated with mating, but most of the time the reason is difficult
 to find.  It seemed random.

        Then again, it wasn't all accurate. You remember the American 
 station with the morality play about the Lone Ranger and Tonto.  I didn't
 meet anyone like that.  The Indians that I met were very busy with
 theirown affairs.  Most of them were working and raising their families.
 Certainly there were no Indians simple enough to be faithful servants to
 masked white do-gooders, and besides that the difference between good and
 evil was never clearcut. Events just happened and some consequences were
bad and others good.