We’d also planned a dinner with the crew to show them the photo album of the fake wedding that Amy and I had, with me as the bride and Amy as the groom. We also decided to surprise them by Tammy dressing like the bride she was that day.

Now, I was standing just outside the door to the den, dressed to the nines as a bride, listening to the discussion over the photo album.

I heard Mark say, “Amy, there is no way that you could ever pass for a guy.”

“The first time I met Tammy I couldn’t believe it was Tom.”, Kelly said.

“That dress is fabulous.”, Maria said. “And I was there and still don’t believe it. I still think she’s a ringer.”

Larry said, “She sure fooled me. When’s Tom getting back? He’s going to miss dinner.”

With that, I walked into the den, and said, “Tom may miss dinner, but I won’t.”

Maria, Mark, Kelly, and Larry were sitting on the couch with their backs to me, and Amy was sitting facing me. The four turned to look at me. Maria smiled. Mark and Larry shook their heads. And Kelly just stared.

Then Kelly said, “Sorry Maria the pictures don’t do her justice. And that dress is fabulous, and it looks amazing on you Tammy. Come on in here so I can get a better look.”

I walked further into the den and stood by Amy. Kelly, then said, “And those shoes. You walk in them like you were born in them.”

“I don’t like heels.”, I said. “Give me moccasins.”

With a grin, Maria said, “See. I told you that she’s a ringer. No boy could look this good.”

“Maria.”, I said. “Give it up. You know better. There’s a guy under all of this.”

“Tammy, I’ve known you longer than anyone else here except Amy. And honestly, I’m happy that I have you as a girlfriend and Tom as a friend.”

“Thanks, Maria. I feel the same way about all four of you.”

Just then my dad stuck his head in the door, and said, “I know that you’re having fun, but I’m hungry. Can we eat soon?”

“Daddy.”, I said. “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

“Come on.”, Amy said, “We’ve got to cook the fixings and make the frybread.”

So we all headed to the kitchen and everyone got to work, no one would let me close to the oven for fear I would ruin my dress. So once I got Maria and Mark started on cooking the fixings, mom went with me back to my room. When we got there, I kicked off the heels and slipped on a pair of moccasins. Then mom helped me out of the wedding gown. I removed the pillbox hat. Then I got rid of the slip and put on a long skirt and a fancy blouse. I left everything else on including the bustier and nylons. I removed the pearl necklace and earrings and replaced the earrings with a pair of the silver feather earrings. Then I added one of the silver and turquoise bracelets.

After mom left to check on the taco chefs, I brushed out my hair, sorry Helen, and put it into a girl’s ponytail. I checked myself in the mirror and freshened my lipstick. Then I headed for the kitchen.

As I walked into the kitchen, it smelled good, and everyone was busy. Even my dad, he was setting the table and getting drinks. I checked on Maria and Mark, and they were cooking up a storm. Amy, Kelly, and Larry had a production line going making frybread. And it wasn’t long until we were sitting down and each of us was making our own frybread tacos.

As we ate, Amy leaned close to me and whispered, “Honey, would you mind if I say something to the crew about my scholarships?”

I whispered back, “They’re your scholarships. So it's your call on who you tell what and when.”

We chatted as we ate, and when all of us were watching Larry, Mark, and my dad make a second one. Amy said, “Guys, I’ve got something to tell you.”

Kelly looked at Amy, and before Kelly could say anything, Amy said, “No, Kelly. I’m not pregnant.”

“I wasn’t going to ask that.”. Kelly said with a fake surprised look.

“I learn from experience. All kidding aside.”, Amy said. “Mom and dad know about this, and I think that since you four are such good and close friends that you should know too.

“You all know that I’ve been given a full ride scholarship by our university to do my master’s in nursing. Right?”

Everyone either nodded yes or said, “Yeah.”

Then Amy said, “I’ve been given another full ride scholarship by the University of New Mexico's College of Nursing.”

“You’re leaving us!”, Maria said.

“No, honey. We haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet. We’re still in the talking stages. And one problem that we’re talking about is leaving not only our families but our best friends. You guys.

“I wanted all of you to know what’s going on. That’s why we’re telling you.”

“So, are the scholarships identical?”, Larry asked.

“No.”, I said. “The one from New Mexico is giving us a married student apartment. We'd have to furnish it. And from the information that they’ve sent us, they look nice. Each building has four units in it. Each unit has two bedrooms and a full bath on the second floor. The first floor has a nice eat-in kitchen, a nice living room, a small room that could be used as a third bedroom or a quiet place to study, a half bath, a private patio, and a one car garage. And there’s a separate basement under each unit.”

“Sounds nice. And being free it’s even better.”

“But you live here with Tom’s parents.”, Kelly said.

“Yes, but we also help with things here.”, I said.

“God we’d miss you guys if you go out there.”, Maria said with tears in her eyes.

“Honey, don’t cry.”, Amy said. “We haven’t made up our minds yet. Besides if we do go out there, there’s the second bedroom for visitors.”

“But what if the four of us come out together?”

“I guess we’ll have to put two sets of bunk beds in the spare room. And you could share the bedroom.”

Now, knowing how Kelly reacted when we shared a motel room, I looked at her and smiled. She saw me looking at her, and at first, she frowned, then she smiled.

Then Larry asked, “Amy, when are you going to decide?”

“I don’t know.”, Amy replied. “We may wake up one morning and know what we’re doing. Or Tom and I may be talking about it one day and decide. But, I feel that I need to do it by the end of this quarter.

“But, right now I’d like some dessert. Who wants to go for ice cream?”

Everyone said yes, except my mom. And she said, “Remember the cinnamon crisps with a fruit salad dessert that you made for us?”

“Of course.”, Amy said.

“How would you like that for dessert?”

“I’d love it.”

“Amy come and help me.”

My mother and Amy placed bowls of fruit salad and plates of homemade cinnamon crisps on the table. And it was quickly gone. And everyone raved about the dessert.

Larry said, "Mrs. Young, that was better than any old ice cream."

Mark had been quiet through this whole thing, then he said, “Guys if you do this you will be sadly missed, just like Amy was during those four years that she was gone, but not forgotten. You two are a lot of fun and full of surprises.

“But what you two have to do, is do what makes you the happiest. What you want to do. And remember, you only live once.”

Amy and I looked at each other and grinned. Mark looked at us and asked, “What’s so funny you two?”

“My brother, Bill, said the same thing. You only live once.”, Amy replied. “And you’re both right.”

After everyone had left, and mom and dad were in bed, Amy and I were cuddled together in the den with a nice fire burning in the fireplace. I was still dressed like I’d been when we’d eaten dinner, one of our fancy blouses, a fancy long skirt, the bustier, satin panties over my special panties, the white nylons, and a pair of moccasins.

Amy started getting amorous. After some serious kissing and other things. Amy said, “I love the feeling of nylons on your legs.”

“I don’t wear them very often.”, I said.

“I know. I wish you would. Your legs look nice in them and heels.”

“I don’t like heels at all. In fact, I could use a nice foot massage after wearing those heels tonight.”

“You didn’t have them on for that long.”

“I know. But it was long enough. If you know what I mean.”

“Oh. I do owe you one. Don’t I?”

“More than one.”

Amy stood, offered me her hand, which I took, and she helped me stand. Then she led me to our room, and all I can say is that Amy gives a terrific foot massage. If you know what I mean.

Monday it was back to classes. I knew that when we were on campus, and she had a spare hour or two that Amy was at the universities library trying to find out anything she could about Weetamoo and the Wampanoag Indians.

One afternoon when Amy and I got together to come home she was a little excited. And on the way home, she told me what her research had turned up. She had found some information on a woman by the name of Weetamoo. It turned out that she was from the mid-1600s and Amy’s Weetamoo was from the mid-1700s. And the Weetamoo from the mid-1600s was at one point the chief of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe for a couple of years, and she was born in the Pokanoket area, and that Pokanoket was the anglicized version of Pauquunaukit. So it appears that Amy’s Weetamoo is not from the same tribe as the other one, but was from one close to it. But were they related?

Amy and I would talk about the scholarships. The pros and cons of the actual scholarships. The pros and cons of staying here or going to New Mexico. And we even talked about not accepting either and going someplace else. I wasn’t trying to sway her one way or the other. I was going to let her decide.

One day when Amy and I came home, my mom was already home from work. When we walked into the house and the kitchen, my mother said, “Hi kids. Have a good day?”

“Sure did, mom.”, Amy replied.

“Good. Tom, there’s something in your room for you.”

“Okay, mom. Thanks.”, I said.

Amy and I went to our room, and there was a bag from the department store on my bed. I looked in the bag, and there were two identical boxes in it. I took the boxes out of the bag and looked at them. One was marked left, and the other was marked right. And I had an idea what they were.

I opened one of the boxes, and I was right, they were the new forms. Amy saw them, and asked, “Why the new forms?”

“Mom thought that I could use a new pair and a larger size.”, I replied.

“A new pair you’ve needed. A larger size, maybe. Let’s see.”

I removed my shirt and t-shirt, slipped on a bra, and put the new forms in the bra. The cups were a little fuller. Amy looked, and commented, “You might need some new bras.”

“Why?”

“Silly, you’re bigger.”

“I guess.”

There was a soft knock on the door, and my mother said, “Can I come in?”

“Sure mom.”, I replied.

As my mother came into the room, she closed the door, and said, “I figured that you’d try them and I had to see.”

“They do look better.”, Amy said. “But, that bra looks tight, she may need a larger size bra.”

“She might.”, my mom said. “Honey put on a blouse and let's see how that looks.

I went to my closet, and grabbed a blouse, slipped it on, and buttoned it. Mom and Amy gave me a close look. Then mom said, “Honey that looks good, how does the bra feel?”

“A little tight.”, I replied.

“I’d love for you to have a bra fitting, but it might be hard to find someone to do it.”

“Why?”

“Because you just use forms. But I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks, mom.”

I took off the blouse and bra, put the forms away, and put back on my t-shirt and shirt.

Winter quarter was going great for both of us, and it was almost over. Today was Saturday and next week was the last week of the quarter, finals week. Amy and I were up before my parents, and right after breakfast, Amy wanted to go for a walk. It was the end of March and still a little on the cold side, but if you dressed for the weather you’d be fine. So we dressed for the weather, and we were off to our favorite park and our favorite trail.

We parked in the trailhead parking lot, and we were the only ones there. Not a surprise for early on a cold March morning. Then we headed up the lake trail, and of course, we stopped at the lake. We went to our bench, I sat, and Amy sat on my lap. The lake still had ice on it. And our feathered friends weren’t around.

We sat there quietly for a few minutes, then Amy looked at me, and said, “Tommy, can we still go to New Mexico.”

“Of course. If you’re sure that’s what you want to do?”, I asked.

“Yes. I’m sure. I’ve been leaning that way for the past couple of weeks.”

“I thought so.”

“Are you all right with it?”

“Honey. It’s what you want. So it’s what I want.”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly. But, let me ask you something. When we talked about doing this before, you said that you’d done some research on the master's program in New Mexico. And that it was very new, and that you thought that you’d get more out of the program here. What changed your mind?”

“A lot of things. Primarily being out there for those two weeks last year and- seeing things that we’d never seen before, and talking with people, especially you. Feeling love for the people and the land, and seeing that I might be able to help the people out there, even if it’s only just a little bit.

“Sure their master’s program is new. And if I don’t like what I see, we can always come back here.”

“Amy, you are special. And I love you so much.”

And we just held each other for a long time. Then we looked at each other and kissed. When we broke the kiss, Amy said, “Look. We have company.”

I looked to where she was looking, and our two feathered friends were back. We watched as the picked up sticks and flew off with them. I said, “They must be working on their nest.”

“Like us?”, Amy said.

“Could be.”

We slowly finished our hike on the lake trail. Then as we sat in the car, I looked at Amy, and asked, “So, it’s New Mexico?”

“Yes.”, Amy said. “It’s New Mexico.”

When we were back at the house, Amy said, “I feel like a weight has was lifted off my shoulders.”

I looked at her, smiled, and said, “I bet you do.”

“So, who do we tell first?”

“I’d start with our families.”

“Tell us what, honey.”, we heard my mom say.

“Oh. Hi mom.”, I said. “I didn’t know that you were up.”

“Sure. Your dad and I are going shopping. Want to come?”

“It’ll take us a while to get cleaned up.”

“Where were you?”

“We took a walk.”

My mother looked at Amy, and said, “Honey, you’ve made a decision. Haven’t you?”

“Yes, mom. We did.”

“Going to New Mexico. Aren’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“Honey, I know you, and I know Tom. And I know how you feel about New Mexico. I also know that it was a hard decision, but I think it’s the only one that you could make.”

“You’re right mom.”, Amy said.

Then my dad walked into the kitchen, and asked, “Why so serious you three?”

“Daddy, we’ve made a decision.”, Amy said.

“About what, honey.”

“My master's degree.”

“Let’s see. My spirit tells me that it’s going to be … New Mexico.”

“Daddy, don’t make fun of the spirits.”

“I’m not. I’d never make fun of mom.”

“Mom?”

“Sure. Mom is my spirit. Right Jean?”

With a smile, my mom said, “That I am. I figured that you two were going to New Mexico a couple of weeks ago.”

“How?”, Amy asked.

“The spirits move in strange ways.”

“Mom!”

“It’s true honey. I had a dream a couple of weeks ago about you two being in New Mexico.”

Amy just looked at my mother, then said, “I had a dream like that a couple of weeks ago too.”

“Like I said honey, they move in strange ways.”

“I know.”
`
Later as we were driving over to Amy’s parent's house for dinner, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about the dream.”

“I still wasn’t certain about what I wanted to do. And I figured that it was my mind playing tricks.”

“Remember your dreams about the Indian girl and the sailor?”

“Of course.”

“Dreams do come true.”

As we walked into Amy’s parent's house, the smell was amazing. I don’t know what Amy’s mom was cooking, but I was ready to eat it.

After we ate one of the best, if not the best, lasagnas that I have ever eaten and we were enjoying some spumoni ice cream, Amy said, “Mom and dad, Tommy and I have made a decision.”

“A decision?”, Amy’s mother said.

“Yes. I’m going to do my master’s work in New Mexico.”

I saw Amy’s dad look at her and become sad. Amy saw it too, and said, “Daddy, please don’t be sad. Just think, you can come and visit and you’ll have a free place to stay.”

“Honey.”, Amy’s dad said. “I understand. This is important to you and what you want to do. I have to realize that my little girl has grown up.”

“Thanks, daddy. I need your support. I need support from all of my family and friends. This was a hard decision to make, but as Billy said, you only live once.”

“When your brother said that, I realized that the two of you have matured. You are both wonderful people and have your own lives.”

Amy got up, walked over to her dad, gave him a big hug, and said, “Daddy, I love you.”

I saw tears in his eyes. Amy then walked over to her mother and hugged her. Again, I saw tears in Amy’s mother’s eyes. When Amy turned around, she was also crying.

Amy then came back over to me, kissed me on the cheek, sat next to me, and took my hand in hers.

“Honey.”, Amy’s mother said, “We are very happy for you and Tom. We know that it was a hard decision for you. But, you’re reaching for your dreams, and all we can say is, we hope that you catch them. And you have our full support.”

“Mom.”, Amy said. “That means a lot to Tom and me.”

We talked for a while longer, then headed home. On the way back, Amy asked, “So, when do we tell the crew?”

“Whenever you want to. Maybe have them over for dinner tomorrow.”

I won’t go into the details of the dinner with the crew on Sunday, other than to say that there were tears, hugs, more tears, more hugs, and lots of, god we’re going to miss you guys.

Monday started exam week, and little miss smarty pants didn’t have any exams. Why you ask? She had pulled A’s on all of her test and exams throughout the quarter, and some profs exempt you from exams if you did such things. And all of her profs had exempted her. Me, I had two exams.

I had one exam on Monday morning, and Amy went to campus with me. She didn’t say, but I figured that she was going to the nursing school to talk to some people about her scholarship here.

When we met up after my exam, Amy said, “Well, I told them that I was going to accept the scholarship from the University of New Mexico.”

“And?”, I asked.

“My advisor was shocked, but the dean wasn’t surprised.”

“So you burned your bridges?”

“Sort of. They did say that I was always welcome back.”

“That’s good.”

“There’s more.”

“More?”

“Yeah. It’s not certain yet, but I’m right on the line between Summa Cum Laude and Magna Cum Laude, and it will come down to the spring quarter grades.”

“Well knowing you, it will probably be Summa.”

“I don’t think so. Now I’ve got to call New Mexico and accept their scholarship.”

“You can do that when we get home.”

“That’s what I figured. And then I’ll have to tell Patty too.”

“Will she be surprised?”

“I don’t think so. She knows how we feel about New Mexico.”

On the way home, we stopped at our favorite drive-in for lunch. When we reached home, Amy said, “Well I guess I should call Mrs. Etsitty.”

“I’ll leave you alone.”

“What if I have to decide on something that affects both of us?”

“I trust you. You’ll make the correct decision. The decision that you need to make.”

Amy went into the den. I sat in the kitchen and read over my notes for my next exam.

A half an hour later Amy came back into the kitchen with a smile on her face. So I said, “I guess that was a good conversation?”

“Yes. Mrs. Etsitty was pleased that I had decided to do my master’s work with them.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“Yes, an excellent thing. Also, Mrs. Etsitty won’t be Mrs. Etsitty when we get out there. It will be Dr. Etsitty. And she’ll be my proctor.”

“So she’s getting her doctorate in nursing.”

“Yes. The University of New Mexico doesn’t offer a doctoral in nursing yet. So she went to the University of Colorado.

“Mrs. Etsitty is sending me all the necessary papers by Special Delivery, so they’ll be here by the end of the week. She’s also sending along the necessary papers for you to enroll for your masters if you want to. And she wants me to send the papers back by Special Delivery directly to her.”

“How about the apartment?”

“That’ll be ready for us on the last Monday of June. And the paperwork for that will be in the package with the registration papers.”

“The last Monday of June. Why?”

“I had to make a decision.”

“And that was?”

“Since I’m going to be teaching, they wanted me to take a couple of summer classes that will help me. And classes start July 5.”

I got up, took the calendar off we wall, and sat back down. I flipped the calendar to June, and we looked at it. Then I said, “So we graduate on June 11 and need to be in New Mexico June 26?”

“Something like that.”

I looked at her for a minute, looked at the calendar, and said, “It’s doable. We should be able to drive it in a little over three days. So with three nights on the road, if we leave here on June 22, we should be there on June 25. That should give us time to at least start setting up the apartment.”

“Think Aunt Ruth would put up with us for a couple of nights.”, Amy asked.

“I think she would. What are you thinking?”

“Well, if we stop at the resort on Sunday night. Then we could leave the silver jewelry, which I assume that we’re taking, there until we find a way to keep it at the apartment. We could spend Sunday night there, then go to Albuquerque on Monday, do what we need to do at the university and apartment. Maybe spent Monday night at the resort, then on Tuesday move into the apartment.”

“Been thinking about this.”, I asked. “Haven’t you?”

“Kind of.”, Amy replied.

“We could also take sleeping bags with us and spend Monday night in the apartment.”

She looked at me for a couple of seconds, then said, “No.”

“I thought you’d say that.”

“We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to need.”

“Everything.”

“I think that there are a lot of things we can get here before we go. Linens, bath towels, kitchen stuff, and things like that.”

“Wouldn’t we need to know what size bed we’re getting before we buy linens?”

“I want what we have here. A king size bed.”

“Me too.”, I said. “And whatever we buy, we have to be sure that it all will fit in the car.”

“Our mothers might have some kitchen things stored that we could borrow.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“God, this is a big step.”, Amy said.

“It is that. Why don’t you call the crew and see if they want to join us for ice cream after dinner.”

During dinner, we told my parents what we’d found out about New Mexico and having to be out there early so that Amy could take a couple of summer classes. They were happy that all the stress over the two scholarships was over.

After dinner, Amy and I headed over to our favorite ice cream shop in the ‘57 Chevy. We were there before everyone else, so we sat, waited, and listened to music on the radio.

We didn't sit there long before Maria and Mark pulled in next to us. We got out of the car, and they got out of theirs, and we talked. And shortly we were joined by, Kelly and Larry. We walked into the shop and ordered. It was a little too chilly to sit outside, so the girls went and grabbed a table for six. After we got our orders, Mark, Larry and I walked over to our table, and we sat.

Maria looked at me, and said, “I hear that you’re going out to New Mexico early?”

“Yeah. They want Amy to take a couple of summer classes to prepare her for teaching, so I guess that we’ll be leaving here on June 22.”

“So we’ll only have you for spring quarter.”

“Yeah. It looks like that.”

Then Amy said, “We have a couple of weeks between the end of summer quarter and the beginning of fall quarter, and we may be back. And if I can swing the time off from the hospital, we’ll be home for Christmas.”

“And if she can’t get the time off.”, I said. “I’ll just leave her there and come home without her for Christmas.”

“You’d do that. Wouldn’t you?”

“Uh huh.”

“Brat!”

“Tom, we don’t want to see you.”, Kelly said. “We want to see Amy.”

“Right.”, Larry said. “Anyhow she’s more fun than you are.”

“Oh, thanks.”, I said. “Ex-old buddy.”

All of us were smiling through this little bit of bantering.

Larry then said, “We received some money for the wedding, and we’re planning on using some of it to go out to the resort the beginning of July. We thought we’d come out, stay at the resort for the three nights, and then spend some time seeing some of the National Parks before going home.”

“Plan on being at the resort on a Friday night.”, Amy said.

“Why?”

“The resort has a Southwestern barbecue that can’t be beaten. And it can be a lot of fun, native singers and dancers, and great food.”

“Would you two be there?”

“Probably.”, I said. “Amy won’t be working at the hospital yet.” Then looking at Amy, and said, “I don’t think. Are you honey?”

“No, I won’t be working there until fall quarter starts.”, Amy replied. "I requested that, so Tommy and I could have some time to ourselves before classes start for fall and I start working.

“And when it comes to one of those barbecues. We’ll go out of our way to go. So I’d say that there is a very good chance that we’ll be there.”

Then I heard Maria whisper, “I wish we could be there.”