This simple act of concentration made Katie's head pound. Her eyes glazed over, and she drifted, merely listening. The woman continued washing Katie, letting her know she was there for her.
Katie tried to speak, but her mouth was so dry. She licked her lips softly and said hello in Diné, the language she learned first her native Navajo tongue. “Yá'át'ééh.”
The woman with the washcloth stopped and leaned into her.
Did she understand her? Katie expanded her hello. “Yá'át'ééh shidine'é. Shí éí Katie Reynolds yinishyé. Táchii'nii Diné éí nishłį. Bilagáana dine'é éí báshíshchíín. Hashtł'ishnii dine'é éí dashicheii. Bilagáana dine'é éí dashinálí. Ákót’éego ’éí asdzání nishłí.”
The woman replied in a guttural language similar to Katie’s, but not the same.
That made her eyes open. This wasn't Navajo, but it wasn't English either. And it wasn't Kurdish, the language she was trying so hard to learn for the past few days. It was a language composed of guttural, tribal sounds. She kept her eyes open long enough to focus on the room she was in. Rays of sunlight splashed onto whitewashed walls covered with brightly colored frescoes and tapestries. She looked around the room until her dark, ebony eyes lit on a pair of bright, solid blue ones. The woman was smiling at her.
“Oh, hello,” Katie said. She changed to English when her mind registered a Caucasian, not a native Diné in front of her. “I am Katie Reynolds. I am from Táchii’nii Diné, the Red Running into the Water Clan. I am born for Bilagáana Diné, the Anglo clan. My maternal grandpa is from Hasht ł 'ishnii, the People of the Mud Clan. My paternal grandpa is from Bilagáana Diné, the Anglo clan. That is how I am a woman.”
“Hmm,” the blue-eyed, older woman replied. She was smiling patiently, happy to see her charge awake and speaking.
“My mother calls me Shundeen.” Katie summoned the strength to point her finger at herself. The woman nodded and continued humming. Katie stopped talking. Okay, I'll speak to her in Kurdish, she thought. She started with the introduction taught to her by her Kurdish friends. Again, there was no response from the nurse, just an ongoing hum amid continuing ministrations. Katie gave up and fell asleep again.
