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beach―Nana with her coal-black hair loose from its braid and my mother with her fiery auburn hair tied in a casual ponytail.
    They were an intriguing, peculiar pair.
     
    That summer two friendships were born. Goldie and I became the best of friends, seldom arguing about anything. And Nana and my mother exchanged visits a couple of times a week.
    I knew that their friendship was real the day my mother invited Nana to enter her secret domain. In fact, Goldie’s grandmother was the only person to see my mother’s first Vancouver Island painting before it was even finished.
    My mother was captivated by Nana’s Nootka legends and the new painting was a tribute to them. It featured a magnificent gray wolf looking into a crystal pool of water while a young Indian girl’s face stared back in the reflection. It was mystically beautiful and my mother refused to sell it. Instead, she made prints and sent them off to the gallery. The director of Visions requested more paintings with similar themes and I hardly saw my mother for the next two weeks, except for when she visited Nana.
    During one of the last visits before school started, Nana prepared a delicious lunch of venison stew and biscuits. We ate outside under a towering forest of trees. We listened to the squawking seabirds and the restless waves crashing upon the shore.
    Afterward, we picked huckleberries. My mother laughed when Shonda came back with a nearly empty bucket, her mouth reddened by berry juice.
    That was the summer I became Indian―at least, in spirit.
    Nana even gave me my own Indian name. Hai Nai Yu .
    One evening, we sat around a huge bonfire and had a special naming ceremony. Nana sang strange words in her native tongue and brushed my face with an eagle’s feather.
    I was fascinated.
    When I asked her where the name came from, she told me the legend of Copper Woman and Copper Woman’s granddaughter, Hai Nai Yu.
    “ Copper Woman had been alive for many generations, her body still young to look upon. She felt tired and ready to move on, to do other things she could not do in human form. Hai Nai Yu went with her grandmother and learned about wisdom and life.”
    Nana pulled a copper ring from her pocket and gave it to me.
    “ Copper Woman told Hai Nai Yu that wisdom must always be passed on to women, no matter what color their skin. Copper Woman told her granddaughter that all people come from the same blood. And blood is sacred.” She gave me a handful of huckleberries.
    “ Hai Nai Yu promised to become the guardian of the wisdom and to share it when her time came. Then Copper Woman walked the beach alone and became Old Woman.”
    She tossed something into the fire and the fire flared.
    “ Her bones turned into a loom and a broom,” she said.
    I loved that story. And I adored Nana even more for giving me that extraordinary name.
    Hai Nai Yu―The Wise One of the One Who Knows.
    From that moment on, Hai Nai Yu was the only name she called me. I often wondered why she picked that particular name.
    I sure didn’t feel very wise back then.

five
     
    School started the first week in September. Goldie had told me so much about some of the teachers that I felt I already knew them. We kept our fingers crossed, praying that we’d end up in the same grade six classroom. There were two rooms per grade, so we knew that the odds were in our favor. I couldn’t wait for school to start.
    Looking back now, I realize just how naïve I had been. I never had a clue of what was in store for me.
    On the first morning, Goldie dropped by my house and we took the small yellow bus to school together.
    “ Want me to come with you?” my mother asked.
    I was horrified. I was too old to have her bring me to school. I’d be teased mercilessly.
    Goldie took my arm. “I’ll take care of her, Mrs. Richardson.”
    We waved goodbye and hurried toward the bus.
    During the entire drive to school, I stared out the window while Goldie chattered about all the field trips we’d go