Bess in South Dakota

I am going to write about a protest. On a Native American Reservation. Where people are getting arrested. In South Dakota.

Wow. The road really has done a doozy on me. Especially now that Iris is gone, I'm starting to feel like a rogue, a rebel, a vagabond, an activist. Now, I'm not getting crazy, I still know who I am - someone who doesn't break the law down to the speed limit. But that doesn't mean I can't make change. That doesn't mean I can't be free. And that's why I'm here at Standing Rock. It's selfish, really. I've always wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself, and this is my chance.

Three days ago, I dropped Iris at the Billings airport so she could get back to Chicago and her cosmopolitan, gluten-free lifestyle and kept on going to the nearest McDonalds for the hashbrown and McMuffin I'd been craving since Seattle. While there, I absorbed the news for the first time in a while - 'What was "No Dapl?"' I thought. Right then I began hatching the plan to go to Standing Rock.

Now, I stand here, about 100 yards back from the large group gathered in a field. I notice the press area immediately, but what I'm drawn to is a group of what I assume are Tribe members, playing music in a circle. A confident young woman strides past me towards the circle.

I do a couple quick paces forward before calling out to her.

"Excuse me, do you mind if we walk together? I just got here."

"Sure," she replies warmly. "I'm Bess, what's your name?"

"I'm Gail."

Bess stops. She puts her hand on my shoulder, then pulls me into a hug. "I'm happy you're here, Gail."

I don't know where I got this stroke of luck, but something tells me that the world put Bess in my life in the same way it put Pearl. It might be because I fall in the period of life between Bess's youthful perspective and Pearl's old wisdom, but I see myself in both of them. I see all of us in my time on the road. Bess and I walk forward to Standing Rock, to be part of something far bigger than ourselves and far bigger than the road.