#3 Uncle Jon Yazzie
Beside the one house that was still intact stood an empty lot left behind after another building had been torn down. Angga parked the car there. He hurried out as fast as he could, but his employer had already opened the door and stepped out. Cherry then straightened her skirt.
"Wait here," Cherry said.
"Yes, Miss Cherry," Angga replied.
Angga stole a few glances at Cherry as she walked away from him. Cherry walked along, taking in her surroundings. On top of the roof of one of the buildings that hadn't been demolished, Cherry could see a security guard keeping watch. She could even sense the guard secretly watching her—or, more accurately, checking out her body.
Cherry had reached the front door of the largest house. She gave a faint smile when she saw that the door handle had been damaged, yet apparently none of the security guards wandering around had noticed.
"They're all just collecting a paycheck for nothing!" Cherry muttered. "I need to overhaul everything once it all falls into my hands!"
However, Cherry also had to acknowledge the infiltrator's skill—the person who had damaged the door handle. No, despite being good at sneaking in, no one should imagine that this person was small and slender. This person, a man, stood 190 centimeters tall. His hair nearly reached his waist. It was thick, though streaked with gray now that he had turned fifty. He often tied it up in a single coil, a signature style of his people, the Diné—the Navajo—one of the Indigenous peoples of the United States.
Of all Cherry's many eccentricities, one that few people knew about, including her own parents, was her close connection to a people many assumed no longer existed. Indigenous peoples of America were still very much alive today. It was just that few people outside the United States knew it, and members of this nation were rarely seen outside their country.
The man who had slipped into the house—and whom Cherry had come to meet—was scrolling through his phone in the dining room. He sat in one of the chairs, both hands holding the phone as his elbows rested on the table. He could be heard quietly chuckling to himself as he stared at the screen. Apparently, though, he had been trained to remain alert at all times. He immediately turned off his phone and set it on the table when he realized someone was approaching. Now he watched Cherry enter the dining room.
"Yá'át'ééh, Uncle Jon," Cherry greeted him.
Yá'át'ééh was a Navajo phrase in Diné bizaad that meant hello or how are you. Cherry's conversation with the man would use a mixture of Navajo and English. His name was Jonatan Yazzie, or Jon Yazzie. He was descended from three Indigenous nations: the Navajo, Lakota, and Comanche. Jon rose from his chair, then knelt down.
"Yá'át'ééh, Cherry," Jon said.
Jon moved forward on his knees. Cherry understood what she was allowed to do. She threw herself into his arms and sobbed against his sturdy shoulder. Jon had to kneel if he wanted to hug Cherry. As her name suggested, Cherry was quite petite, standing only 158 centimeters tall. She was even shorter than her mother, Liv. Liv stood 165 centimeters tall, which was considered tall for an Asian woman.
For a moment, Jon let Cherry cry in his arms. This was Cherry's first time crying since she had lost both her parents. Cherry hadn't cried in a long time, but her heart had screamed when she learned that both her parents had disappeared. She hadn't been able to let those feelings out or share her grief with anyone. There wasn't a single person around her she could trust. Jon finally released Cherry from his embrace. He was standing now.
"Come on, sit down first, my dear niece," Jon said. "Let's talk about this slowly, okay?"
Of course, Jon Yazzie wasn't really Cherry's uncle. Jon called her his niece to express how close they were and how much they cared about each other. Those same feelings were why Cherry called Jon her uncle. Cherry glanced around for a moment.
"Where's Uncle Killian?" Cherry asked.
Jon waved his hand.
"Oh, come on. It's not like you don't know him," Jon said. "That old Irish drunk would never leave his plane. He's always terrified someone will steal it. But considering where—and from whom—he got that plane, I suppose we can all understand why Killian acts that way."
Jon and Cherry now sat close together, facing each other across the dining table.
"So, what's the situation?" Jon asked.
"Here's the thing, Uncle. I know that if one or both of my parents dies, or if something has happened to them and they can't be located, their will is supposed to be read immediately," Cherry said. "And I also know that if I'm already seventeen at that time, all their assets will pass into my hands, and I have both the duty and the right to take their positions at their respective companies. Here, anyone who's seventeen already has legally recognized rights and responsibilities."
"Legally recognized, but too young in most people's eyes," Jon teased. "That's what's happening to you right now, isn't it?"
Cherry paused for a moment.
"My grandfather, my uncle, and our family lawyer have agreed to read both my parents' wills tomorrow, on my birthday," Cherry said. "But I'm certain they won't read the real wills. They'll try to have my father and mother's companies temporarily managed by certain people close to them, for an undetermined amount of time."
"An undetermined amount of time, which means they'll ultimately never give them back to you," Jon said.
"Exactly," Cherry replied.
"So you called me to make sure your family lawyer reads the real wills tomorrow?" Jon asked. "No problem. You can count on me, just as we can count on you in situations that seem impossible for someone as young as you to handle."
"Thank you," Cherry said.
They fell silent for a moment.
"Did you have any trouble getting in here?" Cherry asked.
"Not at all," Jon replied. "They completely trusted this construction-worker ID card I printed myself."
Cherry only now realized that Jon was wearing an ID card hanging around his neck.
"When you think about it, they should've been suspicious of someone as tall as me wandering around here," Jon said. "I even managed to sneak into this house with ease. Your workers are collecting a paycheck for nothing, Cherry. You need to act quickly once you become the leader, if you don't want to lose money!"