Lori Vekre

Raw and real: teaching in a divided America. ALINEAR includes a Bonus Book Club selection.

Fala lives in a sorority house, but not as one of the girls. Fala is the Sorority House Mother. There are lots of things for First Nations Fala to learn in a sorority house. But Fala has a few ideas of her own she wants to teach to the zombies, ahem, girls, too

Askew-out of true, uneven, off-center; awry. Virility-strength, energy, manliness; "aggression and virility are highly prized in soldiers." - - - An innocent canoe trip turns ominous.

When they sent my mother away to one of the missionary boarding schools, her papa's words were the only thing that kept her going. He said, "The dandelion? People in the cities kill it every year from their yards. It is not a weed to kill. It is a wholesome growing thing that heals. You are not an unwanted weed. You are a healing force that reckons. You are as beautiful as the fly away dandelion ring " I mean, that is confusing too: all these little Indian kids wanting to stay home with their families and instead the government forces them to go to the boarding schools, especially if the families are immersed in their ancestors' ways. And then, if you refuse to do as they say, sometimes they would just snatch your kids (making up some sorry excuse) - put them with foster families in the cities - and you were lucky if you ever saw them again. Then all these little kids come home - from the government schools or maybe the foster families - having forgotten their language (you got hit if you spoke it at the schools) and scorning their parents' ways. What a process. The process of wiping out natural bonds and implanting artificial, unsustaining ones. No wonder I'm angry. ------------------- The Chiefs told our Healers that they were suspicious without justification. But History has proven our Intuitive Ones were correct. "The tribe's Seers acting out of deep concern for the plight of their future generations." ---------------- No One Was Listening. -------------------

Fala has been up and down and all around. She has been very patient in a marriage, or lack of one, for five years now. She continues to live alone. Yes, she has a husband, but his work takes him far away and for many weeks at a time.If one of her children cries when he calls, Awon, the absent father, threatens to not call again for several days and then makes good on his threats.Now whenever he calls, Fala shushes the children's strangled sobs when they are talking to their father on the phone. Although it breaks her heart to do so, hearing Awon's voice a couple times a week is the only thing that keeps her going.Fala, which means "crow," lives in the middle of nowhere in a tiny house which used to be a woodshed. The house sits next to a cornfield which reminds Fala of her growing up days.If Fala takes a bath in the cold, cold bathroom of the house, she gets shocked every time she steps out of the tub - there is a dysfunctional, quivery heater in the house.And that is how Fala feels about herself these days...dysfunctional, shaky, and useless.

To laud the life of a father, capturing unfathomable undertones: "My father is a very complex man-a very misunderstood man-full of enigma." At the end of The Elevator Maker], the daughter discovers how esoteric her father really is. In "The Elevator Maker's Daughter," fragile, disconnected threads pick up with an otherworldly father... "The journey was one of the most mystical, but also one of the most heart-wrenching times in her life."

A Parody- I, Lori Vekre, mystic tango-dancer extraordinaire, have written a book. I look forward to earning royalties from recording the angst caused by the other tango dancers; henceforth christened tanghos. No one in the tango circuit will probably speak to me again. Including my boyfriend. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.