ut his uncle is against it. She is an orphan and too American in her ways: she is a bad influence. Laughing Boy marries her anyway.
They are much in love and very happy. Slim Girl convinces Laughing Boy that they need to live in her house for a while so she can continue to work for an American missionary's wife. With the money she gets, she will buy him the silver he needs to make jewelry. With her weavings and his jewelry they will make enough money to eventually settle down with his people in the north.
Laughing Boy takes his wife to visit his people, knowing that some are against her. Red Man makes some comments
about her and Laughing Boy realizes that she may have had an affair with him. He admonishes Red Man to stop talking about his wife. Slim Girl tells him that Red Man had wanted to marry her but she did not want him.
Laughing Boy is impatient to be with his people, but Slim Girl is reluctant to live among them. One day he catches another man in his home--an American. He wounds him with an arrow. Slim Girl is wounded too. She tells him the tragic story of her life; how she was forced into prostitution because she had no family or friends to help her. She never worked for any missionary's wife. She was taking money from George, the man Laughing Boy wounded. She loves Laughing Boy--she only used George to get back at white people. He forgives her and they go away together. While on their horses, Red Man spots them. He knows about her past and is angry that she would never sleep with him. He shoots her. Before she dies she implores Laughing Boy not to avenge her death and he agrees.
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1988.
The main characters in this novel are: Dr. Eleanor Friedman-Bernal, a noted anthropologist; Navajo Tribal Policemen Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim
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