The Porcupine Year (12 page)

“C
ouldn't she have waited a few days before driving me crazy with her Two Strike ways?”

It was a wonderful luxury for Omakayas to complain to her cousin Twilight, and for Twilight, in turn, to allow herself to confide in Omakayas.

“Two Strike will always be Two Strike. But I'd like to give her three strikes,” said Twilight. The two girls started laughing, but went silent when Two Strike appeared suddenly. She always appeared suddenly, jumping into a clearing, running straight up to the fire, or bursting into the lodge.

“I'm taking Animikiins out on my trapline,” she said in her hard voice. “I'll show him how it's done!”

“Take Quill, too,” said Amoosens, or Little Bee.

Amoosens had become a happy, round-faced, excited girl of nine winters, who was always obedient and contented. She and Twilight, who was Omakayas's age, had to stick close to defend each other when their older cousin Two Strike tried to disturb their peace. Two Strike was just a year older, at thirteen, but she was much stronger than her cousins. And now Amoosens found that Quill enjoyed troubling her even more than when she was very little. He liked stealing her dolls, tickling the back of her neck when she was doing her beadwork, making his awful Quill faces at her. It was as if, around Amoosens, he had become again the old annoying Quill who hadn't been stolen by the Bwaanag, acquired his helper, the porcupine, or survived the terrible starvation of freeze-up time.

At times this was reassuring to Omakayas. At other times she wished she had a porcupine to throw at him.

“You ready?” Animikiins carried his father's gun and wore the makizinan and leg wraps that Omakayas had helped Nokomis make for him. Since moving into the camp with Muskrat and her family, he had not asked Omakayas to walk with him. He had smiled at her, but remained distant. He had not played so much as one note on the flute. But every day he went out trapping and hunting with Two Strike. Now, as the two of them walked away together, talking of where the traps were set, laughing, Omakayas felt a sharp pain dart through her
chest. Her throat burned. She turned away from the sight and shook her head to clear her thoughts.

“What is wrong with me?” she said out loud.

“Are you all right? Help me with this mat, will you?” asked Twilight. She was busy cleaning the lodge, hauling out the reed sleeping mats and scrubbing them with snow, airing the furs and blankets, scouring the pots with sand from the shore of the beautiful crescent-shaped bay along which their camp was set, with its well-built lodges.

The birchbark houses were set in the great bank of trees that gave them shelter from the wind. A tall outcrop of stone gave them the ability to see across the ice to other islands, and to watch for enemies or friends.

Muskrat and her daughters had riced every bay they could and buried cache upon cache of manoomin the previous fall. LaPautre had indeed abandoned them, but Muskrat proudly pointed out that they were still eating rice! Two Strike was as adept a hunter and trapper as any man, and better than most. She had provided well for them. But Twilight said she paid by absorbing the occasional blow that Two Strike landed on her and by listening to Two Strike's arrogant and boastful stories all evening long.

“How does your mother handle Two Strike?” asked Omakayas.

Twilight shrugged, but her voice was sad: “I think that Two Strike is her favorite. We depend on her, that's for sure.”

Amoosens laughed. “Well, maybe Animikiins will take her off our hands!”

At the sudden look on Omakayas's face, she bit her lip and fell silent. Twilight put her arm around Omakayas's shoulders and shook her gently.

“You should see your face, my sister, as though you had just seen a wiindigoo!”

Omakayas, her heart burning hot with fury, turned away. All of a sudden, she knew what she felt, and it was bad, it was awful, nobody would understand! As she beat the sleeping mats, she desperately missed Old Tallow. Old Tallow would slowly nod, smoke her pipe, and squint her eyes. She would fully comprehend what was in Omakayas's heart right now. And maybe, she hoped, Nokomis would too. But Twilight and Amoosens seemed too young for the feeling that Omakayas grappled with. As she attacked a skin with her fletching tools, as she hauled wood from the bush and chopped away at the frozen haunch of a moose, a blackness rose in her, stark and sickening.

This feeling she had seemed ancient. It was mean, hot, and vengeful. It was related to the way she felt about Two Strike's adopted father, LaPautre. If there was a word for it, that word was hatred.

No, she thought, unhappy with such wretched feelings, there was nobody who would understand what was in her heart.

“Aaargh! Nnnbbbfff!” Around the corner came Quill, looking dejected and furious.

“What is it, my little brother?”

Even though he still drove her crazy sometimes, Omakayas's heart was close to Quill's heart after all that had happened that winter.

“She's
stealing
him!”

“What?” How startling, almost embarrassing, it was to hear her little brother shout what was secretly in her own mind!

“Animikiins is
my
hunting partner,
my
friend,
my
adopted brother, not Two Strike's!” Quill glared in the direction the two had disappeared. “She laughs when I try to hunt with them. She tells me to go home and haul water for the women.”

Quill crossed his eyes and made his voice squeaky as a little boy's. “Can I haul some water for you?”

Omakayas had to laugh, and Quill laughed with her. Curious, their cousins drew near. Quill struck a Two Strike pose, head back, lip snarling. “Puuu, the whole world stinks, but I smell so good!” Quill twisted around and looked at his rear end. He spoke to it politely. “Oh, indiy, were you talking to me?”

He put his hand to his ear as if he were listening.

“Yes, indiy, I will obey your wishes and let you speak next time you see Two Strike!”

Now Omakayas and her cousins were laughing so hard
they fell down in the snow.

“Stop, stop!” they pleaded when their bellies started to hurt.

Quill's face darkened again. He sat down on a log and suddenly spoke in a voice full of self-pity.

“So I, poor Quill, must hunt alone!”

Quill pounded his chest with his fist and looked like he was about to cry.

“Have you killed anything, my brother?”

“No,” he sighed. “But I can snare whatever moves. I've gotten plenty of waaboozoog. Two Strike says that's a poor game, not worthy of a great hunter like herself. Or my friend Animikiins!”

Quill ground his teeth, jumped up ferociously, and glared into his sister's face. “I'm going out there to shoot something really
huge
!”

“Brother, you make me proud,” said Omakayas.

Quill looked at her with sudden pleasure.

“And you will have the hide, only you, my dear sister,” he said. Then a sudden thought pricked him. “Maybe you could share it with Amoosens.”

He bounded off with a grimly excited look and Omakayas was left behind. Yet her heart was oddly soothed, and she was touched by her brother's feelings, so like her own. As always, he had made her laugh. And he had taken the poison from her heart.

THE GREAT HUNTER

T
hey could hear Two Strike calling with excitement as she and Animikiins returned that dusk, and the girls ran out to the ice to see that the young hunters bore between them the long, dark, heavy forms of beavers, amikwag. Either their traplines had yielded the animals, or they had broken into their lodges and captured them. Animikiins was quiet as they entered the camp. He merely smiled at the girls and disappeared. But as soon as he was gone, Two Strike threw the animals at the feet of her cousins and ordered them in a loud voice to prepare the meat.

The girls ignored Two Strike and refused to touch the fur until Auntie Muskrat had admired and praised each amik. Then, with happy eagerness, she invited the other women to join her in preparing the meat for a feast and the valuable furs to sell to a trader. But Two Strike wasn't satisfied with that.

“Don't forget to save every bone,” she cried in a gruff voice full of scorn, looking over Twilight's shoulder. “The amik spirit regards me very highly, and wouldn't like it if his bones were not properly respected.

“And you, Omakayas,” Two Strike continued, “Little Frog girl, bring me a nice, hot cup of tea!”

Two Strike hadn't noticed Yellow Kettle or Nokomis, who both came around the corner of the lodge at that instant. They had heard Two Strike's imperious command.

“You should properly respect your relatives,” Yellow
Kettle said before Omakayas could move. “Your cousins are not here to serve you. Get your own tea.”

Two Strike faced her aunt belligerently, but her face flushed and she said nothing. She was about to turn away when Muskrat held out a cup of the steaming brew.

“Here is your tea,” Auntie Muskrat said kindly.

With a look of fury, Two Strike knocked the cup from her aunt's hand, spilling it in the snow. She stalked away, calling for Animikiins.

“You must not let her do that!” said Yellow Kettle to her sister. “Once again, she is beginning to think she runs the world!”

“We depend on her,” said Muskrat. “She has saved us from starving. She deserves good treatment.”

“But you are teaching her to disrespect you,” said Nokomis sharply. “Now hear me.”

When Nokomis spoke like this, everyone paid attention. Deydey came into the camp and she gestured for him to come near. Fishtail and Angeline also appeared.

“When Old Tallow saved our family by giving her life for the bear's life, she did it with a humble heart,” said Nokomis. “This is the true way of a warrior. Old Tallow hunted for us all of her life, yet never once did she order me to prepare something for her. Everything I gave her, she received as a gift. Never once did she treat me with disrespect. Nor has my son, Mikwam, or my grandson, Fishtail.”

Nokomis gestured at the men and nodded. She swept her hands out. “Miskobines and Animikiins also know that kindness is the way of those with true strength! True courage. Two Strike has skill, but her family is good to her only because they need her. What if tomorrow she were helpless? Would anyone allow her this arrogance? It is not good for her to think that her skills are her own. They were given by the Creator, and the Creator can take them away. In time, the Creator takes everything, as we know. Even the best and the kindest, Old Tallow, who gave her life. If anyone had a right to arrogance, she did. And yet…”

Nokomis fell silent. She could not finish. Muskrat wiped off her knife and put it into its sheath. She was angry and put her fists on her hips.

“What is it you have come here for, my mother, my sister? Is it your business to tell me how I should raise this child I have taken as my daughter? You have come here poor, hungry, and we share all that we have. All that Two Strike has gathered!”

“Let me remind you,” said Deydey, his face tight with sudden pride, “we come here poor only because we trusted LaPautre, your husband.”

“We also come here out of love,” said Yellow Kettle, “for I missed you, my sister. But your words to our mother are rude. Unnatural. Has your heart frozen this winter, like the heart of Two Strike? Have you stopped loving us, your family? What has happened to you, Muskrat?”

“Aaiii,” groaned Muskrat. She plopped heavily down on a stump and hid her face in her hands. Everyone waited for her to speak, and at last she sighed. “I am sorry, my mother. What have I become? This winter has been very hard for us, too, without you, our family. And my old husband, ninaabemish…ah, how I loved the old scoundrel. I am sorry I insulted you, Mikwam. I believed that my Albert-ish would stay with us. Even though he was drinking, I allowed him back into our lodge. Again, he stole from us and deserted us. He has hurt Two Strike's heart, for she adored him and was certain that he would stay by her. How alone I am, nindinawemaganidok, please don't despise me. Never again shall I trust that devil. Ingii-webinidi-in. I have thrown him away!”

Deydey walked off a little way, still offended, but trying to control his thoughts. Yellow Kettle and Nokomis drew near to forgive and comfort Muskrat, but then Omakayas saw her mother nudge her grandmother. Their eyes met in understanding and they gave each other a secret little grin. They moved out of the way as Miskobines approached.

He picked up his step when Nokomis beckoned him to come closer to the women.

“Take a walk with this nice akiwenzii,” Nokomis said to Muskrat, making way for Miskobines.

“He'll take your mind off LaPautre,” she whispered to Mama. They laughed and signaled to the girls to pretend that they didn't notice when Muskrat took their advice.

ADVICE

A
fter that day, Two Strike couldn't seem to boss anyone around, and as a result, everybody's outlook improved. Except Two Strike's. She sulked and dragged herself off to hunt only if she could persuade Animikiins to leave Quill and accompany her. But he was less and less eager to do so. He always apologized to Quill if he did, and when Twilight asked Animikiins whether he enjoyed working with his hunting partner, Two Strike, he looked at her as if she were crazy.