Motorcycles & Sweetgrass Read Free Page A

“No, huh?” Lillian leaned against the shed, making it squeak. “You like it here, don’t you.”
    “No. Not really.”
    “Then why don’t you want to go home?”
    Sam could see her hair squeezing between two of the boards as she rested her head against the shed. “I’m older than you, Sam, so you listen to me.”
    “Only by three years.”
    “That doesn’t matter. I get to go home next year. And I like learning. I like knowing there’s so much out there. I’m still trying to figure things out. Remember that map they showed us of the world? My grandmother used to tell me all of us were sitting on the back of a Giant Turtle. That’s what we were taught. I didn’t see any turtle there, Sam. It’s a big… they call it a continent. There’re lots of them.”
    “I’ll find you a turtle if you want one so badly.”
    “I thought the world was full of magic. I don’t think it is. Maybe once it was. Not any more.”
    “What are you so depressed about? I’m the one in the shed.”
    “And I kind of like this Jesus guy they talk about all the time,” she said.
    “You like a White guy?”
    “They say he’s Jewish, and that’s not the same.”
    “Looks White to me.”
    Silence surrounded them, and Lillian looked behind her to make sure she hadn’t been discovered. Her life up until then had been divided into White people and her people. “I think theyare White too—but a girl here told me that it has something to do with their dicks. And pigs. I think.”
    “Dicks and pigs? They’re weird. That guy Shylock is a Jew— and he was mean. Fine, then. I’ll go home alone.”
    Lillian turned and looked at him once more, one eye peering through a separation in the slats. “I really wish you wouldn’t.”
    “I’m not staying here. I won’t stay here.”
    “Sam, please be careful. This place is no good, I know. But if you just pretend, it’s so much easier. Don’t make such a fuss.”
    “But it’s different for me than you—that priest…”
    “Oh, Sam, he’s just a big bully. He can only hurt you if you let him. Don’t you remember what you promised your folks? That friend of your mom’s—you said you wouldn’t end up like her. Nothing is worth that.”
    “But I can’t stay here—I just can’t.”
    “Sam, that guy’s just mean. But at least he’s teaching you all about Shakespeare. You told me you loved that stuff. You’re so smart.” She had slipped into Anishnawbe without realizing, until her tongue tripped on that old writer’s name. She checked herself—if she wasn’t careful she might be keeping her cousin company in the shed some time soon.
    For the first time, their eyes locked. “What, what is it Sam?”
    But he couldn’t tell her what it was; he hardly knew what it was himself. “Goodbye, then, Mizhakwan…”
    She glowed inside—he had said her name aloud in the forbidden language. And she knew that he was right. The best thing was for him to get away any way he could—and she should help him too. But these people had eyes in the back of their heads. Both of them would be punished. She looked around and walked stealthily away.
    She was so confused. It was possible to be right and wrong at the same time. This place was challenging everything she had ever known before. But at least she was learning more than she ever learned back home.

TWO
    It was hard to tell which hurt worse, his stomach, his head, his elbow—or his pride.
    He had once more forgotten to turn off the single light bulb that burned over his bed. Light bulbs cost money and he was one of those people whose other needs took priority over being well lit. In fact, he once spent a whole season in the dark. Except he couldn’t recollect whether it was a physical or spiritual darkness. It didn’t matter. Dark was dark, and both involved walking into walls.
    Except this morning. He arose in the bright mid-morning light. His foot slid onto the cigarette-scarred floor, knocking over some empty bottles. He