The Porcupine Year Read Free Page B

from her grandmother, Nokomis. They were hard to relinquish. But slowly, she took them off, crept as close to the river as she dared, and placed them on a rock where the memegwesi would surely find them once they left. Only after they’d turned away, and got back on their path, did she remember how the beads had appeared in her morning dream.

    JIIBAYAG
    T he day went on and on. They got lost, and they stumbled this way and that, beneath the canoe. Finally Omakayas agreed to hide the canoe safely in the woods. She decided that they could find their camp moreeasily if they walked to the river, doubled back, and eased their way along the shore. They were on the same side of the river as their camp, but somehow, in trying to find easier ways to carry the canoe, they’d gone past their family. And now it was beginning to grow dark. Soon night would fall and they’d have to spend it on the cold ground. Suddenly, they realized where they were. Camp was just ahead! Eagerly, Omakayas and Quill made their way through the bush. But they stopped short, hearing from their camp the awful cries and wails, the unmistakable sounds of disaster and of mourning.
    Chilled, they grabbed each other’s arms.
    Someone had died in the time they’d been gone—both of their hearts skipped. They froze. Who could it have been? Was it Nokomis—old and vulnerable? Surely not Mama, or Deydey, and not Old Tallow, who was tough as leather and unkillable. Not one of them. But there was their beautiful older sister, Angeline, who’d barely survived smallpox, and Fishtail, her husband, who’d nearly died back then, too. Omakayas shook now, shuddered, for she had already lost her baby brother to that terrible visitor. She did not want to climb the mountain of grief again. Animikiins, Little Thunder, and his father were also traveling with them—perhaps an accident had occurred. And there was the tiniest one, Bizheens, the little lynx with his watching eyes. He was a quiet and clever baby boy just learning to speak and even moredevoted to Omakayas than to Mama.
    Dagasana, nimishoomis, Gizhe Manidoo , Omakayas closed her eyes and prayed. She knew that she could not survive the loss of a little brother, not again. But the truth was she didn’t think that she could survive the loss of anyone.
    And Quill clearly felt the same. Tears trembled in his eyes.
    â€œLet’s sneak up on them,” he whispered to her, “and find out who it was before we enter camp. I can’t bear it. I’m afraid my heart will burst out of my chest!”
    â€œMine hurts too, already. I’m so afraid, brother, just like you.”
    And so the two crept close and hid in the bushes just outside the camp, fearful as mice, wary and timid as rabbits, horrified. Lumps in their throats, hearts beating painfully, they listened as Nokomis raised her hands in the air and spoke. From where they were, they could tell that Nokomis was still breathing quickly, as if she had run through the woods. Her back was turned from them. But she was definitely alive. Omakayas was glad she could not see her beloved grandmother’s grieving face.
    â€œWhen I found these on the rocks, I knew what had happened,” she cried, holding something out to show the rest of the family. There was a beat of silence, and then a wild cry. It was a strangled scream, a high-pitched bleat, and it came from the tough old woman who had once saved Omakayas’s life—Old Tallow.
    â€œGaawiin, it cannot be!” Mama’s voice—then pandemonium. It was impossible to tell who was there and who was not. The yells of sorrow were all mixed up into one barking wail.
    â€œI can’t tell who died,” Omakayas was crying hard now. “I don’t know what to do.”
    â€œI know!” whispered Quill.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIt’s us!”
    â€œUs?”
    â€œNokomis holds your red beads out, I see it now. She found them on the rock.