Heart of Ice

by Barbara Pietron

Chapter 8

  Driving around the block and pulling into Dale's driveway felt like déjà vu to Ice. Except he was a little less nervous this time around.

  He'd finished his Saturday afternoon by cleaning the furnace humidifier and contemplating his old-fashioned attitudes. Heck, he'd spent time in a locker room, he knew that most of his teammates would laugh at his neurotic reactions to Lynn's advances and tell him he was lucky—and that he was an idiot. His musings also included the few cocky guys who'd make comments like 'she wants it' or 'get some', but Ice knew where his hard line was—he wasn't part of that archetype—he just hadn't discovered his own basic set of dating guidelines yet.

  He'd barely shifted the Jeep into park when Dale emerged through the front door. He plopped into the passenger seat. "Hey."

  Ice responded with a nod. "How's it going?" He didn't receive an answer, but he hadn’t expected one either.

  The ride to Lynn's house gave him about fifteen minutes to talk to Dale alone, so he decided to be direct. "Hey, did you hear about the lady who was attacked this morning?"

  "No."

  "She lost part of her leg. It was all over the news."

  Dale grunted in response.

  "She was attacked by a Windigo," Ice said.

  From the corner of his eye he saw Dale turn his head and felt the other boy's stare evaluating him. At least he'd finally gotten his attention. Ice briefly met Dale's gaze, letting his grave expression confirm the truth of his words.

  Still, Dale said, "Are you sure?"

  "Positive," Ice answered. "Nik and I have been investigating this. The teacher that was suspended from your school? We're pretty sure it was him. He was cursed."

  Dale murmured something that sounded akin to "ton of a trucking hitch". When he didn't comment further, Ice asked, "Did Great Cloud ever tell you about a Windigo charm?"

  "No…" The hesitant note in Dale's voice said he didn't want to have the conversation he knew was forthcoming.

  "Nik met with the Midewiwin." Ice explained the story of the Windigo talismans. "Great Cloud was one of the medicine men at that dance. He had one of the charms which should've been with him when he died. We're wondering if that happened."

  Dale deliberated for a few seconds, then said, "Grams had her stroke that day so only me and my mom were in the hospital room when Great Cloud died. My mom never mentioned anything about this. What is this thing, anyway?"

  Ice frowned. "Only two medicine men who participated in the dance are still alive. Neither of them remembers what Great Cloud's charm was. There were nine items—statues, pipes or bowls, maybe jewelry—anything that could be fashioned out of bone." They were approaching Lynn's neighborhood and Ice let up on the gas to glean a few more seconds of time. "You said your mom was going through some of Great Cloud's things, has she given any of it away?"

  Dale shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think so."

  The tone of Dale's clipped answers told Ice he was trying the other boy's patience, but he continued while he had the chance. "What about other people? Have there been other people in the house who might have taken something?"

  "There were people at the house when we had his funeral." Dale bristled.

  As the Jeep rolled to the end of Lynn's driveway, Ice threw out one last question. "Do you think there's a chance we could talk to Grams? So we know what we're looking for?"

  Dale shook his head. "No way." His voice was hard and his expression strained.

  Ice shifted into park and turned to stare at his passenger. "Would you think about this please? We need to figure this out. Eventually the Windigo is going to kill someone."

  Dale glowered at Ice. "Then catch the frickin' Windigo. You don't need the charm for that."

  "Sure, so we catch this one and whoever has this charm just makes another one." Ice was confused by Dale's hostility. Then movement caught his eye and he saw the front door swing inward. He had to go. "Look, I know your family is going through a bad time right now, and I'm sorry, but sooner or later someone's going to die." He swung his door open and dropped to the ground. "We're just trying to prevent that."

  As he started up the walk, he heard the passenger door swing open and slam shut, and then a second slam as Dale climbed into the backseat.

  Lynn appeared at the door just as Ice stepped on the porch. She burst from the house in a cloud of soft, spicy fragrance and burnished auburn hair. When the door clicked closed behind her, she turned with a welcoming smile. Ice shook off the cross words lingering in the front of his mind and grinned as he caught her in a quick embrace. "How are you?" he said.

  "I'm great," she replied.

  Ice ushered her from the porch letting his hand drop from her back as they approached the Jeep. He opened her door and she slid nimbly into the seat.

  With Lynn directing him, and Dale sitting mute in the backseat, they arrived at Audrey's house about ten minutes later. The great debate on what movie to see played out on their way to the theater. Ice had assumed they already had a movie in mind when he heard from Lynn, and apparently the girls did, just not the same movie. Audrey wanted to see a creature thriller called "Swamped" and Lynn voted for what Ice thought of as a date movie, a romantic comedy, "Where Is the Love?"

  Ice maintained that he'd follow Lynn's lead, and Dale simply said "Whatever," which didn't help settle the discussion. "Let's check times when we get in the theater," Audrey finally suggested. "We can always see different movies."

  As Lynn and Ice entered the theater for "Where is the Love," Lynn tugged on Ice's arm and cocked her head to the side. "Let's sit in the back," she said. "We don't need people sitting behind us." Her comment seemed odd as there were only two other clusters of people in the seats and her reasoning was opposite most other movie goers who worried about the people in front of them. But he shrugged it off and followed her into the last row.

  Since their movie started twenty-five minutes after the movie Audrey and Dale chose, they had a little time to talk while they started on a large bag of popcorn.

  "So what does a medicine man do? Isn't it kind of magical?"

  A chuckle bubbled up his throat, but Ice swallowed it when he saw that Lynn was serious. He shook his head. "Not magical, spiritual. We lead rituals and ceremonies, things like that."

  Her eyes widened. "Oh." She took a sip of soda. "Are you like a priest?"

  "Mmmm… kind of, I suppose."

  She picked up a couple pieces of popcorn and chewed them thoughtfully. Ice scrambled for either a simple explanation of a medicine man's role or, even better, a different subject. Before he came up with either, Lynn had another question.

  "Is the medicine man like, second to the chief?" Lynn asked.

  Ice chased his popcorn down with a drink of soda before he answered. "Uh, no… it's not really a… a rank like that."

  "But he's up there right? He's important?"

  Tribal hierarchy was a subject Ice wanted to discuss even less than the medicine man's function. "Yes," he said, then added, "Very important," hoping that a simple answer would help divert further questions.

  "So it's a good paying job," she concluded.

  "Medicine men aren't rich," Ice said blandly.

  "Oh." A look of disappointment skimmed over her features for a moment. "Still, you're lucky you already know what you're doing in the future."

  "That's true." He felt his positive attitude diminish a little. Her last comment though, gave him an opportunity to redirect the conversation and he dove for it. "What do you want to do after high school? College? Job?"

  Lynn rubbed her fingertips on a napkin, "My dad says college, but I want to model."

  "Can't you do both?" They'd lowered the popcorn level enough that Ice was able to gently jostle the contents of the bag to help distribute the buttery topping.

  "Yeah, I guess. That's probably what I'll end up doing, just to make him happy. But I've already had some decent modeling jobs and if I get a lot of offers, I will quit school. These are my prime years to be
come a model. I can finish college when I'm older."

  Her last few words were nearly drowned out when the movie screen beamed to life and a canned voice exalted the virtues of the concession area. Shots of the food flashed on-screen, most of them looking far more delectable than the actual products. The lights in the theater lowered.

  "Commercial time," Lynn said.

  As advertisements and random trivia questions blazed on the screen, their conversation moved to more insignificant subjects. Then the lights lowered completely and previews for upcoming movies started. Their bag of popcorn was more than half gone and Ice asked Lynn if she wanted him to get a refill before the movie started.

  "No," she said with a smile and looked up at him through her long eyelashes. "I don't think we'll eat much more."

  Once the movie was underway, Lynn settled into her seat and leaned her head on Ice's shoulder. Message received. He put his arm around her so she could snuggle in comfortably. Every few minutes she whispered a comment about the actor's antics, her breath warm on his ear and neck. The subject matter of the movie was light, and Ice was having fun murmuring conspiratorially back and forth, so the next time she leaned in to say something, he kissed her. He had to know what it was like if he was the initiator.

  Lynn kissed him back readily. When he drew away, he saw her smile in the flickering light from the movie screen. "You're such a good kisser," she breathed.

  His lips curved upward and he felt his cheeks color at the compliment. He hadn't dated a lot of girls, but he had learned how to kiss. Oddly, he could thank Dale for that. After their friendship died, Ice found himself saddled with Charlotte, a girl two houses down from him. Charlotte was also an only child with a single parent. Since the kids were old enough to be self-sufficient, their mothers had worked out an arrangement for them to be together at either his house or hers, rather than hire someone to watch them.

  Ice and Charlotte were nearly two years apart; he was in sixth grade and she in seventh. They weren't exactly friends, and at first Charlotte acted as if she were babysitting for Ice. He quickly set that record straight and they forged a grudging companionship—until the day she decided they should practice kissing.

  "I'm going to be blunt, Ice," she said, laying the ground rules. "You're not my type, even if you are cute. You have to promise not to fall for me or think I'm your girlfriend or anything."

  "Fine," he'd replied, not sure he wanted to kiss her at all.

  "I figure we could both use the experience, so why not?" she asserted.

  Ice couldn't really fault her logic—besides, he was very curious—so he agreed.

  It only happened maybe three times, with Charlotte bossing him around and critiquing every kiss. Though he'd never admit it, he did fall for her a little.

  At the end of the school year, Charlotte and her mom moved to Duluth. She tracked Ice down online a few years later, and after they became cyber friends, Ice discovered why he wasn't her type: she liked girls.

  But Ice would never forget her; Charlotte was his first kiss and she'd done him a big favor, giving him a measure of confidence in the dating world.

  Lynn turned back to the movie and things were good for about three minutes until she turned to kiss him again.

  Then again.

  And again.

  Finally, Ice said, "Hey, we're missing the movie." He laughed, although he was slightly perturbed.

  Lynn giggled. "I don't really care, that's why I picked this movie."

  Ice kept his face turned toward the screen, resentment building inside him. Movies weren't exactly cheap. Her comment about sitting in the last row was suddenly cast in a new light.

  He couldn't deny his feelings any longer; beautiful as she was, Lynn just wasn't his type. The way she'd orchestrated every detail of this date led him to believe she'd done this kind of thing before.

  Lynn reached for his chin, to turn his face toward hers, but suddenly, kissing her made Ice feel a little bit nauseated, wondering how many others had come before him. "I'll be right back," he said, stood, and hurried out of the theater.

  In the bathroom, he looked at himself in the mirror. Was he overreacting? Maybe this wasn't a regular thing for Lynn; maybe she just really liked him. Ice closed his eyes and shook his head. No. His gut feeling read loud and clear and if there was one thing he'd learned in medicine man training, it was to trust his intuition.

  Checking his watch, Ice saw that there were at least forty-five minutes of the movie left. How was he supposed to handle this? Another guy entered the bathroom and went directly to the urinals. Ice washed his hands long and slowly, as if he were a germaphobe. Fortunately, the guy was eager to return to his movie and washed and dried his hands quickly, paying little attention to Ice.

  Eventually Ice returned to the theater.

  "Everything okay?" Lynn asked, her forehead creased in concern.

  "I feel a little sick to my stomach," Ice replied truthfully. He sat stiffly in his seat, hands stacked on his belly.

  "Do you want to go?" Lynn spouted the right words, but she sounded insincere, the undertone of disappointment coming through clearly.

  "No. I'll be all right. I don't want to leave Dale and Audrey stranded."

  Ice sat uncomfortably, staring blindly at the screen, wondering how to tell a girl she was too… easy? He couldn't begin to fathom a kind way to put it into words.

  Dale and Audrey were waiting when they exited the theater and Lynn was oddly quiet. When they reached her house, Lynn popped the door open before Ice had the Jeep in park. "Hope you feel better," she said in a lackluster voice.

  "I can walk you—"

  She let the door swing shut on his words.

  "Damn," came Dale's smug voice from the back seat. He got out and climbed in front. "What'd you do to piss her off?"

  "Nothing," Ice replied coldly, which was the unfortunate truth.

  In the old days our people had no education. All their wisdom and knowledge came to them from dreams. They tested their dreams and in that way learned their own strength.

  Ojibwe Elder