“I will protect you‚” she whispered‚ and touched her cheek.
Siku dove‚ and waved his fluke. Emily Toozak was transfixed. The whale lingered as if he was glad to see her.
There must be something about me‚ she reasoned‚ that runs through to me from all of my ancestors because I feel like Siku knows me.
Siku dove out of sight. The icebreaker turned and steamed east.
The water sky was gone. The ice had closed in‚ freezing and covering the lead.
Emily Toozak stood quietly‚ enchanted by Siku’s white-and-blue world. Finally she climbed up the pressure ridge to the flat ice‚ then descended and walked back to the general store. Inside‚ she took off her parka and sat down at a table. Oliver was not there‚ as she thought he might be‚ only Ernest’s grandson‚ Benny. Benny was her father’s best friend. When he saw her he got another cup of coffee and came across the room with the two cups and sat down at her table. Emily Toozak pulled her chair closer and thanked him for the coffee. Benny was‚ like his grandfather‚ one of the best whaling captains on the North Slope. He knew the old ways. He would know if what she had seen had been real.
“I saw a whale today‚” she said. “I think it was Siku.”
“Aarigaa!” said Benny. “The whales are slowly coming back since only Eskimos can hunt them now. And they only give themselves to so few.”
Benny sipped his coffee‚ looking at Emily Toozak thoughtfully. “Siku?” he questioned.
Emily Toozak looked long at Benny. She straightened her back. “I have heard about him my whole life. But I saw him today for the first time. He spoke to me.” She broke off‚ embarrassed. “Well‚ he didn’t really speak. But something happened between us. I can’t really say. I have to find Siku again‚” she said. “He is not far from here. Will you take me out on the water?”
Although she believed that shamans were just men who made up things‚ she was beginning to believe that there was a shred of truth about that curse her grandfather had gone on about. “Maybe it’s not a curse . . . maybe it’s a kind of bond.”
Benny looked at her face deeply. “You really want to find him?” Emily nodded. “And then what?” he asked. She shrugged.
“All right‚” he said‚ “I will take you. But it’s dangerous at sea. We will need to wait until the ice breaks up in July.”
Emily Toozak smiled.
“It’s a good day to travel‚” Benny said‚ when Emily saw him on the beach.
“Lets go find Siku.”
“We can use my umiaq‚” he said.
“And I will bring my brother‚” she said. “He will want to come too.” She went to find Oliver all the while thinking of Siku. She returned with him‚ trying to make him excited at the thought of going out on the water.
“Why don’t you get yourself a real boat‚ Benny?” Oliver asked.
Benny laughed. “A real boat? Skin boats are still the best for the ice. You can’t get anything better; they’re light‚ flexible‚ tough‚ paddle well‚ sail well‚ and you can fix them anywhere.”
Benny put on a white parka and pants that made him partially invisible to the whales. It was July and the sea ice was breaking up and scattering. While Benny steadied the skin boat‚ Oliver climbed into the bow. He had brought his seal harpoon and rifle. He tucked them under his arm.
“You are not hurting Siku‚” Emily Toozak said when she saw what Oliver had brought along.
“Don’t worry‚ Emily!” said Oliver. “See this little harpoon? I am hunting seals‚ not whales.”
“But Siku may see it and think we are hunting him‚” Emily said.
She got in last‚ grabbed a paddle and seated herself firmly‚ as if to say I am Emily Toozak‚ the seventh generation of Toozaks. I am here to find Siku and protect him from all who would harm him. It is my responsibility‚ the responsibility of my family. They soundlessly launched the graceful umiaq.
She dug in her paddle.
“Let’s go‚” Benny said softly. They dug in‚ and the skin boat skimmed through the water. It glided past floes of turquoise-blue ice as it silently parted the water. Murres looped around the paddlers‚ got back on track‚ and flew on to their breeding grounds.
Oliver spotted a seal hauled out on an ice floe. He pointed and Benny turned the boat in that direction. Then a plume shot up thirty feet above the sea surface.
“There‚” whispered Benny. He refrained from pointing to the whale. Old whalers believe pointing was an insult to the whale.
Siku had been in these waters overnight. Now he spy hopped‚ saw the boat‚ and dove. The three people put down their paddles. Oliver stood in the bow waiting for the whale to surface again. Emily Toozak sat stone-still. They were silent. Fifteen minutes passed. Then Siku’s rostrum surfaced nearby. A plume of warm breath rose from the ocean’s surface. The whale seemed skittish.
“He thinks we’re hunting him‚” whispered Oliver‚ putting down his seal harpoon.
“But we’re not‚” Emily said firmly but quietly.
“He doesn’t know that‚” said Oliver.
Siku was alarmed. He dove and then surfaced next to the skin boat. The seal harpoon and line went overboard. Siku’s fluke caught in the line and he tugged the boat seaward. Emily’s first thought was for the whale. I must do something to help him. He dove deeper and came up again‚ tangling the rope around him more tightly.
Emily quickly drew her knife from her belt‚ reached down‚ and started to cut the lines. The boat rocked. She leaned over the side‚ her knife still in her hand. Siku was almost free. But the rope was caught around the narrows of his fluke. He pumped his flukes to cast off the rope but could not. He breached and fell backward. The spray soared fifty feet high and fell back‚ drenching them‚ nearly washing them over the side. Benny was on his knees trying to steady the boat. Emily was practically over the side‚ slashing wildly at the remaining ropes. She would not give up.
The whale tried to rise in the water‚ to see the girl whose eyes he had looked into just yesterday. But he was caught.
swam down toward the brittlestar-dotted ocean floor. The girl in the skin boat had cut him almost free, but the line was still entangled around his fluke. He swam to the underside of a large ice floe.
Once there‚ he stopped. He found a natural crack and hung in it‚ breathing heavily. Arctic cod‚ small fish with brown backs and purplish sides‚ darted past him. A seal slid into the water from the floe. She caught a cod then climbed back up to the floe.
Siku thrashed his flukes. The rope still held. He swam around and around the underwater bottom of the ice floe. The rope grew tight. He needed one more pull when he heard a voice.
“A paddle! Hand me a paddle!” It was the girl. She had fallen out of the skin boat onto the ice when she had leaned out to cut him free. Getting quickly to her feet‚ she tried to reach for the paddle just as an ice block broke off from the large floe. Swiftly it was carried farther out to sea with her on it.
“A line!” she screamed. “Throw me a line.” Benny paddled hard‚ but the current was too swift. Ice floes were thick around the umiaq. There was nothing he could do in such dangerous waters and powerful currents.
Emily Toozak was carried farther down the coast to the east.
“Benny! Oliver! Help!”
Siku hung in his air pocket under Emily Toozak’s ice floe. He kept working the muscles that power his flukes and at last the rope fell away. The ice moved with him. He suffered burns from the rope. Still‚ he did not leave.
Siku‚ underneath the terrified girl‚ guided the huge floe east toward Smith Bay. He sighed at the underwater smell of it. Each fall he had fed on the abundant plankton near there. The girl with the kind eyes spoke out loud.
“I tried to take the rope off you‚ Siku. Now I am lost.”
.” a whale shrilled‚ calling him to the Ea
stern Beaufort Sea.
Siku did not answer.
Word was radioed all over town that Emily Toozak had been lost on an ice floe. Almost immediately four members of the Sea and Land Rescue Team got back into Benny’s umiaq and paddled to the east after Emily. The paddlers were volunteers in the dangerous work of rescuing people in this unforgiving land. They were strong and adventurous young men and women.
Benny took his seat in the stern and called out a fast paddling stroke. The crew caught the rhythm and the boat sped forward. By the time they reached the ice from which Emily Toozak’s floe had broken off‚ she was nowhere to be seen. The currents split here and Benny could not tell which way her floe had gone. Had they taken her north into the pack ice or east toward Canada?
He decided he needed more than this boat to determine which direction the currents had taken her. He returned to the trading post‚ hopped onto his snow machine‚ and sped to the Arctic Research Lab for help. Some of the rescue team came with him.
It took valuable time for him to explain that Emily Toozak was lost at sea and that a boat with a stronger motor than his was needed. It took another fifteen minutes to ready a power boat for the water. Once they were afloat‚ Benny‚ the rescue volunteers‚ and the navy men motored out beyond the point then east. Emily Toozak was nowhere to be found. The naval officer in charge said she might be dead. He motored back to the Arctic Research Lab while rescue workers continued to hunt. Someone from the lab had contacted Wayne Airlines‚ and their planes were now flying overhead.
But Benny knew Emily Toozak was still alive and that he would find her. This time he took his kayak. He would search the eastward-flowing current and the coves and river deltas along its way. He paddled alone.
The freight airplanes passed overhead‚ and a search helicopter circled. A modern ship passed him carrying supplies for the oil fields. Its crewmen had been alerted to watch for a girl on an ice floe. They lined the deck‚ and several waved at Benny. He did not wave back.
“I wouldn’t be so worried‚” Benny said to the Arctic world of ice‚ clouds‚ wind‚ and green water‚ “if only Emily Toozak had been raised in the traditional Eskimo ways. Then she would know how to survive. Her generation isn’t as skilled in Eskimo wisdom.” Benny was one of the only ones of his generation left who knew how to survive in the wilderness with little but a knife.
Common eiders were still flying in flocks headed east toward the shoreline in order to obtain the driftwood‚ grasses‚ and reeds they needed to build nests and raise their young. Terns circled overhead and flew toward the gravel beaches where they make their nests. The birds said‚ “Summer is here.” But there were no bird clues to say where the current had taken Emily Toozak.
As he paddled Benny felt that there was something about this girl and Siku. Both‚ he knew instinctively‚ were alive. Emily Toozak’s ice floe had grounded somewhere. Siku‚ Benny assumed‚ was unharmed and had gone on to the Eastern Beaufort Sea.
Thinking the current might have carried her to Cape Simpson‚ he paddled toward it. He was gone three days. His food was sun-dried caribou and fish. He carried freshwater.
The sea was calm and he could paddle steadily. At last he saw bits of mosses and sticks floating on the water. They told him he was approaching the cape.
A fish surfaced nearby. He did not stop to catch it but paddled on. Others might have used an outboard or powerboat‚ but Benny was from the old school and preferred to travel on his own power.
At the cape‚ he stopped. The cape was still blocked with ice that swirled and tumbled; it was still early summer and thousand of ice floes freckled the sea.
Away from the large floes‚ Benny rested. The sun sank slightly toward the horizon and then rose. The long two-month day was upon this world. He watched the sky and ocean turn bright green then yellow gold. He sat still in admiration‚ but knew he had to paddle the long way back to Barrow.
Robert Toozak and Flossie were at the trading post waiting for him. They walked slowly down the beach when he arrived‚ afraid to hear the news. Benny stepped out of his kayak shaking his head.
Hours passed. Emily Toozak lay still and cold on the ice floe. Silently‚ Siku stayed with her and was pushing her and the ice floe with his rostrum. It rode up on a shoal near the beach and crunched to a stop.
The jolt woke Emily. She saw she was grounded‚ ran to the edge of the floe‚ and excitedly jumped off. Frightened but glad to be on land‚ she instantly wondered where she was. The land around the bay looked like the land around Barrow‚ but she knew it could be almost anyplace on the north coast of Alaska.
Whoosh! She heard the unmistakable sound of a whale blow. The whale was near the shore. Rising to her toes‚ she rubbed her eyes and stared.
Another whoosh‚ then another and four more. Fountains of mist rose and drifted away. There were many whales here. Emily Toozak ran down to the beach to watch them.
One of them breached‚ fell over backward‚ and‚ after a monumental splash‚ raised his fluke. Then he lifted his head out of the water. There was a white mark on his chin—the dancing Eskimo.
“Siku! You are Siku‚” she shouted‚ clapped her hands‚ and ran down to the water’s edge to watch him. His eighty-ton body was as graceful as the small ivory gull above her. She smiled and wrote Siku in the gravelly beach as if the word would hold him there.
Then Emily Toozak halted. Looking out at the dark shape in the water‚ she realized the impossible truth. Siku had pushed her ice floe to land.
“Thank you!” she called out‚ her voice shaky and rough. Tears welled up in her eyes. Siku had saved her life.
As she turned her back‚ her Arctic instincts took over. Snuggling her parka hood up against her face‚ she closed her eyes to better think what to do‚ then opened them and drew a deep breath.
I hope I run into a hunter or traveler‚ she thought.
Walking up the beach‚ she waved good-bye to Siku as she reached the tundra and began searching the thawing landscape for a sign of human life. Grasses and lichens rolled out to the horizon. Wildflowers were just beginning to bloom. The scene was a beige-and-white carpet reaching to the very curve of the earth. She could not walk that endless space without food. How would she get it?
Water was no problem. The land had hundreds of thawing freshwater ponds whose water was drinkable. The problem was food.
Emily Toozak climbed a frost heave‚ a bump of land raised into a hill by the freeze‚ and tried to locate a village. Instead of a village‚ she saw the wreckage of an old schooner tossed up on the bay’s beach. It was all that was left of some white men’s attempt to get through the Northwest Passage.
The schooner lay on its side‚ its wave-battered deck standing almost vertical. Emily Toozak scrambled over ice blocks and black beach stones to get to it. She grabbed the broken deck boards and climbed to a door. Peering through it‚ she saw the ship’s galley. It too was tipped on its side and empty.
“Salvaged‚” she said‚ disappointed. “They must have taken everything when they abandoned ship.” Then‚ thinking that the ship’s crew might have drowned in the icy waters‚ she had another thought. Or did my people find the ship and take everything? I hope so. That might mean I am not too far from a village. But where?
Deciding to hunt for some overlooked scrap of food in spite of the bareness of the ship‚ she teetered onto one of its walls‚ now a floor.
“Pilot-bread crackers‚ cans of some kind of meat‚ beans‚ anything would be great.” She picked her way around the ruins of the kitchen and into the pantry.
Empty.
Her heart sank. In discouragement‚ she flopped down on a battered mattress. Beside it was a ripped blanket. Getting quickly to her feet‚ she dragged them both to the vertical deck and tossed them down to the beach below. A cooking kit rolled out of the blanket onto the sand.
“Good‚” she said. “I c
an cook . . . if I had matches.”
Her brow furrowed.
“How did my ancestors make fire? I’m sure I’ve been told. Think‚ think‚ think.” She clambered over the wreck and climbed down to the mattress.
With the blanket she made a shelter by tying it to some broken boards on the ship and pulling the mattress under it‚ just in case any summer snowstorms should come.
“Maybe a plane will fly by from the oil fields . . . but how do I signal it? Maybe I could use the blanket as a flag.”
Whoosh. Emily Toozak turned. A great whale was swimming slowly through the clear icy water. He was feeding in the bay.
“I wish I ate plankton‚” she sighed. “Hey‚ maybe I can—but I’ll get wet trying. That idea’s no good.”
“You are good company‚“ she called to Siku.
He thrust up his rostrum‚ blew mist‚ and disappeared.
Exhausted and discouraged‚ Emily Toozak lay down on her mattress and instantly fell asleep.
When Emily awoke hours later‚ the tide was out. Although there is only a small difference between high and low tide in this part of the world‚ a high tide had brought some rare kelp to her beach from somewhere nearby. Torn from its moorings by a storm‚ riding the waves and swells‚ it had been deposited on the beach by the low tide.
“I must be nearer to Barrow than I thought‚” she said. “All of the same creatures are here.”
Gingerly she took a small bite of the kelp blade—and waited‚ recalling her father’s words: “Take a little bite‚ and if it’s not bitter it’s edible.” The kelp was drab and salty- tasting‚ but it was not bad. Emily ate a handful‚ then went back to the ship to look for something to carry it in. The salty weed made her thirsty‚ so she went back to her ice floe. She remembered having seen patches of old sea ice‚ called piqaluyak‚ [Pea-kal-lu-yak] on it. Her family drank melted piqaluyak. It was saltless—the most delicious water she ever tasted. She picked up the cooking kit’s pot-like lid‚ climbed on the ice floe‚ and went right to the old ice. The dome shape of the ice told her that it was one or more years old‚ but it was fresh and drained of salt. Chipping out several pieces‚ she sucked on them until she was no longer thirsty. The rest she put in her cooking pot. It was too cold for it to melt. She ran back to her mattress camp.
Ice Whale Page 7