Edge of Nowhere

by John Smelcer

  A terrible thought entered Seth’s mind. With a single step he could end his suffering.

  No more starvation. No more freezing. No more fear and loneliness.

  He watched as the waves rolled in, judging the time between them, when the scraggy rocks below were most exposed.

  But then he thought about Tucker, standing by his side as he had throughout their ordeal. How long would he last alone? Seth reached down and placed a hand on the dog, who looked up at him, their weary eyes holding for a long time. He couldn’t do that to a friend who trusted him.

  Instead, Seth cast the alluring notion over the rocky ledge.

  As they climbed down the other side of the cliff, Seth felt his determination return. He hadn’t given up so far, and he wasn’t about to give up now, so near home, not after all he had been through. He realized he was stronger than he ever imagined.

  He was still learning the expensive lesson.

  The next day, the winds died and the sea calmed.

  Seth was walking along the line of trees marking the edge of the beach when he heard something. He stopped moving and grabbed Tucker’s collar, intent on listening. It was the sound of a boat motor, and it was very close. Seth ran to the beach just as a white boat came round a bend only about a hundred yards from the beach. It was moving slowly, only slightly faster than at idle. From where he stood, Seth could see two men on board. He ran to the very edge of the water and waved his yellow slicker, screaming at the boat.

  ‘Here I am! Help! Over here! Over here!’

  Miraculously, the bow of the boat turned landward, and to his great relief, Seth could hear the motor throttle back.

  They had seen him!

  Seth waded into the cold sea up to his knees, still waving his slicker.

  ‘Over here!’ he kept shouting, even though they had obviously seen him.

  ‘Here I am!’

  The calm sea rose immeasurably from his tears.

  And although he couldn’t read the name of the approaching boat, he saw a green shamrock painted on the side.

  Seth recognized the boat.

  It was the Luck of the Irish.

  Eighteen – Qula Inglulen

  That night, after they returned with their dead brother, a magic fog filled the village, and all the dead squirrels came back to life and returned to the Great House. Afterward, the spirit of the young man flew back into his dead body and returned him to life. From that time on, he was a great and powerful shaman who understood the connection of all living things, and The People never again killed squirrels.

  What are you doing out here?’ Joe Weil asked after helping Seth and Tucker aboard.

  ‘I’ve been trying to get home,’ replied Seth, his teeth chattering from his having stood in the icy water.

  ‘You’re freezing. Let’s go inside and warm you up,’ said the captain, leading the trembling and disheveled man and his dog into the heated galley.

  Lucky brought out two blankets. He wrapped one around Seth and the other around Tucker. He stared at the metal name tag on the dog’s collar with a look of puzzlement. Finally, his eyes wide, he spoke.

  ‘What’s your name?’ he asked pointedly.

  Seth found it odd that Lucky would ask such a strange question. He had known him all his life.

  ‘Lucky, it’s me, Seth.’

  The look of puzzlement transformed into astonishment.

  ‘Stars! Is that really you, Seth?’ he asked incredulously.

  Joe Weil bent close to the rescued man’s grizzled face.

  ‘It is him!’

  ‘But how can that be?’ asked Lucky, handing Seth a cup of hot coffee. ‘You’ve been gone for. . . .’ He stopped to figure the time. ‘Why, you’ve been missing for over four months.’

  In between drinking his coffee at the small table, his trembling hands wrapped around the cup like a prayer, Seth told the story of their survival, how they had fallen overboard during the night of the storm, how they had swum from island to island, eating whatever the land or sea provided for them, raw, because they had never managed to make fire. He told them about the bears and the cave and about the tanker that almost killed Tucker.

  Joe and Lucky couldn’t believe how far Seth and Tucker had traveled. But their very presence was proof.

  ‘I don’t think I could have survived as long as you did,’ said Lucky, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘You must be starved. Let me make you something to eat.’

  He quickly pan-fried two steaks, one for Seth and one for Tucker, adding some sliced potatoes and onions. It was the best meal either had eaten in their lives.

  When they were done, Captain Weil called the Harbormaster on the radio.

  ‘Come in, come in,’ he said over and over, until finally someone replied on the other end.

  ‘We found Seth Evanoff,’ he said excitedly.

  ‘Say again?’ asked the Harbormaster, uncertain that he had heard correctly.

  ‘You heard right. We found Seth Evanoff. Repeat. We found Seth. He’s alive. Over. Tell his father, Seth’s alive. We’re bringing him home. Over.’

  On the journey home, which took a little over an hour, Seth went out on deck and tossed his useless iPod into the sea, then went back inside to warm up. Lucky told him that he and Joe Weil had been deer hunting when they found him. But most important, Lucky told Seth that his father had never given up hope. He had never stopped looking for him even after everyone else had.

  Seth wept at the news.

  When the Luck of the Irish arrived in the harbor, Seth, still draped in the fluttering blanket, watched from the bow with Tucker by his side as the familiar truck pulled up and his father jumped out and raced to the end of the dock.

  Moments later, Seth stood eye to eye before his father, both equally tearful. His father gripped him by the shoulders, and looked him over.

  Seth was no longer the boy he had lost.

  His clothes were tattered rags, his feet were wrapped in frayed canvas and bound by rope. He was an inch or two taller and much thinner—gaunt even. His father estimated that Seth had lost maybe forty or fifty pounds. His hair was long and tangled. His scraggly beard concealed most of his chiseled face, which wore a steel hardness from months of sun and wind. In his eyes was an intensity unlike anything Jack had ever seen, as deep and as wild and as sure as the sea.

  Neither said a word.

  For a long time, Jack Evanoff held the man his son had become, while far out in the churning Pacific, a shining multitude of salmon awaited an imperceptible signal to begin their own arduous journey home.

  References

  Pronunciation Glossary

  The chapter numbers in this story come from the Alutiiq language of Prince William Sound, an endangered Alaska Native language. Specifically, they come from the regional dialect unique to Chenega Bay, of which the author is one of only a few surviving speakers and the editor of a dictionary. (Note: stress the capitalized syllable) See the origin of this story and the author’s Alaska Native mythology books and dictionaries at www.johnsmelcer.com; click on Books and Dictionaries.

  Oneall’inguq [ul-LING-ook]

  Twoatel’ek[ah-DULL-luk]

  Threepinga’an[ping-OUN]

  Fourstaaman [STAW-mun]

  Fivetalliman[ta-LEE-mun]

  Sixarwinlen[ug-WAY-lin]

  Sevenmaquungwin[mahk-OONG-win]

  Eightinglulen [ing-LOO-lin]

  Nine qulnguan[kool-NEW-yen]

  Ten qulen[koo-LEN]

  Eleven qula all’inguq[koo-la ul-LING-ook]

  Twelve qula atel’ek[koo-la ah-DULL-luk]

  Thirteen qula pinga’an[koo-la ping-OUN]

  Fourteen qula staaman [koo-la STAW-mun]

  Fifteen qula talliman [koo-la ta-LEE-mun]

  Sixteen qula arwinlen [koo
-la ug-WAY-lin]

  Seventeenqula maquungwin[koo-la mahk-OONG-win]

  Eighteen qula inglulen [koo-la ing-LOO-lin]

  The Author

  John Smelcer is the poetry editor of Rosebud magazine and the author of more than forty books, including 2013’s Lone Wolves (Leapfrog Press). He is an enrolled member of the Ahtna tribe and is now the last tribal member who reads and writes in Ahtna. John holds degrees in anthropology and archaeology, linguistics, literature, and education. He also holds a PhD in English and creative writing from Binghamton University, and formerly chaired the Alaska Native Studies program at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

  His first novel, The Trap, was an American Library Association BBYA Top Ten Pick, a VOYA Top Shelf Selection, and a New York Public Library Notable Book. The Great Death was short-listed for the 2011 William Allen White Award, and nominated for the National Book Award, the BookTrust Prize (England), and the American Library Association’s Award for American Indian YA Literature. His Alaska Native mythology books include The Raven and the Totem (introduced by Joseph Campbell). His short stories, poems, essays, and interviews have appeared in hundreds of magazines, and he is the winner of the 2004 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award and of the 2004 Western Writers of America Award for Poetry for his collection Without Reservation, which was nominated for a Pulitzer. John divides his time between a cabin in Talkeetna, the climbing capitol of Alaska, and Kirksville, Mo., where he is a visiting scholar in the Department of Communications Studies at Truman State University.

  The Illustrator

  Hannah Carlon, 17, lives in the village of Centerville, Mass., on Cape Cod. She has studied with fine arts teacher Eiblis Cazealt, painter Carl Lopes, and mixed media painter/figure drawing artist Sarah Holl. In 2014, she showcased her art in the Massachusetts State House, the Heritage Museum and Gardens, and the Barnstable Town Hall. She will be attending Lesley University in September 2014 to study art therapy.

  Discussion Questions & Activities

  1.Describe Seth physically and emotionally at the beginning of the novel. What are some of his habits? Can you see yourself in Seth? Describe Seth physically and emotionally at the end of the novel. How has he changed both outside and inside?

  2.Why are Seth and his father estranged? Do you think their relationship will change?

  3.Seth’s Native heritage played an important role in his survival. Is there anything you have learned from your heritage that might help you survive in the wilderness? Do you think you are self-sufficient enough to survive in the wilderness the way Seth did?

  4.Discuss the scene where Seth’s father goes into the local bar to ask other fisherman for help. He’s lost his wife and now he thinks he may have lost his son as well. What do you think he must be feeling? Have you ever lost someone close to you? How did it make you feel?

  5.What’s Tucker’s role in the story? Seth lost a lot of weight during his ordeal, but he always shared his food with Tucker. He could have just kept it for himself. Why did he risk his own well-being for a dog?

  6.How did Seth’s isolation help him through the grieving process? Could the same be true for his father?

  7. The cave with the skeletons of Japanese soldiers from WWII really exists. As a project, research The Aleutian War in WWII and learn more about the Japanese invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. How did this impact the people who lived on those islands?

  8. Seth was never able to build a fire. As a class project, arrange to go outside and try to start a campfire using only what nature provides: sticks, rocks, grass, moss, twigs. Despite what we see in the movies, is it easy to start a fire without matches or a lighter?

  9.Seth goes without technology for several months—no texting, music, videos, video games, or social media. The average high school student today texts 3,000 times a month. Would you give that up for just one week? Discuss how digital technology impacts your life and how much of it you could do without.

  Lone Wolves

  John Smelcer

  Deneena Yazzie isn’t like other 16-year-old girls in her village. Her love of the woods and trail come from her grandfather, who teaches her the all-but-vanished Native Alaskan language and customs. While her peers lose hope, trapped between the old and the modern cultures, Denny and her mysterious lead dog, a blue-eyed wolf, train for the Great Race—a thousand-mile test of courage and endurance through the vast Alaskan wilderness. Denny learns the value of intergenerational friendships, of maintaining connections to her heritage, and of being true to herself, and in her strength she gives her village a new pride and hope.

  “A beautiful and moving story of courage and love.”

  —Ray Bradbury

  “With this inspiring young adult novel, Smelcer promises to further solidify his status as “Alaska’s modern-day Jack London.’”

  —Mushing magazine, Suzanne Steinert

  “Powerful, eloquent, and fascinating, showcasing a vanishing way of life in rich detail.”—Kirkus

  “An engaging tale of survival, love, and courage.”—School Library Journal

  Savage Mountain

  John Smelcer

  (Leapfrog Press – Summer 2015)

  Summer, 1980. Brothers Sebastian and James Savage decide to climb one of the highest mountains in Alaska to prove themselves to their father, whose respect they can never seem to earn. Inspired by true events, Savage Mountain is not a story of father-son reconciliation. Some relationships can never be mended. Instead, it’s a touching story of two brothers who test their limits and learn that the way their father treats them is not their fault, and no matter how different they might be from each other, the strongest bond of all is brotherhood.

  “Smelcer clearly knows his way around Alaskan mountains.” —David Roberts, author of The Mountain of My Fear, True Summit, Deborah, and The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mt. Everest