THE OTHER INDIANS
By noon, we’d caught up to them. They were lazy and messy, and we’d walked over more blatant tracks and litter than we’d seen for months. And today they hadn’t even bothered to pack up and walk. Instead, when Chi-Boy and I made it to the perimeter of their campground, they were dicking around. The tall Nish, with broad shoulders and long thin hair pulled back into two scraggly braids under his red hat, was carving a small piece of wood, leaning back in a folding chair against a tree. The other man, dressed in head to toe camouflage that did him no good lying on the ground by the small fire, seemed to be napping, his brimmed camo hat pulled down over his face. What could they possibly be waiting around for?
We reported back to Miig, who waited with the group a little further out.
“I don’t like it. Let’s stick together, and make sure the girls are in sight at all times.” He spoke to the two of us alone. When he mentioned keeping the girls safe, I looked over at Rose, who stood by Minerva’s trailer holding RiRi’s hand. Chi-Boy kept his eyes on Wab for the rest of the conversation.
“Chi-Boy, you keep your knife at the ready. And French?” He handed me one of the two rifles we possessed. “This is loaded for now, and it will stay that way until we get past these two and back out on our own.”
I nodded and shouldered the gun. I was comfortable with it, we all were. Miig had made sure of it. I could shoot a squirrel off a branch if I had to, though there wouldn’t be enough meat left for a toddler. I’d figured that one out the hard way.
We joined the rest.
“Well, the strangers are just past those pines. We can’t rightly avoid them, and we have an obligation to see who they are and if they need help. Or if maybe one of us knows one of them from before. But if they are true strangers, we need to keep moving. And if they are more than strangers, if they turn out to be danger, we need to think of each other and ourselves first. We have to.”
Miig’s tone spread a look of anxiety among the group, all except for RiRi, who looked excited.
“Are they kids, French?” Her little voice got high pitched.
“Nah, Ri. They’re grown-ups. Two men.”
“Oh.” She kicked at the ground in her muddy pink rubbers. “Maybe they got kids somewhere else, though, eh? Maybe that’s where they’re going.”
“Sure, Ri. Maybe.”
Wab pulled her over and squeezed her in tight so that her toque slipped down over her eyes to the bridge of her nose. The little girl smiled in the embrace.
“Okay, then, let’s head over. I’ll take the front with French, regular formation, Chi-Boy at back.” We assembled under his instruction and pushed into the bush.
We were two rows back when a man yelled out, “Who’s there?”
Miig and I exchanged silent looks. It wasn’t that we’d been discovered that made us wary, it was that they were confident enough to call out. What if we were Recruiters? What if we were deranged townies? And what if, by chance, we were game that could feed them? Who would take such a chance? I picked up more of Miig’s anxiety about the strangers.
Miig stood to his full height and pulled at the strap of his gun so that it swung around his body; he held it in both hands, pointing into the clearing.
“Ahneen?”
Silence.
“Aandi wenjibaayan?” Miig asked where they were from. Playing Indian geography meant you could figure out who was who before you even saw them. And for Miig, I could see why it was doubly important to establish nationhood.
Silence. Then the reply came from a second voice. “Boozhoo. Anishnaabe?”
“Mmmm. Niin Miigwans nindizhinikaaz.” Miig moved slowly forward, introducing himself and asking for a name in return. “Aaniin ezhinikaazoyan?”
“Niin Travis nindizhinikaaz.”
Mumbling from their end and then another voice: “Lincoln, from Hobemma Nation, out west. Tansi.” The second man, the one who had called out to us at first, answered in English and then greeted Miig in Cree. All the while, Miig slowly crept forward. I stayed in the space left between him and the group.
Miig turned back to us and motioned us forward with his head, still holding the gun at waist height.
“I’m coming into the clearing. I have nine others with me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay.” He broke through the last row with us just behind him and entered the clearing.
The tall, long-haired man was standing beside the fire, his chair and wood abandoned behind but the knife still in his ham fist. The shorter camo man stood a little in front, his hat pulled back now to reveal a scraggly mustache and small eyes. He looked a bit younger than Miig and addressed him as older brother.
“Ahneen, Nisaye.” He stepped forward, and the pair shook hands. Then he stepped back and pointed to his companion. “This here is Lincoln.” Lincoln just nodded, then turned and threw his knife so that it stuck into the tree behind his chair. He was less than interested.
“This is my family.” Miig held his hand out to us and we approached in a bundle. “My boys Zeegwan, Tree, French, Slopper, and Chi. My daughters Wab, Rose, and RiRi. And Nokomis Minerva.”
“Ahneen, Nokomis.” The man named Travis bowed at the waist to Minerva, who giggled and swiveled her hips a bit. She was as delighted with the introduction as she was with the melodic sounds of her language sprinkled over the woods, even if the words were said clumsily and even out of order at times. If I hadn’t been flooded with adrenaline and worry I would have mouthed each one after it was said, shoving them into my pockets like sweets to suck on later.
“Ten. That’s a pretty big family. Lucky man, Nisaye.” Travis looked us all over once and then back again, like he was assessing us. When his eyes got to Wab they grew bigger, and his smile faltered, but he recovered quickly.
“Uh-huh.” Miig was still cautious. “Well, we’re heading through this way, so we won’t get in your way, here.”
I turned to look at Wab. Her one eye was so narrow I would have thought it was closed shut if not for the glint in there.
“Stay for food. Our hunt was good.” He was eager to move away from Wab’s glare and took a few steps towards the fire. He pointed to a cauldron hanging over the fire on an old lead pipe. “Venison stew.” He picked up two sticks that were lying in the pit. Each one had clumps of browning dough caught on the bark. “Bread.”
My mouth filled with water. Slopper exclaimed out loud, “Oh my Jesus!”
“We don’t want to take your supplies. We’ll manage.” Miig had released the gun when he shook hands, and it hung at his side. When he pulled the strap to realign it on his back, I shouldered my own. I wasn’t sure if he’d picked up on Wab’s reaction to the man. I was a bit distracted by the smells and the thought of the food, to be honest. I pleaded in my head to be allowed to stay but knew better than to say anything out loud. I wasn’t one of the kids anymore.
“No, no. Don’t be thick. There’s enough or I wouldn’t have offered. Lincoln and I were just in Espanola and grabbed some supplies. We’re stocked.”
Now I knew we had a shot at staying. Miig thrived on information, and if these two had just been in a town, they had info that we might need and that Miig would want to hear.
“Okay,” he agreed. We all sighed behind him, relieved. “But we smoke my tobacco tonight.”
“Nishin.” Travis laughed and poked at the pot while we unloaded and took up seats around the fire. Wab refused to sit, standing behind Miig with her arms folded across her chest. Chi-Boy slipped off unnoticed, and I knew he was scouting the area in case we had to leave in a hurry. I felt foolish, sitting in the warmth with the Elders and the kids. I wanted to be of use too.
“Be right back,” I mumbled to Tree and stood up.
The one introduced as Lincoln had returned to his chair outside of the circle around the pit. It was him who called out to me. “Hey, boy.
”
“Just going for a piss.” I wasn’t sure why, but the large man made me feel nervous. “Don’t wanna do it out in the open.” I gave a forced chuckle. He lowered his eyebrows and turned back to his carving, shaking his head slightly. I hope the others hadn’t heard. I didn’t want to sound weak in front of Rose, like some sweaty little kid who can’t take care of his family.
I slipped into the first row of trees, in the same spot we had entered from, then I walked left, keeping an eye on the clearing. It turned out that the fire and the men’s tents and chairs were in a small circular patch at the end of a long, narrow clearing so that the whole spot was kind of in the shape of a spoon. At the top of the handle, the space dropped off with one of those craggy cliffs of shale rock. I crept to the edge as close as I could manage and peered over. It was about a six-storey drop. With the pointed edges and rough landing, there was no surviving that fall.
“What’re you doing?”
I jumped, grasping a low, sticky pine branch beside me for balance. I didn’t actually pitch forward, but the sudden movement this close to the drop made my head swim. I swung around.
“Tabernacle, Chi-Boy! You scared the life outta me.”
He smiled a little bit and then reeled it back in. “Sorry. What’re you looking for?”
“Nothing.” I was a bit defensive. Why did I have to be looking for anything in particular? Why couldn’t I be altruistically scouting like him? “Just looking, is all.” I bit the pine gum off my fingers.
“Let’s get back.” He slipped into the trees on the other side and started to weave his way back.
He stopped. “Hey, did you notice the way that guy looked at Wab? I think he remembered her.”
It was weird that he would be asking me this. Chi-Boy was not much of a talker. “Yeah, yeah, I did. He’s kinda nervous about her.”
Chi-Boy nodded his head, pulling his lips together tight. “Let’s keep an eye on that.”
I nodded back, copying the way he held his mouth. Yes, we would definitely do so. Us men. We’d be vigilant. Chi-Boy turned and started making his way through the trees. I watched him for a minute, and tried to listen. There was nothing — the absence of sound was the only thing the ear picked up. There was no doubt Chi-Boy was the best scout we had, probably the best scout anyone had. I followed close behind, imitating his movements.
Miig had told us once about how bats moved. “They’re blind. That’s why they say ‘blind as a bat.’ So they send out these waves of sound, to see what they bounce off of. Then they know where they can fly, where they can fit.”
Chi-Boy used his arms as sound, pushing them out in front of him and then following through with his shoulders. His feet went last, so that by the time he’d moved his upper body forward he could watch the ground for exactly where his feet should land with minimal impact and sound. I imitated his movement. It felt like swimming through the woods, my arms fleshy paddles against the cold air currents. Time went quickly like this, moving as fluid. Soon we cut out into the clearing, a few feet from where Lincoln sat in his chair, still carving a stick into nothing more exciting than a sharp point. He threw his head back, swallowing something small from his cupped palm. He jumped when we moved into sight.
“Pissing in pairs?” He snorted when we approached. We had startled him and it hurt his pride. Neither one of us answered, but I couldn’t help but smirk a bit at having managed to sneak up on the older man.
We joined the circle around the fire. Evening was coloring in the sky from the corners, navy over cerulean. I was casual about finding space beside Rose, and Chi-Boy slipped in beside Miig. I caught him mumbling near Miig’s ear a few times, the Elder pretending not to hear anything other than the jibber-jabber of Travis as he recounted the pair’s uneventful travel.
“Yeah, we’ve pretty much seen nothing but bunnies and buzzards since we left town. Came across the buck just yesterday out of sheer luck.”
“How’s Espanola holding up? Not many towns left up this way, I reckon.” Miig dug for information we could use.
“Nah, that’s for sure. I think it might be the last in this region. But she’s still going.” He paused to fish more bread out of the fire and handed two clumps to Rose and me. I had planned to turn it down and offer my share to the girls, but the smell hit me in the stomach, so hard I couldn’t make words.
Travis finished off the roll-your-own he’d gotten from Miig and spoke through his last deep exhale. “It’s the schools. More and more construction, I guess. They’re going up like weeds. Espanola is the link into the North for supplies and industry.”
Miig smoked his roll slow. He paused to catch the last bit of Chi-Boy’s report, then responded. “I hear it’s more than that. I hear Nish are putting up a bit of a resistance in Espanola.”
What? I hadn’t heard this before. Mind you, I wasn’t yet privy to the private council of Miig and strangers when we ran into them. I was barely privy to Miig’s council with Chi-Boy and even Minerva, though that would have been harder to access, seeing as how they counseled in the language.
Lincoln stopped carving and watched the men at the fire. Travis curled his back inward, a defensive movement of the young. In that space his voice was softer, like an echo of a man he used to be.
“There’s a bit of a movement, I guess you’d call it. That’s what they call it, anyway. They’re camped out by the town, and they’re armed. They haven’t been hauled in yet. But it’s only a matter of time before the schools take care of the easy pickings and go after the ones putting up a fight.”
“They’re up there acting like frigging woodlands wizards.” Lincoln raised his voice to join in from his pace outside of the circle. “It’s stupid is what it is. Time’s a-wasting. You either run or you find other ways to fit in and get by. Ain’t no use in holding on to ways that are dead. It just brings death closer.”
“And what other ways could we fit in? Isn’t running towards something other than this all we have?” Miig threw back. “Or am I missing something?” He had an edge to his voice that made me check the gun was within quick reach.
There was a pause. I put my fingers around the handle and swung it closer. Chi-Boy unfurled and straightened to his full height behind Miig, who still sat beside Travis, calmly finishing his smoke. But his eyes were narrow and far away. I knew where he was. He was back at his old cottage with Isaac and the betrayers. He was remembering pain.
I had no time to check the others, watching the muscle twitch on Miig’s jaw, observing the silent curl of Chi-Boy’s spine. Taking in the tick and creak of Lincoln’s chair as he slowly lowered himself from tilt. Hearing the breathing of Travis in the boney shell of his shoulders. All this in a dozen heartbeats that pushed against the collar of my flannel button-up.
Travis rebounded. “Hiding is all. That’s what he means. Hiding and pretending you’re not Indian. Some of the half-breeds can do it. Hell, some of the full-bloods, too.” He pushed an elbow into Slopper’s arm beside him, looking for an ally in his commentary to make it light. “Am I right? You seen some of those Mohawks. Eyes bluer than the sky, eh?”
Slopper managed a half smile that looked like he had gas and leaned away and into RiRi, who had fallen asleep near the warmth of the blaze, her belly full of stew.
Miig locked eyes with Lincoln, who in turn refused to look away. His was a face full of challenge and bravado. Again, it was Travis who pulled in the other direction.
“Me, I’m inclined to stay out in the bush. Cities, they bring nothing but the worst out in people.”
Wab snorted and walked in a small circle, shaking her head. I know for sure Miig noticed this time.
“I’ve done some bad shit in my time in the cities. Years back I had some bad habits. The kind of habits that make a man do things he isn’t proud of.” He poked at the fire with a thin stick, more nerves than anything. “But I will say this, in my defense, not that
I can defend myself, really —” here he looked up at Wab for the first time “— I never would have done things if I’da known the outcome. My intentions were never to get anyone hurt. I never raised a hand against anyone and wouldn’t allow it.”
She stepped back into the shadows, arms still folded. He went on.
“And I am a different man today, out of the damned city. I found Lincoln here leaving the city the same way. We teamed up and have stayed away from people since. It’s better that way. Now that I know what people are capable of, why would I ever go back?”
“You couldn’t.” Slopper broke the tension. “None of us can. On account of the Recruiters. We’re bush Indians for real now.”
Travis laughed at Slopper’s serious decree and clapped him on his thick back. “Well, I think now that we’ve eaten and smoked good offerings together, and seeing as how the sky is falling, you should consider just putting up here for the night.” He opened his arm and gestured to the clearing. “We haven’t heard a peep until you wandered by, and it’s a good, sheltered spot. Ground’s not too wet, didn’t take on too much snow with these trees blocking drifts.”
“No, no, we need to move on.” But I could see in Miig’s face that he was concerned about how far the day had gotten away from us. We had barely an hour before the dark tumbled down into every nook and cranny in these woods. And at this time of year, it was important to pick good spots to rest undernourished bones.
“Come on now, Nisaye. From this spot, the clearing goes back about three hundred feet until it hits a drop-off. It’s secluded. You can take your clan further that way if you’d like. Or you can share the fire with us. Either way, me and Lincoln don’t mind.” He stood up, brushed off his backside, and clapped his sidekick on the shoulder. “Do we, Linc?”
The man didn’t answer at first. His eyes had become glassy and his lips were too thick for clear speech. He reminded me of Wab that day back at the Four Winds: distorted somehow. Travis squeezed his grip on the man and smiled real tight until he answered. “Frig! No, no. It’s good. Stay wherever. The more neechies the better.” He addressed Rose and Wab when he spoke next, something cloudy on his face. “Stay close by. It’s safer the closer you are.”
The Marrow Thieves Page 11