by Darrell Bain
The home of Ronald and Elaine Douglas was fairly typical of rural Alaska. It was snug, well insulated and built to withstand the tree-bursting cold of winters in the northern part of the state. It had been built on a knoll higher than the surrounding area, allowing an adequate path for drainage of the spring snow-melt into a small creek a hundred yards below. The yard and garden were cleared, as well as the drive leading up to the gravel road that serviced the little town of Wikluk. Beyond that forest predominated, broken only by game trails and isolated meadows or telephone poles of the local phone company, operated by a generator, just as their electricity was.
Wildlife was abundant in the area. Grizzly bears fed on salmon where the creek fed into a slightly larger stream, the spawning bed of the delicious fish after their long and tortuous journey from the ocean. Caribou and elk roamed the forest as well as smaller varieties of ruminants, all of which provided prey for wolves, mountain lions, black bears and grizzlies. It was usually the old and weak and the very young which fell to the teeth and claws of the carnivores. When opportunity presented, smaller predators like wolverines and bobcats and lynx sometimes managed to kill the larger animals but mostly they stuck to rabbits, partridge and the like. Other animals were present as well. Beaver, fox, weasel, voles, and a plethora of others all played their part in the intricate dance of life, reproduction and death.
Samantha could communicate with most of them, although the more intelligent the animal, the plainer their language. Frequently, on her way to and from Wikluk when the weather was nice and she could walk, she had trysts with some of her favorites. There was Brfcut, the old bull moose who hung out by the lake above the little stream and Hostervut, the alpha male wolf which led the pack that sometimes roamed the area around the village.
Hostervut was fun to talk to. He was young to be an alpha male but his strength and cunning earned him the position. He was also a big beautiful animal. He sported a thick, dark brown pelt with a black-tipped, bushy tail. Hostervut had just reached his full body weight, almost a hundred pounds, large for a timber wolf. Consequently, he had very little competition from other males or females for the leadership position.
Game had been plentiful the year of Samantha's eleventh birthday. The pack had been well fed, giving ample opportunity for Hostervut and others of the pack to turn their attention to matters besides food. Since none of the females were in heat, that left time for those of the pack who had such notions to indulge in play and curiosity. The cubs, those less than a year old, were particularly prone to playful activities when they were well fed. Whenever Samantha had an opportunity, she sneaked into the woods and rubbed old Brfcut's antlers where they itched from the last growth or found Hostervut and asked his permission to play with the cubs. The alpha wolf was glad to grant it, and the mothers of the cubs didn't mind a bit once Samantha assured them she would baby sit while they took the opportunity to grab a nap. Her favorites were the youngest cubs, Betus, Cetus and Ketus. They loved to act fierce and tug at the strange fur the human cub covered herself with, or roll in the grass with her while she rubbed their tummies and listened to their puppy growls of pleasure. Lately though, she hadn't seen the wolves nor had she seen any caribou. She knew most wolves followed the caribou herds which provided their chief source of food, so she assumed the wolves had left with the caribou.
The culmination of Samantha's birthday party was intended to be a demonstration of magic, performed by an itinerant showman who piloted his own plane over a wide area.
Ronald and Elaine Douglas were proud of themselves for thinking of this way to let Samantha know they were pleased with her. She was no longer making a spectacle of herself by claiming she could talk to animals. Not once in the last several months had they seen her with any animal other than the barn cat who earned his keep as a mouser. The only exception was Brfcut, the old moose, who was so gentle they allowed her to feed it and keep it on the place year round as a sort of free-roaming pet. Even then, it had taken a number of demonstrations before Elaine relented, and only because her husband had suggested that letting her talk to a harmless old moose would keep her away from bears and wolverines.
Elaine didn't believe for a minute the old moose understood a thing Samantha said to him, but it had been a fair compromise. She also never saw the winks that passed between her husband and her daughter. Ronald believed Samantha could really make at least a few animals understand what she said, although he still cautioned her about going near carnivores like bears. But even he didn't believe animals could really talk to her or her to them, not in any meaningful way.
***
Samantha laughed gaily after she blew all eleven candles out with one huge breath. The few adults and all the children cheered and clapped at her achievement, then Elaine began serving the cake and ice cream outside on her husband's homemade picnic benches. They were made of logs split in half lengthwise and propped on cross sections of other logs. However, Samantha couldn't help but notice her parents both kept stealing glances toward where the airfield lay, the only means of egress in and out of the village.
Bush pilots served most of Alaska. The state was so huge and so wild and untamed that roads were scarce, and in most areas small light planes were the only means of transporting people and cargo. She knew the plane carrying Merlin Marston, the magician who was to perform at her party, was way overdue. It should have arrived that morning.
Once the cake and ice cream had been consumed with the alacrity that only tweens and teens can manage, Elaine Douglas motioned for Samantha to come inside the house with her. Heart dropping, Samantha followed her mother, knowing already what the summons meant.
"Sammie, we're so sorry," she began once Samantha was seated, "but... well... " She hesitated, not really wanting to break the bad news.
"But Mr. Marston isn't coming."
"I'm sorry, baby, but there was an accident. The pilot of the mail plane said one of his motors quit as he was taking off, and he had to return."
"Can't it be fixed?" Samantha asked hopefully.
"No, not today. It needs a part that's not in stock and you know it's too dangerous to fly with only one engine."
Samantha knew. Children grew up in Alaska with bush pilots as much their heroes as movie stars or rock musicians.
"What will we do, then?"
Elaine had been thinking of that very predicament. "Your father suggested you take the kids and show them around the place. Hardly any of them have been here before and he thought they might like to see the shop. After that you can take them two by two to the waterfall on the Mule. You can let them see the rainbows and watch you scratch the moose's antlers."
Samantha could hardly believe her ears. Her father was going to let her drive her friends on the Mule, a refurbished World War II flat bed, light supply hauler that was his pride and joy. Not only that, her mother was actually going to let her talk to Brfcut while others were present! She knew her mother didn't believe she and Brfcut understood each other, but who cared? She and the moose knew, and maybe some of her friends and classmates would believe her once she showed them. It was almost as good as having the magic show!
***
Ronald had welded safety rails and bars in the cargo space of the Mule and attached an old car seat behind the driver's space for two passengers to ride on. When the groans and grumbles and tears over the announcement that the magician had plane trouble and couldn't make it subsided, Ronald grinned.
"But!" he said, "We have another surprise for you! Sammie is going to give you all a ride on our Mule, two at a time, to our waterfall and... " He had to stop and explain to shouts and questions that the Mule was not an animal but a rare and expensive vehicle, a collector's item that very few kids were ever allowed near, and that Samantha would be driving them, "... and then, once you get to our waterfall, we have two treats for you. The first is letting you see how sunlight and mist can create beautiful natural spectacles such as rainbows, but the second is even better. Can you guess what it is?"
Of course none of the children could guess; he had simply paused for dramatic effect.
"All right, since you can't guess, I'll tell you. Sammie is going to show you one of her special friends, a bull moose! Up close!" He paused again to let them digest this information and then gave them the kicker. "And even better, Sammie will show you how to do something very few people have ever done in their life. She'll ask her friend the moose to let you scratch his antlers! They are shedding their velvet now and are very sensitive and they itch. The moose will be grateful to you for scratching him where he itches! How about that?"
Yells and cries of enthusiasm greeted the end of his announcement, tempered only by the doubtful looks of the few other adults present.
"Ron... " One of the mothers began, but he smiled and held up his hand to stop her. "Don't worry, Judy. This is a tame old Moose and you all know Sammie has a... well, a way with animals. It's perfectly safe. She's kept the old fellow for a pet for the last few years, ever since the young bulls pushed him out of the herd. He just loves to have Sammie scratch his antlers. You know how they itch his time of year."
"Well... Okay, if you say it's safe. The kids were really disappointed when Merlin's plane broke down."
"It's perfectly safe, I promise."
Ronald called Samantha to the side before allowing her to begin transporting her guests. "Now Sammie, I want you to drive careful. Each time you get two passengers to the waterfall, tell them to stay close to the cabin, just in case a grizzly happens by. And until they're all there make certain that your moose stays on the other side of the stream, just to be sure. Okay?"
"Well... okay, Dad. He wouldn't hurt anyone but I'll tell him to stay on the other side until we're ready. I guess he can wait that long to get his antlers scratched."
"That's the way I want it for today."
Samantha smiled. "Then that's how we'll do it. They'll probably like it better that way anyhow. I guess old Brfcut could seem kinda scary if you can't talk to him like I can."
Her father nodded, wondering once again just how much Samantha could really understand of an animal's sounds and mannerisms. Some days he believed her utterly when she said she could talk to creatures of the wild, but in bright daylight his young daughter seemed perfectly normal and he believed hardly any of what she told him.
***
"Where's your moose?" Jed, a burly boy who was somewhat of a bully, asked as he jumped from the Mule. He and another boy were the last two members of the party Samantha had brought to the waterfall.
"Just look at the rainbows for now," she replied. "Aren't they pretty?
"They're beautiful," a girl named Sinuteit, who had an Inuit mother and Italian father agreed. "And there's lots of them if you stand just right."
"I want to see the moose," Jed insisted. "You said he'd be here."
"Yeah," his friend said. "Who wants to stare at rainbows all day?"
Samantha didn't answer at once. She didn't particularly like Jed or Tommy, either. They were the two oldest boys in the little school that handled children up through the fifth grade, but they had both failed one year. They would be moving on next year if they managed to graduate, which she thought was doubtful. Neither was doing very well in school. She wouldn't have invited them to her party had her parents not insisted. Since they were here, she supposed finding the big ungulate and showing him off was in order. Except... she glanced at the ground and saw prints, but they hadn't been made by hooves. They were paw prints, big ones.
Oh, drat! She thought. Hostervut has been nosing around here and scared Brfcut off! He doesn't like wolves, even after I asked Hostervut not to hurt him. Now what do I do?
"I bet she didn't have a moose here at all," Samantha heard one of the boys say. It made her mad, but she had no idea how to answer the challenge-until she heard a rustle of underbrush, barely audible over the increasingly frustrated noises coming from her classmates. She looked in that direction and saw a black nose and two eyes, shining in the darkened brushy alcove from reflected sunlight. A wolf was watching her!
She hurried over to the heavy growth and parted it with her hands. A full grown female wolf looked back at her. "Tetmulic! What are you doing here? Where are your pups?" she asked.
Hunting poor. Caribou gone. Pups not big to travel yet. Maybe you have food? The wolf's words weren't exactly that articulate, of course, but Samantha understood her perfectly. She thought for a moment, then smiled as an idea came to her.
"If they feed your pups, would you let the human cubs play with them?" Samantha asked the mother wolf.
Any animal Samantha talked to always trusted her. After all, she was the only human they knew who could speak to the animals of the forest.
Yes, she agreed. You help care for pups.
"Of course!" she agreed immediately. She ran to tell the other kids.
***
"Now they're not used to humans, so you have to be very careful with them," Samantha warned. "Don't try to force the pups to do anything they don't want to or Tetmulic will take them back into the forest. Just hold out bits of food and let them take it from your hands."
"Who's Tetmulic?"
"That's the mother wolf. Right there!" She pointed dramatically as the big animal came out of the brush, trailed by four fuzzy, bumbling baby wolves only six week or seven weeks old. A few minutes later, all the kids had completely forgotten about the moose and were vying with each other to feed the scraps of their meal to the wolf pups. Once the last bit of food was gone, Samantha had them sit in a circle with Tetmulic and her pups in the center. The pups were ready to play now and they did, with their mother watching benignly. It went so well that time flew and before Samantha quite knew what was happening, her father strode into the clearing by the waterfall and cabin.
Ronald was wise enough to realize what was going on, but he was frightened. What if that mother wolf with the pups became agitated at his appearance? She might do anything, thinking she had to protect her pups.
"Sammie," he said quietly. "It's time to go."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Dad. I wasn't watching the time. Okay, everyone can pet Tetmulic one time to thank her for letting you play with her pups, then we have to go."
Mr. Douglas held his breath as one by one, the children stroked the full grown timber wolf. It outweighed half of them, and could have ripped out the throat from any of them in a second, had it been so inclined. But after it had been petted by each child, the circle broke and the mother wolf made a gruff noise, telling her pups it was time to go.
"Would you like to pet her, Dad? Her name is Tetmulic. She would like it, I think. She knows you're my father and we gave a lot of our food to her pups."
The wolf strode quickly to the elder Douglas, but rather than stand still to be petted, she raised her forequarters and put her front paws on his chest. Dazed, he began scratching behind her ears and on the top of her head, wondering if anyone would believe him if he told this story. On the other hand, he suddenly decided not to say anything. The children's parents probably wouldn't be so sanguine about them playing with wolf pups and their mother as he was! However, he gave the mother wolf a piece of jerky he carried to munch on at times. She licked his hand in gratitude and settled down to begin eating the unexpected treat.
Ronald thought Samantha could only communicate with selected animals. His wife didn't believe even that much. She thought her daughter just had a way with animals, and only some of them at that. Unknown to her parents, she could converse with almost any mammal, although she was very careful not to let them know how often and how varied were her trysts with her friends of the forest. Perhaps she wouldn't have gone into the woods so often had her mother allowed her to have a pet, but she was adamantly against it, since pets had to live inside homes during the fierce Alaskan winters.
***
Despite her father warning Samantha to keep quiet about what happened at the culmination of her birthday party and Samantha asking the guests not to tell their parents, the
story got out. As it made the rounds at school and among the townspeople of Wikluk it became greatly exaggerated, until the tale had Samantha leading a whole pack of wolves to the birthday party and subjecting everyone there to fear of being torn apart.
Extremely religious individuals began whispering about witches and their familiars, animals such as cats that bonded with witches and did their bidding, according to legend. Of course most of the parents of her classmates knew she wasn't a witch or anything close to it, but then Sinuteit's mother passed stories around about evil Shamans from the olden days and how they consorted with special animals. The school children and teachers alike began ostracizing her. It became such a problem that one day she came home from school early, in tears.
Elaine hugged her and tried to allay the hurt by treating it as a "passing incident".
"I told you to quit pretending you can talk to animals, didn't I?" she asked.
"But Mom, I can talk to them! I can! I can! I can!" Samantha said fiercely, for once tired of not being believed. She knew her mother was just trying to protect her but she was so upset the words came tumbling out in a burst of passion.
Ronald entered the room at that moment. He quickly analyzed the situation, but had no time to stake out a position before his wife jumped all over him.
"Ronald, this fixation of hers about talking with animals has gone far enough. No, it's gone way too far. You simply have to put a stop to it, right this moment."
He looked helplessly toward Samantha and shrugged his shoulders. He knew there was no way he could convince his wife Samantha actually did have such a talent. Elaine didn't want to have a daughter who was that abnormal and she had closed her mind to the very possibility that she could speak to animals and they to her.
"Dad, you know I can, don't you? The animals don't really talk like us, but the sounds they make are like they're talking to me and I hear them like that. Mom, how do you think I got Tetmulic to let us play with her pups?"
"And I suppose Tet... tetlu, well, whatever you call it, is that wolf's name isn't it?" her mother responded. Her voice dripped with sarcasm.