The Greenwood’s council had decreed that Kai and Oolie would guide the baidarka as far south as Lasqueti Island. The fetchers’ familiarity of the region ended at Desolation Sound and the shorelines grew more populated beyond Campbell River. Reba’s concern that two boats might draw more attention once they reached civilization was seconded by the elders. Kai—eager to explore new boundaries—convinced the council to allow them to lead the baidarka an additional 65 miles south. Reba had been firm about the turn-around time. “You and Oolie should not venture so far south that the weather will prohibit your return. Be back before the gales begin in Queen Charlotte Sound.”
The week before their departure had been a subdued one. After the elders had blessed the vessels, the entire village worked to provision and prepare for the journey. Adili had killed an elk and Ruby Awaa smoked the meat, packaging pemmican for the travelers. Dot and Lilu-ye spent their afternoons foraging for blackberries and, with help from the young girl’s mother, made several pounds of tart fruit leather. Gifts of dried apples, honey, bread, smoked salmon and saltfish came from many of the Greenwood’s households. Finally, Ooligan declared that there was no longer any room for the paddlers, what with all of the stores of food they were bringing with them.
The morning of their launch dawned damp and heavy with fog. Dot had chosen to sleep near the boats; pitching the newly fashioned triangular sail into its Tipi-shaped structure. She woke early and stared into the cloudy veil that crawled up the shoreline. There will be no leaving until we can at least see the end of our paddles. She stretched and began to drag her makeshift tent back toward the baidarka. At that moment, she heard the steady hum of an engine coming from somewhere in the mist. Edging away from the exposed beach, she hid behind a madrone tree and peered into the fog. A familiar looking bow slowly appeared near the beach. That’s Táan’s fish boat! Dot stepped forward and watched as the boat dropped anchor. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Marta step out of the wheelhouse. Marta waved and called out, “You didn’t think for one moment that I’d let you leave without saying good-bye did you!”
Dot ran to the boat and scrambled over the railing, embracing her adopted mother. “Oooh, careful there, daughter—we’ll end up over the side!” Marta cried as she hugged her daughter. “I don’t fancy getting wet at this point!” Laughing, she kissed Dot and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Goodness! Just look at these arm muscles!” Marta shook her head, “I can’t believe how much you’ve changed in a few weeks!” Dot smiled, then looked past Marta into the wheelhouse for Ol’ Pa. Sensing her question, Marta shook her head, “Chanáa’s down with a bit of a chest cold, honey—he wanted to come say good bye to you, but Doc Gravin told him ‘not a chance.’ That didn’t go over very well, let me tell you.”
At that moment, Billy Telford stepped on deck. “Hey there, Dot! We didn’t figure anybody’d be down here to welcome us so early. Good on ya’. Say, can I throw you a line?” Dot jumped down and caught the end of the line. She wrapped it around a tree trunk and waited. Once the anchor chain was taut, she took up the slack on her end and tied it off. The engine stopped and both Billy and Marta waded to shore. Billy looked around and said, “Well, well… So, this is the fabled Greenwood. Lead the way, ladies.”
By the time they’d arrived at the village, the spotters had already relayed their presence. Táan and Kai waited for them beside the guesthouse and Kai called out, “Kia ora, Marta! We weren’t sure we’d set eyes on you again before we had to gap it.”
“Yes, well it took a lot of scrounging to find enough fuel for the crossing, but finally, a few of the Skidegate fishermen donated some diesel,” she hugged them both and said, “Let’s go see Skaukw before we send these boats on their way.”
Marta and the others set off toward the council house and, as they followed, Dot turned toward Táan with a puzzled look. She jutted her chin toward Marta and wrinkled her nose, shrugging. Táan nodded, “Yeah, I don’t know either… But she seems at home here, that’s for sure. I heard Marta may have spent a few years in the Greenwood before she lost her son. That’s probably when she became one of the code speakers. That was way before I was born though. I guess she still knows her way around though, huh?” Dot nodded in agreement. So many mysteries about Marta that I may never understand.
Reba and the elders were waiting in the council chamber. A kettle of gángk'an sat on the grate over the coals and Marta and Billy filled large mugs of the hot tea. Reba glanced up as Dot and Táan entered. “Ah good, you’re here. Send Lilu-ye out to find Ooligan and Mr. Chen, please. We’ll speak with all of you before we head down to the boats.”
The meeting in the council house was a brief one. Reba asked that the travelers sit on the long bench opposite the rest of the group. Kay and Ruby Awaa stood in front of the assembly to sing an ancient Haida ballad. Dot had never heard a song that was so complex and hauntingly beautiful at the same time. Kim sat quietly with bowed head, hands clasped tightly in his lap. Ever since the code speakers brought news of his family’s disappearance, Kim had become withdrawn and introspective. Only Lilu-ye could draw him out of his melancholy.
Reba and the elders gave instructions to the travelers; warning them of areas to avoid; which places the trackers had been spotted recently—where they tended to refuel. Reba advised them of places where they might find fresh water and listed off the islands where cougars and bears were known to prowl near the shore. Finally, she closed with a request, her gaze lingering on Kai. “This is a mission of great consequence that you’ve agreed to carry out. It’s crucial that Mr. Chen’s information reach the man who can help us. But I caution you, do not take unnecessary risks just to achieve this goal, don’t tempt fate with the ocean or the weather. And to those of you who will continue over-land in a foreign country: Trust in no one. Our code speakers will send word to the First Nations people on both sides of the border, however First Nation or white, you must always listen to your own instincts. From this point on, the paths are yours alone. And yet, it may be that you will meet true friends along the way.”
With heavy hearts, the villagers—along with Billy and Marta, gathered at the shore to bid farewell to the travelers. Lilu-ye walked over to Kim as he prepared to step into the baidarka’s cockpit. “I want you to have this, Kim.” She said, handing him a traditional straw hat in the shape of an inverted vase. “It will help protect your eyes from the glare and disguise your face from the trackers.”
Kim smiled, bowed and then hugged Lilu-ye closely, whispering, “Thank you for being like family to me.” He waved good bye to the crowd and stepped into the middle cockpit.
Adili motioned for Táan to join him. He moved a short distance away from the gathering and placed a talisman in Táan’s hand. The object was smooth and darkened with age, a leather strap had been inserted in the widest end. Táan inspected it and looked at Adili questioningly. “This is a lion’s tooth,” Adili explained. “It belonged to a man-eater. I killed him when I was a young Maasai and afterwards, was counted as a warrior among my tribe.” He placed his hand on Táan’s shoulder. “You are a warrior now, my friend. I want you to take this on your journey. Tumunyana—for luck.”
Reba handed Ooligan her canvas spray skirt and helped carry the kayak to the water’s edge. She watched as her husband stowed the last of his gear in the cockpit. Kai set his paddle on the sand and pulled Reba close, sliding his arms around her waist, “You know I’ll be back, woman. I just can’t keep away from you.”
“I know it.” She kissed him and placed her hand against his cheek. Speaking in Kai’s native tongue, she said, “Kei te aroha au ki a koe.”
“I love you too.”
Billy Telford and Marta stood beside Dot. Marta held a small package in her hands. “Well, my daughter… the sea brought you safely to me over ten years ago, and I trust that it means to do the same again. So, I will not say ‘kíl 'láa’—I will only say ‘we will see each other soon’.”
Billy hugged Dot, “Chanáa told me
that you should ‘Give em hell, Dottie Rose!’ I promised him that I’d pass that message along.” He pinched her cheek and stepped back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Dot smiled and her eyes stung. She hugged Marta and kissed her firmly on the cheek. Marta placed the package in Dot’s hands, tears welling in her eyes. “You be careful, girl. We know you are brave enough for this, but you take care of yourself—promise me.”
Dot wiped her eyes, nodded to Marta and gave a brief wave before joining her companions at the baidarka. A brightly painted paddle leaned against the forward cockpit where she was to sit. Lilu-ye came up behind her and said, “We made that for you Dot. Kai helped me sand it smooth and then Reba and I painted it. Can you tell what it is?” Dot blinked and focused on the artwork. The stylized design was painted in black and white with red accents. A loud croak emanated from overhead and Monk descended, landing on the baidarka’s prow. Dot gestured toward the raven with the paddle.
“Yes!” Lilu-ye cried. “We painted a raven for you! I wanted to paint a Kijii fish, since that’s your nickname… But Reba said that a raven was the best choice. Do you think it looks like Monk?” Dot knelt on one knee and ran the paddle back and forth to inspect both ends. She nodded and smiled. Setting the paddle across her knee, she made the shape of a boat with one hand and held her other hand upright like a sail. “Yes. Thank you for trusting me with your boat,” Lilu-ye whispered. “I bet by the time you come back, I’ll be almost as good a sailor as you are!” Lilu-ye threw her arms around Dot’s neck as Karl sat at their feet, his tail etching semi-circles into the sand.
Reba watched them silently. As Dot looked up, Reba smiled, placing her hand over her heart, she murmured, “Ishla, 'kajáa.” Dot nodded solemnly in return.
The villagers helped Táan and Dot portage the heavy baidarka with Kim seated inside. The boat made a generous splash as it met the water and rocked lightly from side to side, finding its center. Dot handed Kim her new paddle and climbed into the forward cockpit, then reached around to retrieve it. Táan waded further out into the current, guiding the baidarka while holding onto his paddle. He pushed himself onto the deck and then rolled into the aft cockpit, tucking his legs into the narrow opening. The three of them held their paddles aloft, saluting their friends and loved ones on shore. Kai and Oolie shouted a boisterous “Jáa!” and turned circles around the larger boat. With that, the travelers dug in their oars and set out downstream.
As they moved along with the current, Dot let Táan and Kim paddle while she unwrapped Marta’s package. She carefully opened the wrinkled brown paper to reveal a handwritten note in Marta’s spidery penmanship:
Dear Dottie, these were the only two possessions you had with you when you came to us. We’ve held them in safekeeping for you. May they help bring you home to us again soon.
With much love,
Marta and Ol’ Pa
Taped to the bottom of the note was a foil-wrapped identification chip. She folded the paper carefully and peeled back the rest of the wrapping to find her old binoculars, scratched and faded--the aged neck strap wrapped carefully around the body of the lens.
Bella Bella, Campbell Island, BC. Aug. 8. 2033
52°11'49.5"N 128°10'44.1"W
The early morning crossing from Chatfield Island began in darkness—the moon’s absence was sorely noticed. Dense fog clung to the water so thickly that droplets of moisture pooled on the paddlers’ hands as they worked their way through the murkiness. Dot found it unnerving from her position in front—to hear the breaths of every paddler and the drips from each rising blade, but could see nothing save the encapsulating mist. They paddled as closely together as they dared—bumping into each other’s vessels occasionally—and whispered back and forth to confirm their proximity. Every few minutes, Ooligan would tap the handle of her paddle on the kayak’s hull; the group anxiously waiting for the echo from an island hidden somewhere in front of them. At last, a brittle-sounding reply rejoinder could be heard from some distance away. “Did you guys hear that too?” Oolie whispered.
“Yeah, off to my left a little.” Táan called forward.
“Alright, let’s steer in that direction for a while—but don’t turn too sharply, I don’t want to end up running down the length of this channel all morning.” Oolie let Kai shift their course and rejoined his stroke pattern. Táan maneuvered the baidarka’s bow to follow.
As Dot switched her downward stroke to help ease the baidarka’s turn, she heard a peculiar noise coming from the starboard side of their vessel. She turned her head and listened. A rushing sound—like that of wind through a tunnel—began to grow in volume. Soon, the other paddlers could hear it too. “What is that? It sounds like a… a big waterfall,” Kim muttered.
“That’s no waterfall, cuz.” Kai’s voice came from out of the cloud cover.
Ooligan replied, “It has a weird mechanical kind of noise to it… we’d better get out of here.”
Táan muttered, “How do we escape something that we can’t see?”
Dot tapped her handle on the boat’s starboard side. Táan understood and relayed her message. “Kij’ says it’s coming from the north—what do we do, Oolie?”
“We paddle like hell, that’s what.”
A prolonged blast reverberated out of the fogbank. “Shit,” Kai muttered. “That horn sounds close.”
The whirring noise increased until even the thick sheathing of mist could not muffle its intensity. Dot felt her adrenaline rise, her breaths became shallow and fast. Don’t panic, just breathe and paddle! She lowered her head and dug in with her blades as hard as she could.
From the lacy edges of fog, an extraordinary shape emerged. Its knife-like hull flew eight-feet above the water, propelled by an invisible cushion of air. Its wings tilted up near the tips—like a hawk’s. The vortex beneath the ship’s underbelly repelled the ocean—creating a thunderous rush of water and air as it moved. The paddlers spun around and watched in awe as the hovercraft sped past them and dissipated into the gloom as quickly as it arrived. Before they had the time to process what they’d just witnessed, the vessel’s wing-in-ground-effect rammed into their boats. The kayak capsized underneath the force of the compression wake. Kai and Ooligan vanished, their overturned keel lay exposed on the water’s surface.
Intuitively, Táan flattened out his paddle—stretching the length atop the waves. He yelled forward for Kim and Dot to do the same on the opposite side. Their actions worked like an outrigger; preventing the baidarka from rolling over. As the aftershocks diminished, the threesome scanned the area for their companions but the fog made their search seem hopeless. Dot climbed out of the cockpit and laid across the deck, placing her face close to the sea’s surface, she watched and listened. Táan balanced himself against Kim’s shoulder, combing the water for any sign. “Oolie—Kai! Where are you guys—can you hear me? …Kai!” Táan slumped back into his seat. “Indgang gahlaláay!”
Dot heard a thud and suddenly the fetchers righted their boat—rolling it completely over from below. The kayak rocked back and forth as it regained its proper alignment. The pair of soaking wet paddlers remained inside their cockpits, gasping for air. Kai fell forward, his breath was ragged. “Gawddammit!” Ooligan panted. “That’s it. I’m finding some land and lighting a big-ass fire. I don’t care who sees it. Shit!”
Kai muttered, “Bugger. Let’s get outta here.” He thrust his paddle into the water and pulled down hard. Dot heard his teeth chattering between strokes. She hoped for all their sake that the island would appear soon and, as if in answer to her prayers, the opaque mist thinned, offering a scant glimpse of grey hillsides with patches of green. Dot heard a hoarse kraa, kraa, kraa from one of the bluffs. Monk—I hear you! Keep it up! The paddlers summoned the last of their reserves to push the boats forward. Before long, the much anticipated sound of keel upon gravel assured them that they had touched land.
By the time Ooligan had built her roaring fire, the morning’s fog lifted, leavin
g a clear and sunny sky in its place. The group gathered around the burning logs and warmed their aching bodies. Táan examined the chart he’d retrieved from his fish boat before they departed. For several hours, the company rested. Their campfire gradually died and the temperature rose so that even Kai and Ooligan felt somewhat revived. Eventually, the familiar call of a raven woke Dot from her nap. She opened her eyes to find Monk staring into her face, his head tilted sideways as he observed her sleeping. The companions walked back to the launch site and emptied both boats, taking stock of their supplies. “Did you lose anything?” Táan asked.
“I dunno, I’m too knackered to know for sure, mate.” Kai scratched his head as he looked at the cockpit’s contents strewn around the grass. “I reckon I lost my knife and canteen… Maybe the lead-line.”
Ooligan crawled out of her cockpit. “Damn, we rolled that sucker like a cowboy’s cigarette. I think my compass must have been loose in there somewhere, it’s nowhere to be found.” She turned her pockets inside out, but found nothing. “Crap. We really can’t do without that.”
“Aren’t we near Waglisla?” Táan asked. “It’s somewhere here on Campbell Island, right?”
“Yeah, about two kilos east if your chart’s up to snuff,” said Kai. “The last time we came down here was when the Heiltsuks hosted the Qatuwas Festival in… ‘29?”
Táan absentmindedly pushed his hair out of his face as he mulled over their options. At last he said, “I wouldn’t mind grabbing some more provisions and Dot wants heavier rope for the sails when we get to Queen Charlotte Sound.” He pulled the seal-skin wallet from his pocket and tallied their funds. “The council gave us everything they had—I’m guessing 500 bucks won’t get us very far once we’re in New Seattle… But we could spare a few bucks for some stores and a used compass.” The group took a vote and decided that a trip into Bella Bella was the right course of action. The scientist’s melancholy had begun to worry his companions, so they agreed that Ooligan would take Kim with her—there was little chance of discovery in the tiny Heiltsuk village. One of the code speakers lived in Waglisla and Ooligan wanted to send an update back to the Greenwood of their progress. Dot retrieved the crutches from the baidarka and took them to her friend. He accepted them grudgingly.
Sea of a Thousand Words Page 23