“That’s just it.” Danny thumped his knee in frustration. “I can’t do it! I know lots of stuff but I can’t do it. The words move on the page, or my writing gets all mixed up, letters go the wrong way round and I can’t remember how to spell… and…” He gulped. “Everyone laughs when I can’t remember my multiplication tables.”
His mother reached in her pocket and passed Danny a tissue. He blew his nose noisily. “Mr. Berg says I’m not trying,” he continued. “But I am, I really try!” He paused, ashamed. “The kids call me Dummy Danny. I’m just one big Ukrainian joke.”
There was a long silence. Eventually Danny pulled away and looked at his mother. She was gazing abstractedly across the room. “You’re not listening,” he accused.
“Of course I am.” She quickly flashed him a smile. “I was thinking.” She looked at him searchingly as though she was trying to figure out what to say. “Danny, I believe you. I think there IS a reason for the trouble you’re having at school.”
Danny’s face filled with relief. “Like I’ve got a brain tumor or something?” he said eagerly.
His mother laughed and ruffled his hair. “No such luck! That’s your imagination again, isn’t it kid?”
Danny nodded with a sheepish grin.
“I’ve a friend, Carol.” His mother continued. “She’s teaching at University and doing some research on how children learn. Some of the things you’ve told me sound kind of like some of the problems she’s researching. Would you mind if I discuss it with her?”
Disinterestedly, Danny shrugged. University stuff wouldn’t help him any. “What about Dad?” he asked, “and school?”
“I’ll talk to your dad and we’ll figure something out. But Danny, you will have to go back to school next week. You know that really, don’t you?”
“I guess so,” said Danny, shuffling his feet.
“As for friends,” continued his mother. “You don’t make friends by getting good marks, but by sharing interests and doing things together. If you’re no good at a game, try sharing some of your other interests with Mike. Who knows, he might really like some of the things you do.”
“I’ll think about it,” said Danny doubtfully. He yawned, exhausted. “Mom, it’s Friday night. Can I watch the movie? It’s Star Trek Meets the Green Slime.”
His mother nodded abstractedly. Danny turned on the TV and settled back on the sofa, his body weak with relief. Thank goodness that was over and it was the weekend. Two whole days without school.
Chapter Four
Danny slept late on Saturday. The events of the previous day had left him physically and mentally exhausted. Tousled and groggy he sat up in bed and tried to catch at the elusive remnants of the dream that had woken him. It was a dream he’d had many times before. The one he’d named ’The Chase’.
In ’The Chase’ Danny always found himself running over an endless plain towards a tall tower on the horizon. If he could only reach the tower he’d be safe, but he never could. Panting and gasping, he’d run as hard as he could, and almost be there… and the tower would move. Even as he reached out his hand to touch it, the tower would recede into the distance and he’d have to run faster and further. And all the time something fearful was chasing him. Danny never found out what the fearful thing was, but it was always there, breathing down his neck and filling him with unspeakable panic. He’d wake up just as it reached him.
As usual after the dream, Danny’s mouth was dry and bitter, but this time his heart was not racing as hard as it sometimes did, for in this dream there had been something different, something hopeful. His mind gnawed and fretted at the fragmented images floating around his brain. In his dream he’d bent down and picked up something on the plain. Something that filled him with relief, something he could use against the ’thing’.
The images receded and drifted away in the morning sunshine, leaving Danny with a vaguely anxious feeling of loss. He threw back the bedclothes and started to fish around with one foot for some clothes off the floor. He found his Jurassic Park T-shirt and wriggled into his jeans. Feeling a lump in his pocket, he reached in and pulled out the stone point.
It lay in the palm of his hand, gleaming gently in the sunlight. It was beautiful. The friction of his jeans had rubbed and polished the dirt from its surface. It wasn’t dull grey rock like some he’d seen in the museum, but chipped from an unusual rock, a cream-colored chert containing faint orange veins. Danny held it up to the light and its edges became almost translucent.
Danny’s sense of anxiety vanished. This was what he’d found in his dream, the weapon he could use against the ’thing’. In his sleep his mind had remembered the point. Gently Danny ran his fingertips over the fluted edges. They were thin and sharp. Danny marvelled that they had not been damaged in the years the point had had lain in the ground. “I wonder who made you?” he whispered. “Did an Indian use you to kill a ’thing’ chasing him? Maybe you could be my lucky arrow head and protect me?”
Danny carefully wrapped the point in some tissues and returned it to his pocket. It would be nice to know more about it. If he went to the museum he could check it out against the arrowheads on display. He finished dressing, then headed into the kitchen. “Hey Mom,” he yelled hopefully. “Any chance of a ride into town?”
Even though Danny rushed through his farm chores and nagged his mother (who seemed to be spending hours on the phone) it was afternoon before they left the house.
“Be back at the store at 5:30 pm,” warned Danny’s mother as she competently angle-parked in a small space in the Saturday row of farm trucks on Fort Macleod’s main street. “Your Dad and I want to leave right at closing time.”
Danny nodded, unlocked his door and slid out of the car.
“Thought you might turn up if I hung around long enough,” said a satisfied voice.
Danny looked around.
Joshua was standing in the back of a half-ton, two spaces down. He swung his legs over the tailgate and dropped lightly into the street. “So,” he said, “Did you get a licking last night?”
Danny shook his head. “No-oo, but I guess I’ll be in trouble on Monday… at school.”
Joshua considered. “Naw, you’re too quiet. It’s the mouthy kids that really get it. You’ll just get yelled at.”
“Sometimes that’s worse than a lickin’.” Danny moodily kicked a loose rock chip as visions of Mr. Berg’s face, distorted with anger, flashed through his head. “Anyway, I don’t want to think about Monday yet. Come on, race you to the museum.”
Danny turned and ran up the road, then stopped when he realized Joshua wasn’t following. “What’s up Joshua? Don’t you want to come?” He walked back to where Joshua was standing.
Joshua looked uncomfortable. “This museum. Do you have to pay to get in?”
Danny grinned. “Sure, but it’s only a quarter for kids. Do you have any money?” Joshua shook his head.
Danny tipped out his pocket but only found one quarter and two pieces of gum. He passed one of the pieces of gum over. “Here, have this and we’ll go find some bottles to take back.”
Chewing companionably, Danny and Joshua headed over to the highway and started searching the soggy, matted grass along the ditch.
“Got one.” Joshua pounced where the sunlight glinted and triumphantly unearthed a large coke bottle.
“Me too.” Danny found two beer bottles in close proximity. A further search uncovered four small pop bottles, three beer cans and a whisky bottle. They sat in the ditch and surveyed their spoils.
“Wow, We’re rich!” Joshua took off his jean jacket and wrapped it around the bottles and cans. “That’s nearly a dollar’s worth. If we can find a few more on the way to the bottle depot we’ll have enough for some candies or a slurpee.”
He glanced happily at Danny, who was looking at his fingers and counting to himself, a look of intense concentration on his face. When he saw Joshua watching, he stopped and blushed beet red.
“Go on, laugh,” said
Danny fiercely.
Joshua spread his hands in a gesture of peace. “Hey, man. I’m not laughing. I don’t even know what you’re doing.”
“Figuring.”
“Figuring?” repeated Joshua blankly. “Oh, you mean the bottles. That’s easy. There’s three beer bottles at three cents a bottle, that’s nine cents; there’s two litre bottles at 20 cents each, that’s 49 cents altogether; then there’s four pop bottles and two cans at five cents each, that’s another 30 cents; that makes 79 cents so far, and if we find…” Joshua trailed off as the flush of embarrassment on Danny’s face deepened. “What’s up?”
“That!” said Danny sadly. “The figuring out. I can only do it on my fingers.”
“OK, so I’ll do it. No big deal.” Joshua knotted his jacket sleeves together and hoisted the resulting parcel over one shoulder. “My grandfather, he’s not too hot at math, and my great grandfather, he couldn’t read. It never stopped him being chief though. Come on, let’s see if there’s more bottles in the back alleys.”
Danny scrambled to his feet and they walked back into town, checking out the garbage cans and fence lines. Five more pop cans and a beer bottle were found, then they cashed in their loot at Mrs. Tyler’s bottle drop.
Joshua was jubilant as Mrs. Tyler counted out the money. “See. That’s $1.09. We keep a quarter for the museum and spend the rest, OK?”
“Don’t spend it all at once,” said Mrs. Tyler with a deadpan face. The boys looked at her uncomprehendingly.
“No, we’ll go to the museum first,” Danny replied politely, and was a little startled when she laughed.
The boys raced up the road towards the rebuilt fort. They rounded the corner of the palisade and stopped short. CLOSED said the notice at the turnstile.
“Oh no!” said Danny in frustration. “I forgot. It’s only open in summer.”
“Excuse me boys, you’re blocking my way.” A large woman carrying two buckets and a mop edged past them and opened the gate beside the turnstile.
“Oh, hi Mrs. Saunders,” said Danny.
“Might have know it would be you, Danny.” She looked across at Joshua. “He practically lived here last summer.” She shut the gate. “We’re not open yet, Danny. We’re only in to organize a new exhibit and spring clean everything for the summer season.”
“Please Mrs. Saunders,” Danny pleaded. “Can’t you let us in? I need to do some research. I really need to look at the arrowheads. Please… we won’t damage anything.”
“Hmm.” Mrs. Saunders surveyed Danny. Joshua had stepped aside to read one of the notices in the wall. “If it was just you I might.”
“Joshua won’t hurt anything,” said Danny eagerly. “He’s with me.”
Mrs. Saunders looked distrustfully at Joshua’s back and leaned towards Danny, dropping her voice. “He’s Indian, isn’t he?”
Danny looked at her with shocked eyes. “He’s my friend,” he said quietly.
Mrs. Saunders shrugged and turned to walk away. “No can do,” she said. “Come back in May,” and she opened the turnstile gate, gave a bump of her hip to close it and disappeared around the building. They heard her footsteps crunching across the gravel in the courtyard.
Angry and embarrassed, Danny muttered “Old Bat,” and kicked the gate.
It swung open.
“Quick, we’ll show her.” Danny grabbed Joshua’s arm, pulled him through, and gently closed the gate behind them. “This way.”
Chapter Five
Bent double, the two boys fled through the entrance, turned across a small patch of gravel, and dived into a dark doorway. Holding their breath, they flattened themselves against a split log wall and listened—nothing.
Carefully Danny peered back the way they came. There was no one around. He drew in his head and gave the thumbs-up sign.
“Hwee.” Joshua let out his breath and relaxed. “That was risky.”
“Only when we crossed the gravel. Anyway, she’ll never catch us now.” Danny grinned cockily. “I know all the hiding places in this fort, and there’s lots.”
Joshua tapped his head pityingly. “You’re nuts. For someone who doesn’t like being yelled at, you sure do some dumb things.” He looked around with interest. Cracks of light came through the walls of the wooden shelter and made distracting patterns on the dirt floor. Joshua peered beyond them into the shadows. He could see some stairs. “What is this place anyway?”
“A corner turret in the walls of the fort. If we climb the stairs we can see the whole fort from the lookout room.”
They crept up. “Hey, this place is neat.” Joshua gazed out of a window and looked at the fort spread below. “I’ve only seen the outside. I didn’t know all this stuff was here.” He surveyed the white gravel parade ground edged with long low wooden buildings around all four sides. “So this is where all the North West Mounted Police stayed.” He looked at the high wooden stockades, the lookout towers and the cannon, and started to laugh.
Danny, puzzled, looked out of the window then back at Joshua. “What’s so funny?”
Joshua waved his hand around. “All this.” He looked solemnly at Danny. “You guys must have been terrified of us First Nations to build stockades like this, and you know what…?”
Danny shook his head.
Joshua started to grin again. “We never attacked a fort in the whole of Alberta. The only attack this fort has seen is me.” Both boys started to laugh.
“Yup,” Joshua continued, “and it’s some fort when you can just kick open the gate and bust in.”
“OK, Big Chief,” Danny chuckled, “let’s see how far the invasion can get.” He pointed to a building on the other side of the square. “That’s where the Indian Exhibit is. If we are careful we can get there by the walkway along the top of the walls.”
Joshua walked to the lookout’s doorway and considered the narrow boardwalk running along the three sides of the stockade. It connected with a turret room in each corner. There was a fence on the drop side, but it wasn’t solid, just a couple of sturdy rails. “Someone will see us.”
“Only if we walk around,” Danny pointed out. Then he grinned and nudged Joshua in the ribs. “But we’re Indians, right?” He dropped to the floor and slithered out on his belly across the boards.
Joshua rolled his eyes skyward, sighed, then dropped to the floor and followed close on Danny’s heels. “I’ve read about this in books,” he grumbled in a whisper as they paused halfway to the next turret, and rubbed aching elbows and scraped knees. “I reckon it was invented by a white man.”
It took ages, but eventually they wriggled into the last turret without incident and thankfully stood up inside.
They tiptoed silently down the steps and hid in the shadows again, holding their breath and listening.
Faint snatches of conversation drifted from one of the buildings.
Danny nodded with satisfaction. “They’re cleaning the chapel block,” he whispered to Joshua. “Sounds as though the Indian Exhibit hall is empty.”
Joshua looked curiously at him. “Why are you so keen to get to that exhibit?”
“To check out the arrowheads,” Danny explained.
“Look.” He pulled out the wad of tissues from his back pocket. “I found this, yesterday. On the reserve, just after I’d left you.” He unwound the wrappings and placed the point in Joshua’s outstretched palm.
Joshua sucked in his breath with admiration. “Oooh,” he breathed, “It’s a beaut.” He looked up at Danny. “What are you going to do with it?”
Danny stared in surprise. “Keep it, of course. It’s lucky.”
Silently Joshua handed the point back.
“What’s the matter?” Danny asked, puzzled at the sudden feeling of tension between them. “Is something wrong?”
Joshua shrugged. “Guess not. You found it.” He walked to a chink in the wall and peered through it. “By the way,” he threw over his shoulder, “it’s a lance point, not an arrowhead.”
“You know
about this stuff?” asked Danny eagerly as he rewrapped the point and thrust it in his pocket. “Great, maybe we can make bows, or lances, or whatever, and play at being Indians.”
“I don’t have to play at being ’Indian,’” said Joshua stiffly. “I’m Peigan.”
Danny stared enviously at Joshua’s back. “I wish I was,” he said.
Joshua turned round and looked at Danny for a long time. “No you don’t,” he said seriously. “Most people hate us.”
Danny looked back equally seriously. “Most people hate me. They think I’m the original Ukrainian joke.”
The boys stared at each other.
Suddenly Joshua stuck out his hand. “Give me five,” he said.
“Give me ten,” Danny instantly reacted by slapping his palm firmly on top of Joshua’s. Then they thumped each other on the back until they were breathless and coughing.
“Shhh,” Danny gasped, “someone will hear us.” He poked his head out of the doorway and looked around. “Come on. If we’re going to do this let’s get on with it.”
Joshua nodded and sidled up behind him. “OK” he whispered. “Say when.”
Danny paused and listened again. “Now!”
The boys crept carefully around the corner of the exhibit building and and then raced up to the front door. Danny lifted the old latch. The door opened and they slid silently inside.
Chapter Six
“It’s spooky here,” whispered Joshua.
A dim red light from the EXIT sign above the door cast an eerie glow on their faces and hands, and made everything else dissolve into dark mysterious shadows.
Unexpectedly Danny gave a low chuckle. “Hey, did you watch that green slime movie last night?”
Joshua nodded. “Yup. Why?”
“Well, here comes the Red Slime!” Danny raised his arms above his head and advanced monster fashion towards Joshua.
There was a clang and a rattle and the sound of something slithering across the floor.
Both boys gasped and grabbed each other.
Finders Keepers Page 3