by Garth Stein
They sat and made small talk about the rain and whether or not more of it was coming. Tom was convinced they were in for a downpour, while David insisted the worst was over. Their chatter was interrupted, though, by Oscar, who was sitting outside the wall of windows, looking in and barking.
“Is that your dog?” David asked.
“Yeah,” Jenna answered. “He was too muddy, so I left him outside. He’s okay out there.”
David got up and went to the window, kneeling down before Oscar, who barked through the glass at him.
“What’s his name?”
“Oscar.”
“How long have you had him?”
Jenna shrugged.
“Four or five days. I found him in the woods. Or he found me. I was lost and there he was to lead me back to town.”
“Really?” David stood up and looked at Jenna. “This was in Alaska?”
“Wrangell.”
David nodded and turned his attention back to Oscar. “You weren’t afraid of a dog you found in the woods?”
“Well, I didn’t really have time to be afraid of him because I thought something was chasing me and Oscar scared it away. So he was my friend from the beginning.”
David nodded again, considering what Jenna was saying.
“And what did you think was chasing you?”
“I don’t know.” Jenna picked up her coffee cup and tried to hide behind it. “I don’t know.”
“Guess,” David prompted.
“Well,” she said. “It sounds silly, but I think it was a kushtaka.”
Jenna laughed at her own thoughts. David didn’t flinch. Eddie and Tom sat together quietly on one of the sofas near the fire. They hadn’t said a word; they just listened to the conversation David and Jenna were having. But at the mention of the kushtaka, they exchanged a look.
“What makes you think it was a kushtaka?” David asked.
“Well, sometimes it was like a bear and sometimes like a squirrel. It was fast. Then there was a man who had black eyes and pointy teeth.”
“And the dog scared him away?”
“Yeah.”
David opened the door on the glass wall and went outside, closing the door after him. He crouched before Oscar and stroked his head. Dog and man looked into each other’s eyes quietly, and then David stood up and the two of them went around the side of the house.
“What was that all about?” Eddie asked.
Jenna shrugged. Both Jenna and Eddie looked at Tom, who threw up his hands.
“Beats me. I’m just the driver.”
They could hear the door to the mudroom open and close, then water running and rustling. Oscar appeared at the living room door and looked around the room. The mud had been rinsed off him, and he shook the remaining water from his fur. He then trotted around the perimeter, sniffing along the molding at the bottom of the wall. David stepped into the room as Oscar lifted his leg and squirted a few drops of urine on one of the large corner posts.
“Oh, Oscar, no!” Jenna cried out, jumping up from her seat.
“It’s okay,” David said, waving her off.
Oscar continued around the room, leaving his scent on each of the posts. Then he went to one of the posts on the wall of windows and sat with his back to the post, looking into the room.
“That’s his corner,” David said. Then he disappeared for a moment and returned with a coffee pot. “More coffee anyone?”
Jenna, Eddie, and Tom all stared at David, bewildered and surprised at Oscar’s behavior and the fact that David hadn’t explained it.
“Maybe you could tell us what’s going on?” Jenna said, immediately regretting the sarcasm in her voice.
“Sure,” David responded, cheerfully. He walked around the room, filling up everyone’s coffee cup. “I had this room built in the way a traditional Tlingit house is built. Tlingit houses have four corner posts, which anchor the house structurally as well as spiritually. Each post is carved to represent different spirits who are called upon to protect the family or families who live in the house.”
He filled his own cup and sat on the couch next to Jenna.
“There are many different spirits that can be called upon: the wolf, the killer whale, the bear. A family calls upon the spirits that it has some history with, so the posts also tell the family history, in a sense.”
“That’s very interesting,” Jenna said. “But it doesn’t explain why Oscar peed on your corner posts.”
David laughed. “Oscar staked out his territory. He’s now the resident spirit in the house. He’s sitting there because that’s the most powerful corner of the house, spiritually speaking.”
“Wait a second, Oscar’s a spirit?”
“Oh, yes. That’s not just a dog, there. That’s your yék. Your spirit helper. He came to protect you.”
Jenna leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes. It was a lot to ask anyone to believe. First that her son was with Indian spirits and then that one of the spirits, a dog, had been with her the whole time. She scratched her ear.
“Everyone has a spirit helper, but most people ignore theirs,” David explained. “Or they act in ways that make the helper abandon them. If you’re being pursued by the kushtaka, it would make sense that your spirit helper would be a dog. Dogs are the most hated enemy of the kushtaka. The kushtaka is anti-society. It prowls the woods, looking for lost people. It only approaches people when it can isolate them from others. Anything civilized is harmful to the kushtaka. Metals burn their skin, because metal is processed ore. They can’t eat any kind of cooked food, only raw meat. Human blood will break the kushtaka spell. And dogs are their enemies, because dogs are domesticated animals.”
“So Oscar’s been protecting me?”
David nodded. “Absolutely. Tell me, has the kushtaka showed itself to you any other time?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has anything strange happened? Something you felt seemed weird?”
“There was a little boy.”
She glanced at Eddie.
“A boy?”
“In the middle of the night. He came to the house and then ran into the ocean. I was trying to save him from going into the water when . . .”
“When, what?”
“When Oscar came and tried to attack him.”
David nodded. “You’re lucky he did.”
“That was a kushtaka?”
“Probably.”
“But he looked like Bobby.”
The words came out of her mouth, but it was the first time she had ever thought of it. He looked like Bobby. Black curly hair. Big eyes. Why didn’t she put it together sooner?
“Your son?”
Jenna nodded.
“The kushtaka often appear as a family member to trick you into following them.”
“They can appear as anything?”
“Pretty much. Their eyes and teeth don’t change. Usually, they move around as shadows, though. You know, you think you saw something, but when you look again it’s nothing. Or you hear a footstep and think you’re hearing things. That might be a kushtaka, too.”
This was starting to creep Jenna out. She had been seeing shadows and hearing footsteps since she got to Alaska. She gave a little shudder. David saw and put his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe here.”
“Maybe. But in here’s not what I’m worried about. Am I safe out there?”
David stood up and offered to fix everyone lunch. And everyone quickly accepted the offer, glad to have some food and to change the subject for a little while.
DAVID HAD TO APOLOGIZE for the meal of cold cuts, some dense whole wheat bread, and canned potato soup, but his wife was teaching a seminar in Vancouver and, he said jokingly, he often reverted to being a man when she was away. Nevertheless, everyone was hungry and the meal was satisfying. David seemed to like the company. He chatted away endlessly about his new position at the University of British Columbia and how enjoyable he found it
to commute from the big city to the small village on a regular basis. That way, he explained, neither place overwhelmed him, and he desired more of both. They talked more about the weather and the front that was moving in later in the day. David asked about Eddie’s arm and shook his head when Eddie told him of the accident. “Most dangerous job in the world,” he said. Tom maintained that fishing techniques like the kind that injured Eddie were simply more evidence of the industrial machine putting greater value on economics than quality of life. David snickered at that and wondered aloud what leftist magazine Tom had found it in. All this spirited conversation came crashing to a halt when Jenna piped in.
“I got your name from John Ferguson. Do you remember him?” she asked.
David simply stopped short. Tom dropped his fork and pushed his chair away from the table.
“I remember him, all right,” Tom said.
“Tom.” David tried to interrupt.
“Talk about putting economics over quality of life . . .”
“Tom, please.”
Tom rolled his eyes but quieted down.
“Mrs. Rosen,” David began, “I’m very sorry about what happened to your son. But, believe me, I tried to stop it. I told them that opening the resort would end up in disaster.”
“I’m not trying to lay blame on anyone. I just want to know what to do. Can’t you help me?”
David looked down at his soup and shook his head.
“I’m afraid I can’t.”
“You’re a shaman,” Jenna demanded, “can’t you make them let Bobby go? Cast a spell or something?”
David threw up his hands in exasperation.
“Why is it that people who know nothing of a different religion assume the other religion has some kind of secret magic? That’s all I ever run into. ‘Cast a spell, make it right.’ It doesn’t work that way. A shaman is a priest. That’s all. If your son had been taken to hell by the devil, could a priest go down there and get him back? I don’t think so.”
“So, you’re saying my son is in Indian hell?”
“No,” David answered, burying his head in his hands. “It’s not the same. I was trying to give you an example. The kushtaka aren’t devils. They’re spirits. Look, when you die, your soul is reincarnated. In order to be reincarnated, it has to be in the right place. The Land of Dead Souls. If you’re dead, but your soul isn’t in the right place, you can’t be reincarnated, and so you’re one of the undead. A wandering spirit, never to return to the living.”
“So, how do you get from being undead to the Land of Dead Souls?” Jenna asked.
“You don’t. It doesn’t happen.”
“The man at Shakes Island said a shaman could do it.”
David leaned back and rubbed his eye. He screwed up his face and sighed deeply.
“All right,” he said, “theoretically it’s possible. If a person had trained his entire life, bathed every morning in ice water, drank of the devil’s club, developed his strength of spirit to such an extent that he could withstand the power of the kushtaka, that person could try to do it. But the kushtaka are stronger than you think. Trust me, I’ve been there.”
David leaned back and took a drink of his soda. Now they knew. They knew he was talking from firsthand experience. He would never challenge the kushtaka again. He had done it before, and it had cost him dearly.
But Jenna still didn’t understand. If it was all so impossible, why did it seem so close? She felt as if she were standing on the answer, that it was just around the corner, but she didn’t know which corner. And David Livingstone said it couldn’t be done. She didn’t believe him.
“These creatures know I’m here,” Jenna said. “As soon as I came to Alaska, I got chased through the woods, I met a spirit helper, and a little boy tried to drown himself and me. Why?”
“They want you to join them.”
Jenna waited expectantly for more.
“The little boy that showed himself to you looked like your son, right?”
Jenna nodded.
“Your son is one of them, now. And he wants you with him.”
Jenna thought about this for a moment. Bobby has come for her. The little boy beckoning was Bobby trying to reach her. Why didn’t he ask? Just call her name? She would have followed.
“I want to be with him,” she said, softly.
“Not like that, you don’t.”
“If that’s what it takes, then, yes, I do.”
David stood up and began collecting the dishes and stacking them at one end of the table.
“It’s out of your control,” he said to Jenna. “There’s nothing you can do. As long as you’re here, they’re going to try to get to you. The best thing you can do is leave, go home and never come back, and just forget the whole thing.”
Jenna slammed her fist down on the table, surprising everyone. David, standing at the end of the table, stopped and looked at her.
“God damn it! That’s all anyone ever says to me!”
Jenna was furious; her voice trembled as she spoke.
“For the past two years that’s all I’ve heard. ‘Forget about it. Put it behind you.’ I’m not going to put it behind me anymore. He’s my son, damn you. My son! And now you tell me he’s some kind of monster. Well, if it’s my only choice, then I’ll become a monster, too. At least then we can suffer together.”
She stood up quickly, scraping the legs of the chair on the floor, fighting through her frustration with anger.
“I’m not going to forget about him. I’ll never forget about him. Never.”
Jenna stood staring at David for a long moment. He met her gaze briefly, then gave a small nod and looked away. He sat down and fingered the tablecloth, braiding together three small strings from the fringe. Jenna sensed that he wasn’t coming clean. He was still hiding from her. She had to play her trump card. She had to make him talk.
“Tell me about your baby,” she said.
He looked up quickly, and then realized he was caught. He had bitten at the fly and couldn’t hide anymore. Everyone had seen him react. They knew something was there.
“How do you know about that?” he demanded.
“John Ferguson told me.”
David looked down and shook his head.
“You have to tell me,” Jenna said, sitting down and leaning forward on the table. “You have to tell me what happened.”
Jenna and David locked eyes. There was something between them, something unspoken. It was as if they shared something, and that feeling made Jenna both calm and uneasy at the same time. Almost as if she sensed David could read her thoughts, that she was open to him but afraid of what he might find. And she felt that he was equally afraid of her.
“They called me in to get rid of evil spirits at Thunder Bay, before it opened,” David began. He cleared his throat. “Admittedly, I did it for the money. I did a lot of things for money back then. They wanted the evil spirits chased out. The Tlingit don’t have evil spirits. There are just spirits. Spirits have both good and evil in them, but none are all good and none are all evil. I mean, look at Raven. He, basically, invented the world. He brought us the stars and the moon and the sun, the water and the land. Do you know how he got all these things? He stole them. Raven stole the moon and gave it to us. Does that make him evil?”
David looked out the window. The rain had started again. Tom was right.
“Anyway, I went to their resort not expecting to find anything, and I did my rituals. And, after a day of meditation, much to my surprise, I felt the presence of the spirits. It was the kushtaka. I should have known enough to stop there, but I thought I was powerful and I wanted to push it further. I wanted to make contact with them, to ask them not to bother the people at the resort. Well, they came for me. They took me to their home. And when I got there, they abused me. Any power I thought I had as a shaman was a joke. I was paralyzed and helpless. They made me into an animal with hair and claws and then they taunted me and mocked me. The dirty, foul things they di
d to me . . . I wished they would kill me and be done with it.
“Finally, as I lay on the ground, covered with otter feces and urine, the kushtaka shaman approached me and told me he was letting me go. He was letting me go so I could return to the world and tell them not to build the resort.”
David sat down in his chair and closed his eyes, breathing softly. The room was still for a minute, maybe two. Eddie and Tom were transfixed by the story. Jenna knew there was more. There was something else. Something he didn’t tell.
“At least they let you go,” Eddie finally offered, trying to break the silence.
“No, they didn’t,” David answered, opening his eyes and looking at Jenna. “He told me he was going to punish me by taking the life of my child who wasn’t yet born.” He paused. “Two days later, my wife lost our baby.”
There. The story had been told. David and Jenna looked at each other, understanding that they shared something after all. They had both been robbed. They had both lost something.
“I have to save my son,” Jenna said, finally.
“I don’t know how,” David said. “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything. I don’t know how to help you.”
There was nothing else to say, then. Jenna and Tom put on their damp clothes, and with Eddie and Oscar the spirit helper, they hauled themselves up the muddy wall outside David Livingstone’s house and drove back to the world of humans, where four posts of wood could offer them no protection from the spirits that hid in the shadows and brought men to their knees.
Chapter 33
JOEY LEANED BACK AGAINST THE WALL OF THE TERMINAL BUILDING, trying to stay dry under the awning. The drizzle was light, but the wind blew it around in such a way that it felt as if it were coming from all over, not falling from the sky. Joey looked toward the mountains where he had seen the last plane emerge from the clouds to land, and sure enough, he soon saw another Alaska Airlines jet drop out of gray sky and hang in the air over the mountains. Slowly and quietly it crept closer, making its way toward the airport, growing larger and louder until it finally touched down in front of him. It rolled to a stop, its engines still whining, and two men pushed a portable staircase to the forward door. Four people got off the plane; the last was Robert.