by Darrel Bird
It hadn’t snowed much the night before, and it was easy to follow his trail back down to the lake. They walked along the shoreline to where he had set up before.
“The wolves have ranged off; they haven’t come down for water. “No talking now.” He whispered. “Get down in the rocks; don’t move around unless you have to.”
She obeyed, he settled down to wait. He leaned the rifle against the large rock and put his hands under his arm pits; he knew that if he couldn’t shoot, the wait would be for nothing.
An hour passed, then two before he saw movement at the edge of the trees; he eased his hand over to the rifle as he watched the spot.
He watched the spot for movement again; it was just a spot of gray. “I’ve got to pee.” She whispered; he jabbed her face with his fist. “Shut up.” He whispered fiercely.
She didn’t move as he kept his eye on the spot of gray that was 50 yards away. Soon the spot moved and became a head with large antlers as the Moose moved ever so slowly toward the lake again. Oh God, let me get a good shot. The moose looked around then advanced toward the shoreline, he fired and the Moose jumped and then slowly sank to the ground.
He got up and walked slowly toward the animal, the rifle at the ready, but the animal didn’t move. He saw that he had gotten a clean head shot. He walked up to the animal and slit its throat with his knife. She looked away as he did that.
She began to shake and then began crying. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I…I…I peed my pants. I couldn’t help it.” She sniffled. He looked down at her crotch at the wet stain.
He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, “Its ok; you did good.” She leaned her head against his chest and cried more.
“I’m no good to us.”
“Yes you are, if you hadn’t done what I said you would have scared the Moose. It's better you pee your pants than starve to death.”
She stood back, brushed the tears away and smiled. “You have a beautiful smile. Let's get this done.” He began cutting around the neck of the large animal, then slicing the skin down the belly.
After about an hour he had the animal gutted and skinned, he began packing some of the meat in the skin until the skin, loaded with meat, weighed nearly a hundred pounds.
He sat back to rest a little, then began cutting strips of hide off the rest of the skin and laid that aside. The steam off the warm meat had already subsided.
“Why are you doing that?”
“We have to hang what we can’t carry up high or the scavengers will have it before we can get back to get it.”
“Oh…you’re good at this. I wish I were more help.”
“You’re doing fine. You are about to earn your keep by helping me lug this meat back to the cabin.”
He went about hanging the rest of the meat in the trees and then announced it was time to go.
He picked up the loaded skin and began making his way back around the shoreline toward the cabin. She staggered under the load when he called on her to spell him, but she worked just as hard as he did.
He threw open the door of the cabin and deposited his load on the floor; he walked over to the stove and began raking the ashes around, then put some small wood on the live coals.
“Strip off your pants there by the door, we have to wash them.”
“Can you go outside?”
“I have to take care of this meat and skin, now strip. I didn’t tell you to piss your pants.” He said gruffly.
She was angry, but she began stripping off the rags for boots then her pants, “The panties too.”
She turned around and began pulling her panties off, then ran to the bed and jumped into it.
He laughed as he continued working with the meat.
“Its not funny! Did you get an eyeful?”
“Sure did!” He laughed again. “I’ll wash the clothes, but if you do that again, you’ll wash them naked. You can bathe yourself with the warm water in the bucket while I’m gone.
The anger faded from her eyes. “I’ll be more careful next time...thank you.”
He said nothing as he finished working with the meat, he picked up her wet clothes and headed back down to the stream to wash them.
I’m pretty rank myself. He stripped off his clothes and shivered as he washed himself the best he could in the ice-cold water of the stream. The stream had a rim of ice at the edges, and he knew that soon they would have to chop the ice to get drinking water as the temperature descended to below zero.
When he got back to the cabin, the cabin was warm, and he heard her regular breathing, she was sound asleep, her long hair splayed out over the makeshift pillow.
Good, it's been a long day, and you did good. He hung her clothes around the stove and watched as the steam began to rise off them.
He took off his coat and boots, then slid gently into bed beside her; she didn’t wake up, but she snuggled closer too him and laid her arm across his chest.
He farted, then smiled. Glad she isn’t awake to smell that one.
He ached lying in bed with the scent of a woman. He lay there thinking for a spell, then dropped off too sleep.
He awoke to the smell of fresh meat cooking on the stove. She was dressed and stirring the meat. “Did your clothes get dry?”
“Yes, thank you.” She smiled, and her face seemed to glow in the dim light of the cabin. “I would give a tooth for a cup of coffee.”
He looked studiously at her, “Well…can’t help you there, but we can make spruce tea, cedar tea and willow bark tea. A cup of Willow bark tea a day won’t hurt, and it will help with the aches and pains.”
“Where did you learn all this?”
“From my Dad, he was a great woodsman. When we were going hunting, my Dad would just walk out the door with nothing but his rifle. He always said we would eat on the way.”
“And did you?”
“Yes, but I don’t recommend some of the stuff we had to eat.” He grinned.
“What is your name?”
“Owen…Owen Durant.”
“Mines Tessa Parker.”
“What am I supposed to do with this information?”
“You can address me by my name; it’s not ‘you’ its Tessa.”
“You suits me fine. You don’t want a relationship, and that’s fine by me, because I don’t have anything to give.”
“Can we avoid some kind of relationship? Can’t we be friends?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Anger began boiling up at her, and he didn’t know why.
The weather turned stormy and colder as the trees rattled around the thick logs of the old cabin, the next day was almost dark as night and Owen worked on the Moose hide, carefully removing any remaining flesh.
His hands ached from scraping at the hide, but it did help to pass the hours.
Some of the hide he cut into long strips for binding, and also snares. With the hides of small animals he caught he could make two sets of mittens and by turning the fur in, the mittens would protect their hands from frostbite.
He intended to set a line of snares to and around the lake.
Tessa said nothing the whole day as the hours wore on, relentless and excruciating in the confines of the one-room cabin with a bitter man who glared at her as he scraped the hide of a wild animal, he looked as wild as the hide draped across the floor, hair side down.
She didn’t know what she had done to set him off, and she dreaded the time when he would turn the damper on the front of the stove and crawl into bed.
That night the wolves returned and howled around the cabin as the tree branches scraped against the walls. She found relief by dreaming of sunny southern California, kids playing in the back yard of their suburban home. Day dreams turned to night dreams, and the night dreams were worse than the day as she reached for her husband only to have him slowly recede from her sight.
She awoke to find the man sitting by the stove; the cabin was warm, and he looked to be in a better mood.
�
��I think we can go to the lake today, maybe get an arctic fox.”
“You go; I'll stay here; I want to clean myself, and I don’t want you around.”
“I’m sorry about yesterday.” He looked at her.
“I should have let well enough alone. I’m sorry too.”
“I’ll cut us some Willow bark and Spruce needles that will help; the Spruce tea will help with the depression.”
He got up and gathered his gear then walked to the door. “I’ll try to be more amiable.” He closed the door gently behind him.
His soft-spoken words brought the tears she needed, and she sat and had a good cry, then took the bucket down to the stream to get water to heat on the stove. She shivered as she saw the wolf tracks in the snow.
She saw a small tree, and even though it was leafless the branches were thick with bright-red berries of some kind. She broke off some of the branches and put them in the tin can on the little table. Her mood lightened as she puttered around the cabin setting everything as straight as she could. Soon the water was warm, and she stripped off her clothing too bathe.
She noticed some red rash down between her legs. The warm water felt so good to her body, when she was finished, she felt cleaner than she had felt for days. She crawled into bed and dreamed the same dream; she could not quite reach her husband, then he faded from view again; she cried in her sleep.
Tessa awoke feeling dragged out just before the man came through the door. He dumped some bark on the table, then a fresh pelt on the floor. “Arctic fox, got one. Could you separate out the different barks there?”
She picked up the beautiful pelt, “Poor thing.”
“That poor thing is going to keep your feet warm.”
“What are these roots like things?”
“Those are Cattail and Eskimo potato. You can cut them up and boil them with the meat.”
The barks we’ll dry out to make tea.”
“Owen.”
“Yes?”
“I keep dreaming a dream that I can’t reach my husband, do you think it might be a portent of things to come?”
“I doubt it, probably just the fact that you are isolated from him. In a few months, we’ll be able to leave, and I imagine they’ll stop. Try to hang in there.”
He laid his hand softly on her shoulder.
The months did pass, and Owen began making her a pair of boots to travel in, “Come here and stand in front of me.”
He worked with the hides, putting the hair of the arctic fox next to her feet and legs, then patiently sewed the whole thing into a warm boot. The work took four hours with the bone needle and sharp knife. He put three layers of Moose hide for the soles.
They were very bulky, but he thought she could manage them.
“Ok, put them on and walk around the room.”
She slipped her feet into the boots, “Oh Owen, these feel so soft and warm…Thank you so much.”
“That’s ok, glad to do it; it keeps me busy too.”
“Here, try these.” He produced a pair of rabbit skin mittens he had made as he sat on the hunting stand by the lake.
“Oh, these feel so soft and warm. When did you make them?”
“Never mind, it was just something to do while I sat freezing my ass off on the stand.”
“Owen, why can't you take a compliment?”
“I don't need them.” And she could sense the anger rising again.
The day came when Owen decided it was time to leave. He arose from the bed early, put lots of wood in the stove and began to heat water and reheat the food.
As soon as the water was heated, he made strong Willow bark tea.
He shook her awake, “Here, get up and drink this.”
Her face felt flush; she felt tired, and as soon as her feet hit the floor, she felt dizzy. She rushed to the door and vomited over the porch. She came back in looking very pale.
“What’s the matter with you?”
“I don’t know; I don’t feel good, and I feel so weak.”
“Here, drink the Willow tea.”
He felt her face, “You are burning up, and we can’t leave with you in that kind of shape.”
She drank some of the tea and grimaced, “I don’t want to hold us up.”
“Don’t worry about that, we’ve been here this long, and another day won’t matter. Why don’t you go back to bed and rest some, now off with you.”
He walked her to the bed and tucked her in, “Rest now, and we’ll leave tomorrow.”
“Ok.” She closed her eyes and slept as Owen sat at the table and watched and listened as her breathing became more labored.
He remembered his wish that she hadn’t survived the crash, Oh God, what was I thinking? Now she’s sick, and I don’t know what to do for her.
She didn’t get better the next day or the next day after that. The weeks wore on, and the weakness and fevers subsisted; Owen worked on the cabin roof, gathered wood and ran his snare lines. The snares produced a little meat as the spring thaw began. The danger from bears became more acute as the ice melted in the creek, and around the lake. He was able to scare a few of them by waving his arms and beating on an old tin pan he had recovered under the porch of the cabin.
Killing a bear would produce meat, but it would quickly spoil in the rising temperatures, so larger animals was out of the question.
Tessa was never able to leave the cabin.
He climbed the side of one of the surrounding mountain's to get a look around, and he saw that the lake was actually an extinct volcano, possible two together that formed a sort of bowl, and he realized that it made an ideal place to survive here in the winter. The presence of the wolf pack indicated the presence of other animals that made their home in this valley.
He found Dandelion in a small meadow about a mile from the cabin which gave them some relief, boiled and as a salad. The problem was, she couldn't hold her food down much.
Owen thought she might have gotten some kind of virus or other thing in the creek water they drank, but why didn't he get sick too?
As soon as the weather warmed up, the mosquitoes began to be another problem. He searched until he found a bank of clay to smear on their faces, arms, and the backs of their hands. He found punk wood to light from the stove. He waved that around the room in the cabin to keep the mosquitoes out of the room while she slept.
He picked wild flowers and put them in empty food cans for her.
Owen was gone out hunting when she struggled to pull herself from the bed and walked to look out the window at the exploding wild flowers that seemed to dot every nook and cranny of the surrounding forest.
This place is so beautiful, beyond anything I have ever seen.
She turned away from the scene and returned to the bed exhausted.
He gave her three cups a day of strong Willow tea, and that seemed to help a little, but she grew very thin as the short Alaskan summer rolled all too quickly into fall.