Chapter Ten

EARLY MORNING • BEATRICE’S FEATHER • SUPPLIES • CORN POE’S DEPARTURE • LISTEN

LIONEL WOKE to the sound of Corn Poe’s voice. “Hell, I may have to grow my hair out,” Corn Poe said. “Then you could wrap mine just like that.”

Lionel lifted the heavy buffalo robe and sat up. His body was stiff, but he felt rested and somehow, once again hungry. He turned to see Beatrice sitting on the corner of the fireplace and Grandpa still in his rocker by her side.

Beatrice looked different. She looked more like Grandpa than she had when Lionel had fallen asleep. Strips of red and blue flannel were woven into her long, thick braids, and one of their grandfather’s hunting knives hung from a beaded belt that was cinched at her waist. Lionel wondered if perhaps his dream were true and that Beatrice had changed on the far side of the horizon, and then returned.

“I’ll lend you this until you and young Lionel there find your own way,” Grandpa was saying as he tied a long feather from a red-tailed hawk’s wing into Beatrice’s braid.

Beatrice smiled, and Lionel thought that it was the first time he had seen her smile since before they had left the boarding school. Lionel ran his hand across his closely cropped hair.

“Don’t you worry. You’re next. It just might take a while before we can get to it, eh, boy?” Grandpa stood to stoke the coals from the previous night. “I think we best get moving.”

Lionel saw through the cabin’s small frosted windows that it was still dark. He slipped back into his clothes and crossed to the door.

“Get some water on your way back,” Grandpa called after Lionel. “It’s good to see you up on your feet. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake.”

Lionel smiled, opened the cabin’s door, and stepped out onto the fresh-fallen snow. He stood for a moment looking up at the faded stars and full moon that still hung in the far corners of the clear, early-morning sky. The air was cold and dry, and Lionel could feel it filling his lungs as he walked past the small stable to the outhouse.

Ulysses stood in a stall next to Grandpa’s mule. He snorted to the air as Lionel passed.

“I’ll get to you, don’t worry about that,” Lionel said, his voice cracking with his first words of the day.

Lionel continued to the outhouse, looking to the river, confused by what his grandfather had told him about Napi the old Man creating the land. The Brothers and priest at the school had told Lionel that the world, the entire world, was created by someone else, not Napi the old Man, and that it had taken six days. He wondered how two different people could create the same world on which they walked and rode across every day. He still wondered what had happened to the Frozen Man.

When Lionel retuned to the warmth of the cabin, he heard the snap, popping sound of bacon. Corn Poe sat by the fire with a long fork in his hand.

“Hey, there. That’s for all of us,” Grandpa shouted across the room as Corn Poe tried to blow on a piece of sizzling bacon that was already in his mouth.

Grandpa stood over a wooden table with Beatrice at his side, looking at a large map. “The river will lead you up into the Mountain, but remember there are many twists and turns. once you get to the base of the Mountain, a stream will join the river. You must follow this stream north. The stream will take you to the valley and then the meadow.”

Lionel glanced around the room. Small bundles made of heavy canvas lay about in preparation for travel. There was grain for Ulysses, a collection of small pots and pans, preserved vegetables in glass jars, canned fruit, salt pork, jerked venison, and various items of heavy wool clothes. The buffalo robe that Lionel slept in was also tied into a tight bundle and sitting next to the supplies.

“Where are we going?” Lionel asked.

“Into the Mountain,” Grandpa replied, and went about his work.

They ate a large breakfast of eggs, slab bacon, and canned pears; then Grandpa told Lionel to go out and tend to Ulysses because they had a long ride ahead of them.

Lionel stepped back out into the morning thinking about what his grandfather said. Into the Mountain? where was that?

Lionel could see the first hints of light in the eastern sky. He fed Ulysses, then led him to the river where the great horse drank. Lionel scanned the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the three hawks and the eagle that circled his memory of their grandfather’s cabin, but the sky was empty except for the low snow clouds that hung in the distance.

Lionel turned back to the cabin and wondered if, wherever they were headed, he would ever see Grandpa’s place again. He hoped that if he did return, he could come live with Grandpa instead of at the boarding school. Lionel liked school but thought that living with his grandfather would be better and something that, at the very least, he should try. He thought about what his sister had said and felt that he too would like to learn about the ways of the old People.

Lionel’s thoughts were interrupted by Grandpa, Beatrice, and Corn Poe, who gathered with the bundles around Ulysses. Grandpa instructed Beatrice how to tie the supplies to the back of the horse. Then he handed her a long rifle wrapped in buckskin and a wooden box filled with ammunition.

“I want you to be careful with this. Kill only what you’ll eat.”

Corn Poe stood back, inspecting the horse and its newly configured load. The small boy was quiet this morning, and Lionel thought that the cold must be taking its toll on him.

“I don’t see how we’re all gonna fit with all this here junk you got tied all over,” Corn Poe said, more to Grandpa than anyone else.

“You’re right about that. I think you’ll be coming with me,” Grandpa said as he double-checked the lashings. “We’ll wander for a while to throw off them government boys, and then I’ll get you back to your home.”

“But…I thought…” Corn Poe stammered.

“Well, you thought wrong. It’s too cold to be wanderin’ about unless you have to. Until we straighten this all out, these two don’t have a choice. You do, and I’m making it for you,” Grandpa said with a wink. “Besides, we’re on a mission of our own.”

Grandpa spun Ulysses around and lifted Lionel onto his back. Lionel’s legs were stiff, as if he’d just gotten off the horse moments before.

“Now, me and the Corn Poe’s wanderin’ won’t throw them for long, but it should help. You’re going to need every little bit of a lead we can give. Hell, to be honest with ya, if you can make it to the Mountain, I doubt you’ll see any of them soldiers until well into the thaw. Maybe not even till summer.”

Beatrice slipped up behind Lionel, and Grandpa threw the buffalo robe around them.

“Now, Beatrice, it might be cold out there in the open, but I want you to walk in the shallows of the river when you can for the first half of the day. It’ll be harder for them to track you from the river, and this big fellow looks like he can handle it.”

Grandpa slipped a rawhide harness over Ulysses’s head.

“From the looks of things, you should get some more snow this afternoon. That’ll help. You hide out until you hear from me. I’ll bring this one back by the Boss Ribs’ place and see what I can find out, and then, once some of the excitement has worn off, I’ll come and find ya with more supplies and some sorta plan.”

Beatrice took the reins in her hands and turned Ulysses toward the river.

“Now, I want you two to pay attention. Be aware of what’s around you and watch. That school and them government men tried to kill that in ya. You’ve got to find and listen to it. Listen to the animals, the wind, the mountains. we may not speak the same language no more, but they’re talkin’ to ya. It’s up to you if you choose to listen.”

Grandpa took a long braid of twisted sweet grass from his jacket and lit the end. He raised it high above his head and began to sing. The smoke swirled above him and lay flat on the cold morning air. Corn Poe stood at his side watching Grandpa’s every move as Beatrice urged Ulysses past them and into the shallow icy water of the river.