In Fond Remembrance of Me (7 page)

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Authors: Howard Norman

BOOK: In Fond Remembrance of Me
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“Who controls things here?”
“Many things-many spirits—different ones. Important ones.”
“Not me—the one who controls things for me is back home.”
“You're wrong.”
“No.”
“Yes. If you live here—the important spirits control you.”
“Not me.”
“You're wrong.”
Then Noah threw some big handfuls of animal dung down at the people in their kayaks. They paddled off. The ark drifted out on Hudson Bay all night.
The next day people paddled out to the ark again.
“Hey, what's falling from the sky?” Noah said.
“Snow.”
“I don't like it. It's cold.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” the villagers all laughed up from their kayaks.
Noah threw big handfuls of dung down on them and they paddled away.
The next day, some hunters paddled out to the ark again.
“What's that animal taste like—is it good?” one hunter said.
“Which one?” said Noah.
“The one that has the long neck and spots.”
“There's two of them,” said Noah.
“Let us have one. We'll tell you how it tastes, good or bad.”
“No,” said Noah.
“If you visit a village you should give something. You have a lot of food-animals there. Give us one.”
“No.”
“Soon it will be snowing harder. Soon snow will cover everything. Soon ice will gather tightly around your boat.”
“How do I get out of here?”
“You have to live here all winter.”
Hearing this put Noah in a bad way. He looked angry. He shouted. He threw more handfuls of dung, but the people had
backed up their kayaks already. “Come to our village and we will let you live with us all winter. Are you alone?”
“No, I have a wife. I have a son. I have a daughter.”
“We'll find someone to marry each of those.”
“Go away.”
The hunters paddled back in the snowfall over the water. When it was snowing its hardest, that is when a woolly elephant came out and was walking around. Woolly mammoths were around, then, and this one was walking along the shore. Then the ice locked in the ark.
Ice locked in the ark and a woolly mammoth walked out to the ark. Everyone in the village saw this.
Some hunters got spears, ran out, and tried to cut off the woolly mammoth. They closed in on it. The woolly mammoth had three choices: it could keep walking fast away, it could turn on the hunters, it could climb onto the ark.
The woolly mammoth tried to climb onto the ark, but its tusks tore into the sides. Then it loosened from the ark and climbed up onto it. Some villagers went out and repaired the holes, covered them with stretched sealskins. Then they shouted up to Noah, “Look, we repaired your boat. Now, please give us that woolly mammoth. It can give us enough food for our whole village.”
“No,” said Noah. “I need it. I'll kill it and my family will eat it.”
“You don't know how to eat a woolly mammoth!” a hunter said.
“Go away. Get out of here!”
The villagers went back home over the ice. They went hunting, they fished. Food was brought in and people didn't go hungry yet.
One day Noah showed up in the village. “We've run out of food,” he said. “My family is hungry.”
“Did you eat some more of the strange animals you travel with?”
“Yes, but others run from us when we approach, or fly up, or flee out over the ice.”
“Yes, we've seen some run over the ice.”
“Do you have some food for us?” Noah said.
“Do you know how to hunt seals through breathing-holes?”
“No.”
“Do you know how to chisel a hole for ice fishing?”
“No.”
“If another woolly mammoth climbs onto your boat, will you give it to us?”
“No.”
Hearing this, some hunters poked spears at Noah. They did not stab into him. They only pushed him along the ice, all the way back to his ark. The hunters returned home.
Snow and sleet, more snow. It was deep into winter now. Then, one day, some villagers were out hunting woolly mammoths. They saw one. They began to chase it. They were almost close enough to throw spears when the woolly mammoth climbed onto the ark. The hunters were impressed, how woolly mammoths had learned how to climb onto an ark. This one did it on the first try! The hunters admired the woolly mammoth very much.
A hunter called up to Noah, “Give us the woolly mammoth!”
“No!” said Noah. “It's mine. I'll kill it and eat it.”
Noah had made a spear. He stood near the woolly mammoth. He threw from close up and missed, which is hard to do, miss a
woolly mammoth completely. The spear didn't even bounce off the woolly mammoth's hide!
The woolly mammoth fled the ark then. It ran off across the ice, out to other woolly mammoths. The woolly mammoths talked amongst themselves. Finally, they decided to live under the ground. They decided this so as not to be huntedimproperly—to be insulted—by Noah. This is how Noah caused woolly mammoths to flee underground. The villagers never saw a woolly mammoth again.
All the rest of that winter, villagers left scraps of food for Noah and his family. Ptarmigan bones. Rotted seal flippers. Things picked out of fox droppings and polar bear droppings. Fish skulls and fish bones and dried-up fish tails. It got Noah's family through until the ice thawed.
When the ice thawed, the ark sank into the water. Some villagers paddled out and carried Noah and his family to the village in kayaks. Then they poked spears at them. “Go. Get out! Go in that direction!”
The villagers watched Noah and his family set out to the south. They carried a little food. When Noah and his family were no longer seen, the villagers went back to everything as it was before.
That is what happened.
(Transcript)
MN:
You leave on the train soon, eh?
HN:
In a few days, yes.
MN:
Helen with you?
HN:
Yes.
MN:
She will not be staying, then.
HN:
No.
MN:
Helen and me, we did a lot of good work, I'd say.
HN:
She said that.
MN:
Good.
HN:
Thanks for all of your help, Mark. It meant a lot to me. It was important to me.
MN:
Helen taught me a lot of Japanese words. Did you know that?
HN:
No.
MN:
Well, she did.
HN:
As for your stories, I won't ever think of Noah—
MN:
—oh,
him
.
HN:
I won't ever think of Noah in the same way. The rest of my life.
MN:
All he ever had to do was give up some animals and pry off a plank of wood.
HN:
You
didn't allow him to do that. In your stories, I mean.
MN:
Noah didn't allow it.
HN:
But they're your stories, Mark. So—
MN:
I don't own them. I only tell them. (
Pause
.) When do you think I'll get the rest of my money for telling them?
HN:
Soon. Let's say in two weeks. I'll see to it, Mark.
MN:
Helen has already paid me.
HN:
Yes, she told me.
MN:
You liked the stories, eh?
HN:
Very much. I was lucky to hear them.
MN:
All that good plank-wood—
HN:
—what?
MN:
All he had to do was pry up a plank. Everybody would have got through winter.
 
 
 
A BAD THING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN
 
One day some men came back from fishing. They said, “There's a big wooden boat out there!” Everyone in the village went down to look. They stood by the sea. “Yes, there it is.” A group of men paddled out in kayaks to the boat.
It began to snow.
When they got to the boat, one shouted, “Hey—what kind of boat is this?”
“Go away!” a man shouted down.
“What's your name?”
“Noah!”
“Is your family with you?”
“Yes,” said Noah. Then three people were standing next to him. “Here they are—my wife, son, and daughter.”
“Noah,” said a village man, “you should come to our village—now! A bad thing is about to happen.”
“Go away.”
“What's this big boat called, anyway?”
“An ark.”
“Noah, leave this ark—a bad thing is about to happen.”
“What's that smell?” a man said. “It's not seals.”
“There's a lot of animals on my ark. After long travels on this boat, they stink.”
“Throw them down to us. We'll kill them and eat them. What do they taste like?”
“My family doesn't eat them,” this Noah said.
This caused a lot of talk amongst the villagers. “What? What? What?”
Then someone sniffed the air. “Hey! Hey—the stink is gone!”
Noah went below to look, and when he returned, he said, “The animals are gone. Somebody took them. A bad thing just happened.”
“It has to be the shaman. He's been nearby some days now,” a villager said.
“Why would he steal my animals?” said Noah.
“Because he doesn't want you here. He hates your ark. He's probably tasting a few of your animals right now, at the bottom of the sea, or maybe in a far place, behind some rocks. He'll never tell us what they taste like, either. He'll keep the animals for himself.”
“What's falling from the sky?” asked Noah's wife.
“Snow—it's winter now,” a man said.
“What will happen?” she said.
With this, winter arrived. The ark was stuck in the ice. Seals came up through breathing-holes out on the ice—you could hear them barking. Then someone shouted, “Look—!” and people saw all sorts of strange animals next to seal breathing-holes! Animals the villagers had never seen before—strange animals. “The shaman's hid them below the ice!”
“Bring me this man—this shaman,” said Noah. “I'll sweep him down to the ice with my broom!” This made the villagers laugh very hard.
“You can't fight him,” a man said. “He'll stab your broom straight through your heart—he'll do what he wants.”
“How will I get my animals back?” Noah said.
“Offer the shaman some planks of wood—for a fire,” a man said.
“No,” said this Noah.
“Then you'll have to dive under the ice itself,” a man said.
“No,” said Noah.
With this, Noah's daughter walked out onto the ice! She walked up to a seal. She grabbed onto its flipper. Both the seal and Noah's daughter slipped through the ice and disappeared. “Get my daughter back!” Noah cried.
With this, Noah's son climbed down from the ark, walked up to a seal, grabbed its flipper. Both the seal and Noah's son disappeared under the ice. “Get my son back!” Noah cried out.
With this, Noah's wife walked up to a seal. She grabbed its flipper. Both the seal and Noah's wife disappeared through the breathing-hole. “Get my wife back!” Noah shouted.
“They won't be back until ice-break-up,” a man said. “Go on, go on, grab a seal flipper and go after them!”
“No—no,” said this Noah.
With this, the villagers went out onto the ice to hunt seals. People at home in the village were hungry. They caught many seals. On their way home, they shouted up, “Noah—come with us. We'll feed you until the ice-break-up. Just give us a few planks of wood.”
“No,” said Noah.
“Look—!” a man shouted. Everyone looked out onto the ice and saw Noah's wife curled up next to a breathing-hole. Farther on, Noah's son was curled up next to a breathing-hole. Farther on a little, Noah's daughter was curled up next to a breathing-hole. “They seem to be doing well,” a man said.
“Wife! Daughter! Son!” Noah shouted loudly—it caused his wife, daughter, and son to startle and slip through the ice.
“How can I get them back?” Noah asked.
“Give the shaman your ark,” a village man said.
“Go away,” said this Noah.
The villagers kept Noah fed with scraps of food the rest of the winter. When the ice-break-up arrived, Noah's family did not get back on the ark. They chose to live with seals—or maybe the shaman chose that. You see what a shaman does—you don't always see the shaman!
Noah's ark was now floating again. But the ice had cracked open the bottom. The ark sank away into the sea. Noah was given a kayak and paddled it near to the village. “I don't like what happened here!” he said.
“Tell us what happened,” a woman shouted out.
“A shaman made my family live with seals. A shaman took the animals from my ark. My ark sank away into the sea.”
“The shaman didn't stab a broom into you,” the woman said. “Stop complaining. Seals have good lives—be happy for your wife, daughter, son. They know how to get through winter.”
Then Noah paddled in the southerly direction until nobody could see him.

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