Keeper'n Me (22 page)

“Oh, I don't know,” she said. “how far are we going to go?”

Wally gulped so loud I thought the dancers could hear him and he brushed back his hair and wriggled his shoulders while he shopped for a good comeback.

“No way of knowin' till you get there, is there?” he said finally, standing up and offering his hand to the little dancer. “But come with me an' I'll show you somethin' you ain't never seen before. An' maybe I'll show you the radio too.”

She batted those big brown eyes again and giggled, and they disappeared in the direction of Wally's while I smiled, shook my head and turned back towards the dancing. I caught a glimpse of Chief Isaac walking with a visiting chief off towards his house. Probably going to show him his new satellite TV set-up and pump him for information on the latest developments in native politics in his area. Lotsa different kinds of snagging goes on at pow-wows, see.

About an hour later after the dancing had shut down I was sitting at Keeper's having a late-night game of checkers and some tea. Keeper almost spilled his mug all over the board when Wally's voice burst from the radio speaker beside us.

“This is the seat where all the magic happens, baby—If you lived here I'd be slidin' through your window ev'ry night for four hours of uninterrupted bliss.”

There was a shy little giggle in the background as Wally started to explain how he played the records and then went live with his own electrifying country singing.
Then he played a slow, inviting version of “Back in the Saddle Again” while Keeper'n me almost choked with laughter. When he finished singing Wally asked her if she might like to join him at the broadcast desk and we could hear soft smooching and the occasional giggle.

Guess what happened was, old Wally forgot to turn his amplifier off. Most folks were home now too and it wasn't too long before big Barry Kingfisher almost tore the door off Keeper's cabin rushing in to tell us the news.

“Keeper Keeper Keeper!” he yelled. “Wall's on the radio with some girl an' it sounds like he's going for it!”

Meanwhile Wally's voice was whispering through the speakers about how the Red Sky men were known far and wide for their prowess in the lovemakin' department and how the White Dog women just wouldn't or couldn't seem to leave him alone. Letting them down easy without breaking their hearts was a skill he'd had to learn over a number of years on accounta Wally was saving his vital energy and juices for that special someone somewhere. By this time there was about ten of us all huddled around Keeper's speaker in varying states of helpless laughter. We could hear roars of laughter coming across from other cabins and figured that old Wally was really going prime time that night.

All of which would have been fine by White Dog standards, except that by this time Chief Isaac and his guest had browsed through the 147 available channels on the chief's satellite TV and now old Isaac was about
to show off the latest in White Dog technology. As they walked into the kitchen they caught the sounds of Wally's more amorous advances.

“Mmmmmm, so where'd you say you were from there, sugar lips?” he asked to uproarious laughter from all across the reserve.

Chief Isaac would later explain down at the store how they too suddenly got interested in the romance of the airwaves and pulled up chairs around Isaac's kitchen table.

“Rat Portage. You know, down south a little?” she said softly.

“Hey, that's one of the girls from my band,” said Isaac's guest, suddenly more interested.

“Heard it's good fishin' down there,” Wally whispered. “I can see it now. Moonlight … a canoe … me … and you. Mmmmm.”

“Mmmmmmmm,” she sighed. “Yeah. Mmmmmm. Yeah.”

“What's your name anyway, honey?” Wally asked. We all heard frantic shuffling from the speaker.

“Audrey,” she said shyly. “Audrey Two Canoes.”

Now there are those who claim to this day that you could hear the scream that came from Isaac's that night clear across the townsite, even over top of all the laughter that was rolling openly between houses. We didn't hear anything at Keeper's but we sure were glued to the radio that night. Chief Isaac later said his guest nearly hit the roof when he heard her say her name. Turns out,
you see, that his visitor was Chief Oscar Two Canoes of Rat Portage and Audrey was his youngest daughter up at White Dog to compete in the jingle-dress competition and whom he believed to be with her mother at a cousin's house.

“Where is he? Where is he?” Chief Oscar screamed at Isaac. “I swear I'll beat him within an inch of his life. Where is he?”

He charged out of Isaac's kitchen, grabbing the wire leading from the speaker and following it down the road all bent over like a garbage dump bear. All the while he was shouting her name and Wally's name at the top of his lungs and describing in perfect detail the harm that was about to befall radio's chief executive once he located the White Dog One studios.

All hunched over and squinting in the darkness Chief Oscar felt his way along that wire up to each and every house on White Dog. Maggie and Ben Stevenson almost jumped out of their nightshirts when an enraged, sweaty, somewhat ugly Indian appeared at their bedroom window screaming all kinds of vile things in their direction and then disappeared into the night. Ben grabbed his partridge shotgun and headed out the door in full pursuit, the tail of his nightshirt flapping away in the wind behind him.

When Chief Oscar's greasy, bush-torn face appeared at Len and Clarice Bird's window they too screamed and took off after him. House after house joined the parade chasing Chief Oscar across the reserve. By the
time they reached Keeper's there was about fifty Indians in full pursuit of what they believed to be an evil spirit come to kidnap their children in the dark.

Chief Oscar's head appeared at Keeper's window just slightly ahead of the angry mob. We were still busy listening to Wally's major moves and Audrey's enthusiastic replies when they burst through the door.

“Come on, you guys!” Len Bird shouted at us. “Need ya with us 'cause we got a bad spirit chasin' the kids around tonight!”

Keeper jumped up all startled, grabbed his coat and headed out the door. By the time the ten of us joined the parade of people stumbling through the dark after the barely visible hunched-over shape of Chief Oscar, there was about sixty people involved.

Out past the cabins on the edges of Shotgun Bay and back through the bush towards the townsite we crashed and tumbled after Chief Oscar, whose bellowing could still be heard a long ways off. He did sound like an enraged spirit and some of the language we heard that night made us awful grateful we weren't the ones this evil being was after.

Things kind of got settled down once we hit the dirt road through the townsite again and Chief Isaac pulled up in his four-by-four and told us about Chief Oscar. As many of us as possible crammed into the back of the truck and headed off to prevent disaster at the White Dog One Radio Network. Turned out that Chief Oscar beat us by about a heartbeat.

All we heard as we pulled up was a loud pair of screeches followed by one heck of a lot of banging and crashing before Wally Red Sky burst through his open window, shirtless, shoeless and barely managing to zip up his Levi's. He took off down the road faster'n I seen anyone move around here before or since. Chief Oscar flew through the window head first and roiled in a big heap at our feet before jumping up still screaming and headed off in pursuit of the rapidly disappearing Wally. He had Wally's guitar held up in both hands over his head and he looked pretty intent on braining him a good one if he could get close enough.

For his part Wally was hightailing down the road like a jackrabbit from wolves, little puffs of dust being kicked up by each footstep. He was screaming back over his shoulder at the fast-approaching form of Chief Oscar.

“Radio play! Radio play! Wasn't real! Wasn't real!” we heard him scream as he turned sharply off the road and headed into the bush.

“Radio play, my ass!” screamed Chief Oscar as he too crashed into the bush, swinging Wally's guitar like a machete at the bushes and limbs in his face.

All we could hear was loud crashing and screaming through the timber and Wally's voice fading further and further away in one long continuous “AHHHhhhhhhhh … !”

By this time of course we were all rolling around on the ground laughing as hard as we could. We could
hear laughter from all around us and no one even bothered calling out to Audrey as she slipped out the door of Wally's and headed off towards her cousin's. By the time things settled down enough for people to breathe again we could hear only faint crashings deep in the bush.

“Oh boy, that Wally,” Keeper said, holding his belly with tears streaming down his face. “Always managin' to stay one step ahead of his audience!”

Wally's fear eventually outran Chief Oscar's anger. Either that or being a local he knew the area better and managed to lose the chief in the darkness. But Oscar showed up about four in the morning all bush-torn and sweaty carrying what was left of Wally's old guitar. He was nodding and mumbling about all sorts of things and then just as he was climbing into his pickup he burst out in great rolling waves of laughter. That's what woke us up actually. Huge spasms of laughter that kinda echoed off the lake. When Ma'n me looked down the hill towards the townsite all we could see was the burly shape of Chief Oscar rolling around on the dirt road by the ball diamond shrieking and shrieking with laughter.

By the time any of us reached him he was sitting in the middle of the road with tears streaming down his face.

“Ah-hoo, ah-hoo, ah-hoo!” he sorta coughed and laughed at the same time. “Where you from there,
sugar lips!” he said and burst out in rolls of laughter again.

“Me'n you, a canoe … ah-hoo, ah-hoo-hoo-hoo!” he laughed and started to climb into the cab of his truck. “Funniest damn thing I ever heard in my life. Ah-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!”

He looked out at the little group of us standing there and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief. “Best damn pow-wow I bin to in a long time.

“Funniest thing I ever heard. Tell that kid he's okay in my books. Little weird maybe, but okay. An' tell Audrey when she comes outta hidin' that it's all okay too. Damn. Gotta get me some of that radio thing down home too. Ah-hoo-hoo-hoo. Fast little bugger too that Wally Red Sky!” He slammed the door and took off down the road in a spray of dust and laughter.

There was just Stanley'n Jackie'n me standing there after a while and we were all still smirking about it when Jackie suggested coffee at his place. He clapped me on the back and laughed real big and loud.

“Downtown enough for ya or what?” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah. Damn good thing I didn't talk to Wally about disco!”

“Brother, man,” Stanley said in his best downtown brown imitation, “brother, man, y'lla gotta be watchin' watchu layin' on the brothers here. We be dyin' laughin' you keep up that rap, hear?”

“Yeah, I hear, I hear,” I said, putting my arms around the shoulders of my brothers and heading off towards
whatever this day was gonna hold. “Just tryin' keep things moving around here, that's all!”

There's something I do for myself still these days. When that sun's starting to go down on those long, calm summer evenings, I'll walk down to the dock, climb into my boat and head out across the lake to watch it. You can motor out about five miles before you reach what's probably the middle and I just kill the engine and lie across the middle of the boat. Got my feet dangling over one side and my head on a seat cushion against the other. Then I just sit there. It's nice. Watching that sky kinda explode into a thousand different shades and bobbing up and down with the waves can take you on incredible journeys inside.

I sit there and watch that sun go down and then I sit there and watch the night take over the sky. Me I call it my magic time. There's a moment just before the dark really takes over that still gives me a thrill when I see it. See, there's a shade of blue in that night sky that there's really no name for in our language or any other that I ever heard. It's hard to explain that color, it's so magical. Deep and dark and light and metallic and silver and purple all at the same time. It's a blue that seeps inside you and makes you wanna cry and laugh and smile and dream. It's right at the edge of that line between dark and light. It's there in the winter and it's there in the summer except it might be even more powerful on those long summer evenings alone on that lake. I sit there and
wait and wait and wait and when it finally slides into view there's a part of me inside that just goes, Mmmmmmmmm. A peaceful, silent blue. The only word I ever heard that comes close to explaining how that blue feels inside me is “eternal.” Eternal blue. My favorite color and my favorite feeling. There's an Ojibway phrase that comes close. Goes, Wass-co-nah-shpee-ming. Light in the sky. That eternal blue's the big light in my sky and my world these days on accounta it reminds me of where I want to be mosta the time. Peaceful, silent, alive inside.

So I go out on that lake to get some of that blue inside. And I watch it as it grows and then fades into the purple of night and I think about my life here and the thousand other lives I lived before I came home. I sit there and I drift across that lake, bobbing up and down on the waves, them stars coming closer then moving away with each lift and drop, and it always feels like the universe is alive and moving around me, above me and below me. As Keeper says, I become part of it. And I drift and I drift until finally the boat will nudge up against the shore and I'll have to get my bearings and head for home. I do that for myself lots still.

Biggest reason is that blue feeling's a lot easier to take than either the big empty I used to feel or the hunger for the fast life I still get sometimes. Helps me balance my insides really. The other big reason is I really remember lots when I'm out there. Lots of things that help me keep in balance with the way my life's going.
There's still lots of changes going on and getting in touch with that blue sure keeps me moving the right way. Most of what I've been telling you was brought back by long nights in that boat and whenever I need to remember something important I usually head out on the lake at night. Winters I just stand outside looking at it till I get too cold.