Mink River: A Novel (16 page)

Why’d you help me?

I don’t know.

They walk in silence for a moment.

Ever been on a boat? says Declan.

Canoes and stuff.

Ever been on the ocean?

Nope.

Listen, come on out with us tonight.

Fishing?

Halibut.

Well … I don’t know.

You doing anything tonight?

Just going home, I guess.

To your old man.

Yeh.

Come on out. We could use the help.

Can I help with the fishing?

Sure. You just need muscles.

I’d like to help with the fishing.

Okay then. All right.

They get to the boat and Declan throws his gear in and the crash of his gear wakes up Grace who is sleeping in the cabin.

Who the hell are
you?
she says to the kid.

He’s coming out with us tonight, says Declan.

He’s a kid.

I’m eighteen years old, says the kid. How old are you?

None of your business, and you didn’t answer my question, says Grace.

My name is Nicholas, and you didn’t answer
my
question.

Declan grins at the kid’s brass.

You and Grace will get along just fine, he says.

I have to tell my father that I won’t be home, says Nicholas.

We have to catch the tide, says Declan.

I don’t want him to worry, says Nicholas.

I know you, says Grace. You’re the kid whose dad beats him up.

Nicholas says nothing and Grace flushes.

I have to tell my dad. I don’t want him to worry.

Five minutes and no more, says Declan.

I’ll be back in four, says Nicholas and he takes off sprinting like a deer. Grace and Declan watch him go and then they pack their gear and bait up and sit silently as the boat rocks gently and just like that Nicholas is back on the dock not even winded. He climbs in and Declan guns the engine and off they go to the gate of the bay. Outside the bay big dark waves are leering and lurking.

Grace and Nicholas sit face to face in the stern.

My name is Grace and I am twenty-one years old, says Grace. Glad to have you aboard, Nicholas.

Glad to meet you, Grace.

Sorry about that crack back there.

It’s okay.

I have a big mouth.

I don’t believe it.

Believe it.

They grin and Declan shoots the boat through the gate of the bay and the waves reach hungrily for the boat and the wind howls and stars appear overhead and two cormorants hurry by intently like nervous commuters and a big seal pops his head out of the water looking for all the world like a cheerful bald bewhiskered grandfather floating peacefully in the vast and impenetrable sea.

23.

Worried Man here telling stories to Dan. He sleeps and sleeps, my little grandson, and I tell stories over him like blankets like prayers. He is my sweet little boy and we will heal him. All of us together. One morning he will wake up and all will be well.

I will tell stories of the way it used to be here. There is healing in these stories. They lived here for a very long time, these stories. They have seen many things and they forget nothing.

So.

My grandfather had two capes, one made from beaver and the other from deer, and three fur blankets, made from rabbit and bobcat and otter. He parted his hair in the middle and painted the part red and wore his hair in one braid. Women wore two braids and they also painted their parts red. Everyone wore earrings and some men wore nose rings but not my grandfather—he said he had things going into his nose all day long and there was no reason for a gatekeeper there. He said a lot of things that made you laugh if you listened carefully. And he told so many stories! He told me how when a baby was born its mother would stay awake for five days pressing her belly to make sure all the blood went home, and its father would stay awake for ten days praying, and the afterbirth would be left at the feet of a spruce sapling so the baby would grow as tall and strong as that fine tree. When a child’s teeth came out one by one they were put by the same tree so the child’s teeth would be straight and strong also. When a girl collected her first basket of berries or roots she would go around the houses and give them all away to the old people, and when a boy killed his first deer or seal he would go around and give all the meat to the old people. That’s just how it was. When a girl or boy was ready to go find a name they went in the woods and walked and took baths. You might be out there three days or five days or ten days. You had to find your guardian spirit. You had to take a lot of cold baths! When you were ready to receive your spirit, there it was. If you weren’t ready, it wouldn’t show itself. If you saw a snake you would be a healer. If you saw a beaver or a woodpecker you would make canoes. If you saw a salmon you would be a fisherman. If you saw a wolverine you would be a warrior. If you saw a hawk you would be a hunter. That’s just how it was.

When I was a boy I went walking to meet my guardian spirit and I walked for days. I lost track of the days after a while. I took a lot of cold baths! I walked all the way to the holy mountain, Wyeast. That was one long walk! I walked up the mountain as far as I could go and then I had to rest where the trees end. All things grew silent, even
asayahal
, the south wind, even the ravens who never stop telling jokes. I kept my eyes open. I was very tired but everything was so clear. Then I saw a huge bird coming toward me from the south. It was enormous! It saw me sitting there but it didn’t veer away or anything. It kept coming toward me and getting bigger and bigger. I thought maybe it was Thunder coming to take me to his huge house! That bird flew right over me and he looked down and I looked up and our eyes started talking.

He said
I will take care of you now
and I said
thank you, Father
.

He said
now you must begin your work
and I said
what is my work?

He said
you must see everything
and I said
I will see everything
.

He said
you can never rest
and I said
I will never rest.

He said
your eyes are holy and burning
and I bowed and he flew on.

He flew up and over the top of the mountain. He got smaller and smaller as he rose up against the snow. Blue against white. Those have been my colors ever since. That was how I met Heron and we have been friends all these years since. I see herons all the time and whenever I meet a heron we have a good talk. A few herons just want to talk about fish and frogs but most of them have very interesting minds indeed. They have seen so many things and they forget nothing. That’s just how they are. They are very quiet. Their eyes are restless and burning. They don’t say much but when they do it is worth hearing. They say a lot of things that make you laugh if you listen carefully. That’s just how they are.

24.

Daniel wakes up finally in the doctor’s house facing the sea. He’s been asleep for days in the hospital and here. The first thing he sees is the sea. The sea is green and blue and gray and white and purple. He stares at it for a long time. It shimmies and shivers and shines and shudders and shimmers and twitches and glitters and trembles and gleams. It stutters and whispers and moans and sighs. It snarls and roars and hammers the patient shore. It tosses its hair and rolls its shoulders and shuffles its feet. He can hear it singing from his bed. He can smell its impatient spice. He can smell storms and salt and seawrack. He can smell yearning and mourning. He is very tired. The room is silent. He tries to figure out where he is, exactly. The room is bright and filled with maps of the sea. All the windows are open. He is very cold. The air seems very clear. The sea sings. His eyes adjust to the room and he sees a chess set and a telescope and books everywhere and everywhere maps of the sea. By his left hand is a carved wooden sea lion. The sea lion is looking at him. The sea whispers. The room is very quiet. He stares at the sea lion. The sea murmurs. The sea lion has shoulders like brown hills and a trunk like a tree and flippers like oars. The sea grumbles. The sea lion looks at him steadily. The room is colder. He reaches out to touch the sea lion and his shoulder hurts something dreadful when he moves it but the sea lion wants to be touched. The sea hums deep in its ancient blue throat. Daniel tries to say something to the lion but his lips are dry as sand. His hand touches the lion’s shoulder and the lion flinches slightly but doesn’t pull away. The sea breathes in and out. The lion looks at him steadily. Daniel can feel the shiver of muscle under the lion’s shimmering leathery skin. The room smells like kelp. The sea sings in a lost blue language. Daniel closes his eyes and drifts out to sea and sees halibut as big as houses and salmon bigger than the biggest canoe. He sees incomprehensible whales and canoes of every shape and size and color scattered on the bottom of the sea in numbers beyond counting. He sees lions above and below him and to each side and ahead and behind, lions of every size imaginable from tiny pups to hoary giants, lions in every imaginable shade of brown, lions swimming faster than the eye can see, lions looking at him steadily, lions speaking in a wet brown language he has always known, its words kelp and salt in his mouth, its verbs the whispers of the sea.

25.

Declan and Grace and Nicholas fish all night. The doctor stays up very late with Daniel who is awake but cloudy. Declan catches the biggest halibut he has ever seen. The doctor keeps Daniel awake as long as possible to check his responses and acuity. Grace catches an even bigger halibut, a fish the size of a door. At about two in the morning the doctor lets Daniel drift off to sleep. Grace’s fish is so strong and desperate that all three of them haul it wriggling wrestling bucking into the boat. The doctor finds that he is not tired at all and he settles down at his kitchen table to read the Acts of the Apostles. The fishing is so good that Declan keeps their long lines out almost until dawn. The doctor cuts a pear into cubes and slowly eats each piece. Declan and Grace cut their sandwiches in thirds and each shares a third with Nicholas. The doctor’s spectacles slide infinitesimally slowly down his nose. The wind changes north to south and the sea roughens. The harsh singing of the sea makes Daniel moan. Get in the cabin, Nicholas! shouts Grace. The doctor reads aloud to Daniel to soothe him back to sleep. Haul in and let’s run home! shouts Declan. But there arose a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon, and when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive, reads the doctor. Let her run on the wind! shouts Grace. And being exceedingly tossed by the tempest, we lightened the ship, and cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship, reads the doctor. Cut the lines! shouts Declan. And when neither sun nor stars appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away, reads the doctor. Stay with the boat! shouts Grace. But there shall be no loss of life, for there stood by me this night a spirit, saying, fear not, and it shall be thus: you and all them that sail with thee are given life anew, reads the doctor. The river! the river! shouts Grace. And they sounded twenty fathoms, and then fifteen fathoms, reads the doctor. Hang on! shouts Declan. And they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder, and made toward shore, and falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground, and so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land, reads the doctor. Grace and Declan stagger out of the water coughing. Daniel falls asleep. Declan stares at his battered boat dead on the shore. The doctor brushes his teeth and turns the heat down and checks the locks and turns out the lights and disrobes. Grace searches desperately for Nicholas. Daniel dreams of halibut as big as houses and salmon bigger than the biggest canoe. Declan searches desperately for Nicholas. The doctor gets into bed and takes off his spectacles and folds them carefully on his night-table. Daniel dreams of forests beneath the sea deeper and denser than any woods there ever were. Grace sinks to her knees laughing and shivering when she sees Nicholas walk out of the water with the two enormous fish on his shoulders. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land, mutters the doctor to himself, and falls asleep.

26.

Michael the cop is waiting at the dock at dawn for Declan’s boat to come in so he can break the news about Red Hugh O Donnell’s death on the highway but when dawn reddens and fades with no sign of the boat and the weather still wild he gets the shivers and gets back in his car and heads along the beach road looking out to sea. In his car Tosca is singing her great aria near the end of Act Two:
con man furtiva quante miserie conobbi, alleviai
, sweet consolation I brought to those who are poor and unhappy! Michael sings along with her and the music swells and throbs bravely but he thinks darkly how often he has been the singer of death songs to people who find his presence on their doorstep no consolation at all. Many times he has delivered bad news to men and women and children and his news cut a ragged wound in them that would never heal all the rest of their lives and he knew it and they knew it.
Perche me ne rimuneri cosi
, Tosca implores God, why do you withdraw your hand from me? Michael has told a father that his son has drowned. He has told a child that his father has drowned. He has told a family gathered nervously for Christmas dinner that yes, the infant who wandered off into the woods has been found, but no, the child is no longer alive. He has told a wife that her husband has been imprisoned. He has told three children the oldest of them fifteen that their father has been imprisoned for life for reasons they all knew but did not say. He has told a mother that her son was killed by a drunk driver. The mother of the boy killed by a drunk driver had white hair and a face carved from white stone and she held her white front door with white knuckles and when he asked if he could come in she didn’t say anything and when he asked a second time if he could come in she said no and they stood there silently face to face in the freezing morning for a long minute and then she said so quietly that he almost didn’t hear her
which one is it?
which reduced him to tears then and still does whenever he thinks of it like right now near the end of Act Two so to be safe he pulls his cruiser over to the side of the road and dries his eyes with his sleeve as Tosca sings desperately
mi vuoi supplice a tuoi piedi
, on my knees I beg for mercy.