Samantha's Talent (3 page)

"Why? What's happened?"

"Jeff Wesley was found near his home. He was mauled to death by a bear."

"Good God! I didn't particularly like the man, but I hate to hear about anyone dying like that."

"Yeah. Well, just wanted to let you know. We'll get a hunt organized and take care of the brute before it gets a kid out berry picking or something."

"I'll get my rifle," Ronald said. "Sammie, get in the house and stay there until your mother gets home. Hear me?"

"Yes, sir."

The mailman waited until Mr. Douglas's daughter was walking away from them, then beckoned Douglas closer.

"I didn't want her to overhear, Ron, but judging from the footprints around the body, it was the same bear she made friends with in town. Thought you might want to know." He said nothing about the remains of the caribou at the site.

"Thanks, George. I appreciate it. I'll see you in town, soon as I fetch Elaine and send her home to watch Sammie."

***

As soon as her father was out of sight, Samantha left the house and raced into the woods, taking a short cut toward where Mr. Wesley lived. All the way, she was hoping desperately it wasn't one of the grizzlies she had made friends with, but she suspected it was. She remembered the disgusted look on Mr. Wesley's face when she made everyone promise not to hurt Whoofluff.

She arrived before the hunting party had even gotten organized. The body was gone, of course, but it was easy to tell where the event occurred. The little scavengers were already busy with parts of the caribou carcass that had been left lying. In the distance she heard the howl of a wolf, but she barely noticed. All her attention was concentrated on examining the area for bear footprints.

"Oh no," Samantha said to herself when she saw the distinctive impression, a paw print with two toes missing. "
Whoofluff. It was Whoofluff!
She began following the tracks, then as soon as she was certain of the direction, she began running through the woods again. A little later she arrived at the stream where Mom and Dad had first seen her playing with the big grizzly four years ago. She was panting from the long run.

"Whoofluff!" she called. "Whoofluff, it's me. Come out!"

There was a rustling in the brush and the bear walked up to her. It lowered its head so she could get her arms around its huge neck. It was then that she saw the streak of dried blood running down from his shoulder.

"You're hurt! Poor Whoofluff. How did it happen?"

The bear told her how he had ran across Mr. Wesley while he was cutting up the caribou. Recognizing him as one of the human herd the girl cub had said wouldn't hurt him, he uttered a greeting and came nearer, hoping the man would share some of his kill. Despite his politeness, the man inflicted a painful wound with the little stick that made a loud noise, and was going to hurt him some more with the big stick if he could. That was when Whoofluff became angry and knocked him to the ground and bit him. Hard.

"That mean old man, and after he promised, too!" Samantha said to Whoofluff. "It serves him right, but now you have to go away. Go 'way off, Whoofluff, or the men will hunt you down and kill you. Please?"

The huge grizzly bear nuzzled his little human friend and turned away. Bears can't cry, but if they could, Whoofluff would have shed some tears at the thought of never seeing the little girl cub again, the only human he knew who could talk to bears.

As she watched him go, Samantha was the one who cried. She let the tears flow freely as she trudged back home, no longer hurrying. She knew that the town people would never believe it if she told them what really happened. She would have to admit she could talk to bears in order for her to have learned the details of Mr. Wesley's death. Besides, even if she were believed she thought they would still hunt down poor Whoofluff and kill him.
Somehow, I have to stop it
, she thought and began to hurry again.

***

Samantha heard her Mom and Dad frantically calling her name and speeded up a little. If Dad was already back home she must have been gone longer than she thought. He would be angry, too, for her leaving the house after being ordered specifically not to.

"Sammie! Oh God, where have you been? Didn't I tell you to stay inside?" Her father was almost overwhelmed with relief at finding his daughter safe and sound. He had been frightened out of his wits when he returned from town and found her missing. He was so glad to find her safe that he forgot to be mad at her for disobeying his instructions.

Elaine was so distraught she couldn't even talk. She simply hugged her daughter close and whimpered. She had pictured her only child being killed by that enormous bear.

Eventually, the three were back in the house, and by this time Samantha's parents began demanding an explanation for her absence.

"I had to go warn Whoofluff so he wouldn't get shot," Samantha said, knowing the adults would be furious, but she wanted to explain.

"Do you mean to tell me you went and saw that... that man-eating bear after you said you wouldn't play with him again?" her mother asked, horrified at the thought.

"I wasn't playing with him. I was just
talking
to him, Mom. I told him to go way away from here so he wouldn't get shot."

"Well, he needs to be shot for killing and eating poor Mr. Wesley."

"Oh, Mom! He didn't eat anybody. He didn't even mean to kill Mr. Wesley. He just wanted to keep from being hurt any more. Mr. Wesley
shot
him, after he
promised.
People shouldn't break promises."

"Lord have mercy," Elaine Douglas said, looking to the heavens. "Ronald, what are we going to do with her?"

"Put her in a circus if this goes on," Ronald answered aloud.
My God, I think she really can talk to animals
he said to himself, very silently.

"Be serious, Ronald! She could have been killed!"

"Whoofluff wouldn't hurt me, Mom, any more than Loosmuff or her cubs would."

As soon as she saw her parents exchange startled glances, Samantha knew she had made a mistake.
Whoops! I shouldn't have mentioned that
, she thought. This was only going to make things worse.

"And just who might Loosmuff be, young lady? Another bear, I presume?"

Samantha hung her head. "Yes'm. A mother bear," she murmured, her voice barely audible.

"Did I hear you say '
cubs
'," her father asked, aghast at the thought of his daughter going anywhere near a mother bear with cubs. They were notorious for the aggressiveness with which they defended their progeny.
If she can get away with that, then she really must be able to talk to animals. Bears, anyway. Good Lord. Elaine is right. What
are
we going to do with her?

"Loosmuff didn't mind, Dad. She knew I wouldn't hurt them. In fact, she was glad to have me watch them for her while she took a nap."

She wouldn't hurt
them
? How about the bear hurting
her
? Obviously, the mother bear had been as friendly to her as the one in town. Amazing.
Ronald nodded, finally convinced.

But Elaine was still angry and unbelieving. "You're never to go near a bear again!" she shouted at Samantha, fear of her child's safety making her voice sound furious.

Samantha was momentarily saved from further recriminations by the sound of honking outside. Two jeeps with armed men in them had stopped by to pick up Mr. Douglas. They were on their way toward Wesley's place to begin the hunt.

Mr. Douglas started toward the door, then hesitated. He turned back around. "Sammie, which direction did you tell the bear to go?"

She looked up at her father, a despondent expression on her face. Then her eyes widened. She started to smile as she saw the slow, careful wink her father gave her, out of sight of her mother's unsympathetic gaze. She raised her arm and pointed in the
opposite
direction that Whoofluff had taken. "That way, Dad."

"I'll be back later," he said.

The hunters never did find Whoofluff, and the bear never returned to the vicinity of Wikluk again.

It was several weeks before Elaine would let Samantha out of her sight, but eventually she relaxed. As summer neared its end, the Douglas household was almost back to normal. So normal, in fact, that Mrs. Douglas agreed to host Samantha's eleventh birthday party at their home.

Wikluk and the area around it was so sparsely populated that there wouldn't be many children attending. Nevertheless, Samantha was looking forward to it eagerly. She would be starting fifth grade in another month.

The day dawned beautifully. An early cool front chased the mosquito swarms away. Elaine made a large beautiful Salmon Berry cake with white icing, and somehow managed to find a package of candles in the general store. The cake was graced with eleven candles and her name was spelled out with salmon berries.

A dozen of her friends were supposed to be there, some coming from miles away, with their parents making special trips to bring them to the party. Ronald had made certain that his duties with the Alaskan Environmental Assessment Office allowed him to be present as well. Sometimes his work kept him away from home for weeks on end.

The home of Ronald and Elaine Douglas was fairly typical of rural Alaska. It was snug, well insulated and built to withstand the tree-bursting cold of winters in the northern part of the state. It had been built on a knoll higher than the surrounding area, allowing an adequate path for drainage of the spring snow-melt into a small creek a hundred yards below. The yard and garden were cleared, as well as the drive leading up to the gravel road that serviced the little town of Wikluk. Beyond that forest predominated, broken only by game trails and isolated meadows or telephone poles of the local phone company, operated by a generator, just as their electricity was.

Wildlife was abundant in the area. Grizzly bears fed on salmon where the creek fed into a slightly larger stream, the spawning bed of the delicious fish after their long and tortuous journey from the ocean. Caribou and elk roamed the forest as well as smaller varieties of ruminants, all of which provided prey for wolves, mountain lions, black bears and grizzlies. It was usually the old and weak and the very young which fell to the teeth and claws of the carnivores. When opportunity presented, smaller predators like wolverines and bobcats and lynx sometimes managed to kill the larger animals but mostly they stuck to rabbits, partridge and the like. Other animals were present as well. Beaver, fox, weasel, voles, and a plethora of others all played their part in the intricate dance of life, reproduction and death.

Samantha could communicate with most of them, although the more intelligent the animal, the plainer their language. Frequently, on her way to and from Wikluk when the weather was nice and she could walk, she had trysts with some of her favorites. There was Brfcut, the old bull moose who hung out by the lake above the little stream and Hostervut, the alpha male wolf which led the pack that sometimes roamed the area around the village.

Hostervut was fun to talk to. He was young to be an alpha male but his strength and cunning earned him the position. He was also a big beautiful animal. He sported a thick, dark brown pelt with a black-tipped, bushy tail. Hostervut had just reached his full body weight, almost a hundred pounds, large for a timber wolf. Consequently, he had very little competition from other males or females for the leadership position.

Game had been plentiful the year of Samantha's eleventh birthday. The pack had been well fed, giving ample opportunity for Hostervut and others of the pack to turn their attention to matters besides food. Since none of the females were in heat, that left time for those of the pack who had such notions to indulge in play and curiosity. The cubs, those less than a year old, were particularly prone to playful activities when they were well fed. Whenever Samantha had an opportunity, she sneaked into the woods and rubbed old Brfcut's antlers where they itched from the last growth or found Hostervut and asked his permission to play with the cubs. The alpha wolf was glad to grant it, and the mothers of the cubs didn't mind a bit once Samantha assured them she would baby sit while they took the opportunity to grab a nap. Her favorites were the youngest cubs, Betus, Cetus and Ketus. They loved to act fierce and tug at the strange fur the human cub covered herself with, or roll in the grass with her while she rubbed their tummies and listened to their puppy growls of pleasure. Lately though, she hadn't seen the wolves nor had she seen any caribou. She knew most wolves followed the caribou herds which provided their chief source of food, so she assumed the wolves had left with the caribou.

The culmination of Samantha's birthday party was intended to be a demonstration of magic, performed by an itinerant showman who piloted his own plane over a wide area.

Ronald and Elaine Douglas were proud of themselves for thinking of this way to let Samantha know they were pleased with her. She was no longer making a spectacle of herself by claiming she could talk to animals. Not once in the last several months had they seen her with any animal other than the barn cat who earned his keep as a mouser. The only exception was Brfcut, the old moose, who was so gentle they allowed her to feed it and keep it on the place year round as a sort of free-roaming pet. Even then, it had taken a number of demonstrations before Elaine relented, and only because her husband had suggested that letting her talk to a harmless old moose would keep her away from bears and wolverines.

Elaine didn't believe for a minute the old moose understood a thing Samantha said to him, but it had been a fair compromise. She also never saw the winks that passed between her husband and her daughter. Ronald believed Samantha could really make at least a few animals understand what she said, although he still cautioned her about going near carnivores like bears. But even he didn't believe animals could really talk to her or her to them, not in any meaningful way.

***

Samantha laughed gaily after she blew all eleven candles out with one huge breath. The few adults and all the children cheered and clapped at her achievement, then Elaine began serving the cake and ice cream outside on her husband's homemade picnic benches. They were made of logs split in half lengthwise and propped on cross sections of other logs. However, Samantha couldn't help but notice her parents both kept stealing glances toward where the airfield lay, the only means of egress in and out of the village.