Chickadee Read Online Free PDF Page B

brother?”
    Makoons leaned over the empty blanket and tried to focus his sleepy eyes.
    â€œDibi’. I don’t know where!”
    In an instant, Omakayas was out the door, hoping that Chickadee had only slipped out on some midnight errand with a cousin. She went to every lodge, waking everyone. None of them had seen Chickadee.
    Now the whole camp was out, including Zozie and Makoons. They called out for Chickadee. They made torches of pitch-tipped branches. Father Genin crawled out of his blankets and tried to help. Everyone searched the area. Everyone, that is, except Babiche and Batiste. John Zhigaag had crept out to poke his walking stick here and there in the leaves.
    â€œOld Zhigaag! Where are your sons?” asked Nokomis.
    â€œI don’t know,” said Zhigaag.
    â€œYou know something,” said Nokomis. “Those two sons of yours have stolen Chickadee!”
    â€œStolen? Why, you couldn’t give away that worthless boy,” said the old man. “Nobody would want him!”
    â€œThen where is he?” said Nokomis. “And where are Babiche and Batiste? Answer me!”
    â€œMy sons may have gone back to the river,” replied Zhigaag. “They will catch some golden eyes when the river breaks up. They were hungry for golden eyes!”
    â€œHungry for fish in the middle of the night!”
    Nokomis made ready to hit the old man again with her walking stick, but he threw himself on the ground and cried out, “Pity me! I have no one! My sons didn’t even take me along!”
    â€œOh, you pity yourself enough,” said Nokomis.
    Father Genin came over and helped the old man sit up.
    â€œWhere are your sons?”
    He also was suspicious, especially since he’d failed to convert Babiche and Batiste. In spite of his forgiving nature, he suspected that they were unredeemable fellows and were even capable of wickedness. He made Zhigaag sit still and listen while he said a few quick prayers.
    Nokomis hobbled quickly over to Omakayas, who was examining the sets of footprints outside the wigwam. The footprints led straight to where the two brown horses had been tethered. Omakayas fell down on her knees, grasping Deydey’s hand.
    â€œOh, Deydey, they have stolen Chickadee!”
    Deydey’s face was suffused with fury.
    â€œMy daughter,” he said, “we will pursue them. We will find our boy.”
    The twins were favorites of his, favorites of everyone. Everyone knew how, in the stories, twins helped to create the Ojibwe world. Twins were considered blessed. To know twins, to be in the family of twins or even the presence of twins, was good fortune. Chickadee and Makoons were much loved. To divide twins was an evil.
    â€œI will track down Babiche and Batiste,” said Mikwam. “Fishtail and Animikiins will follow the path as well. When Two Strike hears of this, she’ll take it hard! We’ll catch up with them. Don’t worry, daughter.”
    In a gesture rare for him, Mikwam put his arm around Omakayas’s shoulder and tried to comfort her weeping. She in turn held Makoons. Poor Makoons had never been separated from his brother, and he was crying with all of his heart. Nothing would be right for anyone until Chickadee returned.

SEVEN
THE CHASE

    C hickadee’s dream was frightening in the first place. It was a nightmare. A huge black flying turtle had chased him through trees and over rocks. Chickadee had been just about to wake when a smothering hand was clapped over his mouth and he was suddenly somewhere else. The last thing he saw was the tiny flare of light inside his family wigwam. Then nothing. All was darkness. He made sounds as he was hauled up, swung around, thumped down. But those sounds were no more than panicked whines. He was sure nobody heard him.
    In all that was to come, he would fix on that little moment he’d seen the flare of light. He would wish, and wish, that he’d bitten the hand of