Fools' Gold Read Online Free PDF

who would be entombed for the winter in the feathered hut at the center of the village. Her head was already wreathed with white feathers, circling it like petals, and Phil’s wife and sisters moved about her. Finn felt he could see the change from girl to woman right there before his eyes; he felt he could see the innocence leaving. When Nanoon saw him her lips parted as if to speak, but Finn stepped away quickly. And as he looked back toward the main village he saw Henriette watching him too, from inside the party lean-to and low down on her three-legged stool. Henriette waved so Finn tipped his hat to her, dancing once around like a circus bear.
    At dusk the population of the village swelled and people strolled between the lean-tos under pink parasols. In one lean-to there was a barrel of rum and in another were long salted strips of jerky. Ellen and the reverend were back, and soon, in a lean-to hidden from them all, someone began playing a piano. The rain dampened the thin parasols of the strollers and the music forced them to walk and step in straight lines and circles, all heads turned toward the small round hut at the center of the village. Finn found the reverend and Ellen and stayed with them.
    And Phil was right about the storm. Though it was still early the long day was cut to darkness by clouds moving shoulder to shoulder across the sky. Finn and the reverend and Ellen watched the clear spaces disappear. They had walked to the mule house, where Finn’s mule stood, nostrils rigidly taking in the storm, and now they were walking back. This was the public section of the village, where the storage houses were and the animals were kept. It was the section of the village farthest from the beach, and some of the buildings were built like the reverend’s, closed on all four sides. There was lightning, quick as the raising of an eyebrow, then thunder, rolling in low over the waves.
    In the main village the paths were less crowded now. The rain slowed movement, keeping the people inside, engaging them in the act of eating. And there was the beginning of activity around the special hut. People looked toward it or peered in the direction from which Nanoon would eventually come.
    â€œShe is so beautiful,” said the reverend. “It’s a pity you won’t be able to see her face.”
    Phil stood at the entrance to his own lean-to now, and signaled with a lantern that Nanoon was ready. All the children of the village formed a line from his lean-to to the special hut, getting down on their hands and knees and waiting. When she came out Nanoon was dressed entirely in feathers, and all of them were white and all were from the Snowy Owl, who even now, some thought, perched on the trees around the village in order to see that the ceremony went well. When the people saw her the piano stopped and everyone turned their heads to watch her pass. She walked with one leg on either side of the kneeling children. She walked over them, dropping each onto the earth behind her like the children she would bear.
    Nanoon was alone, and though her face was completely covered Finn was sure that she was looking directly at him, that her round owl’s eyes sought him above all the others. When she got to the hut Phil went over and, without looking at her, pulled back the feathered doorway, allowing his sister to crawl on through. He closed it again immediately and called his other sisters forward to sew the flap shut. That was all. Phil and the members of his family shook hands, the kneeling children stood and ran away, and the piano started up again. The reverend looked from Ellen to Finn and sighed. “Is there anything more beautiful than ritual?” he asked.
    Inside the lean-to where the party had begun the visitors from Port Clarence were congratulating Phil on the smoothness of a ceremony well done. People sat in a circle again, but at its center this time there was dancing. Two men and two women stepped