North Child Read Online Free PDF Page A

or at least that was what Mother thought. When she went to check on her, Mother discovered that Rose’s small bed was empty. Calling Rose’s name, she began searching the house. Not finding her, she went outside and her shouts grew louder and more frantic. Soon we were all caught up in the search.
    We spread out, each heading away from the farmhouse in a different direction. Being the youngest, I was sent northeast, as it seemed the least likely direction she would go; there was an old stone wall there that no two-year-old could climb.
    Or so we thought.
    There was some snow on the ground, though the day was not bitter cold. When I reached the stone wall, I climbed up (with some difficulty) and sat atop it, peering around. Despite my parents’ certainty that she would never have gone this way, I wasn’t so sure. I knew my baby sister well enough to know that she always did what my parents least expected. The stone wall bordered a small meadow that gradually turned into a hill. Just beyond this hill lay a much bigger, rockier crag, and on the other side of that was a steep drop into a gorge with a pool of water at the bottom.
    I saw no sign of Rose in the small meadow, nor on the hill. But suddenly uneasy, I ran across both, and then climbed the rocky crag. When I got to the top, I looked down. Standing beside the pool was a large white bear. Rose dangled limp from its mouth, and they were both dripping with water.
    The creature swung its head to face me, then began moving up the rocks towards me. I stood still, frozen by fear. I could see that the white bear was carrying Rose by her clothing – a bunched-up wad at the back of her neck – like a mother cat carrying a kitten. The animal stopped a stone’s throw from me and gently laid Rose down. Just before it turned to move away, I caught a glimpse of the bear’s eyes. The expression there was like none I’d ever encountered in an animal before. It was a look of immense sadness.
    I quickly kneeled beside Rose. I listened to her chest and found she was breathing steadily, but she was pale and still, and there were vivid red scrapes on her cheek and knees. Then her eyes opened and she smiled. “Neddy,” she said happily, putting her arms around my neck.
    I picked her up and carried her home. I told my parents where I had found her but not about the bear. I don’t know why not. Perhaps I thought that none of my family would believe me, that they’d think it was a story I’d made up. But that wasn’t the reason. There was something about the bear that frightened me, something beyond its bigness and fierceness, and I didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it.
    Somehow Rose had climbed over the stone wall, made her way across the meadow, climbed up both the gentle hill and the rocky crag, then slipped and slid down the other side into the icy water of the gorge. Father thought Rose must have crawled out of the water herself. But I knew it was the bear that pulled her from the pool, and that it had probably saved her life. She would have drowned if the bear had not rescued her.
    Rose had no memory of the bear. I’m quite sure she never actually saw it.
    And I never told anyone.

Warm place.
    Skin itches, all the time.
    Plunging into cool water, relief.
    Purple eyes. A child.
    Up above on the rocks.
    Smiling down unafraid.
    I remember.
    Long ago.
    A ball.
    A red ball.
    Then nothing.
    Lost.
    The girl above.
    Falling.
    Purple eyes shut. Her face.
    Floating, bruised.
    Lift her up, above water.
    A boy. Pale eyes, frightened.
    Thin arms. Raises her to him.
    Takes her away.
    Alone.

Father told me that my first gift was a pair of boots, made of the soft leather of reindeer hide. Which was very fitting, for I loved wearing boots.
    I always wore my older brothers’ and sisters’ hand-me-downs, though that never bothered me. The boots had already been resoled many times by the time I got them, but I must