Soul Catcher Read Online Free PDF Page A

prayed for, this
good arrow made clean and straight by my hands. When I give you
this arrow, please hold it in your body with pride. Let this arrow
take you to the land of Alkuntam. Our brothers will welcome you
there, saying: “What a beautiful youth has come to us! What a
beautiful hoquat!” They will say to one another: “How strong he is,
this beautiful hoquat who carries the arrow of Katsuk in his
flesh.” And you will be proud when you hear them speak of your
greatness and your beauty. Do not run away, hoquat. Come toward my
good arrow. Accept it. Our brothers will sing of this. I will cover
your body with white feathers from the breasts of ducks. Our
maidens will sing your beauty. This is what you have prayed for
from one end of the world to the other every day of your life. I,
Katsuk, give you your wish because I have become Soul Catcher.
    ***
    David, his mind still drugged with sleep,
came wide awake as he stepped out the door into the cold night.
Shivering, he stared at the man who had awakened him— the
Chief .
    “What is it, Chief?”
    “Shhhh.” Katsuk touched the roll of
clothing. “Get dressed.”
    More from the cold than any other reason,
David obeyed. Tree branches whipped in the wind above the cabin,
filled the night with fearful shapes.
    “Is it an initiation, Chief?”
    “Shhh, be very quiet.”
    “Why?”
    “We were photographed together. We must
become spirit brothers. There is a ceremony.”
    “What about the other guys?”
    “You have been chosen.”
    Katsuk fought down sudden pity for this boy,
this Innocent. Why pity anyone? He realised the moonlight
had cut at his heart. For some reason, it made him think of the
Shaker Church where his relatives had taken him as a child—hoquat
church! He heard the voices chanting in his memory: “Begat,
begat, begat ...”
    David whispered: “I don’t understand.
What’re we doing?”
    The stars staring down at him, the wind in
the trees, all carried forboding. He felt frightened. A gap in the
trees beyond the porch revealed a great bush of stars standing out
against the night. David stared into the shadows of the porch. Why
wasn’t the Chief answering?
    David tightened his belt, felt the knife in
its sheath at his waist. If the Chief were planning something bad,
he’d have removed the knife. That was a real weapon. Daniel Boone
had killed a bear with a blade no bigger than this one. “What’re we
going to do?” David pressed.
    “A ceremony of spirit brotherhood,” Katsuk
said. He felt the truth in his words. There would be a ceremony and
a joining, a shape that occurred out of darkness, a mark on the
earth and an incantation to the real spirits.
    David still hesitated, thinking this was an
Indian. They were strange people. He thought of Mrs. Parma.
Different Indian, but both mysterious.
    David pulled his jacket close around him.
The cold air had raised goose pimples on his skin. He felt both
frightened and excited. An Indian.
    He said: “You’re not dressed.”
    “I am dressed for the ceremony.”
    Silently, Katsuk prayed: “O Life Giver,
now that you have seen the way a part of your all-powerful being
goes ...”
    David sensed the man’s tensions, the air of
secrecy. But no place could be safer than this wilderness camp with
that cog railroad the only way to get here.
    He asked: “Aren’t you cold?”
    “I am used to this. You must hurry after me
now. We haven’t much time.” Katsuk stepped down off the porch. The
boy followed. “Where are we going?”
    “To the top of the ridge.” David hurried to
keep in step. “Why?”
    “I have prepared a place there for you to be
initiated into a very old ceremony of my people.”
    “Because of the photographs?”
    “Yes.”
    “I didn’t think Indians believed in that
stuff anymore.”
    “Even you will believe.”
    David tucked his shirt more firmly into his
belt, felt the knife. The knife gave him a feeling of confidence.
He stumbled in his hurry to keep up.
    Without looking