Up Ghost River Read Online Free PDF Page B

here.”
    â€œI do? S’pose you’re right. So what have you got for me?” he said.
    Papa pulled out the marten furs. They were the size of lean cats.
    â€œThey’re beauties, these ones,” the man said.
    â€œYessir.”
    â€œAnything else?”
    â€œNo sir,” Papa replied.
    â€œDo you know the size of your debt?”
    â€œYessir.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œFour hundred and twenty dollars and fifteen cents. That’s without the roofing tile.”
    â€œAnd how much you think you’ll get for a marten?”
    â€œI dunno. I heard prices were up.”
    â€œYou heard wrong, Abraham.”
    â€œWell, how much then?”
    â€œI can give you thirty dollars each.”
    â€œThirty dollars! That’s eight dollars less than last week. Why the sudden drop?”
    â€œToronto isn’t buying right now.”
    â€œAll right, then,” Papa said. “Can you give me some sugar and lard?”
    â€œNo. There are new rules. The company is asking everyone to pay off their existing debts before getting new supplies.”
    â€œI have children,” Papa said.
    â€œYes, I know.”
    â€œWe are hungry.”
    â€œYou and everyone else in this town. What am I supposed to do?”
    â€œYou are supposed to help us.”
    â€œI am just doing my job, Mr. Metatawabin. Company’s orders.”
    â€œHow’d it go?” Mama asked as soon as we opened the door.
    â€œNot bad,” Papa replied.
    â€œDid you get the lard?”
    â€œUh … no.”
    â€œWhy not.”
    â€œI forgot.”
    â€œYou forgot?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat about the sugar?”
    â€œNo. Not that either.”
    â€œSo what did you get?”
    â€œActually I didn’t get anything.”
    â€œWhat? Why not?”
    â€œI have too much debt.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about? You said it was under control.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t. I said we have to follow the teachings of the manitou. If we do as he says, the Great Creator will provide.”
    â€œProvide?! How will the Great Creator take care of us? He’s not helping any of us. The animals are getting less and less. We get less money for the furs too.”
    â€œWe have to be patient. Don’t rush things. Let Gitchi Manitou take care of things.”
    â€œYou and your Gitchi Manitou! What’s he going to do? He didn’t take care of Rita!”
    Mama’s mouth looked very big and her voice was getting louder, but there was a breathy, pleading note underneath her anger. Papa was the same as ever, gruff and direct, but he too looked worried that everything would fall down. And so they went back and forth, to and fro, getting even louder. I remembered the story of the fight between the jackfish and the bull moose, the Lord of the Water vs. the God of the Land, who pulled and pushed, the water swelling around them, the currents rising and falling, until the conflict took on a momentum of its own and became part of the landscape, creating the tides and laying down the pattern of things to come.
    During the season of
nipin
, when the sun beats down and the black-flies are at their thickest, Mama started going to see Father Lavoismore often. He was an influential man, and told her things she held close to her heart. I didn’t know the full extent of his powers, but everyone acted as if his words could stop a bullet. Like he had special magic, more potent than the shamans that Papa told me about, and who existed before I was born.
    I’d never met a shaman. But I’d heard stories about them through the moccasin telegraph. It was said that they knew how to cure sickness. They had special powers, like being able to fix a broken leg or cool a man who was sweating and hot all over. Some said they could read people’s minds. And see into the future. They got some of their knowledge by crossing over the
apeteyo
, the veil that divides the