Between Two Worlds (9 page)

Winter is coming on fast. Walking to the ship would make visits so much easier. Perhaps I’ll see Duncan in passing soon
. Now that Angulluk and I were off the
Windward
, it was unlikely that he’d trade me to a sailor.

As we left for the village, the clouds drifted from the ship and hovered like flocks of gray birds over the icy harbor.

I went down to the beach every day to check on the ship. More floes had drifted together. Five days after the attempt to blow apart the iceberg, the harbor froze over into a hilly mass. I ventured onto the ice a short way, and
it began to splinter with a cracking sound; I’d have to wait to see Duncan.

Meanwhile, our group from Itta were busy among the people of this shore. Angulluk and several other men left to hunt musk oxen, taking Bag of Bones.

Most days, Ally and I took our work to grandmother Navarana’s igloo while the men were away. As we chewed hides and stitched, she made delicious soups out of bones, scraps, and salty seaweed and used a walrus rib to pull out the tasty morsels. She was good company, smarter than an old fox who’d survived many seasons of hunting. She scolded us, but also praised my sewing. There was room in her igloo for us all: Ally and Sammy and me; Navarana’s daughter, Mikihoq, a small, quiet woman with thinning hair and big eyes; and Mikihoq’s two children, Tooth Girl (Akitsinnguaq), and her brother, Magtaaq, who was about two winters old. His red nose always seemed to be dripping, so I named him Runny Nose. Mikihoq seldom spoke to me and I knew she didn’t like me, but her children were friendly.

Everyone loved Sammy, Navarana especially. No doubt she’d never seen blue eyes like his on a baby of our people; and she liked his mischievous grin. One day as we chewed seal hides to soften them for sewing, Sammy pulled himself up on the frame of the sleeping platform and stood. He’d done this before, but now Sammy discovered if he held on to the platform with his two chubby hands, he could take a step.

“Look! He’s nearly walking!” the old woman said.

“He learns fast,” Ally boasted.

Tooth Girl, playing with her ivory animals, looked up and clapped her hands. Her mother, who was breast-feeding Runny Nose, also smiled.

I went on chewing my pelt. As if reading my thoughts, the old woman said, “Eqariusaq, you never know what will come. Perhaps soon you will have a baby of your own.”

“No, Aana,” I said.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. After many seasons—I am blessed with nothing.”

“Wait and see. You are young and healthy. You have many seasons for children to come to you.”

“Maybe.”

I wondered if my sister, Nuljalik, had become pregnant. How I wished I could talk to her. How was life for her now that winter was here? Was she getting enough to eat? Perhaps our seasons without much food were why my people did not often conceive. And I suspected the cold had something to do with it. Like most women, I rarely had a time of bleeding. Luckily, Angulluk was so lazy, he was glad that he didn’t have children to feed.

That day, Sammy waddled back and forth, delighted with himself. Soon he held on to the platform with only one little hand.

“Your baby has blue eyes,” the old woman said to Ally. “You and Eqariusaq spend time with the
qallunaat
, don’t
you? That is why Mikihoq is afraid to become friendly with you. Do the women of your own village avoid you, too?”

A sad expression passed over Ally’s radiant face.

I answered for her. “That’s not true, Aana,” I said sharply. “Ally and I have many women friends on the other shore.”

“If you say so.”

We all knew I’d lied. Navarana was like Mitti Peary’s looking glass. She made me see myself: a young woman ignored and often disliked by other women.

Ally picked up Sammy, rubbed noses with him, and put him to her breast. Gazing into his blue eyes, she was all smiles again. She picked lice off his head as he drank her milk. Nothing could take away her joy in having a baby: not Peary’s absence, nor the early winter, nor the ship locked in ice. How lucky she was that Piugaattoq treated Sammy as his own.

“Now I have something to tell you,” Navarana announced. “My father was a
qallunaaq
!” She laughed gruffly.

Ally and I looked at her, astounded. Though an occasional whaling ship passed by Itta, the only ship that had ever stopped was Peary’s.

“Are you related to those people who built the fort?” Ally asked.

“No, Daughter, another ship came before that. Men who hunted whales. They didn’t stay long, but long enough to give my mother a baby!” To my astonishment,
she retrieved a steel axe with a wooden handle from a bag that she kept in her entrance tunnel. “My father left it behind so I’d have it when I was old enough to use it.”

“A rare and excellent gift,” I said.

Ally and her husband, too, had an axe. We used them for chopping frozen meat. All three of us had great wealth from white men.

“Perhaps my mother spared my life because of this one very useful tool,” Navarana said. “In my day, many girl babies had to be killed.”

Ally and I looked at each other, frowning. During very lean winters in Itta, mothers smothered their infant daughters. They allowed their sons to live because they’d grow up to provide for the community.

“Do others in the village have axes? Rifles?” I asked.

Navarana shook her head. “But I’m sure you’ve noticed that we have harpoons and sled runners made of wood. There have been several shipwrecks on this shore. Whalers.”

As Sammy slept, the women and I stitched skins together. Before long, I heard people talking outside. I went into the entranceway and started to put on my furs.

The flap of the igloo opened and cold air rushed in. “Billy Bah,” a small voice piped. “Are you here?”

Marie’s bright face peered at me through the entranceway flap. She wore a baggy sailor’s cap pulled over her ears. “Billy Bah!”

Mitti Peary, crouching behind Marie, gave me a tired smile. “Hello there. Thank the Lord we’ve found you.”

I was just as happy to see them. “Are you all right? Was the ship saved?”

“The ship is fine,” Marie said. “Mother and I walked over the ice. The Eskimos on the beach told me where you were.”

“You spoke to them in my language?”

“Ii.”
Marie was smart.

“Come in!” I said eagerly. Marie slipped inside, and Mitti Peary crawled after her.

“Why, Billy Bah!” Marie said. “No clothes. Only fur panties!” Marie never seemed to understand our ways.

“The igloo is very warm. Inside our homes we never wear clothes.”

I rolled up Marie’s and her mother’s cloaks. They followed me through the tunnel into the round room. Marie joined us on the platform of furs while her mother, even
after removing her hat, needed to sit on the floor so she wouldn’t bump her head.

Tooth Girl and her mother and grandmother began talking at once, Tooth Girl rubbing noses with Marie. Sammy and Runny Nose both woke. Marie picked up Sammy and kissed him.

Mitti Peary said, “I’m glad to see you all.”

“I’m very glad to see
you
,” I said in English, careful to say the words clearly.

Marie spoke in a rush. “So much has happened, Billy Bah. When the ship lay on its side, water came in and flooded our bunks. Mother and I have been sleeping in the forward saloon until everything dries out. Our cabin smells nasty! It’s so cold my oatmeal freezes in my bowl! Captain Bartlett says we’ll be trapped in the ice for eleven months. I’m
happy
that the ship can’t move—”

Mitti Peary said, “The ship locked in ice is not something to be happy about.”

“But, Mother, now I can see Billy Bah and Akitsinnguaq and Qaorlutoq. At home, I’d be at school.”

Mitti Peary’s chest rose and fell in an enormous sigh. Tooth Girl and her mother and grandmother all asked me what Marie said. I did my best to translate, though soon my throat felt dry from talking so much.

“Don’t bother repeating every little story of Marie’s,” Mitti Peary said. “I have something important to say.” I could feel her thinking and planning. “Marie and I need good, winter fur clothes like yours. We have needles and
other supplies we can give you and your friends. Can you help us, Billy Bah?”

What joy! Mitti Peary wanted
me
to sew for her! I caught my breath and began to translate, but Ally beat me to it. She knew some English, of course. I let her talk.

One by one, all the women said they would help.

Ally beamed her lovely smile at Mitti Peary. “Yes, we can all sew clothes for you.”

I translated for the old woman, Navarana. She told Mitti Peary, “To survive the winter, you and your daughter will need
kapatait
, mittens, leggings, fox skin trousers, and women’s boots:
kamiit
.”

Marie clapped her hands in delight.

Our women talked noisily. Making clothing required a great number of animal pelts and furs. To obtain them, our men would spend one or two moons hunting and trapping. Mitti Peary said she’d provide guns and ammunition as rewards.

“Our men will be glad we have work.” I smiled. For the first time in my life, I’d negotiated an exchange. Angulluk would be happy and the sewing would mean an opportunity to see Duncan.

Tooth Girl dumped a pile of tiny ivory animals on the musk ox fur bedding. She and Marie hopped and flew them around and gave the animals voices like peeping chicks.

As she held Sammy, Ally looked at me smugly. She, too, had translated for Mitti Peary. Or perhaps she was showing off her baby. I looked away.

Her voice low, she said to me in our language, “I’ll be the one to make Marie’s
kapatak
.”

“Certainly not,” I said firmly. “Marie is my special friend.
I’ll
make her
kapatak
.”

The
kapatak
is the most beautiful and important garment of our people. A hooded fur coat shows the skill and artistry of its maker. “You can sew Marie’s mittens,” she said.

“I will not!” I snapped. “Don’t insult me.”

Ally smiled sweetly. “You can sew better than any of us—that’s true! But that doesn’t give you the right to make Marie’s
kapatak
. Other matters count more.”

“I know, and I
do
have the right.” My voice rose. “It’s not just that I can sew better than you. Marie and I are like sisters. I cared for her in America.”

“Hold your tongue!” old Navarana hissed to Ally.

Ally pouted with her full lips. Mitti Peary frowned. How much did she understand?

Ally craftily switched to English. She looked straight at Mitti Peary. “I will make Marie’s coat! Don’t forget, Marie is Sammy’s sister:
Sammy is Pearyaksoah’s son
.”

Mitti Peary looked like she’d been snapped with a dog whip. Her eyes popped open and her jaw dropped. She spoke low.
“Sammy is Lieutenant Peary’s son?”

“Yes.” Ally looked especially self-satisfied. “The Great Peary is my baby’s father.”

I could hardly believe that Ally would be so foolish as to boast of her relationship with Peary to his wife. I’d
thought Ally understood the
qallunaat
better, that they do not trade their wives or have more than one. I’d assumed Peary had never told Mitti Peary about Ally—and I was right. I looked over at Marie, who was busy with Tooth Girl.

Mitti Peary straightened her back and brushed hairs off her dress. “I see.” She puckered her lips, thinking, then said, “Ally, you and Billy Bah each have your own special relationship with our family. You shall make Marie’s
kapatak
. Billy Bah shall make mine.”

Ally beamed.

“All right,” I said crossly. Mitti Peary was giving in to Ally? She wasn’t angry with her? But she gave me a look of misery and I knew she was holding back tears.

An uneasy silence followed. Sammy began crawling to the children and reaching for toy animals from their pile. Mitti Peary grabbed Sammy, brought him back to her corner of the platform, bounced him on her lap, and looked into his blue eyes.

Navarana began cutting chunks of pink seal meat.

Mitti Peary looked at our good meat as if it were rotten waste.
Qallunaat
never eat raw meat, but I also sensed she wanted to leave us. She rose, and handed Sammy back to his mother. Her voice broke. “Marie, it’s time we return to the ship.”