The Haunted Igloo (8 page)

He forced himself to brush
away the frightening thoughts. Of course there really was no
laughter. The laughter was only in Jean-Paul’s imagination, but he
was too scared to know that. There was only the strong wind
whistling around from behind the igloo.

“
Two hours?” Jean-Paul tried to sound
brave, but he knew his voice was small and quivering.

“
Yeah!” Chinook replied. “Just two
hours in that haunted
apudyak
, then you can go
home.”

Jean-Paul gritted his teeth
to keep them from chattering. “I g–guess t–two hours won’t be so
bad. If the rest of you can do it, so can I. And when the t–two
hours are up, you will let me join Ice Patrol, won’t
you?”

“
Sure we will,” they all said at once.
“And we’ll take you home right after.”

Jean-Paul’s mind was made
up. He wanted in that club more than anything in the world. And, if
he was ever going to overcome his fear of the dark, now was the
time to do it. He started toward the igloo with Sasha at his side.
“Okay. If I can find the entrance.”

But Sasha had already found the opening. She
poked her nose inside, then backed away.

“
Better let your dog go in first!”
yelled Aiverk. “She can make sure it’s safe!”

Someone laughed. A real
laugh this time, not the wind. “If she comes back out, you’ll know
it’s safe to go in!”

The three boys sat on the
sled and watched to see what Jean-Paul was going to do. Jean-Paul
glanced back at them, but they were just three dark shadows all
running together. He wished it was light. Then he could see what he
was doing. There could at least be a moon, or a bright aurora. He
dropped to his hands and knees before the entrance.
They’re trying to scare me, but I won’t let
them!

The entrance was a short
round tunnel leading into the main room. The darkness from inside
was even worse than the darkness outside, for it seemed to reach
out for Jean-Paul as he moved slowly forward and stuck his head in.
Behind him, Sasha whined. At the doorway, Jean-Paul
stopped.

“
What are you waiting for?” yelled
Nanuk.

Aiverk shouted over the
sound of the wind. “Go on in, Jean-Paul
Okalerk
!
”

Jean-Paul found his courage
and crawled all the way into the tunnel.
Black as pitch
!
Blacker than the ink on Father Cortier’s
desk
!
Like going
into a cavern!
Suppose there’s no bottom in
this igloo
!
Suppose
I just drop down and down and ... all the way through the earth ...
to the South Pole
!

At that moment, something
touched his foot. He drew it up sharply. Then came a whine. Of
course, it was Sasha, following him into the tunnel. He could feel
the walls of the tunnel. There wasn’t enough room to turn around.
If something came out of the igloo after him, he would have to back
out. There was no way both Jean-Paul and Sasha could back out fast
enough before something grabbed them.

Then, the tunnel walls fell
away. Jean-Paul’s heart thumped hard as he realized he was inside
the big, round room. He knew there should be a smoke hole in the
top of the igloo, but it probably hadn’t been used in a long time.
Maybe it was even frozen shut. He felt a cold nose on his cheek.
His heart hammered at his chest. He walked his hands across the
snow-packed floor, feeling his way inch by inch. “I guess we’re in
here, Sasha!” His voice sounded hollow as it bounced off the
igloo’s wall.

Someone called from
outside, but he could not tell who. “You in there, Jean-Paul? See
any spirits yet? How about wolves?”

Muffled laughter seeped
through the thick wall. Jean-Paul grabbed for Sasha and clung to
her neck. “I wish I was home. Oh, Sasha, I wish I was back home!
Why did I listen to them?”

A soft scuffling sound came
from behind. Jean-Paul turned his head to hear—to
see
. But there was nothing
to see. There was only the complete blackness. He hugged Sasha
tightly and buried his face in her furry neck. “Listen,” he
whispered. “
Something’s here ...
something’s in here
.”

The sounds went on for a
few more minutes, like something slithering across the ground. Then
they stopped. A voice called again from outside. This time
Jean-Paul could barely hear it. Faint laughter sent chills down his
back. It had sounded like: “
Have fun,
Jean-Paul
!” A very faraway voice.
“
When your two hours are up, you can come
out
.” Maybe the words were in his own
mind—he couldn’t really tell. It was the darkness, of course.
Darkness always did strange things to Jean-Paul’s mind.

A thick, spooky silence
came. Jean-Paul was determined to stay the full two hours. But how
would he know when the time was up? He turned loose of Sasha’s
neck. “Might as well explore,” he whispered, as if someone were
listening.

He crept forward a little
more, felt something soft and squishy beneath his mittened hands.
He jumped. Turning away from whatever it was, he crawled in the
other direction. Then he stood up, feeling his way with his hands
in front of him. The igloo was larger than it had seemed from
outside. There was no wall to be felt, so he knew he must be in the
center. A sliver of cold air streamed down from the top of the
igloo. The smoke hole was open.
If only I
had brought something to build a fire. How will I keep warm for two
hours
?

Jean-Paul knew igloos were
built to keep out the cold—snow contains many air pockets for
insulation. And several persons inside an igloo, with a small fire,
threw off enough heat to warm the air. Jean-Paul was warmly dressed
and would probably be all right until Chinook and the other two
returned. But now he stood silently, wondering what to do. It was
the darkness he hated. The inside of the igloo was absolutely the
blackest black Jean-Paul had ever seen, even darker than his own
bedroom on the darkest night. There was almost always some sort of
light reflecting from somewhere—the snow, the stars, or the moon.
Even so, he had always wanted a lamp burning. He thought of his
warm bed, wishing he were in it, safe inside his sleeping bag. Only
his parents knew how deathly afraid he was of the dark.

Suddenly, Jean-Paul wanted
more than anything to go home. “
I’m coming
out now
!” he shouted. His voice boomed back
to him. Sasha whimpered. “
Do you guys hear
me
?
I’m not staying
in here
!
You know
what you can do with your old club
!”

Tears rolled down
Jean-Paul’s cheeks as he waited for someone to answer. There was no
sound but the wind, which had risen gale-like, whistling down the
smoke hole. The howling, that eerie howling and moaning of the
wind, gave Jean-Paul the creeps.
Maybe it
isn’t the wind
!
Maybe it’s a wolf
!

“
Hey, Chinook!” His voice didn’t sound
like his own voice. “Chinook? Nanuk?” But neither Chinook nor Nanuk
nor Aiverk answered Jean-Paul’s fearful cry. Only the wind. “I’m
coming out now!”

There was no answer. It was
as though he had died and was locked inside his own tomb.
They’re only playing with me. They’re trying to
scare me.
The darkness closed in fast and
made his flesh crawl, gave him the shivers.
Game or no game, they can’t force me to stay in an igloo
that’s supposed to be haunted
!
All I have to do is go back out the same way I
came in.
Jean-Paul was amazed at his
brilliance.

He dropped to his hands and
knees and crept forward slowly, feeling his way in the darkness.
Suddenly, his hand touched the squashy thing on the floor. He
jumped away in alarm.
It’s something
dead
!
A wolf or
something came into the igloo and died
.
Sasha licked his face. He hugged her
tightly around the neck, burying his face in the thick fur.
“W–we’ll go outside again. I p–promise ... go outside…”

The wind swirled through
the smoke hole, bringing with it part of the bitter Arctic night.
Jean-Paul clung to Sasha and cried. “If only I could see
something!”

He moved cautiously around
the “thing” on the floor to where he thought the tunnel began. He
ran his hands over the frozen wall, feeling for an opening.
Nothing! The wall was icy-smooth, and he couldn’t find the
entrance. “I must be a few feet away from it,” he whispered to
Sasha. She licked his cheek with her warm tongue. She whined and
smothered him with wet kisses. Jean-Paul shoved her away and crept
around the circle of the igloo, feeling the wall as he went. And
that wall was as solid as a stone. There was a sleeping ledge. He
crawled up on it and examined the wall behind it. Still,
nothing.

“
It’s got to be here!” he cried. “I
came in through a hole in the wall, and a hole doesn’t
disappear!”

Jean-Paul sat on the ledge
to think. He was beginning to feel cold inside his leggings and
parka, through all the thick layers of underwear and socks and
shirts. His mittens might as well have been tissue for all the good
they were doing. Thoughts of death swam into his mind.
I won’t let myself die! It’s just plain stupid to
be lost in an igloo
!
If I follow the circular wall, I’ll find the entrance sooner
or later. Where is it
?
He got up and examined the wall all over again. But there was
nothing. The tunnel was gone.

Jean-Paul’s heart turned to
ice as he imagined being buried alive. If the wall hadn’t been so
thick—but he knew someone had packed more snow over the outside of
it. It sloped down steeply on one side, and children used the slope
for sliding.

By now the blocks must be
at least two feet thick and frozen solid. How could he dig through
that with only his hands, which were already freezing? He didn’t
know what had happened to the entrance, but he realized he must
wait for the boys to come let him out when the time was
up.

He tried again to get their
attention. He pounded and beat the igloo wall with both fists. But
beating on packed snow makes very little sound. Jean-Paul was
doomed. “
Let me out of
here
!” he screamed. “
Oh, please, Chinook! Aiverk
!
Somebody let me out ... let me
out
!”

Chapter 5

A
dogsled with three laughing boys raced down the trail toward
Aklavik.

“
I’ll bet it scares the pants off
Jean-Paul!” yelled Chinook above the dangerously swirling wind.
Heavy snow was moving in from the northwest, sticking to his
eyebrows and shock of black hair that spilled over his forehead.
“We’ll go back in two hours and let him out!”

“
Him and his mutt!” Nanuk laughed,
huddling with Aiverk on the sled.

They began the long decline
into the village. Chinook stood behind the sled on the runners, so
he could control the speed of the sled with the hand brake. Hauling
a sled full of boys was very easy for Amarok, he being strong
enough to pull the sled all the way to the Yukon on a single
run.

“
It was a smart trick, Nanuk!” yelled
Aiverk. “Building a new entrance on the
apudyak
and smashing it down after he
went inside.”

Nanuk giggled. “Buried the
entrance! So only
we
know where it is! Jean-Paul will be as white as an
okalerk
when he comes
out.”

“
We might have to go back sooner!”
Chinook hunched his shoulders up around his ears and stuck his chin
into his parka, away from the blowing, blinding snow. “We’re
getting a blizzard for sure!”

He slowed the sled as
Amarok swung into the main street of Aklavik. In a few minutes they
stopped in front of the Hudson’s Bay trading post, then went inside
to warm up.

There was no heat in the building, for
Inuits were used to doing without. But compared with the raging
storm outdoors, this room was quite comfortable.

At one side was a long
counter, and shelves behind it were stacked with supplies to make
life bearable in the Northwest Territories: mackinaws, wool and
flannel shirts and underwear, handmade sealskin boots. An
assortment of snow knives and skinning tools were displayed in one
area. Kettles and pots hung by their handles from hooks and nails.
Several bolts of brightly colored calico lay at one end of the
counter. Huge bundles of pelts were stacked on the floor against
the counter, ready to be moved to one of the warehouses. A lamp
with an oil-smoked chimney glowed dimly overhead, and the room
smelled of rancid oil and musky animal hides.

Two Inuit men shouted
loudly at the clerk, Ola Hanson, not even looking at the boys. In
the cold room, Ola wore his parka, mittens, and a stocking cap.
When business was slow, he retreated to the “native room” at the
back of the store, where people from the village often gathered for
“mug ups” of tea and games of checkers.