Ice Whale (12 page)
Authors: Jean Craighead George
Siku swam directly toward the Beaufort Sea. Even though he had strayed from the familiar routeâ magnetic fields told him where to go. Despite his one hundred yearsâ the deep grooves in his brain still processed data from the sunâ waterâ and weather and reported it to his body. He knew the sea and all its voices.
Along the coastâ
felt that thread of warm water again and swam with it until it was gone. Windblown whitecaps took its place.
Steadilyswam slowly onâ heading northeast to the summer feeding grounds.
S
omething good happened on January 3â 1959
. Alaska became the United States of America's forty-ninth state. The people of Barrow celebrated.
Charlie Toozak did a one-arm handstand and a high kick that Ernest had taught him so long ago when his father had sought out the great whaler. They were both games in the Eskimo Olympicsâ and he was good at them. Ernest cheered for him.
“Aarigaa!”
people shouted at the end of the performance.
Charlie's wifeâ Mariaâ and her women friends were singing happily as they prepared precious whale for everyone.
That summerâ Charlie's sonâ Robert Toozak (Toozak VI) and his friend Benny (Ernest's grandson) were paddling a large kayak not far from shore when they saw something oddâan expoloratory commercial crabber from the Bering Sea.
“They're setting crab potsâ” said Benny. “Let's go see them.”
The commercial fishermen warned them off. They were casting huge pots into the sea in hopes of finding new crabbing grounds and didn't want the native people to watch them too closely. As the pots sank the men fed out over two hundred feet of rope. Bobbing buoys marked the pots.
Eiiâ
murmured Robert to himself.
I'll come back and cut the ropes when no one is around.
Even though his father claimed not to believe in itâ he too had passed down to his son the stories of the family legend and their mission to protect the special whaleâ Sikuâ and whales in general. Robert knew these ropes would be a danger to the whaleâ and he leaped at the chance to protect himâ as seven generations of his family had doneâ and to cause some mischief.
That nightâ Robert would cut the ropesâ much to the outrage of the fishermen. He continued to look out for Siku's safetyâ though he never saw the whale.
In 1964â Robert Toozak married a woman named Flossie andâ a year laterâ his first childâ a girl named Emily Toozakâ was born.
O
n a day in late May of the year 1980â Emily
Toozakâ now fifteenâ and her younger brotherâ Oliver Toozak VIIâ were sitting on the bluff behind their house. A white cloud with a dark bottom was visible on the horizon.
“Water skyâ” Emily Toozak said. “It says that the leads are openâ those rivers of water in the sea ice. The whales migrate up these ocean lanes to the Beaufort Sea.” She pulled her hood closer to protect her face from the wind. It held her warm breath like a heater. Emily loved to hear stories of her grandfather's teacherâ Ernest. Very old nowâ he had been a great whalerâ and knew more about whales than anyone else in Barrow. He lived in the last sod house in Barrowâ and used his knowledge of nature to track the whales. He had even helped her great-grandfather protect them.
“Eiiâ”
she said. “Water sky. The leads are open. Many whales are going past. I know it is dangerous but I am going to walk out on the land-fast ice as far as I can and stand under the water sky. I want to see the whales going by.” She did not tell Oliver how many times she had already done this by herselfâ hoping to catch a glimpse of a whale. Unlike her younger brotherâ she
did
believe in the old waysâ and knew she must do everything she could to watch over the whales and their spirits.
“Okayâ” Oliver said. Normally he grumbled when he had to accompany Emily on adventures. He was not interested in the old ways at all. But he was in a good mood today. The two scrambled over white ice blocks with their blue-green shadows until they came to a pressure ridgeâ the hardâ land-fast ice that the pack ice from the north hits and pushes up into mountains. They picked their way up and climbed to the top. There they looked out over the ocean.
Just thenâ in the cobalt black lead below themâ the water parted and the rostrum of a whale emerged. He breathed outâ sending up a fountain of mist. It turned to ice fog and fell back into the water. There was a pauseâ then a huge bowhead whale breached. He rose almost eye level with them. On his lip was a white patch shaped like a dancing Eskimo.
The two siblings gasped. The whale was so close. He was huge.
Both children had heard the story of the curse put on their ancestorsâ though neither of them really believed in curses. But suddenly Emily felt she understood the bond the first Toozak had felt for the whale. “It's Sikuâ” she whispered. “Great Whaleâ I will always protect you.”
Oliver laughed. “That's impossible. How could you protect him? He's too big. Even his flukes would get in the way.”
“Jonah was saved by a whaleâ” said Emily. “Maybe Siku could save me.”
“From what?” Oliver scoffed.
Emily took in another long look at the whale. Before Oli-ver could inquire any furtherâ she saidâ “Let's get closer.” They climbed down the pressure ridge to the turquoise shelf of ice at the water's edge. On the shelf iceâ Emilyâ with the wind screaming around herâ tapped Oliver's arm and pointed.
“Oliverâ look in the distanceâ” she said. “An icebreaker.”
“So what? No bowhead would ever get near a boat. Let's go homeâ” he said. “I'm cold.”
“We have to stay! We're Toozaks. I want to watch. I want to see that whale again. Siku could be in danger!”
“You can stayâ but I'm going home.” He climbed back up the way they had comeâ and then descended out of sight.
Emily Toozak stared at the distant icebreakerâ wondering how to protect Siku from this. She searched the blue-purple lead of open water for him.
Siku suddenly breached not fifty feet from her. He turned and looked Emily Toozak in the eyes. Emily looked back at him.
“GO! GO! SIKUâ GO!” she shoutedâ and the great whale splashed back in the water. The droplets rose as high as her head. Emily saw big footprints heading north.
But then the footprints turned around and came back toward her. Siku swam up to the ice edge and rolled onto his sideâ bringing an eye to the surface. He peered up at Emily Toozak. A flash of recognition passed between them.
“I will protect youâ” she whisperedâ and touched her cheek.
Siku doveâ and waved his fluke. Emily Toozak was transfixed. The whale lingered as if he was glad to see her.
There must be something about meâ
she reasonedâ
that runs through to me from all of my ancestors because I feel like Siku knows me.
Siku dove out of sight. The icebreaker turned and steamed east.
The water sky was gone. The ice had closed inâ freezing and covering the lead.
Emily Toozak stood quietlyâ enchanted by Siku's white-and-blue world. Finally she climbed up the pressure ridge to the flat iceâ then descended and walked back to the general store. Insideâ she took off her parka and sat down at a table. Oliver was not thereâ as she thought he might beâ only Ernest's grandsonâ Benny. Benny was her father's best friend. When he saw her he got another cup of coffee and came across the room with the two cups and sat down at her table. Emily Toozak pulled her chair closer and thanked him for the coffee. Benny wasâ like his grandfatherâ one of the best whaling captains on the North Slope. He knew the old ways. He would know if what she had seen had been real.
“I saw a whale todayâ” she said. “I think it was Siku.”
“Aarigaa!”
said Benny. “The whales are slowly coming back since only Eskimos can hunt them now. And they only give themselves to so few.”
Benny sipped his coffeeâ looking at Emily Toozak thoughtfully. “Siku?” he questioned.
Emily Toozak looked long at Benny. She straightened her back. “I have heard about him my whole life. But I saw him today for the first time. He spoke to me.” She broke offâ embarrassed. “Wellâ he didn't really speak. But something happened between us. I can't really say. I have to find Siku againâ” she said. “He is not far from here. Will you take me out on the water?”
Although she believed that shamans were just men who made up thingsâ she was beginning to believe that there was a shred of truth about that curse her grandfather had gone on about. “Maybe it's not a curse . . . maybe it's a kind of bond.”
Benny looked at her face deeply. “You really want to find him?” Emily nodded. “And then what?” he asked. She shrugged.
“All rightâ” he saidâ “I will take you. But it's dangerous at sea. We will need to wait until the ice breaks up in July.”
Emily Toozak smiled.
“I
t's a good day to travelâ” Benny saidâ when Emily
saw him on the beach.
“Lets go find Siku.”
“We can use my
umiaq
â” he said.
“And I will bring my brotherâ” she said. “He will want to come too.” She went to find Oliver all the while thinking of Siku. She returned with himâ trying to make him excited at the thought of going out on the water.
“Why don't you get yourself a real boatâ Benny?” Oliver asked.
Benny laughed. “A real boat? Skin boats are still the best for the ice. You can't get anything better; they're lightâ flexibleâ toughâ paddle wellâ sail wellâ and you can fix them anywhere.”
Benny put on a white parka and pants that made him partially invisible to the whales. It was July and the sea ice was breaking up and scattering. While Benny steadied the skin boatâ Oliver climbed into the bow. He had brought his seal harpoon and rifle. He tucked them under his arm.
“You are not hurting Sikuâ” Emily Toozak said when she saw what Oliver had brought along.
“Don't worryâ Emily!” said Oliver. “See this little harpoon? I am hunting sealsâ not whales.”
“But Siku may see it and think we are hunting himâ” Emily said.
She got in lastâ grabbed a paddle and seated herself firmlyâ as if to say
I am Emily Toozakâ the seventh generation of Toozaks. I am here to find Siku and protect him from all who would harm him. It is my responsibilityâ the responsibility of my family.
They soundlessly launched the graceful
umiaq
.
She dug in her paddle.
“Let's goâ” Benny said softly. They dug inâ and the skin boat skimmed through the water. It glided past floes of turquoise-blue ice as it silently parted the water. Murres looped around the paddlersâ got back on trackâ and flew on to their breeding grounds.
Oliver spotted a seal hauled out on an ice floe. He pointed and Benny turned the boat in that direction. Then a plume shot up thirty feet above the sea surface.
“Thereâ” whispered Benny. He refrained from pointing to the whale. Old whalers believe pointing was an insult to the whale.
Siku had been in these waters overnight. Now he spy hoppedâ saw the boatâ and dove. The three people put down their paddles. Oliver stood in the bow waiting for the whale to surface again. Emily Toozak sat stone-still. They were silent. Fifteen minutes passed. Then Siku's rostrum surfaced nearby. A plume of warm breath rose from the ocean's surface. The whale seemed skittish.
“He thinks we're hunting himâ” whispered Oliverâ putting down his seal harpoon.
“But we're notâ” Emily said firmly but quietly.
“He doesn't know thatâ” said Oliver.
Siku was alarmed. He dove and then surfaced next to the skin boat. The seal harpoon and line went overboard. Siku's fluke caught in the line and he tugged the boat seaward. Emily's first thought was for the whale.
I must do something to
help
him
. He dove deeper and came up againâ tangling the rope around him more tightly.
Emily quickly drew her knife from her beltâ reached downâ and started to cut the lines. The boat rocked. She leaned over the sideâ her knife still in her hand. Siku was almost free. But the rope was caught around the narrows of his fluke. He pumped his flukes to cast off the rope but could not. He breached and fell backward. The spray soared fifty feet high and fell backâ drenching themâ nearly washing them over the side. Benny was on his knees trying to steady the boat. Emily was practically over the sideâ slashing wildly at the remaining ropes. She would not give up.
The whale tried to rise in the waterâ to see the girl whose eyes he had looked into just yesterday. But he was caught.