The Haunted Igloo (14 page)

Jean-Paul looked more
closely at the ore. “It’s big.”

“
I’m going to Yukon in a couple of
weeks,” Cordell said.

Jean-Paul glanced around
the room. “Where’s Ma?”

Cordell pointed to the
bedroom door. “Resting,” he said.

Jean-Paul lowered his
voice. “
I caught a fox,
Pa.
”

Cordell cracked a wide
grin. He pushed back his chair, scraping it noisily across the
floor. “Well, well! So you finally got your”
—
he lowered his own voice and leaned
down to Jean-Paul’s ear—“
fox!
”

“
Can you come with me?”

“
I suppose I’d better,” Cordell said,
going for his parka. “It isn’t every day a boy traps his first
fox.”

He tiptoed to the bedroom
door and peeked inside. “She’s asleep.”

When Jean-Paul and his
father returned with the fox, they went directly into the shed.
“I’ll skin it for you,” Cordell said, “but you’ll flesh
it.”

Jean-Paul eyed the bloody
animal. “I don’t really want to, Pa.”

“
Nonsense. Time you
learned.”

Jean-Paul had never liked
the skinning part of trapping. His stomach turned over as his
father pulled the hide away from the flesh. “No,” Jean-Paul
repeated, backing away. “I can’t.”

Cordell laid the knife down
and stood up. “If you want to trap wild animals, you have to learn
to do it all.”

“
I guess I never thought about the
fox
dying
. I didn’t
mean to hurt it.”

Cordell’s voice was serious
when he spoke. “No one likes to hurt animals, Jean-Paul. But in
this cold country, people depend on animals for clothing and food.
You know that.”

Jean-Paul knew that the meat from this fox
would feed their own huskies. But he was still unhappy.

“
It seems cruel,” he said, frowning.
“Do you think God minds?”

Cordell smiled gently
through his beard. “If it’s necessary to destroy an animal for food
or clothing, then He might not mind. How else would the Eskimos and
Indians have survived in this climate, if not for the wild
critters? God always provides for His people, and those with wisdom
enough to understand this will survive.”

Jean-Paul swallowed the
lump in his throat. What his father said sounded reasonable. “I
want the baby to have a fox-fur parka and boots. I’ll flesh the
hide, but I won’t like doing it.”

Cordell handed Jean-Paul
the flesher. “It will take a while to scrape off the flesh that
clings. Be careful not to tear the skin.”

Jean-Paul worked for a long
time scraping the hide. It was hard work, but after a while the
pelt began looking better. All it needed now was washing and
stretching and softening.

____________

A
couple of weeks later, Jean-Paul gave his mother the
pelt.

“
Fur?” she said.

Jean-Paul grinned. It was
the moment he had waited for. “Arctic fox fur for the baby,” he
said.

Cordell slipped an arm
around Jean-Paul’s shoulders. “Jean-Paul trapped this fox, honey.
Every time he disappeared, he was checking his trap.”

“
But nothing came for a long time,”
Jean-Paul said. “Do you like it? I fleshed it myself.”

His mother stroked the soft
white fur. “I don’t know what to say, Jean-Paul.” She placed the
pelt on the table and hugged him. “Such a thoughtful boy! Thank
you, dear.”

Suddenly Cordell said, “Did
you remember I’m going to the Yukon next week to see about that
copper?”

Lise dropped her arms from
Jean-Paul’s shoulders and turned to her husband. “Oh, Cordell, I
was trying to forget that trip!”

Cordell’s voice was gentle
and reassuring when he spoke. “I’ll be back before the baby comes,
eh? In the meantime, you have Jean-Paul to keep you
company.”

He clamped a big hand on
the boy’s shoulder. “You’ll help your mother, won’t you,
son?”

Jean-Paul had wished to go
on the trip, too. But Cordell had already told him he couldn’t miss
school. Because of that haunted igloo business, he had already
missed enough. Jean-Paul knew his father was right—school had to
come first.

“
We’ll be okay, Pa.” It was hard to
hide his disappointment.

“
Sure you will,” Cordell said. “You’re
a big boy now, eh, Jean-Paul?”

Jean-Paul smiled. It certainly seemed true
that today he really did feel much bigger and older.

Chapter 9

T
he first week of March dawned bright and clear. Jean-Paul and
his mother stood outside watching Cordell’s freight sled until it
was nearly out of sight. He turned to them once and waved, then
vanished beyond a far hill. Now there was nothing but the team’s
barking in the distance, a sad and lonely sound that gave Jean-Paul
the chills.

His mother slipped an arm
around him. “What will we do now? Just the two of us.” She sighed
and led Jean-Paul back to the cabin.

____________

T
hat week, Jean-Paul went to school on his own sled, with Sasha
pulling. Thinking of his mother, he went home right after
school.

“
My mother needs me,” he told his
friends. “With Pa away she worries about the baby coming.” He tried
to sound like a person who could take charge of things, no matter
what.

Jean-Paul helped his mother
with the chores after school, and when she wasn’t busy with other
things, Lise worked on a tiny pair of fur boots. In the evenings,
they played checkers or read to each other. Jean-Paul knew his
mother missed Cordell.

A few days before Cordell
was due home, Jean-Paul thought his mother seemed very tense. She
kept pacing the floor and going to the window. But the window was
still boarded up and she couldn’t see outside.

She picked up the baby
boots. “I’m almost finished with these.” She handed them to
Jean-Paul. “Pretty fox-fur bootees to match the small
parka.”

Jean-Paul held a tiny boot
in each palm. “What can fit into these?” He laughed. “Maybe my big
toe!”

His mother mussed his curly
hair and kissed his cheek. “Babies have tiny feet,” she
said.

Jean-Paul looked down at
his own feet in their scratchy wool stockings. “Maybe our baby will
have regular feet, not like the crooked one I was born
with.”

“
I’m sure the baby will be normal. But
even if she isn’t, she’ll always remember that her big brother made
her first pair of boots.”

“
You
made them,” Jean-Paul said. “I
just trapped the fox.”

“
Yes, but you did it for me and the
baby,” Lise said with a quick hug. “It was the nicest thing you
could have done for us.”

Jean-Paul stroked the soft
fur, then gave the boots back to her. “I wanted the fur very much,
but I’m sorry the fox had to die.”

____________

S
ometime during the night, Jean-Paul awoke at the sound of
footsteps. It occurred to his sleepy brain that his father might
have come home. A lamp burned dimly in the other room, but he heard
no voices. Since he was too sleepy to investigate, he rolled over,
pulled the sleeping bag over his head again, and fell back to
sleep.

____________

“
W
ake up, Jean-Paul!” Someone nudged his shoulder.
“Jean-Paul,
please
.”

Jean-Paul’s oil lamp burned
brightly and shone through his closed eyelids. Why had someone
called him? He didn’t want to wake up.

“
It’s Saturday.” He turned over and
hid his face again. “Go away—”

“
Jean-Paul, wake up! I will not go
away. I need your help! Please get up!”

His mother’s voice! Why was
she waking him in the middle of the night? Into his mind came
Cordell’s voice:
“You’re a big enough boy
to help your mother, eh?”

This time Jean-Paul rolled over on his back
and blinked his eyes open, squinting at the light. His mother stood
beside his cot, her blond hair hanging loosely over one shoulder.
It framed her face like a golden halo in the lamp glow. He rubbed
his eyes and sat up.

“
What time is it?”

“
Four o’clock,” answered Lise. “I
didn’t want to wake you, but there’s no one else.”

She stopped talking and inhaled deeply, her
hand resting on her big belly.

“
What’s the matter, Ma?” Jean-Paul
jumped out of bed and looked at her in alarm. He touched her gently
on the arm. “Ma!”

After a moment Lise
breathed easier. She turned to him, her face very serious.
Jean-Paul saw that she was fully dressed in rugged outdoor
clothing.

She brushed his hair from
his eyes, then grasped his shoulders and looked him squarely in the
eyes. “Are you awake enough to hear what I’m saying?”

“
Uh-huh.”

She nodded. “Okay. Then
listen carefully, Jean-Paul. I need your help badly. The baby is
ready to be born.”

For a moment Jean-Paul
thought he hadn’t heard right. “The baby? But—”

“
That’s right, honey. You must help me
get to the hospital.” Lise’s gray eyes sparkled in the dim light.
“We must hurry!”

Jean-Paul was stunned. “But
Ma! It’s not time yet! You can’t have the baby till Pa comes back!
You
can’t
.”

Lise smiled. “Sometimes
babies come early. There’s nothing you, I, or anyone else can do
about that. Please get dressed.”

Jean-Paul didn’t know what
to do. He stared at his mother with his mouth hanging
open.

“
Jean-Paul,
now!
” Lise ordered. “I know how you
must feel, but come on and get dressed.” She lowered herself gently
to the side of Jean-Paul’s bed and drew in a sharp breath.
Jean-Paul was frightened. He knew he had to help. He dressed
quickly, and again his mother was back to normal.

“
I’m sorry,” she said, and began
braiding her hair.

Jean-Paul wanted to be
brave. Now that Cordell was away, his mother depended on him to
help her.

“
We’ll go in Pa’s big sled,” Jean-Paul
said. “He took the freight sled and left the other one here. Mine’s
too small.”

His mother nodded. “Do you
think Sasha can pull that big sled?”

“
I told you she’s strong. I think she
can pull it.”

“
I hope so,” Lise said with a smile.
“I’ve already laid out a few things to take along. Warm robes,
blankets, and the lantern, of course.”

Jean-Paul went outside a
few moments later to harness Sasha. The young husky jumped around
in excitement. What was Jean-Paul doing, putting on the harness in
the middle of the night? She pranced around so much, her bells
jingling loudly, that Jean-Paul could hardly work the leather
straps. “Stand still!” he yelled. His words drifted away into the
still, cold night. It was so silent that he could have screamed at
the top of his lungs, and no one would have heard except his mother
and his dog. Alone: that’s what he was.

Sasha whined. She was ready to go before the
sled was. Then, finally, the straps were in place over her chest
and back. Jean-Paul had already loaded the sled. Now he hoped there
would be room for his mother. He hooked the leather leads to the
sled and to Sasha.

Lise came outdoors wearing
Cordell’s extra fur parka. She sat down on the sled, leaned back
against the bundle of supplies, and pulled a bearskin robe around
her shoulders and over her legs. Then she spoke to the dog. “You
must go like the wind, Sasha!” And to Jean-Paul she said, “Do you
think you can find the trail in the dark?”

Jean-Paul laughed. “I’ve
gone to school in the dark for months. And besides, Sasha knows the
way better than I do.”

He took one last look at their home. The
cabin looked lonely out there in the middle of nowhere, as it had
when he first saw it. He released the brake and pushed off from
behind the sled. It never entered his mind that the sled might be
too much for him as well as for the husky.

“
Hah
!”
he
shouted. “Take me to school, Sasha!
Hah
!
Hah
!
Go to
school, Sasha! Find Amarok!”

Sasha wagged her tail and
barked. Jean-Paul held his breath and pushed at the heavy sled. The
husky leaned into the harness, straining with all her might under
the big load. But soon she had her bearings and began picking up
speed. Cordell had iced the runners a few days before, and they
were very slick. Jean-Paul jumped onto the back of the sled and let
the dog have her way. His only thought was that she must not stray
from the trail. The last thing he needed was to get lost with his
mother’s baby coming.

Jean-Paul shouted to Lise,
“Are you all right? Isn’t this fun?”

His mother turned to him
and waved. “I’m fine! And you can call it fun if you want, but I’ll
be glad when we get to Aklavik!”