Earth, Air, Water, Light

by C L Lassila

  As the party of five disappeared around a bend in the river, Adelaide’s attention turned to the color of the sky. The low, rippled clouds, rushing quickly across the sky, had taken on a yellowish hue. She stood and watched their movement thinking that within this beautiful display lie the presentiment of an impending storm. She briefly took notice of two more men who were walking nearby, one Indian and one white, as she sat down to remove her shoes. Thunder rumbled in the distance as she rolled up her pant legs and put her foot down into the cold water. The initial discomfort caused by the coldness eased as her body adjusted to it. The slight relief from the heat was welcome. Adelaide waded out knee deep and then headed for an outcropping of rocks on which she had watched herons roost many times. She had to climb over a cluster of smaller rocks in order to reach the larger ones. As she stepped up onto a rock, a bird, startled by her sudden appearance, flew up, almost hitting her in the face. Equally startled she quickly moved backwards, losing her footing on the algae covered stones. With nothing to grab onto Adelaide could not stop her fall. She heard wings flapping and then for an instant was aware of the cold water on her body. The sky had begun to darken, now tinted more green than yellow, when her head came down hard onto a rock.

  When she awoke she was back in her bed her head hurting terribly. Lightning flashed as the wind rattled the windows. A loud clash of thunder caused the pain in her head to throb. She opened her eyes still in a state of confusion. After several minutes she began to emerge from her grogginess and recognized the town doctor standing next to Jonas at the side of her bed. She moved her right hand up and felt the bandage wrapped around her head.

  “Easy now," the doctor said. "You took a bad spill. You should lie still."

  “My head hurts," Adelaide said.

  “It's going to hurt for a time," the doctor said. "Can you move your arms and legs?”

  "Yes," Adelaide replied.

  “Is your vision all right?" inquired the doctor.

  While Adelaide responded to the doctor’s questions, Jonas went to speak to two men who were standing off by the door. Rapid flashes of lightning illuminated the dimly lit room. A crash of thunder seemed to rattle the entire house as lightning struck nearby. The rain continued its relentless drumming on the window pane. Adelaide was a bit confused by the darkness, had night fallen or was it caused by the storm?

  "What time is it?" Adelaide asked as she attempted to sit up.

  "Lie down," the doctor ordered. He took out his pocket watch. "It is twenty minutes to five o’clock.”

  “It's so dark,” Adelaide remarked.

  “You should be fine," the doctor said. "But I want you to stay in bed tonight. I will stop by again in the morning.”

  The doctor walked over to talk to Jonas. Adelaide recognized the two men as the men that she had seen down by the river. She was about to call them over with another bright flash of lightning lit the room accompanied by the roar of thunder. Through the rumbling of thunder Adelaide thought that she heard clanging church bells. When the sound of the thunder faded away, the wild ringing of the bells could be clearly heard. Suddenly there was a loud pounding on the front door. As Jonas opened the door, numerous voices yelling, “Shipwreck! Shipwreck!” could be heard.

  Another voice yelled, “The Northern Constellation has gone down in the storm!”

  Before Adelaide could talk to the two men, they ran out to join the men from town running toward the lakefront. The doctor too, left immediately. Jonas came over to her bed. Adelaide could see from the expression on his face that he wanted to join in the rescue.

  “Go. Go,” she said. "I will be fine."

  As Jonas headed out of the door she hollered after him, “Be careful, Jonas.”

  When the men reached the beach they came to a standstill, blinded by the wind driven rain. They knew in their hearts that to attempt any type of rescue until the storm passed was impossible. They stood helplessly onshore, looking out over the raging lake, a lake that had taken many lives. The surf was far too rough to launch the small boats that would be used in the rescue. They would have to wait for the winds to subside.

  The storm settled into place. The lightning, thunder, wind and rain persisted well past nightfall. The rescuers took shelter in a nearby house and grew quiet with the realization that finding any survivors grew less likely with every minute that passed.

  Eventually the storm moved on. As the sun crept over the horizon Adelaide, her head still hurting from yesterday's fall, joined the town’s people heading hurriedly toward the shore. They stood in silent horror as they took in the damage that last night's fury had wrought. Iron and broken timber littered the shoreline. Strewn about the wreckage, twisted and contorted in their poses, lay the bodies of those that had lost their lives. Women began to weep. One dropped to her knees and began to pray loudly. Another woman, overcome with emotion, collapsed onto the wet ground. The men decided that it was best to take the women back to town so that their fragile temperaments would not be too badly affected by the ghastly scene.

  Adelaide stood off to the side and watched as the preacher’s wife started to gather the women together. She looked out over the lake and the demonstration of its power over man. A seagull was perched on one of the corpses while others flew overhead, gathering to partake of the feast. The men on board the boat must have done some fishing while they were out, or the boat was carrying freshly caught fish as part of the cargo because a large number of dead fish were floating next to the bodies that remained bobbing up and down on the waves. Many of the dead had been washed up onto the beach. The seagulls would eat well today, Adelaide thought. Were they happy in their good fortune, she wondered, while the people standing on the shore mourned. Vultures had also discovered the scene, but they would be robbed of their feast as the men began to collect the corpses. It seemed a waste to put a body into a box when another animal could feed upon it, she thought. It was a thought that she knew to keep to herself.

  A woman made frantic with worry, wearing a navy blue dress, ran up and down the beach hysterically calling out the name Edward. Jonas, amidst all of the commotion, found Adelaide on the beach. He came over and put his arm around her shoulder and they both stood and looked silently on.

  “You should be home in bed,” he said. “Go home. I will stay here and help the men.”

  Before she turned away to leave she noticed the two men who had pulled her from the water the previous day. They were wading out waist deep into the water, battling the rough surf, to retrieve the body of a man who was wearing a dark green coat. Again today they were pulling someone from the water. If not for these two men her fate would have been the same as that of the man in the green coat, her body too, would soon have been put into a box.

  By noon, the bodies of fifteen men had been laid side by side on the ground near the shoreline. There were no women among them. In the hope of identifying the deceased, people began returning from town to view the remains. They walked down the line of corpses, lifting the shrouds to look at the faces of the dead. Adelaide was spared this, having been a part of the community for such a short time.

  Eleven of the men were recognized by someone and regained their names. They would not be buried in an unmarked grave.

  When the men had finished their search, the bodies were carried one by one to a place where they could be loaded onto wagons and conveyed into town. There was not enough space in the undertaker’s residence to accommodate all of the cadavers. Several were laid out in a nearby shed.

  Midafternoon, Adelaide was visited by Mrs. Lessing. Jonas had not yet returned home. Adelaide’s head was still pounding, and exhausted from the horror of the day’s events, she had decided to lie down to take a nap. This was something that she was unknown to do in the middle of the day. The loud knocking woke her and she roused herself to answer the door.

  “Poor girl,” Mrs. Lessing said upon seeing Adelaide. “How are you feeling?”

  “I am fine. I have no reason to complain in light of last
night’s events,” Adelaide replied.

  “There is something that I wanted to ask of you,” said Mrs. Lessing. “But I will understand if you are not up to it.”

  “What can I do for you, Mrs. Lessing?” Adelaide asked.

  “Sit down, dear,” Mrs. Lessing directed. She took Adelaide’s hand in hers. “Only eleven of those poor men were identified. The other four, their loved ones will never know what happened to them. I know that this would be difficult, and maybe too difficult for a woman to do, but you are so good at drawing likenesses of birds and plants. I thought…if you drew likenesses of these men, the drawings could be kept at city hall and people passing through…someone might one day put a name on their grave.”

  “You want me to draw the dead men?” Adelaide questioned.

  “Dear girl, only if it won’t be too difficult for you emotionally,” Mrs. Lessing added.

  Adelaide stood up and collected her sketchbook and pencils.

  “I better get to it then,” Adelaide said.

  She walked with Mrs. Lessing to the undertaker’s, which had become the town gathering place for the day. Adelaide requested that the four men be laid outside where she could sketch their faces in the sunlight. When that was done, the undertaker pulled back the sheet to reveal the first man’s face. As Adelaide began to sketch proceeding the same way that she did when capturing the likeness of a living animal, people began to gather, peering over her shoulder as she worked. For Adelaide, sketching was always a private activity. Having people watch her made her very uncomfortable. So she shooed them away saying, “Please, may I do this privately.”

  The undertaker urged the crowd of people to move away. Adelaide was left alone to sketch the four dead men.

  Drawing the human form had never held much interest for her, but she did her best to sketch an accurate likeness of each man’s face. She paused as she worked on the first sketch and looked closely at the man's face. She thought that a dead man would look as if he were sleeping. She thought that a dead man would look peaceful. But as she studied his face she realized that the face did not look asleep or peaceful, it in fact, looked lifeless. Adelaide wondered if she should sketch each man as she would imagine him looking if still alive. That was not how she sketched. Her technique was to sketch what she saw. She chose to stay with her technique. Each finished portrait reflected how the man looked in death.

  When she had finished she took her pocketknife and cut the four pages from her sketchbook. She presented the drawings to the undertaker and returned home. Those four pages were the only ones ever removed from the first sketch book.

  It was only after the excitement of the past twenty four hours subsided that it occurred to Adelaide that their trip would again be delayed. The Northern Constellation was the boat that was to carry her and Jonas to copper mining country further north. She had heard how dangerous travel on Lake Superior could be. Now she had seen it firsthand. She knew what death looked like. The lake, great and powerful, had no concern for those traveling upon it.

  Adelaide, finally overcome by exhaustion and still hurting from her fall, set her head down on the mattress. She had heard at the undertaker's that some of the women in town were making dinner for the men who had helped with the rescue. Jonas would be fed. She could sleep.

  The following Sunday, as Adelaide was walking back from church with Jonas and the Lessings, she caught sight of the two men who were responsible for saving her life. Impulsively, she set aside her manners, and ran ahead of her companions to catch the two men who were walking some distance ahead of them. As she approached them, Adelaide tried to get their attention.

  "Excuse me. Wait a moment, please," she shouted.

  When they turned in her direction she was suddenly embarrassed. She stopped and momentarily looked at her feet. Regaining her composure, she said, “I didn't get a chance to thank you the other night. I am very grateful.”

  The white man, handsome, with strong features and green eyes, smiled and said, “It's impolite to let a lady drown if you can prevent it.”

  The other man, an Indian, his waist length, black hair in braids, remained silent.

  Jonas and the Lessings approached. The white man extended his hand in greeting.

  “Hello, Jonas,” he said.

  Jonas went about introducing everyone.

  "Calix Purchase, Albert Ten Crows; this is my wife Adelaide and Henry and Elenora Lessing,” he said.

  Calix Purchase nodded and looked at Adelaide.

  “It's good to see you up and about,” he remarked.

  Albert Ten Crows, who had been quiet up to that point, addressed Calix.

  “We should be going.” He then turned and looked at Adelaide and said, “You see the heron’s spirit."

  With that he walked away.

  "Be careful out on the rocks," Calix said.

  He smiled at Adelaide before walking off with Ten Crows.

  As the two men walked away, Mrs. Lessing made a disparaging remark about heathens. Before she could say more Adelaide curtly interrupted her.

  “Those heathens saved my life," she said. “Christians could benefit greatly by learning from the Indians.”

  Mrs. Lessing replied in a smug and self-righteous tone, “It was God who saved your life, dear.”

  Chapter 4

  Before the sinking of the Northern Constellation, Adelaide had been nervous about crossing Lake Superior. Since their arrival at the Sault, the newspaper had made regular mention of men who had lost their lives to the power and fury of the lake. Despite her fear she was eager for her and Jonas to make their way to their final destination and travel by boat was the only option.

  Mrs. Lessing was certain that Adelaide was being haunted by the faces of the dead men that she had sketched. She also feared for the girl’s soul, concerned that the freedom from the conventions of society that the adventure of travel afforded had led Adelaide to stray from her Christian beliefs. Therefore, Jonas and Adelaide were presented with the offer to have Adelaide remain behind and take room and board with the Lessings. Elenora was also concerned about the danger of the crossing as well as the hardship a long winter in such a remote and unsettled place would present to the young and inexperienced couple.

  Adelaide had on too many occasions heard Mrs. Lessing refer to the Indians as the poor heathens. She knew that it would be easier for her to endure the trials thrown at her by harsh and indifferent nature than it would be to endure Mrs. Lessing’s ignorance. Adelaide knew that she could survive a hard winter whereas she was not certain that she could survive living with Elenora Lessing.

  Many of the good Christians that she had met since arriving in America spoke of saving the heathen Indians by converting them to Christianity. Adelaide had seen the river so filled with logs from the logging company that one could walk across the river without getting their feet wet. And she had seen the ugliness of the towns that sprang up with the arrival of the European settlers, towns that grew up where unspoiled wilderness had been. To Adelaide, Christianity was a religion created by people to suit their needs, a religion that gave license to people to take more than they needed from nature. The Bible granted people dominion over all of the creatures on the earth, and over the earth itself, thus granting people dominion over nature. Did Christians really believe that every living thing on the earth was there solely to support human existence? In Adelaide’s mind, Christianity was a religion that took people away from the truth. Her truth was nature. If God did exist he was created by nature not the other way around.

  Jonas knew, after the wreck of the Northern Constellation, that the window of time for them to get to Copper Harbor and set up a home before the onset of winter was slowly closing. They did not have the luxury to wait another six weeks before moving on. If traveling alone, it would not have been a problem for him to go north even well into the fall. Such places always have a boarding house for single men. But Adelaide had made it clear that she would not be left behind and he knew that it was pointless to or
der her. Transportation had to be found quickly.

  Jonas had heard that smaller boats could be hired for travel on the lake, but it would be more expensive. He was not in the habit of discussing the couple's finances with his wife. So he took it upon himself to raise some extra money somehow. He had always had good luck at gaming whether it was cards, horseracing or wrestling. He usually would come home with more money than he had left with. Without telling Adelaide where he was going, he took half of the money that he had saved and went out.

  Jonas worked too hard and being still a newlywed, enjoyed the company of his wife too much, to spend too much time at the saloon. But he would usually stop in for a drink on most Saturday nights. He found it a good place to enjoy the company of men and to discover news of the various opportunities developing in the area. Tonight he stopped in several saloons before finding a good game going on.

  At the table were two young men who worked with him at the lumber camp, as well as Calix Purchase and Mr. Charles Brookstone, a local businessman who was known to have money and, as chance would have it, also was known to not be good at cards. Many men who lived locally would throw in their cards instead of taking a large pot from Mr. Brookstone, fearing that he would hold it against them and use his power to curtail their chance of success at whatever they might endeavor to do. Therefore Mr. Brookstone was under the illusion that he was a good poker player. But tonight two of the gamblers at the table did not have that concern, and both were very good card players. One of these players was Jonas, who would soon be leaving town. The other was Calix Napoleon Purchase. Calix was a familiar face to many from his frequent visits to town but he was not a permanent resident. French Canadian by origin and a jack of all trades, Calix traveled around the area taking advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves. He also was a skilled outdoorsman who frequently left the company of men to spend time alone in the wild. He was a man who found the company of the Chippewa more satisfying than being in the company of most white men.