She was standing on the back of the sled. The seal hunter stood next to her in the snow.
Jack jumped onto the sled next to Annie.
The seal hunter cracked a long whip. “Mush!” he shouted.
The huskies dashed off in a whirl of snow.
Above them flew the snowy owl.
The dogsled skimmed silently over the frozen tundra. The seal hunter ran alongside it. Sometimes he cracked his whip against the ice.
The snowdrifts looked like giant white sculptures as the sun slipped behind the frozen hills. Then a full orange moon rose in the sky.
The moonlight lit a small, rounded igloo in front of them. The dogs slowed, then stopped.
Jack stepped off the sled. Annie went to help unhitch the dogs. Jack took his book out and read about igloos:
The word “igloo” means “house” in the language of native Arctic people. The house is built with blocks of snow. Dry snow is good wall material because it keeps in the heat. The temperature inside an igloo can be 65 degrees warmer than the temperature outside.
Jack took out his notebook. He pulled off his mitten just long enough to write:
“Come on, Jack!” said Annie.
She and the seal hunter were waiting for him in front of the igloo. The dogs were leashed together outside.
Jack hurried to join them. The hunter pushed aside animal skins covering the entrance. They stepped inside.
A fat candle burned brightly. Shadows danced on walls of ice and snow.
Jack and Annie sat on a fur-covered platform. They watched as the seal hunter moved about.
First he lit a small stove. Then he slipped outside. He came back with a snowball and chunks of frozen meat.
He put the snowball in a pot over the stove. Then he added the meat.
“What’s he making?” asked Annie.
Jack pulled out his book and found a picture of the hunter cooking. He and Annie read the words silently:
There was a time when nearly all of the Arctic people’s food and clothing and tools came from Arctic animals, especially the seal. Nearly every part of the seal could be eaten. Lamps were fueled with seal fat. Clothing was made from sealskin. And knives and needles were carved from seal bones.
“He must be boiling seal meat,” said Jack.
“The poor seals,” said Annie.
The seal hunter looked up.
“They are not poor,” he said. “They help us because they know we would die without them.”
“Oh,” said Annie.
“In return, we always thank the animal spirits,” said the seal hunter.
“How do you do that?” said Jack.
“We have many special ceremonies,” said the seal hunter.
He reached under the fur-covered platform and took out two wooden masks.
“Soon there will be a ceremony to honor the spirit of the polar bear,” he said. “I carved these masks for the ceremony.”
“Polar bears?” said Annie.
“Yes,” said the hunter. “Just as the seal has given us many gifts, so has the polar bear.”
“Like what?” said Jack.
“Long ago the polar bear taught us how to live in the ice and snow,” said the seal hunter.
“Taught you?” said Jack. “I mean, can you give us some facts?”
The seal hunter smiled.
“Yes,” he said. “A polar bear catches a seal when the seal comes up to breathe through a hole in the ice. The oldest seal hunters watched the polar bear and learned. This is how my father taught me to hunt seal, as his father taught him.”
“That’s a good fact,” said Jack.
“The very first of my people learned to make igloos from polar bears,” said the hunter. “Polar bears build snow houses by digging caves in the drifts.”
“Another good fact,” said Jack.
“Sometimes the polar bear can even teach people to fly,” said the seal hunter.
“That’s an amazing fact,” said Annie.
Jack smiled. “The rest sounded like true facts,” he said. “But I know that’s pretend.”
The hunter just laughed, then turned back to his cooking.
That’s why he wasn’t surprised to hear about the tree house, Jack thought. If he believes polar bears can fly, he probably would believe anything.
The seal hunter lifted the chunks of boiled seal out of his pot. He dropped them into a wooden bucket and gave it to Annie.
“Let’s feed the dogs,” he said.
“Oh, boy!” said Annie. She followed the hunter outside, swinging the bucket.
Jack quickly threw his notebook and the Arctic book into his pack. He started to follow them. Then his gaze fell on the two bear masks.
He picked them up to get a better look.
Each was carved in the shape of a polar bear’s face with a blunt nose and roundish ears. There were two holes for eyes and a strap to hold it on your head.
Suddenly howls split the air. The dogs were barking and growling. Annie squealed.
Are the dogs attacking her? Jack wondered.
“Annie!”
Still holding the bear masks, Jack charged out of the igloo.
The dogs were barking wildly at two small creatures playing in the moonlight.
“Polar bear babies!” cried Annie.
One roly-poly cub leaped onto the other. Then they both rolled through the snow.
“Hi, little bears!” Annie called.
The cubs jumped up and shook themselves like wet puppies. Then they scampered toward Annie, who rushed to greet them.
“Hi, hi, hi!” she called.
“Wait—” shouted Jack. “Where’s their mother?”
He looked around for the mother bear, but she was nowhere in sight. Maybe they’re orphans, he thought.
Jack looked back at Annie. She was wrestling with the little bears in the snow. She was laughing so hard that she couldn’t stand.
Jack started laughing, too. He carefully put the bear masks into his pack. Then he ran to join Annie.
She was running with the cubs across the snowy tundra. One of them raced to her, tagged her, then raced away. Annie ran after the bear and tagged him back.
“You’re it!” she said.
Jack and the other cub joined in. Soon Jack and Annie and the two cubs were all chasing each other over the moonlit snow.
They ran until the two cubs fell down ahead of them. The cubs lay perfectly still.
Panting, Jack and Annie stared at them.
“Are they hurt?” Annie wondered out loud.
Jack and Annie ran to the cubs.
Then, just as they leaned down to see if they were all right, the cubs jumped up. They pushed Jack and Annie over and scampered away.
“They were pretending!” said Jack. He laughed.
Jack and Annie charged after the cubs. They ran over the white tundra until they came to the frozen sea.
Jack looked around.
“We’re pretty far from the igloo. I don’t hear the huskies anymore,” he said. “Maybe we should go back.”
“In a minute,” said Annie. “Look!”
The bear cubs had scooted up a snowbank. They were on their backs, sliding down the bank onto the ice-covered sea.
Jack and Annie laughed.
“It’s like sledding!” said Annie. “Let’s try it!”
“Okay,” said Jack, “but then we have to go back.”
Jack followed Annie up the snowbank. He clutched his pack in his arms.
Annie lay on her back. She whooped as she slid down the ice.
Jack followed her.
“Watch out below!” he shouted.
The little bears were sitting at the bottom of the snowbank. One gently whapped Jack in the face with her furry paw. Then she lay down.
“I’m tired, too,” said Annie.
“Yeah,” said Jack. “Let’s rest for just a minute.”
Jack and Annie looked up at the orange moon as they lay beside the cubs. All th
ey could hear was the wind and the soft breathing of the cubs.
“That was fun,” said Annie.
“It was,” said Jack. “But we’d better head back to the igloo. The seal hunter’s probably looking for us. Plus we have to solve the riddle.”
Jack rolled onto his side and tried to stand.
Crack.
“Uh-oh,” he said. He went back down onto his knees. “I think we’re on thin ice.”
“What do you mean?” said Annie. She started to stand.
Another crack rang out.
“Uh-oh,” she said.
She carefully lay back down.
The polar bear cubs moved closer to Jack and Annie. They made little crying sounds.
Jack wanted to cry, too. But he took a deep breath.
“Let’s see what our book says,” he said.
He reached into his pack for the Arctic book. He took the masks out first and handed them to Annie.
“I took these from the igloo by mistake,” he said.
As he started to reach for his Arctic book, he heard the loudest crack of all.
CRACK!
“We’re not even moving and the ice is cracking,” said Annie.
Just then, there was a new sound—a low, snorting sound. It came from the top of the snowbank, about fifty feet away.
Jack looked up.
Staring down at them was a giant polar bear.
“The polar bear mother,” whispered Annie.
The cubs whimpered louder.
“They want to go to her, but they’re afraid of the ice,” whispered Jack.
Annie petted the cubs.
“Don’t be afraid,” she told them. “You’ll get back to your mother.”
The big polar bear growled. She paced back and forth, sniffing the air.
Annie kept patting the two cubs and whispering to them.
Jack looked in the book for anything that might help. Finally he found something:
Even though a female polar bear can weigh as much as 750 pounds, she can walk on ice too thin to hold a person by balancing her weight and sliding her paws over the ice.
“Oh, man, that’s incredible,” whispered Jack.
He watched the mother polar bear walk down the snowbank.
On large silent feet, she crept about at the edge of the frozen sea.
She tried to step onto the ice. But each time she did, it cracked, and she had to retreat. At last, she found a firm spot.
Then the polar bear stretched out her four legs and lay on the ice. Slowly she moved forward, pushing herself with her claws.
“Is she coming for her babies?” said Jack. “Or is she coming to get us?”
“I don’t know,” said Annie. “Hey, let’s put on the masks.”
“What for?” said Jack.
“Maybe they’ll protect us,” said Annie. “Maybe she’ll think we’re polar bears, too.”
“Oh, brother,” said Jack.
But Annie gave him a bear mask. He took off his glasses and slipped it on.
Jack peered through the mask holes. It was hard to see the huge white bear sliding over the frozen sea. He squinted. That helped.
The polar bear looked at her cubs and let out a deep moan.
The two little bears carefully went to their mother. She licked the cubs and touched her nose against each of theirs. Then they crawled onto her back.
“They’re safe now,” said Jack. “Even if the mother breaks through the ice, she can swim with them to the shore.”
“Yeah, I just wish she wouldn’t leave us behind,” said Annie.
The mother bear slowly turned her body around. Then she pushed off with her hind legs. With her cubs on her back, she began sliding away.
“Let’s try moving like her,” Annie said.
“But we could break through and freeze to death,” said Jack.
“If we just stay here, we’ll freeze, too,” said Annie. “Remember, the seal hunter said his people had learned from the polar bears.”
Jack took a deep breath.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s try it.”
He lay on his stomach. He spread out his arms and legs.
Then he copied the bear. He pressed his mittens against the ice and pushed off, sliding his feet.
Amazingly, there was no cracking sound.
“Grrr,” he growled. And he pushed off again.
Jack heard Annie sliding behind him. He kept going. He pushed and slid. He pushed again and slid again.
He made the movements over and over, until something happened: He didn’t feel like a boy anymore. He felt like a polar bear.
Then Jack felt something even stranger. He felt like a flying polar bear.
Jack swirled along as if his arms and legs were giant wings—and the moonlit sea ice were a glassy sky.
He remembered what the seal hunter had said: Polar bears can fly.
“Jack, you can get up now,” said Annie.
Jack opened his eyes. Annie was standing over him. She still had her mask on.
“We’re on safe ground,” she said.
Jack felt as if he’d been dreaming. He looked around. They had reached the tundra at the edge of the frozen sea.
The cubs were romping in the distance. But their mother was sitting nearby, gazing at Jack and Annie.
“She waited to make sure we were safe,” said Annie.
Jack stared at the polar bear in awe. The words of the seal hunter came back to him: Always thank the animal spirits.
“We should thank the polar bear spirit now,” he said.
“Of course,” said Annie.
Jack scrambled to his feet. Still wearing his bear mask, he stood before the polar bear and pressed his hands together.
“We thank you,” he said, bowing.
“Yes, we thank you forever,” said Annie, also bowing.
“We thank you beyond the moon and the stars,” said Jack.
“And beyond the deepest sea,” Annie added.
Then she threw out her arms and twirled around. Jack did the same. They both danced around in the snow, honoring the bear. Finally they stopped and bowed one last time.
When they looked up, the polar bear rose up on her hind legs. She was twice as tall as Jack. She lowered her huge head, as if she were bowing back to them.
At that moment, the sky exploded. The night became a giant swirl of red, green, and purple lights. It looked like a genie coming out of a magic lamp.
The sight took Jack’s breath away. He stared in wonder as the dazzling lights lit the tundra.
“Is it the polar bear spirit?” Annie asked in a hushed voice.
As far as Jack could see, the sky and snow shimmered. Even the bear’s fur shimmered in the strange light.
“No, it’s not a spirit,” said Jack. “There’s got to be a scientific reason. I’ll find out.”
Shaking, he reached into his backpack and pulled out the Arctic book. He took off his bear mask and put on his glasses.
By the greenish glow, Jack found a picture of the sky lights. The picture didn’t come close to the real thing. He read aloud:
One of the most amazing sights in the Arctic is the northern lights. The swirl of light is caused by electrically charged particles from the sun striking atoms and molecules in the earth’s atmosphere.
“See, there is a scientific reason!” said Jack. “It’s not the spirits.”
Then suddenly all the dancing lights were gone, as if someone had blown out a candle.
The magic had ended.
Now only the moon shone on the snow.
Jack looked around for the polar bear.
She was gone.
“Where’d she go?” asked Annie.
“I don’t know,” said Jack. He looked over the tundra. There was no sign of the giant bear or her cubs.
“Maybe she’s not interested in scientific reasons,” Jack said.
Annie sighed. She took off her bear mask and handed it to Jack. He put both their masks in his pack.
“Now what?” asked Annie.
They looked around. The vast fields of snow ended in darkness. Jack had no idea where they were.
He shrugged. “I guess we just have to walk and hope for the best.”
“Wait—listen,” said Annie.
From the distance came howling sounds. They grew louder and louder.
“Yay! We don’t have to wait long!” said Annie. “The huskies are coming!”
Howling filled the night as the dogsled came into view.
The seal hunter was running beside it.
“We’re here! Over here!” called Jack. He ran toward the sled. Annie followed.
“I was afraid you were lost,” said the seal hunter.
“We were!” said Annie. “And we got stuck on thin ice, too! But a polar bear helped us.”
“Yeah,” said Jack. “And we wore your masks and they made us feel like bears—”
“Yeah, the masks made us brave,” said Annie. She caught her breath.
“Oh, man, wait—” said Jack. Annie’s words sounded familiar.
He took out his notebook and read Morgan’s riddle aloud:
I cover what’s real
and hide what’s true.
But sometimes I bring out
the courage in you.
What am I?
“A mask!” Jack and Annie said together.
The seal hunter smiled.
“You knew!” said Annie.
“It was for you to discover,” said the seal hunter. “Not me.”
Jack pulled the bear masks out of his backpack.
“Here,” he said. “Thanks a lot.”
The hunter took the masks and put them inside his parka.
“We can go home now,” said Jack.
“Do you mind taking us back to the tree house?” said Annie.
The seal hunter shook his head.
“Climb on,” he said.
Jack and Annie climbed onto the dogsled.
“Mush!” said the seal hunter.
“Mush!” said Annie.
“Mush!” said Jack.
Snow began to fall as they took off across the dark ice.
By the time the dogsled arrived at the tree house, the snowstorm had become a blizzard.
Polar Bears Past Bedtime Page 2
