Bonesetter 2 -Winter-

by Laurence E. Dahners

  But would they do so right after they’d taken on Woday? Especially if Woday had sold them lies about his skills?

  To Yadin’s understanding, Donte had been the only woman gathering until quite recently when Gia had joined them. Although two other women, Agan and Panute, came at the same time as Gia, both of them were essentially crippled! Apparently, Donte must be an astonishingly effective gatherer, because the cave had a surprising number of shallow baskets full of grain, roots, acorns, apples, and even a lot of baskets containing things he’d never seen before. Yadin wasn’t sure, but he thought the rest of the baskets might also hold some kind of food. Still, he felt sure they didn’t have enough to get through the winter, even if he didn’t join them. If he went with them on their first freeze hunt and they got quite a few major kills, they conceivably could have enough meat, but everyone knew that you got sick if you only ate meat.

  Maybe I should go back and stay with the Oppos this winter. Then I could try to join the Cold Springs tribe next summer? But, if I want do that, it’d be helpful if I’d learned one or two of Pell’s famous tricks. If I could teach the Oppos some things Pell’s supposed to be able to do, maybe I could convince them that Pell’s not evil—despite what those two idiot medicine men have been telling them.

  He pondered a little longer, then decided, Anyway, now’s definitely not the time to ask to join Cold Springs. Not right after they’ve agreed to sacrifice a great deal to take Woday into their tribe.

  Almost as if she’d been aware of the controversy in his head, Agan said, “Yadin, how long are you going to stay with us?”

  Yadin wanted to say, “As long as you’ll let me,” but restrained himself for fear of frightening them. Hoping that he might learn one or two of Pell’s tricks just by hanging around, he said, “I’m hoping you’ll let me stay another day or two. Hopefully it’ll warm up so that I don’t have to make the trip back home during this cold spell.” To express his willingness to contribute, he said, “I could help you with a hunt.”

  Manute laughed and said, “We don’t really need help with a hunt until the winter freeze is setting in, but I’ve seen those spearheads of yours. We could use your skills as a flint knapper.” He grinned over at Woday and gave a broad wink, “Woday’s apprentice leather work would go a lot faster if he had some good scrapers!”

  Woday feared that once the morning meal was done he’d immediately be put to work scraping skins to make leather. However, when they were done, Pell stood and said, “Come on, you can start earning your keep by teaching me about fish.” Woday stood and followed Pell outside, relieved that he didn’t hear any objections from the rest of the tribe.

  Pell led him back down the trail that Woday and Yadin had first hiked in on. Remembering that Pell had a couple of large trout when they’d first met, he suddenly found himself thinking about how the fish had been unwounded. He turned to Pell, “How did you get those fish you had when we first saw you? When I cooked them, I looked them over carefully but couldn’t find any spear wounds!”

  Pell gave him a broad smile and said, “Be patient, you’re about to find out. It’s one of those things that’s a lot easier to show than explain.” Pell lifted his chin, “Tell me about life at the Falls.”

  As they walked back down along the stream, Woday tried to explain how the Falls-people lived. Any time his explanation faltered, Pell got it going again by asking perceptive questions. Although Woday thought he knew a lot about fish, Pell asked him so many questions that he didn’t have answers for that he soon felt like he must be singularly ignorant on the topic. It turned out that he didn’t know what fish ate, where they stayed when they weren’t out swimming in the stream, where they slept, whether they mated, or why you had to aim your spear deeper in the water than where the fish were swimming! He couldn’t even say with confidence that fish died just because you took them out of the water. All the ones he’d seen out of the water had been speared.

  Pell walked out onto the big rock at the bend in the stream where Woday and Yadin had first seen him. He started pulling a small braided leather rope up out of the water. This time, Woday wasn’t surprised to see the basket come up out of the water. As Pell carried the basket off the rock and out to the trail, Woday heard something flopping about inside the basket. “You keep fish in that basket?!”

  Pell grinned at him, “I don’t keep them there.” He knelt, setting the basket on the ground, then reached into the basket at one end.

  Woday squatted to look at the basket and saw that the end of it had a bunch of reeds pointing inward. Easily deflecting the reeds, Pell had pushed his right hand in and was feeling around. Woday had the impression he was trying to get a grip on something inside the basket, then he used his left hand to push the reeds out of the way so that he could pull the right hand back out. Woday could see how the angle of the reeds tended to catch on his wrist and make it hard to pull the hand out. When the hand did come out though, it held another big fish like he’d had the other day.

  “What?!” Woday asked wide-eyed. “I thought you said you didn’t keep fish in this basket!”

  “I don’t,” Pell said. “The basket was empty when I dropped it in the river.” He handed the trout to Woday and pushed his hand back into the basket.

  Agog, Woday watched as Pell pulled out two smaller fish, one after the other. “Is that why you were asking me about where fish like to sleep? Do they like to sleep in baskets?”

  “No, we’re pretty sure they swim into the basket because we put some meat inside. We think they smell food and go in to try to eat it. Once they’re inside, they can’t get back out through these slanted reeds.” He shrugged, “It doesn’t seem like they normally get much meat to eat. That’s why I was hoping you could tell me what they do eat. If we put the food fish normally eat into the basket, maybe we’d catch even more.” His eyes went back to the basket for a moment, “Although, I think three fish is pretty good for this size basket. It doesn’t seem like a lot more fish would want to get in it, all at the same time.”

  Woday’s eyes had gone back to the basket as well. Now that his attention focused on it he thought he could still hear something moving around inside of it. “Are there still fish in there?” he asked.

  Pell said, “There’s a thing like a big bug in there.” He shrugged, “It bites.” He lifted a finger to show a pair of little bloody spots. “I’d like to get the bug out of the basket, but I don’t really want to put my hand back in there.”

  “Oh!” Woday said excitedly, leaning much closer to the basket and peering through the close weave, “That’s a crayfish! They’re good to eat! You just have to grab them behind the head so they can’t reach you with those big claws they have up front.”

  “Show me,” Pell said.

  Woday swallowed. He’d been bitten by crayfish before and didn’t relish getting bitten again. He really didn’t want to try to grab this one, especially since he couldn’t see it very well. Nevertheless, he got his eye down close and peered through one of the gaps. He pushed his hand in through the reeds. Unfortunately, the crayfish had backed itself into a corner and had its pincers out waving around at him. He couldn’t see a way to reach around and grab it from behind. At least not from the angle his hand had entered at. “Um…”

  Pell barked a little laugh, then said, “Don’t know how you’re going to reach around behind to grab him?”

  “No…”

  “Don’t worry about it. Donte and Gia are making some baskets with looser weaves. Then we’ll be able to see your water bugs better. We’d even be able to poke the… what did you call it? ‘Crayfish’?”

  Woday nodded.

  “With a looser weave, we’ll be able to use a stick to poke the crayfish through the basket. That way we can make it move out where we could grab it.”

  Woday used his left hand to free his right hand from the reeds that blocked the opening into the basket. Knitting his brow, he said, “It’d be nice if there was another opening to reach in through. One tha
t didn’t have these sharp reeds sticking you.”

  Pell tilted his head curiously, “But the fish’d just swim out through it!”

  “Well,” Woday said, “you’d have to make an opening that you could close back up. Like the flap over the mouth of your cave.”

  “Oh! That’s a great idea!” Pell said admiringly. He lifted an eyebrow, “I’m already glad I have you as an apprentice.”

  Warmed by the praise, Woday turned his eyes back to the basket, “You may have spoken too soon. I don’t know what you could use to close the opening.”

  Pell studied the basket too for a moment, then said, “We’ll ask the women who make the baskets. They’ll probably have a good idea.”

  Woday said, “But how are we going to get the crayfish out of this basket?”

  “I was thinking we were going to throw this basket away.”

  Woday rolled the basket over, looking at it from all angles. He said, “I think we should try cutting a hole in it. After we get the crayfish out and eat it, we can try different doors on the hole. That way we won’t damage one of the new baskets to figure it out.”

  “Great idea! For now, we can use the basket as a way to carry the crayfish up to the cave without getting bitten. We’ll cut it out of the basket after we get there.” Pell looked down at the basket, “How do you eat them?”

  “You boil them in hot water. Once they’re cooked, you break them in half and there’s a chunk of meat inside.”

  Pell lifted an eyebrow and grinned, “That sounds simple enough that even I could cook them!”

  Woday thought about saying that Pell might still be able to screw it up, but thought better of it. He’d just been taken on as an apprentice after all; it might be a little early to start teasing his new master.

  They walked back toward the cave, Pell carrying the three fish and Woday holding the basket with the crayfish still inside. Nothing much was said during the trip. When Woday glanced over at him, it looked like Pell was deep in thought. For his part, Woday’s thoughts were racing. Whether or not he learned to be a bonesetter, if he returned to his own people and taught them how to make these fish traps he’d be welcomed as a hero. The very idea that you could throw one of these in the river and come back hours later to pull out some fish—instead of having to stand in the cold water waiting for an unwary fish to swim close enough that you could try to spear it… wow!

  In fact, Woday couldn’t believe that Pell wasn’t making a bigger deal out of this amazing thing he’d figured out how to do. Woday wondered if Pell somehow didn’t realize just how important this was.

  When they arrived at the meadow, Pell turned aside, saying, “I’ve got another little project over here. Let’s see if you’ve got any good ideas for this one.”

  Pell led Woday over to one side of the clearing in front of the cave where a small sapling had a long leather thong tied to it. Squatting next to it, Pell pulled on the thong, bending the sapling over until it was sprung tight. He picked up a substantial rock that Woday hadn’t paid any attention to and set it on a knot in the thong. The leftover thong, Pell stretched out into a big loop on the ground, untangling a twig out of what Woday realized was a noose in the thong. “So,” Pell said, sticking the twig into the ground in the middle of the noose. “We get birds to stand in this noose by tossing some grain on the ground in the middle of the loop. Once they’re standing in the loop, all we have to do is move the rock…” Pell reached out and flipped the rock over with a finger.

  With a twang, the sapling sprang back upright, the noose snapping shut over the twig and jerking it into the air so quickly that Woday didn’t really see it happen. However, the twig bouncing in the air made evident what the snare would do to the unlucky bird that had been there.

  The sudden motion frightened Woday enough that he fell back from his squat and sprawled onto his buttocks. It took a moment to get his pounding heart back in control. For a moment he thought to pretend that the snap of the sapling hadn’t scared him, but realized that, in view of the fact he’d just fallen over, it’d be a pointless act. Instead, he said, “That caught me by surprise!” He frowned, and after a moment said, “I see how it could catch a bird, but I don’t understand how you’re going to get the rock to move. If you’re sitting close enough to move the rock, no bird’s going to land!”

  “Well now, that’s the problem,” Pell said with a grin. “That’s why I have you over here looking at it—to see if you have any good ideas.”

  Tando had been walking across the clearing to them. Having arrived, he said, “I’ve been thinking about your bird snare. How about if we tie the noose to this stick?” As he said it he began tying a loop of the thong to a bent stick he’d carried in his hand. He tied it just below the knot that the rock had been sitting on before, near one end of the stick. Next he bent the sapling over and wedged the short end of the stick underneath the rock so that the long end of the stick protruded out into the area where the twig had been standing earlier. Next he placed a much smaller rock on the long end of the stick.

  Because of leverage, the small rock readily held down the long end of the stick. Tando spread the noose out so it surrounded the little rock holding down the tip of the stick, placing pebbles on the thong to keep it aligned like he wanted it. “Now,” he said, “if we glue some grain to the end of the stick with a bit of pine resin and adjust the small rock so that it barely holds the stick down,” he wiggled the small rock so it barely caught the stick. He sat back, “When birds peck at the grain on the end of the stick, it’ll come loose from the little rock.” He picked up another large twig and used it to peck at the end of the stick where he’d proposed gluing the grain. On the third tap, the stick wobbled out from underneath a small rock, flipping up into the air. As the noose shot into the air—as if to prove Tando’s idea—it twitched the pecking-twig out of his hand and snatched it into the air.

  Tando leapt to his feet, to dance a small victory dance. “Did you see that?! It worked! It worked!”

  Woday stared in awe while Pell stood, clasping Tando to him and slapping him on the back in congratulation. Letting go and bending over to pick up his fish, Pell said, “Let’s go heat some pine resin and attach some grain to your trigger stick!”

  Tando looked at Pell’s hand, “You got more fish! That’s great, I really liked the ones we ate last night.” He frowned at the basket Woday had picked up, “Why didn’t you leave the trap in the stream to catch even more?”

  As they started across the clearing to the cave, Pell said, “It’s got a crayfish in it! Woday says they’re good to eat too. Besides, we’re going to build a door into the basket so it’s easier to get the fish out.” He tilted his head and grinned at Woday, “Well, and also to get the crayfish out. It turns out it’s hard to get at them without a door.”

  Tando turned a curious glance at the basket, “What kind of fish?”

  “Woday calls it a ‘crayfish’, but it sure doesn’t look like a fish. It looks more like a big bug. It has pincers that bite pretty hard,” Pell said, holding his finger up to show the little pincer wounds.

  A few minutes later, the three men were squatting in front of the cave with the fish. Woday demonstrated how to slice the belly of a fish open to get the guts out. When he had the guts out, Pell took them and set them to one side, saying, “I wonder if we can put the innards in the basket to attract more fish instead of wasting a piece of meat.”

  As Pell and Tando were trying their hand at cleaning the other two fish, Manute and Deltin came up. “More fish?” Manute said, bending over to watch. “That’s so sad.”

  Everyone turned to stare at him and Tando said, “You don’t like fish?”

  “I like fish just fine. But I like hunting too. Pell’s damned ideas bring in so much food it’s hard to justify going out for a nice manly hunt!”

  Deltin laughed, “As long as I don’t go hungry, I don’t care if I ever go on a hunt again!”

  Woday shifted his gaze from one to another of the variou
s men as they laughed and joked over Deltin’s assertion. Woday assumed that they were teasing him somehow, but really didn’t get the joke. It was almost time for the big hunt at the freeze that every tribe counted on to get them through the winter. How could they possibly joke about not hunting right before the most important hunt of the year—what if their joking brings them bad luck?!

  Tando had glued some grain to the tip of his trigger stick and set out across the meadow to arm the bird snare. After consultation with Gia and Donte, Pell had Woday cutting the end out of their existing cylindrical fish basket. Woday was finding that cutting the tough spokes of the end of the basket, even with a nice sharp flake of flint, was more difficult than he’d expected. His concern that the crayfish inside the basket would attack his fingers once he created an opening made it even harder.

  Woday glanced over to where Gia bent over Pell teaching him how basket weavers made the flat base that they started their baskets with. Pell’s idea was that, once they cut the base out of the basket Woday was working on, they could just tie the new base he was making in its place. Then they’d be able to untie it to remove any fish or crayfish. Pell was weaving the new base more loosely than the original so they’d be able to see through it to know what they’d caught.

  Woday shook his head; the last thing he’d expected was to be apprenticed to a master who spent his own time trying to learn women’s work. Somehow he’d expected that a famous bonesetter would have many patients gathered around him, all in various stages of healing. He’d pictured himself as perhaps one of several apprentices who spent most of their time going from one patient to another, being told what to do for the injured people while their bones slowly knitted together. Instead, there were two patients, Tando and Falin who were completely healed and one other, Panute who was well on her way.

  He certainly hadn’t expected to be cutting up baskets! However, he consoled himself that whatever he could absorb about the fish basket might be more important than anything he ever learned about bone setting. He looked up at Pell again. If I had a girl as pretty as Gia teaching me, maybe I’d want to learn about basket weaving myself?