For some reason this scared Lionel more than the sound of them beating. Beatrice pulled Ulysses up and listened.
“What is it?” Lionel whispered.
“I’m not sure,” Beatrice answered. “Something ain’t right.”
The next thing Lionel knew, he was knocked from Ulysses’s back and had landed with a thud on the thick carpet of the forest floor. He rolled over as soon as he hit the ground and saw Beatrice lying next to him with a large, fat boy standing over her.
Beatrice tried to get to her feet, but the boy knocked Beatrice back to the ground and then stood over her, clucking and pawing at the dirt like an overstuffed prairie chicken. The boy had feathers in his hair, and he began to squawk and occasionally jumped sideways, striking Beatrice with the end of a short stick as he did.
Lionel looked around and saw that the boy was not alone. The trees seemed to come alive with children, ranging from Lionel’s age to well over Beatrice’s.
The other children—Lionel counted ten—circled them. one by one they stepped forward, trying to grab ahold of Ulysses’s rawhide reins. Beatrice sprang to her feet, driving the fat boy back and knocking a smaller kid away from Ulysses’s right flank.
Lionel grabbed the reins from Beatrice and backed himself and Ulysses against the trunk of a large tree. Beatrice turned to face the fat boy. He stomped at the ground and continued to shriek and jump from side to side. Beatrice circled him patiently, and the next time he lunged at her, she twisted him sideways and threw him over her leg. The boy hit the ground hard, and in a flash Beatrice had Grandpa’s knife nestled between the folds of his chubby throat.
She looked up at Lionel, who along with Ulysses held off the other boys. “That’s enough,” Beatrice announced.
The children stopped and turned to her. Her braids with their hawk feathers fell to the sides of her face, the knife catching the slightest hint of the late afternoon sun through the trees.
“He won’t do it,” cried the fat one, mistaking Beatrice for a boy. “Get the horse!”
The rest of the children, Lionel included, froze, unsure of what to do. Lionel looked around at the faces of their attackers. They were painted, some of them poorly, and they wore an odd combination of government-issued uniforms and makeshift versions of the traditional clothing of the Blackfeet.
Lionel recognized the school uniforms from the day of the football game. They were from the Heart Butte boarding school, and the fat boy was Barney Little Plume.
“Get off of me,” Barney screamed, wrestling Beatrice with little success. Beatrice held him firmly to the ground, the knife carefully hovering over his throat. “I was just counting coo. Get the hell off!”
Ulysses was doing a good job of keeping the rest of the children back, but Lionel was having trouble hanging on to the reins, the big horse pulling him from the tree and dragging him sideways with his sporadic leaping kicks. Lionel wrapped the leather strap around his hand and held the horse as best he could. Ulysses jumped again, and Lionel lost his footing but somehow managed to hold on.
“Come on now, easy, boy. Calm down, you’re gonna be all right.”
Lionel looked up and saw a boy slowly moving toward Ulysses, his voice just a notch above a whisper.
“Remember me? Sure ya do. You’re gonna be all right. There’s nothin’ for a big old horse like you to be scared of….”
It was Corn Poe, Corn Poe Boss Ribs. Lionel wasn’t sure who was more surprised to see the boy—Beatrice, Ulysses, or himself, but he noticed that Corn Poe’s soothing voice was having an effect on the horse.
Lionel tucked the bear claws into his shirt and got to his feet to help Corn Poe bring the big horse around. Corn Poe looked different. His skin was tan with summer, and his hair had indeed grown out. True to his promise, tattered feathers and tiny strips of flannel were knotted in his hair; his clothes were dirty and torn to shreds.
“Corn Poe?” Beatrice said, with her knife still at Barney’s throat.
“You know them?” Barney responded, having given up his struggle.
“Sure,” said Corn Poe. “That there’s Lionel and this is Beatrice.”
“Beatrice?” Barney stammered, looking at her clearly for the first time. “You’re a girl? But you’re the same sonuvagun that broke my leg.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
RENEGADES • CORN POE’S METAMORPHOSIS • OLD MAN STEALS FROM THE SUN
BEATRICE EVENTUALLY let Barney up and Corn Poe did his best to calm things, introducing his two friends to this newly formed band of renegades. The children walked back to their camp as Corn Poe told them of news from the outpost and how he came to be in the woods with Barney and the other Heart Butte students. Beatrice helped two of the smaller children onto Ulysses’s back and then led the horse by the reins. Barney walked at their side.
After the soldiers questioned Corn Poe in the Boss Ribs’ valley, he took another beating from his father and decided that enough was enough. He stole one of his father’s horses with the intention of joining Beatrice and Lionel in the mountains. That was over two weeks ago, and now the horse was dead.
Corn Poe ate what he could of the horse, but besides that, he’d had little in the way of food. He survived the journey to the edge of the woods by raiding the small gardens and chicken coops that he found along the way. He wandered in the Great wood for three days before he found this band from Heart Butte.
“There weren’t much news from the fort, exceptin’ that they started to send out search parties again and that the one that calls himself Jenkins claims he’s gonna kill you,” Corn Poe concluded, pointing at Beatrice.
Barney punctuated this grim announcement by staring at Beatrice. Beatrice seemed to be unaffected, but the whole exchange weighed heavily on Lionel’s mind.
Lionel walked along among this ragtag group, eventually wondering out loud, “How did the rest of you end up out here?”
“They wouldn’t let us from the Heart Butte School go to the Fourth of July horse races and Powwow. They think that we’re makin’ good progress at not bein’ heathen and didn’t want us to get wrongly influenced by the old folks, so we run away and come out here on our own accord.”
They continued walking until the thick canopy overhead began to thin. There, the wood opened into a clearing, and in the midst of it stood a small hovel covered in army blankets and animal skins. There was also the remnant of a large fire. A cold-water creek ran through the far side of the trees.
“We’re having our own Pow-wow,” Barney went on. “I know we’ll catch hell when we get back, but it’s worth it. I’m tired of them telling us what we can and can’t do.”
They entered the small camp, and a couple of children set about gathering more wood and starting the fire. Barney sat down on the ground and someone brought him a bucket of water from the creek. He drank from it and then offered it to Beatrice.
“What about you? I heard y’all ran away and stole the captain’s horse. where you been keeping yerselves?”
“Just travelin’ the woods,” Beatrice said. “Headin’ north.”
“Yeah, that’s what I heard. To Canada.”
“Yep, Canada.”
“Ya know the government put a bounty on yer heads? Five bucks a piece for your return, fifty for the horse.”
Beatrice looked up at Barney with an icy stare. “Is that right?”
“Yep, and they’re offerin’ up to ten whole cents for a gopher tail,” Corn Poe spat. “Tryin’ to rid the reservation of ’em for the farmers.”
Lionel looked over at Corn Poe, who stood over the fire. He couldn’t believe how different he looked. He thought that he must have grown a couple of inches to boot.
Corn Poe threw some more wood on the fire. “We’re gonna do a sweat, then dance. Last night I had a vision.”
“You ever had the vision?” Barney said, standing.
Beatrice shook her head.
“You should stay and join us,” Barney replied, placing a couple of smooth river stones dir
ectly into the hot coals. “We’ll heat these up and then bring ’em into the lodge. Pour on some water and they steam ’er right up.
“Saaám,” Barney concluded, more to Beatrice than anyone else.
Beatrice nodded as if she understood.
“We ain’t ate nothing in two days. Barely had any water. Right, Barney?” Corn Poe added. “Helps you get your vision.”
They sat by the fire, heating the rocks as the day crept across the woods into early evening. Lionel was hungry. He thought about the food that he and Beatrice had packed and was troubled that he would not be able to touch it until after the ceremony had taken place. Lionel considered that he and his sister had already done this ceremony “of not eating” the two days after they left the school, and he wasn’t all that excited about doing it again, especially when, this time around, they had more of a choice in the matter.
Barney stepped around the fire and toward Ulysses. Ulysses pawed at the earth and lowered his ears.
“Didn’t this horse win the pull last year?” Barney asked, trying to smooth Ulysses’s mane.
“Might have,” Beatrice answered suspiciously.
“Yeah, I can see why they put up the fifty. That there is a helluva horse you stole.” Barney left Ulysses and sat back down by the fire. “Did you ever hear about Napi the old Man?”
Lionel looked up, full of excitement. “Yeah, our grandpa told us about him.”
“He used to steal things too,” Barney said, poking a stick into the fire and looking at Beatrice.
Lionel noticed that Beatrice didn’t like the way that Barney emphasized the word “steal.”
“No, we never heard about that,” Lionel said.
“You ever hear that old Man and the Sun were friends?”
“The sun?” Lionel responded, now more confused than ever.
“You betcha, and they loved to hunt. See, the old Man liked venison, so he says, ‘I like venison. Let’s go hunt some deers.’ That’s all it took. So, the twose of ’em got their kit together for the hunt, with the Sun bringing out the most beautiful pair of leggings that Napi the old Man had ever seen. Porcupine quills were embroidered down the sides, along with feathers and pieces of strange shells the likes of which he’d never before laid eyes on.”
Lionel noticed that Corn Poe was reaching across a small kid sitting next to him, trying to touch the leggings that Lionel’s grandfather had made him. Beatrice saw too and promptly reached out and slapped Corn Poe’s hand.
“‘These here leggings carry big medicine,’ the Sun told the old Man. ‘when I’m wearing them, all I have to do is walk around a bush and it will light on fire. The fire drives all of the deers out of hiding so that we can hunt them.’
“With that, the two went out to hunt, and just as the Sun had said, the first bush they passed burst into flames. Two large white-tailed bucks ran from the brush, and the Sun and the old Man shot them. That night they went back to the Sun’s lodge, ate well, and with bellies full of venison, turned in….
“But the old Man could not sleep. He knew that the Sun was his friend, but he could not help but think about stealing the leggings from him.
“With them leggings, I’d never go hungry, the old Man thought. So, that night, after everyone was sound asleep, he stole them.”
With this, Barney looked from Beatrice to Ulysses. Beatrice looked from Barney to her knife. “Old Man ran as fast and as far as he could,” Barney continued. “But after a while he got tired, so he lay down, resting his head on the leggings, and fell asleep. The next morning the old Man woke and sat up with a start. He was back in the Sun’s lodge.
“‘Old Man,’ the Sun asked, ‘why are my leggings under your head?’
“The Old Man looked around. He couldn’t understand how he was back in the Sun’s lodge.
“‘Old Man, did you not hear me? why are my leggings under your head?’
“‘Oh,’ the old Man said, ‘I couldn’t find anything else for a pillow.’”
“A pillow?” Corn Poe blurted out. “Did they even have pillows back then?”
Barney answered by reaching over and popping Corn Poe on the back of the head. “That’s how I heard it. You mind if I finish?”
“No, go right ahead. Just wonderin’,” Corn Poe returned sheepishly.
“Well, the Sun believed him ’cuz they were friends, see? So, that night when they went to sleep, the Old Man stole them leggings again. This time, Old Man didn’t stop running until almost morning. He was so tired he put the leggings under his head and again fell asleep. when the Old Man woke, he was once again in the Sun’s Lodge. Old Man realized that the whole world is the Sun’s lodge and that the Sun was on to him.
“The Sun stood over the Old Man and said, ‘Pillow or not, seems that you like my leggings. If this is true, I will give them to you.’ The old Man said that it was true, thanked the Sun, and quickly went away.
“The Old Man continued his travels. He wandered across the land until he was out of food. Then he put on the leggings and set fire to the brush to hunt. once again, the fire drove the deers toward him, but the Old Man noticed that the fire was getting close, so he ran away. But the fire chased him. Old Man ran faster, but the fire gained on him, and the leggings caught on fire. old Man ran to the river. He jumped in, but when he hit the water, the burned leggings fell to pieces and floated down the river. Old Man couldn’t handle them leggings.”
“Boy, I’ll say,” Corn Poe emphasized.
“I think the Sun gave them leggings to the old Man to teach him a lesson.” Barney looked around dramatically. “You can’t escape the Sun. He sees everything.”
Barney sat silently for a moment and then motioned to one of the smaller children to bring the hot rocks into the sweat lodge. Barney drank what remained in the rusty bucket and tossed it toward another kid, who immediately picked it up and proceeded to the creek.
Lionel didn’t like the way that Barney pushed the other children around. It reminded him of the constant orders and directions back at the boarding school.
“Sstsiiysskaan nin,” Barney said, standing and stripping off his clothes down to his dirty long underwear. “I don’t think that they usually allow the women….”
But Beatrice did not let Barney finish. She stood, pushing past him toward the sweat lodge. She threw open the deer-hide flap, and looked inside.
“Kitái’kó’pohpa?” Barney pushed, calling into question Beatrice’s bravery.
Beatrice answered by stripping off her clothes, pausing only as she undid her belt to look at the sheath knife that Grandpa had given her. Lionel watched as she carefully wrapped the knife in her bundle of clothes and then disappeared into the low structure.
Barney did the same, and when he did, two smaller children pulled hot rocks from the fire and followed.
“Let’s go,” Corn Poe said, stripping off his clothes and following. Lionel took another look at Ulysses, then at the setting sun, and followed the others.
Chapter Twenty-Three
THE SWEAT • A VISION • BLACK MASK • BONFIRES & CORN LIQUOR • ELUDING BARNEY LITTLE PLUME
LIONEL DUCKED his head and crawled into the sweat lodge. It was smaller than he expected, and he immediately tripped over Corn Poe’s feet and fell forward onto Beatrice and Barney. Barney roughly shoved him to his left, where Lionel had to immediately move to make room for another kid about Barney’s age but as skinny as Barney was fat.
“I’m Tom,” the skinny kid said. “Tom Gunn.”
Tom sat in between Lionel and Corn Poe. “You’re a helluva a ballplayer there, Beatrice. The Headmaster’s gonna go red when he finds out you’re a girl.”
Tom had two sad-looking turkey quills, one of them bent, hanging from his hair. They’d lost most of their down and feather somewhere long ago. “Good to meet you,” he said, extending his hand. Beatrice shook it and then moved to the side for a kid who had entered with a bucket of cold water.
Toward the center of the lodge was a ring of stones, an
d in the middle of that there was already a pile of river rocks. The kid poured the water onto the rocks, and they immediately erupted in a cacophony of pops and sizzles, spitting hot, frothy bubbles onto Lionel’s and the other children’s feet.
Barney held a bundle of sweet grass before him, then lit it with a blue-tipped match. Smoke from the grass rose in translucent wisps toward the center of the lodge. Lionel watched as it climbed upward and then hung a few feet above their heads. He was already light-headed, hot and sitting so close to the other children, sweating. Barney was the worst, he thought. Rivers fell from the folds of his flesh, splashing onto Lionel with his every turn, nod, or jiggle—and one time he sneezed, showering all in an explosion of perspiration and mucus.
Barney sang a low song similar to the song that Beatrice had sung back at the chapel. He then held the grass under his face and passed the bundle to his left to Lionel. Lionel held the grass in front of him and took in the sweet, smoky smell. It reminded him of the rolling open prairie where the boarding school sat, and the summers they had spent working with the Brothers in the fields behind the school.
Lionel looked at Beatrice, who motioned gently with her eyes to his left. He passed the sweet grass on to Tom, who inhaled the smoke and then passed it to a small boy who now sat next to Corn Poe.
When it came to Corn Poe he took the grass and held it above his head. He started to sing a low song that didn’t stay low for long. It grew quickly, and in Lionel’s opinion was more reminiscent of the music that was played when the captain’s wife had taught them the Virginia Reel and Lionel had danced with Delores Ground. He wondered if Delores remembered him or if she would even recognize him. He wondered what Corn Poe was praying for.
Lionel wasn’t sure how long they sat there. He leaned his head back against the bent-bough skin of the structure and listened to Barney tell them of his exploits back at the Heart Butte school. Lionel figured he must have fallen asleep for a minute, because somehow Barney’s explanation turned into Beatrice’s story of the old Man creating their world and showing them how to make the bow and arrow.
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