Read Online Ice Drift (9780547540610) by Theodore Taylor - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Theodore Taylor
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Alika and Sulu thanked the seal and the moon for saving them. There was enough food to last four weeks if they ate very little of it at a time.
In the morning, Alika chopped some ice out of the berg, melted it, and filled the pair of walrus intestines with the freshwater. It could still be obtained on the surface of the floe, but the frozen snow-coated pools of it were difficult to locate.
A week later, a strong gale from the northwest ripped the grounded berg loose from the bottom, and Alika heard the ice cracking and felt the floe move, too. With the wind driving it, the berg would sail on south at a much faster rate than the floe.
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It was now late December. They'd managed to survive since mid-October. Alika knew that the sun would faintly return late the next month. Until then the almost constant night would remain.
But this day there was about an hour of twilight at noon. Alika, Sulu, and Jamka stood outside to celebrate. The winter darkness was always bad at home, but there on the drifting ice, it seemed much worse. Any thin sign of light was celebrated.
Then they returned inside and climbed up onto the sleeping platform, and Sulu said, "Tell me about the places where there is day and night during the winter. I want to go there."
"So do I," Alika replied. "But maybe Jamka wouldn't want to come with us."
Sulu laughed and said, "How do we get there?"
"It is too far for our kayaks."
"Tell me about those places anyway," Sulu demanded.
"The year you were born, Papa took me to where the ship was waiting to go to the North Pole," Alika said. "One of us from the village of Iqaluit, far to the south, had been to the places where there was night and day during the winter. He took care of the ship's sledge dogs. He told Papa about warm waters and trees that were called palms. People swam in the warm waters and soaked up the sun on sandy beaches."
Sulu said, "Brother Alika, take me there someday."
"I'll take you there, I promise," Alika answered.
From time to time over the weeks that passed, Alika had thought how lucky he was to have Sulu with him. Now and then, Sulu had pestered him, but Alika couldn't imagine being stranded on the floe without someone to talk to, someone he knew and loved. He loved Jamka, too, and realized that without the husky they already would have died, but having someone to talk to who could talk back was critical.
From time to time on sleepless nights, Alika had thought about old Miak surviving on the drifting ice with no human or dog around. Miak should have gone crazy, should not have survived. But he had killed a bear, Alika remembered, with his harpoon, and the
nanuk
meat had kept him alive for four months. Alika had a dream about old Miak one night, saw him moving around his
iglu,
talking to himself.
Only in the Arctic could humans be trapped on a great mass of ice, drifting on a sea that had no mercy. Yet Miak had been rescued by hunters. Maybe he and Sulu and Jamka would have the same luck.
The Arctic Ocean is perpetually covered
with ice, and a persistent circular current feature,
the Beaufort Gyre, sweeps the sea ice southwestward
along the northwestern coast of Canada.
12
Thick snow, driven by a high wind, attacked the floe for two days. Lighted by the
qulliq,
Alika busied himself scraping meat off the sealskin. Sulu helped. Alika dressed out the flippers of the new seal, saving every morsel. Then he used the
Reliance
ax to cut several lengths of wood off the sledge so Sulu could carve to pass the time.
The storm stopped the second night, while they were asleep. In the morning, with the temperature probably thirty below, Alika saw two sets of bear tracks near the snowhouse and also sighted the ever-present white fox tracks.
"We had visitors last night," he said to Sulu. "Look!"
Sulu said to Jamka, "Why didn't you wake us up?"
"The wind. He didn't smell them."
Sulu said, "You'll have to do better, Jamka."
The bears were likely on the prowl after burrowing down during
In the morning, Alika chopped some ice out of the berg, melted it, and filled the pair of walrus intestines with the freshwater. It could still be obtained on the surface of the floe, but the frozen snow-coated pools of it were difficult to locate.
A week later, a strong gale from the northwest ripped the grounded berg loose from the bottom, and Alika heard the ice cracking and felt the floe move, too. With the wind driving it, the berg would sail on south at a much faster rate than the floe.
Â
It was now late December. They'd managed to survive since mid-October. Alika knew that the sun would faintly return late the next month. Until then the almost constant night would remain.
But this day there was about an hour of twilight at noon. Alika, Sulu, and Jamka stood outside to celebrate. The winter darkness was always bad at home, but there on the drifting ice, it seemed much worse. Any thin sign of light was celebrated.
Then they returned inside and climbed up onto the sleeping platform, and Sulu said, "Tell me about the places where there is day and night during the winter. I want to go there."
"So do I," Alika replied. "But maybe Jamka wouldn't want to come with us."
Sulu laughed and said, "How do we get there?"
"It is too far for our kayaks."
"Tell me about those places anyway," Sulu demanded.
"The year you were born, Papa took me to where the ship was waiting to go to the North Pole," Alika said. "One of us from the village of Iqaluit, far to the south, had been to the places where there was night and day during the winter. He took care of the ship's sledge dogs. He told Papa about warm waters and trees that were called palms. People swam in the warm waters and soaked up the sun on sandy beaches."
Sulu said, "Brother Alika, take me there someday."
"I'll take you there, I promise," Alika answered.
From time to time over the weeks that passed, Alika had thought how lucky he was to have Sulu with him. Now and then, Sulu had pestered him, but Alika couldn't imagine being stranded on the floe without someone to talk to, someone he knew and loved. He loved Jamka, too, and realized that without the husky they already would have died, but having someone to talk to who could talk back was critical.
From time to time on sleepless nights, Alika had thought about old Miak surviving on the drifting ice with no human or dog around. Miak should have gone crazy, should not have survived. But he had killed a bear, Alika remembered, with his harpoon, and the
nanuk
meat had kept him alive for four months. Alika had a dream about old Miak one night, saw him moving around his
iglu,
talking to himself.
Only in the Arctic could humans be trapped on a great mass of ice, drifting on a sea that had no mercy. Yet Miak had been rescued by hunters. Maybe he and Sulu and Jamka would have the same luck.
The Arctic Ocean is perpetually covered
with ice, and a persistent circular current feature,
the Beaufort Gyre, sweeps the sea ice southwestward
along the northwestern coast of Canada.
12
Thick snow, driven by a high wind, attacked the floe for two days. Lighted by the
qulliq,
Alika busied himself scraping meat off the sealskin. Sulu helped. Alika dressed out the flippers of the new seal, saving every morsel. Then he used the
Reliance
ax to cut several lengths of wood off the sledge so Sulu could carve to pass the time.
The storm stopped the second night, while they were asleep. In the morning, with the temperature probably thirty below, Alika saw two sets of bear tracks near the snowhouse and also sighted the ever-present white fox tracks.
"We had visitors last night," he said to Sulu. "Look!"
Sulu said to Jamka, "Why didn't you wake us up?"
"The wind. He didn't smell them."
Sulu said, "You'll have to do better, Jamka."
The bears were likely on the prowl after burrowing down during
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