Read Online In Fond Remembrance of Me by Howard Norman - Free Book Online

away, it could turn on the hunters, it could climb onto the ark.
    The woolly mammoth tried to climb onto the ark, but its tusks tore into the sides. Then it loosened from the ark and climbed up onto it. Some villagers went out and repaired the holes, covered them with stretched sealskins. Then they shouted up to Noah, “Look, we repaired your boat. Now, please give us that woolly mammoth. It can give us enough food for our whole village.”
    â€œNo,” said Noah. “I need it. I’ll kill it and my family will eat it.”
    â€œYou don’t know how to eat a woolly mammoth!” a hunter said.
    â€œGo away. Get out of here!”
    The villagers went back home over the ice. They went hunting, they fished. Food was brought in and people didn’t go hungry yet.

    One day Noah showed up in the village. “We’ve run out of food,” he said. “My family is hungry.”
    â€œDid you eat some more of the strange animals you travel with?”
    â€œYes, but others run from us when we approach, or fly up, or flee out over the ice.”
    â€œYes, we’ve seen some run over the ice.”
    â€œDo you have some food for us?” Noah said.
    â€œDo you know how to hunt seals through breathing-holes?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDo you know how to chisel a hole for ice fishing?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œIf another woolly mammoth climbs onto your boat, will you give it to us?”
    â€œNo.”
    Hearing this, some hunters poked spears at Noah. They did not stab into him. They only pushed him along the ice, all the way back to his ark. The hunters returned home.
    Snow and sleet, more snow. It was deep into winter now. Then, one day, some villagers were out hunting woolly mammoths. They saw one. They began to chase it. They were almost close enough to throw spears when the woolly mammoth climbed onto the ark. The hunters were impressed, how woolly mammoths had learned how to climb onto an ark. This one did it on the first try! The hunters admired the woolly mammoth very much.
    A hunter called up to Noah, “Give us the woolly mammoth!”
    â€œNo!” said Noah. “It’s mine. I’ll kill it and eat it.”
    Noah had made a spear. He stood near the woolly mammoth. He threw from close up and missed, which is hard to do, miss a
woolly mammoth completely. The spear didn’t even bounce off the woolly mammoth’s hide!
    The woolly mammoth fled the ark then. It ran off across the ice, out to other woolly mammoths. The woolly mammoths talked amongst themselves. Finally, they decided to live under the ground. They decided this so as not to be huntedimproperly—to be insulted—by Noah. This is how Noah caused woolly mammoths to flee underground. The villagers never saw a woolly mammoth again.
    All the rest of that winter, villagers left scraps of food for Noah and his family. Ptarmigan bones. Rotted seal flippers. Things picked out of fox droppings and polar bear droppings. Fish skulls and fish bones and dried-up fish tails. It got Noah’s family through until the ice thawed.
    When the ice thawed, the ark sank into the water. Some villagers paddled out and carried Noah and his family to the village in kayaks. Then they poked spears at them. “Go. Get out! Go in that direction!”
    The villagers watched Noah and his family set out to the south. They carried a little food. When Noah and his family were no longer seen, the villagers went back to everything as it was before.
    That is what happened.

LAST CONVERSATION WITH MARK, 1977
    (Transcript)
    MN:
You leave on the train soon, eh?
HN:
In a few days, yes.
MN:
Helen with you?
HN:
Yes.
MN:
She will not be staying, then.
HN:
No.
MN:
Helen and me, we did a lot of good work, I’d say.
HN:
She said that.
MN:
Good.
HN:
Thanks for all of your help, Mark. It meant a lot to me. It was important to me.
MN:
Helen taught me a lot of Japanese words. Did you know that?
HN:
No.
MN:
Well, she did.
HN:
As