Read Online The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich - Free Book Online

bring down an animal, but also to make sure that the Bwaanag were not creeping up behind them. They told Old Tallow they were going, and she frowned.
    â€œGego ginjiba’iweken,” she said. “Ask Nokomis or ask your mother. You must stay.”
    But, because she was busy with repairs to a canoe, they managed to creep around her and elude her strict attention.
    Omakayas was to remember, for a very long time, howtheir leaving together bothered her. For some reason, as the two boys walked away, their jokes and quiet smiles chilled her. She knew , absolutely knew in her heart, that something was going to go wrong. She ran after them. They turned to her.
    â€œDon’t go,” she said.
    They just smiled and kept walking. It was useless. Without knowing she would do it, she gave the flint and striker in her special pouch to Quill, even though she’d carried them every day since she was capable of making fire. Her precious string of red beads, she gave to Animikiins. This was the second time she had given these beads away, and she wondered at her impulses. Nokomis had kept them for many, many years.
    â€œWhat,” mocked Quill, his porcupine wagging on his head, “is this good-bye forever?”
    â€œDon’t go,” she begged again.
    Animikiins took the beads from her hands with a shy smile—this could almost be a love gift. They both knew it meant she favored him, but they were friends already. Omakayas shrugged, trying not to make too much of it, but she said “Don’t go” for the last time, in a smaller voice.
    â€œYou know we’ll go anyway,” said Quill, just loud enough for her to hear. His porcupine blinked. “I have a better idea. Keep your beads and don’t worry!”
    Animikiins just smiled at her and put the beads around his neck. Then the two strong boys loped off into thewoods along the trail. Omakayas couldn’t help but smile at the way the porcupine’s tail wagged along behind Quill’s head. How could anything bad happen to someone so ridiculous?
    MISSING
    T hey did not return. When the night came on, Mama worried, but the boys had stayed out all night before when trailing a wounded animal.
    â€œMaybe they are tracking a deer,” she said hopefully.
    Deydey and Old Tallow took the dogs out to follow them, and Fishtail made his own search, but the way soon grew too dark and dangerous. They all returned with no sight of the two boys. Yet there had also been no sign of the Bwaan warriors, and everybody hoped the boys had simply decided to stay the night where they’d made a kill. The family curled in their blankets and tried to drift off, but it was a sleepless night. One of the adults kept watch every hour, and from time to time, restless, Omakayas woke in the dark to see her mother outlined against the pale sky. The moon had risen, wild and full, and the boys had enough light to see by if they needed to return.
    But they were still gone in the morning. Now everyone was grim. Nokomis prayed, her hand on a birch tree, her lips moving softly. Old Tallow prepared herself and fed her dogs. Fishtail and Deydey cleaned their guns and Miskobines examined his bow and readied a quiver ofarrows. They all carried axes and stone or steel tomahawks at their belts. They were going after the boys and did not know what they’d find. But they were leaving the little ones in the care of the women. Yellow Kettle knew that she and the other women might put up a good fight, but they’d be overwhelmed by the party of Bwaanag if they doubled back and attacked them. To throw the Bwaanag off their trail, she proposed that the men leave the canoes in the woods beside a smoking fire, and the women would find another hiding place farther back, brushing out their tracks as they went.
    The little boy, John, whose name always came out Zahn, worked as hard as anyone readying the supplies. He was a good-natured boy still in shock, in grief, and