Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (17 page)

He felt a little put on the spot because he hadn’t been able to bring it up in his own way. However, realizing that it might be better with Pell introducing the topic, Woday said “I’d like to be Pell’s apprentice.” He shrugged, “Pell says he’s willing to take me on if
you
say it’s okay.”

Agan’s eyes widened, then went from Woday to Pell and back. She grinned, “You know he’s a lot younger than you are?”

Woday nodded, “It’s what he knows, not his age that’s important to me.”

“Okay,” Agan said, “What do you have to offer our tribe?”

There it was, the kind of question that Woday had feared. Before he could answer, however, Pell said a little excitedly, “He can teach me how to get honey! He’s already taught us how to cook fish.”

Agan’s eyes went to Pell and she gave him an indulgent grin. Then she turned back to Woday, “Can you hunt?”

For a moment, silence stretched as Woday tried to think what to say. If he told them he could hunt, it’d soon become painfully obvious that he’d lied. It’d soon be time for the big pre-freeze hunt where all tribes tried to put aside a few large carcasses that they hoped would freeze and keep them fed for a good part of the winter. As soon as that big hunt started, the Cold Springs group would know Woday couldn’t throw a spear very well. He decided that he had to be truthful if he was to gain any trust from these people. He shook his head, “I’m sorry. I’m not a very good hunter.”

To Woday’s utter astonishment, Pell said, “We don’t
need
a good hunter.”

Agan’s eyes widened a little, as if she also felt somewhat stunned by Pell’s statement. Then, Woday was amazed to see that she gave a little shrug, as if acknowledging the truth of what Pell said! Her eyes returned to Woday, “We may not need a hunter, but we also don’t need someone who can’t contribute.” She looked at Pell, “You may be excited to have an apprentice to work for you, but he still has to earn his keep, right? That’s what
you
said about our tribe. ‘Everyone has to work and do their share.’”

Pell turned to give Woday a measuring glance, “Well, that’s true. We don’t want anyone just lying around waiting for the rest of us to take care of them.”

Agan snorted, “Except me!” She laughed, “Don’t forget about me.”

Pell looked a little embarrassed, “
Your
contribution is to lead us. For instance, to keep me,” he glanced at Woday, “from inviting someone into our tribe who doesn’t do their share.” He looked back to Agan, “Besides, you’re still working; preparing your medicines and taking care of us when we get sick.”

Woday put in, “I’m willing to work hard. I’ll do anything you tell me.” He looked shamefacedly down at his feet, “But I’m not very good with a spear.”

Excitedly, Pell said, “But, if you come from the Falls-people, you must know about fish, right?”

Woday said, “I know about them, yes. But,” he said, feeling the heat rising his cheeks, “spearing fish is even harder than spearing other animals. I won’t be much help to you there.”

“More help than you might think,” Pell said enigmatically. He turned to Agan, “What do you think?”

Agan’s eyes turned thoughtfully to Woday. A sick feeling spread in his stomach as she said nothing and he waited for her to tell him that they didn’t have enough food. But she didn’t say that, instead, she said, “You’ll work hard, huh? Haul firewood and water?”

Woday nodded, trying to look willing, but not idiotically overenthusiastic.

Agan studied him for a moment longer, then shrugged and said the most unbelievable thing he’d ever heard. “Why not? It’s not as if we’re going to be short of food.”

They ate a morning porridge of einkorn, chopped acorns, and some kind of mashed root vegetable. While everyone was eating, Agan announced that Woday had been accepted as Pell’s apprentice. Despite Woday’s fear that there would be objections to taking on a new member at the beginning of the hungry season, no one complained.

Instead, Deltin and Manute hooted. Manute said, “
I
need an apprentice if I’m going to make leather out of all these skins we’ve piled up.”

Pell said, “Woday says he’s willing to work hard, doing whatever we need him to do in order to earn his keep. He wants to learn to set bones, but,” Pell shrugged, “since most of the time there aren’t any bones to be set, you can have him help you make leather when you need extra hands.”

Woday started to worry that he was going to spend the winter doing nothing but making leather. “I do want to learn how to do some of the other things Pell is supposed to be famous for,” he said, trying not to sound plaintive.

Deltin laughed and raised an eyebrow at Pell, “Listen, he’s already backpedaling on that promise to work hard!”

Feeling his cheeks warm, Woday said, “I’ll work hard! I’d
like
to learn how to make leather. I just want to make sure I learn some of these other things too… not
only
how to make leather, but…” he trailed off.

The whole group laughed then, and Woday realized they were just teasing him. Pell said, “It’s okay, I want to learn how to make leather too.”

Deltin hooted, “No you don’t!
No one
wants to learn how to make leather, it’s hard work!”

Yadin watched this interplay amongst the tribe at their morning meal with some envy. These people, despite the fact that they were mercilessly teasing Woday, got along much better than Yadin’s home tribe the Oppos did. Musing over how he’d been unhappy in the Oppos and had wanted to leave, he found himself envying the way these people got along and thinking he could be happy with them.

However, he had the same concerns about food for the winter that Woday had been worried about.

Yadin found himself wondering uncharitably whether Woday had told Agan some lies about his skills as a hunter. It was hard to imagine that the Cold Springs tribe would be willing to take on another mouth to feed right before winter unless they thought Woday was going to contribute in a major way to hunting, especially the big hunt before the world froze. Yadin had watched Woday long enough to feel certain that the young man couldn’t be considered a real hunter. Woday just didn’t notice the small events in the world around him. He didn’t move like a hunter either. Yadin hadn’t seen him throw a spear, but Yadin had coached plenty of young men throwing spears. Yadin felt pretty confident that Woday
didn’t
have the coordination to be good at it.

Until this morning, Yadin had felt confident that this tribe would be happy to take him in. After all he brought a high degree of skill in flint knapping. He threw a spear better than anyone he knew. After watching Pell throw rocks, Yadin worried the young man might throw a spear better than he could, but Yadin felt fairly sure he’d be better than anyone
else
in this tribe. Therefore, they should welcome him as a hunter.

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.