Ivory Carver 02 - My Sister the Moon

For my parents Patricia Ann Sawyer McHaney  

and Charles Robert McHaney, Jr. 

For my grandfather Charles Robert McHaney, Sr. 

And for Neil's parents 

Shirley Louise Batho Harrison 

and 

Clifford Joseph Harrison 

With Love, Gratitude and Respect 

SUMMER 7055 BC 

Chuginadak Island, Aleutian Chain 

CHAGAK SAT AT THE ROOF HOLE ENTRANCE OF the ulaq, on the thick sod that was the ulaq roof. She was scraping the last bits of flesh from the inside of a fur seal skin. Samiq and Amgigh nursed beneath her birdskin suk, each baby cradled in a sling that hung from Chagak's shoulders. 

Kayugh's daughter Red Berry played with colored stones at the grassy edge of the beach. Now and again, the girl called to Chagak, but the waves hissing into the dark gravel of the shore drowned out her tiny voice. 

Chagak wished the noise of the sea would also cover Blue Shell's sobbing, but she could still hear the woman weep. 

She thought of Blue Shell's new baby daughter, and for a moment she stopped her work to fold her arms over Samiq and Amgigh. Two fine, strong boys, she thought. And though Amgigh was Kayugh's son, not hers, it seemed that Amgigh belonged to her as much as Samiq did. It was her milk that gave him life. But why did the spirits bless her and not Blue Shell? Why was one woman chosen to receive sons, another given only daughters? 

"A son!" Gray Bird had shouted at Blue Shell when the first pains of Blue Shell's labor had begun, and Chagak had resented his words. Did any man know the pain a woman endured to give birth? If Gray Bird had suffered in the birthing as Blue Shell had, would he now be so anxious to kill the child? 

"I have had enough sorrow," Chagak said, boldly directing her words toward the sacred mountain Aka. But then she 
heard voices raised in anger, and Kayugh and Gray Bird came from Big Teeth's ulaq. 

Kayugh scanned the beach, and in long, quick strides he overtook his daughter. He pulled her into his arms and held her against his chest. Red Berry clung to him, her small face white against his parka. Then Kayugh turned to face Gray Bird. 

For a moment the two men stood without speaking. Kayugh was two hand-lengths taller than Gray Bird, and the wind ruffling the feathers of his parka made Kayugh look even larger than he was. 

His jaw tightened and he said, "Have you forgotten that we are the First Men? Have you forgotten that we have begun a new village? Do you think you can have a village without women?" His voice started out low and soft, but as he spoke, anger began to edge his words. 

Chagak did not look at Gray Bird. Instead, she kept her eyes on Kayugh's face, ready to grab Red Berry from his arms if Gray Bird attacked. 

"Who will bear your grandchildren?" Kayugh shouted. "That?" He pointed to a rock. "That?" He pointed to a tangle of crowberry heather growing near the ulas. 

Kayugh clasped Red Berry at her waist and held her out toward Gray Bird. 

Do not cry, Chagak pleaded silently with the child. Please, do not cry. But Red Berry held herself stiff and still, her eyes shifting between Gray Bird and her father. 

"She brings me joy," Kayugh said. Then in a voice so low that Chagak strained to catch the words, he added, "Her mother was a good wife to me. Her spirit is with this child. I would kill any man who tried to harm my daughter." 

Slowly he set Red Berry down. The child stood for a moment looking at her father. Chagak held out her arms. Red Berry ran to her and climbed into her lap. 

Then Gray Bird spoke. "If Blue Shell's daughter lives, I will have to wait three, perhaps four more years for a son. The seas are rough; the hunts are hard. Perhaps I will die before then." 

Chagak looked at Kayugh. Would Gray Bird's words soften Kayugh's resolve? But Kayugh did not speak and Gray Bird continued, his voice like ice in the thin, cold air. "Each man rules his own family." 

Kayugh took one step forward, and Chagak began to slide slowly back, holding Red Berry against her with one arm. 

"Chagak!" 

Chagak jumped then rose slowly, searching Kayugh's face. 

"Give me my son." 

She did not want to obey. Amgigh was too small to be caught in a fight between two men. She hesitated and Kayugh called again. Chagak pulled the baby from beneath her suk and quickly wrapped him in the furred skin she had been scraping. 

She took the child to Kayugh. Red Berry followed her, one hand clinging to the back of Chagak's suk. 

Chagak handed the baby to Kayugh and he held the child toward Gray Bird, opened the fur wrapping so Gray Bird could see the baby's well-formed legs and arms. 

"I claim Blue Shell's girl child as wife for my son," Kayugh said, then he turned and held the baby toward the island's mountain Tugix. "I claim Blue Shell's daughter for my son." 

Gray Bird spun and strode to his wife's birth shelter. 

Chagak thought that Kayugh would go after him, but he stood where he was, Amgigh now wailing in the chill of the wind. But soon, Gray Bird returned. He held Blue Shell's baby wrapped in a coarse grass mat. He opened the mat and turned the child so Kayugh could see her tiny body. In the coldness of the wind, the baby's skin quickly mottled and turned blue. 

"Wrap her," Kayugh said. "She will be wife for Amgigh." 

Gray Bird wrapped the child, moving her too quickly to his shoulder. The small head jerked against his chest. 

"If you kill her, you kill my grandsons," Kayugh said, and he stood with his eyes fixed on Gray Bird until the man returned to the birth shelter. Then Kayugh thrust Amgigh 
into Chagak's arms, hoisted Red Berry to his shoulders and walked to the beach. 

The summer was nearly over when Blue Shell came to Kayugh. Chagak, now Kayugh's wife, watched from the corner of the ulaq as the woman lifted her suk and showed Kayugh the daughter suckling at her breast. But Chagak also saw the bruises on Blue Shell's face, a long cut that ran across her belly. 

"She is alive," Blue Shell said, her voice low. "But Gray Bird has told me I must stop nursing her." 

Kayugh sighed. "Big Teeth says I was wrong. I should not have promised Amgigh, forced Gray Bird." 

Blue Shell shrugged. "I will do my best to keep her alive." She pulled down her suk, tucked it around the baby. "Gray Bird will not let me name her." 

Chagak drew in her breath. The child would have no protection without a name. She would not even have a soul. She would be nothing. 

And Gray Bird's promise to give the girl as wife for Amgigh, what of that? 

Blue Shell turned to leave, but then looked back at Kayugh. "Gray Bird says that he has given his promise, and so he will not kill the child, but he says that you do not have to keep your promise. He says you should find another wife for Amgigh." 

When she left, Kayugh paced the ulaq. 

"You cannot change him, husband," Chagak said. "Gray Bird is Gray Bird." 

"Big Teeth was right. I should have let the girl die. Now I cannot keep my promise. I cannot give my son a wife who has no soul. Who can say what spirits may come to her, to live in the emptiness she will carry?" 

For a long time, Chagak said nothing. When Kayugh finally sat down, she went to the food cache and brought him a piece of dried fish. "There is a chance that Gray Bird will decide to give the girl a name," she said to Kayugh. "Perhaps he will see that a child without a name is a curse 
to his ulaq, or perhaps he will name her if he thinks he can get a good bride price for her." 

Kayugh smiled, a half-smile that told Chagak of his frustration. "So Gray Bird will let her live. And he knows that each time I see the girl, I will remember that he is keeping his promise and I cannot keep mine."