Liar (7 page)

Each Chief brought with him a chunk of Migmatite, the local stone that was used only for special ceremonies. The stones were placed reverently in front of Sam as a sign of approval of his new leadership. Later Sam would build a Migmatite Monument in front of his house to signify that a Chief lived there. Prayers were then said in the Grimshaw language by Auntie Susan Crow and the feast commenced.

Soon after the soup was served, China looked towards the entrance and saw three Chiefs and several village elders, led by Dan Black, enter the community hall. China immediately felt trouble but everyone else seemed to be more interested in the clam soup.

China spoke urgently to Sam.

“Sam, it looks like trouble just entered the room.”

Bear and Anita overheard China and looked towards the entrance.

“Bear, get over there and see what they want,” ordered Anita.

Bear marched over to the entrance and consulted angrily with Dan Black. By now everyone was looking towards the entrance and the heat in the community hall went up about ten degrees. He then came back to the head table leaving Dan Black and his entourage by the door.

“Sam,” said Bear. “I told them they can’t interrupt the meal, but they’re coming in after and they’ve got a few things to say.”

China didn’t hear what Sam and his mother discussed during the meal. She was just amazed that Sam kept eating between comments to Anita and Bear. However, she could sense his agitation as his face got redder and redder and he started to sweat. China couldn’t eat at all, neither could she do anything but feel helpless and wait for the drama to unfold.

It didn’t take long. As soon as the dinner plates were cleared away and the troublemakers had felt foolish long enough having to stand and wait, they walked into the room. The Chiefs of the Beaver, Salmon, and Moose Clans and twelve village elders marched by the head table and placed small pebbles on the table in front of Sam. Not Migmatite, but ordinary beach pebbles. A sign of great displeasure and disrespect. A gasp of horror went through the room. Dan Black grabbed the microphone and proceeded to state his case.

“My people! Sam Eagle is not worthy to be Chief. He has not proven his worth. He hasn’t lived here in many years. I have great respect for his grandmother and grandfather, but my son should have been named as Chief. My son, Black Eagle, is a great carver and he has lived here his whole life. He has brought great honour to our people. Black Eagle will be Chief of our Eagle Clan. We will celebrate the Thunder Ceremony next month when the moon is full. It will be the biggest Thunder Ceremony in memory and many gifts will be given to our people.”

Sam, Bear and Anita stood up and walked over to the troublemakers. China moved to the back of the hall, unable to sit still any longer. May joined her almost in tears.

“China, this hasn’t happened in memory. I don’t understand. It’s a sign of great disrespect and Sam hasn’t done anything to deserve it.”

China was incapable of speaking. She was horrified by the negative energy in the room. She could feel Sam’s distress and she wondered how he’d charm himself out of this fiasco. Obviously not everyone was impressed with Sam’s charm. It took all of her willpower just to stay in the room and not bring further disgrace to her husband by running.

Finally, Sam grabbed the microphone.

“You say you respect my grandmother and grandfather and yet you show great disrespect by not following our traditions. I returned to my home because I, Sam Eagle, was named by my grandmother to become Chief of our Eagle Clan. You have dirtied a respected and ancient tradition with your evil ways. Leave now and take your ugly friends with you.”

The six Chiefs at the head table then stood up and glared at Dan Black with faces of stone. Dan and his group all slunk out of the hall looking pretty foolish. Did they think the rest of the village would follow them? They were wrong. Some of the women were in tears. Anita made a statement in the Grimshaw language and then Sam told everyone that considering the circumstances, he could not continue with the Thunder Ceremony, but the naming ceremony would still happen and the gifts would still be given out.

Part of the Thunder Ceremony included adopting outsiders into the clan, or giving a new name to certain individuals for various reasons. Either a child had graduated from school, or a baby had been born, etcetera. China was formally adopted into the clan as Sam’s wife and she was given the Grimshaw name of “Jaadrdriikmaal,” which roughly translated to “Woman Who Shapes Wood.” China found the Grimshaw language to be unpronounceable and so did a lot of the Grimshaws. The old people bestowed the names and China smiled ruefully when Anita translated what the name meant. Grimshaw women weren’t allowed to carve. That distinction was reserved for the mighty warriors. They had cleverly gotten around that rule by calling her a wood shaper. China had been smart enough not to copy and “shape” any traditional designs. She stuck to her own vision knowing that she’d be run out of town the moment she tried to copy anything remotely Grimshaw.

When the last of the gifts were given out, China helped clean up the mess at the hall and then sank wearily into bed when they returned home. Sam, Anita, May and Jim talked long into the night but China didn’t want to hear about the whys and wherefores, and was tired of hearing about the Crab Syndrome.

Sam had explained it to her before. About the white guy and the aboriginal walking down the road, each with a bucket of crabs. The white guy’s crabs kept hopping out of the bucket and he had to keep catching them and putting them back in. The aboriginal’s crabs all behaved and stayed in the bucket. Whitey asks, “How come your crabs don’t hop out of the bucket?” The aboriginal says, “Oh that’s because they’re Indian crabs. If one tries to hop out, the others drag him back.”

She’d heard enough about tradition and the old ways and the forgetting about how it should be done. These people were living in a modern world and if they wanted to keep tradition they’d first have to agree on exactly what the tradition was.

Oct. 6/96

I feel so bad for Sam and his family. They all thought that because Sam’s grandmother was so highly respected, they would respect her wishes. They said yes to her face, and said no behind her back. What should have been a beautiful ceremony became public humiliation for all concerned. Even the naysayers were humiliated.

Crows

A black cloud of crows

descended without honour

they left respect at the door;

There is no respect

in hearts that are weak

There is no belief

in the heart of a thief.

~ ~

The next day Sam told China that Dan Black and his henchmen were being shunned by the rest of the Grimshaws.

“Well, I’m glad,” said China with satisfaction. “I guess Black Eagle won’t be Chief after all. Will you have to do another ceremony now?”

“China, Dan Black has enough money to buy this whole island. His son will be Chief. This will all be forgotten in a week and the villagers will be cheering and stuffing their bellies and opening their gifts as Black Eagle becomes the Chief of our Clan. My dear mother has once again ruined my life. She just wouldn’t wait for me to straighten things out. She couldn’t wait to be the mother of the Chief,” said Sam bitterly.

China held her tongue. Like mother, like son. If only Sam had taken charge of the situation. Perhaps he would never have been Chief of his Clan, but he could have saved himself great humiliation. Maybe if he had talked to his family and campaigned to be Chief, he would have had more people on his side. Ifs and useless maybes.

~ ~

Two days later, when Anita and May and family had unhappily departed, Marisa knocked on China’s door and handed her a bag.

“It’s Sam’s blanket,” she stated bluntly.

“Thank you Marisa,” said China. “Would you like to come in?”

“No, I gotta go,” said Marisa as she ran down the front steps.

China closed the door and took the blanket out of the bag. Buttons and shells fell all over the floor. Sam’s blanket was still unfinished. China wondered, not for the first time, just whose side Marisa was on.

The good news was that the ancient head-dress had been found. It had appeared miraculously on Marisa’s kitchen table one day after the aborted Thunder Ceremony. Marisa said that a lot of people had been in the house and anyone could have taken it, and returned it, without her knowledge.

Sam’s belief was that Marisa’s son had been unable to sell it because Sam had issued a detailed description of the artifact to the RCMP. China believed that Marisa had just wanted to add another obstacle to the Thunder Ceremony, for what inscrutable reason China would probably never know. Nor did she want to.

~ ~

One month later, on the full moon, Black Eagle became Chief of the Eagle Clan. Just about the whole population, including Sam’s supporters, attended the Thunder Ceremony. The villagers had to eat in shifts and the celebrating and dancing and drumming carried on for two days. Black Eagle, erected the biggest totem in the village, one that he’d been carving for two years. It was quite a show. One that China and Sam didn’t see. They stayed quietly in their house. Sam watched television and slept, and China sculpted as though her life depended on it.

The day after the Chief Black Eagle’s Thunder Ceremony, Bear came to talk to Sam. He didn’t stay for long. China entered the livingroom with the tea tray. She took one look at Sam’s face and knew something was dreadfully wrong.

“Where’s Bear?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

Sam stared off into space and told her about the latest blow to his pride.

“My dear grandmother and grandfather were at Black Eagle’s Thunder Ceremony. Granny put the blanket around Black Eagle’s shoulders. Those bastards! She probably didn’t know what she was doing. She’s half blind and deaf and totally confused. She probably thought that Black Eagle was me.”

China stared at Sam and believed what he said. Sam and Black Eagle had a strong family resemblance. She sat down on the couch, horrified at what had happened to Sam and his family.

“Oh no. Oh, Sam, I’m so sorry. Your Mother will be devastated.”

“I’m going to the office. I’ll call her from there,” said Sam resolutely. “She probably knows already. I’m sure one of the village idiots called to tell her the good news.”

~ ~

Two weeks later when China picked up the phone to call Jane she heard no dial tone.
Shit,
she thought,
now what?
Life on Grimshaw Island was getting far too grim for words. She hurried to Sam’s office to call the telephone company. He was sending a fax when she arrived.

“Hi,” said Sam. “What’s up?”

“There’s something wrong with the phone. I want to call the phone company.”

“I’ll call them as soon as I’ve finished sending the fax.”

“Okay,” said China. “Are you coming home soon?”

“Yup. I’ll be done in a few minutes. Why don’t you go down to the beach and I’ll come get you when I’m ready?”

China busied herself with picking up pieces of old coloured glass worn smooth by the sand and waited for Sam. Twenty minutes later she saw Sam waving to her and she met him at the car.

“So? What did the phone company have to say?” asked China.

“Well,” said Sam ruefully. “It seems that there wasn’t enough money in the account to cover my cheque.”

“Oh, Sam!” wailed China. “How can you write a cheque when you know it’ll bounce?”

“I thought I’d get a cheque from the Band Council in there before it had a chance to bounce.”

“That trick used to work in the old days, before computers, not now! Will you please be more careful?”

“I’ll pay the bill at the bank tomorrow. It should only be a couple of days before the phone is hooked up again.”

“Right,” said China grumpily. “Now there’ll be a charge for the hook up.”

Three days later there was still no service and China was in a state. It was bad enough that she lived on a reserve in the middle of nowhere, but her lifeline to her loved ones was cut off and it just wasn’t good enough. She hung up the useless phone and yelled out to Sam.

“Sam, the phone still isn’t working. Did you pay the bill yesterday?”

Sam came down the stairs pulling on a sweater.

“Ahhh, no,” admitted Sam.

“Why not?” asked China incredulously.

“The Band Council didn’t give me the cheque yet.”

“Jesus Christ! Sam, if you don’t get that cheque and pay the phone bill today, I’ll go to the Band Council myself and yell at them until they fork it over.”

Don’t do that China,
thought Sam angrily.
They’re not going to pay me until I finish that proposal. I should get it done today.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get the cheque today.”

Sam left and China cleaned up the kitchen and then vacuumed, putting her angry energy to good use.

~ ~

Two more days went by before the phone was re-installed. When it rang for the first time it sounded like music to China’s ears until she heard the grim news from Sam.

“China, Granny’s dead,” said Sam in a shaky voice.

“Oh no. What happened?” asked China.

“A heart attack. Pop said she got up this morning and just fell down like a stone. I saw the ambulance outside their house on my way to work.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I’ll call mom. You call May. Just stay by the phone and get the house ready for visitors.”

China hung up and braced herself for the biggest Grimshaw celebration of all - the funeral of a Grimshaw Princess.

Mary Eagle died at the venerable old age of ninety-three and was probably grateful for the blessed release from her long and difficult life, but Sam’s mother, Anita, took it badly and blamed her death on the shock of Sam’s aborted Thunder Ceremony. She was loud in her condemnation of Dan Black. The village mourned deeply for the passing of the oldest woman on the island. It wasn’t just a Princess who had died. Mary Eagle was the oldest living memory of a way of life that would never come again. Sam felt bad that he hadn’t been to see her since her betrayal, but he forgave her and himself by making sure that his beloved grandmother had the best and biggest funeral the village had seen in a long time.