The Secret of the Seal (2 page)

Closing his eyes, he pictured a seal: rounded head, widely spaced eyes, blubbery neck, thick, full body, sleek tail.

Then he opened his eyes, half expecting to see the rock changed into the form of
a seal. It was still just a rock. But now he could see the seal in it clearly and he began to carve.

Tooky’s shining wet head poked up through the hole in the ice. She came out of the water and lay drying in the sun.

Kyo continued to carve, glancing frequently from the stone to the seal and back to the stone. Tooky rolled on her side just as Kyo finished the stone seal’s head.

“Are you tired of holding still for me?” Kyo asked as he slipped the carving and knife back in his pocket.

Kyo put his hand lightly on Tooky’s back and let his arm rest across her body. The seal rolled gently side to side, then with a quick shake threw his arm off.

Kyo draped one leg across her. Again she tossed him aside. Giggling, Kyo threw both an arm and a leg over her solid body. When she tossed him this time, he rolled away, laughing, then climbed on her back. He clung to her neck while she rocked back and forth, and he laughed so hard that he fell off.

Tooky prodded him with her nose and plopped down beside him. When Kyo lay his arm gently across her this time, she did not shake it off. She lowered her head, closed her eyes, and slept.

Clouds covered the sun, and a cool wind gusted over them. A little chilled, Kyo hid from the wind behind the seal and huddled close to her broad furry belly.

Her heart was a muffled
ba-boom, ba-boom
in his ear. He watched the little white puffs that formed and dissolved near Tooky’s nose each time she breathed.

Suddenly, she stopped breathing. Kyo kept watching for the little breath-clouds, but when minutes had passed and none appeared, he sat up, alarmed.

Was she sick? he wondered. Was she dying?

His eyes blurred. He wiped them with a mitten. Crouching over her, he listened close to the seal’s nose. He heard nothing.

Holding back tears, he pressed his ear to her body.
Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom
 … just like normal.

Tooky was awake now, watching him calmly. She didn’t look sick, Kyo observed, and the little clouds were forming again every few seconds in front of her nose.

Kyo put aside his worried thoughts. For a while he and Tooky played together, and when the seal napped later on, he wasn’t so surprised to see her breathing halt again.

This time he watched more patiently. He saw that she breathed between long pauses. He tried to hold his breath as long as she did, but it was impossible.

“Wake up, Tooky!” he called out when he had tired of his breath-holding game.

Tooky’s eyes snapped open, and as Kyo had expected, her breath came faster. She wriggled toward the water and slipped away. Puzzling about her strange, slow breathing, Kyo headed for home.

W
hy does Tooky’s breathing slow dawn when she sleeps? Kyo was still wondering the next day as he helped his father untangle their sled dogs’ traces. He was thinking of asking his father about the seal when the sound of a distant, unfamiliar hum distracted him.

The hum grew into a deep buzz, and then into a loud, growling whine. Kyo saw a man approaching on a snowmobile pulling a sledge. Kyo had seen snowmobiles, but no one in their small settlement owned one yet. He watched with wide eyes and an open
mouth as his uncle George drove the noisy contraption to his house and stopped.

Kyo had never met George, who lived far to the south in a big city. He didn’t know much about him, except that his mother called him by his boyhood name, Ahko.

George was a tall man with a heavy mustache and the biggest black boots Kyo had ever seen. George told lots of jokes, and when he laughed Kyo felt the tiny house shake. Kyo liked it when Uncle George picked him up and swung him around by his hands. He liked it even more when he rode on top of his tall uncle’s shoulders.

That evening during supper, George told Kyo, Annawee, and Kudlah about the big city zoo. They had never been to a zoo. George described how the animals lived in large cages and how the zookeepers brought them their food and water once a day. He drew pictures of lions, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, monkeys, and other animals that lived there.

“Do any seals live in the zoo?” asked Kyo.

“No,” answered George, and Kyo smiled. He didn’t think Tooky would like to live in a cage. But George had more to say about seals and zoos.

“No seals live there yet, Kyo. But I hope to change that.”

“What do you mean, Brother?” asked Annawee.

“The zoo has built a special cage with a water tank,” explained George. “They are offering a lot of money to someone who can sell them a healthy seal to live in it. So this is a very special trip for me. I get to see my sister and her family, and I will earn a good sum of money by bringing back to the city a plump, lively seal.”

“I hope that you have come to the right place, Brother,” said Annawee. “We are happy to see you after such a long time, but the seals have not been so plentiful this spring.” Kudlah nodded his head in agreement.

Annawee ladled second helpings of steaming, savory stew into the men’s bowls.
When she came to Kyo’s place, he put his hand over his bowl.

“No, thank you,” he said. “I am not hungry anymore.”

I
n the morning Kyo ran all the way to Tooky’s hole. When the seal appeared, Kyo flung his arms around her neck, not waiting until the dry air had absorbed some of the moisture from her thick fur.

“Oh, Tooky,” he exclaimed breathlessly, “you must be very careful! My uncle is looking for a seal just like you!”

Tooky poked him with her nose.

“Not today, Tooky. We can’t play out in the open today, and there’s no place for us to hide together. You’ll just have to go back into the ocean and stay away from here until my uncle returns to the city. And warn your
friends. I don’t think you’d like to be captured and put in a cage.”

The seal prodded him again.

“I know you want to play,” Kyo said firmly. “But it’s too dangerous. My uncle might see us. Please go back into the water and hide.” He stepped away from the seal. She waddled after him.

“No!” he cried. He pushed her gently toward the hole. “Go!” The seal gave him one long look, then slipped beneath the ice. Kyo walked back to his house, kicking at blurry clumps of ice and snow.

G
eorge unloaded lumber and wire from the sledge behind the snowmobile. He began to build a large cage.

“Come help me, Kyo!” George called to the boy, who watched him uneasily.

Kyo hesitated. He liked this rare visitor and wanted to know him better, but didn’t want to help him capture any seals.

“Kyo, I need an extra pair of hands to hold this wood in place while I nail it.”

Kyo joined his uncle.

“Where did you go this morning?” George asked.

“For a walk,” Kyo replied.

“It’s pretty quiet around here,” George went on. “What’s there for a boy to do?”

“Lots of things,” Kyo answered eagerly. “In the summer I like to fish. When I catch one, I kill it and clean it and give it to my mother to cook for dinner. Sometimes my father takes me hunting. When the weather’s bad, I go to my collection of stones, pick one, and carve it.” He pulled the leather thong that hung around his neck out of his jacket. Attached was a smooth white stone shaped like a seal.

“I have another one that looks like a bear.” Kyo ran into the house to get the other carving. He brought it to his uncle, who looked at it closely.

“This is just like a bear, Kyo. You must watch the animals often to know exactly how they are shaped.” He handed the bear back to Kyo.

“I do watch the animals,” Kyo said. “I like to hunt with my father and play with my friends, but sometimes I like to go out by myself, not far from here. I sit very quietly for a long time and wait for the animals to
come. I know where to find caribou trails and rabbit holes. I even know where there’s a wolf den, and last spring I saw her pups!”

George listened as he bent wire around the wood frame.

“You must know where to find seals, too,” said George.

Kyo was silent.

“Don’t you watch the seals?” asked George.

“The seals are very special.” Kyo spoke in a quiet voice.

“They are,” George agreed.

“I don’t think they will like living in a cage.”

George stopped working and looked at the boy.

“I never really thought about whether they’d like it or not. I don’t suppose they really care one way or the other. As long as they get fed—and the zookeepers give the animals as much as they want.”

Kudlah joined them, shaking his head.

“It seems kind of strange,” he told his
brother-in-law. “Around here, it’s the seals that feed the people!”

“It must seem odd to you,” replied George. “It’s a different world in the city. I have been there so long, I have forgotten how to hunt. Can I take the boy with me when I go off to trap a seal tomorrow?”

“We will both go with you,” replied Kudlah. “The first seal will be yours to take to the zoo. If we get others, we will keep them for our food.” He looked out across the ice, then up to the sky. “But I don’t think we will want to go tomorrow.” Without explaining, he went inside the house.

“What’s wrong with going after seals tomorrow?” George asked Kyo.

“It’s the weather,” the boy answered.

“But the sky is clear and the winds are dying. Tomorrow should be very warm and sunny.”

“Yes, Uncle, that is what is wrong with it. The ice will be soupy. Traveling will be difficult.”

“I see,” said George. “I have forgotten
these things.” He started hammering again.

Kyo worked with his uncle for the rest of the day. As the sun was setting they stood before the finished seal cage.

“Can I go inside?” the boy asked his uncle.

“Sure.” George laughed. He unlatched the door and held it open for his nephew. Kyo crawled inside and asked George to close the door behind him. “But don’t lock it!” he cried.

“I won’t,” George replied, and he went into the house to visit with his sister and brother-in-law.

Kyo sat in the cage and watched the sun dip behind the hills. The wind made a soft, high whine as it passed through the wire. Kyo leaned back and pressed his feet against the opposite side. He pushed with all his strength, but the wood and wire stayed firmly meshed. It was a strong cage, and he could see that he was no match for it. Could it hold a seal? he wondered. He crawled out and joined his parents and uncle in the house.