Chương 18: Chapter 18

"You will never guess what I saw yesterday," Fran said to Leigh over their lunch. Leigh just shrugged. "I saw my neighbour, Joe, with a book."

"You make it sound like a bomb or something."

"It might as well be." Fran raised her eyebrows. "At least for shock value. I remember teaching him. He had no more interest in reading than he did in anything that didn't involve tramping around in the woods. His son was headed the same way until he landed in your class."

"I think the son is the inspiration for the father." Leigh thought of the heartbreaking note Joe had read out loud to her. "I am sort of unofficially helping him."

"Well, if you sort of unofficially need some help, just let me know. That family has always been special to me and my dad."

"Did you see the title of the book?"

"No, I was just in so much shock to see Joe holding a book."

"It was a memoir by a fellow named Marc Dupuis."

"Mon Pere?" Fran's voice became a squeak, "Joe's reading mon Pere's book? I don't think anyone ever checked it out of the library. Mon Pere would be so proud. I'll have to find some excuse to talk to Joe now."

"I think Joe would be delighted to talk to you about ton Pere, if there is any one around who would understand his love of the woods it would be you."

"This is so marvelous; I wish mon Pere was alive to see it. He always had high hopes for the McCreys."

"It must be a big family."

"Big enough," Fran said, "Joe is one of seven children, I think four of them are still alive. It was sad, Joe's grandfather, then his father were taken to the residential schools. They were bad enough, but they were especially hard on a family with such a strong connection to the land. We whites had, and still have an anthropocentric view of life. Everything is valued by how useful it is to us. The McCreys, and most of the Cree nations, valued the land for just being the land." She sighed and shook her head.

"The schools killed the grandfather, he was one of the first snatched away. They sent him home with all his sense of self stripped away. He drank himself to death while he fathered a half-dozen children. He died soon after the government took his oldest son away. Joe's dad didn't fare any better. He learned to hate himself. He committed suicide after they closed the schools. He didn't have anything to hate but himself. Mon Pere tried to teach the kids how to be in the woods. Stuff they should have learned from their fathers, only we'd stolen that knowledge from them. Joe was mon Pere's last hope. He would be so proud."

"I hope you get the chance to tell Joe that story," Leigh said, "I think he needs to find his way. Maybe Tom will grow up to be a bridge like Anna."

"Have you met Anna's great-grandmother?"

"The old Cree woman everyone calls Kohkom?"

"That would be her, Anna Chambaux." Fran shivered, "She comes from a long line of medicine women. There is some connection to the McCreys but I couldn't tell you what. She told mon Pere he was sick before the doctors did. Mon Pere had nothing but respect for her, but she terrified me. It was as if she could see right through me to all the things I didn't want anyone to know."

"She does have that soul-piercing ability down pretty well," Leigh said.

"It isn't that she's bad; it's just that there are parts of my soul that I would rather not have come to light."

"I was the same way until those parts jumped out and made me chase a bunch of kids through the woods with an ax."

"You make self-examination sound like a good thing," Fran laughed and stood up. "I have to get back to class. I am absolutely going to talk to Joe.

Leigh watched her leave and wondered what dark secrets haunted her friend. Then she shook herself. She'd better get back to class herself.

All the next week Leigh drank tea and taught her class. The children talked about places they've been or their parents and the number of pins on the maps grew. For every student who'd never left Spruce Bay there was one who had travelled across the country if not the world. They brought in food from different countries and wore clothes that showed their ancestry. The Cree children weren't left out as they talked about their people's traditional lands and hunting grounds. The pins extended north from Spruce Bay as well as south. Distances walked or traveled by canoe or dog-sled were compared with trains and flights.

The basketball chaos continued. They moved from dribbling to passing to shooting baskets with all kinds of shots. All the children were completely involved now. Even Georgia was shouting and cheering with the rest.

"OK class," Leigh said on Friday. "We're going to play a game now, but it is a little different from regular basketball. You'll play two games one in each half of the gym, so you won't need to run as much. The other thing is that we aren't counting the number of baskets. The first team to have every member of their team score a basket wins."

It was mayhem. Half of the children didn't know all the rules for basketball, so the other half tried to explain them. Some teams had all the good players score and then watch as the others struggled to make their shots. Tom's team came closest to finishing the challenge, with only him and Macky not making their shots.

"On Monday, I'll start teaching you the rules and strategy to go with your skills," Leigh said, "But you are all doing really well."

They cheered and went back to class talking about how they'd all almost won the game.

Leigh walked back to her classroom watching the children. They mixed together, both threes and fours and no clumping of Cree or white, old hands or newcomers.

The afternoon flew by quickly and Leigh went straight home.

"I've got everything packed and ready," Jim said, "Are you ready?"

"Just give me a few minutes to change and we can be off."

Ten minutes later they were on the road to Thompson. It was Jim's idea to turn Leigh's monthly check up into a brief vacation. They headed for the Thompson Hotel. After the appointment tomorrow, they would do some exploring and perhaps some shop for treats they couldn't get in Spruce Bay.

The weekend was a resounding success. Dr. Hallace was very pleased with Leigh. Jim and Leigh loaded the truck up with food and goodies. Leigh hadn't felt this relaxed since they arrived in Spruce Bay. They got home and stuffed the food into the fridge. Jim teased her about needing straps to hold the fridge closed.

"Maybe we should get a freezer." Leigh made sure the freezer door sealed. "You know the kind they use to hide bodies in the books."

"I think I would prefer an upright," Jim said, "not that good for bodies, but much easier to get at stuff. I'd hate to fall into the freezer and have to call for backup to get me out again."

On Monday, Leigh returned to school with a light step. She watched the children walk in and take their seats.

"You know, Mrs. Dalrymple," Macky stared at their maps with pins of different colours for students, parents or grandparents. There were lines showing roads and canoe routes, strings marking flights from continent to continent. Leigh thought it was a work of art. "We've been all over the place except the oceans. There are no pins in the oceans."

"That's because none of us were born at the bottom of the ocean, Macky."

"I guess," Macky said, "But it would be cool to be able to say that we've been to the bottom of the ocean.

"That does sound like fun, Macky." Leigh nodded at him. "Maybe we should do a project on the oceans." There was a mix of cheers and groans. "Let's start by looking for the deepest part of the ocean."

"But the map is all just blue," Georgia said, "How will we know what is the deepest part?"

"We need a better map of the oceans."

"There's a map of the oceans at the library," Tom said.

"You went to the library?" Jamie said.

"My dad told me about this great book he's been reading. It was written by one of his heroes."

"Your dad reads books?" Jamie looked doubtful.

"Yup, it's all about hunting and trapping. My grandfather and great grandfather are mentioned in it."

"Cool," Jamie said, "Could I read it next?"

"After I'm done with it," Tom said.

"Then me," Steve said, "maybe my family's in it too."

In a moment, the whole class clamoured to read the book.

"I know someone who might be able to help us out with the book." Leigh held her hands up to quiet her class. "Let me talk to her. Now, Tom, I will find out if the library will loan us the map of the oceans. Since we don't have it yet, look through the books in the room and find out what you can about the oceans."

Soon the class was pouring over books and pointing at pictures. Leigh was glad at times like this that they didn't have internet and computers in every class. It would make things too easy. Clumps of children read around one book and discussed what they learned. Sometimes they argued about whether the information was right.

"The book says that the biggest fish in the ocean is a kind of shark."

"Whales are bigger than any shark."

"Whales aren't fish. They're mammals."

"What's the difference?"

"Whales breathe air like us. Sharks have gills, they breathe water like pickerel."

"Wow, can you imagine catching a pickerel that big?"

"If pickerel were that big, I'd never go swimming again."

"Look, I found the deepest part of the ocean," Anna waved her hand. "It says here The Marianas Trench is the deepest part of the ocean. It is in the Pacific Ocean, only two people have ever been to the bottom. They went in a bath..y...scaphe'."

"Very good, Anna."

The class crowded around Anna as she showed them the picture.

"That looks like a submarine," Macky said.

"I think it's a special kind of submarine to go really deep," Tom said, "It's like we have different kinds of canoe depending on how far we're going."

"Cool."

Leigh borrowed the map from the library and Tuesday morning discovered one of the white boards was magnetic. They put a little magnetic ship on the Marianas Trench and turned to other information about the ocean.

"There were lots of people who explored the oceans in canoes," Jamie said. "Wow, that looks a lot like the canoe my dad has that his dad made." He ran his finger across the picture. "But Dad's canoe doesn't have this extra thing."

"It's called an outrigger," Steve read from the book. "It gave them extra stability in the big ocean waves. The Polynesians and the Maori used them a lot. They paddled all over the Pacific Ocean."

"What's that picture? It looks like a sea serpent, but with feet."

"It's a taniwha, It's a Maori monster."

"Like the wendigo is a Cree monster."

"I guess."

"Mrs. Dalrymple!" The boys came to her with the book and their questions. She promised to look up the answer and get back to them. All too soon it was lunchtime.

"Hi Fran," Leigh said, "Have you heard that ton Pere's book is becoming popular?"

"What? No!" Fran put her hand on her heart. "Tell me."

"Tom said that his dad was reading this cool book and that it mentioned his family. Next thing all the other Cree children were demanding to read it too on the off chance that their families might be in it too. The other kids want to read it on principle because they don't want to be left out."

"I have a box of them at home," Fran said, "I couldn't bear to throw them out. Mon Pere gave a few away and put one in the library. I don't think he ever sold one. I could bring the box and you could give the kids the books."

"I have a better idea," Leigh said, "How about you bring the books and loan them to the children. We could use it a little like a reader."

"That's a wonderful idea! Can I bring them tomorrow?"

"That would be perfect," Leigh grinned at Fran. "But you have to tell them a little about ton Pere."

"I would be honoured to."

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