Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey by John Sayles

Author:John Sayles [Sayles, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

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THERE IS A RUN OF SOME SORT OF FISH IN THE RIVER, and the whole of Kittanning is enlisted in their harvest. Jamie is directed to join the women, chanting and smacking the surface of the hip-deep water as they march forward in a line toward several of the sturdier men holding the deep end of a woven net that spans across half the river, struggling to fight the current.

Jamie feels something wiggle up under his breechclout from behind, making him jump.

It is not a panicked fish but Ange, who grins wickedly and moves away.

When the net is so heavy with perch caught by their gills that it cannot be held, all walk it in and drag the squirming mass ashore, the quick hands of young boys and girls untangling the prizes and ferrying them to higher ground. This is done five times, until Shingas, staring into the water, declares that the catch will no longer be worth the effort.

In the afternoon Jamie sits with Buffalo Hair, beheading and gutting the fish and tossing the innards to the waiting dogs, then splitting the bodies open to be salted and dried on racks. Ange has moved close to them, busily reducing firewood to kindling with a hatchet.

“She like you,” says Buffalo Hair.

Jamie considers Ange, sinewy and quick eyed, always with an air of hunger. “She likes a’ the young men.”

“Alla them give her things. But she like you.”

This is news to Jamie. “I am flattered.”

“You damn well ought to be.”

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