The No-Good Nine by John Bemelmans Marciano

Author:John Bemelmans Marciano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2018-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

24. WE WERE NOT ALONE

This dog feels soooo warm and cozy, I thought as I slowly began to wake up. I just have to give it a hug!

The mutt sure did smell bad though—even for a dog.

I opened my eyes. I wasn’t hugging a dog.

I was hugging the Rude.

“Gross!” I said, pushing him away. “Get off of me!”

And that’s when I heard it. People talking outside, in a language I didn’t understand.

And it wasn’t French.

I peeked out of the snow shelter and saw two hooded figures. One short, one tall. The one had a long spear and the other a rifle.

Then I realized—these were Inuit! How far north were we?

As quietly as I could, I woke up the others and we crept out of the shelter.

Then they saw us.

The short one pointed his spear in our direction and said something to the tall one.

“Hey, watch who you’re pointin’ that stick at!” the Hooligan said, threatening him.

The tall one now took his rifle off his shoulder and started yelling at the Hooligan.

“Oh, yeah?” the Hooligan said, like he could understand what the man was saying. “I’ll take on the both a y’uns!”

“Will you stop!” the Thief yelled at the Hooligan. “They aren’t going to hurt you, you tabarnouche!”

She turned to the hooded figures and talked to them. In their language.

“You speak Inuit,” the Rude said.

“It’s called Inuktitut,” the Thief said. “My second cousin, remember?”

It wound up that the two Inuit were a boy our age and his father. They were traveling home and had happened upon our campsite. They were more shocked to find us than we were to see them.

“After all, we don’t see many Americans out here,” the boy said.

“You speak English?” the Rude said.

“Yes,” the boy said.“I learn it in school.”

The boy’s name was Lumiuk and while we were talking his father pointed over to our snow cave and said something.

“Father is asking, What is that heap of snow?”

“It’s our snow shelter,” the Thief said proudly.

“Shelter? Father says. That’s the worst shelter I’ve ever seen! I’m sorry, but Father can be so rude,” Lumiuk said. “He also says that you would have died if it hadn’t been so warm last night.”

“Warm?” the Rude said. “Last night was warm?”

“Oh, yes. It was like an early spring!” Lumiuk said.

His father was now asking another question.

“Why are you all here?”

The Know-It-All explained, and Lumiuk’s father nodded along like it was all normal. Not because it was in any way normal, but because the people from the south were always talking crazy stuff. As for Lumiuk, he thought it was grand.

“Santa! Oh, I have heard much about him. I would love to travel to his workshop. But then I would love to travel anywhere. Especially the great cities I have read about in books and seen in films.”

As it happened, Lumiuk and his dad were headed in the same direction we were going.

“Can we please travel together?” Lumiuk said. “It is so lonely with just Father.”

We huddled to discuss our options.

“What options?” the Rude said.

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