Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Author:Gary Paulsen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

7

The Dream

There were swirls of fog like steam off the water in the ice leads; thick fog, heavy fog, that would start to clear and close again, then clear a little more until finally he could see, could see, could see …

A skin shelter, a tent, on the side of the ocean. Inside there was an oil lamp, much like the one Oogruk had, burning a smoky yellow that lighted the faces of the people in the tent.

Two children were there. Small and round and wonderfully fat. They were eating of some fat red meat that Russel could not understand, didn’t know, but knew as being important. He wanted to know what kind of meat they were eating because it was so red and had coarse texture and rich yellow fat. All over the children’s faces and in their hair the grease shone and they were happy with it.

On the other side of the lamp sat a woman, young, round and shining beautiful. She was fat and had eaten of the meat but was done now and worked at tending the lamp. There was much honor in tending the lamp and she took pride in it. The flame was even, if smoky, and in the stone lamp-bowl there was the same yellow fat that was so important for him to name.

One other person was in the skin tent and he couldn’t see who it was; it was a man, but he kept back in the shadows and would not come forward.

They were saying nothing, but the children laughed until the laughter was like a kind of music in the background and the woman looked at the man and smiled often. It was the kind of smile all men look for in women, the kind that reaches inside, and Russel felt warm to see it.

But he could not see the man and he did not know the meat, and they were important to him.

The fog came again, and this time when it cleared the man was standing near the doorway in a parka. The parka was deerskin and he held a long spear with some form of black stone point, chipped black stone that was deep and shining dark. He was going out hunting and Russel knew, sensed, that he was going to hunt whatever had made the coarse meat and yellow fat and Russel wanted to go with him.

The woman kept smiling and the children kept laughing but the woman was worried and said something in a language that Russel could not understand. It was words, and they were similar to what he knew, but enough different so they didn’t quite make sense to him.

As the man turned to leave the hut the woman said something to him and he stopped and looked at her.

Her eyes glowed at him and there was much fear in them, so much that Russel was afraid, and he knew that there was some fear in the man, too, but hidden.

Russel would not have known that except that he felt close to the man.

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