From Bear Rock Mountain by Antoine Bear Rock Mountain

Author:Antoine Bear Rock Mountain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchwood Editions
Published: 2019-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The Man on the Moon

Of an evening’s balm you may see him yet, waving.

One of the places I would go to get out of the mainstream was the little fishing village of Tsiigehtchic, which sits snugly where the Arctic Red River meets the Duhogah. When there I usually stayed with musician and teacher Bob “Tootz” Mumford and his wife, Margaret Nazon.

I would take the time to go and see my father’s ol’ time buddy Billy Cardinal too. He told me of some hilarious times they had fish guiding at Plumber’s Lodge on the Sahtú, Great Bear Lake.

Tsiigehtchic was home to many good storytellers, like Noel Andre, who was also known for his way with a fiddle and for being a fisherman par excellence.

But the one place I felt most at home was with Alestine Andre and her father, Chief Hyacinth Andre.

One Friday night, the old man was home alone, and we were standing on their porch, looking up at a full moon. “You know what happened up there?” he asked me.

Not knowing what to say, I just asked him to let me know.

“Well, Grandson, it was a long, long time ago, way before all this came along.” He waved at the row of houses down the old dirt road. “There were these two young brothers who were laying on their backs on the alleh, spruce bough floor, in their teepee, just spending some time in the late winter evening, looking up at the stars.

“The younger of the two had been given a pair of mink fur pants for being of a special kind. They were counting their girlfriends, and one would go: ‘I love my darling there, that really shiny one . . .’

“The other would go, ‘Nawh, not even as pretty as my sweetheart, way over there, up in my heavens . . .’

“Time was going by as it does in the Forever Land of the Far North, and the elder of the two boys said that it was now time to go to sleep. They were burning up too much firewood laying up talking anyway.

“‘No, Ondieh [older brother], this is fun, let’s keep choosing!’ cried the younger.

“Just as he said so, the big ol’ full moon popped out in clear view of their teepee smoke flaps.

“‘Now there is my favourite of all, my future wife!’ exclaimed the young lad. ‘I am going to marry her!’

“‘Now you are really talking silly,’ he was told. ‘Our parents are really going to be cross with us for staying up late and burning all this wood.’

“‘I guess you don’t know why they gave me these pants, huh?’ his younger brother demanded. ‘Here, I’ll show ya. We can go up there to meet my wife right now.’

“‘Now I know you are really being silly and stupid!’ the elder scolded him.

“He was just going to put out the fire at the centre of their teepee when his younger brother strode over, saying, ‘Well, let me just prove it to you here. Take my hand.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.