Starfish_ A Novel - James Crowley [28]
“We’ll make all kinds of tools for ya with the bones, and I’ll bet we can fashion some sort of a shirt, maybe some leggings, from the hide.”
“How about arrows? when are we going to make the arrows?” Lionel asked.
“Don’t you even think about that until we get these chores done,” Grandpa replied turning his attention to the main lodge. He determined that although the roof seemed structurally sound, despite its sloping state, it wouldn’t hurt to reinforce the sagging support beams.
They went into the woods, and Grandpa selected two tall, straight pine trees with Y-shaped branches near their tops to serve as the new supports. Grandpa thanked the pines for their service and then carefully cut the trees so that they fell where Grandpa instructed them. Lionel told Grandpa how he had led Ulysses directly into the lodge when Beatrice was tired after their long journey, and Grandpa thought that it was such a good idea that they should do the same with newly fallen timber. Grandpa also pointed out that by taking this course of action, they were in no way comparing Beatrice to the fallen logs.
They tied the trees to Grandpa’s mule and dragged them right into the big main room. Then Grandpa tied a length of rope toward the top of one of the logs and threw the other end over the lodge’s main support beam. He tied the loose end of the rope to the mule, and in no time they hoisted the log up and secured the V-shaped end into place as an additional brace. Ulysses watched them through the window from the meadow and seemed to approve of the process and the mule’s work. They did the same with the second log, and when they had finished, Grandpa said that he would sleep easier that night.
Then, they cleaned the lodge. This really reminded Lionel of being back at school. Grandpa said that there was no way that the children could keep their heads straight if their lodge wasn’t in order, so he sent Beatrice out to find a pine bough and showed her how to fasten the branches and some long dried grass to replace the broken broom. He then sent Lionel down to the stream with an old rusted bucket, and when he returned, put him to the task of cleaning and scrubbing every square inch of the lodge with an old bristle brush that they found in the small open-sided stable.
After the windows were washed and the lodge’s floor scrubbed, they cleaned out the stable and assessed it for supplies. over the next few days, they built a new outhouse from lumber that they found lying across the rafters of the stable, and they patched the sunken roof and collapsed side of the lodge as best they could. They salvaged what remained of the rat-ravaged grain stores and organized an array of rusting tools and farm implements.
Lionel looked around at their little lodge and the outbuildings. He could not believe how much they had accomplished in the short time since their grandfather had arrived. “Looks pretty darn good, don’t it?” Grandpa said, almost as if he was reading Lionel’s mind. “But I’m wondering if you could do one more thing for me.”
Lionel nodded and followed as his grandfather led him down to the stream.
“Remember me tellin’ you how Napi created the land for the animals?”
“Yes, sir, of course.”
“Then he created the people, right? Our people.”
“Yes, sir.”
“This here’s the serviceberry,” Grandpa said, reaching out to a spindly clump of bushes that grew near the stream. “Napi told the first people, the ones with the stone knives, to use this to make their arrows.”
Lionel’s face lit up in anticipation.
“Listen to me, Lionel. I want you to pick only the straightest branches you can find.”
Lionel thought he was going to burst. He found several options and showed them to Grandpa, who carefully selected an assortment of the branches and boughs and brought them back to the front steps of the lodge.
Grandpa pulled a stool out into the late afternoon sun and sat down with his pocketknife in hand. “But