Starfish_ A Novel - James Crowley [32]
And so they sat on the bank of the stream, watching the sun break through the early-morning clouds that hung over them and the mountains. Lionel did as he was told and thought about all that had happened since they had left the boarding school, and before. He thought about the captain and the priest, Barney Little Plume giving the candy to Delores Ground, and the sheep shears sticking out of Sergeant Jenkins’s hand.
Lionel could still see Big Bull Boss Ribs and then the look on Corn Poe’s face when they first saw Grandpa and thought that he was a ghost or a spirit. He thought about Beatrice and how she silently did what she thought or knew she had to do, and how she had kept him warm despite the freezing cold that they encountered on their long ride into the mountains. He pictured his grandfather and how much wilder he looked when he rejoined them in the Great wood.
Then Lionel thought about the broken string of bear claws and the Frozen Man.
“Lionel,” his grandfather said in a low whisper, “do you smell that?”
“Smell what?” Lionel asked.
Lionel’s grandfather responded by taking a deep breath. Lionel did the same. At first, he took in what he had become accustomed to—the smell of the smoke from their fire, wet grass, the high pine, and the familiar smell of Ulysses and Grandpa’s mule—but then, he sensed something different. It reminded Lionel of the steam that had risen from Ulysses’s back as Beatrice pushed the horse up the frozen river before they entered the mountains. But this smell was wilder.
Grandpa raised a single finger to his lips and slowly turned upstream. Lionel’s eyes followed, and there, not two hundred paces away, was a grizzly bear.
The bear was situated in one of a series of pools, his giant paws clawing at the water that tumbled around him. Lionel looked to his grandfather, who sat calmly on his boulder smoking his pipe as if they were watching the Fourth of July horse races down at the soldiers’ fort.
Lionel looked at the grizzly and thought about the necklace that hung in his grandfather’s hand. what if the bear saw the claws and became angry? what if the claws were from a friend or family member? or, Lionel thought, the claws could also be from one of the bear’s enemies, and perhaps they could be friends because the Frozen Man had killed the bear’s enemy for him. Lionel hoped that this was true, and that the bear would consider them to be his friends.
The grizzly continued to swat at the swell, occasionally submerging his entire head beneath the pool’s surface until one giant swoop from his great paw sent a silver flash up and onto the riverbank. The grizzly turned, looked directly at Lionel and his grandfather, and then rumbled slowly upstream with a giant fish held securely in its mouth.
Lionel couldn’t believe what he’d seen. His body tingled with excitement, and his first thought was to run back to the lodge to tell Beatrice. But that wasn’t necessary. Beatrice was standing behind him.
“I hope you two took note of your new neighbor,” Grandpa told them.
Beatrice smiled and headed back to the lodge. Lionel sat on his rock. He still could not believe that they had seen the bear.
“I think we can take that to mean that you have their blessings,” Grandpa said as he took the string of bear claws and tied them around Lionel’s neck. He stood and followed Beatrice back to the lodge.
Lionel sat, feeling the heavy weight of the bear claws, and thinking about all that his grandfather had said.
Chapter Nineteen
THE STRAW MAN IN SILK • CHORES • BEAR CAVE • ROOTS • THE OLD MAN AND THE BERRIES
WHEN LIONEL crossed the meadow, he noticed that the straw man perched over the garden had changed. He no longer wore the old pants and shirt that Grandpa had originally dressed him in. He now stood watch in the torn ivory silk dress that Beatrice had abandoned.
Lionel returned to the lodge to find a breakfast of smoked venison and