Starfish_ A Novel - James Crowley [67]
Corn Poe was oddly quiet, as were Tom Gunn and eventually Barney Little Plume, who joined them but ended up standing quietly in the shadows of the lodge, avoiding where Beatrice lay. Beatrice was silent and expressionless, almost as if she wasn’t there.
Brother Finn saw that the children were fed, and then at Grandpa’s urging, they all bedded down in front of the crumbled fireplace for the night. No one argued, and soon they fell into a deep sleep accompanied by the crack and pop of the fire.
Beatrice’s coughing woke Lionel in the middle of the night. It was heavier now, and sounded wet. Beatrice, wrapped in an army blanket and the buffalo robe, lay shivering at the edge of the fire’s glow, covered with sweat. Lionel woke his grandfather, who told him that he would look after her and that he should go back to sleep. Lionel tried to stay awake, watching his grandfather wet Beatrice’s head with cold water from the stream, but must have fallen asleep sometime during the night.
Lionel dreamed that night, and once again found himself on the shores of the great grass sea. He stood alone this time, holding the bear claws in his hand, looking out on the watery green. Great waves and whitecaps rose, and he could see Beatrice out in their turbulent midst. She was alone on her raft, the winds pushing her farther and farther from shore, farther and farther away from Lionel.
When Lionel awoke again it was still dark. His grandfather sat with Beatrice’s head cradled in his lap. He sang a low song to her, but no longer pressed the cold compress against her forehead. Lionel looked at his grandfather and knew that Beatrice was gone.
He sat with his grandfather and Beatrice until morning. He felt numb and thought that it wasn’t possible that Beatrice would leave. That Beatrice would leave him. But she had. Beatrice had told them that she wasn’t going back to the reservation, and she was right.
Chapter Thirty-Five
THE CAPTAIN’S WORDS • NINAIMSSKAAHKOYINNIMAAN, OR BEATRICE’S MEDICINE BUNDLE • A NEW PLACE IN THE WOOD
BY MORNING the freezing rain had turned to snow. Lionel’s grandfather informed the captain of the events that had transpired overnight, and the captain appeared at the crooked door of the lodge looking genuinely distressed. He asked Corn Poe, Tom Gunn, and Barney to leave, and then stood in front of the crumbled chimney with his hat in hand and his head hung low.
“I’m not sure what to say,” he offered to Lionel, but Lionel didn’t hear him. He was lost. Lost without Beatrice. He stood at his grandfather’s side with his sister wrapped in an army blanket at their feet.
At his grandfather’s urging, Lionel had gathered Beatrice’s few articles and laid them out on the floor next to her. There wasn’t much—a few odd buttons of silver, gold, and mother-of-pearl, a couple of coins, some smooth rocks and pebbles from the stream, Corn Poe’s pinecone, and the soft leather tobacco pouch that their grandfather had given her on her ninth birthday.
Lionel’s grandfather asked the captain if they could borrow the great horse Ulysses and informed him that they would like to bury Beatrice in the traditional way of the Blackfeet, rather than leave her in the plot with the wooden markers at the edge of the outpost next to the boarding school. The captain agreed, and their grandfather went to attend to the horse, leaving Lionel standing in the cavernous room with his sister and the captain.
The captain shifted uncomfortably before breaking the morning’s eerie silence. “Lionel, I’m sorry. Sorry for everything. I don’t understand these times, and I’m sure it’s worse for you.