The Snow Child Part 23

aShe wants to be outside, under the night sky,a Mabel said, and Garrett nodded, understanding.

aOK,a he said finally. aWeall take her outside.a aAre you two mad?a Jack said. aItas twenty below zero out there. Sheall freeze to death.a aNo she wonat,a Garrett said. Then he turned to Mabel. aWill you help her dress?a Mabel eased Faina into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. She laced the girlas moccasin boots and pulled her blue wool coat on over her nightgown. Then she took the red scarf and mittens Garrett had handed her, and as she wrapped the scarf around Fainaas neck she recognized her sisteras dewdrop-lace st.i.tch.

Iave always meant to ask youa But she stopped herself and slipped the mittens over Fainaas hands.

You must promise me, child, you wonat go wandering off into the night. Weall bring a chair outside, and you can sit in it for a few minutes.

It hurts too much.

Sitting?

The girl nodded.

Mabel helped her lie back on the bed. When she explained to Garrett about the pain, he said he knew what to do. A short while later he returned to the bedside and he and Mabel helped Faina to her feet. Garrett put her marten hat on her head and tied the straps beneath her chin.

Come and see the bed Iave made for you under the stars.

Faina smiled up at her husband as he helped her walk outside. Not far from the cabin, he had laid several logs side by side, and on top of these he had piled caribou hides and beaver pelts until they formed a thick mattress.

The night was calm and cold, perhaps the coldest Mabel had ever known. The snow squeaked beneath her boots, and the air was sharp. It was the kind of deep freeze that penetrates the thickest wool and strangles the lungs, and Mabel hesitated. Perhaps this was a mistake. But then she heard Fainaas long, easy breaths and imagined the cold air against her feverish brow. With each of them holding one of her arms, Mabel and Garrett led her the short way from the cabin to the makes.h.i.+ft bed, where Garrett helped her lie down. She let out a long sigh as he spread a beaver-pelt blanket over her. Mabel had brought the wedding quilt from their bed, and she laid this on top, too.

Look at the stars, Garrett whispered. Do you see them all?

Yes. Theyare beautiful.

He stayed with her, sitting in a kitchen chair at her side, while Mabel went into the cabin. A short time later, when the baby awoke wanting to be held, Mabel asked Garrett if he would like to come indoors for a while. She could sit with Faina.

Do you want me to stay? he asked Faina. Maybe you should come in now, anyways?

No, she said gently. Go inside. Hold our son.

Mabel leaned over Faina and tucked the wedding quilt around her sides and pressed the fur flaps of her hat against her cheeks. Then she wrapped herself in a blanket she had brought from the cabin and sat in the chair.

Are you well, child?

Oh, yes. Out here, with the trees and the snow, I can breathe again.

It was like an extraordinary dream: Fainaas quiet sighs and the occasional pop and crack of river ice and tree branches snapping in the cold; the stars everywhere in the broad, deep night, broken only by the jagged horizon of the mountain range. Illumination behind the peaks shot up into shards of light, blue-green like a dying fire, rippled and twisted, then spun circles into ribbons of purple that stretched up and over Mabelas head until she heard an electric crackle like the sparks from a wool blanket in a dry cabin at night. She looked directly up into the northern lights and wondered if those cold-burning specters might not draw her breath, her very soul, out of her chest and into the stars.

aJesus, Mabel, youare buried in snow. Whereas Faina?a She did not remember falling asleep. Who could doze in such cold? But she was warm in her coc.o.o.n of wool and blanket, her nose nuzzled down into her coat, and she did not wake until she heard the menas voices.

Faina. Arenat you here, at my side?

But she wasnat.

aShe must be in the cabin, tending the baby.a aNo. She isnat there.a Stiff and sore, Mabel stood and wondered at all the snow covering her blanket. The night had clouded over, the stars were gone, and it had snowed several inches. How much time had pa.s.sed? She went after the men, could hear Garrett calling in the cabin.

aFaina? Faina?a aWhere is she, Mabel?a Jack turned to her, nearly accusing.

aShe was just there, beside me. She must be near. Isnat she in the cabin?a aNo. I already said sheas not there.a Jack called into the trees, aFaina! Faina!a Garrett came from the cabin with a lantern.

aWhere is she?a There was no anger in his voice, only desperation, and he ran toward the river. aFaina! Faina!a Among the caribou hides, Mabel saw the wedding quilt buried in snow. How could she be so negligent? She picked it up to shake the snow off, and caught sight of blue wool.

aJack?a He came to her side, looked down where she pointed, then knelt and with his bare hands swept away the snow. Fainaas blue coat, embroidered with snowflakes. Her scarf. Her mittens. Her moccasins. He picked them up one by one, shaking off the snow.

aOh, Jack.a There, still b.u.t.toned inside the coat, was Fainaas white nightgown. aWhat does this mean?a Silent, Jack draped the clothes over his arm and carried them inside. Mabel followed with the snow-dampened quilt, and they set them all on the table.

aIall go after Garrett. Care for the baby,a he said.

aBut Jacka I donat understand.a aDonat you?a aSheas gone?a He nodded.

aBut where?a Without answering, he left the cabin.

When the baby woke, crying for his motheras milk, Mabel was at a loss. She dipped the end of a clean cloth into warm, sweet tea and put it to his mouth. He sucked frantically, then turned his head and cried. She walked him back and forth in front of the window until he cried himself to sleep, and all this time she saw no lantern light, no sign of either Garrett or Jack. She sat in the chair and swayed side to side with the sleeping baby and prayed this night was not real, that indeed it was a nightmare. But then Jack came through the door and didnat speak. Behind him, winter dawn was breaking pale. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he shook his head.

aNothing?a she asked.

aNot even a set of tracks.a aWhereas Garrett?a aHe wonat come in. He says heall find her. Heas gone to saddle his horse.a aOh, G.o.d, Jack. What have we done?a He didnat speak for some time, but sat to unlace his boots and pull the snow and ice from his beard. He stoked the woodstove and then reached to Mabel, to take the baby. Surprised, she stood and gently slid the bundle into his arms. Jack swaddled the blanket more firmly and ran a finger along the babyas cheek, his head bent so low to the newborn that at first Mabel could not see the tears streaming from his eyes.

aJack?a Mabel reached up and held his face in her hands. aOh, Jack.a She took the baby from his arms and set him in the cradle, rocking it slowly until she was certain he was still asleep. When she stood, Jack was behind her. Mabel went to him and pressed her face into his chest, and they held each other like that for some time.

aShe is gone, isnat she?a Jack clenched his teeth and nodded as if his entire body pained him.

Grief swept over Mabel with such force that her sobs had no sound or words. It was a shuddering, quaking anguish, and she only knew that she would survive because she had once before. She wept until there was nothing left in her, and she wiped her face with the tips of her fingers and sat in the chair, expecting Jack to go out the door and leave her alone. But he knelt at her feet, put his head in her lap, and they held each other and shared the sorrow of an old man and an old woman who have lost their only child.

Maybe it was only the wind, or her own terrible grief, but Mabel was certain she could hear Garrettas voice. Sometimes it was like a shout, down by the river. Other times it was a deep, mournful cry that seemed to come from the mountains themselves.

She and Jack stayed with the baby that night, waiting for Garrett to come home to his cabin. Mabel dozed beside the cradle where the infant slept quietly, but again and again she was jolted awake.

aDid you hear that?a she asked.

Jack stood beside the woodstove, his face drawn.

aWhat was that?a she asked.

aWolves, I think.a But she knew differently. She knew it was Garrett, riding and searching and crying into the starless night sky. Faina. Faina. Faina.

EPILOGUE.

h.e.l.lo. Anyone home?a Jack rapped on the cabin door, and then slowly opened it. ah.e.l.lo?a Using his cane, he stepped up into the cabin. He stood for a moment in the doorway and listened to the silence. He had come looking for Garrett this autumn day but instead stumbled on memories. There, on a shelf near the woodstove, was Fainaas porcelain doll, its blond hair still in neat braids, its red and blue dress as bright as the day Jack had set it on a stump and called out, aThis is for you. I donat know if youare out there or if you can hear me, but we want you to have it.a Jack did not leave the doorway, but his eyes wandered. Folded neatly on the arm of a chair was the wool blanket Mabel had sewed from Fainaas childhood coat. When Jack saw a collection of photographs hanging on the far wall, he did not close the door behind himself or even notice he was crossing the threshold as he walked to them. Most were of Garrett with his brothers, and of Esther and George on their wedding day. But the one that caught his eye was of a woman holding a tiny infant swaddled in a blanket. The only other time he had seen that photograph was nearly fifteen years ago, when he discovered it in a hut dug into the side of a mountain. It was Faina as a baby.

Somewhere in the cabin, perhaps folded in a trunk or hanging in a closet, were a feathered wedding dress and a blue wool coat embroidered with snowflakes. Garrett would have kept them, even as he kept these other tokens of her life. But how little there was. This struck Jack as he looked around the cabin. These were the few earthly belongings Faina had left behind.

It happened like this, the grief. Years wore away the cutting edges, but sometimes it still took him by surprise. Like the night just a few weeks ago, when he had spotted the blue leather-bound book on their shelf. It was always there, yet his eyes had pa.s.sed over it daily without catching. He was fairly sure that for years it had gone unopened. All the books Mabel lent Garrett to read, but never that one. He was certain Garrett didnat know it existed, and neither Jack nor Mabel ever talked of it.

Mabel was in the bedroom brus.h.i.+ng her hair when he pulled the book out from the others and, standing at the shelf, flipped through the pages. He touched the colored ill.u.s.tration of the fairy-tale girl, half snow and half child, with the old man and woman kneeling beside her. When pages cascaded to the floor he thought he had broken the binding. Glancing over his shoulder toward the bedroom, he quickly gathered them. They werenat pages from the book; they were Mabelas sketches, and he looked through each of them and marveled at the skill and detail.

Fainaas delicate, childhood face, framed by her marten-fur hat. Faina at their kitchen table, chin resting in her hands. Then there were the drawings of Faina as a young woman, a newborn baby at her breast. They were studies, each from a different perspective, some closer and others farther away. Fainaas hand on the sleeping infant. The babyas tiny fist. Closed eyes. Open eyes. Mother. Child.

In the soft pencil marks something was captured that he had sensed but never could have expressed. It was a fullness, a kind of warm, weighted life that had settled into Faina during her last days, and a generous tenderness that poured down upon her infant son like golden sunlight.

When Mabel called out to him, asking when he was coming to bed, he had carefully folded the drawings back among the pages of the book and returned it to the shelf, where it remained, unmentioned.

Jack became aware that he was standing, uninvited, in the middle of Garrettas cabin.

aGarrett?a he called out again, knowing there would be no answer. He left and closed the door.

He wasnat far down the trail, walking at his slow, awkward gait, leaning on his cane, when he heard the boy calling through the trees.

aPapa! Papa!a Jay ran down the trail toward him, and not far behind him lumbered the old dog. With no name to come to, Fainaas husky roamed freely between the two cabins, but whenever her son was outdoors, the dog was at his side.

aPapa! Look what I caught.a The boy held up a willow branch with one small, dusty grayling hanging from it.

aYou caught it?a aWell, Maime helped. But I set the hook all by myself.a aWell done. Well done.a aAnd Maime said we could eat it for dinner.a Jack took the stringer from the boy and inspected the fish.

aAs I recall, Grandpa George and Grandma Esther are coming for dinner, too.a aAnd Daddy?a aAnd your father.a aDid you find him?a aNo. Heas still out riding. But heall be home soon.a aHe likes the mountains, doesnat he? He goes riding there a lot. He says this year I can come on his long trapline, and maybe weall catch a wolverine.a aThat would be fine, wouldnat it?a But the boy was already das.h.i.+ng ahead.

aJay?a Jack called to him. aDo you think we might catch a few more fish, to make sure thereas enough for everyone?a aSure, Papa. We can catch some more.a The boy disappeared around the next bend in the trail, sprinting back toward Jack and Mabelas cabin.

aJust me and you, old man,a Jack said and patted the dogas graying muzzle. aThink youall find my pace suits you better.a The autumn day was chilly, and the trail was littered with yellow birch leaves. Along the mountains, clouds gathered.

aSmells like snow,a Jack said, and the dog held its nose to the air as if in agreement.

Jack made his way past their cabin, through the brush and down to the stream in time to see Mabel reel in a grayling as it splashed through the shallows. The boy pranced excitedly on a nearby boulder.

aMaime caught the biggest one ever! Look, Papa. Look.a The boy jumped to the sh.o.r.e, unhooked the fish from the line, and held it up.

Mabel smiled at Jack, the fis.h.i.+ng rod still in her hand. Her hair had gone completely white now, and wrinkles folded softly around her eyes and mouth, but there was a youthfulness in her gaze.

She spent many an afternoon out of doors with the boy, teaching him to catch fish and listen for birds and watch for moose. How easily she talked with the boy. Some days she would tell Jay about his mother, how he had her blue eyes and how she had come from the mountains and snow and knew the animals and plants as if they were her own hands. And sometimes she would open the locket at her throat to show the boy the twist of blond hair and tell him about the lovely swan-feather wedding gown his mother wore that day.

aLittle Jack could have had that big fish,a Mabel said and kissed the top of the childas head. aHe just let it get away.a Little Jack. Thatas what she always called him. Garrett had asked permission, nearly a month after Faina was gone and the baby was still unnamed. Would it be all right if I named the boy after you? Heas your grandson, after all.

aJack? Did you hear me? I think youare losing your hearing in your old age,a Mabel teased as she handed him the stringer. aOr were you just ignoring me because you donat want to clean the fish?a aDoesnat seem right,a Jack said, and winked down at the boy. aA man doesnat get to catch the fish, but he has to clean them.a aCan I help, Papa? Please?a Mabel left the two of them at the creek to go back to the cabin and stoke the fire. Jack leaned heavily on his cane as he shuffled to the wateras edge. The boy lined up the fish in the yellowing gra.s.s. Jack took his fold-up knife from his pants pocket. With a hand on his cane, Jack was lowering himself to a crouch when he felt the boyas small hand on his arm.

aHere, Papa,a the boy said, and though he was too small to be of help, somehow the childas touch made the pain in Jackas old bones seem like not much at all.

The boy gave him a grayling, and Jack held it in the palm of his hand as he slid the knife blade beneath the silver skin and sliced open the belly. He showed the boy how to hook a finger in the lower jaw and pull free the glistening entrails. When they tossed them into the clear running water, young salmon darted and nibbled at the strings of intestines. Jack reached into the fish and slid his thumbnail along the spine to break free the line of kidney like a slender blood clot, and he rinsed the blood into the creek water, until his hands ached in the cold.

The boy waited, crouched beside him.

aLast, the scales,a he told the boy, and he showed him how to run the knife blade against the grain. When Jack rinsed the fish in the creek, the small, iridescent scales s.h.i.+mmered and scattered in the water, drifted on the current, and washed up against the rocks like transparent sequins.

aTheyare kind of pretty, arenat they, Papa?a the boy said, a single scale pasted to his fingertip.

aI suppose they are,a Jack said.

George and Esther arrived before nightfall, and as always Esther was talking even as she came in the door and her arms were loaded with jars and towel-wrapped goodies. As they were flouring the grayling and frying them in a b.u.t.tered cast-iron pan, Jay ran to the window.

aItas Daddy! Daddyas here!a Jay was in his arms before Garrett could take off his coat and hat.

aWhat did you see, Daddy? What did you see?a aWell, let me think. Oh, yes. I sawa a wolverine.a aDonat tease the boy,a Esther admonished as she flipped the sizzling grayling.

aNo teasing. I was way up high, above the tree line, in this little valley I once visited a long time ago. There used to be a wolverine there, but there hasnat been for years.a aBut you saw one?a the boy asked.

aI did. Iad tied the horse off to a tree and was hiking up over these rocks when, on this ridge, a wolverine was looking down at me. I thought it might jump on my head. He had claws this long.a Garrett held up his index finger and thumb to indicate several inches.

aWere you scared?a aNo. No. And he didnat jump on my head. He just looked at me with his yellow eyes. Then he turned, real slow, and sort of loped away and over the ridge.a aWhat else did you see, Daddy? What else?a aI guess a wolverineas not enough,a Esther said and chuckled.

aWell, not much else. Except for those clouds over the mountains. Looks like snow.a The boy looked out the window, then back to his father, with a disappointed expression. aItas not snowing.a aDonat worry. Bet you anything itall come tonight,a Garrett said.

All through dinner, the boy could hardly stay in his seat, even as they commended him on the good-tasting fish he had helped catch.

aSettle down, Jay,a Esther said. aYou know a watched sky never snows. Go sit with Grandpa George. Maybe heall share his piece of cake with you.a George playfully scowled at the boy, then grabbed him in a bear hug and tickled him.

aGood G.o.d! Watch out for the dishes,a Esther said. aYouare going to knock the whole table over.a After dessert, George and Esther began to gather their belongings and talk of going home, and the boy looked crestfallen. He always protested when these gatherings ended, and he once said they should all live together in Jack and Mabelas cabin so that no one would ever have to leave.

Mabel helped Esther put on her coat, Jack shook hands with George, and Garrett said he and Jay would come out to get the horses and hitch the wagon.

aPut your hat on, Little Jack,a Mabel called after him, but the boy had already run out the door.

Jack was stacking dishes on the table when he heard the wagon begin to creak down the dirt road, and then he heard another sounda"yips and laughter. Mabel was at the kitchen window.

Jack peered over her shoulder. At first he could see only their reflections in the windowpane, but then he began to see past their two old faces to make out the figures in the night.

Garrett stood near the barn with a lantern in his hand, and nearby the boy was leaping and throwing his arms up to the sky. Even from inside the log cabin, Jack could hear the boyas whoops and cheers. The dog bowed playfully beside the boy, barked, then jumped and ran in circles, too.

As Jackas eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he saw the ground covered in white and, in the light of Garrettas lantern, snowflakes spinning and falling.

He took hold of Mabelas hand, and when she turned to him, he saw in her eyes the joy and sorrow of a lifetime.

aItas snowing,a she said.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

First and foremost, thank you to Sam, who, always believed. To my daughter, Grace, whose incredible imagination fed my own. To my mother, Julie LeMay, a poet who taught me the magic of words and the power of empathy. To my father, John LeMay, who taught me to love wild places, wild creatures, and, always, books. And to my baby brother, Forrest LeMay, who first taught me a childas love.