Waubgeshig Rice - Moon of the Crusted Snow

“Nanabush was the trickster. So he started to think of a plan to trick them. ‘My brothers and sisters,’ he said. ‘Let me join you in your celebration. I want to wish you well on your journey to the South, so I’d like to offer you a dance.’

“‘That’s very kind of you, Nanabush,’ said the tallest goose. He was the leader. ‘We would be honoured if you joined our celebration. Please feel free to offer us your dance.’

“‘Okay,’ said Nanabush. ‘It goes like this. You have to close your eyes and spin around in a circle. You have to keep your wings by your side. It’s like you’re imagining yourself in your warm new home for the winter.’” Dan stood up and demonstrated the move for the children. They giggled as he spun around with his eyes closed and a silly grin on his face.

“So the geese said okay, and they started to dance like Nanabush showed them. He looked around, and they all were spinning in circles with their eyes closed. He walked up to the big one closest to him that he’d been talking to. He kept real quiet and slowly moved his hands down to the goose’s neck.”

He mimicked the motion, leaning forward and peering into the kids’ eyes. They sat totally still.

“Then he wrung his neck!” He thrust his hands forward in threatening grips and startled them. “Then he sneaked over to the next closest one and did the same thing. And then the next one, and the next one, and the next one. They were all dancing with their eyes closed and singing, so they didn’t hear him. At the end of his evil trick, there were thirty geese lying there dead. ‘Now I won’t go hungry this winter!’ Nanabush said to himself.”

Despite their grandfather’s jovial tone, Nangohns’s and Maiingan’s eyes slid over to their parents, who continued to sip their tea, unconcerned.

“So Nanabush took all the dead geese out of the bush and piled them up by the shoreline,” Dan went on. “He stacked them neatly. It was a long day, and he was really hungry, so he started a fire to cook one of the geese. ‘I am so hungry and I am so tired,’ he said. ‘But I’m happy with my new bounty for the winter. I have all this food to myself!’

“But he was so tired, and he knew it would take some time to cook the first fat goose that he just stuck in the fire. So he decided he would take a little nap. To make sure he woke up in time before the goose got burnt, he asked his diiyosh — his bum — to wake him up.”

“His bum!?” squealed Nangohns.

“Yes, his bum!”

Both children kicked back in laughter.

“Nanabush turned and looked at his diiyosh and he said, ‘Okay, diiyosh, you better wake me up. I don’t want to burn that goose. I’m just going to have a quick sleep. You make sure it turns out okay. Keep an eye out too. Make sure no one takes all our food.’ So then Nanabush went to sleep. He slept for a really long time. Longer than he wanted to. Then all of a sudden he woke up. He was startled because the sun was starting to set and his diiyosh hadn’t woken him up.

“Nanabush looked right at the fire. It had become really big! He saw the goose’s long legs sticking out of the fire on the rocks at the edge of the firepit. He went to grab them to pull out the goose, but the legs were all that was left! The goose was in there for so long that it totally burned up. He looked at the legs in each of his hands and got really mad. Then he remembered the rest of the geese! He turned around quickly and saw that the whole pile was gone! Something came and took them all while he was asleep.

“‘Diiyosh!’ he yelled. ‘You were supposed to keep an eye out! Now our supper is burnt and our food for the whole winter is gone!’ Nanabush was so mad that he wanted to punish his diiyosh for not doing the job he asked it to do. ‘I know!’ he said. ‘I’m going to put you in the fire as punishment for not following my orders. You’ll know from now on to listen to me!’ So Nanabush sat down on the edge of the firepit and put his diiyosh in the fire.”

“He put his bum in the fire?!” said Maiingan. “Why would he want to hurt himself?”

Dan tilted his head sideways and continued. “It did start to hurt! It only took a few seconds, and Nanabush’s diiyosh was totally on fire. ‘Owwwwww!’ he screamed. He jumped up really fast and started running around in circles.” He sprung from his chair and shuffled quickly around the kids’ spot on the floor, circling them while holding his butt. High-pitched laughter soared through the room.

“He was panicking!” Dan raised his voice, standing in front of them. “His diiyosh was on fire, and he needed to put it out! But he was too far from the water just to jump in, so he ran and jumped bum-first onto the rocks and slid down. He kept sliding down the rocks on his diiyosh until the fire was out. He kept going until all the burnt skin came off his diiyosh.”

He paused and sat back down. “So you know all those green things you see on rocks in the summertime? Some are like little plants. Some just look like skin on the rock.”

The children both nodded.

“That’s from Nanabush’s burnt bum. When he slid down the rocks, it left all that behind. Some people call that green stuff ‘moss’ and ‘lichen.’”

Evan spoke up behind them. “Neat, eh? Can you think of any other important lessons in that story?”

“I know! I know!” said Maiingan, shooting up his hand.

“What’s that?”

“Don’t be greedy!”

“Don’t be greedy!” Nangohns echoed.

“That’s right,” Evan said. “And always be ready for winter.”

The volunteers gathered again at the shop to prepare for another food handout. The morning was again crisp and frigid, exacerbating the gnawing hunger in the guts of the people who woke up at sunrise to beat the rush before the usual long line formed.

“We gotta keep an eye on a few of them,” said Tyler, alluding to some people who had become unruly the week before and some who were suspected of hoarding supplies from others, especially the elderly. They’d speculated whether Scott was intimidating people into handing over food or trading it for the few drops of contraband booze that remained.

“So what are we eating this week?” asked Evan.

Terry leaned back in his chair and rubbed his stringy beard. He tilted his chair forward to look at a sheet of scrawled notes, the makeshift inventory of the food supplies. “Uhhh… chilli.”

“Chilli it is,” said Tyler. He turned to Evan and gave him a friendly slap in the gut. “Let’s go.”

They marched into the back of the machine shop. Except for Isaiah tending the fire in the furnace, the room was dark. Their breath still plumed in the cold, and the air was heavy with the smell of machine grease. They shone small plastic flashlights onto the stacks of boxes piled to the right and the beams danced across the scattered stacks of supplies that had dwindled considerably. Evan’s flashlight located the boxes at the far end of the wall labelled Chilli , and they began the task of hauling them back to the front room and stacking them in front of Terry, who was still peering at the inventory sheet in the faint morning light.

The place gradually warmed up with Isaiah’s tending. After next week’s ration day, they’d have to get more wood. They estimated they’d have about eight more ration days before the snow melted and people could turn their attention to planting gardens and foraging the wild spring plants. The cache would not last forever, and they had to produce the next season’s food.

“There’s only one box left,” said Tyler.

“Just one?” asked Evan, a couple of steps behind him.

“Yeah, I can’t see any more lying around.”