Wild Song, page 10
‘Hold still, Skyrocket,’ she muttered to the horse as she grabbed a branch and began to climb. I was so shocked I just sat there, staring, Mother. The tall hat on her head didn’t budge as she pulled herself up, stopping at a branch just below. She swung a leg over, grinning up at me.
‘You’re an Igorot, aren’t you? I can tell by your tattoos. The papers said Igorots lived in trees, and here you are! And boy I’m glad you can speak English! How do you do?’
She reached up and grabbed my hand suddenly, squeezing it hard. She was wearing a glove made of deerskin. Lucky I was clinging to another branch with my other hand or she would have pulled me down.
‘I … How do you do?’ I finally managed to say.
‘I – AM – FINE.’ She grinned. ‘Say, the view is great from here. I can see all the way across the lake! Is that why you’re up here? To look at the view?’
I was still trying to decide how to answer her question when she suddenly said, ‘I am so RUDE. I completely forgot to introduce myself! My name’s Sadie. Sadie Locket. What’s your name?’
I looked at her. The way she moved, the way she talked – she was unlike any American I’d ever seen. ‘My name Luki.’ I was surprised at how easily the words came to my lips.
‘Luki. Luki. Luki. Hmm. Sounds like Looky, as in “Now looky here, it’s an Igorot in a tree!”’ Sadie said. ‘Even with that coat on, I could tell you were an Igorot. I’ve read everything I can find about Igorots in the papers. Boy oh boy, I can’t believe I’ve actually met one! I mean, that’s why I decided to take Skyrocket for a little ride around the lake, I was hoping to catch a glimpse, you know?’ She smiled up at me. ‘Everyone in the United States of America wants to hurry over to Saint Louis to meet all you scary Igorots! But you’re not scary at all, are you? That’s why I wanted to see you for myself. You never know if what the papers are saying is true.’
She laughed again, and this time I laughed with her, Mother, even though I could barely keep up with what she was saying. Before I knew it she was talking again. ‘Oh and I just remembered something else! The papers say you Igorots eat dog for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dog! How can you pet the creature one moment and then roast it over a fire the next? Is that true?’
Dog for breakfast, lunch and dinner? What was she talking about? Pet him one moment and then roast him over a fire? Is that what Americans thought we did?
I must have looked dismayed, because Sadie Locket was now regarding me with serious eyes. ‘My golly. So the papers were lying, eh? I am very sorry I brought it up. I don’t know beans about these things, and I am very sorry that newspapers in the United States of America are such a bunch of slimy, no-good scoundrels.’
She nodded her head so vigorously the tree shook. I suddenly realized how twiggy the branch she was sitting on looked. I tried to warn her. ‘You … you …’
But she was talking again. ‘Is it true Igorots don’t drink milk? Maybe that’s why you’re so darn little! That’s how you skittered up this tree with no trouble at all. This tree don’t mind little ol’ you but I’m sure it ain’t too happy about an American girl like me, grown on milk—’
Now, the tree was groaning as if it was in pain.
‘You … you …’ I sputtered.
‘Spit it out, girl, what do you wanna say?’ Sadie said.
‘You too heavy!’
Too late.
There was an almighty crack and the branch Sadie Locket was sitting on crumbled beneath her.
19
Sadie Locket
It was instinct that made me wrap my legs around my branch, instinct that made me swing myself upside down and grab her flailing arm. I didn’t think about it at all. I just did it.
So there we were, me upside down, with Sadie dangling from my fingers, the tall hat still fixed to her head. The ground seemed an awfully long way away.
Terrified blue eyes stared into mine. ‘Don’t let me go! Don’t let me go! Oh, lordy, what if you don’t speak enough English to understand?’
She was wriggling like a fish, the weight of her pulling my arms out of their sockets. The tree groaned again and I darted a look at the branch I was dangling from. Was it strong enough to hold us?
Sadie finally seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation. ‘Luki!’ she whispered. ‘What are we going to do?’
Eheh, tree! Are you going to send us crashing down? Or are you going to show us mercy?
I tilted my head towards a branch at her left. ‘Feet!’ I said quietly.
She looked at her feet and then at the branch. I tightened my fingers on her arms and nodded.
Sadie swung her legs towards it and, Mother, the branch beneath my knees screeched as if it was going to splinter into a thousand pieces. But Sadie had managed to hook the branch with one foot, pull herself closer, and sit herself down on it while I made my way down to her.
Moments later we were sitting side by side, dangling our feet over the sheer drop. Mother, she made me laugh. Her throat made words so quickly they tumbled out before she even knew what she wanted to say.
‘You sure outsmarted this tree!’ she cried. ‘You saved my life! Do all Igorots climb trees like you?’
I laughed, remembering all the times I’d sat alone in a tree, waiting till sunrise to capture a boar. What was the English word for hunting? ‘I … I go up tree when I hunt,’ I managed to say.
‘You hunt? Igorot girls go hunting?’ Sadie looked genuinely amazed.
I shook my head. ‘No. Not allowed,’ I said. ‘Everybody angry.’
Sadie looked at me. ‘So girls are not allowed to hunt?’
I shook my head.
‘What do you hunt with? A gun?’
I couldn’t remember the word for spear, so I drew a spear’s shape in the air and pretended to throw one.
‘Oh my, a spear! Don’t let anybody say that you aren’t amazing, because you are! So did hunting get you into trouble?’
I nodded. ‘They tell me become wife.’
And, Mother, to my surprise, Sadie’s face fell, as if what I said was the saddest thing in the world. ‘And did you get married?’
I shook my head so hard, she laughed and raised her hands. ‘I get it, I get it. You didn’t become a wife.’
I grinned at her. ‘I come America!’
Sadie cheered. ‘Well, bully for you, Luki! Hey, I was in exactly the same situation. My pa, he kept warning me. Sadie, girls don’t ride, girls don’t shoot. Sadie, he said, the best thing for you is to find yourself a nice husband! He threatened to sell Skyrocket if I didn’t get married! And there was no way I was going to let him do that!’
I stared at her, open-mouthed. Her story was just like mine. I couldn’t believe this vivid girl whose body seemed too small to contain such a large spirit had such a similar experience.
‘Wait, let me show you something.’ She planted both fists in her waist. I couldn’t help staring at that narrow waist – it looked like a giant had pinched it in between his thumb and forefinger.
She seized my hand and pressed it against her side. ‘Feel this!’
Under the thickness of her dress I could feel something rigid encircling her waist. It was not a giant’s thumb and forefinger, but it might as well have been. ‘It’s called a corset!’ she declared. ‘Made of whalebone. We American women are expected to squeeze our waists to nothing. It’s how we’re supposed to look even though it’s uncomfortable as anything. And did you see how I rode the horse? Side-saddle, we call it! No lady should be seen a-straddling a horse! So Looky, I know exactly how you feel. We women have a lot of expecting to cope with.’
Mother, it was so frustrating not to have the words ready in one’s throat. There was so much I wanted to tell her. About constantly being told I was not behaving correctly. About wanting things that women weren’t supposed to have.
But Sadie suddenly cried out. ‘Lord almighty, Luki, why didn’t I notice your feet before? Bare feet in this snow?’
I tried to explain that I’d lost my rubber boots, but Sadie had quickly unlaced one of her own boots and pulled it off, revealing a foot warmly sheathed in a thick woollen sock. She handed the boot to me. ‘Hold this,’ she said, frowning as she began to take the sock off. ‘I can’t give you my boots, but you can certainly have my socks.’ She grabbed my foot and pulled the sock onto it. Then she put her boot back onto her bare foot and began to work on the other boot.
It was embarrassing, Mother, to have her dress my feet, but there was nothing I could I do but allow her to do it. ‘You will let me do this, Luki,’ she commanded, her deerskin gloves warm on my ankle. ‘And we mustn’t stay here a minute longer. Come, let us get down from this tree. Skyrocket and I will take you back to the Igorot Village. What is the name of your manager? How could he leave you shoeless in this weather? It’s outrageous!’
I wanted to explain that the boot was somewhere under the snow, that it wasn’t Truman Hunt’s fault, that I had sneaked out of the Igorot Village while nobody was looking. But she was already climbing down.
On the ground, Sadie whistled and Skyrocket, who had wandered a few yards away, promptly came to stand next to the tree. ‘Just climb straight onto Skyrocket, so you don’t get your socks wet. That’s it. Now put your leg over there.’ There was a great knob on the side of the saddle, and she showed me how to hook my knee over it so that I could ride sideways like her. Then she took the reins and strode towards the bridge.
We crossed the bridge, and as she walked, Sadie pointed at a building to one side of the path. There was a sign, but of course I didn’t know how to read it. ‘It says “Negrito Village”. I’ve read about them! I read they were going to perform a wedding ceremony every day. Will they be marrying each other over and over?’
We turned a corner and there was Truman Hunt, standing outside the Igorot Village gate with the guards. At the sight of me on the horse, his face turned bright red with anger. He ran towards us. ‘Where have you been? And who the hell is this?’ But then he did a double take and his face turned from red to white. He swallowed. ‘Ma’am … er … you’re …’
I began to take the socks off, but Sadie stopped me.
‘You keep them.’ She looked over her shoulder at the snowy path to the Igorot Village. ‘You’ll have to run. Those socks will be soaked but they’re better than nothing.’
Truman Hunt found his tongue. ‘Ma’am. Miss Locket, such an honour to meet you! I am one of your greatest admirers! I saw you at that show you did in New York, you were superb! I remained standing and clapping long after you had left the arena.’
Sadie flashed him a look over her shoulder as she helped me down from Skyrocket’s back.
She threw her arms around me and gave me a hug. ‘It’s been the greatest pleasure talking to you. Now, Luki honey, go on indoors before you catch your death of cold while I have a word with … ’ She raised an eyebrow at Truman Hunt.
‘Truman Hunt, ma’am.’ He snatched his hat off his head and clutched it to his stomach. ‘I am the manager of the Igorot Village. I am so grateful to you for bringing our Luki back, we’ve been looking high and low for—’
Sadie interrupted. ‘Mister Hunt, I found her in the forest, sir, her feet were bare and near frozen. Frozen! You were responsible for her and somehow you lost her. This is shocking neglect. The Igorot people are our guests. If you’re planning to lay the blame on her head … well, let me tell you, it is not her fault but yours. And if I discover you’ve punished her for this, you will be reading about it in the papers!’
I stopped by the gate and turned around. It’s not his fault I ran away, I wanted to say. And it’s not his fault I lost the boots!
But Sadie waved me on, her face stern. ‘Go in, Luki! Git!’
She glared at Truman Hunt, mounted Skyrocket and rode away.
20
Tilin
‘She’s lucky you’ve had a lot of practice sitting in trees,’ Tilin giggled when I told her about Sadie back at the cuartel. She seemed so well, laughing and joking and sitting up in bed with Sidong, leafing through her drawings. She looked like she had turned a corner.
But then the next morning I woke up to Tilin gasping for breath, her chest creaking like an old forest in a big wind. The other women in the room were sitting up, staring at her.
‘Is she all right, Luki?’ a woman nearby said as I hurried to her bedside.
She just needed to sit up, I thought. She would breathe more easily. But I couldn’t wake her, and when I tried to sit her up, her head rolled to the side like an overripe fruit falling from a tree.
‘It’s them,’ a woman named Ubey whispered behind me. ‘The men who died on the train. They will feel so isolated here, in an invisible world that has none of their kin. They will want more souls to join them. That’s why they’ve come for her.’
‘Surely not!’ cried another woman. ‘Her life is not over yet. She said she wanted to raise her sister. She wanted to see the world.’
‘But she is ill and weak,’ Ubey said. ‘They will take her just because it is easy.’
I realized she was right. The hairs rose on my arms.
The spirits like to choose who will live and who will die, the ancients always say. They will give you death when you’ve finished living your life in the visible world. They might also take pity on a sickly person and speed their death so that they can find comfort in the spirit world. But they are just as capable of robbing you of your time by forcing your death – when a person has somehow offended them, out of malice or anger or revenge. Or loneliness.
Sidong’s eyes were wide with terror. ‘Luki, you must do something!’ she whispered.
‘What can I do?’ I looked around at the other women. But they knew as little as I did about resisting the will of the spirits. I tried to remember the words the ancients had chanted to beg the mercy of the spirits when someone was grievously ill.
‘Spirits,’ I cried out, my voice sounding too loud in the room. ‘Let Tilin live. Please, she deserves to live a full life. Sidong needs her …’ The tears spilled from my eyes. ‘I need her. Please, help my friend.’
Tilin’s chest rose and fell violently as she tried to draw air. They were strangling her! I was using the wrong words. The spirits were not listening.
‘Tilin! Tilin!’ Sidong cried.
I could hear someone sobbing behind me. ‘Get Truman Hunt,’ someone said. ‘He will have medicine for her.’
I actually ran to the door. But wouldn’t it anger the spirits more if I begged an American’s help?
‘Samkad!’ I said suddenly. Samkad kept faith with the spirits. He would know what to do. I shoved my feet into the rubber boots Truman Hunt had given me to replace the ones I’d lost and threw myself out the door. It was warm outside. The lumps and clumps of snow had vanished, leaving the paths puddled in mud.
I banged on the door of the men’s sleeping room. ‘Samkad! Samkad!’
He came immediately. Deep inside, I was terrified that after everything, he would be reluctant. But of course he came, Mother.
He listened to me with a melting compassion in his eyes. I let him take my hand and squeeze it. ‘Let me see what I can do,’ he said. ‘I cannot promise that the spirits will listen to me. I am young, I do not have the wisdom of the ancients, but I will do my best.’
Tilin’s face was as pale as dried grass, and her lips were almost the same colour, cracked and withered as a parched field. Her breath grated in her throat. Samkad fetched a small bowl of rice and laid it on the floor. He gestured, and the other women joined us in a circle around the bed.
He took Tilin’s hand, stroking it gently. ‘Here, spirits, here,’ he whispered. ‘See, how we bring food. You do not need this girl. Leave her be.’
We followed Samkad’s lead, Mother, chanting the words he needed. We told the dead men that it was unfair that they’d lost their lives before they had even had a glimpse of Saint Louis. We promised to take their corpses home to Bontok, so that their spirits could join the invisible world of their ancestors. We promised to always remember them, even though they were strangers to us, we would always offer them appeasements, we would remember their names … if only they would set Tilin free.
And then the door to the women’s room banged open.
‘What the blazes is going on here? Where is everyone?’ It was Truman Hunt. ‘Luki! Samkad! We are waiting for you outside. What are you up to?’
He peered at the bed. ‘Is that Tilin?’
He strode to the bed and, shouldering Samkad aside, he stared down at her.
‘How long has she been like this?’ he demanded.
‘Since early morning.’ I said.
Truman Hunt bent down and pressed his ear against Tilin’s chest.
Sidong grabbed my elbow. ‘What is he doing to her?’ she asked frantically.
Truman Hunt raised his head and looked at Sidong. ‘It’s all right. I am just trying to find out what’s wrong with her,’ he said. ‘Hush now. I must listen.’
He bent over Tilin, closing his eyes as he listened to her chest.
‘Can he hear her soul?’ Sidong asked. ‘Can he tell her soul to stay?’
He straightened. His face was grave as he took Tilin’s wrist and pressed his thumb against it. He stood, quietly, as if he was listening to an invisible voice. Then he turned to us. ‘I don’t know what you were doing, but it is not going to help her. I am fairly sure she has pneumonia and that it’s too far gone to be treated at the Reservation hospital. She will have to be taken to the big hospital on the other side of the fair. They will have the medicines she needs, and there will be doctors and nurses to care for her. As soon as possible. It is not too late to save her. I will arrange it now. Do you understand?’
Samkad looked at me. We had not finished the healing ritual. But Truman Hunt said it was not too late to save her. If we delayed, we could do Tilin more harm than good.
