Sulu, who was moaning, inserted him into his sleeping bag, and promised himself they'd never leave their side of the floe again. When the weather changed, he'd go back and pick up the rifle.
Jamka had shaken the snow off his fur outside, but his coat was still damp. He was already up beside Sulu, and Alika joined them, fatigue and fear having drained him. Before falling asleep, he made another promise to himself: Always check the weather signs.
He retrieved the Maynard the next morning.
Freezing of the sea ice is an amazing process. It can
take place with startling rapidity. One day, a hunter
may use his kayak for travel. The next day, he
can walk across the same water, then frozen.
10
The blizzard gripped Nunatak, east wind driving the snow.
"I can't sleep despite Inu telling us that they are alive and well. Just the idea that they are trapped out there in this weather frightens me," said Maja from their raised wooden sleeping platform.
"I did what Inu told me to doâyou know that. I got all the hunters together in the big boat and we paddled south all night but couldn't find them."
"It was too late," Maja said with despair.
"You must trust in Alika," Kussu said.
"Suppose he has fallen into the water, leaving Sulu to survive alone? Suppose they are out in this storm?"
Kussu said, "I have taught Alika to be very careful on the ice, and he knows bad weather. I took him hunting with me on his third birthday; remember? I can't count the number of times he has been with me ever since."
"If it wasn't for this storm and darkness, we could take the dogs and follow the shore south," Maja said. "That floe could have grounded."
"Many things would be different in our lives if it wasn't for this darkness," Kussu said.
"We should live where there is light," she said angrily. "They may be starving."
Kussu said, "They can hunt on the nights before the full moon and during it and the nights just after it. We've done it. That's what Alika will do. He will use that light to sit by a hole and wait."
Both had indeed done it. On the nights of the moon, without any cloud cover, it almost became like daylight. Snow glistened.
"Suppose he does not get a seal on one of those nights?"
Kussu said, "He will."
It was now mid-November, black outside, forty degrees below zero. Maja said, "I keep thinking about them huddled in darkness without light or heat."
Kussu, seeking the right words, finally answered. "You keep talking about all the bad things that can happen to them. I believe that Alika is learning something new every day. Jamka will find the holes, and Alika will kill the seals. Believe me."
Maja said, "Have you asked Miak at what point south his floe began to break into small pieces? As soon as some light begins to return, we can go there and find our boys."
"I will ask him."
"No matter how far south," Maja said in a demanding voice.
"No matter how far south," Kussu agreed, though he said it without conviction.
From what Kussu knew about the Greenland Strait and the many fjords and inlets and islands to the south, they would have to use their kayaks to cross open waters once the ice melted. But that would be months ahead. They would walk and carry their kayaks when necessary, and they'd kill game along the way for food. They knew the names of several of the villages in the south.
Maja said forcefully, "We will do it, husband."
He answered, "Yes, we will."
They embraced.
Kussu knew that what the boys' mother proposed was impossible. He'd seen a nautical chart of the Arctic coast on the
Reliance.
With its inlets and islands and rivers for a thousand miles south, the only way to rescue his sons was to empty the village of all males and paddle an
umiak
until they reached the boysâif they were alive. It would take weeks, and Kussu knew he could not ask the hunters of Nunatak to be away from their work and families that long.
Maja was not satisfied. She would not sleep soundly or pass a day with peace of mind
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