Brother Wind by Sue Harrison Read Free Book Online Page A

them, then held out his left hand, open and empty.
    “Brothers,” he called. “I am a friend. I have no knife.”
    Then with the wind and the sun clearing his mind, the fears of the night dimmed, and he knew what he would do.
    Samiq went to Kayugh first and asked him if everyone—men, women, and children—could eat together that night in Kayugh’s ulaq. Kayugh lifted his head to look at Samiq from under lowered eyelids. It was a look that Samiq remembered from the days of his childhood, a look that asked a question but did not demand an answer.
    “After we have eaten, we will plan for winter,” Samiq told him.
    “And does everyone eat from my cache?” Kayugh asked.
    “No, no, they will all bring food,” Samiq said, then added quickly, “I have a good reason.”
    “A good reason to meet in my ulaq?”
    “Yes.”
    “To save your lamp oil? To keep Waxtal out of your food cache?” Kayugh asked.
    Samiq opened his mouth to explain that his own ulaq was small, that he wanted the women at this meeting as well as the men, but then he understood that his father only teased him, saw that Kayugh’s belly shook with silent laughter. Samiq let himself smile.
    Kayugh laughed out loud and slapped a large hand against Samiq’s shoulder, then handed him a bowl. Chagak had made a good stew.
    That night after everyone had eaten, the men settled in a circle close to the largest oil lamp, and the women gathered behind them. Samiq planned to ask the women questions—how much food was in each cache, how long that food would last. Perhaps his questions would make them uncomfortable—usually in village meetings only the men spoke. But how could he plan hunting trips if he did not know how much meat was needed?
    When he began to speak, Samiq said, “The Whale Hunters have ways that are not our ways. Sometimes, during that year I lived with them, I thought they were foolish. Sometimes I thought they were wise. But I learned much. In Whale Hunter meetings, when plans are being made for hunts and winter storage, their women speak out.” Samiq looked over the men’s heads to the women. “We men know most about hunting. You women know most about food. Why should I make decisions without using what knowledge is available to me? So tell us,” he said to the women, “how much food do we have?”
    But Waxtal curled his lip and said, “Women? You ask women? Since when have women had any great wisdom?”
    Samiq pretended he did not hear Waxtal, and listened as Crooked Nose—Big Teeth’s wife—and Samiq’s mother Chagak told how much food was in their storage caches. Then Three Fish spoke, telling of the egg cache Kiin had made during the spring, the eggs stored in sand high above tide lines.
    “You have seen the eggs?” Waxtal asked.
    Samiq held his breath, afraid that Three Fish would tell the man where the eggs were, but she only nodded and lowered her eyes in the manner of First Men women, then looked slyly from under her lashes, showing Samiq she understood his fears.
    “Blue Shell, “Samiq said, “your cache?”
    But before Blue Shell could answer, Waxtal shouted, “We have nothing. This woman is lazy. She does not fish enough. She does not set enough bird snares.”
    Samiq’s face grew hot in anger, but before he could speak, Big Teeth said, “So then, Waxtal, you have no food to share. Yet you expect us to share with you?”
    Waxtal stood up, lifted the walking stick he always kept at his side, and turned to point it at Blue Shell. “She should be the one who does not eat,” he said.
    “Ah, yes,” said Kayugh. “She is the one who sits and carves all day and does not go out with the hunters after seals. She is the one who eats in other men’s ulas and never invites anyone to eat in her ulaq.”
    Waxtal drew back his lips. The hair that hung in a thin string from his chin quivered. He walked through the circle of men, in rudeness walked between them and the oil lamp. He grabbed a handful of Blue Shell’s hair