River
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River 16 free porn video
Chapter 16
So far: River meets two new people, and the river bestows gifts on
them. Carla gets a family, and a chance to be a girl, including a
shopping trip. River and her new lawyer go to town, and make up with
the hospital and the liquor agency. Then they cap off a busy day with
a trip to Colin, resident computer nerd, and discover that a viral
product means money will be coming into the reserve.
And now: For a change we will look at the following four days,
Wednesday to Saturday as a block, in a series of vignettes looking at
the main characters in the story.
----- ------- -----
River was busy for the next few days. She spent most of it in the new
store after Nick worked some magic and got a lease signed, a deposit
paid for and announced that there were several thousand dollars
available for supplies to clean and repair the building. Nelson got
the power connected in only two days, and allowed several extension
cords to run through his store into the new area in the meantime. It
turned out that having construction in the new store was entertainment
to most of the idlers in town and on the reserve, and River somehow
managed to convince all of the First Nations people, and quite a few
townspeople who popped in to look around to join her cleaning crew.
The town had a small lumberyard/hardware store, and River purchased
most of the needed cleaning supplies there, pretty much emptying out
their stock. She also bought all of the white paint in the store, and
ordered a lot more. The store manager was astounded, since his normal
price for paint was a few dollars a gallon higher than the best prices
in Sault. When he saw the scope of River's order, he sharpened his
pencil and came up with a discount that would bring the price down to
near what she would get if she bought in the city. He was thrilled to
get what looked like was going to be a 20% increase in his yearly
sales, and River was happy to know that a financially shaky store was
now stable, and would be around when local people needed to buy a bit
of lumber or supplies without having to go to Terrace Bay.
The store windows were the first dealt with, and nearly 20 years of
grime were removed from both inside and outside. Just cleaning the
dirt away made the inside brighter and cheerier, although there was
still a lot of work needed inside. The initial supply of paint went to
the outside, around the windows and doors. One First Nations woman
spent the entire day working on the beautiful old double doors,
polishing the brass push bars, cleaning the windows until they were
spotless, and then painting the wood parts of the doors red, making an
attractive entranceway into the store.
Carl Bluelake, the painter who had done the painting of the Alpha
wolf, was called in to consult on the design of the storefront. He
liked the red door, which was a good thing, since River knew a major
battle would be required to get the woman to change it. In fact, River
suggested the name of the store could be Red Door First Nations Arts
and Crafts. She polled all her helpers, who were proud to be consulted
about the name and nearly unanimously loved the name.
Carl was told to buy three 4x8 sheets of top grade plywood, sawn into
2x8 pieces at the lumberyard. This would make a 48 foot long nameplate
sign for the front of the store, replacing the smaller Northern Stores
sign that had been in the same location years ago. River left the
design completely up to Carl, and told him to also buy paints and
supplies at the hardware store and put it on her account, along with
the wood.
----- ------- -----
Colin reported in at midday on Thursday to update River on the eBay
sales. He had sold Lyle and George's monstrosity for $129,450 US,
which worked out to over $150,000 Canadian. Nick had been wrong, and
found that eBay's commission maxed out at $750, practically nothing on
a sale of that size. He had arranged with George and Lyle that the
store would keep 25% commission on items over $50,000, with lower
rates of 20% for items over $1000, and 15% for over $100. Smaller
items would be charged at 10%.
The other good news was that Colin had sold one of Ben Stormcloud's
birch bark canoes for $3800, nearly four times what he usually got for
one. The result was that soon the store would have almost $40,000 in
operating capital from the commissions on the two items. River
immediately agreed to Colin's wish list of nearly $5000 for computer
equipment and web hosting costs for the new web page, which he had
somehow managed to complete while selling the canoe and sculpture.
River had to work out delivery for the two items. The winner of the
sculpture was the Sacramento body shop, which had originated as a
dealer in Indian Motorcycles, and thus would pay anything for the
native-inspired totem of auto parts. The canoe was going to an address
in Colorado, and Ben also wanted to deliver it personally. George
insisted in installing the sculpture herself, so she and Ben borrowed
an old, but reliable truck from another band member and made plans to
head out on Monday. River had to insist on a rental of $500 to the
truck owner, and told the two travellers that they were to stay at
good motels along the way. Nick estimated the delivery cost at $6000
and the body shop was thrilled to learn that they could get their art
installed by the creator for that price. A $200 fee was offered to the
canoe buyer, who grumbled at the price. Nick then offered to have the
unit delivered for $150 by UPS, but with no guarantees to the
condition on arrival. The man buying the canoe chose to pay the extra
when he found out that he would get a chance to meet the craftsman who
had built it.
----- ------- -----
With the exception of the time that River needed him, Nick had spent
most of the several days giving pretty much every member of the band a
ride in his BMW. He had eight or nine kids in the car at a time, but
was more restrained with the elders, who rode three at a time. He
often took them off the reserve, and to other places they knew in the
area. He was repaid for his time, and a considerable gas bill, by the
lore that the old people passed on to him as they passed through areas
they had visited in their youth. When he left over 10 years ago, he
had hated those old stories. Now he couldn't get enough of them.
With his younger riders, he was paid back by the pure joy the
youngsters had in riding in the fanciest car that any of them had ever
seen. Nick realized that he liked kids. He was practically an elder to
them, and one who had lived in the big city for years. He loved the
way they listened raptly to his stories about the city and its hustle
and bustle, and why the slower life on the reserve was better. He
realized that he wanted to be a father, and to have several children
of his own.
The first evening, he took the three Stormcloud girls for their ride.
He heard from Liesl that she had spent the day playing dolls with his
new sister Carla. Marilyn and Shelly talked about their forthcoming
trip with Ria and Rod up the river, which Nick found fascinating.
Actually, it was Marilyn that he found most fascinating, and on the
next three nights only those two went for drives out to the lake to
watch the sunset and to talk.
----- ------- -----
Carla came to her new home on Wednesday evening like she was charged
up on caffeine. She had spent the entire day with Liesl just being a
girl, playing with dolls, dressing up, talking, and playing with
lipstick (the only makeup Liesl was allowed to have). Carla was 14,
but looked 11, and Liesl was 10, but acted 14, so the girls were a
good fit together. Liesl was the leader in most of their activities,
and Carla the follower, only objecting when Liesl wanted to do
something that she considered boyish. They did go out in the early
afternoon to the river, and sat on the banks overlooking the swiftly
flowing water. Liesl noted a rabbit nearby and pointed to it. As a
boy, Carl would have thrown a stone at it because that was what boys
did, but deliberately missed it, since he hated hurting anything.
Carla instead coaxed the rabbit closer by pulling out some grasses and
slowly showing them to the rabbit. Slowly and surely, to Liesl's
amazement, the timid animal approached, and soon was munching the
grass.
Over the next hour other rabbits approached, and both Liesl and Carla
had fun feeding them. Finally, one of the wolves of the people passed
by and the rabbits seemed to scatter. "That was so fun," Liesl said.
"I wish Night had picked a different time to visit though. He ...
Wait, what is so funny?"
"Look," Carla said, and lifted her skirts. Underneath were four
smaller rabbits, shaking in fear as they cowered around her bare legs.
"They all ran in there to hide."
----- ------- -----
It was later that evening that River finally got a chance to meet with
Wayne, and explain who the man she had been driving around with was.
To her surprise, he laughed at her fears of jealousy.
"I was worried a bit," he chuckled. "I mean: what a car. He offered me
a ride, and on it he explained everything. He even told me that I
could take the car to London (Ontario) when I go back to college. That
will be great. It takes eight hours to go to Toronto on the Greyhound,
and then another three hours to get to the university. Driving will
save several hours, and be way more comfortable. Nick wants to sell
the car, and I will do it in London. There are a lot of rich kids at
the university, and if not I will use Kijiji to sell it. He is good
with anything over $25,000 and that should be easy to get. I get 10%
of the first $25,000 and 20% of anything over that. I think it will
sell for $30,000, so that could be $3,500 towards my term."
River laughed: "I can just see you turning into the typical used car
salesman. Are you going to buy a plaid suit?"
----- ------- -----
Ria and Rod spent those days preparing for their trip upriver. Coming
back would be easy, but upriver they had to fight the current. Ben
provided two older but sturdy canoes. They hoped to get to Stone Ledge
Reservation in six days, and would spend two or three days there
meeting the people. Then they would head up to Ice Spring reservation,
a walk of three days each way. They would have to carry their tents
and supplies on their backs. After two or three days there, it was
three more days back to Stone Ledge, and then only two or three days
downstream on the River. The four would leave on Sunday, after River's
river service, and would not be expected back for 18-21 days.
----- ------- -----
Alison and Dale were also busy those few days. Alison was continually
refining her presentation, as well as getting ready for their return
to Toronto on Sunday, right after the morning services. This would be
her first presentation to a vice president at the bank, and she
rehearsed what she wanted to say, and answers to any possible
questions that he might have.
Dale found that he was split two ways a bit over those days. River
called him several times to come to the store where she had questions
of a construction nature. He soon realized that she had co-opted
pretty much all of his crew as volunteers for a full day Saturday and
that night she practised the 'puppy dog eyes' trick that little girls
of all ages use on their fathers, and he agreed to spend the day there
as well supervising. Of course that meant that he had a second project
to plan, order supplies for, and troubleshoot.
----- ------- -----
Mark and Paul were gone from Wednesday to Saturday. They had met a
bachelor elder who had taken a shine to the two young white boys, and
offered to take them on an overnight adventure. Kemosabe would
accompany them and, keeping the molester incident in mind, River asked
the river if the trip was wise. She was told that Tall John George was
completely safe, and that the boys would thrive in his hands. River
had more than a little convincing to do before Alison and Dale would
agree to let them go. That earned her a tight hug from Mark, and a
smile of thanks from Paul.
The boys packed light. Tall John wouldn't let them take a tent or
sleeping bags, only blankets and two meals' worth of food. They would
live off the land, he said. If they couldn't fish, trap, or hunt any
food, they would be back the following night. But he expected them to
be gone until Saturday night. River insisted that they be back for the
Sunday service. The boys left early Thursday morning. River was up, of
course, and a tearful Alison was also there to hug her littlest boy
away on his great adventure, to his great embarrassment.
The first night the boys built a birch lodge, under the direction of
Tall John. By the time it was completed they were exhausted, and
collapsed into their snug little house, which kept them warm in their
blankets all night, and dry from the morning dew that covered the
lodge at dawn, when Tall John took them out to set traps.
Their traps were not the garish metal things that trappers today use,
but traditional Ojibwe traps made of cedar and other woods. They set
several dozen, and then moved away and sat in a circle and learned how
to make bows and fire-tipped arrows. Tall John told how in the old
times there would be arrow makers who chipped flint tips for the
arrows, but without access to these they used an older method of
charring the tips of the arrows to harden them. By late afternoon they
had each made a bow strung with deer gut Tall John had brought, and
two or three usable arrows, fletched with feathers from Tall John's
pack. By usable, this means that each boy could shoot one for perhaps
10 or 12 feet, slightly further than they could throw them.
On the way back, they checked their traps, and found a small rabbit
trapped in one of them. There was a vote and it was two to one to
allow the small animal to go free. The boys learned about Ojibwe
justice when they discovered that the vote was won by Tall John's
single vote. He took a rock and put the rabbit out of its misery. Both
boys cringed at the final squeal of the animal, and Paul actually
vomited as Tall John demonstrated how to skin and clean the animal,
with Kemosabe getting his choice of the offal. Mark didn't tease his
friend about his discomfort, as he had nearly lost his lunch as well.
Both boys vowed that they would not eat the tiny animal.
That resolve lasted until the rabbit stew was half cooked. On the way
back Tall John pointed out several different plants, and the boys were
able to dig up wild carrots, onions, and other tubers. As well they
gathered mushrooms that Tall John declared safe to eat, while he
pointed out others that would cause sickness or delirium. When the
stew was half cooked in the pot, the smell was overpowering, along
with the boys' hunger. Both hungry boys gladly shared the stew out of
the pot, even relishing the taste of the rabbit.
The next morning they went to the river (their trip had been several
miles upriver from the reservation) where they spent time fishing in a
tributary of the river. Tall John explained that while there were more
fish in the main river, it was too cold to stand in that for more than
a few seconds. He taught the boys how to make fish spears and a willow
basket to land the fish in. Once done, they spent several hours in the
stream, attempting to spear a fish. Tall John explained parallax by
sticking his spear into the river, so they could see the apparent bend
in the stick where it touched the water. This meant they had to aim
below a fish to spear it.
This was extremely helpful in allowing the boys to scare the fish much
closer than before. Finally, in late afternoon Tall John said they had
best hope for another rabbit, or the stew would be vegetarian this
night.
Tall John packed up the small amount of goods they had, and had Paul
clean up the site, using the Ojibwe credo of leaving a site in better
condition than they found it. As they did this, Mark went to the main
river, and was able to see several fish lazing just off the bank. It
was too far for him to spear them, but he crept into the water. It was
cold, painfully so, but the fish didn't notice him until he was close
enough. He thrust his spear, just under a particularly fat trout, and
was surprised to feel resistance. The spear entered the fish, as the
others scattered.
"Good strike, boy," Tall John said, getting out the creel. Mark tossed
the fish to him, then hurried out of the water. "Fish stew tonight."
Mark was shivering as he stood on the bank, and Tall John felt his
legs. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around the boy's legs,
sitting him down. "I don't know how you did that, boy," Tall John
said. "I can't spend 10 seconds in that water and you were there for
nearly two minutes."
"My sister spends hours in it," Mark shivered. "She is the
rivertalker. I was in it a long time when I was with her close by. But
alone it is really cold."
"That must be it," Tall John said. "It's in your blood."
"It nearly froze my blood," Mark said.
"You boys sit here for a while with the wolf," Tall John said. "I'll
check the three northern traps while you warm up, and then we'll check
the others on the way back to the lodge."
It was nearly an hour later when Tall John returned, and Mark was able
to give him back his jacket. The two boys again were directed to seek
root plants as they made their way back, and to their surprise they
discovered that they were able to spot many before Tall John even saw
them. They also came across a blueberry patch, and again Tall John
left them to gorge as he took the fish and veggies back to start the
stew.
The boys were purple faced when they arrived at camp, directed on the
proper path by the smell of roasting trout. There was a fish stew, but
most of the smell came from fillets grilling atop the fire in a
lattice of soaked willow branches. The boys feasted again, and soon
had fish juice and stew gravy added to the blueberry juice on their
faces.
The next day was Saturday, and they had to pack up. The lodge was
allowed to stay, since it would be a starting point for any other
hunter who needed a place to stay. But the rest of the site was
cleaned up to the point where it looked untouched. Finally Tall John
declared it ready, and the boys knelt with him in a circle. Tall John
pulled a rattle out of his pack, and shook it as he sang a song of
thanks to Manitou. Paul didn't understand the words of the song, but
Mark found that he knew a few, somehow. He clearly heard the words for
Manitou, trout, thanks, and peace. After the song was ended, the boys
marvelled at the rattle, which was made entirely of deer, with toes
for the rattles, and a piece of antler providing the part that Tall
John shook.
Before they left, they walked the trap line, dismantling each trap.
Each boy took one of the traps they had set with them in their packs.
In one trap they found a marten, dead, but only for a short time, Tall
John declared. He skinned it, giving the pelt to Paul, since Mark had
gotten the rabbit fur. They planned to eat trail food for their lunch,
so Kemosabe feasted on more than just offal this time. After they
disabled the last traps, they headed downriver, arriving at the park
at about 5 p.m., just as River and Dale had returned from a successful
day at the store and where Alison was making a final dinner of hot
dogs and corn.
River smiled as her brother and Paul recounted their great adventure.
The trip was the highlight of this entire vacation for the boys. River
felt sorry for Mark, having to go back to Toronto for the next school
year. She knew he would be back for Christmas, but she was going to
miss him. He had matured so much over the past few weeks. It was like
he was a year older. He had been her bratty brother before, but now
she knew she loved him dearly.
Mark and Paul proudly showed off the furs they had trapped during
their trip. They dumped the smelly furs at Alison's feet, telling her
that Tall John had told them that it was for the squaw to treat the
furs and make them into clothing.
"I'm no squaw," Alison declared. The boys looked at River, who shook
her head while giving them a look that said 'don't even ask.' "There
may be a reason why Tall John never married," Alison laughed. River
suggested that they take the furs to one of the elder women after
dinner.
Maris
- 14.07.2020
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