The House

By Dawn Natelle

The last chapter of the Sapphire arc. And there is another chapter tomorrow: Dawn.

Chapter 23 – Final treatments

For the next few weeks, as Grey recouped from his healing, things were routine in the house. The babies were the hit of the place. For several days Sun would not let anyone else touch them. One day, after feeding the unconscious Grey, Dary used her new ‘puppy dog eyes’ trick and Sun finally let her hold Flint as she changed Mimihaha’s diaper. That started it.

Soon, everyone had to have a turn at holding the babies, and Sun relaxed, knowing that only she could feed them. Daisy in particular was ecstatic in holding the children, telling them that “Grandma loved them” and other such cooings. Cindy held them, and then looked at Dan with an ‘I want that’ look in her eyes.

When Grey was finally up, he got another chance to hold the children that were legally, if not actually, his. He had fallen in love with them at the hospital, and going inside of their little bodies to heal them had only amplified the love. But at the first family dinner he attended he made some things clear.

“These are to be thought of as Sunflower’s children. She will be Mama, both now and if I ever fall in love again.” He looked at Hawk, sitting next to Sun and looking attentively at her. “And Hawk will be their Daddy.”

“But surely you should be Daddy,” the big native said. “It is only right.”

“No,” Grey said. “They will grow up calling Sun Momma. So long as you are with Sun, then you will be Daddy. When they learn to talk, they can call me Father or something. But you will be Daddy. They are your children too.”

Hawk looked at Mimihaha in a different way as she sat cuddled on Sun’s lap, then over at Hawk, who Dary held. He reached over and picked up the little boy, and held him close, only to get an explosive burp spewed all over himself. Everyone at the table laughed, as he looked stunned.

“Okay Daddy, time to learn how to clean up baby messes like that,” Sun said. “And I think Mimi has a present for you in her diapers: something else a Daddy needs to learn. Come on.”

The pair left for the nursery, with Dary following. She adored the children and was Sun’s primary helper in all things that came up: from either end.

As Grey regained strength he started teaching Hawk how to make canoes and snowshoes. Sun no longer had the time, and Dan worked with Grey occasionally around his schedule of elder visits and youth meetings. But Hawk needed the money from canoe building, and although a Mohawk and not Ojibwe, he was native, and the canoes could still be claimed to be completely 100% First Nations products.

When Hawk had phoned his boss to apologize, he found out that another operator had been hired to run the loader. Then a few days later Hawk got a call that the new man was ill, and could he come in for two days? This eventually worked into a regular schedule with Hawk as relief man: working every week on Saturdays, while the new man worked Monday to Friday. He would also go in on sick days or holidays the man would take. One day’s work didn’t pay a lot, but it did give him pocket money, and a chance to add a little to the food budget. Of course, when canoes were sold more substantial money would come.

Dr. Nora also was working a bit in her field. She had taken over for the town doctor’s practice one weekend a month, but there were also a few mothers in the area that were bringing their children to her direct. Daisy had given her the nice corner room that Sapphire had been in as an examination room, and her husband John had made a nice sign reading “Dr. Nora Jenson, Pediatrician” and placed it on the road next to sign reading ‘Ridge House’ that Grey had repaired and re-erected when he first moved to the house. When she was not meeting clients, or working tor the doctor at the hospital, Nora helped Willow with her bakery operation. As well as adding a batch of fresh bread for the afternoon buses, the two added a Danish pastry to the mix, and those sold well in the store both as snacks for the bus and for local people.

A full month after the twins had arrived, Grey felt ready for another attempt at healing. He took Mimihaha first. Sun was there of course, knowing she had to feed the baby at three-hour intervals. Grey had a feeling that the healing could take longer that that, and told Sun she could put the baby to breast so long as she kept her close to Grey: no more than three feet away.

Grey sang himself into the baby, and stared at the brain, which looked small and underdeveloped. «How long will this take,» he asked his Medicine Man voice.

«A long time,» the voice replied. «All you need to do is to use your stave to feed power into the child’s brain. There is mending to do at first, and you should be able to help her enough so that she can eventually reach a development age of nine or ten. That is all you can do in a treatment, which will take you a full day: nearly 24 hours. If you do more treatments later: at least two more, then you may be able to restore her to full health, and she will develop mentally as any other girl would. She will always be small, like her mother, but she will be smarter and better adjusted. Particularly with a good environment, like you and Sun will provide.»

Grey was carried to bed by Hawk this time when he had finished a 22-hour healing session. He had hoped to treat both children but was only able to help Mimihaha. While Grey recovered, the people of the house noticed the difference between the two babies, with Mimi more alert and developing faster than Flint. Once Grey had fully recovered, nearly a month later, he repeated the treatment with the boy.

This routine continued for three more months, until Mimi had her final treatment, and Grey was waiting to recover to treat Flint. This time, although Mimi was ahead, you could not tell there was a developmental difference between the two, although Dr. Nora felt that a brain scan would show differences.

Grey had just reached the point where he could eat with the others when Cindy appeared in uniform as they were eating dinner.

“This is a business trip,” she said, although she was massaging Dan’s shoulders. “I just got a report of an accident in Ottawa. A motorcycle was seen with a girl passenger riding with no helmet, so the patrol car tried to pull them over. The bike driver sped up and soon they were going 180 kph. The cruiser followed, and the driver looked back for a second. They approached a semi truck that was slowing down for the chase, and the bike collided with the rear of the truck, and slid under.”

“The driver died several hours later, and the passenger, with no helmet, died immediately. An investigation discovered that the saddlebags of the bike were filled with Percocet pills. The passenger was Sapphire, and the driver was Billy Vanderkleet, who apparently was a courier delivering drugs from the Outlaws’ clubhouse in Peterborough to dealers in Ottawa. That is why he was riding past here so often.”

The group was stunned. Grey turned to John and said: “Can you arrange for the body, Sapphire’s, to be brought here. I would like her buried in the Grove.”

“What?” Sun shouted. “How dare you honor that woman?” She gathered up the infants and stormed off to her room.

Grey found her there after the meal ended. He entered the room and shut the door behind him.

“It is not honoring her,” he said. “It is a matter of providing these two little ones with an anchor in their life. You will be their mother, now and forever. That is something that will never be taken away. But when they are older they will have to learn that you adopted them, and they will have questions about their natural mother. What you tell them will be up to you, but I feel it will be best if you, or I, can take them to her last resting place.”

“Just don’t expect me to take part in any funeral,” Sun said bitterly. “I hate that woman.”

“Even though she gave you the two gifts that you love above all else?” Grey said. “You don’t need to come to the ceremony, but I want the twins there.”

“No. They go where I go. And I am not going to that ceremony.”

“The children should go,” Grey said. “Are you going to tell them that they didn’t go to their birth-mother’s funeral because their adoptive mother was having a snit? It is up to you to go or not, and it is your right to decide if the babies are there. I will not pull rank on you over that. But I truly hope you can see clear to coming.”

The body arrived from Ottawa nearly four days after the accident, perfect timing for an Ojibwe funeral, which should happen four days after the death. The funeral home had the body wrapped in a body bag, and warned that there had been no cosmetic work done: in short, the bag should not be opened. This worked well for the funeral since traditional Ojibwe burials do not use caskets or boxes. The driver of the hearse stayed around when he learned the burial would take place in a few hours: he had a professional interest in different burial rites.

Dan and Hawk had dug a grave, 30 yards away from Lone Goose’s. Everyone from the house except Sun and the twins was there. Dan, Hawk, Grey and the funeral director lifted the wrapped body from the travelling casket, and then lowered it by ropes to the bottom of the grave.

“There will be no bow, no arrows, and no knives buried with her, as she was not a warrior. Are there any other goods that will go to the Sacred Hunting Grounds with her?” Grey said.

Daisy stepped forward, offering a plate of venison jerky, which was lowered to the grave. For a minute, no one else came forward, and then Dary reached down and picked out six small stones from the ground in front of her, and darted up to the grave and tossed them in. It took a second, but soon everyone realized that they were the size of Percocet tablets. They would represent that which Sapphire had treasured above all else.

Grey started to speak again, but stopped when he heard a noise in the distance. It was Sun, carrying the twins. He waited for her to get closer, and when she stopped at the edge of the group, he spoke: “We are here to send one of the people to her reward. I hope it is to the Sacred Hunting Grounds. She was not the best of Manidoo’s children, but she was one of the people. She left us with a great gift: two great gifts, and I hope that this is enough to make her life have merit. I will cast the first earth.”

With that he gathered up a spade full of earth, and cast it on the grave. Everyone else, save the older women, did the same. Then Grey, Dan and Hawk started filling the hole.

“Give me that spade,” Sun said to Grey. She thrust the babes into his arms and took the tool and started shoveling dirt into the hole. Grey handed one of the babies to Dary, and held the other as they all watched the hole slowly full. When all the dirt had been moved, Dan started to tamp it down with his foot.

Sun pushed him aside, and then took over. At first it was tamping, but soon it began to become stomping, as she took out her frustrations on the deceased woman. When she finished, it looked like she had gotten it out of her system.

Dan’s truck drove the older ladies back, with many others riding in the truck bed. But Dary, Sun, Grey and the twins walked back, with Sun fiercely holding her children.

“I rather thought I would hear a departing word from her,” Grey mentioned as they walked.

“She spoke to me,” Sun said.

“What did she say?”

“She told me that I would be a better mother for these two than she ever could,” Sun said, pausing for a moment. I’m glad we came.”

“And the stomping at the end?” Grey asked.

“I couldn’t give her the last word,” Sun said. “But I am at peace with her now. I know that I will need to talk to these little ones some day, and now I know I can without hatred in my voice.”