The boat lurched forward, and the weed around my ankle tightened painfully, and for a second I felt as thoughBut no weed is that tough, and the boat jerked me out of its hold and drove about fifteen feet downstream before I pulled myself into the boat. By that time hed collapsed again, and his hand fell off the tiller just as I grabbed it.
I balanced on the seat and turned the boat back to shore, where Adam paced.
The man grabbed my arm, and I almost tipped the boat over before I braced against his weight. If Id had shoes on, my feet would have slipped off the wet wood, and Id have landed on him.
Got to get away, he said. His skin was as dark as minehe was Indian, too, now that I finally had a good look at himand still his lips managed to look pale.
Got to get you to shore, I yelled at him over the noise of the engine. Before you bleed to death.
There was a crunch as the bow of the boat hit the shoreline, then a mighty jerk as Adam grabbed a bowline I hadnt seen or else Id have used it. He pulled us up and all of the way out of the water onto the bank.
I managed to kill the engine because Id already started the motion, and when the boat stopped suddenly, I used the momentum to roll all the way out of the boat and onto the ground. My other option would have been to land on the man we were trying to rescue. The drop was not far. I hit the ground with my unprotected shoulder, which was going to bruise, but mostly managed not to hurt myself.
Adam came over to me.
Im fine, I said. Check him.
He raised himself over the side of the boat to look in. I got up at the same time. Either blood loss or the shock of seeing a huge wolf with big sharp teeth had finally driven our man, who was bleeding from the remaining half of his right foot, unconscious.
Adam glanced from me to himand then bolted. In that brief glance, he told me to stay put while he went for help. Wolves communicate much more clearly than humans do in an emergency.
Adam would run all out, but we were probably five miles or more from the campsite. It would take him ten minutes to get there, maybe ten more to change back to human if he pushed it. I had no idea where the nearest hospital was or how long it would take for them to get the man there. Adam would figure it out.
With the sun down, the air was chilly, the river cold, and both the wounded man and I were wet and freezing. But there was nothing I could do about that at the moment.
I pulled him back down in the boat and propped up the damaged foot on the wooden cross member that doubled as a seat. The wound was just oozing blood, which seemed odd to me. Maybe the cold was useful, even if it was dangerous.
I was debating the benefits of shifting into coyote and sharing what warmth my wet fur would gain us both against trying to figure out how to get his wet shirt off and use it to bandage his foot without a knife. Both moves were likely to be useless or worse … when I heard the hum of an engine out in the water.
Lights tracked over the shore and stopped on the white boat I was standing in. I waved my arms to call them in to shore. There were excited voices, but I couldnt tell what they were saying because the sound of their engine drowned out the meaning. A small but much sleeker and more modern boat complete with lights approached us at speed.
Help was here. Unless these were the guys whod sliced off the mans foot. And me wearing nothing but Adams dog tags. Ah, well, it couldnt be helped; my modesty wasnt worth a mans life.
The boat hadnt quite beached itself when three men hopped into the river. One of them grabbed the bowline, and as soon as he did, the fourth man, whod been staying the boat, cut the engine and jumped in, too.
Benny? Faith? and Who are you? gradually resolved themselves into Hank and Fred Owens, Jim Alvin, and Calvin Seekerintroduced to me by Jim Alvin, easily the oldest of them though only Calvin qualified as young.
It was only after the Owens brothers pulled out a first-aid kit and started to work on the wounded man that I realized we were allvictim, me, and the four in the rescuing boatIndian.
Jim Alvin was in his sixties and smelled of woodsmoke and old tobacco. Calvin was somewhere in his late teens or early twenties. Hank and Fred were around my age, I thought, and close enough in appearance that they might well have been twins, though Hank didnt talk at all. I dont know if I would have noticed their dog tags if I hadnt just received Adams. But I would still have noticed that they had some sort of emergency training by the efficiency of their movements and their focus as soon as they saw Benny Jamison.
Benny was the hurt man.
Jim interrogated mefor all that his questions were softspoken and quietwhile the Owens brothers did their best to save Benny.
No sign of anyone else? he asked me, after I told him how Adam and I had found the boatand how Adam had run back to camp to get help and left me to do what I could.
No. I pulled the blanket theyd given me more securely around myself.
Benny woke up briefly when they started wrapping his foot with vet wrap. It sounded like it hurt.
Jim sighed.Bennys sister, Faith, was with him out fishing. They were supposed to be home for dinner. Julie, Bennys wife, she called Fred tonight when Benny didnt answer his phone. We were docking, but the Jamisons are good folk. We put the boat back in the water and started looking. What tribe didyou say you were?
I hadnt, in spite of the fact that they had introduced themselves that way. All of them were from the Yakama (with three as, though the town was spelled Yakima) Nation. The Owens brothers were Yakama. Jim Alvin was Wish-ram and Yakama, as was Calvin Seeker. I didnt think of myself that way. I was a walker and a mechanic, both of which served more often than not to make me separate from other people. I was Adams mate, which connected me to him and to the pack.
I was also cold and tired. It took me too long to remember.
Blackfoot, I said, then corrected myself. Blackfeet.
You dont know which? asked Calvin, speaking for the first timethough hed been watching me since they came ashore. Id almost forgotten I was naked until I saw his face just before Id been tossed a woolen blanket. I supposed polite disinterest was too much to ask from everyone. Three out of four wasnt bad.
I never knew my fathermy mother is white. He told my mother he was from Browning, Montana, I told them. The wool was doing a good job of warming the skin it covered.
Naked wrapped in a blanket among strangers didnt use to bother me. Maybe if Calvin would have quit staring at the various pieces of me that the blanket didnt cover, it still wouldnt have bothered me. As it was, I did my best to keep Jim between Calvin and me.
So you were raised white, said Calvin in disapproving tones.
I should have told them I was Hispanic and any Indians in my bloodlines were South American and unknown. Half of my customers thought I was Hispanic. Telling them I was Hispanic felt like it would have been less of a lie than telling them I was Indian. As if I were claiming ties that werent there.
Browning, Montana, makes him Blackfeet, Jim told me kindly. Piegan. The Blood and the Siksika are Blackfoot.
I knew that. It just hadnt tripped off my tongue.
What were you doing out here? Its an odd place to be running around at this time of night. Jim didnt say naked. He didnt have to. Boy, he said abruptly to Calvin. Dont you make your mother ashamed of her son.
The young mans mouth tightened, but he looked away from me. A few years ago his regard wouldnt have bothered me the way it did now. But things had happened since that made me uncomfortable standing nearly naked with four strangersfive if I counted Benny, which I didnt.