19. Back in Winnipeg
After several years in Winnipeg, Ali has seen her Cree house helper Nikah through College with a Bachelor of Arts degree major in Geoscience. She was particularly happy Nikah had got her B.A. because of the English literature, general history and a foreign language that the degree candidates need to study.
At home Ali has further educated her up to Ali's own level. And she has supervised a reading program so Nikah gets the wisdom of the western world from Ancient Greece on and also further enlarges her science knowledge.
Ali encourages Nikah to consider having a child but not as a duty; rather as a right and a help as she ages, and at a time of convenience.
Starting at age 7, little Guy is sent to boarding school in Winnipeg. Ali has put in a strong effort to form him according to her idea of a superior student. She had him in Father Tim's small local school with the Cree children because she thinks this will steel him against bad outside influences and prevent the corruption of elitism that private, so-called high-class schooling inevitably causes. She thinks boarding school will be important to get experiences living away from her and interacting with a wide variety of children. The school is an hour away by bus so he is home weekends, holidays and summer.
They are visited by Father Tim, who also comes regularly to give medical care to the Indians, to which Ali donates. And the University Professor, who Ali had met because of his interest in her language experiment with Guy, comes over some Sundays and they have seminars joined by Father Tim, young Guy and the ancient Indian woman Nokomis who has taken a liking to Ali like a long lost daughter.
French Eadie and Pierre have moved away to Winnipeg so the household now is Ali in her early 30's, and Nikah in mid 20's. The house is on a patch of grassy open land surrounded by forest near the Assiniboine River.
They do not farm for food. The forest and river has many edible plants, berries, roots and mushrooms. And on the grassy field around the house they plant radishes, cucumbers, melons and other food plants that need almost no tending. Ali experiments with eating parts of plants not considered edible.
At times they will trap an old hare or catch with hands a careless salmon in the river but they never hunt by using weapons or fishing gear Ali is studying the area because she is certain it is going to become a future center of the best life in the coming Century.
She interacts much with the nearby Cree. She thinks the Amerindians hold the key to the future. and wants to learn their lore and wisdom, and also to bring them forward into the future she hopes to help create.
Guy is just arrived at the house in the clearing - as they call their home - on first day of summer vacation. In the morning Ali wakes him at 6:01 AM from his floor pallet. She likes to start things one minute after the hour because she considers the 1 a start number and the 0 an end. She has made the small room in the southwest corner of the house Guy's Room. She thinks children after age 5 should have their own room at home to give a kid privacy and security, at least in his family home. Entering, she looks down at her sleeping son who has kicked off the covers and lies in pajamas that show colorful cartoon characters on white background. Alone she often sleeps unclothed but she does not like to encourage it in a child; and, especially in a home family in a mixed sex gender atmosphere, she thinks children should learn modesty in dress.
He looks just like the Bronx Eddie she thinks. Well, he ought to. She shakes his shoulder.
"Wake up, kid. Ya gotta get up it's mawnin'" she sings.
Ten minutes later he is at the kitchen table already dressed in forest hiking pants, which are like knickers that have a lower collar that pulls over the ankle socks. They are very light rayon material and green so as to blend with the forest. He wears a brown thin polo aka tank-top shirt but with long sleeves. Ali has taught him that when he hikes even in summer he must dress to cover all his skin because of the blood diseases from tick and mosquito bites.
He has poured a glass of milk and drinks it with a slice of home-made bread from wild wheat on which he smears goat-cheese from their goat and covers with his own freshly-picked blueberries. Ali allows him to bring a dry cereal - wheat germ from the school. He eats a small bowl of it. She does not want his life at home to be totally separated from city life.
She sits across from him drinking green tea.
"Mom, why don't we get pets - a dog and cat? In school all my friends have them at home?"
"Guy, I do not want to be preachy but I don't agree with people's keeping pets. I think we should treat all the animals - and we are animals too - so that each one has its own free life. I mean dogs should run free. After all, so do we. And cats too"
"Hey, Mom. That sounds like a song."
"You will grow up soon, kid, and then you will be free of me. And it will be up to you if you want a pet or not. But as long as you come here I will be boss. Is it OK?"
Guy reaches across the table with right hand and Ali takes it.
"Ready for our morning hike?"
The boy clears the table and quickly washes dishes while Ali goes to the WC.
They head out into the silence of a Manitoba morning - the occasional bird call and the low-pitched buzz of cicadas. They walk through grass and follow an Indian path into the forest, she in gray pullover sweater and brown slacks that come down over her smooth rubber-sole, blue-cloth walking shoes and he in hiking outfit. It is briskly cool with no wind and the sun just topping the trees on their left - a late June.
"Mom, you said about animals running free. How come sometimes you and Nikah trap hare and catch salmon to eat? "
"You are a smart kid and I don't mean smarty, I mean sharp. I can't square what we do with what I say. We are animals and we do kill other animals sometimes. But I like to think we are evolving - not all of us but the ones who will inherit the future. You know, like I taught you about Darwin's Evolution - survival of the best - those most fit to make children who will make a better future. And while we are evolving we still have some of the old habits and behaviors. Nikah and I get a taste for fish flesh or hare flesh - maybe we need it for the protein? But the important thing is we are working toward a goal - We don't kill except if self defense or if we truly need the flesh to stay alive. And even about that, we each work on it to see if we can do without the killing. It's not a good excuse but we are trying. Most of the people are not. So as you grow up you will decide what is best for you and yours. I'm trying to help you, that's all.
He grabs her right hand in his little hand. "I understand Mom".
Fifteen minutes later they are deep into the forest and Guy whose young hearing is very good stops. "Mom! Do you hear a crying?"
She listens. "Yes, Guy. To the east, over the hill." They turn and hurry forward. It is almost a baby cry, but not human. Climbing over the hill and scrambling down they come upon the source, a half grown brown bear with a distinctive white spot on forehead fur, its right foot caught in a trap baited with a bundle of honey cunningly tied over it. The baby bear is crying plaintively.
Ali looks around. The area seemed to be empty but then she spots a big brown body behind nearby bushes. "The momma!" She exclaims. "Wait here. Don't move!"she orders Guy. She runs to the trapped bear who is lying on its back crying in pain from the trap's metal jaw sprung shut on the its foot. Wasting not a second, Ali, using both hands tries to pry the trap jaws apart. But she can't quite do it. She calls Guy. "Use both your hands on the lower jaw of the trap, kid, and I'll concentrate my strength on the upper."They work together and the jaws very slowly move apart and with the slight relaxation, the baby bear pulls its foot out and limps quickly away and they watch as he is joined by a huge brown momma bear, who looks back at the two humans, and then the two disappear beyond the clearing.
"OK, kid. We did good, We gotta get away quick because the trapper may be here any minute and no telling what he'll do if he figures we sprung the trap on his catch. So let's get some exercise by running." They sprint off and in 10 minutes are out of the forest. "OK, we walk now." Ali says.
"Why do people trap baby bears like that Mom."
"To make them pets, kid."
"Oh!" He thinks a minute. "Mom, now I really understand what you say about pets. I don't need one."
"OK, kid, let's go home now and have some blueberries and sour cream."
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