Is it you? Yes. Where have you been? Travelling. Yes. Of course. Where did you get to? Everywhere. Everywhere I always wanted to go, everywhere I ever heard about. Did you like it? I loved it. I never knew the world was so big or that it held so much. Yes. It's an incredible thing. Absolutely. What did you think about all that time? Everything. I guess I thought about everything. But I thought about one thing the most. What was that? A movie. Actually, a line from a movie. Really? Yes. Funny, isn't it? Out of all the things I could have thought about over and over, I thought about a line from a movie. Which one? Casablanca. When Bogie says to Bergman, "The world don't amount to a hill of beans to two small people like us?" Remember that? Yes. I remember. Why? Because that's what I think it's all about in the end. What? Well, you live, you experience, you become, and sometimes, at the end of things, maybe you feel deprived, like maybe you missed out somehow, like maybe there was more you could have--should have--had. You know? Yes. Yes, I do. But the thing is, at least you get to finger the beans. Yes. I like that--you get to finger the beans. Do you ever do that? All the time. Me too. Let's do that now. Let's hear all of it all over again. Okay. Do you remember it? All of it. Everything. Every moment. Then that's all we need. The beans. Yes. The beans. Book One Shelter One For The -Dead It was Irwin that started all the dying. He was my eldest brother, and when I was a little girl he was my hero, the one whose shoulders I was always carried on and whose funny faces made me smile even when I didn't want to. There were five of us. We lived on an Ojibway reserve called Big River and our family, the One Sky family, went back as far in tribal history as anyone could recall. I was named Amelia, after my grandmother. We were a known -family--respected, -honoured--and Irwin was our shining hope. I was the only girl, and Irwin made me feel special, like I was his hero. Love is such a simple word, so limited, that I never use it when I think of him, never consider it when I remember what I -lost. He was a swimmer. A great one. That's not surprising when you consider that our tribal clan was the Fish Clan. But Irwin swam like an otter. Like he loved it. Like the water was a second skin. No one ever beat my brother in a race, though there were many who tried. Even grown -men--bigger, stronger -kickers--would never see anything but the flashing bottoms of my brother's feet. He was a -legend. The cost of a tribal life is high and our family paid in frequent times of hunger. Often the gill net came up empty, the moose wouldn't move to the marshes, and the snares stayed set. The oldest boys left school for work, to make enough to get us through those times. They hired themselves out to a local farmer to clear bush and break new ground. It was man's work, really, and Irwin and John were only boys, so the work took its -toll. It was hot that day. Hot as it ever got in those summers of my girlhood, and even the farmer couldn't bear up under the heat. He let my brothers go midway through the afternoon and they walked the three miles back to our place. Tired as they were, all Irwin could think about was a swim in the river. So a big group of us kids headed toward the broad, flat stretch below the rapids where we'd all learned to swim. I was allowed to go because there were so many of -us. There was a boy named Ferlin Axe who had challenged my brother to race hundreds of times and had even come close a few of those times. That day, he figured Irwin would be so tired Excerpted from Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
