The Haunted Igloo by Bonnie Turner

Chinook?” asked
Cordell. “Are you going to open it?”
    Jean-Paul looked at the
package for a long time. He ran his hands over the paper, turning
it every which way, staring at it. There came a tinkling sound from
inside. He slowly removed the bright ribbon and wrapping, which
Chinook must have bought at the Hudson’s Bay post.
    “ What’s this?” His eyes shone with
excitement. “A harness! Pa! Ma! Look! Chinook gave me a harness for
Sasha!”
    Chinook had known exactly
what would make Jean-Paul happy.
    Cordell, of course, had
known about it in advance. “Yes,” he said, “an ano . Chinook made it himself, just for
you.”
    “ I didn’t give him anything,”
Jean-Paul said.
    Lise slipped an arm around
her son, hugging him gently. “I suspect the only thing Chinook
really wants is your friendship. Do you think you could
try?”
    Jean-Paul shrugged his
shoulders. He rolled his eyes toward his mother, then his father,
feeling embarrassed. “Well, I might .”
    “ We often misjudge others until we get
to know them,” said Lise. “My own feelings about Chinook changed
when I saw how determined he was to make amends. He’s really a very
nice boy, though a bit mischievous.”
    Jean-Paul pulled the
harness from the wrapping paper to examine it closer. “Sleigh
bells!” he shouted. The huge bells jingled when he shook the
harness. “Boy, this is great! It’s just what I wanted!”
    The wrapping paper
fluttered to the floor and a small scrap of paper fell out.
Jean-Paul picked it up and read from the carefully-penned French:
JEAN-PAUL ARDOIN IS A MEMBER OF THE ICE PATROL. He looked at his
parents. He grinned from ear to ear, his cheeks puffing out with
delight. “Wow! They made me a member after all! And Sasha, too!
See? Her name’s right down here in the corner.”
    Cordell rumpled Jean-Paul’s
hair and chuckled. He went outside, and when he came back in he
handed Jean-Paul his parka. “Bundle up. I’ll take you out to see
what I made for you. Hurry!”
    Jean-Paul went outside with
his father. In a few minutes, he returned, shouting to his mother.
“Ma! Ma! Pa made a sled for Sasha! Does that mean I get to keep
her? Huh, Ma?”
    Lise looked at Cordell. He
shook his head. She looked back at Jean-Paul and said, “Perhaps.
We’ll wait and see.”
    Jean-Paul threw his arms
around his mother. She was much fatter now than she had been a few
weeks before. He recalled how fat Sasha’s mother, Lishta, had been
right before she had pups. He had known his mother would grow quite
large in the middle, but of course she wasn’t going to have nine
babies.
    “ This is the happiest Christmas I’ve
ever had,” Jean-Paul exclaimed, his eyes shining.
    Cordell threw back his head
and great barrels of laughter rumbled up from his chest. “That’s
what you say every Christmas, Jean-Paul!”

    ____________

    S hortly after the holiday, Cordell, Lise, and Jean-Paul visited
Chinook’s family. Jean-Paul was surprised at the way the huge
snow-block home looked inside. A bench of snow lay along the back
wall, spread with many layers of bear skins for sleeping and
sitting. At one side of the igloo was a whale-oil cooking fire.
Seal meat simmered in a big open kettle hung above the hot yellow
and orange flames. The spicy aroma made Jean-Paul’s mouth
water.
    Lise had never been inside
an igloo, either. Now she watched curiously as Chinook’s mother,
Arnayak, sewed a piece of leather with a length of tough sinew. The
Inuit woman looked up from her work now and then to smile at Lise.
She pointed once to Lise’s golden hair and giggled, and Lise, not
knowing what was wrong, felt herself blush. The two women’s eyes
met as they smiled shyly at each other.
    Then, Taguk entered the
igloo and spread his fur mittens on a rack to dry by the fire. He
spoke rapidly in Inuktitut . There was a smile for Lise,
an Inuit handshake for Cordell, and a pat on Jean-Paul’s head
before Taguk sat flat-legged on the sleeping ledge