JoKoKo

 7 New in Town     Rian was hot and sweaty by the time he reached the source of the smoke. He had gone from soaked with sea water to sticky and damp from his long walk. He hadn’t felt as though the walk was all that long, but he was warm and his heart was beating strong. He longed to get a change of clothes. He was wearing the same clothes he had on when he and Conny met Kiki, and he couldn’t rightly say how long it had been since then. He hoped his unkempt, disheveled, and perhaps stinky presentation did not offend whomever it was he saw crouched near the small cookfire which was the source of the smoke which had led him away from the sandy place.     Rian wanted to be sure not to startle the person by the fire. Alone in the wood, an approaching stranger could be quite a disconcerting event. He had learned well from Conny that unwelcome surprises could lead to unwelcome injuries. Predators, both human and beast, tended to skirt the shadows before they...

 1 Naming “Grizz! Wake up! It’s time to go!” Grizzly Baby could hear her mother calling from inside the longhouse, and laughed out loud. She had already been up for hours. She awoke before the dawn, and waded down to the clear, cold salt water. She bathed, and said a little prayer to her long line of ancestors, naming each in the line until she got back to the beginning of the Saltwater People. She dressed, and gathered some nearby camas bulbs, devil’s club buds, fiddleheads, and a few gumboots from the base of the seaweed covered rocks. She thanked them all for the sustenance they would provide, and promised each one that their spirit would grow and flourish once it joined her own. It was not until she had prepared everything for the coming day, or perhaps days, that she heard her family begin to shuffle out of bed.  She whistled a loud, high pitched hummingbird call in response to her mother’s summons. Her mother gave a high “yew-uup” of celebration in response. There wa...