Our Only May Amelia: Chapters 1–3

I said But Ivan and Alvin go up by themselves and he said May Amelia, I will not abide any arguments.

I say Wilbert I reckon I would like to be buried in the sorcerer tree when I die, and he says Fine May but you’re not likely to die anyways.

Wilbert swears to me that the Baby Island is accursed on account of the Chinook spirits that wander there but I think he is only just scared and he calls things names when he is scared of them.

We live in a valley on a homestead along the Nasel.

Mamma just sits there and says, Alice are you here to help or to hinder ’cause I ain’t abiding any hinderers right now.

Aunt Feenie says she’ll be right lonely with Henry being gone and has decided to get a cooking job with Nora Fuller at Ben Armstrong’s logging camp which is situated a few miles away up the Nasel from our farm.

It’ll be nice to have gentlemen around, Aunt Alice says, skeptically eyeing the twins.

One time Pappa had his tonsils taken out by a doctor in Astoria at the St. Mary’s Hospital with no ether or anything and then he took the boat from Astoria to Knappton and then ran all the way back home!

You also have to be careful of all the snags in the water, what with the logging men sending lumber downriver. Sometimes they pile up like beaver houses and the boat gets stuck.

He talks about having the dysentery all through one winter, no shoes to speak of, nothing to eat but dried-out rotting venison and how he deserted the army after he got his fingers shot off by a boy of no more than twelve.

But she’s twelve now! Wilbert says, exasperated.

They both nod reluctantly.

Pappa says that Astoria is a wild roughneck town full of lawless roughriders and swindlers and harlots but it looks pretty tame to me.

In the teeming crowds I notice strange-looking men with slender eyes and long black pigtails.

Well, Aunt Alice says, I am simply thrilled that you are at my humble house, so please dears, do come inside and let’s retire to the dining room.

Why, even the gravy Aunt Alice serves with the salmon is made with real cream and it is white and delicious, not all gristly- looking like what I am used to, especially when I am doing the cooking.

Alvin whispers into Wilbert’s ear and he starts laughing too at my predicament.

Wilbert tells me they are practically as stupid as people, the way they are always getting tangled up in the blackberry brambles.

Me and Wilbert and Ivan and Alvin and Kaarlo and Wendell and Isaiah walk out to the back pasture where the sheeps are grazing.

Kaarlo grouses. Those sheeps were a lousy investment, he says. Old Mr. Krouer tricked your pa into buying them.

He hates it more than anything when Pappa has to slaughter a sheep. He never eats mutton when I cook it for supper.

It’s hot as can be now that it is July and the sheeps are in a real ornery mood.

One of the sheeps has got some bad cuts and Ivan and Alvin must slather some flaxseed poultice on it so it doesn’t get infected.

Dumb sheep! Alvin says with a grimace, shaking his hand.

But Dr. Gray just peddles fake tonics and pretends at being a doctor, Wendell says.

But Dr. Gray just peddles fake tonics and pretends at being a doctor, Wendell says.

It just about makes my own heart break looking at that tiny little baby swaddled up with its mamma.

They have the mamma Indian all laid out like she’s supper or something what with flowers and baskets of fruits and trinkets and cooking pots all around her.

I suspect these brothers of mine have been listening to too many of Jacob Clayton’s tales and their brains are addled.

He pulls out a tiny kitten. Its eyes are closed and it fits in my two hands, it is that small. It’s got calico markings and it nuzzles against my hand.