The Big Snapper Read Online Free Page B

Granddad. He’s spent hours imagining what they might catch.
    After he eats, Eddie splashes down the path that leads beneath the trees between the cabins. The rain is not falling as heavily as it had sounded to Eddie from inside the house, but the world around him is certainly drenched. He stiffens when water from the dripping branches makes its way down his collar and the back of his neck.
    Jake lives farther along the shore, closer to the village than the Jamesons. He lives with his older sister, Peggy, and her husband, Fred. Jake’s father was drowned in a terrible storm when Jake was only two. His mother lives in the village in a tiny house next to the General Market. She is very old for a mother, much older than Eddie’s own mother. When she began to have trouble caring for Jake, Peggy and Fred invited him to live with them. Eddie likes Fred very much. He is good to the two boys, and he’s always right there when Granddad needs help moving something heavier than Eddie can lift. Today, Fred and Jake are delivering a load of firewood to Jake’s mother.
    Jake and Eddie carry the split cedar to Fred who stands in the back of the truck and piles it up. He covers it with a tarp, so that pieces don’t fly into the windshields of vehicles behind them, and they crowd into the cab. The truck bounces in the deep ruts now overflowing with water. Fred laughs and tells them that people on the mainland pay big money for rides like this.
    When they arrive at Mrs. Greenshaw’s house, they unload the wood into the woodshed. Eddie gets a sliver in the palm of his hand. Mrs. Greenshaw has him sit at the kitchen table.
    â€œNow hold still, Eddie. Just watch those two out the window and make sure they don’t get into trouble.”
    Through the kitchen window, Eddie watches Jake and Fred stacking wood. He sees Mrs. Greenshaw’s dog, Flounder, steal a stick of fire-wood from the shed. Fred sees it too and runs after him, but he slips and falls on his butt on the wet grass. Flounder drops the stick and wags his tail, waiting for someone to chase him. He seems to think that by falling down Fred is trying to get out of the game. Eddie laughs. Mrs. Greenshaw has removed the sliver with tweezers. She is rubbing Eddie’s palm withsome kind of berries pounded into a paste and mixed with oil.
    â€œThere, now. That should heal in no time. Now tell me, what’s wrong that you aren’t fishing with your granddad today?”
    Mrs. Greenshaw knows Granddad fishes every day and that when school is out, Eddie goes with him. She knows the routines of everyone in the village and when they’re not followed she likes to know why.
    â€œHe’s not feeling very well.”
    â€œOh? What’s wrong with him?”
    â€œHe’s worn out. Mom says he overdid it fishing by himself yesterday.”
    Mrs. Greenshaw holds a finger before her lips and frowns. “How is his walking?”
    â€œStill slow.”
    She turns and ponders her shelf of bottles and jars. Mrs. Greenshaw makes ointments and medicine from plants, berries and roots in the same way that her Haida ancestors did. Jake and Eddie often go with her into the woods to help search for what she needs. They dig up spruce roots and pick licorice fern, which is good for colds and sore throats. They gather wild crab apples, devil’s club and fireweed. Mrs. Greenshaw scrapes or boilsthe bark and pounds the berries. She’s always got pots and kettles simmering on the stove. She now reaches for a jar of something that looks like ash.
    â€œTell your granddad to add a good heaping spoonful of this to his tea three times a day.”
    Eddie takes the jar and thanks her.
    â€œHow is his shaking?”
    â€œIt seems to be getting worse. He only caught two rock cod yesterday because he has trouble getting the octopus on the hook.”
    â€œHmm. Well, how are his stories? Is he still telling stories?”
    â€œOh,