Part 24 (2/2)

11. Having her orang-utan sent to a laboratory.

12. Never having any birthday or Christmas presents.

13. Having frying pans thrown at her.

No matter how dreadful your own life is, at least you've never had to cut Aunt Candy's toenails. It is no doubt true that suffering shapes us. It may even trigger seemingly paranormal abilities. But could you or I ever possess the wisdom of the midiwiwin; a wisdom so powerful it masquerades as magic?

”What would I have to do to be like you, Ruby?” asks Sam.

The medicine woman smiles to herself. ”Learn to leave your body at will and travel anywhere on, above, or under, the earth. Then there's the initiation ceremony, of course.”

What initiation ceremony? It all depends which tribe you belong to, but here's a selection of tasks you might be asked to attempt. Do not try them at home they are dangerous. By the time the ambulance arrives, it will be too late, which will be an appalling waste: I need you later on.

Initiation ceremonies: 1. Being buried up to your neck in an ant's nest.

2. Walking on hot coals.

3. Diving through a hole in the ice.

4. Spending three days in a smoke-hole.

5. Going out into the snow for a week with a wet sheet around you.

6. Being strung up from hooks threaded through your skin.

7. Climbing a rope and staying at the top for nine days.

8. Sitting in a sweat lodge.

9. Wrestling a tiger.

10. Cutting off your little finger.

Years ago, Ruby had gone for initiation ceremony number ten she only has three fingers on one hand. Much as Sam wants to be like her, she doesn't like the idea of cutting off her own digits.

”It's not the pain,” she explains. ”But I'm a magician. I need all my fingers to perform.”

”So wrestle a tiger,” mutters Kitty.

I'm not sure why she's in such a snappy mood. Perhaps she isn't feeling well. She was complaining of chest pains earlier, but then she's always complaining about something.

”There aren't any tigers in Canada,” says Ruby. ”Choose again, Sam.”

Ant's nest. Hot coals. Smoke-hole ... how do you choose between them? Is it worse to be bitten by insects, to have your feet fried or to kipper your lungs? Sam can't make up her mind, so she asks Ruby to decide for her.

Ruby Featha touches her third eye and thinks carefully. ”Forget the list. You shall have your own special initiation, Sam Tabuh.”

THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.

Each person is born under one of twelve signs of the zodiac. Each astrological sign is believed to represent a certain colour and stone.

THE EAGLE'S NEST

Here are the details of Sam's initiation ceremony: she must climb the third tree on the third hill at three minutes past three o'clock. There is a bald eagle's nest at the top. She must spend the night in the nest and bring back a feather from its breast.

Kitty is worried. It's not because the tree is tall; Sam is an excellent climber. It's because bald eagles have an eight-foot wingspan, talons like butcher's hooks and deadly beaks. They're flying weapons. She takes Ruby to one side.

”Can't she walk on hot cakes instead?”

”It was hot coals,” says Sam. ”Stop fussing. I want to do the task Ruby set me. If the eagle turns nasty, I'll defend myself with the divining rod.”

She might as well attack a fighter plane with a lolly stick. But it's almost three o'clock. It's too late to back out of it. She remembers Mr Fraye's philosophy and thinks positive.

Lola wants to go with her, but Sam's not allowed to take a friend during this initiation; there are some things you have to do alone. Lola watches anxiously from underneath Kitty's robe as Sam makes her way to the third hill.

She reaches the third tree; it's a pine. It looks easy enough to climb, but as she pulls herself up on the first branch, she feels a sharp pain in her hand; the cones are covered in cruel spines. Blood oozes from her palms. She has no gloves but she does have her witch's cord. She loops it around the branches and uses it to haul herself up that way, she avoids lacerating her skin.

The tree is higher than the top flat in St Peter's Square. If you fell out of Aunt Candy's kitchen window (and once Aunt Candy almost managed to push Sam out) you'd probably break your neck. If Sam slips now, if the cord breaks... But think positive!

There's no sign of the eagle yet. It has lost its only chick. The chick leant over the edge of the nest a dangerous thing to do if you can't fly and fell while searching for its mother.

Sam climbs higher and higher. She hasn't avoided all the cones. Her hands are scratched and blistered but the pain doesn't register. This isn't unusual. In the heat of battle, soldiers are often unaware that they have been shot; it's only when the fighting stops that the pain starts.

Sam has six branches to go. The wind is getting up; the tree is swaying. Breathing deeply to overcome her nausea, she clings to the trunk, looping and knotting the witch's cord with her teeth. Using the movement of the tree as momentum, she la.s.soes the uppermost branch and, keeping the cord taut, inches herself up the trunk with her feet.

The eagle's nest is right above her head an untidy platform of twigs and branches knitted with bleached fish bones, snake spines and the regurgitated skulls of rodents. Sam flops into it, exhausted. She lies on her back and studies her hands. ”Ouch.” She licks her wounds. Her eyelids are heavy. If she loses consciousness she might fall out of the nest like the chick, so she uses the witch's cord to strap herself in.

The clouds sail by, shape-s.h.i.+fting into stampeding buffalo. She counts them: one buffalo, two buffalo, three ... thirty ... three hundred ... until she falls into a deep sleep. Far away in Covent Garden, she can hear Bart Hayfue singing: ”When the wind blows, the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks-”

Sam is woken up by an ear-splitting shriek; the eagle has returned. It glares at her, its beak poised like giant secateurs. She can feel the hot steam escaping through its nostrils. Her immediate thought is that it will rip her nose off and throw her over the side. The mother eagle is shocked to find a strange, featherless creature in her nest and, naturally, her first thought is to get rid of it. Aware that the eagle is still grieving for her baby, Sam protects herself by mimicking the cry of the chick.

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