The summer days were long, the air was hot, and the women worked hard encouraging the ground to give life to their seeds. Angie would watch the boys fishing upstream while she was doing the washing downstream. She yearned to be fishing with them. It intrigued her to watch the fish fight while being drawn through the water. The fight for life and death, and the need to bring food home for the families. She wanted to be part of that contribution to the village. She knew that working with the crops was important. She knew she was helping to feed the village. But she wanted to experience the thrill of the struggle, between her and the fish. Could she bring in a trout, a large trout, and would Halona finally be proud of her?
She left her washing and walked up the shoreline to where the boys were. They looked up at her with inquisitive eyes.
“I would like to learn to fish,” she bravely said to no one in particular, but all of them in general. “Will you teach me?”
The boys began to laugh among themselves.
“Stupid girl,” Enyeto said. “Girls do not hunt, girls do not fish.”
Angie wanted to push him in the river, but she restrained herself and challenged him, “Are you afraid that I will catch a bigger fish than you?”
Enyeto laughed again, “No one can catch fish as large as I can.”
Elsu looked at Enyeto and said, “I will teach her.”
Enyeto shot him a surprised look and his mouth fell open, struggling for the right words to say.
“Come tomorrow morning,” Elsu said to Angie, “and I will teach you to fish.”
“Thank you!” Angie smiled, “I will be here!”
She clasped her hands and ran back down to her washing, excited to learn the art of fishing.
Early the next morning, Angie ran down to the river, but Elsu was nowhere to be found. She looked up and down the shore and back up to the village, but no sign of Elsu. She sat down on the shore and pulled her knees up to her chest, laying her head down, despondent. Her disappointment began to overwhelm her and anger began to grow inside of her.
“Stupid boys,” she muttered. “You cannot trust them. They tell you one thing and then they do just the opposite. I do not like boys. I do not like them at all!”
“I brought you a line, but we will need to make a pole,” Elsu said as he walked up behind her.
Angie turned to see Elsu’s smile and immediately felt remorseful for jumping to conclusions. She jumped to her feet and was eager to catch her first fish.
After Elsu spent time showing Angie how to prepare a proper fishing pole and how to cast the line, Angie felt the frustration of casting out the line herself, over and over again. Elsu tried not to laugh at her awkwardness. His patience and her persistence helped Angie to become more adept at the skill. He praised her every time she made a good cast and she was finally able to get comfortable with the pole.
Waiting for the fish to bite was another challenge altogether. He had much more patience than she did, and she would get anxious for the fish to make its move. Suddenly, she felt a tug on her line.
“I think I caught a fish!” she yelled excitedly.
Elsu put his arms around Angie and showed her how to bring the fish in. At first, it bothered Angie to feel Elsu’s arms around her, but the struggle of the fish took her mind off Elsu and on the struggle to win the fight. To show the boys that she could catch a fish too, to show Halona that she could help bring home food. The fish jerked back and forth, and the smile on her face was infectious. Elsu smiled as well and worked hard with Angie as they continued to drag the fish closer and closer to the shore.
“It is big!” Angie yelled.
Elsu laughed and kept up the tension until they both pulled the fish up on shore. Angie was so excited to see her large trout.
“It must be the biggest trout ever!” she boasted.
“One of the biggest,” Elsu agreed.
She knelt down next to Elsu to watch him carefully gut and clean the fish. At first, the idea of cleaning the fish was appalling, but she was also fascinated to watch the process, since she intended to do it herself with the next fish she caught. When he was finished, he handed the fish to her. She looked down at the fish lying in her open palms and then looked up at Elsu and said, “Thank you!”
Elsu kept staring at Angie’s eyes, and it was starting to make her uncomfortable. They were entirely too close, she realized. Suddenly, Elsu leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. She was taken aback by her first kiss, and alarm came over her. She jumped to her feet and said, “Do not ever do that again!”
She turned to leave, but stopped herself just long enough to throw the fish at him.
“You keep it!” she said as she quickly stomped up the hill to her camp. Elsu stared at her rash retreat, and then smiled to himself.
As she sat in front of the teepee that day, watching Halona weaving a basket, she couldn’t help think about her first kiss. She didn’t like it, but somehow, that kiss intrigued her. She decided she wouldn’t tell anyone. All she knew was that she would keep her distance from Elsu from then on.
Angie was becoming bored with her daily chores and began looking for something to keep her interest, other than fishing. She felt too old for dolls and chasing crows from the corn fields, and she loved to watch the women of the village make baskets. She had asked Halona to teach her the craft, but Halona waved her away and said, “No time, no time.”
A couple days soon after that, she was looking at the basket that Kimana’s mother, Waneta, was weaving. She hesitated to ask, but soon heard the words coming out of her mouth, “Will you please teach me to weave a basket?”
“Yes, mother!” Kimana agreed, “Teach us!”
Before she knew it, Angie and Kimana were sitting next to Waneta and learning to weave their very first basket. Every spare minute Angie had, she sat with Kimana and Waneta working on weaving different colored reeds into a round form. It helped Angie forget about her crocheted blanket and discover a new outlet for her frustration.
When she finished her basket, she thought it looked wonderful, even though a bit crooked and uneven, and she was anxious to show it to Halona.
“Look Halona!” she said excitedly as she held up her basket proudly. “Look what I made!”
The old woman glanced at Angie’s project, shook her head, and went back to weaving her own basket that showed many years of perfection.
Angie took her basket into the teepee and set it next to her bedding. Next to her Shoshone dress, it was her first personal belonging since coming to the village and she was very pleased with it.
This will be the first of many more, she told herself, and I will make the most beautiful baskets in the village! Someday, Halona will be proud of me. Someday, I will see her smile.
The Mountain War