WEATHER STATIONS

a few moments, the animal finds Tekk again amongst the crowd. It’s like some electric
current passes between their eyes. But then suddenly two zookeepers distract the bear
by throwing a large rubber seal into the enclosure, their hope being to get the depressed
bear to do some exercise. Knat seems to be roused into an angry state, leaping from his
rock, and starts to tear the rubber seal apart.
Tekk turns away in disgust. He drags Hans away from the enclosure to a bench near
a tree. With a sigh, he continues the story: ‘So the big black raven chased after his wife,
steadily gaining on her, riding on the wind. Finally he swooped down on the kayak.
Sedna’s father took his paddle and struck at the raven, but missed it. The huge bird
continued to harass them. Finally the raven swooped down near the kayak and flapped
his wing upon the ocean. A vicious storm began to brew. The calm ocean soon became a
raging torrent, tossing the tiny kayak to and fro. Sedna’s father became very frightened.
He grabbed Sedna and threw her over the side of the kayak into the ocean. “Here,” he
screamed: “here is your precious wife. Please do not hurt me. Take her!” Sedna screamed
and struggled as her body began to go numb in the icy arctic waters. She swam to the
kayak and reached up, her fingers grasping the side of the boat. Her father, terrified by
the raging storm, thought only of himself, as he had always done. He grabbed the paddle
and began to pound against Sedna’s fingers. Sedna screamed for her father to stop but to
no avail. Her frozen fingers cracked and fell off into the ocean. Gradually, all her fingers
turned into seals and swam away under the water. She tried again to swim and cling
to her father’s kayak, but again he grabbed the paddle and began beating at her hands.
Sedna’s hands froze and cracked off. The stumps slowly drifted to the bottom of the sea,
this time turning into whales and walruses. Sedna could fight no more and began to
sink.’
‘What a sad story,’ Hans gasps. ‘The father is as bad as the raven.’
‘In Sedna’s desperation,’ Tekk went on, ‘she turned her body parts into sea creatures
— her hair became millions of shrimps and little fish, her intestines became lobsters
and octopuses, her sorrow became seaweed and her longing became a sand dune on
the beach. Finally her red dress became the Mara Mountain towards the North Pole,
protecting people from the icy wind. Now all the hungry Inuit families could get their
food from the rich sea which had become filled with sea animals. They could now build
their huts at the foot of the mountain. It is for this reason in our region that after a
hunter catches a seal he will kneel towards the direction of the Mara Mountain and drop
water into the mouth of the mammal before he kills it, a gesture to thank Sedna. Sedna is
our sea goddess.’
‘But what happened to that horrible father and the evil bird?’ Hans asks.
‘Both the father and the evil bird were taken by a polar bear. Actually the polar bear
was the master bear of that region and he knew all this was going on. So he punished the
raven and the father.’
Tekk has finished his story. They both grow silent, as they gaze back into the
distance. Inside the fence, the bear has already retreated into his cave. Hans sees this
as an opportunity to leave. He promises Tekk that they will come back to see Knat
tomorrow.
7.
The evening passes for Tekk without any significant moments. He is in some grand
restaurant, with the most beautiful seafood and meat before him, with luminous
candles on the table and inky red wines and golden beer. But Tekk only manages to
eat two pieces of roast beef. He feels depressed, although many friendly delegates are
trying to hold a conversation with him. But he has no vocabulary for the cultured white
A THOUSAND WORDS FOR SNOW
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