# Read the first page of Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Read the opening of Five Little Indians by Michelle Good free, no signup. Survivors of a residential school rebuild fractured lives together.

- Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/five-little-indians-michelle-good
- Genre: Literary fiction
- Year: 2020
- ISBN: 9781443459198
- Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781443459198&s=read-page
- Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9781443459198
- Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9781443459198

## The opening

Clara stood behind Mariah’s cabin, the late summer warmth rising from the soil. She looked down the hill and watched Mariah’s helpers readying the sweat lodge. She turned and headed toward the cabin door, a silvery glimmer distracting her. She looked east and saw the beginnings of the many trails she and Mariah had walked so many years ago. She thought she saw her dog, now long dead, a ghostly image running ahead of her as he had done then. She made her way toward the beginning of the trail she and Mariah had often walked to set snares, a faint tinkling rising on the breeze from the grove around the lodge. She walked, oblivious to time, only turning back when the sun was high and the birch leaves shimmered all around her.

It was just after noon when she got back to the cabin. Kendra stood in the doorway, looking this way and that, smiling, when her eyes fell on Clara.

“I was wondering where you went. You okay?”

“Lot of memories out there.” Clara reached out and hugged the young woman. Kendra was as close as she came to having a child, the daughter of her closest and oldest friend. The women entered the cabin to find Mariah preparing her smudge bowl.

“Come here, you two.”

Clara and Kendra sat with Mariah as she lit her smudge, a special combination of many different medicines. As she prayed in her soft Cree, Clara leaned over and took Kendra’s hand. They prayed in silence as Mariah prepared an offering for the ancients. They opened their eyes, relaxed, an air of peace beautifying the simple cabin. The truck would be here soon. Clara leaned over to Mariah.

“Kendra’s a doctor, you know. First Indian doctor in Canada.”

Kendra corrected her. “Aboriginal.”

Clara rolled her eyes. “Native. Aboriginal. Whatever. Call me Indian till they get it right in the Indian Act.”

Mariah put her hand over Clara’s. “Now. No politics here.”

“Mariah’s a doctor too.” Clara nodded, looking at Kendra. “She sure fixed me up.”

Kendra shrugged, her discomfort plain.

Clara laughed and squeezed the young woman’s hand.

“Mariah’s got a whole different kind of science. She learned it here. Didn’t need no fancy school.”

The three women fell silent, waiting. Before too long the truck pulled up. The driver climbed out, waving at the women as they walked out to meet him.

Mariah nodded and pointed. “There’s some helpers by the lodge. You’ll need them.” The driver headed around back of the cabin and the women went inside, Clara making tea for the newly arrived.

Vera, the driver’s wife, pulled up a chair to the kitchen table.

“Did you find a place?”

Mariah nodded. “Not too far from the lodge.”

Clara had just poured the tea when Mariah nodded toward the window. “Here come the helpers.” She rose as the men joined them in the cabin.

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