Pocahontas

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

POCAHONTAS

I sit down and think for a few minutes,"What if marrying Kocoum is the right path?"

Meeko eventually comes scampering out of the wigwam and Flit flies after him. Meeko crawls on my shoulder and scratches at my mothers necklace. to him it looks quite strange on me. I stand up and start pacing. "He wants me to be steady," I say, "Like the river,"

I rotate the necklace's jewel in my hand and look back at the river. Two otters jump in and out of the water in the same direction the river wildly flows, a never stopping adventure.

"But it's not steady at all!" I say. I jump into my canoe, pick up an oar, and begin to paddle. Flit flies along side me as I pull out into the river and Meeko jumps aboard at the last second. I begin to sing a song that just comes to me naturally.

"What I love most about rivers is you can't step in the same river twice, the water's always changing, ever flowing, but people I guess can't live like that we all must pay a price, to be safe we loose our chance of ever knowing, what's around the river bend, waiting just around the river bend!"

I paddle my canoe around the cliff I jumped from this morning and to the larger part of the river. gulls fly high above my head and the otters we saw earlier jump up out of the river at them.

"Beyond the shore, where the gulls fly free, don't know what for, "

I paddle to the other side of the larger river where a smaller river starts. I enter the mouth of the river and the water starts to get faster. "

what I dream the day might send, just around the river bend, for me, coming for me,"

I paddle behind a small waterfall, soaking Meeko and I. I don't mind but Meeko gives me an angry look.

"I feel it there behind those trees or right behind these waterfalls, can I ignore that sound of distant drumming,"

The water is moving fast enough now that i don't even have to paddle. We float out of the other side of the waterfall and past where a beaver slaps mud on his new home to keep it sturdy.

"For a handsome sturdy husband who builds handsome sturdy walls, and never dreams that something might be coming, just around the river bend,"

As we round the corner Meeko sees his least favorite part of the trip, the waterfall.

I push a few more times with my oar to get just a bit more forward momentum.

"Just around the river bend!"

The canoe points straight down the waterfall and we are falling, Meeko clutches the canoe with all his might as the water sprays us. We hit the bottom of the waterfall. and water drenches us.

"Just around the river bend! I look once more, just around the river bend!"

I paddle with all my might, weaving my way past the rocks, going as fast as a person in a canoe can go. The water splashes and rumbles. fish jump in and out of the water, swimming the direction of the river flows.

"Beyond the shore, somewhere past the sea! Don't know what for! why do all my dreams extend, just around the river bend!"

I see a rainbow that ends right in the middle of the river and we burst through it, the boat finally slowing down.

"Just around the river bend!"

Once we get through the waterfall I see where the river forks, and I know one way will take me to Grandmother willow who always is urging me to do what's right and do what I feel is best. But the the other path is the smoothest course, the way Father would want me to take.

"Should I choose the smoothest course, steady as the beating drum,"

I look over th edge of the canoe to see the reflection of Kocoum next to me. He holds his hand out as if asking me in person to marry him.

"Should I marry kocoum?"

My hand reaches out to grab his, and I know this will be the best path for me to take, "Is all my dreaming at and end?"

My hand retracts, and Kocoum's reflection disappears.

"Or do you still wait for me dream giver, just around the river bend,"

I take the smaller river on the right that will lead me to Grandmother Willow.