Pocahontas

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

POCAHONTAS

My eyebrows regain the questioning crease as John Smith continues talking. he leaps up on a low branch of the tree that shades us and swings back and forth.

"We'll show your people how to use this land properly," he says. "How to make the most of it,"

"Make the most of it?" I ask him.

"Yes," he replies, "We'll build roads and decent houses,"

"Our houses are fine," I nearly shout my angry objection.

John Smith swings down and land in front of me.

"You think that, only because you don't know any better," he says.

I've heard enough. I turn on my heels and march towards my canoe.

"Don't take it that way!" John Smith shouts.

"How else should I take it?!" I reply.

I jump in my canoe and begin to paddle.

"Wait!" shouts John Smith. He jumps in front of my canoe and hold it in place.

"There's so much we can teach you!" he says, "We've improved the lives of savages all over the world!"

"Savages!" I shout. I'm enraged now.

"Not that you're a savage,"

"Just my people?"

"No, listen, that's not what I meant, let me explain,"

"Let go!"

I begin to paddle backwards so I can get around John Smith but his grip is to sturdy.

"I'm not letting you leave untill I've finished," says John Smith.

I stare him down for a moment and whe hew least expects it I jump up from my canoe and onto the branch that extends just above me. I begin to climb. John Smith follows in a slow pursuit.

"don't do that!" he shouts as he climbs. "Savage is just a word, you know, a term for people who are uncivilized,"

"Like me?" I ask.

"Well when I say un-civilized what I mean is..."

John Smith doesn't get to finish his sentence. The branch he's holding onto snaps and he plummets fifteen feet to the ground, landing on his rear. His helmet falls behind him and land on his head.

I climb down quickly and land on the ground beside him. I raise the his helmet to uncover his eyes, the same as he did for me.

"What you mean is not like you," I say.

"You think I'm an ignorant savage, and you've been so many places I guess it must be so,"

I hand him his fire weapon and tell him who's who

"But still I cannot see, if the savage one is me, how can there be so much that you don't know...you don't know.

I walk with him to the ridge where I can see his people have set up camp. I stick a large stick in the ground, immitating how I saw the purple man do it earlier.

"You think you own whatever land you land on, the earth is just a dead thing you can claim,"

I walk to the bottom of the hill and crouch between a rock and a tree. I touch them and feel the life flowing through them

"But I know every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a name,"

We walk further into the woods until we come upon a bear on the ledge above us.

"You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you,"

John Smith raises his lightning weapon and points at the bear, but I calmly lower the machine. We climb the ledge and walk to the bear's home in the tree. A cub wanders out. I pick him up and hand him to John Smith. The bear playfully swats at John Smith's face.

"But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew,"

"Have you ever heard the wolf cry to a blue colored moon? Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grins? can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, can you paint with all the colors of the wind? Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

we prance through the field and over the waterfall. We pull ourselves out of the waterfall when we reach the bottom and dry off by running the paths of the forest.

"Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest, Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth,"

We exit the Pine path and come into a clearing in a patch of sunflowers. We fall onto the ground and roll down a small hill.

"Come roll in all the ritches all the riches all around you, and for once never wonder what they're worth,"

Next we run to the Edge of the bay where the large river deposits sediment that has gathered into an island. We swim to the island and lay on the warm sand.

"The rainstorm and the river are my brothers, the Heron and the Otter are my friends, and we are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hoop that never ends,"

After a while we swim back to the shore and loose ourselves in the dense woods. We come across a clearing with one dead tree. Two Eagles swoop down. One lands sturdily on my arm, surprisingly the other on John Smith's.

"How high does the Sycamore grow?"

After a while of holding the brids we launch them from our arms back to their nest at the top of the tree.

"If you cut it down, then you'll never know,"

We wander further into the forest until we come out on a VERY high cliff ledge.

"And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue colored moon, for whether we are white or copper skinned, we need to sing with all the voices of the mountain, need to paint with all the colors of the wind,"

I pick up a handfull of dirt and dump it into John Smith's hands.

"You can have the Earth and still, all you'll own is Earth until you can paint...with all the colors...of...the...wind.

I realize John smith is grasping my hands and we are closer than before. I think he's understood all I've said. Because of his arrogance earlier I thought I might not have been able to convince him. I was wrong. I was wrong about him. He's not the man I thought he was, he's...different. He's...special.