The Totem

“Hey, will you shut up already?We got people approaching,” said Eagle.

“You telling me to shut up?  You’re the one who babbles incessantly.  Can’t get you to shut up, not even when you’re sleeping,” complained the Wolf.

“Oh, you’re a great one to talk.  You could at least enunciate   Shut up!  They’re nearly here!”

The crunch of gravel alerted them to the close proximity of their visitors.  “I wonder what these ones want,” complained Wolf under his breath.  Eagle was tempted to bat Wolf’s ears with his large wings, but couldn’t without being seen.

A young man and a young woman, both in their early twenties, approached the totem.  The young woman wiped tears off her face with a tattered tissue she’d grabbed from her pocket.  “I will not have an abortion, and you can’t make me, so stop it,” she pleaded.

“But if you have the baby, then our lives will change permanently.  If I’m going to support you, I’ll have to quit school, and you know I can’t get a decent job without at least a Master’s degree, and I don’t want to quit, not when I’m so close to completing it.”

“You don’t have to support me.  I’ll move back in with my parents.  Then you don’t have to worry about a thing.  You can get your degree, unburdened by either me or our child.”  Fresh tears streamed down her face.

The young man put his arm on her shoulder as if to comfort her, but she pulled away.  “And you know if you do that, your parents will find a way to prevent us from ever being together.  You know they hate me, and they’ll manipulate you and guilt you.  You know that.  That’ll be ending us permanently.  Is that what you want?”  His voice rose a few decibels.

“Stephen, stop it!  You know we don’t have a lot of options.  What else is there to do?”  She turned to look at him.  “No, I told you, an abortion is out of the question.  Give me an option I can live with.”  She took a couple steps back, into the arms of the wolf on the old wooden totem carved by Ucluelet Indians hundreds of years before.  The wolf’s piercing eyes stared down at the couple, his white teeth bared menacingly as he clutched a cat to his stomach.  An eagle with a large yellow beak and eyes wide open perched on his head.

“Just give me an option that works.  For both of us.”  Her face took on a pale sheen as her eyes closed momentarily.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out.  “I don’t feel too well.”  She crumpled to the ground at the base of the totem. “I’m getting cramps.  I don’t want cramps.  I don’t want to lose this baby!  Stephen, help me,” she pleaded.

Stephen rushed to her side, kneeling beside her.  He put his hand on her face, studying her.  He opened his mouth as if to speak, then hesitated.  As she turned whiter, he sputtered.  “Okay, I get it.  This baby is important to you.  Why don’t we get married?  We’re planning on that anyway.  This is just sooner than I’d counted on, and then we can get family housing and qualify for family health insurance.  Money will be tight, but I think we can do it and it’ll still let me finish the degree.  We’ll be a lot poorer than I’d like, but we can manage.  What do you say, Ems, will you marry me?”  He looked shocked that he would suggest such a thing.

She took a deep breath, her eyes barely open.  “Is this what you really want?  I don’t want you marrying me out of obligation.  Only if you really mean it, Stephen.  Do you?”

Stephen studied her and relaxed.  “Yes, Ems, I really mean it.  Will you marry me?”

Ems smiled and looked at him.  “Yes, oh yes!”  Color returned to her cheeks.  “Oh, the cramps are gone.  I feel a lot better.”  Stephen reached out an arm and helped her to her feet.

“How soon do you want to get married?”

Emma shrugged.  “It’s up to you, but I don’t see a point in waiting.  Do you?”

He smiled.  “Not if we can have a small wedding.  You know I hate crowds.”

She laughed.  “Okay, small wedding it is.  Say, a dozen or so?  Our parents and sibs only. Tomorrow, at the church, if we can get the license today.”

He laughed.  “You’re on.  Shall we do that, then get the rings?”  They wandered off down the worn foot path.

“Wolf, you weren’t giving her a miscarriage, were you?”

“You didn’t change his mind, did you, Eagle?”

“Wolf, you need to stop meddling in people’s lives.  Let them alone!”

“I will if you will.” They both smiled.

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