Jell-O for the village feast

December 23rd 3:16 pm | Donna Sauraq Erickson

It was late afternoon as Sauraq made her way across the village under the shimmer of the Northern Lights. It was cold and the hard-packed snow squeaked under her mukluk boots. She thought of the Kinuyakii playing football with her head and sang a song as she ran.

"Kinguyakii, kinguyakii, ungii ungiii yah!..."

Sauraq's heart beat fast and she looked over her shoulder to make sure the great polar bear would watch her from afar. The village seemed empty, the soft glow of light from the windows of some of the houses being the only sign of life. Sauraq made a big circle when she passed Tukle's house. A team of huskies lay curled motionless nearby, their backs to the wind and their noses tucked under their tails as the blown snow drifted over them.

Sauraq hurried into the outer porch of her parent's home, relieved to be out of the biting wind. It was warm inside. She went into the interior of the house. It was bathed in a soft yellow light and tinsel on the Christmas tree glistened in a corner. The smell of caribou soup simmering on the stove and Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" playing from the old army radio.

Her mom knelt on the linoleum floor with an ulu in her hand. She was trimming a kamik sole for new boots for one of her children to wear at the Christmas program. Sauraq removed her pullover parka, took her boots off, tied the strings together, and hung them up. She took the grass out from inside of the mukluks and placed them near the furnace to dry out. Sauraq sat on the floor and watched her mother measure with her hands the length of the sole, two hand spans long and one hand span wide.

"Put some water in the kettle to boil." Mama interrupted Sauraq's thoughts. "We have to make Jell-O for the village feast."

Sauraq wondered who the mukluks were going to be for as she helped her mom make green Jell-O in a big metal bowl. Sauraq felt happy inside as she imagined wearing new boots to the Christmas village feast. She ran to the window to see if the Northern Lights were still dancing.