Tides

The River commands life and death, and so we follow the ebb of its tide wherever the wind and the waves meet. Many callused feet have padded its bank, soles cradled by soil soaked and dried a thousand times over. There are crystal gems on the surface—fleeting so as not to be mined by human hands—glinting white-hot under the high noon. Millions of these jewels ripple through the current each day, a mix of broken sunlight and the scaly backs of salmon and silvery steelhead trout. We gaze gratefully at these creatures as they leap with new energy in autumn, abundant to fill our stomachs.

The bison and cattle are our companions at the River’s edge, kneeling like beasts in prayer to quench our animal thirsts. Reeds and stalks of long grass snap crisply under our strong grips, and their melon-green shafts wave healthily in the breeze. Deft hands will strip and mold them into a new purpose: the netted bottoms of baskets, a durable patch for a sitting mat, a cover for a sore foot. Hemp transforms into a sturdy blanket for one man’s back, the fibers stained a fiery crimson. What remains becomes a carrying pouch on a woman’s hip as she combs through the grass for roots.

Harsh words shatter the peace. The smooth brows of young children begin to crease. Quarrels ignite among men: stolen rations, a disgruntled loved one, a dead horse. Silver glints like daylight does on the River, this time clutched in the fist of fury. Limbs fly, chests are punctured. A welt becomes an ugly bruise beneath a sullen gaze. A man would find flecks of obsidian in his breast a week later, and another would learn to limp with his pierced hip. The tumult dies with the wind, indistinguishable in an instant. We find ourselves lulled again by the running River, a ceaseless tide of life and death.

Allison Hillmon

Editor’s Note:  Tides is a piece of creative writing submitted by Allison in May of 2016.  It is based on her research into the approximately 9,000 years old skeleton known as Kennewick Man, found along the Columbia River, near Kennewick, Washington in 1996.  “Tides” was submitted as part of Allison’s honors thesis at the University of Connecticut.