Never Cry Wolf Page #3

they go up into your brain

and they eat it out.

Scat? What is scat?

Uh...

Wolf droppings.

See, the idea behind this is

if you study what comes out of a wolf,

you get a pretty good idea what went in.

Hmm.

I got a whole bag of them down there.

I got a whole sack.

What did he say?

He says, "Good idea,"

And so they settled in with me,

as if nothing could be more natural.

For my part,

I'm glad to have the company.

A seven.

Mike had gone to school in the south.

When his parents died,

Ootek adopted him.

Traditionally, they are no orphans

among the Inuit.

I met a girl in a bar,

and she wanted me to buy her drinks,

so I bought her some.

And then after a while,

she wanted to come home with me.

But I made a mistake.

I smiled at her.

That's what happens when a meat eater

becomes a sugar eater.

Ootek has taken

a particular interest in the study,

though I've learned there is little about

wolves that he doesn't already know.

But I sense there is another side to Ootek,

some part of his nature

that he hasn't shown.

I try not to annoy him

with too many questions,

but there are many things I'd like to know.

When he was young

he used to follow the wolves on their hunts.

The wolf is his helping spirit: amarok.

-Ama...

-Amarok.

-Ama...

-The wolf.

He went 30 days without food

and without protection from the cold.

Then he saw the wolf.

He felt the wolf bite into his heart.

When he woke up, he was all in one piece.

That's how the wolf

became his helping spirit.

I wonder what makes them howl like that.

They howl when they're lonely.

Or to call their friends.

That way, the other...

the others will know where they are,

and then sooner or later

they're bound to meet up.

That's the way to catch wolves.

Go where they're howling.

Hide behind a rock,

and then howl like one of them.

And then... they will come to investigate.

Yeah?

When they get close enough,

you shoot 'em.

You shoot 'em.

Hopefully you hit 'em.

That's how you kill a wolf.

To me, wolves mean money.

It's a way of making a living.

One wolf pelt costs about $350.

And I've got to feed my family.

My children.

Buy a snowmobile,

food, rifle, bullets, whatever.

You wouldn't...

I mean, you wouldn't kill these wolves?

These ones? Oh.

No. I don't think so.

Besides, you would get mad

if I killed one of them.

And your gun is bigger than mine.

Yeah.

I'd like to, though.

Last week in August.

The Arctic summer has almost ended.

As the time grows short, I'm reluctant to

even sleep, for fear of missing something.

It's hard to imagine

that soon I'll have to leave.

But this place doesn't belong to man.

It belongs to the wolves.

I can't really be sad, because it's here

that I've begun to feel wonder again,

like when I was a kid,

and this makes me deeply happy.

I wish I could say thank so,

just so, straight into the universe.

The rest of Ootek's family,

traveling through on their way north,

stopped by to spend the night.

He wants me to tell you a story

of when there was nothing in the world

except for a man and a woman.

The woman came to a hole in the ice,

and she reached in and felt something,

so she pulled it out.

And it was a tuktu, which is the caribou.

And it was this animal that the Inuit

needed for their food and clothing.

For many years there were so many

caribou that the people called them lice.

But soon all the hunting killed off

all the fat, healthy animals,

and the only ones left over

were the weak, sick ones.

Soon they began to breed and multiply,

and the herd got weak.

Sick.

So the people came back to the woman

to ask her what to do.

She went back to the hole in the ice,

because she needed a tool

to cut the sickness out of the herd,

and the amarok was born.

Amarok.

The wolves hunted the caribou

and they killed off all the weak, sick ones,

and the people had

all the caribou that they needed.

She says maybe you're like Ootek.

Maybe a long time ago

the wolf devoured you.

He knows, doesn't he?

He knows what they're saying.

The caribou are coming south

and the hunting will be good,

and the amarok will be there.

We broke camp

and went in separate directions.

Mike went south, while Ootek

led me on a three-day trek,

down out of the high country

and on to the tundra.

There will be wolves there,

he said, as well as the "tuktu",

the great caribou herds

that once had sustained his people.

His endurance

is very much greater than mine,

but there are no expectations of me.

Not, I think, because I am the "kabloona,"

the white man,

but because he doesn't recognize

such a thing as impatience.

Whoo!

Deep in the bone,

the marrow reveals the disease.

And she had found the tool

to cut the sickness from the herd.

Gunfire and the smell of gasoline.

Come on, right over here!

Hello, Rosie,

Is that you, Tyler?

They called off the search.

They wrote you off.

I even said a few Hail Marys for you myself.

But I never believed in ghosts.

How are you?

-You all right? You got all your pieces?

-I'm all right, yeah,

-You've changed.

-I've changed?

What the hell you been

doing out here, anyway?

Tyler, you wouldn't believe what's

happened. It's fantastic. I hit the jackpot.

Two new planes, a new hotel.

Have you seen an old Inuk?

Inuk? Eskimo? Drunk or sober?

Quite sober.

Join the party.

Altogether, 1400 acres.

Top of the mountain down to the lake,

including mineral rights.

But the real ace in the hole for us right now

is the hot spring right up there.

Amazing. Incredible. Steaming hot water

coming right out of the ground.

When I say hot water,

what are you thinking?

Sitting in the bath tub?

Japanese. A little bit of advertising,

plenty of raw fish.

Beautiful country all right.

Limitless possibilities.

Japanese. That's a great angle, Rosie,

Wait. You haven't heard the best part.

Listen to this.

Once they've soaked their little buns

in our magic, medicinal hot spring,

you bottle it up, stick a fancy label on it,

they take it home with them.

Before you know it, we'll be

shipping it outta here by the truckload.

And what does it cost us? Nothing.

Just bubbles right out of the ground.

I bet you we could figure out a way

to bottle the air up here, too.

Fantastic.

Gentlemen, here's to the future.

Watch the horns.

Come on, Tyler. Climb in.

I'm taking you out.

Look, Tyler, maybe you can't see it,

but you've gone round the bend a little.

I know. I've seen it before.

Come on. Get in the...

I know where your camp is, Tyler.

I'll meet you there in a couple of days.

We'll talk it over.

How could he have known about

Lupus Base unless he'd been there?

To get back would be

a three-day hike for me,

but for him, it's only minutes away.

Pups, where's your folks?

It's pretty lonely around here.

Don't you worry about anything.

Everything's gonna be just fine.

Get outta there!

Get out of here, Rosie!

I don't want you here! Get out of here!

Get away!

Mike.

What are you doing here?

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