TODAY we went to Skiddam Flats. It’s the Queen’s birthday, and we get to go there this time every year. All the junior, intermediate and high school girls go with our supervisors. Father Sloane came too, to go fishing with us. He usually comes to visit the girls every day after school in the rec. He teases us and tells us jokes. One of the girls lets his cigarette ashes fall in her hands so they won’t go on the floor.
Mr. Gorky came and picked us up in the cattle truck, and drove us all up into the hills. He runs the farm part of the school. I was cold and I had a headache, but once I got up there I felt happy. It reminded me of the place my dad takes us fishing in the springtime at home, up at Pothole Lake, near a place called Sugarloaf because it looks like a loaf of bread from far away.
There’s cows up there grazing in the hills like at home. They’re Herefords like our cows. Last year two of the high school girls got lost. They were from Vancouver, a big city. They never saw a cow before and suddenly they saw one right on the trail in front of them. They didn’t know what it was. They screamed and ran into the bushes to hide. So they missed the truck and got left. Father Sloane had to drive back and pick them up.
The first thing I wanted to do today was run up a bare hill I saw. That’s what we do at home when my dad takes us out into the hills. But Sister Theo told us to eat our lunch, Freshie and jam sandwiches. She handed out small fish hooks and fishing line. Then she told us to get some sticks to make a fishing pole and walk to the lake to do some fishing.
It was about a mile to the lake. I walked there with Dorothy and Missy and Cookie and Pearl. Father Sloane came with us and talked with Dorothy. Dorothy always knows what to say to people. Me I get so shy, I blush and look down.
When we were almost at the lake we saw a porcupine on the road. It climbed a tree when it saw us, and we stood watching it for awhile. I wondered what my dad would say to the porcupine if he were there. He always says something in Indian to animals. He smiles when he talks to them, or chuckles. They look at him for awhile like they understand what he’s saying. Then they walk away slowly, not scared. My dad says that the skunk is the king of beasts because even a grizzly bear will back away from a skunk.
We fished all afternoon. A couple of girls caught trout, but they were really small. They had to throw them back in. I didn’t want to fish so I walked along the lake with Missy looking at the wildflowers. After that we held hands and sang Eensy Weensy Spider.