THE nuns at school punish us when we make a mistake, but never say a word about the good things we do. Mrs. Quill is like that. She is an old Indian woman with pale skin who lives in an unpainted house at the edge of our ranch just where the road meets the highway. She’s my dad’s aunt and I think she hates us.
Mum and Dad are good to her too. Dad always gives her meat when he goes hunting. After Mum milks Bossy every morning she scalds the milk. Then she puts some in a pail and tells one of us to take it to Mrs. Quill. Dorothy used to do it. Now it’s me, and Benny and Missy go along for the walk. We tell stories or sing as we go. When we give the milk to Mrs. Quill she just tells us to put it on the table. She never says thank you or invites us in.
Mrs. Quill is skinny. She has white hair with a red kerchief tied around it, mean little eyes and a screechy voice. Sometimes when we’re playing around that part of the ranch she screeches at us to pick her some choke-cherries. We don’t mind. It’s easy and you can fill a bucket fast. What we don’t like is the way she stares at us squinty-eyed, then rolls her eye back until it’s white. It’s scary. When we told my mum about the choke-cherries she laughed. She said Mrs. Quill likes her home brew.
Last week Mrs. Quill stole Missy and hid her. My mum walked over with Benny and Missy that day to take her some milk. When Mum walked across the road to take milk to Cookie’s mum, she noticed Missy was missing. So she went back and asked Mrs. Quill if Missy was there. Mrs. Quill said no. Mum got scared and looked all over the ranch for Missy. She was going to run downtown and get the police when Mrs. Quill told her she had Missy in her house. Mrs. Quill was laughing like it was a big joke.
After that Missy got really thin, and all her mosquito bites turned to sores. She kept crying and scratching. She wouldn’t eat. My dad told Mum to make her a little picnic every day. Then he went out and bought her six white ducks. We call them Missy’s ducks. They sleep in the chicken house and swim in the pond beside the well. Our favourite one is Chun Chully. He trips over his feet all the time and when he quacks he says “Quay-quay-quay” really loud. He makes us laugh. Sometimes Missy follows her ducks and plays beside them all day. She feeds them wheat and leftovers.