Bonnie Turner - The Haunted Igloo

Reviews

(From the hard-cover edition.)

Boys, dogs, and adventure in the frozenNorth: classic appeals are served here in a well-told historicalnovel. BCCB, 10/91

Fans of Gary Paulsen's Woodsongwill enjoy Turner's fictional portrayal of the challenges of theharsh region. Kay Weisman, Booklist 11/91

Jean-Paul's successful rites of passagemay strike a response in readers who enjoyed Gardiner's StoneFox ... Paulsen's Dogsong, and Woodsong.Kirkus Reviews, 10/91

The empathetic characters provide anexciting and warm-hearted story. The Horn Book Guide,12/91

From a young fan in Green Bay, Wisconsin,1992.

Mrs. Turner, I'll give you a milliondollars for that book!!!

____________

by

Bonnie Turner

Smashwords Edition

This book is also available in print fromonline book retailers.

Copyright 2010 by Bonnie L. Turner

All rights reserved. This book is a work offiction, no part of which may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permissionfrom the author. Brief passages may be used in print media forreview purposes.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase an additional copy for each person youshare it with. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it,or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should returnto Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you forrespecting this authors work.

____________

For Sasha :

the beautiful husky

who inspired this story.

1975 1988

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Chapter 1

J ean-Paul shivered as he hid in the shadows behind the school.The late afternoon temperature was falling fast, and to makematters worse, the pup was driving him crazy, wiggling andsquirming inside his parka. It was all he could do to keep her fromfalling out the bottom. He opened the coat a little and lookedinside.

Shhh, he whispered. Someone mighthear you!

Jean-Paul glanced quickly around the cornerof the schoolhouse to see if anyone was coming, but no one was insight. He sighed with relief. How very cold he was getting, withicy fingers of air creeping inside his hood to freeze his neck. Hewished the plane would hurry and take off so he could seek warmshelter.

Arctic days were growingshorter. Soon, darkness would come to the Far North, whereJean-Paul lived with his mother and father. Of course, it wouldntbe pitch black, because of the stars, the moon, and the auroraborealis, with its colored bands of light waving through the arcticsky like giant searchlights, but it would be dark.

It was Jean-Paulsmisfortune that he didnt like the darkness. In fact, he more thandisliked the dark; actually, he was deathly afraid ofit.

This would beginJean-Pauls second year of living at Aklavik, in the NorthwestTerritories. The Ardoin family shared a small cabin some miles tothe west, beyond the native dwellings.

Jean-Pauls father,Cordell, was a geologist who had come to study the large depositsof pitchblende, discovered in 1930 at Great Bear Lake. Thatdiscovery had excited Cordell, for pitchblende contains radium,which the government wanted.

His running off to theArctic had brought Cordell much criticism. His wifes family hadthought him foolish. But Lises response was So what? And shewent to the Arctic with her husband.

Cordell spent the darkwinter months writing childrens books, for then it was too coldfor mining, and minerals were frozen beneath the ice and snow. ButCordells thoughts were never far from what lay hidden beneath theearth. Mixed in with the nouns and verbs and plots for his storieswere the delights of radium, copper, and gold.

Jean-Pauls mother, Lise,sometimes helped her husband tan the fur and cure the meat, and shesewed the familys clothing. This very morning she had sent eightbeautiful pairs of caribou-fur boots to the Hudsons Bay tradingpost. She hoped Cordell could trade them for some other usefulitems. Making the boots had been hard work, but they had turned outas waterproof as those the Inuit women made.

Jean-Paul had his mothersshyness, for Lise kept almost entirely to herself. As the monthspassed without a personal friend, and with another baby on the way,she seemed very sad to Jean-Paul. Of course, Lise had met the otherpeople who lived in Aklavik, those speaking French, as she did, buteven they seemed out of reach to her. But if the truth were known,Lise had never been a very social person outside of her ownfamily.

Now a sudden stinging blastof wind slapped Jean-Paul full in the face. He turned away andhuddled against the back wall of the Mission school, a one-roombuilding in which eleven students, mostly Inuits, were taught byFather Cortier.

Jean-Paul listened closelyfor the sound of the plane. He listened so hard that it made hisears ache. Why didnt it leave before he turned into a chunk ofice! He stroked the hidden pup again, but it had gone to sleep. Heknew he couldnt hide forever, but he had to be sure the trappers,hunters, and traders had left the settlement for good. He had heardhis father talking with them. He knew they probably wouldnt comeagain until spring. It took a very brave pilot to test the aircurrents over the mountains and frozen tundra in winter, especiallysince compasses went wild at the higher latitudes when almost everydirection was south.

We need supplies, Cordell had toldOla Hanson, naming off the staples Lise had listed: Beans, saltpork, coffee, canned milk. He shrugged. It would be nice if youhad a bag of potatoes. He looked hopefully at Ola. But Ola shookhis head no.

We have three mouths to feed, saidCordell, and another on the way. Thats not counting thedogs.

One of the traders, a bigman with shaggy red hair and a beard to match, had laughed harshly.If you get too hungry, you can always eat a husky! You ever eatdog meat?

Jean-Paul would neverforget his fathers angry reply. Certainly not! And I hope to GodI never have to!

Oh ho! laughed the trader slappingCordell on the shoulder. Ah, sure you will! Someday when yourbeans and biscuits run out. When its ninety-five below, and snowup to your ears! Then youll eat dog. Roasted over a bed of hotcoals, theres nothing better when youre starving. Wash it downwith whisky or strong coffee! But you havent lived up here thatlong. You might have to learn the hard way!

Thats when Jean-Paul hadmade up his mind to hide a pup. He had taken it away from itslitter-mates and had run off to hide. He was lucky no one had seenhim, but he was scared to death he would be caught and punished. Hefelt that, since the pup was probably too small for sled pulling, abuyer might want it for only one thing: dinner. He could not let that happen! Hisstomach flipped and flopped now as he recalled how that man hadspoken so horribly about eating dogs.

There was another reason Jean-Paul had savedthe puppy. Larger, more aggressive, animals tended to pick onsmaller ones, just as Jean-Paul himself was bullied by some of hisbigger classmates.

Cordell had almost notbrought Jean-Paul to the village this time, and Jean-Paul wonderedif it was because of the way he limped. Surely his father didntwant to be slowed down by a cripple . Cordell had never said asmuch, but Jean-Paul wondered if he really felt that way. How couldany father love a son who was thin, lame, and smaller than mostten-year-olds?

His mother had remained atthe cabin this time, for trading could take all day. And besides,with both Jean-Paul and Lise, there wouldnt have been enough roomon the freight sled for all the supplies they hoped tobuy.