Pugets

By Gordon Morse

The Indian spirits of San Juan Islands of Washington State are ready to destroy the island because people no longer believe. Four young cousins spend the summer discovering the mythical creatures and traveling back in time. Can the Spirits convince them they are real? Can the children find out what is needed? Can they save the San Juan Islands?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gordon Morse
• Release date: Nov 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311954541

Gordon Morse

Gordon Morse was born in Hawaii in 1927. He spent his entire life in the islands other than college years at St Olaf College in Minnesota and Boston University in Mass. From 1950 - 1968 he was the Photo-Journalist of The Honolulu Advertiser on Oahu. Covering news articles including, Astronaut Training in the Pacific prior to the first moon landing, All Volcano Eruptions from 1955 to the present, First submarine missile launch in the Pacific, and many others. Gordon married Joann Morse in 1951 and they had 4 children. He currently has 11 Grandchildren and 3 Great Grandchildren. In 1968 he retired from the everyday newspaper writing and started the first RV Camper Rental Company in the State of Hawaii. Extending this service to supplying housing, food service, and transportation to remote locations across the Hawaii Island including the Mauna Kea Observatory development sites. Upon retirement in 1985 Gordon and his wife opened their estate at Volcano, Hawaii - just outside the Volcanoes National Park - into a Bed & Breakfast Inn. This allowed Gordon to spend more time to revert back to his love of writing. He has 14 written books in paper form for sale at this time.

Book preview

Pugets

By Gordon R Morse

Illustrations by Joann Morse

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015 Gordon R Morse

Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

Chapter 1 The Guardian

Chapter 2 The Cousins

Chapter 3 Home Base

Chapter 4 A Trembling Hill

Chapter 5 A Puget Doorway

Chapter 6 Mastodon Hunt

Chapter 7 The Secret Weapon

Chapter 8 Joe Friday

Chapter 9 The Salmon Case

Chapter 10 Oh Those Bears

Chapter 11 The Village That Was

Chapter 12 British Arrive

Chapter 13 The Swap Meet

Chapter 14 The Tax Collector

Chapter 15 Pugets Target Ferries

Chapter 16 The Silver Slug

Chapter 17 How Will It End?

Chapter One *** The Guardian

Maka, an elderly Indian stood motionless, shrouded in the pre-dawn darkness, above the Shore of San Juan Island. Weak light from a quarter moon produced blurred outlines of the rocks and trees around him. He looked through narrowed eyelids at the dark sleepless ocean below as if he expected to see some movement other than that of water.

The Native American picked his way down the rocky slope. Kneeling at the water’s edge, he thrust his arms into the cold ocean and clapped his hands under the surface. The action was somewhat clumsy and he could not hear any slap beyond the swish of the water.

I wonder how they can hear me clap? he asked aloud.

As he sat back on his haunches to wait he realized he had wondered this for the hundredth time.

Within a minute the surface of the water was disturbed by a small wavelet as a round eye the size of a large onion looked intently at the man on the shore. It was an inquisitive stare.

You came quickly, said Maka. You must have been nearby.

Slowly, a snout much like the long nose of a Collie dog rose out of the black water and two huge eyes glowed a soft yellow in the semidarkness. There were no ears visible on the creature’s head. The enlarged jaw had the look of an alligator’s. Unquestionably, there were wicked teeth hidden under the lips. A torpedo-shaped shadow under the water hinted at a muscular body.

Yes, Maka, we are all close by, said the creature. We are working night and day. You don’t have much time left on this earth, therefore neither do we.

I know, said Maka as a cold shiver passed through his body. He hated endings.....endings of anything. Beginnings, with the anticipation of events to come, were his joy. I’ve come to tell you that I’m going to reveal your existence to four children.

So, it has finally come to that, the creature answered.

Yes. I’m afraid so. I do not know any Native American children on this island who are deep enough into their heritage to seek a guardian spirit to help them through life. But I do know a girl who has deep feelings about our past.

The mysterious creature did not answer the old Indian. Instead, its stare hardened and a firmness stiffened its jaw.

Maka took a deep breath and continued, Others have to believe in you. Northwest America, and especially Puget Sound, will lose a great treasure if you are forgotten by humans. The child I’m thinking of lives on San Juan Island. She has three cousins. They arrive today for the summer.

Do any of these children have even the slightest bit of Indian blood?

No.

Will people of another race accept guardian spirits?

I hope so, said Maka as a pained look crossed his weathered face. The oldest, named Caroline, was born and raised on San Juan. She definitely has our spirit in her heart. She is a true child of this island. If she were of my race she would seek a guardian spirit. She feels all things in nature have a life of their own. She talks to trees and bushes and urges them to give flowers. She worries about fish when storms thrash the waters of Puget Sound. Over the past year I have hinted at your existence and she is eager to know more. She has not rejected my belief that a person can have a guardian spirit.

And what of the others?

I don’t know, said Maka. He was silent for a moment. Since these other children don’t know me, it might be a challenge to convince them of your existence. But I shall try. They can believe. The old Indian paused and closed his eyes in thought. They must believe. He whispered softly to himself.

You know, it might be easier to simply concentrate all of your efforts only on this child of San Juan Island. Why even bother with the others? said the creature.

There is security in numbers, answered Maka. The more people there are who believe in you, the better our chances in case something should happen to one of them."

You know they have to believe in us without any doubts whatsoever, Their acceptance of us must be total and everlasting. We would know if they were faking.

Maka unfolded himself from his squatting position and sat on a flat rock. He thrust his stocking less feet shod in worn, dirty sneakers into the water. The wet coolness traveled up his legs into his upper body and put a keen edge on his senses. I have a plan on how I can convince them, he said. It will take a while, probably all summer. And I will need your help.

Wait a minute, said the creature. I will summon another. I will have to explain your plan to others, and I want someone else to be able to verify what you say. The creature sank with hardly a wavelet showing to mark where it had been.

Maka smiled as he recalled what had happened at this very spot a lifetime ago. He was 12 years old back then. His mother had sent him out of the house with the command, Do not return home until you have found your guardian spirit.

There was nothing unusual in this solo journey away from home. Indian children between the ages of 7 and 13 whose parents wanted them to carry on their native traditions had to seek their very own personal spirit.

Maka knew he was to search for an animal, fish, or bird that would either come to him as a vision in his sleep, or physically interact in a meaningful way with him. Any sign from any living thing would do, but secretly he hoped his calling would come from a wolf. Among Indians in the Northwest, the wolf had the highest power. But regardless of what it might eventually be, the signal would mean that the living thing would be with him throughout his life. It would direct his actions. Share his adventures. Keep him safe. Give him control over others. Offer him comfort in hard times. It would be his guardian spirit.

Young Maka had wandered the island for a week. He ate berries and drank from streams. At night he slept with his back against logs in the forest to keep at least one side of his body warm. This practice also offered him protection from anything or anyone that tried to sneak up on him in the dark.

That search long ago had led him to this very spot on the sunset side of San Juan Island. He realized he was dirty and needed a bath, so he went down the rocky slope to where the water swirled and bounded in and of a cave. In keeping with his impulsive nature, Maka simply jumped into Puget Sound.

The plunge sent his body several feet under the surface. He opened his eyes expecting to see seaweed, or maybe a fish. What he saw caused instant terror. A creature that Maka thought looked like a cross between a story book dragon and a dolphin was not more than six feet away.

The boy tried to scream but swallowed water instead. He frantically clawed his way to the surface. He wanted to run on water, but of course that was impossible. The best he could do was to thrash wildly wards the shore. The creature swam around him, then gently rubbed against the boy.

Don’t be frightened. I won’t hurt you, said the creature.

Maka’s eyes widened in surprise. The creature could talk, Maka could not answer. He was still too scared to speak.

I was your father’s guardian spirit. And his father’s before him....and.....many, many fathers, and even mothers before them.

And so Maka found his guardian spirit. The spirit was so unbelievable he had not dared to tell anyone besides his mother about it over the years. The spirit was so powerful, so unique that he figured no one would believe him anyway. And from his mother, Maka discovered his spirit was as old as man himself in Northwest America. It turned out that what the creature said was true. His father did indeed have the same guardian spirit, but his father drowned in a boating accident shortly after Maka was born. His spirit was unable to save him because he was breaking both white men and tribal law at the time.

Now Maka needed others to believe wholeheartedly in his guardian spirit. If not, then his spirit would disappear forever, in keeping with the laws of the spirit world. If no one believed in the spirit, than there was no spirit.

To make matters worse, San Juan Island itself would be doomed. The island would disappear because Maka’s spirit lived under San Juan. It owned San Juan, so if there was no spirit, there would be no island.

Maka shook himself out of his reverie. He was brought back to the present by the sound of water softly lapping. Now a pair of the creatures were staring at him intently. Maka realized there could be many, many more that he now had to convince all of them as to his plan for revealing their existence.

The approaching dawn was beginning to blend gray into the darkness, so the creatures moved into the shadow of a rock thick with marine growth to camouflage themselves. Sport fishermen trolling for salmon were beginning to ply up and down the coast, their outboard motors invading the still dawn with their whining.

Now tell us your plan, said one of the creatures.

An hour passed and it was full daylight by