Worst Day Ever



  Jackson Little-Light’s Big Adventures

  Worst Day Ever

  Ellen Hooge & Ray Keighley

  Copyright Ellen Hooge - 2013

  Copyright: All rights reserved.

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This book is a work of fiction. With the exception of recognized media personalities and historical figures, the characters in this novel are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Illustrations by Ray Keighley

  Formatting by RikHall.com

  Dedication

  to all kids who go home from camp determined to follow Jesus.

  “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10:28

  Introduction

  Jackson Little-Light lives on a Cree First Nation. He doesn’t want to get into trouble every time he turns around, but it seems to happen a lot!

  Jackson had a great week at summer Bible Camp and decided to follow Jesus just like his counselor did, just like his Mosom and Kokum did. They were the three people he admired most in the world and he really wanted to be like them.

  However, things kind of got out of control on the first day of school when he decides to jog to school in his brand new runners instead of taking the school bus. He doesn’t really mean to get the rodeo bulls so mad and . . . well you will have to read all about it.

  Cree words you’ll need to know

  Mosom – Grandfather

  Kokum – Grandmother

  Nosisim – Grandson

  Iskwew – Woman

  Moniyas – White man

  Bannock – bread that can be fried or baked

  JACKSON LITTLE-LIGHT’S WORST DAY EVER

  Chapter 1 – First Day Worst Day

  “Worst day ever!” Jackson slumped down on the couch and stared at his bare feet. His dark eyes clouded with pain.

  “How could it have happened? Everyone hates me now. How could everything have gone so wrong?”

  His chest tightened and his throat closed up but he refused to cry. He sure didn’t want his little sister asking him what was wrong. She would never understand. Who would understand?

  “Jackson! Where are you? I need to talk to you.”

  Jackson’s head snapped upward. His eyes widened. “Oh no! It’s Mom! I’ve got to get out of here!”

  Bolting to the back door, he grabbed his old runners, ran behind the shed, stopped for a panicky minute to put on his shoes and tore across the field toward the river without looking back.

  At the river, Jackson once again stared at his feet in despair. This time his hands rested on his knees as he gasped for air.

  “Nosisim! What’s your big hurry?”

  Great! He hadn’t even seen his grandmother sitting on the riverbank with her fishing pole. What next? How could this day get any worse? His breathing began to slow down as he watched Kokum reel in her line.

  “Did you catch anything?” Jackson asked between breaths.

  “Just a little speckled trout but that won’t feed everyone. Food seems to disappear fast at your end of the table.”

  “Do you want me to try my luck for a while?”Jackson asked.

  Grandma glanced sideways at him, “I don’t know . . . I saw the look on your face when you were runnin’ here. It doesn’t look like you are havin’ a very lucky day.” she said.

  Jackson didn’t say anything. He dropped down onto his stomach in the prickly prairie grass and buried his face in his folded arms. He didn’t care if the fragrant sage tickled his skin. He didn’t care if ants crawled up his nose. He just didn’t care. And he wasn’t going to talk to Kokum about it even if she used all her tricks on him. He wouldn’t let the tears squeeze out of his closed eyelids either.

  “Well, I guess I should start to go home now.” said Grandma as she started to pack up her tackle box. “It takes me a long time to cross the field at my age. I might need help from someone young and strong.”

  “I’m not going back with you. I’m not ever going back.” said Jackson.

  “Well then, you should keep my fishin’ gear and the little trout.”

  Grandma looked around at the wide prairie landscape and pointed to a place by the river bank.

  “My family used to camp over there. It’s a good place. We dug into the earth and built a log roof on top of the hole. Then my Kokum cut squares of prairie grass right out of the ground and planted them on the roof so the wind couldn’t get in.”

  Grandma pulled her eyes away from the riverbank and stared straight at Jackson. “But one dark night, she went on, “when I was already in bed,” her voice got louder as she told the story, “I could hear a pack of wolves chasin’ a deer. The sound got closer and closer until the deer ran right over the roof above my head. His foot crashed right through the sod. It was hangin’ there an inch from my face while the wolves finished him off, snarlin’ and growlin’ above me.”

  “Stop it Kokum! Stop it with your scary stories. I’ve had a really bad day.”

  “It couldn’t be as bad as that night with the wolves and the deer hoof hangin’ above my head.”

  “It was much worse. At least the whole world wasn’t mad at you.”

  “The whole world? That’s a lot of people for sure. And they’re ALL mad at you?”

  “Well, my whole world is.”

  “Am I also mad at you Nosisim?”

  “Probably.”

  “Because of the laundry I hung on the line this mornin’? Was it you that ripped my dress off the line and trampled it in the dirt?”

  “No. It was the bull.”

  “Yes, your Dad mentioned the bulls at lunch.”

  Jackson lifted his head up in alarm, “Did they all get out?”

  “Your Dad and Mosom Jeremy spent the mornin’ roundin’ them up and fixin’ the fence. They say someone must have been teasin’ them but I thought I saw you walk to the bus stop this mornin’ so it couldn’t have been you.”

  Jackson buried his face in his arms again. “I didn’t take the bus this morning,” he mumbled. “Austin and I decided to jog to school in our new runners.”

  “Ah . . .” said Kokum in her faraway-thoughts voice. “A young Paul Acoose are you?”

  “Paul Acoose?” asked Jackson, lifting his head again.

  “He was a great runner in my grandmother’s time,” continued Kokum. “He lived on Sakimay First Nation and once held the world record in long distance runnin’.”

  “It must be in my blood then.” exclaimed Jackson as he sat upright to tell the story. “I was really excited about my new Nikes Kokum! I was going to start training for the Olympics by running to school.

  Jackson’s shoulders suddenly sagged again. “But now my runners are ruined and stinky so I hid them in the barn.”

  “How did they get stinky my boy? I thought I gave you clean socks this mornin’.”

  Jackson ignored Kokum’s comment and hung his head guiltily. “We only pretended to go to the bus stop. When we got to the main road we ran back along the trail by the bull field. I guess we were a bit tired by then so we stopped for a breather and saw that the bulls had horse flies all over them. There were thousands of horse flies Kokum. We weren’t really teasing them.”

  Jackson glanced sideways at Kokum to see if she was buying the story. “We just threw rocks to get the horse flies off and the bulls went
really berserk. We took off like jack rabbits as soon as that one bull broke down the fence. I yelled at Austin to run for the barn but I didn’t dare turn around to see if he did. I tasted blood in my lungs before I even got past the clothesline and the bull was gaining ground!

  “Oh I hope, I hope,” thought Jackson as he frantically ran across the yard. “I hope that bull gets distracted by those flapping clothes on the line and forgets all about me.”

  “Jackson! Where are you going?” yelled Austin. “The door is over here! Quick! Come in while he’s all tangled up in the laundry.”

  “I’m coming in. Close the door now Austin!”

  “Hey Jackson,” Austin said in a calm dry voice as he slid the door shut except for a small crack.

  “What, Austin?”

  “It’s sure a good thing we were wearing our new runners eh?”

  Jackson shot Austin a dirty look and focused on the bull again. “Oh! No! The cloth on the bull’s head . . . that’s Kokum’s best dress tangled up in his horns. What are we going to do?”

  “We?” asked Austin calmly. “I think you should worry about your mother’s chickens. He pointed with his bottom lip as he pulled the door a bit tighter. The bull is headed in that direction and . . .”

  “No!!!! Not the chicken fence! They’re all out. Mom’s going to kill me. Help me Austin. We’ve got to get them back in their pen before she comes back from town.”

  “Nope! I’m not stepping one foot on the yard while that bull is still there.”

  “C’mon Austin . . . he’s stopped snorting around. Look, he’s just eating grass. He doesn’t even remember what happened by now.”

  “I’ll tell you what Jackson. I’ll be your lookout. I’ll stay in the barn and if the bull starts to get agitated again I’ll open the door for you.”

  “I’d rather take my chances with that bull than with my mom,” said Jackson as he slid the barn door open and ran toward the hens.

  Austin couldn’t believe his eyes. The minute Jackson started herding the hens toward their pen, a big red rooster ran out from behind the barn. He was madder than the bull and twice as scary. His beak and claws flew everywhere. Jackson stopped chasing chickens and ran for his life. He didn’t even see the manure pile ‘til he was stuck in poop up to his knees.

  Jackson shook his head to try to get rid of the terrible memory and focused on his Grandma again. “I tried catching the hens Kokum, but then the rooster got mad and chased me all over the yard. I didn’t even see that big manure pile ‘til I was stuck in it. I had to wiggle out of my shoes and run through the muck to get away.”

  Grandma’s face twitched in a funny way and she quickly turned from Jackson to dig through her tackle box. “Did you walk all the way to school in your poopy socks?” she asked.

  “No, of course not. When the rooster settled down, I dug my shoes out of the manure pile and tried to wash them in the creek but I think they’re ruined. . . along with my chance to be an Olympic runner.”

  Kokum still seemed to be looking for something in her tackle box. “So how did your school day go?”

  “Terrible! Mrs. Osagin was mad that I was late for the first day of school and asked me (right in front of the whole class) if it was going to be a habit. Then she sat me next to Beyonce Bear and Rayna Delorme. They made faces and passed notes about me all day.”

  Jackson squatted down to look his grandmother in the eye. “Everyone was holding their noses and rolling their eyes Kokum. Even Austin said I was too stinky to eat lunch with.”

  Jackson straightened up and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He scowled and kicked a rock with the toe of his old runners. “So now I have no choice but to live in a dugout with the prospect of deer hooves crashing through the roof at any moment and all I have to eat is that little speckled trout.”

  “Or,” said Kokum, “you could help me walk home and I could make you some bannock to go with the deer meat stew your mother is makin’.” She gathered up all her fishing gear and started shuffling toward the house on the uneven ground.

  Jackson’s stomach growled as he watched her walk away. He tried not to think of deer meat stew and bannock. Going home would mean he would have to face consequences. What would happen to him? What would his Dad do? He had been told so many times not to bother the bulls. . . and then there was Mom and her beloved chickens. He was in BIG trouble.

  Jackson kicked another rock and felt sick about his new shoes. Would he be punished for wrecking them? They cost his parents a lot of money and were supposed to last all year long. At that thought he kicked the dirt hard in frustration. How could he ever go back to school after what happened today? Everyone was sure to call him “Stinky” for the rest of his life and he would never ever get a girlfriend.

  Suddenly Jackson had an idea. He hurried after his grandmother and took the tackle box out of her hand. He put his other hand under her elbow to steady her as she walked. “Kokum,” he said, “maybe you could go into the house before me and explain what happened. Then after Mom and Dad are calmed down a bit you can give me the ‘all clear’ sign.”

  “What should the ‘all clear’ sign be?” asked Kokum. She clenched her face into a thousand wrinkles and thought for a long minute. “I know,” she said, “how ‘bout if I crow like a rooster!”

  Jackson stopped walking and looked at Kokum. Kokum stopped walking and looked at Jackson. She couldn’t quite hide the twinkle in her eye. She pressed her hand to her mouth but a small snort escaped from her nose. At that, Kokum started to laugh. She laughed so hard she had to lean on Jackson and hold both her sides. She laughed so hard there were tears streaming down her wrinkled face. Jackson stood there not knowing where to look or what to do.

  “Nosisim,” she gasped when she had stopped laughing, “You have had the worst day ever!”

  Kokum reached up, turned Jackson’s face toward hers and looked deep into his eyes. “I won’t be going into the house first or telling your parents about your day or giving you that ‘all clear’ sign but I will do this for you; I will walk with you to the house and stand beside you when you tell them everything. I will stand with you and give you courage.”

  Jackson looked down at his little old grandma. He had ruined her best dress but she was still willing to stand by him when he was in trouble. He could hardly believe it.

  “But I ruined your dress Kokum.” he blurted out, “Don’t you care about that?”

  “Yes, I care about that. It was the one I wore to your Mosom-Jack’s funeral. I’m very sad that it is ruined. You have made many people angry and sad today Nosisim. This always happens when we don’t think rules are important. You think it won’t hurt people to break rules but it does. I hope you learn that lesson on this, the worst day of your life.”

  Jackson hung his head as he finally let the tears slip out of his eyes and onto his shirt. “Will you forgive me for ruining your dress Kokum?” he asked in a small choked voice.

  “Yes Nosisim, but you will still need to face some consequences. That’s how life works. I have also broken God’s rules from time to time but he stood by me when I faced up to what I did. That is why I will stand by you now. So let’s go down this road together and see what happens.