little salt, little light

 Taki saw Little Salt standing on the rocks that connected the land with the water.

The wind blew off the icy sea, and whipped his body until it looked as if he might become a part of the sand, salt and sea.

The shirt and coat he owned weren’t enough to protect him from the cold, and the skin of his cheeks and the water in his eyes froze with the sunset.

“He looks so small against the sky and the sea,” she thought.

“He looks so weak against the rocks and the ground.”

Small, weak things struggled to survive around the Chukchi Sea, she knew.

Her heart was big and strong, and that’s what helped her live in icy Point Hope.

In the old language, she thought of the words ‘small’ and ‘weak,’ miki and kayumnyit.

She thought of the words ‘big’ and ‘strong,’ anyi and sanyiruq.

 

She thought of the word ‘heart,’ uumman.

“Opposites NEED each other,” her aakaaluk had taught her, “For where one is miki, the other is anyi, where one is kayumnyit, the other is sanyiruq. 

In this way, two GIVE uumman to each other.

And uumman, heart, Little Light, is tagniq, life.”

Taki took the lantern from the window and headed out into the evening to guide Little Salt in.