Haibu Lost in New York. Blake Freeman

is wrong?” she asked.

      “I don’t want to talk about it, Anana.”

      “Is this because you wanted to go fishing with Amook and your father?”

      Haibu sat up. “Yes! Anana, I am as strong as Amook and as good a fisherman as anyone in this village. If they would only let me—”

      Haibu’s mother interrupted. “Oh my little Haibu, of course you are. But they are going far out to the ice shelf, where the ocean and the ice meet, and it’s quite dangerous. You could fall through the ice or stumble upon a nanuq looking for food. It’s just not safe.”

      Nanuq is the Mayok word for “polar bear.” From a very young age every villager was taught to stay far away from them. Besides the weather, polar bears are a Mayok’s biggest threat.

      But Haibu didn’t want to listen. “You think I’m scared of a fluffy ole nanuq, Anana?” She stood up on her bed with her hands in the air, mimicking a bear. “Have you ever seen a nanuq this tough, Anana? Rawr! Rawr!” she growled.

      “You are a very scary nanuq. It’s been a long day, Haibu. Why don’t you rest and I will call you when dinner is ready,” her mother said, as she headed back to the kitchen.

      Haibu dropped to her bed and muttered, “They’ll never understand.”

      THE JOURNEY

      Deep in thought, Haibu reached over and grabbed the Shookia given to her by Mr. Toko and the other village elders when she was younger. A Shookia is a bracelet, made to remind villagers that they can achieve anything they want, as long as they work hard and are true to themselves. It is a beloved piece of jewelry in the village of Montooka. The Shookia is made from yellowish rock crystals, and between each crystal sits a small, brown, flat stone. Each stone has a letter carved on it. On this bracelet, the letters spelled out HAIBU.

      Haibu slipped it on her wrist and repeated the mantra that had been passed down for generations, for each person to use their name at the end: “I can do anything I believe I can do. I can be anything I believe I can be. I can achieve anything I want to achieve. I am Haibu.”

      Haibu’s eyes opened wide, “I can do this! I’m going to do this! I will show all of them!” She quietly gathered a few things into a backpack and slowly opened the bedroom window for her escape. Quiet as a mouse, she dropped into the snow, brushed herself off, and headed toward the shed in the backyard. As she crept past the side of the house, she stopped to peek into the kitchen window. There she saw her mother still cooking dinner.

      Haibu carefully etched a heart into the frost on the window and whispered, “I love you, Anana.” Then she sprinted to the shed, where she grabbed the fishing tools and bait and placed them on a sled.

      Haibu headed out, pulling the sled loaded with her supplies behind her. Haibu braved harsh weather as she traveled through the snow toward the frozen blue sea. The wind was howling and the snow made it very difficult to see, but she pushed forward.

      “Come on! You can do this, Haibu!” she yelled to herself.

      After hours of pulling the sled through the fierce storm, sleet and snow stinging her face with every step, Haibu finally reached the place where the land met the sea. She stood on the shallow ice and looked around for her father and brother. They were nowhere to be seen.

      “Good!” she thought. “They would just send me home.”

      With darkness setting in, she began building a snow shelter to keep her safe while she slept. Haibu cut block after block from the snow and stacked them perfectly to make the igloo. This was a difficult task for three villagers, much less one small one like Haibu, but she was determined.

      Haibu continued working until the igloo was finished, then crawled in and fell immediately to sleep.

      A NEW FRIEND

      DRIP. DRIP. DRIP.

      The shelter was melting in the morning sun, pulling Haibu out of a deep, dreamy sleep. She woke up full of energy.

      “It’s time to fish!” she shouted.

      No one was around, but the crisp, cold air felt good after her cozy sleep. Emerging from the shelter, Haibu squinted to see the ice shelf in the distance, way up the coast. The ocean waves were gently cresting the edge of the ice, where it met the sea. Standing perfectly still, Haibu took it all in.

      “Wow. You are a beautiful world,” she whispered. “But I’ve got no time to stare at you right now. There are fish to be caught!”

       CRACK!

      Haibu slammed her pickaxe into the ice, over and over and over again until …

       CRACK!

       SPLASH!

      The pickaxe broke through the ice and water splashed out of the hole. “It worked!” Haibu shouted. Haibu knew what she was doing and wasted no time grabbing the fishing pole and bait from the sled.

      Almost immediately after dropping in her line, Haibu started pulling out fish after fish after fish. Cheering with excitement, she shouted out to no one in particular, “I knew I could do this! These fish are bigger than Amook!”

      Smiling and laughing to herself and the fish she was catching, Haibu piled each of them neatly on the sled. It was one on top of the other, higher and higher. In no time, the stack grew so high that it was taller than the roof of the igloo! Exhausted, Haibu looked over to the pile of fish and then down at her Shookia bracelet.

      “I can do anything I believe I can do,” she whispered. “I can be anything I believe I can be. I can achieve anything I want to achieve. I am Haibu.” Then she smiled. She felt really good about herself.

      Suddenly, Haibu heard a string of thumping noises. The fish she caught were slipping off the sled and spreading all over the ice. Standing where the pile of fish used to be was a small, white, fluffy seal pup with eyes as big as full moons. He looked at her guiltily, knowing he had been caught trying to steal a fish.

      Haibu asked, “Now, who might you be, mister?”

      The seal lowered his head like he was being scolded.

      Haibu pointed at him and then at the fish. “No. Not yours! You better skedaddle, or I will make you into a fur cap!”

      The seal turned his big eyes back to Haibu, as if to say he was sorry. That surprised her, and she melted a bit inside. To make the seal feel a little better, Haibu grabbed one of the fish and threw it in front of him. The seal settled in for this snack while Haibu gathered all the tools. When she looked back, the seal was no longer eating the fish. Instead, he was staring intently at Haibu.

      “Go on!” Haibu urged. “I gave you a fish! Now eat it and go!”

      As Haibu continued to pick up tools, she heard a noise behind her. She spun around to find the seal’s face inches from hers. Surprised, but not scared, Haibu dropped the tools just as the little seal planted a big wet kiss right in the middle of her forehead!

      Wiping the slobber away, Haibu sternly replied, “No, Mr. Seal! You need to go home!”

      That did not happen.

      The seal scooted even closer to Haibu’s face and smothered her with kisses and more kisses. When he was done, he lay his head on Haibu’s shoulder and stared innocently at her with his perfectly round, midnight-black eyes.

      Haibu snuggled into him for a moment. It felt good. It made her think of good thoughts. Be Happy, Be Friendly,