Page 33 of God’s Country

Ollie reached for the Canadian Club. He looked around for the metal cup, which I’d set beside me on the log I occupied alone. “Gimme,” he said.

I handed it over. He unscrewed the cap on the whiskey and filled his cup.

“Go easy on that stuff,” Stan said.

“Fuck you, Mom,” Ollie said and took a drink.

Stan gave him a sour look, then turned to me. “You were saying.”

“This better have something to do with the devil’s asshole,” Ollie said.

“Just let him talk,” Stan said. “Why’s it called Devil’s End?”

“Because there are majimanidoog everywhere here,” I told them.

“What’s that?” Ollie said.

“Evil spirits. Devils, if you will. The Anishinaabe have known this since they first arrived. The voyageurs who came later discovered the truth the hard way.”

“The hard way?” Stan said.

“Do you know what Paternoster means?”

“Our Father,” Stan said.

“Good Catholic boy,” Ollie said and raised his cup to his brother in a mock toast.

“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that on a lake named Our Father there would be an arm called Devil’s End?”

“Not particularly,” Stan said. “The world exists in oppositions.”

Which made me realize there was more to this guy than just being a goon like his brother.

“To get to Paternoster, you have to pass through Devil’s End, then negotiate Devil’s Door,” I explained.

“The narrows down there,” Stan said with a wave of his arm.

“The currents in Devil’s End are tricky to begin with. You’ve seen that for yourselves. When there’s been a lot of rain, they can be downright treacherous, particularly as you try to pass through the narrows. In the old days, voyageurs claimed to see majimanidoog along the rim of the cliffs that line the bay. Immediately after, those long canoes they traveled in would flip without warning and men would be swept into Devil’s Door and drown. It was said that only the pure of heart could reach Paternoster unscathed. And if you know anything about the voyageurs, you know there weren’t many who could be said to be pure of heart.”

“Bullshit,” Ollie said. “That’s all a bunch of bullshit. You’re stalling.”

Which was absolutely true.

“What about the devil’s asshole?” he demanded.

That was a question I’d been working on. I thought I had a reasonable idea about it.

“I need to go out on the bay in a canoe,” I said.

“See!” Ollie stood up and looked at Stan. “I told you. He’s just trying to figure a way to keep me from beating him to a pulp.” Then he took a menacing step toward me.

“That’s true,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to get beat up. But it’s also true that to be sure of what I’m telling you there’s something I need to see.”

“What’s that?” Stan asked.

“I won’t know until I see it.”

“I’m gonna hit him,” Ollie said.