Previously on A Maddisun Tale…
May 27th, 2024
Maddisun was on her way home from Vancouver when she got an email from Charlie. She’d just played the Heatley and was reminiscing about meeting Mouse and Amanda there last year when she dozed off on her flight. The Cranberries were playing when she woke up, so she listened to “Dreams” with her eyes closed for a moment, and then checked her phone and saw the email. She opened it and started reading.
Charlie had finished the story.
Her trip to the diner was still fresh in her mind. She was curious about what Charlie had come up with and maybe worried about how much he might sensationalize a personal story she’d shared with him from her late teens. “Maddi The Reckless” is what he’d nicknamed her on the spot as she put on the pink fleck stone flight helmet bedazzled with “Rock Star” that the gang had custom-made for her.
She saw the title and recognized the italicized text as Ktunxa. She whispered a little thing she’d learned from the gang at the diner and began to read.
“And. Here. We. Go.” -Maddisun
“Reckless” hu¢ ¢xaǂ ¢̕inaǂ haǂwa¢̕ni
A Maddisun Tale Hackyaxnikit
Written by Charlie Jones
Around the world or around the block
Everywhere I go, the kids wanna rock
-Bryan Adams “Kids Wanna Rock”
Part One
Kimberly, British Columbia. December 9th, 1923
Legend has it, the original Kootenay Kid wasn’t a trailblazing gunslinger of songs on a quest for gold or a snowboarder from Nelson. The first Kootenay Kid was a Ktunaxa woman and she liked to gamble. She was a risk taker and a heart slayer. They called her Running Wolf, and at this very moment, she was sitting across from a very tricky coyote at a card table in a saloon. On a phonograph player, Al Jolson’s “Toot Toot Tootsie! (Goodbye)” was playing.
Cranbrook, British Columbia. Saturday, December 9th, 2023.
7:00 AM
Maddisun wakes from her dream about Running Wolf’s card game with Coyote The Trickster and autonomously silences her alarm.
She sits up and swings her legs over the edge of the bed, slipping on her favorite pair of socks and a Jess Klein t-shirt that’s so fucking cool. She stands up, stretches, and heads to the kitchen to turn on the burner and heat the kettle for her tea. Once she’d measured her tea leaves and set out the milk and sugar, she went over to her vinyl record collection and pulled out Bryan Adam’s “Reckless”. She set the turntable's needle in a groove right before track two.
About the same time, in Kimberly, Jody woke up to Al Jolson’s 1923 banger playing in the kitchen. Her husband Jimmy was a part-time Kimberly Underground Mining Railroad tour conductor. Every Saturday when he worked the early shift, he’d play Jolson’s “Toot Toot Tootsie! (Goodbye)”. While the song played he’d head for the door, then head back into the bedroom and kiss her goodbye again. Some days he’d sing, some days he’d smile. Today he was smiling. They’d finally gotten a chance to get out last night and had gone dancing. When Jimmy finally left, whistling along to Al Jolson, she laughed and said “Jesus, Jimmy you’re such a dork. A cute dork, my dork, but still very much a dork.” The promise of coffee pulled her from the bed and into the kitchen.
Looking out the window at the snow on the ground, she hoped her husband had a trick up his sleeve and hadn’t lost his mind, because it was December. The KUMR had been closed for months.
After about 30 minutes Jody got worried and texted Jimmy. “Hey dork what are you up to?”
That’s when there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, Jimmy was kneeling, with a Matte Green Godin Summit Classic SG.
“Oh my, Jimmy! How! It’s a Godin!”
Jimmy continued to kneel, his head bowed.
“Oh you dork, yes I will receive your tribute!”
Jody bent down and lifted the Godin from Jimmy’s outstretched arms. “Jimmy, you look like the guiltiest dog on the planet. What did you do? Wait, don’t answer that.”
Jody carried the Godin into the bedroom and plugged it into her Dad’s Garnet BTO Amp.
“I traded the bike for it. On the way there, I hit some black ice and almost wrecked the bike. I was thinking, Jimmy, that’d be pretty stupid if you died because you’re not wearing a bike helmet.” -Jimmy
Jody just stared at him.
Then she set the Godin in the stand her dad’s Godin used to sit in. The one she sold to cover the rent for a few months until they both could find more work. She went to the closet, grabbed a box, and set it on the bed. It was already wrapped.
“Thankfully I can return it you dork.”
When Jimmy unwrapped it he laughed. It was a full-face mountain biking helmet. Jimmy had been biking like a maniac with a cheap box store street bike helmet.
Jimmy smiled. “The watch chain and the broach.”
Jody was confused.
Jimmy sat down on the bed and told her the story of “The Gift of The Magi”
Over breakfast, they decided they’d go check out the Public Goods Market Makers Faire at the Kimberly Convention Center. Maddisun was playing. “Gotta support the Cranberly girls.” -Jody, looking up the makers that would be there. They were going to try and take the Peak to Platzl trail, so they brought their snow shoes. They could always call for the Kimberly shuttle since it would probably already be making trips there if the trail was a mess.
Later that morning, just before lunch, Maddisun was arriving in Kimberly. She was stopped at the Ross St. intersection when a jeep full of secondary brats ignored the crosswalk sign and almost ran over a couple in the crosswalk. Both Jody and Maddisun yelled “HOSERS!” at the same time. Not that the brats heard. They were blasting Bryan Adams, and screaming along.
“Everywhere I go, kids wanna rock!”
Jody was already on the sidewalk when she realized who was in the car.
“Cranberly girls always have your back. Eh, Jimmy?”
Jimmy stopped. “That’s twice Jody. Should I go back home?”
“You’re such a dork, Jimmy.”
As Maddisun pulled away and headed towards her gig, she shook her head. “There’s a word for that. Reckless.”
Jody and Jimmy walked along Ross St. and then headed for the Peak to Platzl trail over the Kimberly Wooden Bridge. They took the trail with their snow shoes to Norton Ave. and walked along Gerry Sorensen Way past the Trickle Creek Golf Course.
“With the day you’ve had Jimmy, if you tried to swing a golf club they’d have to rename the course Cripple Creek.”
“How low CAN you go, Jody?”
“Don’t pout dork, embrace it. If you try to fight it you’ll end up getting hurt, you get that, right? The universe is speaking to you. “Hey man, pay attention to what's right in front of you.”
Here’s a link to First Voices where I got the Ktunaxa phrases I used.
https://www.firstvoices.com/ktunaxa/categories?types=phrase
Here’s one more link to the Golden BC Museum page on the first people of the Columbia Valley.
https://www.goldenbcmuseums.com/first-people-of-the-columbia-valley/
I hope my use of the Ktunaxa language and culture inspires you to learn more about the Indigenous people of “The Kootenays”
=j