The Native and the White Man (boyxboy)

(5) A White Man

Parijat's pov:

I had docked my canoe on by the riverside, enjoying the nature all around me as I thought of my problems. I heard the snap of a twig and the sound of the birds chirping, saying of a white man coming. I climbed up to the nearest tree that had been beside my canoe. I seated myself on a branch, waiting for the white man to come. Sachiv climb to a branch beside me as well, his nose twitching as his black eyes watched the ground beneath for the white man to come walking through our line of vision. Then, a man wearing funny clothes and a funny hat, a long gun - which my tribe knew the white man had - over his shoulders. His clothes were funny, they weren't made from fur skin and it covered his entire body whereas the men in my tribe only covered their lower bodies. This man wore strange blue clothes. And brown shoes that reached his knees. And his hat didn't look like it was made from straw or stone. It was shiny against the sunlight and looked sharp.

He was a white man.

I've heard of his kind before in my tribe as they told stories by the fire of the white man. Father always told me to never engage with a white man to protect myself, seeing as I was the tribe's so-called ‘princess’, even if I was a boy. This was the first time I've seen a white man before. I could tell he was a white man because of how he looked with the storied my tribe tells. He had blonde hair that was tied behind his head, white skin unlike me and my tribe's tan ones, and the most intriguing blue eyes I've ever seen. I've never seen blue eyes. Everyone in my tribe all had brown eyes. Although he wielding a long gun that he carried over his back, a metal hat over his head, I couldn't find it in me to feel frightened. He surely didn't have a spear or knife with him unlike our hunting weapons in my tribe. My squirrel companion waved his arm over my face as if telling me to avert my eyes away from the white man, but I placed him somewhere on a higher branch above me. I was fascinated with the white man. No, attracted was a better word. I needed to... meet him in person. Father won't mind me meeting just one white man, won't he.

And that's when I heard the branch under me crack and break from my weight. My eyes widened and I reached to grab a branch to hold me up, but I was slow in reacting, I fell. I screamed, thinking of the pain when I fell, but none came as I fell with arms around my waist, landing on top of a chest. I hear Sachiv squeak and know he's probably looking down at me and glaring at me for my clumsiness. I opened my eyes and looked down to meet the white man's blue eyes. His strange hat had fallen off his head and onto the grass a few feet away from his head. I feel his hands wrapped around my waist, making me get a little flustered though it could not be seen through my complexion.

“Are you alright... uh... Ma'am...?”, he then asked, not taking his eyes away from mine.

“...I-I'm a man,” I say.

(Just recall the conversation they had in the previous chapter because I'm too lazy to write all of it again.)

I was surprised talking with Jack wasn't very hard as I was always shy with everyone I met. But Jack's aura gave me some sort of confidence, some sort of calmness that could make it very easy for me to talk with him. At first I was a bit uneasy and untrusting - and frightened - when I fell on top of him because father always warned me never to speak with a white man much less have a conversation with them. But Jack seemed nice. I could tell he was telling the truth every time I looked in his eyes as he talked. He told me about gold. I was confused. I didn't know what gold is nor did my tribe know what it is. It was foreign to us. But when Jack explained it to me, I started to understand - or at least I think I did. I knew my tribe had no gold and neither did the land have gold. If it did, we would have found it long before as well as the other tribes.

“Parijat, could I–”

Shoot

I hear the shooting of the white man's guns and I jolt, running to the canoe. Sachiv jumps and lands on my shoulder as I push the canoe out of the riverside. I push it a bit longer before jumping in a rowing down the river to get back to my tribe. Jack runs after me and says, “Wait! Parijat! Will I see you again?”

“Maybe,” I say back.

“Please, I want to get to know you better, beautiful,” he pleads. I bite my lip at the name, thinking about the answer I would give him. Father would be mad if he found out I was talking with a white man and that would potentially get me in trouble, but then I still didn't know about Jackson Samuels to say he was a threat. He seemed honest and sincere. Maybe I could know more about him and his people if I meet him. Of course, I should not let anyone in my tribe know. I turn to him and say, “I will meet you again tomorrow here at noon,”

“I will see you then,” he says. I wave goodbye to him and he - awkwardly - waves back as I row my canoe down the river.