The Thunder Boy

THE THUNDER BOY

by Cathy Smith

(Content warnings: bullying, references to residential schools)

A BOOM reverberated throughout the house. Mom put a plug of tobacco in a soapstone burner as soon as a thunderstorm started. She did this to thank the Thunder Beings for their protection of the Onkwehon:we on Turtle Island. 

Mom was such a fan of the Thunder Beings she’d named Roddy “Ratiwas” which was the Mohawk work for thunder. 

The thunderstorm distracted her momentarily. Yet her eagle eyes noted the smartphone in his hand. “Put that away, Ratiwas. You should do your homework.”

“It’s already done.” He held it up to show the school app on the screen. 

“Well, if you’ve got enough time for extra credit work, you have time to learn more about your people’s culture.” 

Roddy grunted affirmative. He knew he better listen to her so he could get back to cramming in peace.

Mom was determined to adhere to the Old Ways. He’d assumed the stories she told him were ones she’d learned from the Elders. Yet, she was the only one that told him her version of the Thunder Boy story. The others he had heard only mentioned one instance of a Haudenosaunee woman taken as a wife of a Thunder Being, not the detail of many Haudenosaunee women taken as wives of the Thunder Beings. 

“The Thunder Beings are half the size of humans but four times as strong. They protect the Onkwehon:we from the Haudenosaunee Monster Serpents and other monsters. Though most of the time they bring spring rains to make our crops grow. They’re great warriors, but don’t spend all their time fighting.

“Once in a while, Thunder Beings take Onkwehon:we women as wives. Thunder Boy’s  mother got courted by a Thunder Being and married him. She gave birth to his son, but started to miss her old village even though Sky World was lovely. Her husband let her go back to her home village with their son, but said he’d take the boy back if the boy wasn’t treated right.

“All her parents knew was that their daughter came back with a boy in tow, claiming that she was married. The only evidence she had a husband was the fact she and her son were well provided for. They had plenty of meat and their clothes were new and well-made. Though no man was seen near them.

“Not only that, but the boy was odd. He was small for his age. When kids in the village picked on him, or else, an elder assumed he was a ‘baby’, he’d get enraged and throw fits.

“The tantrums worried the grandmother, and it got so bad she tried to discipline him by using a red whip branch. He thought she was playing with him when she chased him with a red whip in hand, flicking it around, trying to catch him.

“The mother caught the grandmother doing this and said, ‘Don’t do this, Mother. The boy’s father will take him away from me if he’s ever struck.’

“Yet, the boy was so wild that the grandmother always kept a red whip on hand, so she could get him the next time. One day, her plan worked. She flicked the red whip branch on the boy before he could get away.

“Suddenly, there was a loud boom and a flash of light. When the light faded, the boy had vanished.

“She had to tell her daughter what had happened. When Thunder Boy’s mother heard the story, she groaned. ‘You struck Thunder Boy and his father, the Thunder Being, took him back to Sky World. Now I’ll never see him again.’” That was the end of the story. For some reason Mom could not stand to say more than that. Sometimes she even got choked up when she came to this part. 

Roddy picked up his smartphone again to see if he could reach the next level before bedtime. He figured she told him the story to console him for being so short. 

Mom frowned. “You work harder on those games than you do on your schoolwork.” 

“How else am I going to get my English language skills up to the level I need it to be for the trade school?” 

“It's a trade school; not an Ivy League college,” she sputtered. 

“Trade school isn’t for dummies, Mom. I’m going to need to understand complicated technical specs and directions if I’m going to be an electrician. That won’t happen if my math and English language skills are below the grade level I’m supposed to be at.” 

“You’re already going to school,” she began. 

“You’ve sent me to immersion school. The kids usually need to play catch up with their English when they go to a high school off the reserve. Not only that, I overheard a teacher admit that Mohawk isn’t the best language for teaching math,” he snorted. “Assumption is my best option for getting the skills I need to become an electrician.” 

She shook her head. “There’s no way your father will let you go to Assumption. The Catholics ran the residential schools back in the day.”

“Why should Dad have any say on where I go to school if he isn’t even here?” Roddy stated.

She had no counter to that. 

•••

It was almost the end of the school day and Roddy took a picture of the A+ on his latest math test for his mom. 

He heard a humph and something heavy hit him in the back of the head. 

“Hey,” he cried out in annoyance.

He turned to face the source of the object, and his hair crackled in anger. The ever present static became even stronger whenever he was riled. As he expected, the one who’d thrown the blow cried out as they got hit by a static spark. 

Most people knew better than to touch Roddy’s hair. Its spikiness wasn’t a fashion choice for him. His hair had a lot of static, and it made the hairs stand outright no matter how much mousse he put on it. Anyone who tried to ruffle his hair often got a shock from it. This guy had tried to hit him on the back of the head and got a shock. Roddy saw Jack and his cronies. 

“What kind of freak are you?” Jack said. 

“Your world must be full of freaks if that’s what you call anyone who's smarter than you,” Roddy sniffed. 

•••

“I want to take the entrance exam for Assumption,” Roddy told his mom when he got home from school.

“I can’t believe you want to go to a Catholic school after all the trouble they gave us over the residential schools. What’s your father going to think?” 

Roddy snorted. “My dad would be free to have his say, if he were around.”

Mom constantly referred to his father and let his preferences guide how she raised him. Roddy didn’t see why Mom let Dad have a voice in anything, since he’d never seen the man. The best he could say about Dad was that he wasn’t a deadbeat. Their freezer was full of deer meat he sent over, and Mom kept them afloat by selling what they didn’t eat themselves.

“All my friends are going there, and they have a no-tolerance policy for bullying. Besides that, I’m less likely to be bullied for my grades there. They’ll be good enough to pass my classes at the school but not put me at the top of the class like I am at the immersion school,” he added the last.

“I want you to learn the language,” she told him. 

“The only job I’ll be able to get is a position as a language teacher, and you know I want to be an electrician. Whether you like it or not, people have to be fluent in English in order to get a job off the reserve.” 

•••

His best friend Bill’s school lacrosse team was in the intramural playoff. Roddy took time off from school to watch it. Technically, he already had a free period, but Roddy had to factor in travel time, so he left for the game early. Roddy doubted he’d miss much in class at immersion and knew he could make up for it easily. 

“Aren’t you a little young to be attending this match?” one of the teachers asked him when they saw him in the stands. “Shouldn’t you be in class at your school?” 

Figures, I’m so small she not only thinks I’m too young for a free period, she thinks I’m too young to go to school here at all. Fortunately, all he had to do was open his mouth to state his case. “I’m old enough to have a free period from my classes.” His pipes belonged to a man much bigger than he was. Roddy already spoke in a baritone before his voice broke last summer, and now he had a bass voice that rumbled from him. He’d heard the terms from a music teacher who had been shocked at the deepness of his voice, and did research on operatic music. Ever since then he had developed a taste for opera music because people appreciated their voices and didn’t think they were “weird.”

“Oh.” His tone was enough to convince her of the truth of his words. He got to watch the game in peace after that. 

•••

The school counsellor called Roddy out of class, and Roddy assumed it’d be for a lecture for playing hooky. Instead, Ms. White laid out an email she had printed out for him. “There’s a bursary for anyone who attends Assumption next year if they keep their grades up. I thought you’d be interested. The tuition agreement will cover Assumption’s tuition cost but not its student fees. The bursary will take up the rest of the costs if that’s what your mother’s worried about,” Ms. White added. 

Roddy took up the paper and looked it over. Then he looked up at her. “I’m surprised you’re not all for keeping me here.” 

“I agree with your mother. Learning your culture and native language is important. However, immersion doesn’t challenge you enough. I’ll be sad to see you go, but I want you to go as far as you can.”

“Thanks, but Mom thinks culture and native language trump everything else.” 

She took out another paper. “You already do a great deal of self-study on your own time. What if you switch? Right now you supplement what immersion teaches you. I recommend you spend your school days learning the provincial curriculum. If you’re used to self-studying in your free time, you can use it to learn your people’s language and culture. There’s an online program that teaches Mohawk to busy adult learners, but I can put in a word for you. It’ll end up costing less than your current arrangement.” 

Roddy took a closer look at the fine print of the merit scholarship in detail. 

“It’s not worth getting my mom worked up until I can see if I can get the bursary. Is there any way I can see what the results are first before I tell her what I plan to do?” They’d argued over Assumption before, and he wanted to delay revealing his plans. He didn’t want her to block him from qualifying for the bursary before he could set it up. The very term “Catholic school” put her on edge because of his father. Even if Assumption acted more like a private school than anything else. Most of the people he actually liked were there and that’s why he wanted to be there too.

•••

When lunch came, Roddy practised on the English app. Once he finished his session for the day, he looked over a technical manual. Much to his annoyance, he had to refer to a dictionary to understand what it meant. 

A shadow fell over his shoulder and a heavy package slammed down on the lunch table. “You can do my homework, since you’ve got so much time on your hands.”

Roddy looked up to see Jack and his two friends. “You can do it yourself,” he snapped. 

Jack threw a punch at Roddy’s midsection. Roddy saw red, first from pain and then from rage,  and threw his own punch. 

Under normal circumstances, Roddy wouldn’t have stood a chance against the boys. There were three of them, and they were at least a head taller than him. However, as they kept telling him, he wasn’t “normal.” Most times they said this about his study and work habits, but they’d learned the same was true with his strength. 

Their scuffle got the attention of Ms. Henhawk, the teacher-librarian. 

“Stop it.” 

Jack had already gotten a few punches in. Roddy laid him flat with his fist. He did what he had to do to make Jack stop hitting him. 

“Oh,” Ms. Henhawk sighed. She sent Jack to the nurse’s office and Roddy to the principal.

•••

“I was outnumbered three to one. Yet those crybullies say I used excessive force. I can’t even believe they know what the words mean,” Roddy griped at the principal’s office. Ms. White was there for him since Mom had a hard time getting off work for the occasion. 

“The fact you were outnumbered and a head shorter than them means your story is more believable. They’ve gotten used to playing this trick with other students.” 

“Huh?” 

“They’ve picked on other kids in the past. If and when a kid fought back, they claimed the other kid started the fight,” Ms. White said. 

Roddy snorted in disbelief. “What kind of idiot would pick on someone if they’re alone and the other guy is with their friends? How could anyone believe their story?”

“This time it’s not being believed. Not when you’re so much shorter than Jack. There’s no way that he can pull the crybully trick and look like he’s the innocent party. It’s a good thing for you that no one believes him this time. Otherwise, this would’ve ruined your chance at the merit scholarship to Assumption,” Ms. White informed him.

Roddy took a deep breath. It hadn’t occurred to him that he wouldn’t get the scholarship if he got into a fight at his current school. 

•••

“So you got into a fight at school? You’re lucky it wasn’t four against one,” Mom said when he got home. 

Roddy’s face flushed red. “I’m not the one who started it. What was I supposed to do? Let Jack and his friends beat me up? They’re the main reason I want to go to Assumption. I want to study in peace without having to fight off those crabs. Assumption has a no-tolerance policy for bullying.” 

Mom sighed. “I’ll consider sending you to Assumption if they really have a no-tolerance policy for bullying.”

Roddy grinned. “So I can go to Assumption?” 

“We have to convince your father it’s the best thing for you.” She put a plug of tobacco in her soapstone burner. “Your dad’s here to talk to you.” 

“Huh?” This was the last thing he expected to hear and she opened the door to admit a man into the room before he knew what was happening. Once he did know what was happening he was too shocked at the sight of the man to say all the words and questions he had rehearsed numerous times in his head.

Despite the man’s shortness, Roddy recognized him as a man. His thoughts raced at the sight of him. Oh, great, there’s no way I’m going to get any bigger. I’m lucky to have what size I’ve got. I’m so short in stature, and so is my dad. Though his father was one of the most muscular men that Roddy had ever seen. The man was the size of a 10-year-old, though there was no way he could be mistaken for a child. 

“This is your father, Boomer.” 

“His name is Boomer, and you named me Ratiwas?” Roddy asked her. He found it hard to believe his father used an English nickname. 

“My proper Onkwehon:we name only gets used for ceremonies. Boomer is what I use in public. When I’m in public.” 

His voice made Roddy jump. I’m bass and he's a bass profunda. He could become an opera singer with those pipes. 

“When are you in public?” Roddy dared to ask him. 

“My job keeps me away from it. Few people see me out in the open,” Father said. 

“Besides that, he stayed out of sight when the residential schools were a going concern. There was always a chance they’d take him back in if he looked like he hadn’t aged out of the system yet,” Mom added. 

“You were alive when there were residential schools? The last one closed in the ’90s. You don’t look like you’re old enough for that,” Roddy said. 

“You’ll find you don’t age as fast in Sky World as you do on Turtle Island,” Boomer told him.

“What do you mean, I won’t age as fast in Sky World? Why would I go to Sky World?” Roddy frowned.

“I would have preferred to stay on Turtle Island until I was fully grown and then go to Sky World,” Boomer told him. “Things didn't work out that way. I got caught by a truant officer and sent to a residential school. I ran away multiple times, but they kept finding me, and then I'd get punished for it. Finally, my father took me off of Turtle Island so that I wouldn’t be found by the truant officers.” 

A scowl crossed his face and his eyes grew dark and grey like a storm cloud. “The first thing I did when I reached my full power was strike down that truant officer with a thunderbolt. That’s why I  came to Sky World far earlier than I would have preferred.” 

“The clan likes to let most thunder boys grow up on Turtle Island. Though they want them to join the Thunderer Clan in Sky World before they get too old. Thunderers age slower and live longer there. It’s great when you’re in your prime, but children take longer to grow up there. Most Thunder Beings prefer not to have their growth period drawn out and like to mature at a human rate. I’d prefer to wait until you’re fully grown so you don’t have to wait forever to grow up like I did. I had to be taken while I was in my early teens to escape the residential school truant offers. I wanted you to have a natural childhood, but I may have to take you there sooner,” Boomer explained. He shuddered in distaste at the prospect of a protracted adolescence like his own had been.

“I’m a thunder boy?” Roddy repeated. 

“You don’t think you could’ve handled three boys who were bigger than you if you were a regular Onkwehon:we boy do you? A Thunderer may be smaller than regular men, but they are as strong as four men.

“The Thunderers take Haudenosaunee women as wives. We offer the same deal to our wives that are offered to the thunder boys. When they join the clan their lives are extended and their age slows down.”

Roddy glanced at his mother. “That sounds like a sweet deal, Mom. Why didn’t you stay in Sky World? 

“I wanted to give birth to you in a modern hospital. I also came to prefer living with modern conveniences and amenities. Sky World is like camping in the rough according to modern sensibilities. Though back in the old days, it would be no worse than living in a longhouse village before Contact.”

Roddy grunted when he heard this. He could understand why she had stayed on Turtle Island instead of going back to Sky World, if that were the case. He may change his mind and pay that price to extend his life when he got older though. 

For now, he couldn’t help but ask an obvious question. “Are the Thunderers against the thought of modernizing their living accommodations?” 

“So far, it hasn’t been possible.” Boomer shrugged.

“Yeah but if you let me go to a quality school like Assumption I can become an electrician like I want to. When that happens I could introduce hydro to their longhouses,” Roddy said.

“You’d need to become a civil engineer to create a hydro grid. It wouldn’t be enough to wire their longhouses,” Mom said. 

“Yeah, and if I get the kind of schooling I want, I can study to become one.” 

“It’s bad enough you’re getting into fights at the school you go to. I don’t want you going to a residential school.” Boomer frowned.

“Assumption isn’t a residential school. No one is forced to go there. Most people want to get in because of the quality of the education it offers.” 

“Humph. They don’t teach your people’s culture and language.” 

“There are standalone classes I could take. Ms. White recommended a class that teaches Mohawk to adults that she can get me into. I can take them on top of my workload at Assumption.” 

Mom spoke to Boomer. “I’ll check Assumption out to make sure it lives up to the hype. I know some parents prefer to send their kids there rather than have them be held back by the crabs.” 

“ ‘Crabs’, is that a new word for the Rez Scones? Or have the people on the Rez stopped calling themselves ‘scones’?” Boomer asked. 

“Crabs in the bucket. They hold everyone else back because they can’t make it,” Mom explained.

“Oh.” Boomer understood the “crabs in the bucket” reference, so it must’ve been in use before he went up to Sky World.

“The crabs aren’t as bad as the truant officers,” he muttered. 

“Which means you don’t have to take me to Sky World to save me from them. Going to a different school should be enough,” Roddy pressed. 

Boomer frowned. “Assumption won’t prepare you to be a Thunderer.” 

“I want to be an electrician, maybe applying scientific principles to my lightning powers will enhance them?” 

Boomer grunted. “I still want to take you up to Sky World this summer, Ratiwas. The Council will make the final decision about your schooling. We’ll also need to vote on your plan to create a hydro grid for Sky World to modernize our longhouses.” 

“I’ll go to Sky World this summer,” Roddy stated. 

And I’ll go to Assumption regardless, he added to himself. The fight wasn’t over yet, but he was close to getting what he wanted. The only legends he had heard about a visitor to the Sky World had been the Hermit Thrush who loved the fact he wound up in a familiar Woodland. Roddy did not want to stay in Sky World until he learned how to create a hydro grid.  He did not want to spend the rest of his life in a glorified campground.