Qaqavii by Miriam Körner

Author:Miriam Körner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Published: 2021-08-25T18:42:55+00:00

CHAPTER 19

It’s mid-January. Barnabas and his grandparents should have been back two weeks ago. I don’t know what’s keeping them. Barnabas left a message for me at the Sleepy Bear Lodge, letting me know they’ll be back later, but he didn’t say why or when. I’ve run the dogs three more times since that Christmas night. To keep them in shape, but also because I love being out there with them.

The freezer with the dog food is just about empty now. It’s hard to get the last seal meat out. It’s frozen to the bottom of the freezer, and I have to lean over and carefully bang the meat loose with the blunt side of the ax. Yesterday, I went to the Northern Store to buy commercial dog food. It’s $68.95 per bag and that was the cheapest. I could only afford to buy one bag, so Kitty chipped in and bought a second bag. Of course, it came with a condition attached.

“If I’m feeding my money to the dogs, at least I want to see them,” she said.

So today, Kitty and I both walk down to the dog yard. It’s minus thirty-seven. Too cold to be comfortable, even in Elisapii’s anorak. I pull my hood tighter around my face against the wind and against Kitty’s running commentary.

“Really, Emmylou, I don’t get what draws you to this place. I know we didn’t always have the fanciest of apartments, but we managed. So what kind of people live here? They don’t want to work, or what? Look at this crap lying around. Who needs a car with three tires? Can’t they fix it or get rid of it? What do people do all day here?”

I walk faster, pretending I can’t hear her. But I do, and all the cool stuff that’s lying around waiting for someone to do something useful with it suddenly doesn’t look so cool anymore. The tires, stacked three high, that in summer must be planters for tomatoes, look like old ugly tires now; brown, dead plants are still tied to the wire support. The fire pit surrounded by a circle of three-legged chairs, milk crates, and even a couch, looks uninviting, as if those seats were not meant for me. And now I’m mad. Mad that she can do that to me, change the way I see things.

“I don’t know what kind of people live here,” I snap at her. “Most of them I just see passing by in their trucks, except Barnabas’s family. And if they’d had a choice, they’d rather not be here, because they have a home in Arviat and their family is there. But they don’t have a hospital that can provide Elisapii with what she needs to live. If she could, she’d rather be home, eating country food, and not having to deal with people like you looking down on them.”

“That last bit was uncalled for. I didn’t know why they were here and you never told me, so ...”

“… so you just make up your own story?”

“Of course not.

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