“Just so you know,” Rob looked at me in the rearview mirror, “we weren’t really expecting anyone for a week.”
I was quiet but nodded. I could smell smoke on me, the smoke from burning the last of my grandmother’s clothes. Rob’s sleeves slid up, and I caught a glimpse of a tattoo. A claw? Teeth?
“Oh now,” Sue looked back and glanced quickly at my lip as she ran her hand up Rob’s arm. “Don’t you worry, Bear. Rob could use a lot of help while I’m away.”
I nodded and looked away. The trees were so much bigger here in Simmer than in Rae. Spruce and pine. It was like we were being hugged from far away. As the plane landed, I saw pelicans flying. Forty of them all circling the town together. I didn’t see them the last time I was here. They were ever neat. As we pulled up to the residence, there was a student with two hockey bags smoking outside.
“What’s he doing back here?” Sue asked.
“Dean’s not supposed to be here,” Rob said with a low voice.
“Rob,” Sue said. I could hear concern in her voice.
Right away, I did not like whoever this Dean was. He had a scowl on him. Typical northern scruff: baseball cap, Tap Out hoodie, jeans, running shoes, smoker, goatee. He was trying to grow a mustache and he was short. He worked out, wore a black Affliction short sleeve, but it was his eyes that I didn’t like. They were mean.
He nodded at Rob and Sue. “Hey,” he gleeked snuff by his shoe. “I’m back.”
Rob spoke to him from the Suburban. “I thought we agreed this program wasn’t for you.”
“Yeah well,” the young man said, eyeing me. “My dad says different and he’ll send thirty grand if I come this year.” He spat again. “I’m hungry. Feed me.”
Rob looked at Sue while he slowly got out of the Suburban. “Honey, why don’t you get Bear set up and I’ll get to the bottom of this.” He limped towards Dean. Rob had a bad leg. I wondered why he didn’t just use a cane.
She looked tired and let out a long breath. “Sure. Bear, let’s get your things and find you a room.”
I nodded. All I had was my backpack, my weapons bag and my poster carrier.
The first thing I saw when I walked out of the Suburban was a sign that read: “Our family supports a drug free home. If any drugs are found in our home, we will call the RCMP. We support youth learning in a safe and drug and alcohol free environment.”
“Who’s the harelip?” the young guy asked.
I looked at him fiercely. “Now, Dean,” Rob said. “Is that respectful? This is Bear from Behchoko.”
He spat towards me. “A Dogrib with a retard name.” He turned to Rob. “How’s the knee?”
Rob placed himself between Dean and me. “Let’s go upstairs. You know where the kitchen is.”
“Girls still get the basement, right?” Dean said. “Sweet.”
Dean turned to me and gave me a dirty look. I looked away. Rob and Dean walked upstairs towards where the kitchen must be. Dean had left his bags in the middle of the door. Sue moved them and sighed. “Do you need help, Bear?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Who is that?”
She sighed. “Well, between you and me, that’s Dean Meddows. He was asked to leave last year… I’m surprised he’s back. His dad is the chief and we could sure use the money, but I would not be surprised if Rob asks him to stay elsewhere. He’s trouble.”
“Thank you for letting me stay,” I said. “Sorry for mixing up the dates.”
She looked at me and I could see tears well up. “Oh now… I’m just glad we were here. Usually, this time of year we’re still down south, but you know… it’s actually great timing. I have to leave tomorrow.”
Sue was a good person. She had kind eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s my dad. He’s not doing so well.” She looked in the direction of where Rob and Dean would be. “You go pick your room. There’s a key in every lock so once you pick your room, keep your key with you, okay?”
“Do you have the newspaper?” I asked.
She stopped. “Oh. Good question. I’m sure we do. It’s around here somewhere. I think we have it in our suite. I’ll leave it in the kitchen for you. Are you hungry?”
I shrugged.
“Well, why don’t you let Rob sort Dean out and help yourself when you head up,” Sue said. “Go pick out your room. You get first dibs. Oh. Can you keep an eye on our dog Duke? He’s really sick.”
“Sure.” I trust dogs. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s just not eating.”
“Was he poisoned?” I ask.
“What?” She looked at me. “No. Why would you say that?”
I shrugged. “Usually, when dogs are poisoned they don’t eat.”
She frowned. “Can you remind Rob to take Duke to the vet tomorrow? Our appointment’s at three.”
“Okay.”
She sighed. “Okay, I’m off to call my brother. Our suite is here and you can knock on our door anytime, okay?”
I nodded and went to find my room.
I looked in every room and decided on the one at the end of the hall to the right. It had a view of the field and I could sneak out if I wanted. It had its own private sink and mirror as well as a small study desk and closet. The bed was small but the room was perfect. It had a wall of cork board so you could put up posters and there were tacks of many colours just waiting to be put to work. I locked the door and started putting up my Bruce Lee posters and started unpacking my UFC and WWE DVDs. Would Rob cook for me? What if he wanted to eat with me and talk? I only ever ate with Ehtsi and Wendy and we always ate in silence.
I had a week to accomplish what I came here to do. This was my base and I knew the town a bit. I’d been here last year for my grade eleven but stayed in a basement apartment where they didn’t ask any questions. I could not tell Marvin I was back. He’d want to hang, but the principal was staying somewhere in town. I’d find him and he’d never walk again. I swore it to Wendy before I left. I went through the mental photos I’d taken of the residence and stored in glances: there were crosses in the hallways. Were they Catholic, Protestant, Anglican? No ashtrays. A few cigarette butts. This was a drug-free home. I counted a shoe rack capable of holding twenty pairs of shoes. There were photos along the hall of northern students who’d stayed in the residence for the past decade as they attended PWS. It looked like in winter they went on a caribou hunt. In the summer, they probably went to check nets and make dry fish. Everyone looked so happy. In each of the photos, there stood Sue and Rob beaming with pride. I wondered if they had kids of their own. I’d read the paper and find out about the trial and the lawyer’s arguments. Maybe the local paper would have different news from CBC and News/North—
Dean Meddows opened my door and threw his hockey bags on the floor. “Hey, ugly. Get out of my room.” Up close, he was way shorter than me. He still had his baby teeth. They were coated in plaque and they looked like yellow toenails.
How did he—? I’d locked that door. I knew I locked that door. He was serious.
“Are you deaf? Get out of my room.” He started looking around. “Nice belt,” he said and started looping it through the rungs in his jeans. It had been on my dresser right next to my tote bag. He then reached into my tote bag and pulled out my nunchucks, throwing stars and Ehtsi’s knife. “You a frickin’ psycho, or what? I’m keeping all of this or I’m telling on you.”
“Get out of here,” I said. He had small arms and that meant a small reach.
Dean scowled at me and tapped my belt. “What are you gonna do—fight me?”
I tucked my chin and dropped my hands to my sides, Bruce Lee style. He saw this. “I’m not asking you again. Get out of my room, harelip.”
I made two fists and stared at him. “Put everything back and get out of my room.”
He turned to me and smiled. “Oh good. Ugly wants to fight. I’m keeping the belt and weapons.”
I pretended to be scared by backing up. “Don’t—”
Dean put his little fists up and grinned. “I got two sledgehammers here and they’re called ‘Good’ and ‘Night.’”
I shook my head.
He scowled at me. “God, you’re ugly.”
I sized him up: I was taller and had a longer reach, and I bet I knew his trigger. “At least I’m no midget.”
He put everything down. Dean’s eyes bugged in his skull and he turned purple with anger. Bingo. With that he pulled his arm all the way back and started running towards me, telegraphing his move. I let him come, drinking in the air and savouring what was about to happen. I spun against the image of where I thought he’d be and, like a windmill, I back-fisted his temple—Crack!—with all I had. He crumpled to the ground. He smoked his forehead off of the floor. I winced at the sound. His back started shaking and he gave a few little kicks.
I watched to make sure he wasn’t faking. I pulled my belt off him. “I am ugly,” I thought and licked my top lip, “but I’ll always be taller than you.”
Blood flowed from his nose. His eyes rolled in his skull and he had spit down his face. He blinked and looked around. “Wha—?” He curled his wrists into him and looked around, blinking. “Holy… you… knocked me out…” I was quiet and watched him in case he wanted to fight again. He curled his hands into cups. He touched his nose with his thumb and looked around.
I couldn’t let him get up.
I rolled him so he was face down. I then straddled his back and pulled both of his arms up over my legs. “Hey. What?”
I then sat down on his back and heard the gristle in his back-strap snap, crackle and pop. He started wiggling with all of his might to get away, so I leaned back as I began wrenching on his jaw with my fingers braided under his throat. This way he couldn’t scream. I had him in the Camel Clutch. “Tell me about the boy who called Social Services on the principal.”
“NNNNggggh,” he grunted. His little hands were quivering he was in so much pain.
I lifted my weight off of him a bit so he could speak. “I won’t ask again.” I lowered my weight on his spine and heard sinew pop some more. I saw his hands turning purple. He started kicking and shaking terribly. “NNnnnggggh!!”
“Talk,” I said as I sat up a bit. I felt something warm seep down my fingers? Spit? I lifted myself up a bit so he could talk.
“Gerald,” he gasped. “Everyone knows it was Gerald.”
“Last name,” I sat back down and heard another pop in his lower back but eased up enough so he could talk.
“Spruce. You’re giving me the Camel Clutch?”
“Stay out of my way and live.” I hissed into his left ear. “Get in my way again and I’ll blind you.” I pushed him off of me and stood. Right away he turtled up and started grasping for breath. I glanced at my fingers. Blood from others can make you sick. It was tears. He’d been crying. I spun around and pulled him out of my room by my belt and his collar down the hallway. I reclaimed my belt. “You sucker-punched the wrong person,” he wheezed. “You wait and see.” I grabbed his legs and dragged him to the room farthest from mine. He didn’t resist. I grabbed his two stink hockey bags and dragged them out beside him before closing and locking my door. I repacked my weapons bag and continued setting up my room. What if this got me kicked out of here? Ah. He’d never tell, the big coward.
Once I was all set up, I examined and retried my lock with my key. It locked, so how did Dean get into my room? Maybe I hadn’t locked it. I’d tell Rob. I had to fortify my room. I looked down the hall and Dean had chosen a room to the left. I paused and listened. It was quiet. I shook my head and made my way into the kitchen. Rob was sipping a coffee, looking out over the yard. The moon was out. It was about a third full. The last time I was here, I made a friend: Marvin. He’d talked me out of maiming the principal the first time; I should have never listened to him.
“You all set up?” Rob called.
I nodded. He looked nervous. His meeting with Dean must have been a disaster. My knuckle started to burn.
“See Dean?”
I eyed the coffee. It smelled great. I nodded.
“I’m not sure what to say about Dean but lock your doors and windows while he’s here. I’m working on getting him gone as soon as I can, okay?”
I looked at my fingers. “Do you change the locks here every year?”
“What’s that?”
“Someone can use their key from last year to get into my room.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. Once the students are gone, they usually ask for the same room again. The last student who used that room came from Smith. He graduated.”
“I don’t trust my lock,” I said.
He was quiet. “Okay, well, maybe that can be one of your chores tomorrow. You can change your own lock with any of the others you wish. How does that sound?”
I nodded and stood there, unsure of what to do. Did he serve me coffee, or did I serve myself? That’s when I noticed he had an ice pack on his knee, under the table.
He turned the ice pack over and pointed with his lips towards the coffee maker. “Help yourself.”
I did. Lots of whitener, lots of sugar. Where was the paper? I had to read the paper to get the latest on the trial.
“I bet you’re hungry.”
I nodded. The back of my hand stung from striking Dean’s temple but I felt great, not even winded.
He got up and limped to the oven. There were beans and perogies. His knee. Why had Dean asked about his knee? Rob opened the stove door and there was a plate wrapped in tinfoil. His sleeves rolled up again and I saw that he was tattooed on both arms. His tattoos were faded but still looked cool—the face of Japanese demons. “Ketchup’s in the fridge.”
I was too shy to go get it. I didn’t want him watching me. I grabbed a fork and knife and sat at his side so we could look out the big window together. I pulled my hoodie up and started to eat.
“You were here last year, hey?” he asked. “How was the other residence?”
“Good,” I nodded and could feel him wanting to ask me more but I turned away from him. I wanted to eat but started to get shy again.
“So this year,” he said, “we’ll be looking for captains to help us lead the caribou hunt. Have you ever hunted caribou before?”
I shook my head. My drunk uncles kept saying they’d take me but they never did.
“Well, maybe this is your year to learn how,” he said and he said it so gently, like it was a wish that he held for me.
I looked at him. “That would be awesome.”
Rob stood slowly, keeping his weight off his knee. “I’ll leave you to your meal. Please wash your own dishes when you’re done, okay? I gotta go check on Duke.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Do you have the paper?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s by the phone.” He pointed to a table filled with books. “Bear, I’m glad you’re here. Sue’s dad is sick. Her brother’s been watching him but he’s got to get back to work. I’ll need help cutting wood and doing the grass. And changing your lock.”
I nodded. “We can’t forget to bring Duke in tomorrow at three.” I had a feeling someone poisoned him.
“Okay,” he said. “We’ll talk in the morning. Welcome to your new home.” He stopped and looked at me. “Is there a reason you showed up a week early?”
I had a feeling this was it: the moment that would decide if he’d let me stay, so I decided to tell the truth. Most of it. “I can’t go back,” I said suddenly, surprising myself.
“Where? Rae?”
I traced my finger over a scratch in the table. I decided to go for sympathy. “Our Grandma passed away last week.” And there it was: the truth. She was gone. All the promise and everything of our family. Dead with a nest of lies in her heart from my mouth. The lies I told her. I felt my ribs tighten with this. “Thank you for giving me a home. I can work hard.”
He nodded. “You are welcome. I’m sorry about your Grandma.”
I pulled my hoodie back so I could look down and not be watched. “I hope Sue’s dad is okay.”
“Me too,” he sighed. “Hey, we’ve got the TV set up with satellite downstairs. We’ve got a Playstation, Xbox 360, plenty of games, a small library. It’s all downstairs. The students sound-proofed it last year for that Dance Dance Revolution, so have a good night. We’ll have a nice breakfast tomorrow, okay? We have a week to get the residence ready for the students.”
I nodded as he left for his and Sue’s room. “I’ll help you,” I lied.
I pulled my hoodie back and ate everything on my plate. All the while, I listened for Dean. He better not be messing with my room. I downed a cup of coffee and I found some cookies. Raisin. My favourite. With fudge? Whoah. I ate them quick. They were ever sweet. I watched the golden moon in the sky, and I said a prayer for Wendy, for Sue and Rob, for Sue’s dad and their dog. I had made it. I had arrived to do what I had to do. It was August 22nd. The moon seemed closer than in Edzo or Behchoko or maybe even Yellowknife. She was beautiful.
I was now ready to read the paper. I moved to the table and sat down. There it was: front page. It was all true. The principal was going to get off because the methods used to retrieve the server on his hard drive were illegal. He had a lawyer who did all the talking in the article. There was a picture of the principal. It said his sentencing date would be on September 8th, the first day of school. There was no mention of Wendy. All it said was “allegations of indecent exposure.” There were no pictures or mention of his wife, who I would love to interrogate. But that was after Gerald. I had Gerald Spruce’s name and, with the phone book, I quickly had his number and his address. At the front of the NWT phone book, there’s a map of every community in the western arctic. I could see how I’d get to his house: go left facing the river, take a right on Ptarmigan, follow Loon Street until it becomes Slave River Narrows Avenue and then walk a ways to Sky Crescent. I’d start at the beginning and work my way up.
I tidied up, turned the coffee maker off, did dishes. There was no way I was going to blow this. As I walked back to my room, I passed by Dean’s door. I listened: no sound at all.
I knelt and checked my door lock. It looked fine. I gripped it and turned. It stuck. How did he get into my room?
I unlocked the door and listened after I closed it. Nothing. Still no movement from Dean. Everything looked exactly the same as I left it but I didn’t trust any of this. I hid my weapons bag under the bed—way at the back. I tucked only my Grandpa’s sheathed bone knife in the small of my back behind my belt and jeans. I wouldn’t need my nunchucks or modified throwing stars. I turned out the lights and jumped out of my window into the cool night of one of the last days of summer. I’d keep it unlocked so I could get back in later. Because we were north, it would get dark at around ten. I couldn’t wait. I had to meet the boy who called Social Services. As far as I could tell, he was an ally. He tried to protect Wendy. He’d taken the stand at the trial. I’d find out what happened and what went wrong.
I could not run into Marvin. Couldn’t. He’d try again to talk me out of what I had to do. I followed the map in my head and looked around. Fort Simmer was a pretty town. I looked at the moon. “I miss you, Ehtsi.” I swallowed hard. “I miss you, Wendy.”
There was nobody out. A few dogs barked. There were some nice log houses. Everybody here, it seemed, mowed their lawns. I looked into windows: lots of TVs and computer screens. There was one house with a lot of trucks on the lawn. Through the living room window, I could see into the kitchen: a card game was in full effect. Everyone had hunting caps on, maybe to hide their eyes, and soon I was outside Gerald’s. His family had a nice log house with a large workshed out back. There were two trucks out front: a nice Ford and a beater, probably for the bush.
I could circle round and watch through the windows, but he was an ally. I had to remember he was an ally. I had to work fast and gather my own information. I took a big breath and looked up and, to my amazement, I saw a fleet of ten, eleven, twelve pelicans soaring miles above, like white hands blessing anything below. Not once did they flap their wings. They soared and veered together as one. I wondered what Wendy thought of them when she was here, and I wondered what they thought of her.
“Can I help you?” a voice called.
I folded my tobacco bag and looked up. Shoot! My hoodie had blocked my view. It was a man holding a chainsaw and a long file. He’d come out of the shed and must have seen me.
“Hi,” I said. “Is Gerald Spruce here?”
“Inside.” He waved and went back to work behind the house.
I nodded. He didn’t suspect a thing.
“Gerald!” he called.
“What?” a voice called from a back window.
“Company.”
“Who?”
“Looks like an Indian: skinny—straight nuts and ribs.”
“What?” two voices asked: one from the back window and one from the kitchen window. They must have been open with the screens on.
I could hear someone walking and I readied myself. I dropped my hoodie and used both hands to smooth over my hair.
A woman with an apron that read “Hot Stuff” and moccasins answered the door. “Hello.”
I nodded. “Hi. Is, uh, Gerald here?”
She studied my lip. “Son? There’s a young man here to see you.” She looked to me. “Come in. Please.”
So much for sneaking up on anyone. What kind of ninja was I?
I walked in and she held out her hand. I nodded and took it. She stared right at my lip again before making eye contact. “I’m Gerald’s mom. And you are?”
“Bear.”
“Wow. Quite the name. My son’s just out of the shower. He’ll be right out. Can I get you some tea? Coffee? Take your jacket?”
I shook my head. She’d see my knife. “Tea would be nice.” I could smell sweet pine and spruce in the wood box directly in front of me and there were pictures of a young man everywhere. This must be Gerald. To my surprise, there was a yellow fireman’s helmet on top of the coat rack and a large set of flashlights.
“Well come on in,” she said.
I stepped out of my shoes and walked into one of the most incredible log houses I had ever seen, maybe the only actual log house I’d ever been in. There were wolf hides, bear hides, a few stuffed foxes on the top floor looking over. There was a gun rack filled with hunting rifles and everything was so clean. There was a small couch around the biggest wood stove and there were plants everywhere. You could smell them. Green. Fresh. It’s like their breath pushed against everything in the room. I bet you could load that wood stove and it would burn all night. There was also a nice supper table and a sewing machine was set up. There was dough dust on the counter and a large silver mixing bowl had a tea towel covering it. Cookies were cooling on racks and my mouth started to water. There were two huge green Tupperware bowls beside one another by the coffee maker. “You arrived just in time,” she said. “Cookies’ll be ready in five minutes.”
I nodded. It smelled delicious and sweet.
“I got tea here. It’s fresh. How do you like it?”
“Two and two,” I said. “Please.”
She motioned for me to sit down at the table.
I glanced quickly and tried to memorize everything about this house. “This is the most beautiful home I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, thank you.” She poured my tea and came my way. She was carrying cream in a can but no sugar and no spoon. I glanced at her moccasins. Yup. They were exactly like what Grandma used to wear. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you here before, Bear—is it?”
I shook my head. Of all her things, Ehtsi’s moccasins were the last to go up in flames. “I’m here with the Northern Leadership program.”
“Oh,” she said and leaned back to look at the calendar on the wall. “School doesn’t start for a week.”
I went to reach for the cream but looked around. There really was no spoon and no sugar. “I’m helping Rob. Sue’s dad is pretty sick.”
“Oh?” she asked. “He’s got Alzheimer’s, hey?”
I poured my cream in and looked around for a spoon. “I didn’t know that.” I’d trade information to buy time and build trust. “Her brother has to get back to work so she’s flying out tomorrow. Do you have any sugar?”
She nodded. “Well, Robert needs help. After what Torchy and Sfen did to him, he’s lucky he can walk.”
I looked up. I’d met them before when Marvin and I were smoking up on the high school roof. I played dumb. “Who are Torchy and Sfen?”
She shook her head. “Two of the nastiest boys you’ll ever meet. Brothers. We lock our doors now because of them.”
The front door opened and the man with the chainsaw walked in. He looked at me and nodded. He had woodchips all over his cap and hair.
“Stanley,” Gerald’s mom called, “if you get any wood on my floor, you’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight.”
The man looked at my lip, frowned and looked back at his wife. “Baby, I did my best to brush myself off. I even took my coveralls off.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You forgot your hair.”
“What?”
She made a rolling motion with her fingers. “Brush off your hair.”
“Jay-sus,” he said. He nodded at me, looked at my lip and went back outside.
Norma huffed. “Anyhow, what was I saying?”
I held up my cup and craned my neck to follow the vines that ran along the loft above us. “Do you have sugar and a spoon?”
“Oh yeah, Torchy and Sfen.” She shook her head. “He’ll never walk the same way again.”
I held my tea. It smelled good. “What happened?”
“Well, the way I heard it…”
The bedroom door that had been closed now opened. Out walked a young man who looked seventeen, like me, who had the biggest mullet I had ever seen. It looked like he fluffed it up on purpose. Two big rolling balls of hair rested on each shoulder. He stopped, looked at my lip and looked at his mom.
“Gerald, this is Bear.”
“Hi.” Gerald looked back at my lip while I looked at his hair in complete astonishment. He looked like Elvis with his hair like that. Then his dad opened the door again and came in without any shavings in his hair. His cap was off and he had Hat Head.
“Okay,” his dad said. “Let’s try that again.”
“Sorry,” Gerald said. “What’s your name?”
Everyone was looking at my lip. I held up my hand. “I need sugar and a spoon.”
“Oh for goodness sakes,” Norma said. “Sorry. Gerald this is Bear. Hun, this is Bear. Where are you from?”
“Behchoko.” I said.
“Rae or Edzo?” the man asked.
“Rae.”
He nodded.
“You’re Wendy’s cousin,” Gerald said.
My face flushed and the room became still.
“Oh God,” Norma covered her mouth. “Oh God. I’m so sorry.”
I nodded.
“Norma, get the boy a spoon and some sugar.” He came around the corner and he held out his hand. I stood and shook it. It was a bone-crushing grip and he nodded at me. He was handsome. I liked him right away. After that, Gerald came forward. I could smell cologne. They had the same nose, but Gerald had a purple hickey on the side of his neck.
“Mom,” Gerald said, “maybe we should all have tea.”
“Did you just get in today?” his dad asked.
I nodded. I heard a squawk and realized there was a handheld walkie-talkie plugged into a charger on top of the fridge.
“He’s here to help Rob. Sue’s dad’s getting worse.”
“He’s got Alzheimer’s, hey?” Gerald’s dad said. He looked at his son. “Sorry about your cousin, Bear.” I froze. “My son here’s the one who called Social Services on him. You guys want cookies, or what?”
We both nodded.
“Are you going to the Walk for the Cure?” Gerald asked.
I looked at everyone. “What?”
Gerald’s dad and mom got us all tea, sugar, spoons and cream properly. Tea was poured and a huge plate of fresh cookies placed in front of us.
Stanley spoke. “It’s a fundraiser. For cancer. The whole town shows up and you walk all night. We’re all doing it. Every year we beat Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River for funds raised.”
I took a big breath and realized I was exhausted. “I didn’t know about it.”
“You don’t know about it? It’s in the paper, on the radio. We have to outdo Yellowknife this year, no matter what.”
“You look like you need a good night’s sleep,” Norma said.
I nodded. The tightness in my chest was there but it had loosened since walking into this house and just sitting. It had been a tough week: burying my grandmother, reading the paper to see the principal was going to get off, hitching a ride to Fort Simmer.
“What do you want to know?” Gerald asked.
I looked at him and suddenly felt safe. I suddenly felt like crying. I looked at my hands. They were filthy. The smoke of Grandma’s clothes was all over me and I could smell her. I could. I still had Dean’s tears on my hands and ketchup from the perogies. I felt stupid for bringing my bone knife into this house. “How did you know?” I asked.
Gerald’s mom touched her hair and his Dad looked down. There were no enemies here. Nobody reached for the cookies. Gerald closed his eyes and looked winded. He leaned back and let a long breath out. He looked to be in sadness. He then rubbed his chin and leaned forward and took a sip of his tea. “I can’t believe they’re going to let the principal off for what he did.” He then stopped and looked at me. So did his mom and dad. I heard something. I was grinding my molars. I stopped. “Sorry, go on.”
All of them went for the cookies and so did I, but I stopped when I saw my hands. I needed to wash my hands. If I was going to put anything in my mouth using my fingers, I had to wash my hands. But first I had to hear this.
“Can I just say something?” Gerald’s dad said. “I think it’s B.S.—excuse my French—that my son—”
“Our son,” Norma corrected him.
“Sorry, babe. Our son. I think it’s B.S. that our son had to take the stand and tell the truth when we all knew that molester was going to get off.”
“That’s not certain,” she corrected.
“Oh it’s certain,” Stanley said. “The word’s out: he’ll walk. He’s got nothing but money and lawyers.”
I sipped my tea. So it was true. The paper said it might be true that the principal would get off because the RCMP messed up when they searched the house. “When do they reach their verdict or whatever?”
“The judge is flying up this week,” Gerald nodded. With each nod, his hair bobbed. This was the biggest mullet I had ever seen. I thought for a second it was a wig, but, no, it was real.
I took a big breath. “Okay. So, how did you know?”
He nodded and took another sip of his tea. “It was the track meet. We were all there. Your cousin was very pretty. We didn’t know she was deaf at first. She turned a lot of… heads when she came up but we knew she was different, you know, like… delayed?”
I nodded and thumbed my tea cup handle. I let out a sigh of grief and felt tears well up. “Go on.”
“Well,” he took a big breath and stopped. His mother reached out and rubbed his arm. “She, uh, dropped her, uh, pants and panties and started to, well,” he took a hard swallow without his tea. “She began to masturbate in front of the whole school.”
His mother cleared her throat and touched the back of her hair. It must have been long once. I closed my eyes and put my tea down. Why, Wendy? Why?
“You know what got him?” Gerald’s dad said. “You know what got him? That little bastard was a cheapo.”
Gerald stared at his tea.
“What?” I asked.
Stanley held out his hands and started counting off his fingers. “There’s three kinds of Internet accounts you can get here: there’s the one we have, which hardly uses any bandwidth or whatever, and then there’s the usual one most folks use and then there’s the corporate account or whatever and that’s for business. You can download all you want. Mr. Principal was using the cheapo account and kept using up the town bandwidth. They had a summer student who couldn’t figure out why the town server kept crashing, and it was because of what the principal was downloading. This kid has a peek and sees kiddie porn this and kiddie porn that and he called the cops. They had a look and went racing over the same day Gerald called Social Services.”
“So how did you know?” I asked Gerald.
He let out a huge breath and was flushed in the cheeks. “Mom and Dad, cover your ears please.”
To my surprise, they did. My eyes bugged when I seen his mom and dad cover their ears like little kids and look down. What kind of family was this?
He cupped his hands around his mouth, almost like to call a moose. “Her toes were painted a bright red and her you-know-what was… she was, well, she had been trained. I’m sorry to say it, but he trained her to do that… like that. The thing is, though, even before that, I knew he was wrong. I didn’t like him as soon as I saw him and that’s never happened before. I secretly called him ‘The Devil.’”
I thought of Wendy: how the sunlight caught her hair. To see her, you’d never know she couldn’t hear or that she was like a baby, but she was so trusting, always so trusting. And that smile. She was always—I buried my head in my hands and let out a huge cry. I started to cry so hard my body shook and I gasped for air. Snot and tears mixed as I cried into my ketchup and I bawled and bawled and bawled. I felt hands upon my shoulders, rubbing my arms. The hood of my hoodie covered my hair and I gave thanks that it also muffled my cries. I was uglier when I cried. I thought of Wendy, how I used to train her for martial arts, how I did my best to prepare her for the world. I remember how the bear root only showed itself to her and Ehtsi. I remembered Wendy’s sweet, trusting smile and me writing the letter to get her out of town. “Where’s Wendy?” Ehtsi kept asking on her death bed. “On her way,” I kept lying. “She’s on her way.”
“Bear,” Norma said. “We’re sorry. We’re so so sorry. Don’t you have a home?”
I shook my head. “Our Grandma died last week. We burned her stuff a few days ago.” I took a big breath and wiped my eyes. My nose was running. I stood and made my way to the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and turned off the lights. I took my hoodie off and wrapped my bone knife inside of it. I washed my hands and face slowly. The soap smelled like berries from the city: fake. I was so tired. My body felt old. I cupped my face and squeezed. How could I? How could I have trusted anyone to look after her? I never should have written that letter. I should have known it was too good to be true. I let out a long breath and wiped myself off. How embarrassing. I blew my nose and shook my head. It was too hot in the house. I squeezed my hoodie hard and felt the bone knife in the middle. I slowly opened the door and they were all sitting, looking down. I made my way to the chair and sat down. “Sorry,” I said. I put my jacket on the table beside me.
Norma reached out and patted my arm. “You’re hurting and you need support. Don’t you have any family?”
I shook my head. “Not anymore.”
“What about your cousin?” Gerald asked.
I thought about it. “She’s with the nurses now.” They had a group home for developmentally delayed kids and teens. She was there. The last time I went to see her, she turned her back on me and ran to the corner and started crying.
I wiped my eyes thinking about her and the promises I made to check up on her when we were both here last year. All broken.
“Bear,” Gerald said, “there’s something. We don’t know for sure if the principal will get off for the kiddie porn and for what he did to your cousin, but they will get him for stealing the money he stole from the kids.”
“Money?” I asked. I helped myself to a chocolate chip cookie and it was delicious. Gerald’s dad sat down with a fresh cup and moved my old one away. He poured me a fresh cup and put two scoops of sugar and a lot of cream. “I know how Dogribs like their tea: double-double, hey?”
I nodded and looked for Kleenex. I sipped and it was perfect. Nobody was looking at my lip anymore. “Thank you,” I said to everyone in the room. “What’s this about money?”
Gerald nodded. “The junior highs start fundraising as soon as they start grade eight to go to Disneyland in grade twelve as part of their graduation. We didn’t know that all that money was being kept by the principal. We gave it to him assuming he was putting it in the bank for us, but he was keeping it.”
“What a jackass,” Gerald’s dad said.
I looked at Gerald and his huge hair. “So they may get him for theft?”
Gerald nodded and took a bit out of his cookie. “They say he took thousands and blew it all when he and his wife took off.”
“Why would his wife go with him if she knew he was doing all of that?” I asked.
“There’s rumours,” Gerald’s dad said, “that she didn’t have a choice. She’s saying he forced her.”
“She turned him in,” Norma said and nodded.
I scratched my head. Without my hoodie on, my scalp started to itch. I had another cookie and sip of tea. It was perfect, and I felt lighter. Somehow, I felt lighter. I’d been tight in the chest, like I couldn’t fill my lungs the past week.
Norma spoke softly. “She called the cops from a gas station and told them which way they were heading for BC.”
“They used a spike belt on the car,” Gerald’s dad said. “No one’s supposed to know that, but it’s true. I would have loved to have seen that.”
I nodded. “So he blew all that money?”
Gerald scratched his neck. “They say he’s using it for his lawyers now.”
“So why are you here?” Norma asked.
“What?”
“Why are you here? If your grandmother passed away—and we are so sorry to hear that—if your cousin is in Rae, why are you here?”
I cleared my throat. Should I tell them? Should I say I’ve come to paralyze the principal and blind him? That right beside me is the knife I aim to use?
Just then the front door opened with a quick knock. In walked a young woman who had lipstick on and smiled when she saw Gerald. Gerald stood and walked to her. “Hey, babe.”
“Hi,” she said as she walked into the house, putting her purse on the bench by the porch. What a pretty girl, I thought. Her hair was still wet and she wore glasses that showed off her dark eyes. She was short and she looked at Gerald’s folks before she looked at me and my lip. “Hello.”
“Baby, this is Bear. He’s Wendy’s cousin.”
“Oh,” she said and raised her hand to her lip. She walked towards me and I could smell bleach from her. “Hi. I’m Donna.” She shook my hand lightly, once. I caught a blurred hickey across her neck, under her ear. Classic.
“Do you want some tea?” Norma asked her.
“No,” she said. “I left the truck running. I’m late.”
Gerald looked at her and then at me. “Bear, we’ve got to go. We’re MCing the third hour for the Walk for the Cure. You’re welcome to join us. We’re all going. The whole town shows up. It’s basically one big party, except you walk all night and visit.”
I shook my head. “I’ve got to get back. Rob needs my help first thing.”
“Sweetie,” Stanley looked to Norma, “why don’t you go with the lovebirds and I’ll drive Bear back.”
I stood. “I’m okay.”
He held his hand up. “I insist.”
Norma nodded and walked to the closet. “Gerald, can you get those cookies? They’re all ready—with your shoes off please.”
Gerald walked across the room and grabbed two huge Tupperware bowls filled with cookies that I had missed completely. This was why the house smelled so good.
“So,” Donna said, “how big is that Bingo tomorrow night?”
Norma pulled out a light jacket. She walked over and gave Donna a huge hug. “The jackpot is five grand.”
“I have a good feeling,” Donna nodded. “We’ve got water bottles in the truck, right?”
“Yup,” Gerald’s dad said. “Your folks there?”
“Already walkin’.”
“Wow,” Stanley said. “I’ll be right along.”
I caught Norma giving Stanley a look, like, What are you up to?
He puckered his lips really quick and smiled. They had their own sign language.
“Okay,” Donna said and looked at me. “It was nice meeting you. Welcome to Fort Simmer.” She looked at Gerald. “We have to go. What grade are you in?”
“Twelve,” I answered.
“Us too.” She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe school starts next week.”
I nodded. She was actually beautiful.
Gerald walked to me and held out his hand. “It’s good to meet you. If you want to talk, call me: 2888. We’ll be there for the sentencing. We’ll see you, okay?”
Norma came and gave me a big hug. “You come here anytime you want a good supper. They say your problems never seem so big after a good meal.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
She kissed her husband and patted his bum. “No hockey. Come walk.”
“Ho. Not even,” he smiled at her. “I’m going to drive Bear around. Show him the town.”
With that, Norma, Gerald and Donna made their way out of the house and I was left alone with Stanley. He started clearing the cups and plates. “Want some more tea?”
I shook my head. “I’m good.”
“Take some cookies with you,” he said.
I shook my head.
“Come on,” he said. “Don’t be cheap to yourself. Rob would probably like some.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
He handed me a Tupperware. “Fill that skinny little bannock leg of yours.”
There was a pile of cookies. I could bring some to Sue before she left.
“You never answered Norma’s question,” he said as he put the dishes in the sink.
I knew what was coming. “Which one?”
“What are you doing here?”
I looked at my hands. It seemed stupid now. I’d come here to cripple the principal. I didn’t know where he was. I was a lousy ninja. Was the principal in jail? Did he sleep in his house? Was he at a hotel? I’d read that his house had been seized.
“School,” I said.
“You’re in grade twelve, right?”
I nodded.
“You came here last year, right?”
I nodded. Shit.
“Well, welcome back,” he came and sat down. “You’ll graduate with my boy.”
Our boy, I could hear Norma correct him.
“You two can help lead the caribou hunt.”
I winced and he caught that.
“So if you’re here coming to school, what’s with the knife?”
I was stunned. How did he? How did he know?
He pointed to the bathroom. “It was poking out when you went to the bathroom.”
I blushed.
“I know why you’re here, Bear. I can see it in your eyes. You want revenge. I’ve been smelling blood in the wind for the past week and now you’re here.” My face was on fire. He sat back and eyed me. “That’s pretty arrogant of you, don’t you think?”
I glared at him. “What do you mean?”
He fanned his hands out and made them move like the wind across the table. “The Great Spirit moves in many different ways. Don’t you think the man upstairs has a plan already set in motion for the principal?”
I shrugged. This was basically the same stupid speech Marvin gave me.
He leaned forward. “Are you really going to throw your life away when the best is yet to come for you?”
I shrugged again. Tears started to well up again.
“I’m sorry about your grandma and your cousin. You’re too young to be carrying a load like that, but I’ll tell you what. My son—our son—we’re so proud of Gerald. I seen you checking out his hair.”
I smirked. His hair was huge. “He looks like Elvis.”
He grinned and took a bit out of a cookie. “Well, you know why he’s growing his hair like The King? He and his best friend Jonathan made a pact in grade seven that when they graduated from grade twelve they’d have mullets as they walked across the stage for their diplomas. They wanted the whole town to laugh at them. Then they’re going to donate their hair for cancer research. Wigs… for people fighting the big C.”
I looked at him quickly. His eyes were so caring. “That’s my boy.” He stopped and considered something before he spoke softly. “I read your letter, Bear.”
I looked down and swallowed hard.
“I’m on that committee, too.”
I shot up and went for my jacket. “I have to go.”
“No!” his voice boomed and I froze. “You’ll sit and you will listen to me. You brought a knife into my house around my wife and son. Sit and listen.”
He meant it. My body went weak with fear. I sat back down and looked at my hands. I wanted to vanish.
“It’s not your fault, Bear,” Stanley said calmly. “You wanted your cousin to hear and speak. You wrote that letter out of love. I was the one who approved it. Sue seconded it.” Sue? My heart froze. She must know why I’m here.
“I got a copy of it in the next room. All the committees and boards I’m on, that was the one that touched me. You and I and the rest of the board had no idea what would happen.” He took a big breath. “No one. We all trusted the principal and his wife.” He touched my hands with his once, softly. “Bear, listen to me.” He held his hand up and showed me his watch. It was big and beautiful: polished silver with a face that had many cool dials on it. He then took it off and placed it in my hand. “I’m going to make you a trade.” He patted my hand. “Put it on.”
I’d never owned a watch before. The watch’s bracelet was silver and the face—or dial—was beautiful. It had a moon on it with three small circles: one for the day, one for the month, one for the date. I could feel it ticking. “Whoah.”
“This is the last watch my father ever gave me. I was in grade twelve when he did. Try it on.” He then stood and made his way to a small room by the fridge. I fumbled with the watch and folded the bracelet. I thumbed it shut and it clicked. It fit. It was heavy and huge, but it fit.
Stanley came back holding two boxes. They were wooden. “Put it on your left hand.”
“Oh,” I said. I couldn’t find the clasp. He sat down next to me and put the boxes to his right. “Na.”
That was Dogrib. I looked at him and he smiled. “Bet you didn’t know we were related, hey?”
I beamed. “How?”
He put the watch on my left wrist and clasped it shut. “Your grandmother was Melanie.”
I nodded.
“I met her once. Very powerful and gentle. A midwife.”
I nodded and teared up. He was making me miss her.
“Bear, you are now wearing a Citizen Chronosphere. You can’t get these in Canada. My dad was a watch fanatic. Those little circles in the dial are called complications. That little doo-hickey is called your moon phase dial.”
I looked at it. “Are you giving this to me?”
He shook his head. “I’m trading it for your knife.”
I looked at my jacket. “I can’t. That was the only thing of my Grandpa’s that I kept.”
“Hear me out. Remember I talked about Gerald’s best buddy Jonathan?”
I nodded.
“Ever since my son called Social Services to investigate the principal, the town has turned his back on him. Thank God for Donna. We were worried about Gerald. Last year was tough on us. All of us. Jonathan never spoke to Gerald again. For some reason, people here turn their backs on people who call the cops or Social Services, even when it means they save lives or protect children.” He then pushed two boxes towards me and opened each one. They were two of the most beautiful watches I’d ever seen. “These are Citizen Campanolas. You also can’t buy these in Canada. I bought two: one for Gerald and one for Jonathan. This was months ago, before it all happened—and I saw the crime scene.”
I looked at him and realized I could not know anything more about what Wendy had been put through. I know she needed stitches after. I closed steel doors around any more emotion or images and totally focused on these watches. They were big with designs I’d never seen more and they had sun faces in the dials. “Here’s your deal, my man. I want you to reconsider your quest for revenge.”
I glanced at my hoodie where my family knife was.
“I want you to focus on your schooling. I want you to come over here whenever you want. Heck, we’ll feed you any time you want. I want you to be a friend to Gerald. He’s never known any of his Dogrib cousins. You get your grade twelve and when you walk across your stage you can have one of these watches and return my dad’s watch to me. I will then return your knife to you.”
My jaw dropped. “Why?”
He took a big breath. “Because you deserve your own family. You deserve a house filled with memories and laughter and great cookin’. You deserve to hunt for the people and cut wood for those who can’t cut it themselves and know the pride of serving your community. You deserve to see the world. They say the best revenge is living a good life.” His voice then lowered. “Don’t get in the way of the Creator’s plans for the principal. Always remember, the Great Spirit moves in mysterious ways.”
He had tears in his eyes when he spoke. “Trade your family knife for the last watch my dad ever gave me, Bear. I trust you with it. I can tell you’re a good person.” I glanced again at my jacket. I then looked at the two watches in front of me.
“Get your grade twelve. Then go on to college or university and return home and help the people. Have you ever hunted caribou before?”
I shook my head.
“Neither has my boy. You two can learn together.”
I needed to blow my nose. “That would be nice.”
“Have you ever made dry fish?”
I shook my head. Gerald’s dad handed me a box of Kleenex and I grabbed a bunch and looked away to honk my nose.
“What you’re feeling now will pass,” he said. “I promise. What the world has in store for child molesters is not kind. Wait. You’ll see.” He tapped my hand and touched his father’s watch. “Think about it.” He rose and showed me the watches one more time before gently closing the lids. “I’ll drive you home.” He walked back to the room where he’d gone to get the watches. I didn’t know where to put the used Kleenex, so I tucked it into my sleeve just like my Ehtsi used to.
I suddenly realized I had the most beautiful watch around my wrist and something like a wish inside of me. I marvelled at the watch, the weight of it, the spell it cast. I felt giddy. I tapped the Tupperware filled with cookies and rose to get my jacket. There was Grandpa’s bone knife in its sheath. I handed it to Gerald’s father as his father’s watch hung wonderfully from my wrist. He placed it on the table and pulled the blade from the sheath and whistled. It was razor sharp and jagged at the same time. I’d sharpened it on the stove coils back home. “This ain’t no killin’ knife,” he said with a low voice.
I put my jacket on. “What?”
He slowly ran the blade across his thumbnail before turning it over and running his thumb over the blade. “Knives with grooves near the spine are called ‘blood gutted’ blades. It’s so the muscles can’t grab the blade after you stab someone. You can just keep stabbing. If a knife isn’t blood gutted, well, you get one punch with it.” He put the blade away and tapped it gently.
I nodded and looked again at my watch. Who was this man?
“Looks good on you,” he got up and took the walkie-talkie from the top of the fridge. It beeped when it came off its charger. “We’ll take my truck.”
“I’ll walk,” I said.
“I need you to do something for me,” he said as he grabbed his jacket.
I frowned.
“Come on. Don’t cheap out on me now.”
He pointed with his lips to a small ledge by the porch. “Grab those cards for me.”
I looked. There was a deck of cards still shrink-wrapped sitting there. I took them. He put on his runners and so did I. He pulled on a dark jacket that read Coroner on the back. He also grabbed a DPW vest, the kind they use for Highways work.
I handed the deck to him and he put it in his inside jacket pocket. He then picked up a tiny remote that looked like a car starter and clicked it. Music suddenly rose through speakers all over the house. It was a sweeping chorus of voices. It felt like praying and it was like something you’d hear at mass or at Christmastime.
“It’s Enya,” he said as he locked the door behind him. “The plants love it.”
We got into his fancy truck and he started it up. “There’s a subclause in our trade: I’m going to ask you to do one thing but you must never, ever tell Norma or Gerald.”
I looked at him. The cookies were still warm in the Tupperware. “What?”
He backed out of the driveway. “Man to man,” he said. “I need your word you won’t tell.”
“Well, what is it first?”
He raised his hands. “Ischa! Where is the trust?”
I nodded. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious. I didn’t know what to say.
He looked at me with the biggest smile. “Nephew, I need you to set the clock on my truck.” I looked to the dashboard. The clock read 10:39. “Ever since that frickin’ Daylight Savings Time, that sucker’s been off an hour and it drives me crazy. Every day when Norma and Gerald ride with me, I gotta hear…”
There were many buttons: some for the radio, some for the CD player. I looked at my watch: 9:39. It was getting dusky out. I pressed down on “Clock” for a few seconds while he talked and the time started flashing. I turned the knob on the left to the right and the ten started flashing. I went right but that made it eleven so I turned it left and that made it nine.
“So,” he said. “I’d be eternally grateful if you—”
“Done,” I said.
He stomped on the brakes. “What?”
“All done,” I said, pleased with myself. I hadn’t smiled in a month and there I was: grinning, amazed.
“Holy shee-it,” he said. “You did it.”
I nodded.
“How the heck? Nephew, you are a miracle.” He reached over and messed up my hair. I flinched but then let him. I wasn’t used to anyone touching me. He pushed me gently. “Holy Moses,” he said. “Do you know how many frickin’ hours I have spent trying to solve this mystery?”
I beamed as he drove me down a new street. As we made our way together, I could see the moon. I held my watch up. Stanley had set it so the face on my watch was the exact shape of the moon in the sky. “That watch is solar powered. You’ll never need a battery.”
“Take it easy,” I said.
“It’s called an Eco Drive.”
I looked at the moon above the trees.
“Now lookee here. Our annual Walk for the Cure.” There were at least one hundred people walking on the track. On the sides of the track, there were tents and a few small fires. People were walking and laughing. There were kids. Around the track, on the inside lane, there were small lanterns with candles glowing inside.
And there was Marvin, my buddy, walking with his mom. It was so great to see him. I bet he’d love the cookies I had. He’d lost weight and he was smiling. To think he’d been a bully to me when I first met him.
Stanley continued. “We got a lot of cancer here. Gerald never knew his grandparents. There’s something about this town. Maybe it’s the Tar Sands. Maybe it’s the uranium they used to make the bombs.”
I looked at him. “What?”
He nodded. “The uranium used to make the bombs that were dropped on the Japanese came from up here.”
“No way,” I said.
“Yes, sir. Rayrock Mines and Port Radium. They transported it right through town. They’re still finding rocks of uranium in people’s gardens.”
He shook his head.
I watched the people walk together. A few had flashlights. “Tonight, I’m going to walk with half the town: friends, my family. You sure you don’t want to join us?”
I shook my head. I was tired. Tired and full. Maybe I’d call Marvin tomorrow.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll drop you off and head back. Have you seen the renovations to the school yet? They put solar panels on it and a heat conversion wall.”
“Nice.”
He came to a four-way stop. “Let me show you.”
It was a beautiful night. Dusk was settling in. No stars. No pelicans. Not a cloud. I could smell the spruce and pine.
“Let me give you your official welcome back. Fort Simmer is still population 2,500. Our town is still mostly Dene, Cree, French and English. They say we’re the third-best place in the world to see the northern lights, but that’s for marketing purposes. If you say you’re third, no one ever questions you where the first two are. Keep that under your hat. Right now, our town is being hit hard economically. Numbers at the college are at an all-time low. The thing about Simmer is she’ll never boom and never bust. If you’re okay with that, you’ll do just fine. Our town used to be a trading post during the fur trade. There was a time when you could get eleven hundred dollars for one lynx pelt. Those were the good old days. I’m on the Chamber of Commerce. Next time I see you, I’ll give you a mug, okay? I’m on the Tourism committee.”
I nodded. “You’re on a lot of committees.”
He nodded. “Mm hm. I’m also the fire chief…” He pointed to the walkie-talkie. “And
I’m the coroner.”
The spruce and pine smelled sweet. I loved this watch. I loved the tight fit of the band.
And there it was: PWS High. It still had a red brick front and there were a few portables around it to the left. This would be the year I’d finally get to see inside them. “Four hundred kids grade seven through twelve go here. Your graduating class will be around thirty or forty. They say a school is the heart of the community. We already have a new principal for this year. A woman. Believe you me: that was no mistake.”
I looked at him. “Were you on the hiring committee?”
“I was,” he nodded. Across the street was the swimming pool. I loved that place. I was good at swimming. Underwater, nobody could see my face.
“Holy cow,” he said again. “Bear, do you know what I just realized?”
“What?”
He looked at his hands. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”
“What is it?”
He turned his truck off and ran his fingers through his hair and then touched his cheeks before he looked at me. “I know why you’re here.”
I looked at him. I could smell the cookies in the Tupperware. I saw a small picture of him and his family tucked in the dashboard. Gerald had normal hair back then.
“Holy fuckin’ moley, it’s all clear to me. How could I have missed this?”
“What?”
“Do you know about the dojo?”
“What?”
“Do you know that Rob used to be a sensei?”
I thought of Rob and his limp. “A sensei for what?”
“I don’t know. Jujitsu or karate. Batman stuff. I hear they punch rocks.”
I looked at him. “Wow.”
He nodded. “He tried last year to tame Torchy and Sfen. We advised him against it but he went ahead anyway. How do I know this, you ask? I’m on the school board. He thought he could turn those two, but they turned on him once they got what they wanted. Not only did they shatter his knee for him, they stole a sword from him.”
“Sword… what kind of sword?”
“Nephew,” he started jumping up and down in his seat. He was like a little kid. “I come from a family of prophets. No lie. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.” He looked at me and beamed. “Oh man, oh man, oh man.” He looked left and right like he just couldn’t keep it to himself. “My boy, you are part of bigger plan. Never you mind the principal.”
I shook my head. “But he’s going to get away!” I said.
“Let’s hit the pause button on that for now. But here’s the deal: a long time ago, the museum board inherited a full suit of samurai armour and a real samurai sword. How do I know this? I’m on the board. Our museum inherited a real samurai sword and a samurai suit of armour by accident. It was a clerical error. We’ve been trying to return that armour and sword to Japan for years. Rob was the director of the museum a few years ago and kept the sword in his dojo. He was working on it, tracing the family history. It turns out it is an Emperor’s sword, a sacred sword, but for some cheap reason, the Japanese government never got back to him. We don’t know why, but the night Torchy and Sfen double-banked Rob, they destroyed his knee and stole that sword from him.”
“How?” I asked. “Why?” But then I thought of something: “Duke,” I said out loud. “I bet you any money that Torchy and Sfen poisoned Duke before they tore into Rob.”
“What?” he asked.
“Duke,” I said clearly. “Rob and Sue’s dog is sick. I bet he was poisoned by Torchy and Sfen.”
“Why would you think that?” he asked.
“I’d do it,” I said. “If I knew I had to take out my sensei and he had a guard dog, it would be necessary.”
“Holy shit,” he said. “You’re right.”
I thought of my grandmother’s medicine. To cure a dog who’s been poisoned, you need sulfur and frozen meat.
I had an idea. “Do you have any sulfur?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Why?”
“I need it to help Rob.”
“You know what’s crazy,” he smiled. “I have some in the back. We were just harvesting some for the science camp. Take as much as you need.”
I would help Rob by healing Duke.
“See?” he said. “It’s all making sense. You’re Dogrib. Those brothers are Dogrib. You’re with Rob and Sue now. You’re here to return the sword to Rob because he’s always dreamt of returning the armour and the sword to Japan. That was his dream from the beginning.” He turned to me. “Bear, I swear to you now as a man who has predicted things before, you are here to return the sword to Rob. He needs that sword. Torchy and Sfen are fighters. They’re wicked. But you can do it. Get that frickin’ sword back.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “You’re on a path. I can see it. Hell, I can smell it. You go to Rob. Learn the story but play Dumb Indian. Remember the rule in Simmer: even if you already know it, pretend you don’t. Play Dumb Indian so you can learn even more of what you already know. Learn what happened in that fight. Do what you need to do to get that sword and that armour back to Japan, back to where Citizen watches are made. Man, don’t you see? These watches, that sword—it’s all a sign. You’re no frickin’ ninja. You’re a hero in waiting. Hot damn, I’m good!”
He slapped his hands together and started shuffling in his seat and he started dog paddling the roof. “Okay, okay. Cool down. I gotta go to the Walk for the Cure. I’ll drive you home.”
“No,” I said. “I’ll walk. The residence is just over there, hey?” I pointed past the school.
“You’re Indian,” he said. “Point with your lips, you.”
I got shy. My lips were ugly.
“Come on,” he said.
I frowned.
“Don’t give me your poopy lip.”
I looked at him. “My what?”
“Here in this town, we raise our kids tough. When a kid’s hurt, you know how their little bottom lip sticks out?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, our job is to go and say, “Oh. What’s that? A little poopy lip? A bird’s going to land on your lip and poop on it. This way, Indians from here don’t cry. Don’t you know that?”
I shook my head and started laughing. “That’s crazy.”
“What’s crazy is an Indian pointing with his cheap fingers. Now come on. Show me what you got. Where’s your new home?”
I looked past the school and felt stupid but I did it. I pointed with my lip to the residence.
Gerald’s dad pushed me. “Right on the money, nephew. You got it. A natural. Hot damn, this is a great night. Okay, walk and have fun. We’re in the book. Come by anytime. Your family knife is safe with me. I shall return it with your Campanola on the night you and my son graduate, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
As he drove, Stanley pointed with his lips to a house that was burned down. “Torchy and Sfen.” He drove a little further and pointed to a duplex. One of the sides was totally obliterated by fire and smoke damage. “Torchy and Sfen.”
“What?”
“They torched over thirty houses in one night starting with the principal’s.” He shook his head. “That was the longest night of my life.” He let out his breath. “Fuckin’ fire bugs.”
“Wait,” I said as we passed another carcass of a house. “They burned down all these houses?”
He nodded. “Funny thing, though. Each one is where the sexual molestation of a child took place.”
I studied him. He was thinking something big and quiet. “So are they in jail?”
He sighed. “They’re on the run.”
Ninjas, I thought. “And you want me to go after these guys for a sword?”
“Sure,” he said. “Like I said: you’re Dogrib. They’re Dogrib. Work something out.” He looked at his father’s watch on my wrist. “I’m worried about Rob. Do what you need to do to get that sword from Torchy and Sfen.”
I had no idea how the heck I was going to do this, but I felt something. They’d taken ratroot from me that night we met. They were astonished by it. They respected its power. I could get more…
“What?” he asked. “My nephew isn’t happy.”
I looked at him. “The principal’s going to get away. He’s going to do it again. If I’m your nephew, Wendy is your niece. She needed seventeen stitches. Four nurses had to hold her down because she didn’t understand what was happening.” I started to cry. “And she was working on her words. What are the words for what happened?” Tears stated to cloud my eyes. “You’re the coroner and on the board of of everything in this town, and you’re going to let him walk? I’m sixteen. Do something!”
He thought about it. He was quiet for a long time.
“I didn’t know about the stitches.”
I wiped my tears away but even more were coming. “Don’t you know everything?”
He let out a long breath. “I guess not.”
He looked off. “There’s one thing I’ve learned and I get the sense you should know this—and here’s another reason you can’t attack the principal.”
“What?” I asked.
“The principal,” he said, “had a partner.”
“Who?”
“Someone in town. The cops have tried to catch him but he keeps vanishing. They’ve never seen anything like this.”
I felt cold again. “So you’re telling me that the principal had help, that maybe my cousin wasn’t molested alone?”
He closed his eyes tightly and shivered. “Yes,” he said. “The principal’s wife has come forward and said he had a partner. Nobody but the cops and I know this.”
I felt so cold, like someone had iced my soul.
“I’m sorry, Bear, but I promise you this. We will find whoever this is and we will punish them both. You dig?”
I nodded.
“This town used to be so perfect,” he said as he gripped the wheel. “We used to visit, used to share. Now we have the hardest drugs and the same suffering they have down south.”
I watched him. I could tell he wanted to say something. A secret maybe.
“Okay,” he turned his truck back on. “Let’s go for a ride.” He put his truck in gear and we drove past the Elders’ Home and the drugstore and the church. We then made our way to a large abandoned hospital. Part of it had sunk. Like a whole wing of the building. This hospital looked bigger than the new one.
“I’m going to let you in on something,” he said and turned off his truck. “But you are not to tell anyone.”
I looked at him and wiped my eyes. I hated myself for crying.
He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. “The first time I saw you standing in our driveway, I had this thought: ‘That boy has so many tears inside of him.’ And I hoped when I came into the house that I could take them away. Tonight, I think I can.”
He thought before he spoke. “I spoke to a man once. He’d killed someone. He told me, ‘Once you kill a man, you will never have a full night’s sleep again. You’ll live the rest of your life like a ghost.’”
My blood turned to slush. The way he spoke about my grandfather’s knife not being a killing knife…
“Do you want to live like that?”
I shook my head. I suddenly wanted to go home.
“I am going to tell you a secret about this town. Every full moon when the men gather on the other side of this old hospital, we have a game called Furnace, though some call it The Running Man. What we do is we all draw from a deck of cards. Whoever gets the lowest card has an hour to run and hide in the hospital. Everybody pays to play this game. Even the runner. If they can hide for an hour or evade capture, they get the pot. If they can’t, well, there’s ten—sometimes twenty men with axe handles who are itchin’ to find him.”
I looked at the building. Was he lying?
“Tonight—oh in about twenty minutes, twenty or so men will be waiting to play under this almost-August full moon. Except tonight it’s a Hunter’s Moon. That means that tonight we already know who we’re hunting.” He looked directly at me. “We’re hunting the principal.”
“No…” I said.
He nodded. “Oh yes. I already know he’s going to get off, and I won’t stand for it. This is our town. I did not know about the stitches.” He got very quiet. “So, my question to you is do you want to watch?”
He looked straight at me again, and I could not look him in the eye. I looked down. “Say the word and I’ll show you how it’s done. Or, I could drop you off at the residence and you could begin your school year and become my Tall Son. I would adopt you and you could become Gerald’s best friend. This could be the greatest year of your life. You will learn to hunt moose, caribou, ducks. I could teach you how every moose carries a Bible. I could show you how the Dogribs honour our ancestors for Night of the Spirits. We could look in the bowls the next morning and maybe we’ll see caribou hair to show us that great hunting is ahead for all of us. I’d love to come out to the fish camps the program goes out to year after year and see you and my son making dry fish together. Get that sword and suit of armour back to Japan. You’re here for so many reasons and you’re not alone anymore.”
He looked at me again. “This could be your life. I promise you this could be a life with so much love on the way to you, or you could walk out—I would walk with you—and I would show you the women standing with their men, praying, as the men stretch, as the men ready themselves to hunt.”
I looked at the moon and swallowed. My mouth was so dry. “What about Wendy?”
He nodded and handed me a water bottle from under his seat. I unscrewed the top and drank. It was delicious, freezing.
“Let me take care of her. I have a friend who owes me a favor at the Health Centre in Rae. She would take Wendy under her wing until you return for Christmas, spring break and when your grade twelve is finished.”
I wanted to cry with relief. As long as she was okay. As long as she had someone. We were all we had left for family, but now I was being offered more.
“Wear my father’s watch. When you harvest your first moose or caribou, I will give you your grandfather’s knife back. Let that blade sing as we make dry meat together. I will show you how. I’ll teach you everything I know for as long as I have you.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“You are me forty years ago. I was angry, too. But I had a man I loved very much tell me that we always have to remember that there is man’s way, there is God’s way, and there is the Indian Way. And that set me free of so many things that could have ended the life that I deserved.”
“So this game, this ‘Running Man.’ What way is that for him?”
He nodded and looked to the hospital. “Maybe all ways.”
I drank again. I had asked a question I already knew the answer to. I felt free. I felt so excited for school to begin and for all the other students from across the Territories to come. I would help Rob. He would train me to fight. I would help him get the holy blade back from Torchy and Sfen. I swore it. I would get my grade twelve and I would learn all I could from Gerald’s dad and his family. What would it be like to hunt caribou with kids my age? What would it be like to bring Wendy dryfish I’d made with my own hands?
“So,” he said. “You get to choose: walk with me and see what’s about to happen or go home and start over.”
I nodded. All I wanted to do was go home, back to my room. All I really wanted to do was sleep. “Let’s go.”
This man who I suddenly fell in love with reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pile of sewing beads. He put them in his other palm and showed them to me. “See these? I keep finding them all over our house. You know what they’re for?”
I shook my head.
“My beautiful, gorgeous wife—who only gets sexier with time—is showing my son’s girlfriend how to sew moccasins.”
He poured them into my hand.
“That’s my wish for you, my Tall Son. May the woman of your dreams teach the woman of your son’s dreams how to make moccasins for him when he graduates from grade twelve.”
He looked to my feet. “What’s your size?”
I shrugged.
He smiled and started his truck. “You’ll come for supper when things settle down, okay? We’ll trace your feet out on some paper and get you a pair of moccasins for when you and your brother cross that stage together, okay?”
I nodded and closed my hand carefully around those beads. “Okay.” I then put my hand on his. “Mahsi cho. Can I have that sulfur?”
“You may,” he said.
I went to Duke who was lying down in the grass in his pen. He was so weak, he was panting.
“Duke,” I said. “I’m a friend. You’ve been poisoned and I’m here to help you.”
With what little life he had left, he started to whimper and growl.
I’d need meat. Caribou. To waken the wolf in him.
“What are you doing?” Rob asked. I never heard him coming, but I expected that.
“Sensei,” I said as I turned to him. I held up the sulfur rock I’d been given. “Duke was poisoned by Torchy and Sfen before they took your knee and the sword you love.”
He looked in wonder at me. “How do you know?”
“Did he faint and have seizures before they took your sword?” I asked.
“The day after. He was tested. We took him to the vet.”
I shook my head. “They used mushrooms. Your vet would have missed this.”
I could feel the energy change around him to anger. “How do you know this?”
“Before she passed, my ehtsi had dog medicine. I can cure Duke but I need your help.”
“Anything.” He knelt beside me and I looked. I saw only tenderness in his eyes.
“I need frozen caribou meat and a file and an ulu.”
“Okay,” he said. “Why?”
“We’re going to slice frozen caribou meat into small pieces and pepper them with sulfur. Then you’re going to stick the meat into the sides of Duke’s mouth.”
He swallowed hard as he looked at me and at Duke. “This is the only way to draw it out,” I said. “It’ll take all night. We can’t stop once we start and we need to work together.”
“Bear,” he said, “if you save Duke, I promise you that I will train you in ways the world is forgetting. I will show you everything that Torchy and Sfen know, and then I’ll show you how to beat both of them.”
I thought about it. “Deal.”
He took my shoulder gently and gave it a squeeze before he made his way back to the house.
I very carefully ran my hand through Duke’s fur. “Duke, hold on. Your father and I are going to cure you and then we’re going to get that sword. I promise you. I will be your father’s greatest student. We are going to return that sword to its home.”
I looked up at the stars. They were now waking from their great vanishing. I had a mission. I had a new contract. I would take on Torchy and Sfen and I would return that sword to Japan. Most of all, I’d return honour to myself and my family. I had to. For Wendy. For my grandparents. For me.
Tomorrow, if Duke was okay, I’d call Marvin. I’d tell him I was back. I was in grade twelve now and I didn’t need to blow it. This, I decided, right damn then and there, was going to be the best year of my life.