Ilatsiak - 21

Just a single domino left. If Patsy could jump it he would win and not have to cook all week, but his turn came and went three times with the play still undecided. He was not alone either. His father, the Captain, had had two pieces left but had just lost one, so he now was left with one piece to play. Diamond and John were still actively in the game but both had several dominos left and didn’t pose as big a threat as the Captain.
Footsteps crunched louder in the snow as someone... no, two people, approached the cabin. Then they stopped at the snow porch leading in towards the entrance. After a few seconds the door sprang open and Ilatsiak and Uyarajuk, the camp boss came in bringing with them a cloud of steam and snow. The wind had begun to blow again, bringing back the snow and cold of winter in spite of the late April date. The game paused while everyone recognized each other. Patsy motioned towards the teapot on the stove and then having had to skip his turn again, got up and offered the two visitors a mug from the rack over the sink.
The game went around again. Diamond played his second to last piece, a six and three. The Captain kept peeking at his sole remaining piece and then at the string of pieces on the table seeming to have a hard time deciding where to play. Finally he said “Pass” and the turn moved to John who promptly played two pieces. Now everyone had only a single domino. Glancing back at the table, Patsy let out a whoop and slammed down his domino against John’s two and one. He had won! No cooking all week. Now to play for no dish washing...
Ilatsiak, usually slow moving in his actions, abruptly reached over and grabbed the dominos, almost like someone gone berserk. He peered intently at each one, turning them over and over in his knarled, chubby hands, picking others up and then dropping them as if they were too hot to touch. As he did this, he began entoning something in a strange language neither Inuktitut nor anything that Patsy could understand. He stood rocking slightly from side to side lifting one foot and then the other, his eyes seemed glazed over and dull.
Then without warning he stopped, quickly downed the last of his tea and was gone, the door way again a swirling patch of ice fog and snowflakes. The men listened as the footsteps led away into the night. Uyarayuq followed after thanking Patsy for the tea.
“What was that all about, then?” John was the first to recover from the strange behaviour.
“Beats me,” Diamond said closing the door behind Uyarajuq. “Maybe it would be wise to see him in the morning. It seemed the dominos set him off or something. Might be interesting to know more. You free after breakfast, Patsy?”
“Sure, I’m not cooking, remember?” he joked.
The game won and the time well past midnight, they turned down the lamp and began to bed down.
The next norning, Ilatsiak and many of the others from his camp were already distant specks out on the sea ice when Patsy heard Diamond making porridge and boiling water for the coffee. As he got dressed, the drifting snow, blowing even more strongly across the flat sea ice began to obliterate the dog sled tracks and erase the dark specks from view to those left behind at Barnard’s Harbour. Patsy never saw Ilatsiak again, yet the old man’s story haunted him for the rest of his days like a ghost who would suddenly appear and then fade away, only to return years later in another spot. Slowly, as he moved from place to place, from settlement to settlement along the coast of northern Canada, he began to piece together Ilatsiak’s story, who he was and how he had come to Bernard’s Harbour that day long ago. It was a curious tale and a remarkable one.