Ilatsiak - 23

Bernard’s Harbour seemed suddenly empty with the Inuit gone, but it did mean the scientists could get on with their plans for the coming spring and summer in relative peace and quiet. Their objective was to map the area more thoroughly, to collect samples of flora, fauna and geology and while some of these activities would be done while in the company of the local Inuit, much of it was more easily done without them. The first night during supper, talk returned to their recent visitors.
“I’ll miss them,” said Diamond. “I was hoping to travel with them during the summer, especially the group going over to Victoria Island.”
“That group will be back just before the ice goes out.” Patsy put in. “They’ll want to stock up before they go. I’m sure they’ll take you with them.”
“I was hoping to get some more recordings from the old shaman, as well. Any idea where he was headed, Patsy?”
“No. I...”
Patsy’s father interrupted suddenly. “That reminds me, Diamond. That old man said the damnedest thing the other day. I forgot to mention it to you.”
“What did he say?” quizzed Diamond.
“He told me that the thing that makes my boat go was broken, so it wouldn’t go any more.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? How would he know anything about your boat and what makes it go?”
“That’s just it. I kinda ignored the remark at the time. He doesn’t, or at least, I don’t know how he could much about sailing boats, but this morning I went aboard to ckeck that nothing had been lifted off her and damned if the main boom doesn’t have a big crack in her. He’s right, I’m not going anywhere in her, until I can replace that boom!”
“You mean, Ilatsiak knew the boom was cracked?”
“He seemed to. But I know no one had been on the boat. There were no signs of tracks or anything around her and as you know, the winter tarp’s still on, so he couldn’t have seen the boom...”
“I’ll be! That is a bit strange, isn’t it?”
Talked turned to other things after dinner, but once again, Patsy was forced to see again that Ilatsiak was a man surrounded in mysteries. How would he ever get to the bottom of who he was and how he knew what he did? He didn’t even know where he had gone, except somewhere to the east of them.

* * *
It was good to be away from the strangers living in Bernard’s Harbour, thought Ilatsiak. There were troubling things about them, things he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was all very foggy in his mind and best forgotten like so many other things in his past, all of which now seemed unimportant.
That night, the sledding being good now the temperature had dropped below freezing, he just let the dogs keep pulling as he walked along beside the sled. He kept on going after the others stopped. He'd done that often in the past. They would follow eventually, but this time Ilatsiak decided it would be different. He looked down at his sled as it slipped over the snow and ice. It was heavy with his new possessions and he wondered why he had brought them along. Suddenly, he stopped the dogs and began untying everything. First to go were the new pot and the kettle. Then everything else he had acquired was lying in the snow beside the sled. He only stopped when he looked down at the shiny new knife he had just thrown away. Slowly, he bent down and picked it up. He’d keep that. It might be handier than his old ones made of hammered copper.
The dogs lie curled in the snow waiting for him. With his low gutteral command, they rose and once again headed eastward on the sea ice. Ilatsiak had it in mind to go as far eastward as he could. It was time to be alone. The experience in the trading post would leave him if he could only put enough distance between him and them. He had done that before in his life and he’s do it again. He’d go some place where he could live quietly and think about the better days when he had been young and full of life.