Ilatsiak - 62 - Reunion!

David wandered into the sun-lit fog which drifted across the flat, gravel landscape far to the south of the family encampment at the lake, the sun a blurring disk in his feverish eyes. His illness seemed to be returning, he thought. He stumbled about for what seemed to be hours, falling now and then, sometimes laying asleep for hours, only to begin wander deleriously once again, here and then without direction or destination. He was no longer travelling with the people he had camped with during the summer blizzard. Like others, he had chosen to take a separate route to the lake in hopes of finding game. Ptarmigan were often abundant at this time of year and they were best found by spreading out as they walked.
Finally, all idea of time or place erased from his mind, he slowly realised that he was on the ground, that he’d once again fallen down on another gravel ridge, a bit above the surrounding landscape. He was waking up, his fever gone. He felt new and almost refreshed and knew that he would live. For the first time since seeing the overturned boat and it’s skeletons, he felt somehow the past and it’s horrific events were now falling behind him. He began to focus on Qayaq and his family. He began to see there was a new life ahead for him, the past could disappear, even if not it wasn’t completely settled. These stories, especially the ones which swirled inside his head, could end. He knew that was so, but at the same time, he wished there was another way of ending everything, to completely move away and live free of the terrible past.
Not certain at all where he was, he began walking in a direction chosen only because it seemed to be a good choice at the time and for no other reason. He could recognize nothing in the featureless landscape. Every view in any direction seemed identical. He just had the feeling inside that he was headed back to the camp and his people. As the sun’s glow slid along the western hoizon at the end of the third day of walking since the snow storm, David saw the lake and Inuit tents directly ahead. He began to run towards them and recognizing his father’s dogs, he knew he was safely back home.
Hearing someone approaching their tent from inland, Agayuq and Maneejag camp out to see who it might be. Astonished to see David approaching them, they stood rigid, not knowing if he was real or not. They’d heard from people who had recently arrived that he was coming, but from what they’d heard, they were certain he had died like all the other sailors. This news was wrong. The David the people had spoken of must be somone else.
Noticing everything had so suddenly gone quiet outside, Qayaq came out to learn what was happening. Seeing David walking towards them looking so much like his old self, she burst into tears and started running towards him. Maneejaq wanted to hold her back, but couldn’t even bring her arm out to grab Qayaq’s parka as she ran past. As the two young people raced towards the other, both began screaming and finally reached out and grabbed each other in a warm hug. David was back and he was alive and well!
Finding him so well and obviously recovered after being convinced of his death, created considerable talk among everyone in the camp. This was unheard of. They were still mourning his death and now here he was among them, alive and well once again!
As the account of his recovery spread from place to place, more and more people began to refer to David as being someone special and that he must have shaman powers in the making. To them it was clear that the spirits favoured him. How else could he still be alive? Within a few years, whether he desired it or not, David’s story of miraculous recovery spread slowly but surely. In spite of his denials, people slowly began thinking of him as a powerful shaman. David kept trying to distance himself from this idea of theirs, but it wasn’t easy. In the people’s mind, the die was cast.