Ilatsiak - 66 - The Cache

Returning to the cache, David suddenly had an idea. These men, his old shipmates, needed to be honoured in some way for what they had been through. They needed to be buried, they needed someone to speak for them at their graves, but how? There was no possible way to find their bodies now that years had passed. He could try to bury those bodies that he knew about, but what of the others? There had been so many. Then the thought came suddenly clear. He’s bury the log books, their memories and dreams! He bury the books at sea in honour of the sailors! Returning the books and the copper cylinder to the barrel. After filling the remaining space with rocks, he did his best to refasten the hoops and the top. Carefully rolling the barrel down the slope and onto the ice, David then dragged it out as far as he dared on the rotting ice. Coming to an open lead, he tried to the best of his ability to say a few words for his departed shipmates, and then slid the barrel into the water. It floated briefly, but as the water entered through the cracks between the staves, it slowly sank out of sight.
For David, the action produced an overwhelming sense of peace and relief. Saying goodbye to his past and the people he had known seem to change so much. The guilt and confusion which he had been keeping buried deep inside himself was gone for the first time in ages. Now he was truly free to be an Inuk, a father and husband, and if he wanted to believe it, a shaman if that’s what the people wanted.