Edie Kiglatuk's Christmas Read Free

room, the shiny little baubles, the bright, spangly, sweet trash of Christmas.
    Alice, seeing her looking, said, ‘Aggie loves Christmas, like all kids that way, I guess.’ A smile came into her eyes, but faded before it reached her lips. ‘“Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer”. She adores that song.’ Tears began to stream down her cheeks.
    Edie got up and paced about, trying to give the woman a little space in which to gather herself. A plastic Christmas tree stood in the corner of the room, a fairy on top of it. Someone had pasted a photo of the little girl onto the fairy’s face. Edie peered at it. Aggie peered back, a little hand poking out from the left pupil, as though waving.
    The shock made Edie lose her balance and for a moment she thought she might careen into the plastic tree, before she managed to steady herself and calm her breathing.
    â€˜Forgive my not knowing, but is Aggie Nancy and Tommy’s baby, Alice?’
    Alice looked up with a furrowed brow. ‘Now what kind of question is that?’
    â–  ■ ■
    Outside a search team was already mustering, led by the mayor. The men had brought their hunting rifles. Now that Tommy was dead and the little girl was missing, they weren’t minded to think well of Willie Killik. Not so long ago, before anyone paid much attention to southern law, they’d have taken him up to the cliff and pushed him off. A few of them looked as though they thought that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
    â–  ■ ■
    Willie’s parents, Josephie and Lizzie, had gone to ground. Edie found them hiding out in the house of a distant cousin with a large bottle of Canadian Mist. In the last few years they hadn’t had much to do with their son and it was clear from their hostility to Edie’s visit that they didn’t want to have much to do with him now.
    â€˜Damn kid took our snowbie,’ Josephie grunted. He was a tall man, unusually so for an Inuk, with a barrel chest and huge arms. Years of booze had ruined him, but he must once have been powerfully frightening to a skinny kid like Willie.
    â€˜The snowmobile isn’t top of my list right now,’ Edie said.
    Josephie shot her a look. Guilt, but resentment too. ‘Well that’s just fine, lady, but who’s gonna get us another one?’ he said. ‘We ain’t got no money.’
    â€˜You help me find your son, you get your old snowbie back.’
    Josephie shot a glance at his wife, who shrugged as if to say why not ?
    â€˜Like how?’ he said.
    â€˜You think of any reason he might have taken Aggie Muttuk or where they might have gone?’
    Josephie shifted in his chair, hawked up some phlegm, swallowed it. Edie looked around the dimly lit room, the greasy couch, the plain, unloved walls, the complete lack of any kind of Christmas cheer.
    â€˜He ain’t never been too keen on Christmas,’ Josephie began, nervously scraping his hands together. He flashed a look at Lizzie.
    â€˜Anything else you can think of?’
    Josephie held the whiskey up to the light. ‘I guess he always was sweet on Nancy. High school sweethearts. Thought he’d end up with her. Always was a boy who could hold a grudge.’ Looking at her bright-eyed suddenly, he said, ‘Say, is there a reward for information?’
    â–  ■ ■
    On Edie’s way back into town she passed the land search team heading out towards the tundra, the mayor waving to her as they sped by, their headlights cutting wires of light into the darkness. Unless they had some idea of where to look, they’d have trouble finding Willie. The wind was taking away vehicle tracks as fast as they were made. But Inuit were nothing if not dogged and there was a kind of glee in their voices Edie didn’t much like. She knew that tone only too well. It was the thrill of the hunter on his way out to the hunt.
    There was only one thing for it and that was to return to