As they were nearing the park, Kunak was certain he could smell Grandpa Chevy. He looked in every direction. He tucked Aviak in next to him like a tiny rifle and turned to all four cardinal points to check if he could see anything. East. North. West. South. He was a well-trained guard, sniffing into the air like an old polar bear, his nostrils twisting right and left.

“Where are you?” he whispered. He could only see and hear and smell the hum of Edmonton. Inside of him was that sense of something familiar, yet out of place. The feeling you get when you long for someone or someplace or something that you know isn’t near.

It was the feeling of comfort. A need for security. The yearning for home.

Grandpa Chevy stood in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the park. He heard the whisperings of Kunak as he and Aviak stumbled through his body. They did not see him, but Grandpa Chevy knew that Kunak had felt him. When Kunak walked through Grandpa Chevy’s chest, Grandpa Chevy had given off the odour of home. The smell of their tiny house in the North. The smell of crisp orderliness and clean living. The smell that Kunak was raised with. The smell of harmony.

“Smell triggers memory,” Grandpa Chevy thought out loud. He had seen the look in Kunak’s eyes when he had the whiff of his youth reach into his brain and tap on it.

Grandpa Chevy whispered into the wind, “Kunak, my son, I will take care of you.”

Kunak shivered, despite the warmth of the sun, and moved on. He let Aviak sleep off her drunkenness while he thought about Grandpa Chevy. When Aviak woke up, she reached for her notepad.

“What do you think of the evil spirits?” she asked as she started to draw.

Kunak gave her a blank look. “What evil spirits?” Kunak was thinking that Aviak was still a little drunk. Maybe she was still a little high. Maybe she was just as fucked up as he was, but in a different way.

“Didn’t your Pops tell you about them?” Aviak looked him straight in the eye. Her eyes weren’t rolling around in the back of her head anymore. Her black, slanted eyes were serious.

“No, we didn’t talk about that old shit at home.” Kunak felt uncomfortable. He could feel his knees aching.

The sun had managed to hit his shoulders between the tall pines, and it soothed his aching bones. He was in a calm place after their nap together. They had spooned like two old lovers, their shadows lying next to each other in peace.

According to the sun it was mid-afternoon, and Kunak felt full and lazy. It was quiet in the park. No one had given them any trouble for being a pair of passed-out drunks. No one had shouted the all-too-familiar words:

Move On!

Fuck Off!

You Fucking Scum!

Get a Fucking Job!