Those were the responses that street people got from the Real People. The Real People who got out of a bed each day. The Real People who went to work at a Real Job in the Real World. What dumb fucks they were.

What Kunak wanted was to stay in this place of peace and rest, without thinking about his next meal or drink or hookup. He just wanted to be still and not think about what would be next, but here she was talking about evil spirits. When the hell were his people going to let that old shit go?

“They’re everywhere, you know. The Evil Ones. They watch us and at night they whisper to us and each other across the sky. They are the ones that put us on the streets. It’s them.” Aviak was determined to make her point.

How could she ruin such a beautiful afternoon? Kunak thought as he responded. “Aviak, if you want to believe that shit, go right ahead, and by the way, there was a guy named Pontius Pilate who really fucked things up too, but we don’t talk about him ‘whispering across the sky.’” Kunak made mocking quotation marks with both of his hands as he spoke.

Aviak stood up. She looked down at Kunak with complete disgust written across her mouth.

“How dare you bring the Bible guy into this! I can’t stand you! I don’t even know how we ended up here and together and spooning on my blanket! Get out! Get away from me! If you don’t, I’ll ask them to take you too! I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again!”

“What in hell are you talking about?” Kunak asked. “You make it sound like you’re some sort of shaman or shay-woman! Like what the hell?”

Aviak lowered her voice in a very controlled manner and said slowly and deliberately, “You don’t get who I am, do you? You don’t get what kind of power I have. Shame on you. You with all your new Southern ways! You decided to give in and give away all that your Gramps taught you. Now listen and listen good and hard because I can get rid of you like this!” She snapped her fingers. The click sounded like the hammer on a gun. “Yes, the spirits bug me, but I do some work for them. All I have to do is whistle her in and she’ll take you out. She’ll feed on your soul, like a starved wolf on a caribou. They—those Bible people—used to think that we were those kinds of people. Cannon balls.”

Kunak took a step back from her. “How do you know I had a grandfather?” he asked in surprise. He hadn’t told her about Grandpa Chevy. “And what in holy fuck are cannon balls?”

“You went to the school in the North. Remember they taught us how those white sailors with that Franklin guy said that we ate them up? Cannon balls, asshole.”