“Hey Fuck Face, where’s your Walmart cart?” a tall blond boy in a basketball jersey yelled at him.

Kunak raised his hand and gave him the peace sign.

“Fuck you! You homeless ass wipe!” the blond boy strutted away.

“Here, mister,” said a beautiful Black girl as she threw a toonie on the sidewalk in front of him.

“Ma’na,” Kunak called after her as he made the peace sign for the second time. He looked up and smiled at the sky. “Ma’na to you too, Gramps.”

A steady stream of loonies and toonies started to fall close to him. Kunak grinned. His gramps was really smiling down on him today. “Always looking after me, Grandpa Chevy.”

There’s an entire market at this end of the ’burbs, he thought. He grabbed the coins with his brown hand and stood to shake it all into his right pocket.

Sweet holy geez-zus! I should be here every day when school lets out, thought Kunak. He could see Aviak at the other end of the block. She was getting money put into her palm. She was smiling and, for some reason he could not understand, doing a curtsey after each shiny circle was placed into her hand.

Don’t even need to say “spare change” in these parts, thought Kunak. What a haul. Such easy work. Definitely a place to return to. Let’s see . . . He looked at the street signs: 106 Avenue and 82nd Street. That’s the best place to stand or sit between three and four in the afternoon. Weekdays only. No Blue Jay cap jigging. Just sit and make the peace sign. Kunak began to hum as he walked toward Aviak.

“Nuliaq! Nice work. How much?” Kunak nodded toward her bra. Aviak winked and said that she had one five-dollar bill and nothing less than six toonies tucked away in her 34C cup.

“How about you?” Aviak asked, looking at his crotch.

“No money in there, babe. Got it all in my right pocket.” Kunak patted his thigh and the heavy jingle of a day’s work came out of the denim.

“Hey, we should be here every day, eh!” Aviak was excited. She reached into her little bundle of trinkets and brought out a piss-yellow bottle of Ungava gin. “Cool, eh! It was on sale in that cowbell liquor store! Let’s sit by the river and have a sip.”

“Aviak. No. We are going to The Hope to get something to eat. Half the day is gone, and we haven’t even gotten down the hill. Come on. Let’s just keep going. We’ll be there in time for supper.”

“Look at the bottle, Kunak. See: ‘Ungava.’ My home. Let’s sit by the river and drink to my family.”

Kunak gave in. “Okay. Let’s go through the bush over this way.” He held tight to Aviak’s left arm. Women, he thought, they always get what they want.