“See, that’s the way everyone else thinks. For us, it’s okay to take another man’s wife. We just need to get that man out of the way. Simplest thing to do is to kill him!”

“That’s not simple. That’s complicated,” I respond.

We’ve both stretched out in a shady spot. The river sings a soft song in the background. This is the most relaxed either of us has been today. Ittura has removed his caribou parka and leggings. He is almost naked, except for his Adidas running shoes and the white tube socks that sit below his brown kneecaps.

“That’s how you guys think. It’s like this. I killed Kakagun because I needed a wife, but I know one thing. Any of his children can, at any time, kill me. That’s the risk I take. I become their stepdad, but Tupik would have told Pokiak that I killed her dad at some point in her life. She then has the right to kill me. To even the score that way. And I spend my life wondering when that will happen. Simple.”

“And she doesn’t get in any trouble with the RCMP?”

“Of course not! We don’t tell those guys too much. They just interfere in our affairs. But you gotta remember this: an Inuk only tells half of the story. All those anthropologists and cops, and those people from the big Southern businesses—we don’t tell them everything! We can’t.”

“So, how did she do it? Pokiak?”

“We were out fishing, her and me. Tupik stayed home with the others, who wanted to watch TV. So Pokiak and I were out one evening and she keeps asking to go farther out on the bay. That’s when I knew it was going to happen. I flat out asked her if it was time. She nodded. When we were far away from town, she asked me to stand up. I did, and she blew my ass right out of the boat! BAM! Done!”

“And what did she say to everyone in town?”

“That I drowned, but they all knew better.”

“Didn’t the cops look for your body?”

“They did, but I hid from them. I went deep, onto the floor of the bay. Just stayed there for a week or so and then came back up. I’m still wandering around waiting for someone to take my name, and then I can move on to one of the Lands. In the meantime, I get to talk to you.”

“You’ve been gone for a lot of years, Ittura. What else do you do besides bother a priest?”