Lqsinagtutalik Pigtug: The Haunted Blizzard Aviag Johnston ‘THE WIND BLOWS WITHOUT MERGY AGAINST THE BUILDING, making the students chatter with excitement. We ignore the teacher and run to the big, turquoise-trimmed windows. Looking outside, we see the telltale signs of a blizzard: the growing snowdrifts, the snow blowing across the ground, people struggling to walk against the wind. We also see—well, don't see is more accurate—other signs of the blizzard. Buildings and landmarks missing on the horizon as the approaching storm obscures them in its white and violent embrace. ‘There is a high-pitched deep, then the PA system crackles as the voice of the school secretary comes out alternating languages from Inuktitut to English. “Due to the sudden change in weather, school is cancelled until further notice. For students with older siblings at the high school, you must wait to be picked up before leaving. Please notify a parent or guardian once you arrive safely at home!” Anything that our teacher may have said is lost as all thirty of us exclaim in delight and rush out of the classroom to get our jackets on and leave. Within moments, I am bundled up into my Scanned with CamScanneri my auntie made for snow pants, my winter boots, and the parka my me this year. : ‘A stampede of students storms out of the school from all exits. J am among the grade sevens, the last grade before we move on to the high school uptown. We are at that age where we are old enough to leave the school on our own, even if we have a sibling at the high school. ‘We burst from the recess door where a playground is protected by the u-shape of the school’s courtyard. We usually call it the kindergarten playground because it is safer and easier for teach- ers to watch as they shiver in their Canada Goose parkas. The day is already darkening, as we barely have sunlight for more than a couple hours in the winter. A twilight has taken its place in the sky. ‘The playground is nearly abandoned as the younger kids in lower grades wait inside for their parents or siblings to pick them up,and other older kids leave through other exits with more direct paths home. We older kids run in haphazard directions, exeived to go home to do whatever we want: watch TV without : tal or sibling intervention, eat all the snacks left in the fiia Parent boards, sneak around to see what our Parents might b, a oy a their bedrooms. ¢ hiding in ‘The wind blows sharp snow pellets ace: my eyes, but my body is filled on such fees = It stings Ulii, Nita, and J all run toward our section of — 5 don't care, live near the brealvateron the shoreline, the isang oerther. We are all close enough together that we can get most of the ‘ur houses before splitting up. Way home Ulii is the first to separate. Her brother js smoki, on their porch, bundled into a shabby coat. He nme ack Sarette St be freezing 2 | Aviag Johnston Scanned with CamScannerHe isn't wearing gloves or mitts, and as Ulii arrives at the steps, we can hear him berating her for no reason, as he always does. ‘The storm continues to thicken as Nita and I keep trudging home. We stopped running just outside the playground, our excite- ment dwindling, and we are now leaning forward into the wind. Our heads are turned to the ground, our hands holding onto the fur trim of our hoods to keep the wind from blowing them off our heads. We slide from the middle of the road where the wind is strongest to walkways between houses where there is more cover. ‘We reach Nita’s house next. Its humble frame is surrounded by hunting equipment strewn across the ground. The equipment had been tied onto her grandfather's gamutiig, but the wind has loosened the grip of the rope, and the tools are being swept away. Her grandfather's husky is bundled into a ball on the porch to stay warm. Nita’s grandmother is staring out the window, waiting for her arrival. Once she spots us outside, she rushes to open the door. “4tii, tuavil” she calls out in Inuktitut. She can't speak English. “Come on, hurry up!” is what she said. Nita rushes up the stairs and I continue on my way home, but her grandmother calls out to me again. “Inu!” she calls. “Stay with us! It’s too dangerous . . . this storm is full of bad things!” “Tm okay, Grandmother!” I answer in Inuktitut. Having grown up copying Nita, I call her Grandmother, too. “I will be home soon!” I tell her. She keeps calling after me, but I've gone too far ‘The wind distorts and carries her words away. I walk around a mound of snow built up by snowplows. The wind rests for a second, and I finally look up from the path I know Ipsinagtutalik Pigtug: Toe Haunted Blizzard | 3 Scanned with CamScannerre, elevated a metre off the n see my house from here, led deep into the permafrost. ; something feels wrong. I stop walking for ahead of me. Everything seems by heart. I cat ground on stilts dri In the fleeting quiet, a moment and look at the path normal. I look behind, and there’s nothing— Wait. ‘There’ a shadow. Something squeals from my throat and I start running. The wind soon picks up speed and sharpens, piercing my ears as Trun. I remember what Nite’s grandmother shouted at me, and I want to kick myself for not listening. Her voice echoes in my mind. This storm is full of bad things. ‘There are blizzards all year long. Sometimes they come only once a month, but often they come more frequently, Sometimes they destroy things in town, blow the doors and roofs off build- ings, cover tracks in the snow that hunters need to follow on their way home, and bury precious equipment until the snow ii the summer. melts in ‘This blizzard is different thor blizzards all the time, about mune Eiders tll us stories about Ser and about the things they do to our homes and our people. Once in a white an elder will tell us about a storm that fitg sec n eetetitut class, others. Once in a long time—years and deeds pee none the blizzard comes back, Tt roams through our land, ye otis ? Oringing some- thing with it, The elders never tell us what it bri 8S; ghosts or crea- tures or perhaps it is simply the shadow that I cay in that second, They just say to find shelter and a SHE a glimpse of This storm is full of bad things. She had tried to ened be alone, Tam running, but barely moving. ‘The path aa . "Y house 4 | Aviag Johnston Scanned with CamScannerfeels like it’s turning into a tunnel as the wind picks up again, and Tm fighting against the air. I hazard another look back, and the shadow is still there. It looks like a person. It’s following me, but the wind is slowing it down, too. Finally I am close enough that I can touch the side of my house. Reaching the stairs, my feet finally have traction and I climb up the steps as quickly as I can. I lock the door as I make it inside, flicking on the porch light. A gust of wind howls up the stairs outside. There are no windows in the porch, so I can't see if the shadow has followed me here. I'm too scared to move as I lean against the door, hoping the lock and my weight can keep me safe and secure. The house is empty and dark. Ring! Ring! Ring! The phone rings from the living room. I’m still stuck in the porch, frozen. What was it? ‘The phone keeps ringing until the answering machine picks it up. After the beep, I hear my mother’s voice. “Panik? Call me when you get home, okay? I’m stuck at work. The weather is too bad outside.” ‘My mom's voice makes me feel safe again, so I head to the living room still wearing all my outdoor clothing. I flick on each light I pass: the hallway, the kitchen, the living room. I dial my mom’s office number. She answers on the first ring. “Panik?” she says. “Hi Anaana,”| say. “Are you home?” she asks, but she gives me no time to answer because she already knows I'm home. She saw our phone number on Igsinagtutalik Pigtug: The Haunted Blizzard | 5 Scanned with CamScanner‘he caller ID. “Inu, are you alone? Ataata is going to try to get home, the caller ID. “Inu, but he has to wait for everyone to leave so he can lock up at work,” ut he & ’'m alone.” I tell her. : , “On ce a The wind is booming against the house. It’s ting ae to hear her voice. “You have to stay inside; it’s too eal already heard that the roof of the Northern is being blown off.” “Yup. Anaana?” “Huh?” Anaana says, her relief at knowing I’m home safe has changed her apprehension to disinterest. “T think I saw something when I was coming here,” I say frantic- ally. “There was a shadow and—” “It was just someone trying to walk home in the blizzard, Inu.” My mom’ voice sounds frustrated. She sighs. “You and your imagination.” “I really saw it!”I say. “Taima. That’s enough.” Her frustration thickens in her voice. “Tm already worried as it is. Ataata will be home soon,” “Okay,” I say, but my stomach is sinkin, chest feels like it is being pushed down and Squeezed tight, “Bye.” “I love you, Panik,” she says before she hangs up the phone, all the way at the other end of our island town, My mother doesn't know. She's too the scary parts of our land, The scary thiy She thinks that the land is nothing mor space around us, environment and nature, lives outside. 8 into my knees and my Bown up to temember ngs that hide around us, e than the Science of the She thinks this is al] that For some reason, elders and children know and I wonder why that is. They act like they if everything has an explanation. At some poi More than adults do, know “verything, as int in their lives they 6 | Aviag Johnston Scanned with CamScannerforget the stories children are told, dismissing them as fairy tales and myths. They think that the scary women in the ice aren't real, or that the little folk that you can only see at sunset are just imagin- ary, or that giants never roamed the earth, Just like all adults, my mother has forgotten all those things the elders had passed down. But. . . maybe it does make sense that it was just another person walking home in the blizzard. Maybe that makes sense. T may have been confused. In my memory, I see a tall human- shaped figure, with long limbs, long hair, made entirely of blackness, of shadow. But maybe my mom is right. With my growing calm, I decide that my mom was probably right. My dad will be home soon anyway, and if adults are too blind to see the scary things around us, then maybe the scary things can’t see adults either. I turn on the TV and sit on the floor. Kids cartoons come on the screen. I don't even like them, but I don’t want to change the channel. The cartoon is full of bright and vibrant colours, and I am beginning to forget the shadows I have seen. Before long, the blizzard winds tear against the house, and suddenly, I am in darkness. Power outage. In the quiet I notice something. Utter silence. The wind outside isn't booming anymore. Through the open curtains I can see the gusting wind, but I can't hear its howling cries. In the silence, I notice a different sound emerge. A small, yet frantic sound. A clink- ing from somewhere inside the house. Slowly, the sound of the wind picks back up and the small sound is lost in the noise. Igsinagtutalik Pigtug: The Haunted Blizzard | 7 Scanned with CamScannerems wrong again. ‘The hair stands up on the back set Something where the clinking of my neck and I look ee trying to find ise i ing from. But I cant. a eee the TV and see myself reflected 2 Gu — coming through the window. ‘The kitchen is ae tl V's reflection as well, and for a moment I don't pay attention to it. The electricity always goes out for a bit during a blizzard. It’s normal enough. I look back at the TV, willing it to turn back on. ... Until I realize that there is a shape in the kitchen window. A shadow peering in. ‘The power comes back on, the lights shining bright as they return. Slowly, I look back to the kitchen window, but I don't see anything. I stand up and walk toward the hallway. Tlook back at the door, brow furrowed and heart racing. For a moment, I don't seem to know what is wrong as I look at the dark porch. The winds are blowing as loud as ever, but normal. But... Didn't I turn on the porch light? I feel the breath catch in my throat, i a ut] ecrean and roatdoue he hall to ny pan ait coming in or farthest from the porch, nts’ bedroom, the ‘The door to their room is open and inside, but something catches weton Ge straight to the back door that we never use, Something is diffe the room, It’s been closed and locked shut for years, Snt about it, The doorknob is shaking, turning back and forth om That was the frantic lite noise I had heard whe the 1 UBency. out. Whatever is outside, it is trying to come in through ore Was the noise deafening, © door, 8 | Aviag Johnston Scanned with CamScannerJ am stranded. Maybe there is more than one of what I’ve seen, at both the door and the window? And somehow it turned off the porch light? So... is it already inside? J turn around and run toward the one bathroom in my house. ‘There are no windows in there and it is the only room inside the house that locks. I slam the door shut, locking it. But when I turn away from the door and see the shower curtain drawn, my heart stops. Neither I nor my parents ever leave the shower curtain splayed across the tub. Tears fall freely from my eyes. Tam stuck. Truthfully, I don’t know why I'm crying, sobbing, screaming in such terror. I don't know why the shower curtain is scaring me so. I don’t know what hides on the other side. Darkness extends out from behind the curtain, it dims the light to almost nothing. The wind is shaking my house violently, as if in a hurricane, a tornado, a flood, an avalanche. I can’t see anything in the darkness, I can just feel the floor shaking beneath me as I crum- ple down, trembling as hard as the shaking house. ‘A voice I have never heard before speaks, scratchy and hoarse, “Qanuikkavit?” it says. “What's wrong?” “Anigit| Avanil” | cry into its darkness. “Get out! Go away!” A laugh echoes out, “Qanuikkavit?” It keeps asking. ‘There is a scratching noise, metal against metal, as the shower curtain is pushed aside. Igsinagtutalik Pigtug: Toe Haunted Blizzard | 9 Scanned with CamScanner