LITMIR.BIZ

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Can I help you?”

      “Kala? It’s Maya. I’m at the Ottawa Mission serving lunch. Now I know they called off the search for Annie Littlewolf, but I remembered that last time we spoke you were still interested in talking to her. If you still are, Annie just walked in.”

      Kala’s heart started pounding faster. “Yes, I am. Is she there now?”

      “She’s just come in for something to eat. If you hurry, you might catch her. The young girl’s not with her though.”

      “I’m on my way. Try to stall Annie if you can, but don’t tell her I’m coming. I don’t want to spook her.”

      “You got it, child.”

      Kala waved off the kid behind the counter and started running toward the exit, zipping up her jacket as she ran. A line of cabs was always parked outside the Weston Hotel and would save valuable minutes. The media relations guru would have to wrap up the class without her.

      Maya met Kala as soon as she stepped inside the hall. She waved a dish towel toward the door, nearly out of breath. “You’re too late. Annie just left with some food, but I think you can catch her if you hurry. She crossed the street and started heading north. You can just see her green jacket, there, past those two men on the corner.”

      “Thanks Maya. I owe you.”

      Kala exited quickly and dashed across Waller Street, keeping her eyes on the retreating green jacket. She slipped on a piece of ice and stumbled against the curb but managed to stay upright. She regained her footing and stepped over the snowbank onto the recently plowed sidewalk. Patches of ice glistened in the sunlight.

      They’d had a two-week thaw but the temperature had dipped below freezing again overnight, making ice patches out of melting snow. The Rideau Canal was closed to skaters and people were being warned to stay off the ice on the rivers and lakes. The temperatures had been swinging like a pendulum in the Ottawa spring. Whelan had warned her that cold and storms could blow in on a minute’s notice, but he’d also said the wild weather wouldn’t last long.

      Annie disappeared around the corner and Kala started jogging. When she turned right onto Daly, she caught sight of Annie again and started walking more cautiously on the slippery sidewalk. She held back a little to keep Annie from knowing that she was being followed.

      Annie continued up Daly and turned left on Cumberland. She continued past Rideau Street into the ByWard Market. Kala stayed close enough not to lose her if Annie veered off course unexpectedly. At York Street, Annie made a right and walked half-way down the block. She stopped in front of a two-storey, box-shaped house that looked to be divided into apartments. The exterior walls were covered in white vinyl siding stained yellow and the yard was the size of a postage stamp. Pigeons huddled on the roof where heat was escaping. Annie walked up the sidewalk and climbed the front steps. She kicked the door open with her foot.

      Kala waited a few minutes before following her. The front door was unlocked and she stepped into a dingy hallway with doors to two apartments directly ahead. A staircase led to apartments upstairs, two more if Kala had to guess. The air was heavy with cooking grease and stale cigarette smoke. She hesitated, unsure which door to try. Finally, she knocked at the one on the right. Nobody answered. She listened at the other door but heard nobody within. She climbed the stairs, her feet seeking clean spots on the stained carpet. On the landing, she stopped and strained to hear noises inside one of the two apartments. A woman was talking inside the door on the right. Kala knocked and stepped back to wait. After what felt like an eternity, the door opened. Annie Littlewolf’s suspicious black eyes met hers.

      “Yeah?”

      Seventeen years had led to this door. Kala took a deep breath. “Annie Littlewolf?”

      Annie’s eyes filled with suspicion. She started to close the door as she asked, “You a cop?”

      “That’s not why I’m here. I’m looking for someone. My cousin Rose and her daughter Dawn.”

      “Really? Cause I don’t know nobody by those names.”

      “Please. I’ve been looking a long time. We grew up together, on a rez. Birdtail Creek.” She caught a movement inside. Annie turned sideways and looked back into the apartment.

      “Let her in.” A husky voice thick with phlegm came from behind her.

      Annie stepped aside without a word and motioned for Kala to enter. Her eyes stayed hostile.

      Kala walked into the darkened apartment. Blankets covered the two windows in the living room but there was enough light to see a woman lying on the couch in the center of the room. A pink blanket covered her legs. The coffee table in front of her was empty except for a coffee mug and a tinfoil ashtray at arm’s length. The ashtray held two half-smoked cigarettes. The place reeked of cigarettes and stale beer. The only other furniture was two plastic garden chairs and a table used as a stand for an old-fashioned television. An afternoon drama flickered without sound on the screen.

      Kala approached the woman on the couch. Time had hollowed out her cheeks and dried her skin. The black braids were laced with premature grey. Her exhausted black eyes stared at Kala without recognition.

      “Lily,” Kala said softly. “It’s me, Sunny.”

      “Christ, Sunny Stonechild? I never thought I’d hear that name again.” Lily’s voice echoed in the nearly empty room. “Little Sunny. I called you that because you always had this shit-faced smile, like you was waiting for something good to happen.”

      Kala grinned. “We were a club of two back then. Remember the ceremony when we cut our arms and gave each other those secret names?”

      “Yeah. When we made ourselves cousins. You’d read some book where the white kids had a clubhouse and secret password. You wouldn’t stop badgering me until we made up a secret group with names for each other. Never could figure out why you picked the name Lily for me.”

      “I loved lilies. The first time I saw a bay full of them I wanted to pick every one. You reminded me of a lily.”

      “Would have been a waste to pick them. Lilies don’t last out of water once you cut the root. Roses do for a while anyhow. I chose the name Rose when I moved to Thunder Bay because the idea of being a flower grew on me.” She shifted positions on the couch. “Have a seat and take the load off. What’re you doing in Ottawa?”

      Kala moved the plastic chair closer so that she was in Rose’s line of vision. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time. Last summer I went back to Birdtail Creek. Roger’s still there. He’s nearly sixty but keeps up his trapline. He had an address for you in Ottawa, but you’d moved by the time I got to it.”

      “I move a lot. Roger kept in touch with me for a while after I left Birdtail. He was the only one. We lost contact for a lot of years, but I sent him a postcard when we moved here, when it seemed I had a decent place. I wasn’t happy living in the Peg but I got my grade nine at least. I boarded with this family and the father used to come into my room at night and look at me when he thought I was sleeping. The day after he decided to do more than look, I took off for Thunder Bay. I wanted to kill him but one body was enough on my conscience.” Her lips raised in a sideways smile. “That’s where I met Paul.”

      “Is he Dawn’s father?”

      “Shit, how do you know about Dawn?”

      “Your old neighbour across the hall told me when I went there to find you.

      Rose shook her head. “That old bat was one nosy piece of work. I made up stories to keep her from coming over and bugging me. She thought I was a raging wino, which suited me fine. Yeah, Paul is Dawn’s daddy. We moved to Toronto to look for work. Nobody was hiring.”

      “So what did you do?”

      “We got real good at B and E’s.” She laughed and broke into a fit of coughing that racked her body. Annie appeared with a glass of water and some pills. Rose managed to swallow a tablet and

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