“I’ve been following your tracks from the place you turned around, an’ I kept losing them in the snow, then I’d find them again.” “But why did you come back?” “Because I kind of guessed you wouldn’t go back home. You broke your promise, Rachael.” She hung her head. “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I just couldn’t go back, I was too scared.” Ronnie put his hand on her shoulder. “S’all right, kid, I know. Don’t worry about it.” “But I’ve got us lost,” Rachael wailed. “I don’t even know where we are. I was trying to find the farm. Where are we, Ronnie?” He looked around at a landscape that was quickly disappearing. “Well, we’re not on any main road, that’s for sure. I figure we’re about two miles out of town, going north or maybe more west. There has to be a farm around here somewhere, and we have to find shelter or we’ll freeze. Come on, let’s go.” With that, he took a big breath, hoisted Bobby onto his shoulders and set off. Meekly, but with more confidence than she had felt since he left them, Rachael followed.
“We can do a lot better if we change our direction and if we stick together, Robert,” Peter says. Robert Major, who has somehow got the picture and who cares only for himself, asks, “Alright, you guys want to take it and drive it, where do you think you can take it? How far do you think you can go without Lorne? What tells me you can do better than he?” Peter sips his beer, “We have a group of financiers on hand to bring in a good chunk of fresh money. We have a public relations company ready to work with us and we can get much more attention for our stock price. We can achieve a lot more than what Lorne can; it’s as simple as that.” “Alright boys, then tell me who is going to eat up all the stock that Lorne and his pals have on hand? Are you going to let it float out in the market? If you do that, you sign a death warrant for the price of the shares for a long time, you know that,” Robert insists. Hakim listens to their comments, and knowing this moment would have come sooner or later, turns to Robert and lets him know that Lorne is not a stupid man and has no ego problem. He tells Robert that Lorne will simply try to get the best under the circumstances because he knows he and Ibrahim have a lot more shares than all the others combined, and because he also knows he cannot get into a proxy fight with a billionaire. He’ll simply stick around for the longest time and try to grab the most shares possible from the market. That’s how Lorne is going to play and they all agree on that. On the other hand, Hakim suggests they can always offer him a golden carrot. “Yes, but Lorne is not one who will take a carrot, Hakim. He knows the game as well as you. Would you do what you expect him to do?” “Yes, I would. There’s always another car coming down the tracks, as the saying goes. But Robert, you have to understand this is a course we’d like to take, no matter what it’s going to cost. The money is available and time is on our side. The financiers Peter referred to are our people and money from them comes only if and when we run the show. The public relations company is our reference and they sign with us only when we run the show. We have the ability to take this company to the shareholders’ meeting in a month and a half. However, if you come along we don’t even need to call one; we can speed up the process and save a tonne of the company’s money, in the process.” Robert realizes that the blood is ready to be spread and wants to have his share of the spoils. He can always play hard to get for a while and try to squeeze them for something extra. “In other words, you have to have me along. Okay then, what are you offering?”
Roy Great Falls Auction Mart Great Falls, Montana “Afternoon ladies.” “Hello Mr. Hooper,” came the welcoming voices of five ladies seated at their desks. The woman seated closest to the counter then continued, “I’m sorry that Cindy isn’t here right now. She is picking up some office supplies for us.” “Oh, thanks. I was actually here to see Roy. Is he available?” “He sure is. He is around here someplace. If you go out that door and walk down the alley between the pens you are bound to run into him sooner or later. He is helping the boys sort the cattle for tomorrow’s sale.” “Thank you ladies.” Joel headed for the cattle pens. It didn’t take him long to find Roy—Joel wasn’t a hundred yards outside the door, down a narrow channel that ran straight to the back of the yard with corrals off both sides, when he heard a shout from across the yard, “Joel! Are you looking for me?” Joel appreciated that the manager of the auction yard recognized him. After all, he had only been here twice: the first time when he brought the mare in for the sale and the second time when he picked up Cindy for lunch. As the big man nimbly scrambled over the fences, Joel was put at ease by his friendly smile. “Good to see you, Joel,” said Roy. “Cindy is out doing some errands right now.” Why does everyone seem to think that they have to report on…
A painting that goes in hockey arenas, that is toured across the country from one end to the other, telling the story. Then a whole flood of ideas and memories came into my mind crystal clear. Grandmother doing her dance and her song in the winter – becoming mesmerized and overcome by heat and emotion – going outside and the Northern Lights roaring overhead – and she came out and stood beside me and put her arm in mine and told me that those were the spirits of her ancestors dancing. And she sensed the difficulties I was having over the loss of the two women that I had loved so profoundly. She had said, “It’s a good thing to let them go and dance”. During her song and her story, there had been the need of an Isumataq – a person or an object in whose presence wisdom might show itself. The painting would be called Isumataq. And the dream driving all of this was Nunavut. That was the moment in which the whole thing exploded in one clear vision. It must have been working quietly in my brain all this time and now here it was – all together. Now it poured out and it all came together like a jigsaw puzzle – every piece moved into its proper slot. Covered in sweat, Ken’s body shook with nervous energy. His whole being thrilled and he felt himself to be outside his body – completely outside space and time. The vision was so clear, so compelling, that it possessed him. He knew it would come to own him – night and day – and he didn’t care. He gave himself up to it. He paced back and forth, details of Isumataq whirling in his mind and dropping into place like numbers on a slot machine. He drove home that night with a new excitement coursing through him. When he told Marsha he was going to create a giant painting on the scale of the Sistine Chapel, she smiled and shook her head. In the morning he told Diane who began to plan a studio renovation to accommodate such an enormous painting. While they were hunched over the sketch, Salvador appeared in the doorway, a bottle of brandy in his hand, and a smile on his face. “I have the equipment, the idea, the staff, and the availability of rock. How would you like a giant Inukshuk in your studio?” Three days later, Salvador pulled up in a new Saab, followed by a flatbed truck – groaning under the weight of massive blocks of granite – and two extended cab pickups loaded with burly men. At two in the morning, after hours of heavy labour, a seven-foot tall Inukshuk towered over the studio. Salvador waved his arm at it like a magician wielding a wand. “There. Is it to your liking?” “It’s perfect,” Ken said. Salvador’s next project was an Inukshuk at the Columbus Centre! Dragging Ken and Joseph Carrier to the lobby, he gestured grandly…
Manolis Aligizakis 