Thursday, March 18, 2010

The adventures of Left Eye

He sat at a coffee shop, quietly reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle", while people were either looking at their laptop screens or reading a newspaper. The day before was momentous for Canadians as they saw a change of government from a Liberal government to a Conservative government, headed by Stephen Harper. Left Eye didn't know much about politics at the time but he was intent on learning because the cowboy hat wearing leader of the Tories had fascinated him, not because of his policies but because he seemed so sure of himself and because he acted like a robot on T.V.

As he read the Cat's Cradle, he began to think of the substance "ice-nine" that the character's father Felix Hoenikker invented along with the atomic bomb. He thought about the people who he was living amongst at the time, the people of Ottawa and how he wouldn't trust them with anything that might damage the world. The people to the south had all the weapons and Vonnegut was from that nation, where the politics were at times volatile and very apprehensive towards people that were different from themselves. He was afraid to meet Americans after reading Cat's Cradle a week later. The book had seemed to change his life and made him aware of people's need to control their environment.

Left Eye was from a small Arctic community on the coast of Baffin Bay, where he grew up with his fifteen siblings - 8 boys and 7 girls - and he was the youngest of them all. He was born when Ariel Sharon had just invaded Lebanon on the 6th of June, 1982 and his parents named him after they saw a Lebanese boy bandaged on the left eye.
I know what you are thinking, that is a strange name, for a little Inuk boy.
Well, he wasn't so small now as he had grown to be 6 feet and five inches, the tallest in the community of 500. They called him "Left Eye-kutaaq" which translates into english as "Tall Left Eye" and he was ashamed of that nickname for a long time but he learned to accept it. He grew up with all of his siblings in a three bedroom house, where his parents had their own room and his seven sisters stayed in one room, all sharing the same make-ups and hair products, while the boys had to stay at both the living room and in the other room - 4 in the living room and the other 4 in the room. They all played hockey and all shared the 3 full hockey equipments that his parents managed to buy, through the Sears catalogue.

The coffee shop cashier went up to him and asked him if he is just going to sit and not buy coffee and without saying a word, Left Eye left the coffee shop and walked around the Rideau street, where it was bustling with people of all kinds, some wearing scarves and covered from head to toe in a black dress while some white girls were flaunting their cleavages. He liked the cleavages, as he had only seen them through T.V. and now they were three feet away from him. He tried to hide his erection through his jeans. He cursed his ignorance and his hormones for not being able to keep it under control.

He walked and remembered that he has frozen caribou in his freezer and how he had been saving the little piece for two months now. It was hard to receive his native food, as they didn't sell them in Ottawa and most people were ashamed of people who ate frozen raw meat. Left Eye ate alone most times because he hadn't made friends yet. Little did he know that their were a few hundred in the city but he didn't know any of them but he was to find them when he got evicted for being late on his rent payments and had to stay at the Salvation Army for two weeks. And he met the Inuit that lived in the city and how different they were from the Inuit of his community. Most Inuit in the city were either alcoholics or drug addicts and he didn't like seeing other Inuit suffer. They didn't like him either because he hardly drank and only smoked weed and they all asked for money from him but he gave them food instead.

As he walked the street of Rideau, trying to hide his erection, he noticed a young white girl sleeping on a street bench. He was tired and she was asleep anyways, so he decided that he was going to sit at the opposite end of her, by her feet. He sat and opened his book again and started reading when the white girl awoke to a startle, with him at the other end and she screamed when she awoke and the police officers noticed what was going on and mistaken him for trying to steal her belongings. She was having a nightmare and was the reason she screamed and didn't have enough time to gain her composure when Left eye was already arrested by the officers and took him to the police station, where they held him for the night. He tried explaining, but they wouldn't accept his story as they are seldom to do with aboriginal people.

The next day, the white girl from the bench was at the police station and explained to the officers that she just had a nightmare and said that Left Eye did nothing. when he went outside, he noticed that the white girl was there waiting for him. She said her name was Harmony and that her parents were from a hippie commune in British Columbia and had named her Harmony because too many people were not harmonized enough with the world and each other. And he agreed.

They walked down Elgin street, where the police station was and chatted about what happened the day before.
"I am terribly sorry for yesterday, i've been having nightmares for the past three weeks", she said.
"that's okay, at least you explained to them today and got them the story straight. How long did it take you to find me?" asked Left Eye
"Oh, i went to couple station before i found you and have been staying up all night trying to find you." said Harmony
"thanks again" said Left eye.
She stared at him and finally asked, "what are you? Chinese, Vietnamese or what?"
He cowered a little and said" i am an Inuk from the Arctic"
And then she jumped up and started screaming and he had to stop her before he got arrested again and asked her "what are you doing?"
And she said" Oh My God, I have never met an Inuk"

5 comments:

Melodie said...

I really like your blog!

Wow, that girl was really nice for seeking you out to correct the story. And lol @ how she was jumping up and down because she never met an Inuk before.

So just a funny side tidbit: In your story, Left Eye didn't say anything and went out of the store, is that because he scrunched his nose instead? hehe. jk.

Well, I love your stories and your perspective on things! There are many blogs about people moving to Nunavut, but yours is someone from Nunavut moving down south: Neat! p.s. I'm sorry that we don't have the foods you want at our stores. That must be frustrating...(Savour that last piece of caribu that you have).

Anyways, keep up the good blogging!

JGrey said...

Hmm.. this Left Eye guy sounds awwfully familiar... dosent he? ;)

Unknown said...

nope, i have no idea who he is. (hahahah) Purely fictional with a little bit of reality that everyone has experienced, well, some Inuit anyways.

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