Thelon City

Mother Daughter

I was going downstairs to make a ham sandwich. When I was heading to the kitchen, I saw Red and her cousins, Josiah and Mackie. They were sitting in the living staring at a device. I thought it would be something gross like those medical TV shows or a make out video. And then I heard those classic raygun pews from old games. I went to checked what they were playing.

To my delight I saw Asteroids-the exact game I played when I was younger.

"How are you playing that?" I asked.

"It's Asteroid Quarry. Mackie's dad bought it for his birthday." Red said, while not looking up once from the screen. The way the visitors were cramming and talking to Red reminded me of all those days at the arcade.

"I used to play it a lot. *Ilaa*, the real version," I said. They all looked at me.

"There was an arcade here?!" One of them said with disbelief.

"Yeah, but it shut down three years after it opened. The owner said they 'had too many quarters' and sold the games to another town." I sat down and put the sandwich mix on the table. The kids scrambled to the chairs. Of course, I continued the story.

"When I went to go buy flour and powder milk, a nice *qallunaat* lady asked if I wanted to babysit for her three kids. Wanting a bit of money to spend, I said yes. I would go to their house every week afterschool til 5:45pm. I made them a snack and would play with them or help with homework. Everyday, I did that for almost two months. The kids liked me and I bet the mom and dad were happy with what a good job I did because I was their only babysitter. It was fun, but I really wanted spending money. One Friday night, I was called to look after them until morning. The youngest girl probably said to them that I liked playing at the arcade. Anyway, that morning I woke up and went downstairs. I saw their mom and she had a small bag. She said it was payday and gave me the bag. I shook it and I got super happy right away. It was a bag of quarters,"

"I spent the whole day playing games. There was Asteroids, Ms. Pacman, Dig Dug, and Donkey Kong. I felt so rich that I payed for my friends and bought them junk food. I'm never gonna forget that day."

They murmured 'cool' and wished there was an arcade again.

"I did something like that. When I was staying with *at'ta* Molly in Iqaluit, she gave me $20. I went to the movie theatre and got tickets and snacks for me and Hannah. I never went to a movie theatre before and it was awesome." Red said with a smile on her face.

Naturally, I asked what they watched. She started to look sheepish and her head bowed. She had that 'oh shit' look.

"Zombieland." She mumbled. I was outraged. Red knew we don't watch anything horror-related. Christian movies like Last Days of the Desert were an exception.

"Don't do stuff like that if you're out of town. You're my kid, and everyone would say that I'm not raising you right! I'm not!"

All she could do was say 'uh-huh' and shamefully go back to her friends. I didn't think she meant it. I stormed to my room and I heard one of them quietly say it was actually a good movie. I stopped in my tracks and decided whether or not to set her right. I came to the choice to just spend the night in my room.

'Hopefully she meant it.' I thought to myself. 

It was hard with the peer pressure and sort-of-complaints from my other friends. Saying that I should have another kid or that I only care for the child tax. I just wanna do what's best for Red and not mess up monumentally. Sometimes, I wish they could fuck off and spend more time looking after their own goddamn kids.

As I sat on my bed, I leaned my head on the wall and sighed. I took a bite of the cold ham sandwich. Then there was a weird shadow that grew outside the window and heard what sounded like metal groaning. Next, everything went pitch black.