There's a famous novel
that begins with the protagonist smelling tea and biscuits. The scent
brings back a whole series of memories for the protagonist and sets
the entire novel as a flashback. Recently, I tasted a particular
candy and it brought a whole series of memories flooding back to me
of my childhood in Yellowknife, NWT. Enjoy a little trip to my past,
which if nothing else will help you beat the summer heat.
Nighttime. -34 degrees
Celsius. I am twelve years old. In this neighbourhood, time can go by
for hours without a car passing to break the stillness. The quiet
tastes of pines and ice. You can hear the gentle, constant roll of
air that is not a breeze but the entire sky moving slowly past you.
Behind me is the five hundred meters of empty snow where houses will
probably be put in the future. There are only drifts. You can't walk
through them without falling in to snow above your knees. You must
follow the compressed tracks of the snowmobiles that cut through the
field. There the snow is dense enough to support your weight.
