June 3, 2008, 3:53 p.m.~

Dear Book-of-Words~

Aama here.  Sorry if I haven't written; been too busy.  Between watching my younger brothers, helping Mother and Father with the chores, and going to school, I don't have much free time to do anything I want.

I have gotten over my chickenpox; that's what I had when I wrote last time.  Was waiting to see the nurse; she was the one who told me I had the chickenpox, which I don't understand, because I was never around any chickens. 

Have had a few colds and one ear infection since then, but now I'm well again, thank goodness. 

Grandmother Birdwoman has joined her husband in the Northern Lights:  she died last month; I am still very sad.  First I lost Grandfather Elk; now Grandmother has joined him up in the spirit world.  I don't know who I will have to go to when I am sad; Mother and Father are too busy to bother with the likes of me.  They say I am just a pesty child, that I am always in the way, which makes me feel bad.

School is about over; it has been hard.  The other children (mainly those who are Dog Children, those who are not Inuk) make fun of me, call me "retard".  I don't know exactly what that means, but it's not very nice:  they look at me with mean faces when they say that.  It makes me cry.

I wish I could go to a school where there are no Dog Children; I hate the Dog Children!!  This is when I am ashamed to be Inuk; why couldn't I have been born something else??

The northern lights are angry as well:  all red, all the time; I don't know what that means.  It's said that when Aurora are red in color, it means something bad's going to happen.

It already has.  Grandmother Birdwoman died.  What else can go wrong?

~Aama.