The rifle?
Yes. You don't still have it, do you?
(Long pause.)
Why do you want to know about the rifle?
No good reason, I'm just curious what happened to it.
I gave it to John Ward.
(Puzzled Jen face.)
He collects guns and takes them down to the shooting range.
I didn't know that.
Yes. Well I sure as hell wasn't going to pay to register the thing, and I didn't want it, so I called John and he came up here one day with a rifle case and took it home. When he got home he traced the serial number on the internet and found out it's an old Australian Army rifle.
Australian? How did it end up in the Arctic?
Well, after the war, surplus supplies were everywhere.
So how'd you end up with it?
I got it from Ed. I had a rifle but one day Ed asked me if I wanted it and I said sure.
And that was when you were up north, just in case of the polar bears, right?
Yes it was.
Did you ever shoot anything with it?
No. I shot it at trees a few times just to make sure it still worked.
(Pause.)
Ed wrapped himself around a telephone pole. I heard about it on the radio just after we moved to Spruce Grove. One morning on the way to work they said the police had found someone who had had too much to drink, wrapped around a telephone pole. Of course they weren't saying who it was because they hadn't told the family, but sure enough it was Ed. I heard later.
How did you know Ed?
We flew together at Gateway.
