_
Over the next few hours, I somehow found myself having tea and biscuits with my cousin and the Eskimo who at my pathetic introduction only laughed and said hello to me in French which surprised me but when I came to ask him how it was that he knew French he only smiled and said books which surprised me once again since the last thing I thought I would be able to do here was be able to speak here in French with the same people that ate raw meat and whacked bones together to get rid of spirits but somehow I found myself mesmerized by this creature.
He was nothing like anything I had pictured in fact he spoke good French with a throaty accent completely foreign to the more delicate syllables but in a way it made him sound sultry and warm like a touch of rum in coffee cake...so elegant in his own way.
And he sat with his legs bent concurrently like a girl riding side-saddle with one hand relaxed over his knee as he munched on a piece of 'fritter' looking bread with strange neon purple-orange jelly with suspended flower petals in it.
I felt awkward around him so I tried to copy by trying a bit of the strange bread circles and flower jelly but unexpectedly his hand and mine both reach for the same piece at the same time and our fingers collide with each other which makes me jerk my hand away and profusely apologize but he only giggles.
It's a schoolgirl's type of laughter, a little nervous but sweet and full of life and as he giggles his babyfaced cheeks are full of a rosie twinkle like the type of smile that appears on the face of a sun-kissed child.
My cousin formally introduced us after stuffing his face full.
He spoke again in that strange language and I couldn't understand why from what I could tell this person could speak good French so what was I need to speak to them in their native tongue.
"Tungasugit gniik illukuluk!"
Welcome my cousin
"Ii Katigatkit Quvianaq"
Yes I am pleased to meet
The Eskimo than spoke to me again in French.
"Parlez-vous anglais américain?"
Do you speak American English?
"Uh...Oui!" I told him.
Yes
He smiled again this time bashful.
"Mon français a encore besoin de travail"
My French still needs some work
"Did my cousin teach you French?"
"No many of my people live in Canada where they speak French!"
Throughout our lunch, I couldn't help but be enamored with him, father had once told me before he died that I had an eye for beautiful things and that's why I was an artist so perhaps that's what this was yet still I had always found beauty and nature never before in people, of course, I had tried many times to take pictures of beautiful women yet the passion was never there and yet here I was seeing beauty in a man.
The two of them started speaking in that language again and something about what my cousin said made him very excited.
"ajjiliurut!"
Camera
My cousin then turned to me and said.
"I've told him a lot about you and that you're a photographer he thinks that it's very interesting he's also never seen a camera before! He's paid for our cabin that we're going to be staying in out of his own pocket so I suppose it wouldn't hurt too much to indulge him that would it?!"
I was completely taken aback since my cousin knows I usually don't take pictures of people however I didn't exactly want to refuse someone who did something so generous and also treated me for lunch... and I had to admit the more I looked upon this boy the more photogenic he seemed to be.
"Oh...yes of course!"
We all got up and walked over by the lake to take a good picture with the sunlight wouldn't look too crazy.
"what do I do?" He asked.
"nothing just stand still...and look natural!"
Then after a few moments, I finally took the picture.
As I look down at the photograph for a few moments I decided that this photograph was too beautiful to leave un-technicolored.
He came over to see the photo and he smiled at me sweetly.
"Thank you! You make all things beautiful to me!" He said then he shook my hand softly and sparks seemed to fly.
"Naammaktsiarit!" He said to us both before he left back the forest with a group of small children.
"what did he say?" I asked.
"Oh, the Inuit don't believe in saying goodbye so they wish you to have a good journey until they meet again!"
"The what?"
"The Inuit is what these people are called Eskimo is just a term that started as slang it's not what their people are really named it's also a term that started somewhere very negative it's akin to calling us frogs!"
"Oh..."
The rest of the evening was silent all I could do was look down at the photograph I held in my hands until we finally reached the cabin and I was too tired to do anything other than color the picture then I fell asleep in my dirty muddy clothes.
"...the...Inuit..."

Notes: the title means I love you but stated as a question.
This is him in a summer kuspuq!
Kind of like kimonos in Japan the designs on them usually have very special meanings to the individual that wears them.
His has forget-me-nots (the Alaska national flower) which in the Inuit culture represents beauty.
And hairbells which mean grace and humility.
The beads are baby seals carved out of ivory which represents youth and small rounded pine beads which represents resilience.
They are called summer kuspuq but they are what people wore inside and to sleep also.
They are made by somebody's loved one normally a female family member who picks the design fit for that person and then gives it to them as a blessing or gift.