Son of a Trickster

Jared’s maternal grandmother, Anita Moody, has never liked him. Once, when Jared was growing up and his parents left the two of them alone, she called Jared “Wee’git” and warned that if he hurt his mom, Anita would kill him. Anita was always cuddly with Jared’s cousins, but the last birthday present she ever gave Jared was a jar of blood with animal teeth in it. Jared’s mom said that she would beat her mom up for the way she treated Jared, but Jared’s dad assured him that this wasn’t about Jared.

Jared flashes back to when he is five years old, when his mom and dad decide to move to Kitimat. As they finish packing, Anita arrives and stands in front of the moving truck. She warns that Jared is a dangerous Trickster wearing a human face, and Jared’s mom curses at Anita before getting back in the truck and driving off. The family then drives to the ferry, where Jared and his dad go up to the deck and wave goodbye to their old home.

After getting off the ferry, Jared and his parents go to visit his mom’s friends, who live nearby. Jared plays tag outside with their kids until most of them disperse, except for one girl named Becky who insists she and Jared have to play, just the two of them. When Jared tries to protest, Becky says that she’ll tell on him, and he curses at her. Moping, Jared goes and locks himself in the moving truck. A short while later, his parents come out and explain that he won’t get dessert for a week for cursing Becky out. They tell him to apologize to Becky—though his dad acknowledges that they haven’t been setting the best example regarding bad language.

Jared and his parents then go to his paternal grandmother’s house, where she lives with her fourth husband, Jim-Bob. Jared is shy to greet Nana Sophia, but she hugs him warmly and kisses his forehead. She tells Jared’s mom and dad to have a fun night out and leave Jared with her for the night. They agree, but they warn Nana Sophia that Jared can’t have dessert. Nana Sophia makes Jared hot cocoa instead, claiming that it’s a drink and not a dessert.

After Jared’s mom and dad leave, Nana Sophia suggests that they go to a movie, even though Jared protests that he’s not supposed to play outside after nine p.m. She puts a sewing mannequin under her bedcovers with a wig on it so that it will look like she and Jared are asleep if his parents return early, and then they take her Vespa to a nearby movie theater to watch Spider Man. She buys Jared a huge bucket of popcorn, grabs a booster seat, and places her fur cape on the seat for him to sit on.

As the movie starts, Jared tells Nana Sophia that Anita thinks he’s related to Wee’git. Nana Sophia assures Jared that she had a DNA test done on him when he was born: he’s part ‘Namgis, part Heiltsuk, and not a Trickster. Nana Sophia tells Jared that she loves him and that she would never hurt him—but if he wasn’t Phil’s son, she would slit Jared’s mom’s throat.

After the visit, Jared writes to Anita that Nana Sophia did a test, and that Phil is his dad—he isn’t a Trickster. A few weeks later, he receives a letter in response: Anita explains that Sophia is a Halayt and would know if he were a Trickster without a scientific test. Still, she tells Jared to be careful if Wee’git visits him. She apologizes for being angry with him but explains that she can’t tell him their family’s full history because he’s too young to hear it.