From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way

Part 3, Chapter 39 is a verse chapter in which the speaker describes starving in the streets during a cold winter, the hunger transforming him into a mythological creature called the “windigo / who cannibalizes himself” (174).

A few weeks after Jesse moves in with Josh, Leeroy turns up desperate and penniless in his father’s car. Two days later, Josh, who is now a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, throws Jesse and Leeroy out when he finds them smoking pot in his house.

Jesse and Leeroy drive around looking for a place to park and discover that the streets are full of people who are unhoused. Leeroy refuses to tell Jesse why he left home. Eventually, the car battery breaks down, leaving the pair stranded. By the third day, it becomes difficult to find food, as Jesse and Leeroy get caught shoplifting. Both men call their respective homes, but neither receives any help; Grandpa tells Jesse that he is not part of the family anymore.

Two weeks into sleeping in the car, Jesse begins to burn up, developing ketoacidosis (a diabetic complication). One of the locals, Troy, introduces Jesse and Leeroy to job agencies for temporary jobs and places to sell their clothes.