Ruby is a beautiful horse. She’s an Appaloosa with a chestnut head and a white back flecked with chestnut spots. Vivian feeds her carrots in the paddock and gently strokes her long snout.
“Vivian!”
Father’s bellowing voice. She turns excitedly to see his figure at the front steps of their grand house. Pale skin and pale hair; a little heavier on every visit but the way he carries the weight only makes him look stronger. These are the best days; the days he comes home. He works so hard, Mother says. He travels a lot. He attends very important meetings in Vancouver, Mother has explained, but he never visits Vivian while she’s at school there. Vivian doesn’t think anything of it. Parents don’t visit their children at school, not unless there’s some sort of family emergency.
It had started during the war, Father’s gradual disappearance from their home, or at least that was the first excuse for his absence that Vivian could remember. He didn’t fight overseas but he was very involved in the war effort, Mother said, though neither of her parents ever went into detail about his work. It must have been important. He was an important man. But when the war finally ended, he continued to keep his distance.
Father holds his suit jacket and dimpled hat over one arm and his fat leather briefcase in his other hand. Vivian scrambles over the fence and runs towards him as he waits. “Father!” she shouts happily. He is unmoved. Father says too much fussing ruins children. It makes them weak. Vivian will run into him anyway and throw her arms around his broad chest. He’ll let her do that once. Then he’ll straighten his tie and clear his throat, which means “back to business,” and he will do the talking and she will listen as well as she can and Mother will make sure they have a very pleasant dinner so he will come back sooner.
Vivian can’t resist one question, just one. “Can we go for ice cream?”
She loves ice cream, but more than that, she loves the feeling of striding around Stapleton with him at her side. Some men tip their hats at him when he marches by. Others make space for him as though he is the boss, even out there on the sidewalk. Father runs the coalmine, and that makes him King of Stapleton. It’s a powerful feeling, to walk beside him. It isn’t the same when she walks around town with Mother, who is so meek people barely notice she’s there.
Father ignores her request, and when she stretches her arms around him, he pushes her back firmly. “Come inside.”
Nothing feels particularly odd to Vivian until she skips into the dining room. Mother is seated in her usual spot as though she is about to have dinner, but it is mid-afternoon. Mother’s eyes are wet and she is dabbing them delicately with a handkerchief. Vivian looks at her father but he offers no explanation. “Sit down,” he says. She sits in her chair opposite Mother but Father doesn’t join them. He stands at the foot of the table and looks down on them. Mother is a petite woman and Father’s shadow seems to swallow them both.
“Your mother and I are separating.”
Mother weeps a little more forcefully, then covers her mouth with her handkerchief to stifle the sound.
“Why?” Vivian asks, more confused than traumatised at that moment.
“That is not your concern,” he says.
Mother lets out a few more sniffles.
Father sighs impatiently. “There’s no need to make a fuss. You can continue to live here, at least until you are an adult or until your mother remarries.”
“I’ll never remarry,” Mother says, sobbing. “What an awful thing to say.”
She and Mother are being abandoned. They have no choice in it. He decides everything. He always has. They are lost in his shadow and Vivian has to get away from him, into the light. She leaves the table without asking his permission. He walks out.
Mother cries for days afterwards. She calls her sisters but they won’t talk to her. A divorced woman. In their family. One evening, sherry on her breath, she sits Vivian in front of her and drags a comb through her hair. She pulls at the knots so hard Vivian’s scalp burns.
“I lost the boy. He was stillborn.”
A heavy silence falls between them. Mother tugs at another tangle.
“Then you came along, and you were a girl. Your father couldn’t forgive us. It’s my fault.”
That was the first and last time Mother mentioned Vivian’s brother. Vivian never asked why Mother thought his death was her fault, or if they had decided on a name, or where they buried him. But she thought of him sometimes; the tiny being who never took a breath and left a great big scar across her childhood.
Vivian decides if she wants to be happy, she ought to be more like Father. She must be the one making the decisions. If not, she’ll be the person things just happen to. She’s not like Mother.
“Where’s Father?”
Todd blinks at her a couple of times and Vivian registers this other place, this real place, with the mantelpiece and the dead people trapped inside photographs.
“I mean ... never mind.”
He pulls out a tissue and starts dabbing at her face. She shoves his hand away.
“What are you doing?”
“Your nose is bleeding. Must be the dry air.”
She grabs the red dotted tissue from him and dabs her own nose. She hates being treated like a child.
CHAPTER 7
1 9 9 4
ELENA WOULD FIND Dad herself. She would find him before the soldiers did. She had to. If he was hiding from them, maybe he needed her help.
She packed water and snacks and went to tell Mamma where she was going. Mamma was in the yard, settled into one of their cracked plastic chairs, and she was trying to appear normal even though her eyes looked sore and her hair was messy and she hadn’t put her makeup on today.
“I’m going for a bike ride.”
“You’re not going anywhere that I can’t see you.”
“But Mom!”
“Your dad’s missing. I almost lost you. I’m not letting you wander off on your own again.”
“I’ll go with her.”
Rob had just come outside, his basketball tucked under one arm. It wasn’t like him to be helpful.
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble.”
“No,” Mamma said. “I want you both where I can see you.”
Elena stamped her foot but Rob, for once, remained calm.
“Mom, there are soldiers everywhere. We’re not going to go missing. We can bike over to Ken’s and see how he’s doing. And I finished the bread and milk. We can pick those up on our way home.”
“I should go see Ken myself,” Mamma said quietly.
“But someone needs to stay here in case there’s any news about Dad,” Rob said.
Mamma thought about it for way too long, looking at them and then at her watch and then back at the two of them.
“Fine,” she said. “But be back by 4, no excuses. And, Elena, I mean no excuses.”
Mamma gave Rob some money for the groceries. They got straight on their bikes and rode out together, like they were heading on a real adventure. Elena expected Rob to pedal away from her as soon as they were out of sight of the house but he didn’t.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“As close as we can get to the mill.”
“Why?”
“Something isn’t right.”
“You know something, don’t you? Something you didn’t want to tell Mom.”
That’s why he wanted to come with her. He wanted to find out what she knew. Elena was glad, actually, to be able to discuss it with him. Mamma would freak out but not Rob.
“I overheard some soldiers talking. They said Dad was on the run.”
“Why would he be on the run?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is he running from? The army?”
“Maybe.”
Rob went quiet. “This whole situation is weird,” he said finally. “They won’t let us anywhere near the mill.”
“But maybe we’ll see something they missed on the way. A cl
ue.”
He didn’t have any better ideas, so they went with her plan. Biking through town was easy enough; they’d both done it a thousand times. But as they crossed the bridge and slowly wound their way up the reserve hill, the sweat piled up on Elena’s back and her hairline became sticky. Rob got a little further ahead of her with each push, while she puffed and struggled and wondered if her lungs would burn up.
Eventually the winding road levelled out and the reserve houses popped up on either side of them. Rob hung back until she’d caught up but he didn’t wait for her to catch her breath. They didn’t have a lot of time. There was no way they’d be able to make it to Ken’s. They’d just have to hope Mamma never thought to ask him about their visit.
The reserve was quiet; nobody around. But a couple of black and brown dogs followed them briefly, jogging up beside them to say hello with their tongues lolling out.
“Maybe he’s hiding out here,” Elena said.
The houses were set back from the main road, spaced further apart than the houses downtown. No fences separated the grass into square lawns; often the wild sagebrush and grasses grew right up to the steps.
Elena slowed down as they passed a derelict church with a crooked roof and faded wooden tiles. Next to the church was a small home with a neat path to the door. An old woman sat on a wooden bench, enjoying the blue sky and early autumn warmth.
Elena braked. She hopped off her bike and walked it up the path. Rob turned and pedalled back towards her. “Elena!” he half-whispered, but she ignored him. The cops on Mamma’s shows had to talk to people to find things out, and the old woman was the only person they’d seen so far.
“Hi.”
Elena introduced herself from the middle of the old woman’s yard. She looked fragile; thin and crinkly like handmade paper and she had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She didn’t respond. Elena tried again.
“My name’s Elena. I’m looking for my dad. He went missing in the mill fire.”
The old woman focused on her.
“Have you seen him?” Elena asked.
“What does he look like?”
“Tall, kinda big.” She gestured outwardly from her ribs with her hands. “His hair is shaved but it’s brown. His name’s Curtis Reid.”
“That your brother over there?”
Elena nodded. “Yeah.”
“Helping you look?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re good kids. I got eight grandkids. They’re all grown up now. Youngest is 21. Oldest is 37. Most of ’em got kids of their own.”
“My brother is 14. I’m 10.”
“If I see your dad, I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”
Elena turned around and saw Rob, off his bike, kicking the dirt. She couldn’t go back to him with nothing. The old lady was probably out here all the time, watching. She had to know something. She turned back.
“Did you get evacuated too?”
“No. I’m too old for all that. They knocked on the door but I pretended I wasn’t home. When they left, I came out front here and sat on my bench and watched everyone hurrying around.”
“What did you see?”
“Well, I saw everybody leave. One of my granddaughters gave me the evil eye as she put her kids in the car. She couldn’t see me in the darkness, but she knew I was out here and she knew I wasn’t coming.”
The old woman let out a little chuckle.
“Let me see now ... there were army trucks and a couple airplanes and I saw a few guys driving away from the mill in their vehicles.”
Elena perked up. “Did you see an old blue Ford truck? With a lot of mud on it?”
The old lady looked around, as though someone might be hiding in the grass, listening.
“I heard something about a truck like that.”
Elena’s heart jumped. “What?”
“My daughter’s husband. He’s been looking around to see what went on. He said he found a truck that had been driven off the road into the forest. He said somebody drove it in there recently, and they got as far in as they could go and then abandoned it. He looked around for a while to see if anyone needed help, but he never found nothing.”
“Where was it?”
“Not far from the mill. He figured someone was headed towards town before they took off into the forest. They went off on that side of the road.” She pointed helpfully.
“Thanks!”
Elena wheeled down the path back to Rob. She explained everything to him as quickly as she could get the words out, and they both agreed that they had to find that truck. Elena looked back as they pedalled away. The old lady remained on her bench, watching.
The road that led from the reserve to the mill wasn’t as steep as the first stretch but it wasn’t flat either. Elena was jealous of her big brother, peddling with ease, so much stronger.
“You could cycle to Stony Creek if you want to leave home,” she said.
Rob glanced back at her guiltily. “I’m not leaving. I was just angry. Mom’s so annoying sometimes.”
Elena turned to smile at him and her front tire hit a rock. She steadied herself just before she slipped over the verge.
“Watch where you’re going!” he said.
Elena thought about Mamma. “Do you think Dad wanted to leave us?”
“No,” Rob said firmly.
“Maybe he got sick of Mamma.”
Another thought came to her. Maybe he got sick of all of them. A small tear dropped from her eye, but she rubbed it away before Rob saw. She hated being called a baby.
Just beyond the reserve, pine trees littered the sagebrush until it was mostly trees, and eventually there was no more brush. They were entering the forest. “We’re getting close,” Rob shouted back to her.
The further they went, the more determined Rob seemed to get, and a couple of times she lost sight of him as he pushed ahead. Then, suddenly, he stopped.
The trees had opened up a little, as though they had once given way to a side road or an old driveway. Something had crashed through there recently. Branches were broken and leaves were flattened against the dry ground.
“He came in this way!” Elena said excitedly, already certain that the truck they were looking for was Dad’s.
“It’s here!” Rob shouted, a short distance ahead of her.
Elena burst forward. There it was, just below them, where the land sloped downwards. At first she thought it had smashed into the trees in front, but it was perfectly parked so it was hidden by the ridge. It was Dad’s truck. Old Beat-Up, he called it, on account of all the rust and dirt and dents and scratches. It was unlocked. Elena opened the driver’s door and jumped inside. The keys were still in the ignition. They jangled as she turned to see Rob hopping in from the passenger side. He opened up the glovebox. Tissues and insurance documents and an AC/DC cassette tape. Why would Dad have left the truck all the way out here?
Rob flinched as though he’d heard someone. He pressed one finger to his lips and gestured for her to duck down in the seat. She disappeared into the well below the steering wheel, waiting for the sound of soldiers’ heavy boots.
“Did you hear something?” she whispered.
He nodded.
She bobbed her head up as something shifted between the trees. A crow took off towards the open sky.
Rob said they should be careful, but Elena wasn’t interested in wasting time. They had found Dad’s vehicle. He could still be nearby. She charged into the pine forest before Rob could stop her, hurtling down the slope, skidding over needles and winding around trunks until he grabbed the back of her t-shirt. “We have to find him!” she said as she pushed Rob away.
The hill bottomed out ahead of them and opened up into a meadow where a trapper’s cabin stood. Cabins like that were common in the area around Stapleton, although there weren’t any trappers anymore. Dad said hunters and hikers sometimes slept in them if they got lost, or teenagers went there to cause trouble.
There was a lit
tle creek running along one side of the cabin. Elena saw something in the water and sprinted closer.
A large leaf flopped over bits of a rotting sluice box and followed the water downstream. Elena decided that somebody had discovered gold here a long time ago, and they were so excited they left their equipment behind. It was a good sign. Dad was here, somewhere.
A man’s voice came from the cabin; loud, then hushed, interrupted. It didn’t sound like Dad’s voice. Elena’s skin went cold. Rob looked over at her, wide-eyed. She couldn’t get back to him. There was no time.
There was a scuffling inside the cabin, men coming out, and Rob’s instinct was to run. She saw him dart back up the hill. He said later he had seen someone with a gun pointed in his direction. Elena never saw a gun.
She was shivering; her wet sweater and jeans chilling her skin as she lay against the slippery rocks of the creek bed. Water crept into her sneakers and turned her toes clammy. The more the cold rattled her, the more tempted she was to look up. She couldn’t hear anything. She sensed the men were still there, but she couldn’t be sure.
Slowly, she lifted her head to peer through the clumps of grass that lined the edge of the creek. There was the cabin and two men standing out front. They were looking away from her, talking to each other. She couldn’t see their faces, but they weren’t dressed like army men. They looked like back-country guys, much like a lot of the men in Stapleton. They were wearing camouflage and baseball caps and one of them was tall and stocky and the other one was tall and thin. They could have been hunters, except they weren’t carrying rifles.
The skinny man turned and surveyed the hill. Then they started off in the other direction; deeper into the forest and away from the cabin. In a few more paces they’d disappear. She had to make a decision; to go on and see if they led her to Dad or run back to Rob.
She scrambled along the creek keeping her body low, ready to drop down if the men looked behind them. The big one stopped and the skinny one stood beside him. She got close enough to hear them exchange a few words.
Unravelling Page 7
