Forbes spins his chair around. “I don’t see Ollie. That’s weird. Maybe he took a smoke break. Just kidding. By the way, son, all the proceeds from the show go towards promoting organ donation awareness. Guess I’ll go take a leak.” He wheels out the gym doors.
Dee stands back from the paintings. “These are fanfuckingtastic, like, they’re practically alive.”
“What are they do you figure?” a wizened man in a frayed sports jacket asks.
“Our fears,” Dee says. “Our pain.”
Irwin stares at a hoof that looks cracked. “Harriet always said her art is whatever you want it to be.”
“Who’s Harriet?” the man asks. “Didn’t a boy do these? I’m thinking of signing up.” He pats his chest under his frayed sports jacket. “I may be old but my ticker’s still good to go.”
Irwin stands closer to a painting and thinks he sees Harry in a creature that looks part monkey. She was good at monkey bars, could swing across them skipping rungs and hang upside down from her knees. Irwin wasn’t allowed to do any of these things. He’d sit in the sandbox, trying to imagine what it would feel like to swing from your hands and hang upside down from your knees.
“Hey, Irwin,” a gentle voice says. Irwin turns and sees Harry in Ollie’s eyes. This glimpse of her causes his jammed stomach to soften. Oliver is tall and gangly. His wild hair tumbles over his round face, reminding Irwin of a puppy whose fur and limbs have grown faster than the rest of him. Ollie’s puppy excitement is contained in the same way Harry’s was when she found treasures for mixed-media projects. She would handle them carefully, giddy with anticipation, her eyes riveted to what just seemed like garbage to Irwin. Oliver looks at Irwin as though he is a found treasure and not a freak. When he holds out his long arms for a hug, Irwin folds into them, pressing his head against the young man’s narrow chest. On the other side of Ollie’s ribs, Irwin hears the familiar rhythm of Harriet’s heart. It pulses through him and he feels he can never let go. He grips the thin young man, expecting to feel resistance and the removal of his arms, but Oliver doesn’t break the embrace. He holds on to Irwin and rests his cheek against his head. “It’s going to be all right,” he says.
About the Author
Cordelia Strube is an accomplished playwright and the author of nine critically acclaimed novels, including Alex & Zee, Teaching Pigs to Sing, and Lemon. Winner of the CBC literary competition and a Toronto Arts Foundation Award, she has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Book Award, the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Prix Italia, and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. A two-time finalist for ACTRA’s Nellie Award celebrating excellence in Canadian broadcasting, she is also a three-time nominee for the ReLit Award.
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Copyright © Cordelia Strube, 2016
Published by ECW Press
665 Gerrard Street East
Toronto, Ontario M4M 1Y2
416-694-3348 / [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing In Publication
Strube, Cordelia, 1960–, author
On the shores of darkness, there is light / Cordelia Strube.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77041-296-5 (pbk)
978-1-77090-866-6 (PDF)
978-1-77090-867-3 (ePub)
I. Title.
PS8587.T72975O68 2016C813’.54
C2015-907299-9 C2015-907300-6
Editor for the press: Susan Renouf
Cover Designer: David A. Gee
Author photo: Mark Raynes Roberts
Text design and production: Lynn Gammie
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.
The publication of On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. Ce livre est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada. We also acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,709 individual artists and 1,078 organizations in 204 communities across Ontario, for a total of $52.1 million, and the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
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