For Sure
Page 33
“In Caraquet, everybody speaks French.”
Étienne was not convinced that, by itself, this detail justified the trip.
“Wot else is over der?”
“Der’s a shocking great pier, wid boats a whole lot bigger dan de ones ’round ’ere.”
Carmen felt the need to add:
“We’ll go fer picnics on our bikes, an bowling with de big balls . . .”
“An we’ll cook up some wonderful tasty baked potatoes. You stick dose potatoes in aluminium foil an’ trow ’em in de hot coals. By an’ by, ya take dem out o’ de fire, an’ soon as der not too hot, you eat dem, just like dat wid yer hands, no butter, nuttin’. An’ by de time youse finished eatin’ dem yer face is all black wid soot.”
Terry’s by de time in English had not gone unnoticed.
“Dad! You went an used an English word again!”
From time to time — the result of an intuitive calculation — Terry slipped an English word or expression into his speech because, after all, this transgressive act was also part of his identity.
“Oops . . .”
Carmen and Terry exchanged a complicitous glance.
“Well den, ’ow do you say it in French?”
Étienne thought a bit, then:
“You gotta say ‘when’s.’ When’s yer done eatin’ . . .”
“Dat’s right. I ought to have knowed it.”
Carmen caught Étienne’s eye in the rear-view mirror and winked.
Terry concluded:
“An’ instead of goin’ off to bed when it gets dark, we’ll sit ourselves ’round de fire an’ look at de stars. Dat’s after we’s roasted a whole bag o’ marshmallows . . . oops!
“Guimauves, Dad! Marshmallows is guimauves in French!
Étienne reflected a moment on all these pleasures to come and declared:
“It doesn’t matter, Dad. I’ll be der to help in Caraquet, if dey don’t understand yer English words.”
756.29.2
On the Road
The Moncton Beavers, along with the Fredericton Spawn, were the stars of the first Nigadoo Ultimate Frisbee Tournament, having made up a 9–1 deficit in their semi-final against the Edmundston Mad Buckwheat Pancakes, who until then had been the only undefeated team in the competition. In the end, however, the Fredericton Spawn won the tournament, defeating the Québec Gravity O in the other semi-final, and then beating the Beavers in the final. The other participating teams, the Nigadoo Acadian Skitties and the Moncton Mud Slides, lost in the elimination round.
757.122.3
Sports
Zed and Élizabeth were riding in the car and talking as though everything was absolutely normal. Which may very well have been the case.
“So then, you must have known Denis?”
“Denis? You know him?”
“He was living not far from us when I’s a boy. He was older’n me. His twin sister was right nice, too. Denise. I seen ’er dis past summer in Shediac. She was home for her vacations.”
. . .
“We moved a couple times, only we always stayed in Parkton.”
And since they were in the car:
“Do you want to see? We’re not far . . .”
758.49.7
Élizabeth II
Names of the Senior Memramcook Valley Hockey League teams: the Fishermen from Cap-Pelé, the Brunswick Crane Rental from Memramcook, the Dooly’s Combines from Sackville, the Gagnon Overhead Doors from Saint-Antoine, the Furniture 2000 from Richibouctou, the Maritime Doors and Windows from Bouctouche, and the Rallye Motors Voyagers from Dieppe.
759.99.5
Names
The little family had taken its time driving up the coast: Shediac, Pont-de-Shediac, Grande-Digue and Cap-des-Caissie, then a stop to stretch their legs and eat an ice-cream at the Cap-de-Cocagne pier; from there to Saint-Marcel, Cocagne, Saint-Thomas, Dixon’s Point, Bouctouche, Fond d’la baie of Bouctouche, Saint-Édouard, then a swim and a walk on the Côte-Sainte-Anne wharf, where Terry filled his lungs with the smell of creosote.
“Geez, I love dat smell!”
Then he told them how his mother had made his brothers and him soak their feet in a mixture of water and creosote when, as kids, one of his brothers or he accidentally trod on a rusty nail.
“I suppose ’twas a kind o’ disinfectant. One time, I’d climbed up de roof of de Melanson’s garage to hide. Den me mudder shouts it’s time fer supper. So, der I go, I jump down from de roof, an’ me foot lands on an old plank of wood I hadn’t seen on account of de long grass, see. A board wid a shockin’ big rusty nail stickin’ up out of it. Sure an’ wouldn’t you know it, dat rusty sparrable goes straight troo me sneaker an’ right in de arch of me foot.”
“Hihihi!”
Any sort of acrobatics was amusing to Marianne. The expression on Étienne’s face, however, had gone from admiration to pain.
760.29.3
On the Road
“When I raise up me foot, de nail an’ de board come up wid it, de whole ting was stuck togeder. Can’t say why, but it didn’t hurt all dat much.”
Unable to bear any more, Étienne moved away from Terry, and grabbed hold of Carmen’s hand.
The Unavowable Kills.
761.136.2
The Unavowed
Zed and Élizabeth drove by Zed’s parents’ modest little house.
“She looks smaller dan she is. Inside, it’s not so small as all dat. She’s well divided.”
Beside the house was a vacant lot with several large trees.
“It’s on account of dis ’ere lot dat dey decided to buy, on account of it gave us a place to play. All de kids from de neighbourhood were always comin’ ’ere to play. Lard, we broke a lot o’ windows playin’ baseball! Me mudder never said a word, she liked to see us playin’.
762.49.8
Élizabeth II
Élizabeth was taking it all in as though it were a movie.
“Does it bodder you when I use English words?
A priori, this novel is not a love story.
763.43.6
Love
A hot sun, a feathery breeze, the blue-green sea, slate-blue sky, Bob Marley playing low in the background, Terry, his hand on Carmen’s sun-warmed thigh, couldn’t ask for more. Cap-Lumière, Richibouctou, Grande-Aldouane. Étienne tranquilly watched the scenery roll by. Marianne dozed.
“Dad, do dey paint de lines on de road at night?”
“De yellow an’ white lines, you mean?”
Étienne saw no other lines on the road.
“Naw, dey paint dem in de day. ’Twould be too dark at night. Be too dangerous, now wouldn’t it.”
Étienne figured it would be even more dangerous during the day, with all the traffic. It occurred to him that he’d never actually seen anyone bent over and painting lines on the road.
“De line down de middle as well?”
Terry wondered what his son was thinking about.
“When dey come troo, dey paint all de lines at once, de yellow ones an’ de white. Dey don’t have time to come back too often on de same bit o’ road, wot wid all de roads.”
Étienne thought that made good sense.
“You ever seen any, Dad?”
“Any wot?”
“Folks dat paint de lines?”
“A couple of times. Dey do it in de spring an’ summer mostly… I tink de machine does de yellow line along de edge an’ at least one o’ de lines down de middle at de same time.”
Étienne was surprised:
“A machine does it?!”
“Well, fer sure! Would take far too many people an’ too shockin’ long to do all dat by hand! It’s a right big truck specially made dat goes over de road.”
764.29.4
On the Road
Étienne was reduced to silence, sorry that a specially designed truck would deprive humans of such a pleasant activity.
Hence the relative importance of the confession.
765.136.3
The Unavowed
When she’s with Zed, Élizabeth spends a lot of time watching him, astonished at how much in him seems to flow as easily as water from a spring.
“So den, you don’t mind goin’ out wid me?”
The question made Élizabeth laugh.
“So then, we’re dating, is that it?”
“Well, we been to de movies, we been bowlin’, you seen me parents’ house, you came to Amherst wid me, an’ we’re goin’ to Fundy.”
“You forget that we’re also going to be Marianne’s godfather and mother.”
“Even more so! We look like makin’ a fine team, wouldn’t you say?”
. . .
“To tell de troot, I left out de ting ’bout bein’ godfawder and mudder on purpose.”
766.49.9
Élizabeth II
. . .
“Seems like it’s almost too much. I’m afraid it’ll bring us bad luck.”
All things considered, the unavowed is the real.
767.136.1
The Unavowed
“Marianne went down to the mill, Marianne went down to the mill . . .”
Marianne had only just opened her eyes and Terry wanted to wake her up with a song. But Étienne did not feel that this particular song’s appeal was sufficient to justify its length. He preferred to follow the progress of the days of the week, of the king, his wife and his little prince.
“Dad, sing Monday morning . . .”
“Alright den, you start . . .”
Étienne was caught unawares. His father had never made such a request before. But the boy was willing. He positioned his voice properly in his larynx and sang clearly:
“Monday morning, the king, his wife an’ der little prince . . .”
768.29.5
On the Road
In 2002, the government of New Brunswick bought its white and yellow road surface marking paint from the Laurentide Atlantic company of Richibouctou. The yellow paint cost $661,000 and the white $472,000.
769.21.1
More or Less Useful Details
When the vacationers saw the beach and wharf at Pointe-Sapin, they knew they’d arrived at their first destination. All the more so because the sea was full of white caps.
“Moutons blancs in French, like white sheep.”
“White wot?”
“Sheep.”
“Why do dey call ’em dat, Mum?”
“On account of it’s all white an’ fluffy.”
Oh? Terry had never thought of it that way.
“I tawt ’twas on account of dey follows each udder, like when you counts sheep to fall asleep.”
At the snack bar, Terry and Carmen drank tea, the children downed a few mouthfuls of juice and they all shared a great big oatmeal biscuit. The waitress found the little family so charming that she made a special effort to be helpful. After a quick phone call, she explained to Terry and Carmen how to get to the house of the owners who’d agreed to let them pitch their tent for the night. They set out to find it.
“And tanks a whole lot, eh, you’re wonderful nice to help us out.”
770.29.6
On the Road
New Brunswick has more kilometres of road per inhabitant than any other Canadian province. Numberless statistic.
771.3.7
Statistics
“Petitpoint? Do I even know wot dat is?”
Élizabeth laughed. She could understand Zed’s reaction, but tried a bit of cajoling:
“It’s quite engrossing once you get started . . .”
Zed thought about it for a moment, he liked to think he was open-minded, but he had to admit:
772.49.10
Élizabeth II
“Well, we’d really have to be steady on de go before I’d try dat . . .”
Élizabeth took his hand, raised it to her lips and kissed it.
To confess to someone else or to oneself, the difficulty is the same.
773.136.4
The Unavowed
Étienne turned out to be more helpful than Terry had anticipated when it came to putting up the tent.
“Like dis, Dad?”
“Haul some over dat way.”
The boy put his back into it and the tent’s nylon spread evenly.
“Dat’s wicked! A fellow might tink you’d already done dis!”
Terry placed the stake and held it straight while Étienne hammered it solidly into the ground. Then, having learned the importance of planting the corner stakes in the right order, the son followed his father to the opposite corner of the tent.
“Now, you haul on dis one ’ere.”
774.29.7
On the Road
Ordinarily a jigsaw puzzle contains 15 different shapes for pieces, sometimes 16. Six of these shapes are far more numerous than the others. The pieces with two cavities and two heads are of two types: either the cavities and heads are opposed on an essentially rectangular shape, or the cavities and heads are aligned on two of the four sides of the piece. There are also pieces with three heads and one cavity or the reverse, with three cavities and one head. And finally, there are pieces with four heads and pieces with four cavities. Some, though not all, puzzles include longish pieces with two heads, placed respectively about halfway on each long side. The nine other forms that can be considered classic are far less numerous because they belong to the edges of the puzzle, and three of them belong only in the corners. The corner pieces necessarily have one cavity and one head, two cavities or two heads. The other edge pieces contain either one cavity and two heads, two cavities and one head, three cavities, or three heads. If it exists at all, a jargon specific to jigsaw puzzles is not widely known; people name the pieces as best they can — cavities, bays, blanks, heads, knobs, tabs — according to their individual imaginations. Creating a jargon is also a sport.
775.122.2
Sports
Brigitte is not entirely wrong, and Élizabeth knows it. And yet, this time, things are a bit different. Didn’t she herself undertake steps to move into the lofts? Wasn’t she attracted by this lifestyle at once communal and marginal?
“What’s her name?”
“Marianne.”
776.49.3
Élizabeth II
“Ah, that’s a lovely name . . .”
“And she’s awfully cute.”
“And the loft, is that going to work?”
Between the unavowed and the Other there is a close link.
777.138.9
The Other
While the men put up the tent, the women were in the field picking flowers.
“Looky, Marianne! Blueberries!”
Marianne did as Carmen did, bending over the little blue bunches, picking berries and eating them.
“Mmmm . . . dat’s not a bad bit good.”
“Mmmm . . .”
When Carmen moved to another bush, Marianne followed. When Carmen blew a tiny bit of stem off her tongue, the little one spluttered, as well. When Carmen smiled at the thought that she’d brought a little monkey into the world, Marianne rubbed the side of her head with the back of her hand. And when Carmen began to sing softly without realizing it the chorus of “No Woman No Cry,” Marianne rocked back and forth and sang along no momen no no.
778.29.8
On the Road
In addition to fixing screws, there are Archimedes’ screws (very useful in water pumps and grain handling)
, lead or translation screws (screw threads and ball nut drives) and worm screws (in gear systems).
779.114.5
Inventions
“Dad, do you fall off de moon as well?”
“If I falls off de moon?”
“Yeah, when yer sleepin’.”
Terry thought about it for a moment.
“You mean in me dreams?”
“Yes.”
. . .
. . .
“Naw, I don’t tink I ever fell off de moon.”
“I do.”
“Is dat right! And den wot?”
“Everytin’s black an’ I fall an’ fall . . .”
“How does you know it’s de moon yer fallin’ off?”
“Well geez, Dad! On account of I’m sittin’ on it!”
“Awh . . .”
. . .
“How come you’re fallin’? Has somebody pushed you off?”
“No. I fall meself.”
“Wot? You let yerself fall, or you get tripped up or sometin’ an’ den you fall?”
“No, I don’t trip. I just fall.”
. . .
“I like it a bit, even doh it’s kind o’ scary. An’ den I wake up.”
“Hun!”
780.137.2
Fears
MANNOW: n. m. — 2005/2013; diminuitive of man. — by ext. immature adult male. “They’re not men, they’re mannows.” (Daigle, Majzels) — MAN. MINNOW.
781.120.7
Fictionary
“I like golf, too.”
“Phew!”
Élizabeth chuckled. Zed continued:
“Dat’s strange all de same. I wouldn’t ’ave pictured you a golfer.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t know. It’s like der’s sometin’ ’bout golfers, sometin’ ’bout dem you can tell dey’re golfers.”
Élizabeth rummaged through her handbag, pulled out a photo of herself on a golf course, and showed it to Zed. She pointed to the person beside her in the picture.