For Sure
Page 54
. . .
“Some folks prefers playin’ soccer. Or baseball. Depends on wot you like.”
. . .
“An’ de exercise is good fer ya.”
. . .
. . .
“I likes to swim.”
“Yes, dat’s good as well. An’ yer a shockin’ good swimmer to boot.”
“I know.”
. . .
. . .
“Only bein’ part of a team’s fun, as well. You make a different sort of friend.”
“Wot sort?”
Terry had not expected this last question.
“Well, sports friends, I suppose. Friends fer winnin’.”
“Winnin’ wot?”
“Well, winnin’ games. Tournaments.”
“Awh.”
Terry felt his son’s interest in hockey melting away.
1280.122.11
Sports
“Can be travellin’ friends, too, like when you has to go play a game in some udder town.”
“Awh.”
1281.118.12
Concerning Yellow
So that, in the end, all that was left were a few scattered pieces of the jigsaw puzzle’s yellow bird.
“Dad, wot’re we havin’ fer supper?”
“Treehump rolls wid coleslaw Deluxe.”
“Hooray!”
1282.82.9
Moncton
Numerals, equations are the mineral matter of the story, something to dig into. The system of numbering, for its part, confirms nothing less than the existence of a point of no return, no abandon.
1283.47.11
Yielding
“Der’s times I gets de feelin’ ee’s got no idea wot ee’s doin’ whatsoever. Only I doesn’t say nuttin’; I just do wot ee says.”
“Well wot is it ee’s askin’ you to do, den?”
“To play de notes by de book.”
“Just notes by demselves?”
“’Tis about as excitin’ as recitin’ de alphabet.”
“De musical alphabet, in udder words . . .”
“You knows yerself.”
. . .
“You can’t be callin’ dat music.”
“An’ does ee tink ee’s gonna prove sometin’ wid dat?”
“At de back of de room der’s a wee black booth. Ee sits folks down in der, an’ wires dem up to de brain machine dat’s recordin’ der reactions.”
“Awh, well now . . . dat’s not a bad bit interestin’.”
“Dat’s de plan B.”
“An’ wot was de plan A, den?”
“I don’t know, do I. I wonder if ee even ‘ad one. Unless . . .”
?
. . .
1284.119.8
Music
“Unless wot?”
“Naw, ferget it. ’Twas only two ideas I ‘ad dat crossed wires.”
Terry always kept a bit of appetite in reserve.
1285.105.2
Reserves/Reservations
“Okey-Dokey’s gonna be openin’ a clothes shop in de lofts.”
“Awh, an’ when’s dat? Did somebody close down, den?”
“Must be.”
“Most likely de hemp store. I never seen a soul buy anytin’ in der, ever.”
1286.108.1
Rumours
swell pie in the fridge
a big scrumptious piece, two, three . . .
female comes, opens
temp’rary difficulty
please do not adjust your set
1287.75.10
Tankas
“Marianne, come’n put on yer panties!”
Once again, the same circus.
“Marianne, come on, I told you . . .”
After the second call, Marianne knew her room to manoeuvre was considerably reduced. This time, she got the idea to brush her teeth.
“Awh, here you are!”
Carmen’s anger melted when she saw the little one with a tube of toothpaste in one hand and her toothbrush in the other.
“You wanted to brush yer teeth? Dat’s a fine idea. Mum’s gonna help you.”
No sooner did Carmen touch the cap of the tube than the child dropped both toothpaste and brush and ran off.
“De wee devil!”
1288.134.12
Marianne
The question remains: if the “things to want” are sincerely wanted, since anyone who really and truly desires something will usually manage to get it. Nothing is out of reach.
1289.121.11
Things to Want
“Dad, wot’s de name of de saint wot trew de balls of paper into de fire?”
1290.41.7
Lives of the Saints
Useful items (kitchen), decorations in good condition, puzzles. Games (Fisher-Price and others) and children’s clothing. Adults’ clothing. Surplus furniture. Old mattresses (Nazareth House). Second-hand books. Archives (old photos of Dieppe).
1291.42.2
Sorting
For three long seconds, no one moved, not even Marianne. The vase lay in pieces on the floor. The vase. The archetypal vase. Beautiful, ugly. Well, unique anyway. Carmen had dug it up in a garage sale and brought it home, brandishing it like a trophy. The vase.
“Don’t ya move, youse two. Understood? Youse stay exactly where youse are.”
Terry was not fooling. Étienne had the presence of mind to climb up on the sofa behind him, to clear the area. He tried to convince Marianne to do likewise, but for once, Marianne did not dare move a muscle. She stood stock still and stared at Terry.
“Dat’s OK, Marianne, you can sit down beside Étienne.”
Marianne clambered up beside her brother on the sofa.
“Proper ting, Étienne, you got de right idea. Now, stay der until I tells you to come down. OK? Understood?”
The two children had understood so well that they hardly dared nod their heads. Satisfied, Terry went to get the broom and dustpan in the cupboard.
“Where’s de broom got to?”
Étienne remembered that he’d used it to dislodge a mini-car that had gotten stuck under the dresser in his room.
“In me room, Dad!”
“Well wot’s it doin’ in der?”
Étienne, sensing that he had the option not to reply, chose to turn his attention to Marianne instead.
“Tap tap tap, peck peck peck, roll roll roll, in de air!”
Terry returned with the broom, the dustpan, a plastic bag and a damp cloth. Marianne allowed her brother to distract her.
“Tap tap tap, peck peck peck, roll roll roll, in de air!”
Terry, satisfied that Étienne was being helpful, concentrated on picking up the fragments of the vase.
“You boat saw wot ‘appened, eh? To tell de troot, ’twas an accident. I mean to say, ’twasn’t as doh we was too excited or anytin’ like dat.
Was Terry trying to convince himself? In the slow sweep of the broom, the bits of glass gently clinked against each other.
“De vase dat Carmen liked so much, on top of dat . . .”
But which he, Terry, had always felt was ugly. He found fragments all the way under the bookshelves. The debris piled up in the dustpan. There was no way it could be glued back together.
“Will we be havin’ to say we’s sorry, Dad?”
Terry pretended not to hear.
1292.78.6
Accidents
Heart. Piece of heart muscle. One lung. Two lungs. Heart-lung block, single or double. Liver. Heart-liver block. Heart-lung-liver block. Pancreas. Heart-pancreas block. Kidney. Kidney and pancreas. Heart-lung-kidney block. Liver-pa
ncreas-duodenum block. Intestines. Child’s digestive system (liver, pancreas, stomach, and small intestine, with or without duodenum, large intestine, kidney). Ovary. Fallopian tube. Testicles. Larynx. Eyes. Thymus. Cells of the adrenal gland. Cells of the human fetus. Sciatic nerve. Bacterial gene. Face.
1293.42.12
Sorting
“Me grandad says der’s all sorts of tings in de ground.”
To Chico, that was obvious. Étienne insisted:
“Even diamonds.”
“I knows dat.”
. . .
“Wot else, den?”
Étienne had mainly retained the diamonds; he tried to remember the other things. His gaze fell on the garden.
“Lots of food.”
Again, that was obvious to Chico. His shovel struck a rock.
“Me mum has a diamond.”
To Chico, that was quite possible, since women liked jewelry. His shovel struck the same rock again.
“’Twould be fun if we was to find sometin’, eh?”
1294.139.6
Étienne and Chico
Charles Darwin, the famous author of The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, had married his first cousin Emma, granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood, who was their common grandfather and founder of the celebrated Wedgwood ceramics factory.
1295.65.1
Boy Cousins, Girl Cousins
“’Tis strange dat der’s nuttin in de dictionary about puttin’ a feather in yer cap. Seems to me dat’s a major expression.”
1296.98.4
Expressions
CHAPTER 10
To write a book is, in a way, to be rid of it.
1297.144.10
Epigraphs
Julien Gracq,
Entretiens (Interviews), José Corti, 2002
For the remainder of the day, Étienne waited anxiously for Carmen to get home to hear how his father would explain the disappearance of the vase.
“Will you be tellin’ ’er right off when she comes in?”
“No. I tink ’twould be best to ’ave our supper first. Unless she notices on ’er own. An’ youse two, mind you don’t say a word. Let yer dad handle it.”
Étienne watched his father come and go between the stove and the cupboard, peeling garlic cloves, dipping his fingers into a large jar to take up salt and toss it in the pan.
“Might not bodder ’er all dat much. I mean, she knows accidents can happen.”
And Terry passed the jar of cumin under Étienne’s nose before adding some to his mix. Étienne continued:
“Will you be apologizin’ right off or at de end?”
“Well, it’s no use apologizin’ if yer not sincere, now is it?”
That’s not how Étienne had come to understand things.
1298.86.7
Apologies
“Dat’s not wot you was sayin’ de udder time.”
“Awh, no?”
“No . . .”
Obviously, Ann Charters’ biography of Jack Kerouac, entitled Kerouac: A Biography, a fascinating and important work about the man and America. Published in English in 1973, and in French two years later.
1299.95.12
Additions to La Bibliothèque idéale
Terry wasn’t certain he’d heard right:
“Wot was it you said just den?”
Étienne wasn’t sure from what point or what word he should start repeating.
“I told ’er to leave me alone.”
“To leave you alone . . .”
“. . . fer Jesus’s sake.”
“Jesus’s sake? An’ where, pray tell, did you hear such a ting?”
“Antoinette says it a lot.”
Terry was taken aback.
“Well, anyhow, dat’s not sometin’ we ought to be sayin’.”
“On account of?”
1300.124.7
Religion
Étienne watched and waited for Terry’s answer.
“Well, on account of dat’s religious, an’ we’s not religious, so it don’t count.”
The social sciences aspire to make perceptible realities which are not immediately so.
1301.61.9
Social Sciences
“De cheese shop in de lofts is set to close down.”
“Is dat right? On account of?
“Don’t know.”
“Seemed to be workin’ fine. Especially since dey bin doin’ de caterin’.”
“I knows it.”
“Who was it told you dat den?”
“Anna, at de office. ’Er sister was in de habit of goin’ der to buy a special cheese fer her girl who’s allergic to sometin’ or udder. Dat’s de only place she could find it.”
. . .
. . .
“Dat’s strange, all de same, on account of dey looked terrible busy last week when I’s der. Dey was even puttin’ up de help wanted poster.”
“Awh?”
. . .
“You didn’t tink to apply?”
. . .
. . .
“Wouldn’t ’ave done me much good, would it . . . seein’ as dey’s all set to close.”
1302.108.2
Rumours
Terry dreams that he has to fetch something he left in the apartment where he used to live with Carmen and Étienne before their little family moved to the lofts. The young couple who now occupy the old apartment receives Terry warmly. When, for some reason, Terry has to go back a second time, the couple is just as understanding. The third time however, the tenants make no effort to hide their exasperation, and turn Terry away rudely. Back in the street, Terry sees a child get run over by a vehicle. The car has no door on the front passenger’s side, and the child slides quite naturally into the seat. The little one seems unhurt, and Terry realizes that the accident is in fact a kidnapping.
1303.109.7
Dreams
“From wot I can figure, it takes someone who knows der notes perfectly . . .”
“Dat’s why I was suggestin’ ee use recordings. Only ee didn’t want to. Had to be played live, an’ all de time by de same person.”
“On account of?”
“Ee said it could ’ave been a recordin’ if ’twere a real song, only on account of ’twas only notes by demselves, had to come from somebody playin’ dem right der on de spot.”
1304.119.9
Music
“G’wan wid you!”
“An’ dat’s why it took somebody who wasn’t about to get fed up an’ walk out on de job in de middle.”
1305.103.4
Disappearances
Years later, Étienne admitted the disappointment he experienced that evening when Carmen failed to notice the disappearance of the vase.
“Me, it’s odd, I always like a movie dat begins wid a funeral. I mean I like dose films all de way troo to the end.”
1306.117.2
Death
It’s quite possible that very few people find opposites interesting. Judging from the way the spine cracked when I opened it, the thesis entitled Concerning the Role of Opposites in the Genre of the Novel had probably never left its place on a shelf in the Champlain Library of the Université de Moncton.
1307.64.11
Opposites
Étienne reconsidered the display before him.
“Did you not understand wot I meant?”
Étienne nodded, but Terry could see that something still wasn’t clear.
“Well, wot’s de problem den?”
Étienne couldn’t believe that something as ordinary as a chocolate bar had had to be invented.
“Well, why den?”
<
br /> “Why dey was inventin’ it? On account of it didn’t exist afore den, I suppose.”
Étienne was no less mystified.
“Before who?”
“Well, before. Like way back in de olden times.”
“Before Grandad an’ Granny?”
“Sure, you could say dat.”
Then it was Terry’s turn to pay for his purchases.
1308.114.1
Inventions
It seems that the custom of putting a feather in one’s hat caused the disappearance of a number of species of birds.
1309.106.7
Customs
Even back in the van, Étienne couldn’t shake the idea that someone had had to invent the chocolate bar.
“Well, wot was it dey had to invent?”
Terry lowered the volume on the radio, and looked at his son in the rear-view mirror:
“Wot?”
“Wot was it dey had to invent?”
“Well, I don’t know do I? Maybe de size of de wee platters dat gives the bar its shape. An’ de wee papers to wrap ’er in. An, de very idea dat somebody might be wantin’ to eat a chocolate snac.*
* Gallicization of the English word snack. Close relative of the word sac.
1312.143.11
Varia
Étienne couldn’t imagine chocolate being eaten any other way but a little at a time.
“On account of before dat, dey was eatin’ platefuls of it?”
Terry burst out laughing.
“Naw, I doesn’t tink so! Most likely, dey was eatin’ chocolate cakes an’ cookies. I don’t know if der was even boxes o’ chocolates like we’s got nowadays.”
This seemed to satisfy Étienne. Terry turned up the volume on the radio again.
“Dad, did dey have to invent everytin’ den?”
Terry turned down the volume on the radio, and looked at his son in the rear-view mirror:
“Wot was dat?”
Étienne repeated his question. Terry let his gaze sweep quickly over everything that existed around them before replying.