For Sure

by France Daigle

  “Hun! She’s already in French. Dat’s right nice.”

  1544.135.10

  Zed and Chico

  She reflected on the departure of the French for the New World in the seventeenth century. How could one not expect their language to undergo the countershocks of such a radical displacement? What are a few so-called abnormal language configurations in the face of an ocean’s distance and 400 years of history on a different continent? Invert the language rather than reverse the crossing. Why should the Parisians in their finery, who love the sound of s words, take precedence over the pioneers shot through with the beating of tam-tams? Why fret over a redundancy when the word itself contains two ds?

  1545.128.7

  Fervours

  1546.82.3

  Moncton

  “I only asked ’er how she was; I wasn’t askin’ fer her blog.”

  RCH, SKR, NOA, MNB, TKO, HEO, SEI, PSR, CRY, BWC, MDZ.A, NEM, AVL.

  1547.67.10

  Terry’s Notebooks

  “I fails to see why we couldn’t write swĩng the way we actually pronounce it in French: swigne.”

  “Which would lead to the verb swigner. Je swigne, tu swignes, il or elle swigne, on swigne, nous swignons, vous swignez, ils and elles swignont.”

  “I fear that that might lead to confusion with “to heal” or soigner: je swigne, je soigne . . . You see the problem?”

  “As far as I’m concerned, there’s sufficient difference between the two. Especially since we pronounce soigne as souègne.”

  “You may very well be right, my dear lady. And, in any case, let’s admit it, no language is ever entirely safe from the occasional misunderstanding.”

  “But would that apply, then, to all verbs containing -ing? I’m thinking of rĩng, strĩng . . .”

  “We ought to begin by deciding which English verbs we accept; then, we can discuss which conjugation fits.”

  “Fĩt! Der’s one we ought to talk ãbout!”

  “Personally, I’m afraid that if we admit rigne for rĩng, referring to either doorbells or other sorts of bells, before you know it, people will be saying things like ‘j’ai rigné la dõorbell.’ I completely disapprove of opening the door to dõorbell.”

  “Perhaps we might simply create a verb drigne for drĩng the doorbell, and reserve rigne for the boxing arena. What do you think?”

  “And I suppose we’d accept, if the need arises, that people strignent their Christmas decorations as of December 10, as suggested by Energuide, and that they strignent themselves to show off on the beach?

  “I believe you mean, that they strigniont themselves.”

  “That doesn’t solve the pronunciation of the r. Are they going to strigner themselves like the French, or strĩgnér themselves like the Americans?

  1548.133.8

  The Future

  Hans got back up, brushed off his trousers. The bus had skidded, knocking him down in the aisle. Luckily, the vehicle had not overturned, but had merely slid awkwardly onto the shoulder of the highway. No panic, no blood. Hans wondered if it might be a sign that he shouldn’t be going to Moncton. But an accident can happen anywhere, after all. Whatever the case, he concluded that there would certainly be a few rough patches.

  1549.78.12

  Accidents

  “Dad, wot does deportation mean?”

  Terry was busy serving two customers at the same time.

  “Eh, Dad?”

  “Look, Dad’s serving de ladies right now. I’ll explain it to you later, OK?”

  1550.130.10

  Work

  Étienne looked at the customers. Both had turned radiant smiles on him. Intimidated, the boy took refuge in Ludmilla’s office.

  Any sort of explanation is a kind of pilgrimage.

  1551.56.12

  Pilgrimages

  Marianne ran after the rolling carrot slice, caught up and picked it up, and popped it in her mouth.

  “Wait, Marianne! Come ’ere, Dad’s gonna show you sometin’.”

  Marianne turned, not daring to clamp her jaws down completely.

  “When sometin’ to eat falls on de ground, it gets dirty, even doh it might not show, so we oughtn’t to be eatin’ it.”

  Terry got down to Marianne’s height to be sure she’d understand.

  “De slice of carrot you picked up off de ground, well, ’twas probably a wee bit dirty, or could be it picked up some germs, so we’d best wash it before we eats it, or if ’twere too dirty, we’d be trowin’ it in de garbage. Understand?”

  Marianne took the slice dripping with saliva out of her mouth, and handed it to Terry, who went to rinse it off before giving it back.

  “Alright den, now you can go ahead an’ eat it.”

  The little one ran off, and Terry went back to slicing carrots, adding for the benefit of Étienne, who was cutting the tails off string beans on the table:

  “If de ting dat falls on de ground is dry, you could just blow on it, and den eat it, only Marianne’s too small to make de difference, so I’s just tellin’ you.”

  Étienne acquiesced, proud that his father recognized in him a greater degree of judgment than in his little sister, who was almost still a baby. At the same time, he regretted the unblemished square of Chicklet’s gum he’d spotted that very morning on the ground in the parking lot of the convenience store.

  1552.134.9

  Marianne

  MIDDAYCATION: n. — 2005; from midday and medication ♦ 1. medicine to be taken with midday meal. “I’m going to prescribe a middaycation for you.” (Daigle) 2. laughable, useless medicine (FIG.) “It’s nothing, he forgot his middaycation.” (Daigle)

  1553.120.3

  Fictionary

  Zed pressed on the accelerator and made a quick left turn, rapidly cutting across the two lanes of the avenue where traffic was usually constant and fast.

  “I hates to do dat, only dey almost doesn’t give us a choice.”

  Once they were in the parking lot of the clinic:

  “It may take some time . . .”

  “There’s no rush. Anyhow, I’ve got a book.”

  Without being one of those people of whom we say they’ve always got their nose in a book, Catherine usually carried a book in her handbag. Always a book; never a magazine. Magazines can’t hold Catherine’s attention; they make her feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off. Whereas books take her by the hand and lead her down paths across open fields.

  “Is dat de book Terry was wantin’ you to read?”

  “No, I finished that one.”

  “Already? Was it good, den?”

  Catherine was rarely categorical about books.

  “There were some good bits, only I think Terry liked it more than I did.”

  Nor was she the type to get lost in interminable discussions of her books.

  “I’ve never been a big fan of legends.”

  1554.73.7

  Shifts

  French that flows naturally. Without embellishments, but without serious blunders either. Subtle, polished accents. You emerge refreshed, as from a playful, sun-filled wave. Fervour? Fantasy?

  1555.128.1

  Fervours

  Étienne had been astonished to learn that a person could simply be expelled from their home.

  “That’s not nice, eh Dad?”

  Terry, who had naturally simplified the history of the Deportation a bit, was happy to see that Étienne had grasped the essential.

  “No, ’tisn’t nice, fer sure. ’Tis even mean.”

  “How come de police didn’t stop them doing that?”

  “Well, in a way, dose dat did dat, dey was de police demselves.”

  Étienne had never imagined the
police could be cruel.

  “They were fearsome police?”

  “Hey, boy! Fearsome police. Dat’s well said. I like dat.”

  “Granny Gaudet says dat word. She says ’er cat’s fearsome.”

  Étienne seemed to enjoy saying the word.

  “Dat’s good, dat’s a fine word. Yes, dey were fearsome police.”

  Étienne had deduced from his father’s explanations that even he, Terry, would have been powerless in the face of the British soldiers.

  “Mum wouldn’t ’ave been afeard.”

  The phrase made Terry smile.

  “Awh, no? Well, maybe not. Wot does you tink she’d ’ave done, den?”

  Étienne thought about it:

  “She’d ’ave put poison in de pizza an’ she’d ’ave fed it to de police an’ after supper de polices would’ve all died.”

  Terry noted the recurrence of his son’s predilection for poisoning.

  “An’ me, I’d be hidin’ in de closet wid Marianne an’ after Mum would’ve come to fetch us.”

  As a father, Terry didn’t like being kept out of the dramas that might have struck their little family.

  “An me, where would I ’ave bin, den? Wot would I be doin’?”

  1556.23.8

  Potatoes

  Étienne began by shrugging, then finally:

  “You’d ’ave put the suitcases in the car. The suitcases an’ a whole lot o’ potatoes, so we’d ’ave sometin’ to eat.”

  Dequoi, sometin’. Desfois, der’s times dat. Commensque, ’ow’re.

  1557.77.2

  Grammar

  “Wot’s de difference betwixt a straight shooter an’ a straight arrow. Ask me, der de same.”

  “Straight shooter tells you straight wot’s wot. He doesn’t miss de mark.”

  “Well don’t a straight arrow do de same?”

  “Only if yer an Indian. Udderwise straight shooter’s a lot quicker.”

  1558.82.11

  Moncton

  looks at

  her crackled bowl

  broken yet not broken

  lifts her eyes asks for permission

  to eat

  1559.80.3

  Cinquains

  “Over there’s a whole lot of trucks, eh Mum?”

  Carmen had explained to Étienne that, on the road, it was always best to stop in restaurants frequented by truckers, because they knew the good places to eat.

  “See the thickness of the cream on the lemon pie? Now, that proves that we’re in a real truckers’ restaurant.”

  The boy had concluded that truckers were clearly people with a great deal of power.

  1560.106.4

  Customs

  message in a bottle

  worn smooth by the sea and time

  words within like wine

  asleep, almost forgotten

  this floating passage that breathes

  1561.75.11

  Tankas

  “I’ve got it! I knew there was sometin’! A camera! I’d like to be takin’ a whole lot of beautiful pictures of you an’ our family.”

  Étienne gave the impression he approved and, as though satisfied with the outcome, asked no further questions.

  1562.121.6

  Things to Want

  Political malapropism: the bull is in their court.

  1563.132.5

  Malapropism

  “Have you ever seen the bronze fly?”

  Chico shrugged, as if to say he’d seen a great many flies, but whether among all those flies, he’d seen that particular one, well. . .

  “My grandad, says you have to please the bronze fly.”

  Chico thought about it before replying:

  “An’ ’ow does we do dat, den?”

  Étienne shrugged in turn.

  “Wot does bronze mean?”

  Chico explained everything he knew about bronze.

  “Dat’s an Olympic medal. ’Tis de tird medal, only dey gives it first. Dat’s wot de teacher said.”

  Étienne was not in the habit of questioning what the teacher said.

  1564.139.9

  Étienne and Chico

  “Can you ask de teacher if she’s ever seen de bronze fly?”

  “OK.”

  And on another page of the same notebook: ALS, ALZ, ONC, SRD, PEI, BVX, NTC, and PZZ.

  1565.67.11

  Terry’s Notebooks

  Daigle admitted, in the course of the interview, that she had to get up very early in the morning to try and understand Lacan, so as not to misrepresent his arguments.

  “After 10 a.m., I was no longer sure I understood him, so it might be a good idea for readers to read those passages early in the morning, as well.”

  1566.34.3

  Lacan

  The French expression “treize à la douzaine” or “thirteen to the dozen,” is translated in English as “a baker’s dozen.” How not to imagine a baker, chubby, cheerful, and covered in flour, with a love for life and those around him, and unable to resist putting one more, rather than one less, in his dozen biscuits or bread rolls?

  1567.129.1

  Fantasies

  “Zed wants a dog.”

  Chico said it without enthusiasm, as though he himself was indifferent.

  “Wot about you, don’t you want one as well?”

  “Yes. Me as well.”

  Étienne thought about it, then:

  “I’d like one, too.”

  Chico added:

  “Well, ’tis more Zed dan me dat wants one.”

  Étienne acquiesced, but there was something odd in that detail.

  1568.139.7

  Étienne and Chico

  Balzac’s The Magic Skin appears in the section entitled “The Fantastic and the Marvellous” of La Bibliothèque idéale.

  1569.58.8

  Extensions

  You could hear it when Étienne returned from a day or two with Chico at Granny Gaudet’s house in Dieppe. “Tiroir” or “drawer” became “tirette,” or “pull out” as in:

  “Mum, de scissors aren’t in de pull out.”

  . . .

  “Dévisser” or “unscrew” became “désavisser” or “unenscrew,” as in:

  “Dad, can you unenscrew dis?”

  . . .

  “Contrarié” or “frustrated” became “connetrairée” or “crousty,” as in:

  “Wot’s de madder wid you, Marianne? Yer lookin’ terrible crousty.”

  . . .

  And, undressing to take his bath, “un fils décousu” or “loose thread” became “une défaisure” or “ravel,” as in:

  “Luh, Mum, I’ve a ravel in me sock.”

  1570.20.1

  Language

  Even the word hasard has its origins in Arabic. The English hazard meaning both “danger” and “chance” comes later from the French.

  1571.17.3

  Chance

  Seated at the big three-sided table, with access to most of his various occupations, The Cripple was deep in thought. Before him, lay a sheet on which were written a few words in the form of a poem.

  raisin dust

  my computer washes up

  the sevens tempt me

  1572.16.12

  The Cripple

  Antoinette, who had never seen her husband so perplexed, wanted to rescue him from his impasse:

  “Ask Terry. He’s the one who knows this stuff.”

  Depth.

  1573.121.3

  Things to Want

  “I used to see Canada as a great big country where a fellow could ro
am. Nowadays, I sees it wid Caterpillar machinery everywhere an’ holes all o’er de place.”

  . . .

  “’Tisn’t wot’s on dis earth dat counts any longer, ’tis wots underneat’.”

  . . .

  “An’ before, I’d get terrible vexed wid de banks makin’ all dat money. Now, I can’t say I mind.”

  . . .

  “It’s got so I’s even readin’ de stickers on car licences.”

  . . .

  “Speakin’ o’ cars, we ought to be takin’ a ride down by Sisson Brook some time. Der’s supposed to be a new tungsten an’ moly mine openin’ up down der.”

  1574.85.11

  The Stock Market

  Before running to his mother, Étienne had quickly shoved both the drawing and the tube of toothpaste as far as possible under his bed.

  1575.103.10

  Disappearances

  “Do you have books from la Pléiade collection here?”

  “We’ve a couple second hand. Unless you’s lookin’ fer dose by Charles Le Blanc on de old Chinese philosophers?”

  “As a matter of fact, I’m looking for the second one, on the Confucian philosophers.”

  “Yer in luck, we’ve got one left. An’ she’s signed, to boot.”

  “Wicked! I’ll take it.”

  1576.130.1

  Work

  No mention of the death of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev the same day as Stalin, March 5, 1953, in Daigle’s 1953: Chronicle of a Birth Foretold.

  1577.119.11

  Music

  Without intending to, Carmen had planted the seeds of doubt in Terry’s mind concerning the eventual sexual orientation of their children. And like any good forward-­looking father, especially in the case of Étienne, who was growing up at an alarming rate, Terry had begun to look for an opportunity to raise the subject of homosexuality with his son.

  “Well, den? Was de party alright?”

  “Yes! We played kick-the-can an’ hide’n-go-seek!”

  “Wow! We played dat as well, when I’s a boy . . .”