Everything balances out.
There’s a fresh commotion two tables over. Much snorting and chortling. Something big, apparently, is in the offing. All of them with their tablets and iPhones. Roebuck glances at his laptop, still asleep inside its case. In the subway he thought of something that might work okay for Chapter Two, but right at this moment his feet are too wet. When he looks up, he sees Goatee is staring back. Roebuck begins a noncommittal wave, but the guy has turned away, now, laughing.
He opens his phone and checks for messages.
Management was happy, delighted, to have him out this morning, elevating their profile at a prestigious institution like The Ferrer/Léche School of Business. Doubtless the webmaster will post his lecture on the site; at the very least an item on the newsboard. Possibly a podcast. The new president is all of thirty-three. Roebuck wouldn’t be the least surprised to see her posing with these barely whiskered tech-heads and their tricked-out orange tank. She wants him out the door, of course. New broom.
Two items in his inbox: a reminder from Anne to pick up overripe bananas and a formal notice from HR regarding the handover of files prior to the expiration of his contract. That one he’s been trying not to think about.
He has no idea what he’s going to say to Anne.
Roebuck’s feet are still numb, but his coffee is down to the dregs. He is thinking about buttoning his coat, winding his scarf, and gearing up to face the elements, when he becomes aware of a compression in the atmosphere. The room has gone silent. The bucks two tables over are staring, bodies stiffened, tendons straining. And now he hears it too, the sound.
It’s the boots that take him first. Knee-high leather with tall, tall heels that strike that rhythm on the tiles. Snow swirls into the room as the door sighs closed behind her. Her long black coat has brushed the drifts and trails a fringe of ice. It falls open in the heat like gift wrap yielding up the skirt beneath, short and sultry, and a tanned and golden span of thigh. She’s been somewhere in the sun, this girl. The men at the table stamp and paw.
“Julius Roebuck!” she says kicking off the snow. “Fuck me a mountain, is that really you?”
He can hear her heels against the floor, the drag and then the clop as Zhanna Lamb approaches like forgotten fate. Roebuck feels a wave of strength, his nostrils flare, then a tide of fatigue—he gropes the table and steadies himself—then a new gush of vitality. Tiny lights sparkle and dance in the room.
Zhanna flutters a wave and blows him a kiss as she passes. Two tables over they’ve pull out her chair. “Gentlemen” she says arching her back as she peels off her coat. “You know how I’ve been counting on you …”
Acknowledgements
I must first thank my wonderful agent, Hilary McMahon, for her infinite patience and boundless support. The transformation from manuscript to printed book would not have been possible without her. The same goes for its editor, Diane Young, whose firm opinions and firmer defence of them made for many interesting discussions and a much better novel.
Many thanks also to Jim McElgunn and Stan Sutter, for their acumen and insight into the world of advertising. Any instances of hyperbole impute to me, not them.
It’s lonely work, novel writing; readers of early, ugly drafts provide not only sound advice but a form of companionship whose solace to the writer is impossible to overstate. To Nancy Kramarich, Lance McDayter, Eva-Lynn Jagoe, Liz Beatty, Christopher Mastropietro, and of course my old, old friend Paul Harper: immense gratitude.
Finally, thanks to my wife Rennie Renelt and my children Dayton and William Gardiner; my family and the point of everything.
About the Author
Scott Gardiner began his career in journalism at Maclean’s and has written for a variety of publications including Toronto Life, Canadian Geographic, and the Globe and Mail. His first novel, The Dominion of Wyley McFadden, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book from Canada and the Caribbean. It was also shortlisted for the Amazon Books in Canada First Novel Award and made the Globe and Mail list of 100 Best Books. King John of Canada, his second novel, was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Gardiner lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.
Also published by TAP Books
One Night in Mississippi
by Craig Shreve
One Night in Mississippi is the story of a young activist named Graden Williams, who was brutally murdered in Civil Rights–era Mississippi. After the perpetrators were charged but quickly released, Graden’s brother, Warren, drifted aimlessly for decades, estranged from the rest of his family and struggling with guilt over his brother’s death. But when the U.S. Justice Department begins re-opening cases like Graden’s more than forty years later, Warren is determined to avenge his brother and bring his killers to justice.
A phoned-in tip after a television appearance leads Warren to a remote town in northern Ontario, where he comes face-to-face with Earl Olsen, the only murderer still at large, who turns out to be very different than what Warren had expected.
The Hundred Hearts
by William Kowalski
Returning home after an explosion in Afghanistan, in which he was injured and his best friend killed, Jeremy Merkin is dismayed to find that nothing has changed, and yet everything is different. Living in the basement of a house he shares with his grandparents, mother, and mentally challenged cousin, Henry, Jeremy struggles with constant pain and the lingering psychological effects of the war. A death in the family prompts Jeremy to seek out his institutionalised father, which leads to the discovery of a family secret that will alter his life forever.
When, amidst all the chaos, Henry runs away to New York in search of his mother, Jeremy fears for his safety and races across the country in a desperate search to find him. While in New York, Jeremy’s world is altered yet again as more family secrets are uncovered, this time with dreadful consequences.
Copyright © Scott Gardiner, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of TAP Books. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Editor: Diane Young
Design: Laura Boyle
Cover Design: Laura Boyle
Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy
The quotations on pages 9, 147, and 207 are from Sara M. Lewis and Christopher K. Crastley, “Flash Signal Evolution, Mate Choice, and Predation in Fireflies,” in The Annual Review of Entomology, 2008. They are reprinted by permission.
The reprinting of the selected poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” on page 240 is used by the kind permission of M. William Krasilovsky, representing the Estate of Robert W. Service.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gardiner, Scott, author
Fire in the firefly / Scott Gardiner.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-3331-2 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-4597-3332-9 (pdf).-- ISBN 978-1-4597-3333-6 (epub)
I.Title
PS8563.A6244F57 2016 C813’.6 C2015-904912-1
C2015-904913-X
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any informa
tion enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.
Fire in the Firefly Page 27
