heard him whistling the tune and I felt a huge fondness for him. I wondered again how he could stand my mum.
Nora was sullen. She was tired of me. I think she thought I would never be gone. I would live with them forever, the pathetic daughter who never managed to break away.
When she was my age she had been on her own for four years. She took the commercial course at school and landed a job as a secretary the Monday after she graduated. It was the first job she applied for, I remember her saying, more than once. Soon after that she moved away from the Kennaughs into her own apartment. She left them behind.
Once, when she was more talkative than usual, I asked her why she hadn’t kept in touch with the Kennaughs. After all, they had been her family for four years.
“They were paid to be my family,” she said. “You would have to pay me to go back to see them.”
“Didn’t you like them?” I asked.
“They were all right. They were an improvement over what I came from.”
I think Nora missed Henry more than I did. She saw his leaving as a door closing. My mother didn’t like me very much. Ever. I try not to dwell on it.
CHAPTER 16
I was stretched out in the hammock in my backyard. It was hung between two trees, an ash and an oak. Joanne sat on a lawn chair close by, one of Dougwell’s old wooden ones. It needed a coat of paint.
“Let’s take kick-boxing lessons,” she said.
“Kick-boxing?”
“Yeah. I’d like to have a sport that I’m good at.”
“We walk our dogs,” I said.
“Walking our dogs isn’t a sport.”
Spike had heard the word walk twice and he was up on his feet, on full alert.
“But kick-boxing? Why not yoga, something more leisurely?”
Joanne and her husband Grant had moved back to Norwood when their last kid left home and their house in Southdale grew too big. We had stayed in touch over the years but it was so much better now that she lived only two streets away.
“My hip couldn’t handle it,” I went on.
“Oh,” Joanne said. “I forgot about your hip.”
“I’m on the list for a new one.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. This one is a little outdated; it’s a one size fits all.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No,” I said. “They build much better appliances these days, more personalized. That’s what they call them: appliances.”
“Well, good then. When’s this going to happen?”
“I don’t know. I’m on a list.”
Joanne was eating salted peanuts in the shell and was covered in peanut dust. I was eating sunflower seeds, spitting the shells over the side of the hammock onto the lawn. Spike had sat down again and was gnawing on a piece of rawhide.
“My new hip will be titanium,” I said.
Joanne let out a low whistle.
We both love salty snacks. If I were to interview myself I would say that munching on popcorn with my head on a pillow, staring through the leaves of an oak tree is one of my favourite things to do.
Blue and green are my favourite colours. I think it’s because of the times I have spent all my life, staring through many shades of green at the deep blue Winnipeg sky.
There are other things I like: throwing a stick for Spike, reading history books, playing Scrabble with Joanne. She always wins and I’m a poor sport, but she doesn’t mind it when I call her a slippery slapper.
Sometimes four of us play: Joanne, Myrna, Hermione and me. We drink wine and swear a lot, call each other cunts and cocksuckers. In the summer we play outside. We shout so loud we wake the neighbours. We eat snacks and smoke.
But that day in late July it was just Joanne and me and by the time the sun got lost behind the oak tree we decided on yoga at the Norwood Community Club. There was a class coming up in the fall. My Italian cooking class had finished at the end of June. It was amazing how little I had learned. Maybe I would do better with the yoga.
When Joanne left, I went in the house. I remembered some focaccia that I had made at my cooking class and I
Nora was sullen. She was tired of me. I think she thought I would never be gone. I would live with them forever, the pathetic daughter who never managed to break away.
When she was my age she had been on her own for four years. She took the commercial course at school and landed a job as a secretary the Monday after she graduated. It was the first job she applied for, I remember her saying, more than once. Soon after that she moved away from the Kennaughs into her own apartment. She left them behind.
Once, when she was more talkative than usual, I asked her why she hadn’t kept in touch with the Kennaughs. After all, they had been her family for four years.
“They were paid to be my family,” she said. “You would have to pay me to go back to see them.”
“Didn’t you like them?” I asked.
“They were all right. They were an improvement over what I came from.”
I think Nora missed Henry more than I did. She saw his leaving as a door closing. My mother didn’t like me very much. Ever. I try not to dwell on it.
CHAPTER 16
I was stretched out in the hammock in my backyard. It was hung between two trees, an ash and an oak. Joanne sat on a lawn chair close by, one of Dougwell’s old wooden ones. It needed a coat of paint.
“Let’s take kick-boxing lessons,” she said.
“Kick-boxing?”
“Yeah. I’d like to have a sport that I’m good at.”
“We walk our dogs,” I said.
“Walking our dogs isn’t a sport.”
Spike had heard the word walk twice and he was up on his feet, on full alert.
“But kick-boxing? Why not yoga, something more leisurely?”
Joanne and her husband Grant had moved back to Norwood when their last kid left home and their house in Southdale grew too big. We had stayed in touch over the years but it was so much better now that she lived only two streets away.
“My hip couldn’t handle it,” I went on.
“Oh,” Joanne said. “I forgot about your hip.”
“I’m on the list for a new one.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. This one is a little outdated; it’s a one size fits all.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No,” I said. “They build much better appliances these days, more personalized. That’s what they call them: appliances.”
“Well, good then. When’s this going to happen?”
“I don’t know. I’m on a list.”
Joanne was eating salted peanuts in the shell and was covered in peanut dust. I was eating sunflower seeds, spitting the shells over the side of the hammock onto the lawn. Spike had sat down again and was gnawing on a piece of rawhide.
“My new hip will be titanium,” I said.
Joanne let out a low whistle.
We both love salty snacks. If I were to interview myself I would say that munching on popcorn with my head on a pillow, staring through the leaves of an oak tree is one of my favourite things to do.
Blue and green are my favourite colours. I think it’s because of the times I have spent all my life, staring through many shades of green at the deep blue Winnipeg sky.
There are other things I like: throwing a stick for Spike, reading history books, playing Scrabble with Joanne. She always wins and I’m a poor sport, but she doesn’t mind it when I call her a slippery slapper.
Sometimes four of us play: Joanne, Myrna, Hermione and me. We drink wine and swear a lot, call each other cunts and cocksuckers. In the summer we play outside. We shout so loud we wake the neighbours. We eat snacks and smoke.
But that day in late July it was just Joanne and me and by the time the sun got lost behind the oak tree we decided on yoga at the Norwood Community Club. There was a class coming up in the fall. My Italian cooking class had finished at the end of June. It was amazing how little I had learned. Maybe I would do better with the yoga.
When Joanne left, I went in the house. I remembered some focaccia that I had made at my cooking class and I
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