The Republic of Nothing by Lesley Choyce

this thought around for a while until he concluded that he won by a sort of divine intervention. The forces of possibility and nothingness were on his side and had created a perfect vacuum where no one could succeed but him. And when the time would arrive for him to appear on the steps of the provincial legislature, stepping out of a car with a whalebone cane and a head of red hair like a blazing barn, the people of Halifax would know that there was more at work in Nova Scotia politics than a bottle-a-vote strategy.

10
    Yes, I’m sad to say that my father’s victory truly did go straight to his head. In the living room later that night, he tried to contain himself but he couldn’t. “Ian,” he said, “in ten years, the entire world will be different. This is just a first, small step. Right now, I bet that individualists like myself are being sworn into governments all over the planet. It’s the quietest damn revolution the world has ever known, I’ll tell you that.” His eyes were like wild lions and electricity seemed to flow out of him at every pore.
    Everett grabbed my mother and gave her a big bear hug. She gently pushed herself away and asked Casey and me if we wanted to go for a walk along the shore to give my father timeto clear his thoughts. My father turned away from us as if we had already left the room. He began to practice some sort of speech he was putting together in his head, speaking directly to the wall and then to the furniture. My father had gone a little berserk, I guess. My little sister was wide-eyed.
    â€œWe’re going for a stroll, dear,” my mother said to him although he didn’t pay any attention. Then she shuttled us out the door in our coats and boots. I don’t think my father heard us leave.
    â€œWhat will it be like?” I asked. “Will everything be different for us?”
    My mother was looking out toward the sea from which she had been delivered. It was a cool, clear night. The moon was out and its light had varnished the shoreline rocks to silver. It seemed that every rock was covered in tin foil. The moonlight on the water appeared like a broad, silver highway, alive with tiny ripples. The highway led right to my mother’s feet. To the north, we could see stars. My mother gave a sweep of her hand across the entire night sky. “Things will be the same and things will be different. Up there is the planet Uranus which brings about revolution. You can’t see it but you can feel it. I can feel it in my heart, tugging. I feel Neptune tugging as well. The stars don’t make our destiny, but they are a sort of language from which we can read the plan of things to come.”
    Casey and I looked up into the grey silvery darkness. We could not see the planets except for Jupiter which was large and stubborn enough to stand out even in the moonlight.
    â€œYes, Jupiter. Your father has too much of him. Worse yet, Mars.” She pointed to a dim reddish glow on the base of the horizon. “Mars is never to be trusted. Ever. I was delivered, however, by Venus, a star alone in the sky the morning your father found me. I came of love by way of the sea. Perhaps someday I’ll go back that way.”
    We were used to our mother speaking this way, but we only had an inkling of what she was talking about. “I’m worriedabout your father. He has wild dreams. He’s safe with us but I don’t trust Halifax. Halifax was a city founded by Mars.”
    â€œYou mean, like Martians, Mum?” Casey asked.
    â€œNo, honey. Men of war. It’s a city founded by soldiers. A place of killers although you wouldn’t know that to see it on a Sunday afternoon, walking through the Public Gardens. I think your father will run into trouble there. Your father is somehow protected here on Whalebone Island. I was sent here from the sea to be with him. I know that for certain. I’ll try one more thing to keep him. But I