up my pack and run upstairs to my room. I slam the door. I fall on my bed, face into my pillow, which sort of smells like corn chips. Iâm not crying. I mean, Iâm fifteen years old now. Iâm not crying, but I feel like it.
After a while, I turn over. My face is still hot, but I feel better. I look around andâthis may sound dumbâbut I pretend Iâm all alone on a desert island. Like Iâm washed up on the beach, waking up with the tropical sun beating on my back. Then I look up. The walls of my room are mostly covered with posters of bands. Iâm crazy about music. Thereâs one of Death Cab for Cutie. An old Beastie Boys poster.
Thereâs also a painting on the wall that my mom made. Itâs of a cabin by Shawnigan Lake. We once rented it for two weeks one summer. I was ten. That was my best summer. We swam in the lake almost every day. When I dived down, I could see green shafts of sunlight underwater. After swimming, me and my friend Jason would go to the corner store to buy candy. We walked in the dirt beside the road. Brown powdery dust squished up between my toes. Sounds dumb now, but back then I thought that was the greatest.
Iâve got Momâs beat-up old record player on my desk. Iâve got all her records too. She liked the Beatles a lot. I put on her favorite song. Itâs called âHere, There and Everywhere.â Itâs a sappy ballad, but I like it. I think about Dad and this Terry lady, then about Mom. And thenâIâm embarrassed to admit itâI start crying. For real. Blubbering all over the place. What a loser.
My cell phone buzzes. Itâs Jasonâs number. I donât answer. I donât feel like talking. Instead, I go back to pretending Iâm on that desert island. Iâm facedown on the bed, pretending my ship has gone down. Itâs late morning, and the sunâs killing my back. Pretty soon Iâve gotta get up and build my shelter. Maybe find some food. Like turtle eggs. I read once how some guy on a desert island had to eat turtle eggs. Would that be like chicken eggs? Probably not.
I roll over, kind of slip-sliding off my bed onto the floor. Then I get my bass guitar out of the closet. Put the record-player needle back to the beginning of âHere, There and Everywhereâ and start to play along. It sounds all right. I got my bass about a year ago. Actually, Dad bought it for me. But for a long time I didnât feel like learning to play it. I was pretty depressed. I even had to go to a psychiatrist for a while. Dad was worried about me because I got real sad after Mom died. For a while, I didnât want to get out of bed. Maybe for, like, two weeks. After that, Dad made me go to that stupid shrink.
After âHere, There and Everywhere,â I try to play along with some other songs on the Beatles record. But it doesnât sound as good. Then I hear Dad yelling from downstairs for me to set the table. Thatâs one of my jobs. Also, I clean one of the bathrooms every weekend, take out the garbage and sometimes help Dad make dinner.
Terry has gone home, so itâs just me and Dad at dinner.
âDuncan,â he says, dabbing his lips with a napkin. âDid you know Terry is a bank teller?â
âNope,â I say.
âYes. Sheâs quite an interesting lady. We were, you know, talking about films. Movies. And her favorites areâ¦let me remember. Oh yes. When Harry Met Sally . And that other one, you know, about that large ship that hits an iceberg.â
â Titanic ,â I say. I cram some peas into my mouth. How can Dad not know that?
He goes on to tell me that Terry lives in Esquimalt, which is part of Victoria, where we live. I donât ask Dad one thing about Terry. Iâm kind of mad or confused or something, which is actually how I feel a lot of the time. Itâs like my emotions boil up and itâs hard to control them. Weird, I know.
I help do the
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