break.”
“I hardly even play golf. You know that too.”
“Are you going to take care of him your whole life?”
Ronald hadn’t intended to ask that. Had Joyce even heard? His phone didn’t ring angrily.
Without stopping, Sadie went by to her food dish.
He reached for the remote.
N
Sadie sniffed the guest’s shoes. Ronald nearly said, “She can be shy,” when the tail began to wag.
“Oh, what a sweetie!” Sadie permitted ear-pulls, followed Olivia to the living room and sat nearby.
“Such a view! So misty by the Lagoon, the trees half gone? Like those Asian scroll things, you know?”
He brought in coffee.
“So fresh! Lovely. I loved that lunch, Ronald, didn’t you? I’m glad to see you alone, though.” She sipped. “I need to say, about my mistake? I tried to make your brother happy.”
Alarmed, he pushed the biscotti towards her.
“Alan did love me, at first anyway, and I just thought Here’s this wonderful man but he’s so sad. I’ll change that! Impossible.” Her silver hair hung like a bell. “You can’t make someone anything.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Your family, so intellectual. The dictionary at the dinner table? On and on about poems? Analyzing. Alan hadn’t ever seen real movies, just those Bergman things? He didn’t know how to have fun.”
“Joyce isn’t intellectual.”
“No, I was so surprised when she and Harris got married? He didn’t play golf or tennis or anything. Brave, both of them. But I talked to your mum before she died? Well of course before, that’s the sort of thing Alan got mad at me for. She understood. She thought I should leave him.”
Sadie nosed Olivia’s knee.
“Is this okay for her?” She held the smallest biscotto.
Instead Ronald opened a drawer in the coffee table to get Sadie’s treats. The dog gave an offended look but delicately nipped the tidbit from Olivia’s fingers and flung it up in the air, to catch.
“Clever girl!”
“It wasn’t your fault.” Can’t we go on now, the weather, her impressions of a changed Vancouver, anything?
“Instead Alan left me. That’s why Albuquerque. He wanted a fresh start, you know? Then the crash? Oh, I felt so bad.”
“He always drove too fast.”
“I even wondered, suicide?” Olivia shook her bell as if surprised at herself. By her feet Sadie lay couchant, guardian.
Ronald did not say that he believed Alan had had far too high an opinion of himself to deprive the world of his presence.
“When I met Thomas,” tenderly, “he helped me. Contacted the police, troopers, whatever they have in New Mexico. No problem, oh that reminds me, flowers for Joyce of course but Stanley? Does he like movies?”
“What did the authorities say?”
“Oh, they had photocopies, the officer attending? It wasn’t all Alan’s fault. The point is, we can’t be for another person?”
Sadie rested her head on Olivia’s ankle.
“Japanese. Maybe martial arts.”
Guessing thus made Ronald dizzy. He’d never carried flowers to Joyce, nor invited Stanley to a theatre, nor assessed Harris’s character. He and his sister, after their brother’s death, had pursued no inquiries.
“Don’t you just love sushi, except the eels? Fascinating! But I must go, Ronald. The booth, Thomas.”
Later he discovered her glove in the hall. Such small hands.
Heavy rain began.
After half an hour in the park, man and dog were soaking, but Sadie still yanked at her leash, determined to revisit the shrubbery where that scuffle had occurred. Leaves and branches resisted Ronald. When he got through, Sadie was inspecting a rat. She looked up, proved right. The animal’s eyes were gone, its stomach and haunches torn. The fur inside its ears looked soft.
At home, Ronald towelled the dog off, dried his own hair and put on his dressing gown. “Nap-time, Sadie.”
But at the heron he turned the other way, to his computer.
The trade show’s website sparkled with the colours of cocktail stirrers, name
“I hardly even play golf. You know that too.”
“Are you going to take care of him your whole life?”
Ronald hadn’t intended to ask that. Had Joyce even heard? His phone didn’t ring angrily.
Without stopping, Sadie went by to her food dish.
He reached for the remote.
N
Sadie sniffed the guest’s shoes. Ronald nearly said, “She can be shy,” when the tail began to wag.
“Oh, what a sweetie!” Sadie permitted ear-pulls, followed Olivia to the living room and sat nearby.
“Such a view! So misty by the Lagoon, the trees half gone? Like those Asian scroll things, you know?”
He brought in coffee.
“So fresh! Lovely. I loved that lunch, Ronald, didn’t you? I’m glad to see you alone, though.” She sipped. “I need to say, about my mistake? I tried to make your brother happy.”
Alarmed, he pushed the biscotti towards her.
“Alan did love me, at first anyway, and I just thought Here’s this wonderful man but he’s so sad. I’ll change that! Impossible.” Her silver hair hung like a bell. “You can’t make someone anything.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Your family, so intellectual. The dictionary at the dinner table? On and on about poems? Analyzing. Alan hadn’t ever seen real movies, just those Bergman things? He didn’t know how to have fun.”
“Joyce isn’t intellectual.”
“No, I was so surprised when she and Harris got married? He didn’t play golf or tennis or anything. Brave, both of them. But I talked to your mum before she died? Well of course before, that’s the sort of thing Alan got mad at me for. She understood. She thought I should leave him.”
Sadie nosed Olivia’s knee.
“Is this okay for her?” She held the smallest biscotto.
Instead Ronald opened a drawer in the coffee table to get Sadie’s treats. The dog gave an offended look but delicately nipped the tidbit from Olivia’s fingers and flung it up in the air, to catch.
“Clever girl!”
“It wasn’t your fault.” Can’t we go on now, the weather, her impressions of a changed Vancouver, anything?
“Instead Alan left me. That’s why Albuquerque. He wanted a fresh start, you know? Then the crash? Oh, I felt so bad.”
“He always drove too fast.”
“I even wondered, suicide?” Olivia shook her bell as if surprised at herself. By her feet Sadie lay couchant, guardian.
Ronald did not say that he believed Alan had had far too high an opinion of himself to deprive the world of his presence.
“When I met Thomas,” tenderly, “he helped me. Contacted the police, troopers, whatever they have in New Mexico. No problem, oh that reminds me, flowers for Joyce of course but Stanley? Does he like movies?”
“What did the authorities say?”
“Oh, they had photocopies, the officer attending? It wasn’t all Alan’s fault. The point is, we can’t be for another person?”
Sadie rested her head on Olivia’s ankle.
“Japanese. Maybe martial arts.”
Guessing thus made Ronald dizzy. He’d never carried flowers to Joyce, nor invited Stanley to a theatre, nor assessed Harris’s character. He and his sister, after their brother’s death, had pursued no inquiries.
“Don’t you just love sushi, except the eels? Fascinating! But I must go, Ronald. The booth, Thomas.”
Later he discovered her glove in the hall. Such small hands.
Heavy rain began.
After half an hour in the park, man and dog were soaking, but Sadie still yanked at her leash, determined to revisit the shrubbery where that scuffle had occurred. Leaves and branches resisted Ronald. When he got through, Sadie was inspecting a rat. She looked up, proved right. The animal’s eyes were gone, its stomach and haunches torn. The fur inside its ears looked soft.
At home, Ronald towelled the dog off, dried his own hair and put on his dressing gown. “Nap-time, Sadie.”
But at the heron he turned the other way, to his computer.
The trade show’s website sparkled with the colours of cocktail stirrers, name
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