Night Moves

by Night Moves- Stories (v5. 0) (epub)

  I nodded. “Hi. Is, uh, Gerald here?”

  She studied my lip. “Son? There’s a young man here to see you.” She looked to me. “Come in. Please.”

  So much for sneaking up on anyone. What kind of ninja was I?

  I walked in and she held out her hand. I nodded and took it. She stared right at my lip again before making eye contact. “I’m Gerald’s mom. And you are?”

  “Bear.”

  “Wow. Quite the name. My son’s just out of the shower. He’ll be right out. Can I get you some tea? Coffee? Take your jacket?”

  I shook my head. She’d see my knife. “Tea would be nice.” I could smell sweet pine and spruce in the wood box directly in front of me and there were pictures of a young man everywhere. This must be Gerald. To my surprise, there was a yellow fireman’s helmet on top of the coat rack and a large set of flashlights.

  “Well come on in,” she said.

  I stepped out of my shoes and walked into one of the most incredible log houses I had ever seen, maybe the only actual log house I’d ever been in. There were wolf hides, bear hides, a few stuffed foxes on the top floor looking over. There was a gun rack filled with hunting rifles and everything was so clean. There was a small couch around the biggest wood stove and there were plants everywhere. You could smell them. Green. Fresh. It’s like their breath pushed against everything in the room. I bet you could load that wood stove and it would burn all night. There was also a nice supper table and a sewing machine was set up. There was dough dust on the counter and a large silver mixing bowl had a tea towel covering it. Cookies were cooling on racks and my mouth started to water. There were two huge green Tupperware bowls beside one another by the coffee maker. “You arrived just in time,” she said. “Cookies’ll be ready in five minutes.”

  I nodded. It smelled delicious and sweet.

  “I got tea here. It’s fresh. How do you like it?”

  “Two and two,” I said. “Please.”

  She motioned for me to sit down at the table.

  I glanced quickly and tried to memorize everything about this house. “This is the most beautiful home I’ve ever seen.”

  “Well, thank you.” She poured my tea and came my way. She was carrying cream in a can but no sugar and no spoon. I glanced at her moccasins. Yup. They were exactly like what Grandma used to wear. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you here before, Bear—is it?”

  I shook my head. Of all her things, Ehtsi’s moccasins were the last to go up in flames. “I’m here with the Northern Leadership program.”

  “Oh,” she said and leaned back to look at the calendar on the wall. “School doesn’t start for a week.”

  I went to reach for the cream but looked around. There really was no spoon and no sugar. “I’m helping Rob. Sue’s dad is pretty sick.”

  “Oh?” she asked. “He’s got Alzheimer’s, hey?”

  I poured my cream in and looked around for a spoon. “I didn’t know that.” I’d trade information to buy time and build trust. “Her brother has to get back to work so she’s flying out tomorrow. Do you have any sugar?”

  She nodded. “Well, Robert needs help. After what Torchy and Sfen did to him, he’s lucky he can walk.”

  I looked up. I’d met them before when Marvin and I were smoking up on the high school roof. I played dumb. “Who are Torchy and Sfen?”

  She shook her head. “Two of the nastiest boys you’ll ever meet. Brothers. We lock our doors now because of them.”

  The front door opened and the man with the chainsaw walked in. He looked at me and nodded. He had woodchips all over his cap and hair.

  “Stanley,” Gerald’s mom called, “if you get any wood on my floor, you’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight.”

  The man looked at my lip, frowned and looked back at his wife. “Baby, I did my best to brush myself off. I even took my coveralls off.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You forgot your hair.”

  “What?”

  She made a rolling motion with her fingers. “Brush off your hair.”

  “Jay-sus,” he said. He nodded at me, looked at my lip and went back outside.

  Norma huffed. “Anyhow, what was I saying?”

  I held up my cup and craned my neck to follow the vines that ran along the loft above us. “Do you have sugar and a spoon?”

  “Oh yeah, Torchy and Sfen.” She shook her head. “He’ll never walk the same way again.”

  I held my tea. It smelled good. “What happened?”

  “Well, the way I heard it…”

  The bedroom door that had been closed now opened. Out walked a young man who looked seventeen, like me, who had the biggest mullet I had ever seen. It looked like he fluffed it up on purpose. Two big rolling balls of hair rested on each shoulder. He stopped, looked at my lip and looked at his mom.

  “Gerald, this is Bear.”

  “Hi.” Gerald looked back at my lip while I looked at his hair in complete astonishment. He looked like Elvis with his hair like that. Then his dad opened the door again and came in without any shavings in his hair. His cap was off and he had Hat Head.

  “Okay,” his dad said. “Let’s try that again.”

  “Sorry,” Gerald said. “What’s your name?”

  Everyone was looking at my lip. I held up my hand. “I need sugar and a spoon.”

  “Oh for goodness sakes,” Norma said. “Sorry. Gerald this is Bear. Hun, this is Bear. Where are you from?”

  “Behchoko.” I said.

  “Rae or Edzo?” the man asked.

  “Rae.”

  He nodded.

  “You’re Wendy’s cousin,” Gerald said.

  My face flushed and the room became still.

  “Oh God,” Norma covered her mouth. “Oh God. I’m so sorry.”

  I nodded.

  “Norma, get the boy a spoon and some sugar.” He came around the corner and he held out his hand. I stood and shook it. It was a bone-crushing grip and he nodded at me. He was handsome. I liked him right away. After that, Gerald came forward. I could smell cologne. They had the same nose, but Gerald had a purple hickey on the side of his neck.

  “Mom,” Gerald said, “maybe we should all have tea.”

  “Did you just get in today?” his dad asked.

  I nodded. I heard a squawk and realized there was a handheld walkie-talkie plugged into a charger on top of the fridge.

  “He’s here to help Rob. Sue’s dad’s getting worse.”

  “He’s got Alzheimer’s, hey?” Gerald’s dad said. He looked at his son. “Sorry about your cousin, Bear.” I froze. “My son here’s the one who called Social Services on him. You guys want cookies, or what?”

  We both nodded.

  “Are you going to the Walk for the Cure?” Gerald asked.

  I looked at everyone. “What?”

  Gerald’s dad and mom got us all tea, sugar, spoons and cream properly. Tea was poured and a huge plate of fresh cookies placed in front of us.

  Stanley spoke. “It’s a fundraiser. For cancer. The whole town shows up and you walk all night. We’re all doing it. Every year we beat Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River for funds raised.”

  I took a big breath and realized I was exhausted. “I didn’t know about it.”

  “You don’t know about it? It’s in the paper, on the radio. We have to outdo Yellowknife this year, no matter what.”

  “You look like you need a good night’s sleep,” Norma said.

  I nodded. The tightness in my chest was there but it had loosened since walking into this house and just sitting. It had been a tough week: burying my grandmother, reading the paper to see the principal was going to get off, hitching a ride to Fort Simmer.

  “What do you want to know?” Gerald asked.

  I looked at him and suddenly felt safe. I suddenly felt like cry
ing. I looked at my hands. They were filthy. The smoke of Grandma’s clothes was all over me and I could smell her. I could. I still had Dean’s tears on my hands and ketchup from the perogies. I felt stupid for bringing my bone knife into this house. “How did you know?” I asked.

  Gerald’s mom touched her hair and his Dad looked down. There were no enemies here. Nobody reached for the cookies. Gerald closed his eyes and looked winded. He leaned back and let a long breath out. He looked to be in sadness. He then rubbed his chin and leaned forward and took a sip of his tea. “I can’t believe they’re going to let the principal off for what he did.” He then stopped and looked at me. So did his mom and dad. I heard something. I was grinding my molars. I stopped. “Sorry, go on.”

  All of them went for the cookies and so did I, but I stopped when I saw my hands. I needed to wash my hands. If I was going to put anything in my mouth using my fingers, I had to wash my hands. But first I had to hear this.

  “Can I just say something?” Gerald’s dad said. “I think it’s B.S.—excuse my French—that my son—”

  “Our son,” Norma corrected him.

  “Sorry, babe. Our son. I think it’s B.S. that our son had to take the stand and tell the truth when we all knew that molester was going to get off.”

  “That’s not certain,” she corrected.

  “Oh it’s certain,” Stanley said. “The word’s out: he’ll walk. He’s got nothing but money and lawyers.”

  I sipped my tea. So it was true. The paper said it might be true that the principal would get off because the RCMP messed up when they searched the house. “When do they reach their verdict or whatever?”

  “The judge is flying up this week,” Gerald nodded. With each nod, his hair bobbed. This was the biggest mullet I had ever seen. I thought for a second it was a wig, but, no, it was real.

  I took a big breath. “Okay. So, how did you know?”

  He nodded and took another sip of his tea. “It was the track meet. We were all there. Your cousin was very pretty. We didn’t know she was deaf at first. She turned a lot of… heads when she came up but we knew she was different, you know, like… delayed?”

  I nodded and thumbed my tea cup handle. I let out a sigh of grief and felt tears well up. “Go on.”

  “Well,” he took a big breath and stopped. His mother reached out and rubbed his arm. “She, uh, dropped her, uh, pants and panties and started to, well,” he took a hard swallow without his tea. “She began to masturbate in front of the whole school.”

  His mother cleared her throat and touched the back of her hair. It must have been long once. I closed my eyes and put my tea down. Why, Wendy? Why?

  “You know what got him?” Gerald’s dad said. “You know what got him? That little bastard was a cheapo.”

  Gerald stared at his tea.

  “What?” I asked.

  Stanley held out his hands and started counting off his fingers. “There’s three kinds of Internet accounts you can get here: there’s the one we have, which hardly uses any bandwidth or whatever, and then there’s the usual one most folks use and then there’s the corporate account or whatever and that’s for business. You can download all you want. Mr. Principal was using the cheapo account and kept using up the town bandwidth. They had a summer student who couldn’t figure out why the town server kept crashing, and it was because of what the principal was downloading. This kid has a peek and sees kiddie porn this and kiddie porn that and he called the cops. They had a look and went racing over the same day Gerald called Social Services.”

  “So how did you know?” I asked Gerald.

  He let out a huge breath and was flushed in the cheeks. “Mom and Dad, cover your ears please.”

  To my surprise, they did. My eyes bugged when I seen his mom and dad cover their ears like little kids and look down. What kind of family was this?

  He cupped his hands around his mouth, almost like to call a moose. “Her toes were painted a bright red and her you-know-what was… she was, well, she had been trained. I’m sorry to say it, but he trained her to do that… like that. The thing is, though, even before that, I knew he was wrong. I didn’t like him as soon as I saw him and that’s never happened before. I secretly called him ‘The Devil.’”

  I thought of Wendy: how the sunlight caught her hair. To see her, you’d never know she couldn’t hear or that she was like a baby, but she was so trusting, always so trusting. And that smile. She was always—I buried my head in my hands and let out a huge cry. I started to cry so hard my body shook and I gasped for air. Snot and tears mixed as I cried into my ketchup and I bawled and bawled and bawled. I felt hands upon my shoulders, rubbing my arms. The hood of my hoodie covered my hair and I gave thanks that it also muffled my cries. I was uglier when I cried. I thought of Wendy, how I used to train her for martial arts, how I did my best to prepare her for the world. I remember how the bear root only showed itself to her and Ehtsi. I remembered Wendy’s sweet, trusting smile and me writing the letter to get her out of town. “Where’s Wendy?” Ehtsi kept asking on her death bed. “On her way,” I kept lying. “She’s on her way.”

  “Bear,” Norma said. “We’re sorry. We’re so so sorry. Don’t you have a home?”

  I shook my head. “Our Grandma died last week. We burned her stuff a few days ago.” I took a big breath and wiped my eyes. My nose was running. I stood and made my way to the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and turned off the lights. I took my hoodie off and wrapped my bone knife inside of it. I washed my hands and face slowly. The soap smelled like berries from the city: fake. I was so tired. My body felt old. I cupped my face and squeezed. How could I? How could I have trusted anyone to look after her? I never should have written that letter. I should have known it was too good to be true. I let out a long breath and wiped myself off. How embarrassing. I blew my nose and shook my head. It was too hot in the house. I squeezed my hoodie hard and felt the bone knife in the middle. I slowly opened the door and they were all sitting, looking down. I made my way to the chair and sat down. “Sorry,” I said. I put my jacket on the table beside me.

  Norma reached out and patted my arm. “You’re hurting and you need support. Don’t you have any family?”

  I shook my head. “Not anymore.”

  “What about your cousin?” Gerald asked.

  I thought about it. “She’s with the nurses now.” They had a group home for developmentally delayed kids and teens. She was there. The last time I went to see her, she turned her back on me and ran to the corner and started crying.

  I wiped my eyes thinking about her and the promises I made to check up on her when we were both here last year. All broken.

  “Bear,” Gerald said, “there’s something. We don’t know for sure if the principal will get off for the kiddie porn and for what he did to your cousin, but they will get him for stealing the money he stole from the kids.”

  “Money?” I asked. I helped myself to a chocolate chip cookie and it was delicious. Gerald’s dad sat down with a fresh cup and moved my old one away. He poured me a fresh cup and put two scoops of sugar and a lot of cream. “I know how Dogribs like their tea: double-double, hey?”

  I nodded and looked for Kleenex. I sipped and it was perfect. Nobody was looking at my lip anymore. “Thank you,” I said to everyone in the room. “What’s this about money?”

  Gerald nodded. “The junior highs start fundraising as soon as they start grade eight to go to Disneyland in grade twelve as part of their graduation. We didn’t know that all that money was being kept by the principal. We gave it to him assuming he was putting it in the bank for us, but he was keeping it.”

  “What a jackass,” Gerald’s dad said.

  I looked at Gerald and his huge hair. “So they may get him for theft?”

  Gerald nodded and took a bit out of his cookie. “They say he took thousands and blew it all when he and his wife took off.” />
  “Why would his wife go with him if she knew he was doing all of that?” I asked.

  “There’s rumours,” Gerald’s dad said, “that she didn’t have a choice. She’s saying he forced her.”

  “She turned him in,” Norma said and nodded.

  I scratched my head. Without my hoodie on, my scalp started to itch. I had another cookie and sip of tea. It was perfect, and I felt lighter. Somehow, I felt lighter. I’d been tight in the chest, like I couldn’t fill my lungs the past week.

  Norma spoke softly. “She called the cops from a gas station and told them which way they were heading for BC.”

  “They used a spike belt on the car,” Gerald’s dad said. “No one’s supposed to know that, but it’s true. I would have loved to have seen that.”

  I nodded. “So he blew all that money?”

  Gerald scratched his neck. “They say he’s using it for his lawyers now.”

  “So why are you here?” Norma asked.

  “What?”

  “Why are you here? If your grandmother passed away—and we are so sorry to hear that—if your cousin is in Rae, why are you here?”

  I cleared my throat. Should I tell them? Should I say I’ve come to paralyze the principal and blind him? That right beside me is the knife I aim to use?

  Just then the front door opened with a quick knock. In walked a young woman who had lipstick on and smiled when she saw Gerald. Gerald stood and walked to her. “Hey, babe.”

  “Hi,” she said as she walked into the house, putting her purse on the bench by the porch. What a pretty girl, I thought. Her hair was still wet and she wore glasses that showed off her dark eyes. She was short and she looked at Gerald’s folks before she looked at me and my lip. “Hello.”

  “Baby, this is Bear. He’s Wendy’s cousin.”

  “Oh,” she said and raised her hand to her lip. She walked towards me and I could smell bleach from her. “Hi. I’m Donna.” She shook my hand lightly, once. I caught a blurred hickey across her neck, under her ear. Classic.

  “Do you want some tea?” Norma asked her.