The Blue Light Project

by Timothy Taylor

  In the meantime, just one item outstanding, and simple enough to see it through. All I had to do was cross the city sometime in the next day, or the next week. Find the playground. Some Sunday afternoon when families would be out. It wouldn’t be hard for me to have a stroll down the right avenue and look over and find him up on the climbing ropes. Swinging somewhere in the middle rungs of the thing. His mother watching. Looking a little heavier through the face. Heavier and softer, fuller through the belly. I was imagining Jennifer pregnant again. I can’t think why. Probably because I was imagining her happy again.

  I wouldn’t wave or draw attention. I wouldn’t go in and try to talk. I wouldn’t need that now. I could just let it be. Let them be. The looking alone would be enough. The sending of peace. And asking for it too. That would be sufficient. That would be everything I could possibly desire.

  THE ARTISTS

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events are invented. However, some of the street art described in this book was inspired by the work of the following artists and photographers, to whom I owe very special thanks:Andrew (A01) Owen

  Cameraman

  Emma

  Jerm9 and Ninja9

  Pete Jordan

  Rich S

  Take5

  PHOTO AND ART CREDITS

  9 o’clock transformer: Cameraman and Emma, photo by Byron Dauncey

  You’ll find it where you last saw it: Rabbit, photo by Byron Dauncey

  Vuitton dumpster: Cameraman, photo by Byron Dauncey

  Faith Wall: unknown, photo by Byron Dauncey

  Dragon: Ken Foster, photo by Diyah Pera

  Eye: Rich S, photo by Byron Dauncey

  £?X&!: Rich S, photo by Byron Dauncey

  War Is Peace: Cameraman and Rich S, photo by Byron Dauncey

  Cascading Confession: Jerm9 and Ninja9, photo by Jerm9

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  WONDERFUL PEOPLE:

  Diane Martin, Louise Dennys, Amanda Lewis

  Denise Oswald, Gillian MacKenzie

  Jill Lambert, Laura Moss, Charlene Rooke, Jane Taylor

  Arjun Basu, Kent Enns, Steven Galloway

  PIVOTAL SCENES:

  Dublin Project Arts Center

  Think Café (RIP)

  1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

  Pigeon Park

  CRITICAL INFORMATION:

  Joanne Thomson, Biathlon Canada

  Norman Mailer, The Faith of Graffiti

  Shepard Fairey, Obey: Supply & Demand

  BACKGROUND MUSIC:

  Oscar Peterson, “Fly Me to the Moon”

  Deerhoof, “The Perfect Me”

  Carbon Dating Service, “Starbeat Academy Graduation March”

  Timothy Taylor is a bestselling, award-winning novelist and journalist.

  He lives in Vancouver. www.timothytaylor.ca

  ALSO BY TIMOTHY TAYLOR

  Stanley Park

  Silent Cruise

  Story House

  PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF CANADA

  Copyright © 2011 Timothy Taylor

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2011 by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, and simultaneously in the United States of America by Soft Skull Press, an imprint of Counterpoint. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Knopf Canada and colophon are trademarks.

  www.randomhouse.ca

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Taylor, Timothy L., 1963–

  The blue light project / Timothy Taylor.

  Issued also in an electronic format.

  eISBN : 978-1-593-76450-0

  I. Title.

  PS8589.A975B58 2011 C813.’6 C2010-904200-X

  Text design: CS Richardson

  Printed and bound in the United States of America