by Amy Stuart
To my students and colleagues at the TDSB, especially at Contact and Beverley schools, for always being so supportive of writing as another love and pursuit. A special thank-you to Jeffrey Caton, Anna Gemmiti, Grant Fawthrop, Mike Gurgol, Vivian Meyer, Michelle Balcers, Dexter Abrams, and Tina Kotsilis for upholding my efforts to strike the balance between two careers.
To my fellow writers at the Muskoka Novel Marathon, where early first chapters of this novel were written in one harried weekend, for the amazing work they do and their continued interest in this book. To my band of scribes for their companionship and commiseration, especially Jonathan Mendelsohn, Mary Kim, Monica Lin Morishita, Paulette Bourgeois, Stefan Riches, Yakos Spiliotopoulos, Marilyn Boyden, the Salonistas, and my birthday twin Claire Tacon.
A shout from the rooftops to my friend Kendall Anderson, who for many years has offered helpful advice on the writing life, and on life in general, who planted the original seed for this novel, and who has read more of my writing than anyone else. To Elisa Schwarz for her unflagging belief in me and for a lifetime of friendship, and to Sarah Faber for understanding the trials of writing and for supporting me from the very beginning.
To my dear friend and favorite retreat and treat partner Mariska Gatha, who engaged in endless hours of plot/life discussion with me, who debated smiles and slight nods and shrugs, and who swiftly answered my panicked mid-draft text messages, and to Jeff Beer for graciously letting me take up so much of Mariska’s time. To the women in my book club for over ten years of food and drink and for keeping my nose in books no matter what. To my friends and family who read drafts along the way, sometimes twice, and provided invaluable feedback and airspace for my rambling ideas: Paige Lindsay, Allyson Payne, Deanna Wong, Kirsten White, Meagan Cleary, Erin Cunningham, Sarah Martyn, as well as the aforementioned Katie, Bridget, Marilyn, Mariska, Claire, and Kendall, this novel has been much improved because of your insights.
To Ian, with all my heart, for pretty much everything all the time, for his love and conviction, for his steadfast good nature, for his heroic efforts in carving out space and time for me to write. Much love to our boys, Flynn, Joey, and Leo, for offering in their joyful wildness a strong antidote to the solitude of writing, for their hilarious questions and their vivid stories, and for keeping me in line with their great enthusiasm for the little things in life.
To Susan Stuart, the reader I always kept in mind as I wrote. I am forever grateful to her, and for her.
AMY STUART won the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers and was a finalist for the 2012 Vanderbilt/Exile Award. She is a recent master’s graduate from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Toronto with her husband and three sons. Visit her at amystuart.ca.
@AmyfStuart
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Amy Stuart
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This Simon & Schuster Canada edition March 2016
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Forest image copyright © Nicram Sabod/Shutterstock
Book design by Ellen R. Sasahara
Jacket design by Elizabeth Whitehead
Jacket image © Luke Gram/Stocksy
Author photograph by Paige Lindsay
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Stuart, Amy, 1975-, author
Still mine / Amy Stuart.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
I. Title.
PS8637.T8525S85 2016 C813'.6
C2015-906186-5
C2015-906187-3
ISBN 978-1-4767-9042-8
ISBN 978-1-4767-9044-2 (ebook)
CONTENTS
Part 1: Wednesday
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Part 2: Thursday
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Part 3: Friday
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Part 4: Saturday
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Part 5: Sunday
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part 6: Monday
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Part 7: Tuesday
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Part 8: Wednesday
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Acknowledgments
About Amy Stuart