by Lee Stringer
PROVIDER’S SON
LEE STRINGER
© 2013, Lee Stringer
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts,
the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF),
and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador through the Department
of Tourism, Culture and Recreation for our publishing program.
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may
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any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography
Collective, One Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E5.
This is a work of fiction. Places and people are either fictitious
or are used in a fictional manner.
Printed on acid-free paper
Cover Design by Todd Manning
Layout by Joanne Snook-Hann
Published by
KILLICK PRESS
an imprint of CREATIVE BOOK PUBLISHING
a Transcontinental Inc. associated company
P.O. Box 8660, Stn. A
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador A1B 3T7
Printed in Canada
First edition
Set in 11pt Goudy
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Stringer, Lee, 1976-, author
Provider's son / Lee Stringer.
ISBN 978-1-77103-018-2 (pbk.)
I. Title.
PS8637.T824P76 2013 C813'.6 C2013-905077-9
PROVIDER’S SON
LEE STRINGER
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
2013
For Tenille
Contents
Fair Share
Bills
Virtual Infidelity
Sea to Sea
Security
A Wolf in the Clearing
The Scaffolder’s Father
Music and Friends
Home Sweet Home
The Ocean
Lost
Survivors
Enjoy The Spoils
Team Work
Art and Money
A Member of Parliament
Collaboration
Canadian Wood
The Media
Brand
Highway
The Meeting
Adawe
The Apology
Provider
Nature’s Bounty
Back To Work
Circle of Fire
Fair Share
The seventeen pieces of the rocking chair were laid out on his work table as neat as if they were never to be moved again. And the wiry frame of Levi Conley stood over them in silence, his blue eyes coldly inspecting every inch for the slightest flaw. Finally he allowed his calloused hand to pick up the seat, where he stared into the grain, and across its surface. Placing it back in the same place, he picked up a runner and held it up in a horizontal line from his right eye, and closed his left one. But the longer he stared across the top of this runner the more his breathing increased, until finally each suck of air was nothing more than a rasp through his nostrils, and his teeth were clenched so hard that his jaw bone was visibly shifting below his temples. He raised the runner in the air and smashed it across his bench, cracking it in half. Then he snatched his pack of du Maurier and lit a cigarette. Exhaling a cloud of smoke he turned around and met his wife’s eyes in the doorway. Her own cloud hung about her like a pale aura, but the cigarette was in her hand, not in her mouth.
“That did you a lot of good,” Anita said.
“It got some of me fuckin anger out.”
“You ready to go to Gander or what?”
“Why do I have to go? You cant pick up a few groceries without me?”
She shrugged and walked away.
Slowly Levi’s breathing calmed, but the rage of what his brothers had done to him was still pinned in his chest.
Frank and Barnaby had been Levi’s partners in the fishing enterprise in the small outport of Gadus. Ten years earlier, not wanting to take the risk even though he had more money, the eldest brother, Frank, had convinced Barnaby to buy a forty-foot boat, which he named The Delilah after their mother, while Frank paid next to nothing for the crab license. Now the license was worth almost as much as the boat. Still, Barnaby, who had always lacked confidence, let Frank be the skipper. Not that Frank could have coped with being anything less. Levi didn’t mind because all the responsibility was on Frank’s shoulders, and he could easily tell Frank to go fuck himself if his brother demanded anything Levi didn’t agree with. Yet Levi went along with the majority of Frank’s decisions, if for nothing else than to keep the peace. Barnaby went along with everything. He even went along with sharing an equal percentage of the profit with Frank, which was unheard of considering he owned the boat. They both got thirty-seven and a half percent, while Levi got twenty-five. That was, until last September.
Aboard The Delilah at the government wharf, Frank is painting the cabin, Barnaby is painting the deck, and Levi is down in the hold. He gets back unusually early from lunch, so when they eventually arrive they don’t realize he is there. Levi can’t quite hear them, but he can tell that Barnaby and Frank are in a serious discussion. He catches Barnaby saying something that sounds like, “Levi will go off hes head.” He hops on the ladder and up out of the hold.
“Whats going on bys?” Levi says.
“None of your business,” Frank says. “The skipper and the owner is talking here. Go back to what you was at.”
“What I was at was listening to the two of you arguing about me.”
Barnaby looks at Frank pleadingly and Frank shoots back a glare so fierce that Barnaby turns back to his work. Now Levi has to know.
“Whats going on bys?” he repeats in a weak voice, and suddenly feels heaviness in his stomach. Frank turns away as well. Levi snatches up Barnaby’s half bucket of paint and walks towards Frank.
“Im going to ask you one more time, Frank, and if you dont tell me, the works of this is going down over your head.”
“If you throws that over me youll be swimming before this day is over.”
“So will you.”
“Calm down, Levi.”
Now Levi knows it is serious. When Frank doesn’t escalate the aggression it means he is guilty of something.
“What the fuck was the two of you talking about!” Levi says, turning back towards Barnaby.
“Put down the paint like someone half sensible and Ill tell you,” Frank says.
Levi puts down the paint.
“Me and Barnaby cut your percentage.”
Levi laughs. “Try it.”
“There is no trying. The cheque is already cut. Youre getting twenty percent.”
“I dare say by. Youre going to cut me down five percent? Try it.”
“I just told you its already done. If you dont want to do the goddamn work why do you think you should get the same percentage you always gets?”
“What is you talking about?” Levi says. Then he remembers. The mackerel. Last season, for the first time since they had been fishing, Levi refused to go after mackerel. Only once in twenty years could he remember that they made any kind of a decent profit at it, and that was seven years ago. For the fuel spent and the hours put in, most times they barely break even. And it wasn’t like they were the only ones. No one in Bay Vierge made a worthwhile profit fishing for mackerel. Of the species they were allowed to ca
tch it was the only one that was a waste of time. So last year Levi decided to put his foot down, thinking that for once when Frank truly saw that he wasn’t going to help, that he would not go out. Levi should have known better, even though he had been right. It had been the worst year in an endless string of bad years harvesting that species.
“So thats how youre trying to get revenge on me, by cutting me percentage down. The funny thing is its not even your boat.”
“Its my license.”
“So what have you got to say, Barnaby?” Levi says.
“Well, you didnt go at the mackerel with us. Its true.”
“How much did the two of you make at it?”
“That got nothing to do with it,” Frank says.
“Im talking to Barnaby. Not you. How much did you make?”
“We did alright,” Barnaby says.
“By the time you took out the fuel spent and the time wasted you made sweet fuck all. Thats what you made.”
“No, I thought we did alright.”
“Sure what difference do it make if youre doing alright, Barnaby? Youre only going to throw it all away in the fuckin slot machines. A ten-year-old can handle money better than you.”
Those words are followed by embarrassed silence. Even Frank looks away. Levi is ashamed for saying it to his favourite brother, because it is the truth. So he turns his own shame into even stronger anger at Frank.
“Look,” he says to Frank, “I knows you was behind this. So when I gets that cheque you better have it right. Ill put this goddamn boat on the bottom if you dont.”
When Levi gets the cheque it isn’t right, and he becomes so angry that he really does consider burning the boat at the wharf. Instead he brings the cheque to the boat where Frank and Barnaby are working and tears it up in front of them, letting the pieces of paper flutter down onto the water. Cutting his percentage down five percent means thousands of dollars lost. It is unthinkable that his brothers would do this to him. One percent would have been intolerable. He truly believes that Frank is teaching him a lesson, and that eventually he will give in and have Barnaby write the cheque how it is supposed to be written.
But it is no lesson. The next week the same cheque arrives in the mail with the same twenty percent on it. Again Levi flies into a rage and drives down to the wharf where his brothers are working. He balls up the cheque in front of Frank and throws it at him as he jumps into the boat.
“If the two of you dont give me the right percentage youll be missing one crew member on this boat,” Levi says through clenched teeth. “Do you actually think Im ever going to go along with this?”
When he reads his brothers’ faces the truth dawns on Levi, not that he yet believes it. Do they want him to quit?
He expects Frank to reply, but instead it is Barnaby who says, “Levi, thats the percentage I decided on, and thats all there is to it. Take it or leave it.”
Levi stares at Barnaby in shock. Of all the times his brother had been picked on by the neighborhood kids growing up. Of all the times Frank had bullied Barnaby into going along with his decisions. Of all the times Barnaby had kept his mouth shut while his wife, or his kids, or his friends took advantage of his soft-heartedness, now is the time that he decides to be brave?
Levi turns and shoves Barnaby backwards. He trips over the side and falls into the water. But Barnaby can’t swim. Levi dives in after him and his brother clings to him dragging both of them under, as Levi tries to get them both back to the wharf. Frank throws two life jackets at them, and only for this it is quite possible that they would have drowned mere feet from the ladder. The water is so cold that when they do get to the ladder they barely have the strength to climb up.
“You knows Barnaby cant swim!” Frank says.
“I didnt mean to push him overboard,” Levi says, but he isn’t sure if that is true.
“Im glad you will quit if youre going to be at the likes of that,” Frank says, but Levi knows it is another excuse. They want him to quit.
Before Anita had a chance to pull out of the driveway Levi was at the driver-side door telling her to shift over. He had decided to go to Gander after all. He needed to talk.
“Jesus, Levi, you never even changed out of your work clothes.”
“I didnt know we was going to a wedding.”
“Oh wear what you wants. I dont care,” she said, and lit a cigarette.
They drove for a half hour in silence before Levi spoke.
“Ive been ever since trying to convince myself that they whudnt trying to get me to quit, but I cant come to any other conclusion. I asked Mom what she thought and of course she said Barnaby wouldnt do that. Not her little Barnaby.”
Levi expected his wife to enforce his words but instead she was silent. It was a conversation they already had dozens of times since he quit. They scrutinized every facet of Frank’s and Barnaby’s personalities, wondering what side of the family Barnaby got his cowardliness from, or which parent Frank took after for his greed and bossiness. Analyzing family, friends and enemies had always been one of their favourite pastimes, a ritual they used to do over tea in the evening, or while lying in each other’s arms at night. That was until Anita bought a laptop. Their daughter Sinead had owned one first, and eventually taught her mother how to use it before she went to college. It was the chat lines that had caught Anita’s attention. Now it seemed like the only time he saw his wife was in the truck, or for supper, if he was lucky. Sometimes she didn’t come to bed until three in the morning, even if she had to get up to go to work at six am. The truck was the only place they seemed to have long conversations any more. Now even that was ending.
Bills
Charges totalling seven thousand five hundred and seventy three dollars and twenty one cents was owing on Levi’s MasterCard bill.
“They got something wrong here,” Levi said, slapping the bill on the table.
“Its no mistake,” Anita replied. “Ive been telling you about it for months. That eighteen percent interest rate aint helping. I told you about racking up the card with all the lumber youre after buying.”
“I thought Id still have a job instead of getting screwed over by me own family.”
“Do you have to be sending away for them expensive kinds of lumber? The shipping alone costs a fortune. I wouldnt mind if you was making a lot of money off the chairs.”
“I will when I starts up me own business at it.”
“Go on Levi, youve been saying that for years.”
“Maybe if you showed me some support I would.”
“Support! Sure I went out and bought the business plan software that time. Paid over a hundred dollars for it. We were both going to sit down and figure it all out. And you never did. If you whudnt fishing you was out in the shed.”
“I was making the chairs. I figured you was going to do the business plan seeing as youre face and eyes in the computer all the time. Sure them computers does all the work anyway. Thats what theyre for.”
“You got to take part in it, you fool. It was going to be your business after all. The computer only sets up the categories. It speeds up the process but you still got to do the research.”
“Forget about all that. The problem now is this seven thousand dollar bill we got here.”
She shrugged and went into their bedroom.
“Going in on the computer,” Levi said. “Here we is with a bill we dont have a clue where to get the money, and youre going on the computer. I hope youre going in there to find a way to pay this bill. If we dont Ill be cutting off that internet pretty soon.”
“Try it.”
“You think wer going to be paying luxury bills like that when we got a seven thousand dollar one here staring us in the face?”
“Whatever,” she said coldly, “its your bill,” and headed into their bedroom.
Levi stomped in the room behind her. “My bill? I thought we was married?”
She placed the laptop on her legs and adjusted the three pillows behind her hea
d on the bed. “Im sick of having to deal with your fuck-ups. You can solve this one. ”
“I cant believe what youre getting on with! This bill is our problem, not mine. You didnt put any groceries on the MasterCard?”
“No, as a matter of fact I didnt. I only uses the debit card. The only time I uses the credit card is for emergencies.”
“Speaking of emergencies,” Levi said, and went out to the kitchen and began searching for his last Employment Insurance pay stub. He pulled out each drawer next to the sink, and eyed the top of the fridge. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, cursing. He did not want to ask Anita where it was, but the more he searched the more frustrated he became, and the more frustrated he became the more he wanted her help. Instead of giving in, however, he went to the living room and flopped down on the couch.
“Its up in the cupboard under the pill basket,” she shouted from their bedroom.
Levi stared up the hallway, then got up and crept to the cupboard. “I already found it,” he shouted back, carefully opening the cupboard and gently lifting the pill basket. There it was. He tore off the useless end of the report and threw it in the garbage.
Every month Employment Insurance sent him this Report Card. He could fill it out and pop it back in the mail or phone it in.
As a fisherman his E.I. was seasonal and only lasted twenty-six weeks, whereas regular E.I. lasted almost a full year. His life would be a lot easier if his Employment Insurance lasted that long.
His daughter, Sinead, was a safety advisor in Alberta, and she was clearing five thousand a month, along with a free flight to Newfoundland every twenty days for an eight-day break. Barnaby’s son Ronny was a pipefitter on a site an hour north of where Sinead worked, clearing almost a third more than she was. Levi could work for twelve hours a day for a year or so and get his inevitable layoff when whatever project he was on slowed down, then come back home and relax for a few months. Not that his nephew did that. No, Ronny had too many toys, and with each toy came a big hand that reached into his bank account every month and took whatever it was owed. Ronny’s brother, Bobby was working out there as well, as a labourer. Every time one brother bought a truck or some such thing the other brother would have to get one just a little bigger. The problem was that a labourer didn’t make the money a pipefitter did, so Bobby was quickly driving himself so far in debt trying to keep up with his brother that bankruptcy would soon be his only option.