Free Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens Page A

watching the river swallow Big Zach Heron. Remy remembered an overcoat in his automobile and went to retrieve it. He put the coat around his young friend’s shoulders and gave him a roll of ten-dollar bills and the name and address of an American man who would help. He saw him to the rowboat and embraced Chester before he set down in it. Remy said he would take care of things, though neither was sure then what he meant.
    Chester knew he was leaving Remillard and Rusholme and Addy Shadd and even his country forever. His heart rose to his throat as he pushed away from the dock. He heard, or thought he heard, his name, whispered like a curse from the river’s edge. Chester turned to look but Remillard was gone, and though he knew it wasn’t possiblethat L’il Leam was alive, he wished it was him cursing from the bulrushes and not just the wind bemoaning his fate. He drove his oar through the water, his face hard as he set out toward the near shore of a new country and an uncertain future.

 
    Mum

    THE SUN PEERED IN from behind the white eyelet curtain and kissed the little girl sleeping on the trailer floor. Sharla wasn’t afraid. She knew where she was because the first things she saw when she opened her eyes were the salt’n’pepper shakers way up on the shelf above. She turned her palms over to feel the cool of the floor and recalled falling last night and Addy Shadd’s good face and Ivory soap smell. It was the softest pillow Sharla’s head had ever been laid on, but she still felt a headache between her eyes. She reached up, found the goose egg on the back of her head, and tried to push it back where it came from but that hurt too much so she stopped.
    The trailer floor had the look of creamy grey marble, same as in the busy place where Collette took her to try to get their telephone back. Sharla put her cheek on the sun square part of the floor and watched a line of teeny ants coming toward her from a spot under the sink. She thought how the ants looked like babies and wondered where was the Mum that should be leading them.
    The sound of Sharla’s crusty breathing made a concertwith the morning dove outside Addy Shadd’s trailer. Sharla used her feet to turn herself around on her back so she could see down the skinny hallway. The bedroom door was closed, but Sharla wanted to go see what Addy Shadd looked like in her bed. Then all of the sudden she got a squeeze in her gut because she remembered she was in trouble for two things: she broke the china salt’n’pepper shakers and never brought the envelope with money.
    Sharla sat up, fingering the soft blue plaid blanket, rubbing it against her cheek awhile before she felt ready to stand. She pulled herself up and looked at the butt-filled ashtray on the little kitchen table. She blew a short gust at the ashtray and watched the white and grey ashes scatter like snowflakes. She wiped the ashes off the table, then sniffed the cigarette smell on her hand.
    There were three kitchen cupboards but none could be reached without a chair. Sharla was hungry so she dragged a chair over to the cupboards and climbed up, losing a heartbeat when she nearly tipped and fell. The cupboard door made a sceerauk sound and it was all just pots and dishes inside. Sharla was mad at that and because she couldn’t reach the next door without getting down and moving the chair again.
    The next cupboard had bags of flour and sugar and cornmeal and a loaf of bread that was not soft and white but hard and black and something Sharla’d never seen before. On the bottom shelf was a large tin her pudgy fingers struggled to open. Inside the tin was a package ofcookies, chocolate-covered coconut logs. Sharla’s favourite. She lifted the Cellophane, careful not to let it crinkle. She stuffed two cookies into her mouth, and the taste of the chocolate and coconut made her feel smooth and right. She put two cookies in one pocket of her shorts and