Free Defective by Sharon Boddy Page B

produce cart at
the end of the day. Rank explained the situation.
    "Nowhere else to
put her, so you'll be bunking with her. No funny business."
    They ate then Rank
went to bed. If she was trouble, Rank thought, Hap would have to
deal with it first.
    Hap's bed was in a
dark corner of the cellar across the floor from where the woman sat
on the upturned bucket, her chin in her hands. He nodded to her.
She lifted her face and nodded back. An image of a brown-haired,
fox-faced woman came to his mind. He looked back at her.
    "Can I help
you?"
    Even her voice
sounded familiar. He reddened and turned away, back into the
shadows.
    "No. I think you
remind me of someone."
    "Think? You don't
know?" There was a sing-song quality to her voice.
    Hap wanted to
talk. It was so frustrating not having anyone to confide in. He
occasionally had moments where pieces came back to him but the
images were jumbled and didn't make any sense. The image of the
fox-faced woman, however, was different. More solid. Real.
    "You remind me of
someone."
    "Who?"
    Hap said nothing
for a moment. He sat down on his bed.
    "Why are you
here?" he asked her.
    "Ah. Changing the
subject. Okay, Hap."
    "How do you know
my name?" Hap's heart beat faster.
    "Rank. Overheard
him talking at the station."
    Hap relaxed.
    "Anyway, a change
of scene."
    "What?"
    "Why I'm here. I
wanted a change of scene."
    "But you're going
to be sold!"
    She shrugged.
    "What about you
Hap? What's your story?"
    I don't have a
story, he thought. To the woman he said, "I'd best get to sleep.
Goodnight."
    "Goodnight,
Hap."
    "What’s your
name?"
    "Ask me
tomorrow."
    Hap opened his
mouth but quickly shut it. He rolled towards the wall and tried to
sleep.
    When Hap awoke in
the morning the woman was asleep, lying on the floor of the storage
locker and turned against the wall with the blanket over her head.
Rank told Hap about the plan for the auction as they’d jogged
through the rain to the depot to collect the day’s vegetables.
    "Nothin’ can go
wrong, see? Got an important client coming tomorrow. The Landlord
of Battery. Go check on the men at the station in the morning and
get them cleaned up as best you can. That woman given you any
trouble?"
    Hap shook his
head.
    "Well, I can’t
take any chances. Once you’ve cleaned up the men the officer will
bring ‘em to the docks. Then start packing today’s loads in the
front room so’s you can watch for the flag to go up."
    Here Rank stopped
at the top of the road and turned around. The road was steep and
below it were the harbour and the pier. Rank pointed to his
left.
    "See that
flagpole?"
    Hap nodded.
    "When you see the
green flag go up, you come running, see?"
    "Okay. ...
Battery," he said. "Is that north?"
    Rank shook his
head. "West."
    It was still
raining when Hap finally returned from his last load of the day,
too tired from pushing the cart through the muck-filled streets to
eat supper but eager to see if the woman was awake. Rank had
already gone to bed. Hap went down to the cellar but near the
bottom of the steps he could see that she was, as she had that
morning, turned to the wall with the blanket over her head. He
sighed. Maybe he’d have a chance tomorrow morning before the
auction. Maybe he'd waited too long.
    Hap took off his
wet clothes and was about to crawl into bed when he saw something
on his pillow. He lit a candle. It was a photograph, printed on
thick paper, of the fox-faced woman. She was older than in his
memory but it was her. She stood in sunlight wearing a checked
dress and holding the hand of a little girl with copper-coloured
hair. He sat down heavily on his cot and stared at the photo.
    "The little girl
is me," she said.
    "What’s your
name?" Hap asked.
    "Marvellous."
    "That's a great
name," said Hap.
    "The woman in the
photo is my mother. Well, our mother. I wasn't sure at first. She
told me about you. How she'd had to leave you with your father
because she was sick. She got better but then she had me. She died
when