Free Shoulder the Sky by Lesley Choyce Page A

have Viking blood. I may not feel at all at home around Norwegians but I wouldn’t mind living on one of those thousand islands off the coast. When it got dark in the winter for days at a time, I would sit inside with my imagination and be content.
    If you want something to do, sit in a totally dark room and write down what goes through your head. Don’t use paper with lines on it because you won’t be able to see the lines. Your writing will be sloppy and go all over the place, but I think you’ll be able to make sense of it later.
    Leonardo Da Vinci wrote notes in his notebook backwards by looking at his handwriting in a mirror. Some think this was for secrecy, but that sounds lame. Probably, it was more a matter of trying to make his brain work in different ways. Leonardo Da Vinci, they say, was curious about everything. He was curious aboutwater bugs and stars, but he also invented new styles of clothing and horribly effective instruments of war. He designed a really evil-looking military tank with sharp spikes sticking out on all sides to pierce anybody who came close. Inside the tank were horses that moved it along. It was a long time ago.
    Curiosity invented the nuclear bomb. It’s hard to come to a conclusion about whether curiosity is a good thing or bad thing for a human being. It probably all depends on what kind of human being you are.
    Emerso

    Lilly announced she was breaking up with Jake. This was an oft-repeated performance.
    â€œCongratulations. He’s a weasel.”
    â€œShut up. You don’t know anything.”
    â€œLilly, be nice to your brother. He’s under a lot of stress.” It was my father, passing through the kitchen on his way to the TV set in the living room.
    â€œDad, I think we should move to Alaska,” Lilly shouted, but he was already out of the room.
    â€œMaybe next week,” he said from a distance.
    â€œI guess Jake was okay,” I conceded. A boldfaced lie.

    â€œJake is irresponsible, inconsiderate, rude, self-centred, stupid, irritating, cruel, and he doesn’t like to take showers.”
    â€œYeah, but I mean aside from that, he was okay.”
    Lilly smiled. I had forgotten what she looked like when she smiled. It was Mom’s smile, but I didn’t say that out loud.
    â€œWant a coffee?” she asked.
    â€œFrench vanilla cappuccino, maybe.”
    So we walked down to Tim Horton’s and she drank two cups of coffee, black. I had my French vanilla cappuccino.
    â€œGuys don’t drink that stuff,” she said. “You’re not turning gay or anything, are you?”
    â€œNot to worry. Besides, isn’t that kind of unfair to assume drinking French vanilla cappuccino is a gay thing for a guy to do?”
    Lilly scrunched up her nose. “You are so analytical. Doesn’t your brain get tired just analyzing stuff all the time?”
    â€œYes.” I stared at the black lipstick marks Lilly had left on the white cup. It made the cup look like it had a moustache.
    â€œSo things were pretty bad with Jake?”
    â€œDon’t make me even think about it.”
    â€œJust thought you might want to talk.”
    â€œJake is past tense.”

    â€œThat’s very grammatical.”
    â€œIt’s not about grammar, ding dong. Let’s not talk about him. Or me. Let’s talk about Martin. How are you?”
    It was like my sister had just arrived back from an extended visit to the evil empire of Jake. I didn’t quite know how to react. “I’m doing okay,” I said. “Dave’s been helping me a lot.”
    â€œYou still do some pretty peculiar stuff.”
    â€œIt’s my age.”
    â€œWhat were you doing digging around in Mom’s old flower bed at eleven o’clock the other night? That was pretty creepy. I thought maybe you had like killed someone, chopped them up into little pieces, and were burying the pieces in the