Free The Badger Riot by J.A. Ricketts

Christian home.
    Suze told Albert to ask the pastor to get one of the young men from the Youth Group to stand for Tom. She was pleased when he did. That meant there would be one less Catholic in her house. Tom didn’t care. His mind was focused entirely on Jennie.
    It was 1948. The pastor married them in Suze’s living room.Even though it was summer and they were indoors, Suze still draped the ugly fox stole over her shoulders as her son and his Catholic girl said their vows. There were only Jennie and Tom, Suze and Mr. Albert, Mam and Pap, and Jennie’s sister Philomena. The boy from the Youth Group, who was only fifteen, was shy and uncomfortable. As soon as the ceremony was ended he mumbled goodbye and was out the door before anyone could stop him. Mam and Pap stood strong together, but their eyes were red and watery all the way through.
My God in Heaven,
Jennie thought afterward.
It wasn’t that bad! You’d think I was marrying a criminal instead of nice quiet Tom.
    The women from Suze’s church, at the request of the pastor, had produced tea and sandwiches and a small wedding cake. Bridey wanted to make Jennie’s wedding cake herself, but Tom told Jennie that his mother wanted no wedding cake in her house that had been made with rum in it.
    There was no gaiety. Suze’s disapproving face and turned-down mouth put a stop to any attempt anyone might have made for a laugh or a joke. No one drank a drop because of the religion issue. No one danced, for the same reason. At one point during the long evening, Jennie thought of what fun it would be if Ralph were here with his fiddle. But there was no use thinking about that; Suze despised the Mi’kmaq people as much as she did the Catholics. Besides, the Mi’kmaq were both Indian and Catholic. According to Tom, his mother allowed that the Drum family was damned for all eternity.

    When Ralph heard that Jennie and Tom had gotten married, he got into his canoe and paddled for miles up the Little Red Indian River, to organize his thoughts. He wasn’t sure if it made him happy because Tom was a good man, or if it made him sad because it wasn’t him that Jennie Hillier loved. Ralph’s own future remained uncertain to him. That night, Jennie’s wedding night, he made campon the bank of the Little Red Indian. As he lay back in his sleeping bag having a final smoke before going to sleep, Ralph saw a star shoot swiftly across the sky. He sent a silent wish after it, a wish that Jennie would be happy with Tom.
    And then his thoughts turned to Vern Crawford, who had got himself a woman from Windsor after all, just as he said he would. Her name was Millie and Vern had married her that very same year. Whether he did it to show Jennie or not, Ralph didn’t know. He and Vern weren’t close buddies as they once were.
    Ralph could never have guessed that two years later Vern would have a huge spot of luck, when Millie would inherit five thousand dollars from a rich uncle in the States. Before long, Vern was out of the woods and into a big Chrysler with a lit-up sign on top saying BADGER TAXI .

7
    Millie Crawford was washing up the dishes and trying to ignore her excited husband as he paced about the kitchen. “Millie,” Vern said. “This is my big chance. I’m going to buy a taxi. No more lumberwoods for me, maid. Just thinking about the living conditions in those camps makes me shiver. Men housed in shelters not fit for henhouses, scroachin’ all over with lice, forced to work long hours in all weathers for small pay – I can’t take any more, Millie. I got a chance to get out of it, and I’m going to do it. Yessiree.”
    Millie wasn’t too happy about her husband taking her money like that. She tried not to show it, but this evening she was banging the dishes about a little louder than usual. After all, it was willed to her from her bachelor uncle down in the States. She thought she should get