Read A Walk Through a Window Online
Authors: KC Dyer
A Walk Through a Window (23 page)
Darby stood against a wall with a pinwheel sandwich in one hand. She quickly discovered that if her hands were empty, one of the church ladies would push more food on her, so the sandwich was running interference. Darby didn’t know how all those people could eat so much. It was like they had never seen food before.
She just stood there, feeling a little queasy, until she noticed Shawnie Stevens making her way through the crowd. Darby waved the hand not holding the sandwich.
“Hi, Darby,” Shawnie said quietly. “You remember my husband, Michael?”
Darby nodded at him.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” he said, in his soft voice. “I’ll see you at home a bit later, Shawn,” he added, and handed her a small box he had been carrying.
“Is that something for Nan?” Darby asked, wondering how they were going to find room on the table for even more food.
“No, it’s actually something for you,” Shawnie said, and her face flushed. “I’m a bit worried about this,” she continued, her words tumbling out almost as if she was embarrassed. “When I heard what had happened, I just
wanted to do something for you that might help, so I hope you’re not upset with your nan and me.”
Darby was totally baffled. How could she possibly be upset with Nan at a time like this?
She took the box from Shawnie and opened it. Inside was a small
inuksuk
, maybe ten inches high, like a miniature version of the one Darby had seen on her very first adventure of the summer.
“It’s for your grandpa,” Shawnie said softly. “To help him find his way on his journey.”
Darby stared at it for a minute before she realized.
“You’ve used my rocks,” she said, hardly believing her eyes.
“Oh, I hope you don’t mind, Darby,” Shawnie said, her voice filled with concern. “When your grandma told me you had been using Michael’s basket for storing your favourite rocks, I thought this might be a special way to remember your grandfather.”
Darby lifted the
inuksuk
out of the box and set it carefully on the table. The base was made of her round, flat piece of red PEI sandstone, and the other rocks were balanced on top. The piece of the Irish hearthstone was there and so was the heart-shaped stone from the Scottish highlands. Sitting on the base beside the
inuksuk
was the piece of soapstone.
“I carved that one a little,” Shawnie said as Darby picked it up. “I really hope you don’t mind.”
It was a tiny green polar bear.
After the reception, they took Gramps’s ashes to be interred at the military section of the Sherwood Cemetery, and then Ernie drove the family back home in his cab. While Darby’s parents were getting settled, she grabbed her skateboard and took it out onto the street. Somehow, though, she didn’t feel like riding, so she propped it on the front porch and walked up to the old blue house.
The air was a little cool, and Darby tucked her knobbly knitted sweater tightly around her arms. Summer was almost over. In a day or two, she and her family were due to fly home to Toronto.
Of course, there was no sign of Gabe. Darby didn’t expect to see him. Not really. A yellow piece of paper fluttered in the wind where it was stuck up near the front door. She ignored it and walked around the side of the house. One section of the back wall had caved in over the past few days—she wondered how she’d missed seeing it. Darby just stood there, staring at the house, thinking about all that had happened over one short summer.
Maybe there
was
no Gabe. That’s what the rational part of her mind said. Maybe he was simply a figment of her over-active imagination.
“You’d better close that mouth of yours. You’ll catch flies.” She jumped a little, but it wasn’t Gabe showing up to prove her wrong—or crazy.
Instead, it was Nan who smiled as she walked up. “I thought you might want this,” she said, and held out the skateboard.
“Wow, thanks, Nan,” Darby said. “You didn’t need to carry that all the way over here for me.”
“I know I didn’t. But I wanted to talk with you for just a moment or two.” She glanced up at the house. “Did you see the building permit out front?”
“The yellow paper?”
Nan nodded. “I was thinking about your friend who was staying here.” She turned a steady gaze to the hole in the back of the house. “I guess he’s not here anymore?”
Darby shook her head. “I guess not. I never really got to say goodbye, either.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “But I was remembering the people who lived here when I was a young girl. They were an Acadian family. I think they eventually moved on to Tignish, or maybe somewhere in Nova Scotia.”
“Acadian?” I said. “Really?”
“Yes. They were the ones who painted the house this colour blue. I think it was sort of a cream colour before, but I can’t really recall.”
Darby thought about Gabe’s accent, with its trace of French, but she couldn’t think of anything she could say that Nan might understand.
They walked around to the front and out through the rusty iron gate.
Nan looked critically at the house. “It’s time they fixed this old place up. Fiona tells me the people who bought it come from New Orleans. Perhaps they want to build a lovely safe home here after that last dreadful hurricane.”
“Maybe.” Darby dropped her skateboard on the road. “Want a try, Nan?” she joked.
Nan didn’t look as horrified as Darby thought she would. “Perhaps next time, dear,” she said mildly. “I do
hope you didn’t mind that I gave Shawnie your rock collection.”
The rock collection—the one piece of solid evidence that this whole crazy summer might not just have come from her imagination.
Darby smiled at her. “It’s okay, Nan. It’s better than okay. Did you see the cool
inuksuk
she made me? Way better than some old pile of rocks. It’s beautiful.”
She coasted slowly beside her grandmother back along Forsyth Street.
“Well, thank goodness for that. Perhaps you can make a new collection when you come back to visit me next year?” Her voice sounded so hopeful.
Darby thought about it for a minute. “Not a bad idea, Nan,” she said, with a grin. “I’ll probably be ready for a little peace and quiet by next summer. And maybe I’ll even get a chance to give Fiona’s PlayStation another try.”
Nan laughed. “There may be more friends to play with on the street if the new owners have moved in by then. The Island is changing so quickly these days.”
“I’m with you, Nan. I like things the way they are.” They stopped to look back at the old blue house as the last rays of sun lit up the gingerbread trim in a brilliant golden glow.
The sun must have been playing tricks with Darby’s eyes, because for one instant, she was sure she saw a hand, waving cheerily from one of the high gabled windows at the front of the house.
Darby’s bags were all packed, and the flashy silver convertible that her father had rented was running in front of the house. No “Taxi by Ernie” ride to the airport, after all. They were all set to take off, but Darby felt a pang of loss surge through her as she hugged Nan goodbye. She held on extra tight for a minute and then kissed Nan’s cheek.
“See you next summer, girlie,” Nan said.
She turned away to hug Darby’s parents, and Darby fiddled with her MP3 player to give herself something else to think about besides going away.
As he helped Darby’s mother to get the seatbelt adjusted, her dad leaned across the seat and tugged on the earphone cord. “What do you think, Darby?” he asked, smiling a little. “Would you rather have a brother or a sister?”
“I don’t care,” Darby said. “But since I’m the only sister the thing will ever have, I think I should get to pick the name. What do you think about Gabriel? That would do for a boy
or
a girl, don’tcha think?”
Everyone muttered approvingly, and Darby looked up the street at the blue house with the gingerbread trim and mentally dusted off her hands.
There you go, Gabe
, she thought.
My job here is done
.
She stared at the sunlight dappling the trees along the street, and thought about all the attention the new baby was getting. What about Gramps? They’d just said goodbye to him. Wasn’t he more important than some baby who wasn’t even going to show its face for two more months?
But maybe Gramps wouldn’t have minded so much. The new baby gave everybody something to look forward to, including Nan. Darby’s dad finally got in the car and they all waved a last goodbye and headed up Granville Street to the highway that led to the Confederation Bridge.
“You know, Darby,” said her dad. “I’m so happy you agreed with our decision to drive home to Toronto. You still have a couple of weeks before you head back to school, and,” he patted her mother’s knee, “your mother and I have been talking.”
Darby rolled her eyes. All their talking was why she was trying to listen to her music. She sighed and pulled out one earphone.
“We’ve agreed that it’s all very well to visit your relatives,” her dad continued in his I-mean-business voice. “But why take an airplane when you have the opportunity to see your country first-hand?” He smiled at his daughter in the rearview mirror. “We’ve decided it really is about time you got off that skateboard and learned a little bit of the geography and history of your country, don’t you think?”
Darby pulled the tiny green polar bear Shawnie had carved out of the pocket of her shorts and rubbed the soft stone under her thumb.
Yeah, Dad. Whatever you say
.
Abegweit First Nation
A First Nations Band in PEI, and also the one of the earliest names given to the Island itself.
Acadian / Acadien
Name of a group of settlers, originally from France, who lived in the Maritime provinces, particularly the area now known as Nova Scotia. The Acadian Expulsion by the British (1755–63) meant that people of Acadian descent were forced to move far away from their Maritime home.
Atikuat
Innu word for caribou.
Atlée
Tlingit word for “Mother.”
Bairn
“Baby” in Gaelic dialect.
Behemoth
A gargantuan object or thing of great power; in this case a printing press being carted across an ocean.
Beothuk
Extinct indigenous culture once found on the island of Newfoundland.
Borden
Called Borden-Carlton since 1995, now the site of the Confederation Bridge. Previously the docking area for the ferry to new Brunswick.
“Bog boy” / “Filthy Mick”
Particularly nasty ways of referring to people of Irish heritage. They refer to the peat bogs of Ireland.
Cenotaph
A memorial for people who have died elsewhere—in Canada, these are usually war memorials.
Clout
Not (in this case) a punch, but a baby’s diaper in Gaelic dialect.
Coffin ship
The nickname for ships bringing people to the Americas during times of famine, from the diseases that ran rampant through the starving passengers—typhus, cholera and smallpox among them.
The Colonies / The British Colonies
The area (now primarily known as Canada) ceded to Britain in the years after the battle for Quebec, won by the British forces, on the Plains of Abraham in 1759.
Confederation
The term given to the forming of the Canadian nation in 1867. The agreement for Confederation was signed in Charlottetown the year before.
Confederation Bridge / The Fixed Link
The bridge, nearly 13km long, spanning Northumberland Strait between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
Cur
A dog of indeterminate breeding. “Thievin’ cur” generally refers to a human being accused of stealing, though some dogs with the innate ability to counter cruise would also qualify.
Da
“Dad” in Irish dialect.
Danforth
A major street in Toronto’s east end, known for excellence in ethnic cuisines, particularly Greek.
Dual trucks
Skateboard wheels, often placed closely together to aid in turning stability on downhill runs.
The
Elizabeth
A fictional ship modeled on the coffin ships plying the Atlantic Ocean during the Irish Potato Famine.
“From away”
A reference to anyone not born on Prince Edward Island by native-born Islanders.
Flintlock musket
A fairly large-bore firearm that used a flint to ignite black powder and fire shot.
Grosse-Île
Also known as Grosse Isle, it was an unpopulated island in the St. Lawrence River below Quebec City, and was established as a quarantine station to prevent a cholera epidemic in the British colonies. It was used in the same manner during the Irish Potato Famine to prevent the spread of typhus and smallpox.
The Guardian
Charlottetown’s Daily Newspaper.
Hearth
The base of a fireplace, where the fire is laid upon the hearthstone.
Inuit / Innu
Inuit is the name given to the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, including Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia. Many of the words used in this story for Darby’s trip into pre-history are taken from Inuit (Inuktitut) or from the Innu culture. The Innu encompass the indigenous peoples of the North-east Arctic in Quebec and Labrador. The Tlingit language of the Northwestern Arctic is also represented.
Inuksuk / Inuksuit
A pile of rocks used as a landmark or a food cache in the North. (Not to be confused with an Innunguaq, which is a cairn of rocks in roughly human form.)
Irish Potato Famine
A great famine in Ireland that began around 1845 and killed more than a million before it was over. It resulted from potato blight, which caused the crop to quickly rot in the ground or in storage. Ireland’s absentee farmers fed the mostly poor workforce primarily on potatoes, saving other crops for export and the wealthy. Other potato famines have occurred since, including one in Scotland, but this famine changed the sociological and economic face of Ireland, as many of its people were forced to flee or die.
Kodiak
The name of a type of grizzly bear found in the North, particularly in the Kodiak archepelago in Alaska. The largest bear recorded as killed in the North was a Kodiak with a total skull size of 78.1 cm.
Korean War / Korean Conflict
A war principally between North and South Korea from 1950–53. Other countries, including Canada, were also involved. American and Soviet involvement in the region helped foster a lead-up to the Cold War.
Lummox
An insulting name implying a clumsy, awkward or stupid person.
MicMac / Mi’kmaq
First nation from the Maritime region. (Not to be confused with “Mick,” which actually refers in a very nasty way to someone’s Irish heritage.)
Mirkwood
A dense, scary forest from the stories of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Mushum
Northern Inuit word for Grandfather.
Nanuq
Polar bear in Inuktitut.
Northumberland Strait
The part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence that separates Prince Edward Island from the mainland.
Nukum
Innu and Northern Cree word for grandma.
Ollie
A skateboard manoeuvre in which the boarder jumps, propelling both herself and the board into the air.
Pádraig
The Irish form of the name Patrick.
Passenger manifest
The list of passengers on board a vessel.
Pestilential
Skinny, as if infested with illness or insects, or both.
Petroglyphs
Images carved into rock, often associated with prehistoric peoples.
Potato Famine
See Irish Potato Famine.
Province House
The Provincial Legislature in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada’s second-oldest seat of government.
Qallupilluq
Spirit who lives beneath the ice, in the north. (Quallupilluit refers to three or more spirit.)
Radiant algae
Aquatic plants that are bioluminescent (give off a glowing green light). Dinoflagellates (marine plankton) are also bioluminescent.
Rankin Inlet
An Inuit hamlet located on the shore of Hudson Bay in Nunuvet.
Sandstone
Sedimentary rock composed of highly compressed sand. Principal type of rock found on Prince Edward Island, with a rusty red colour due to the oxidized iron content.
Sháach’i (Sha’achi)
A diminutive of Asx’aan Sha’achi, the Tlingit word for sparrow.
Sligo
A port town on the west coast of Ireland.
Soapstone
Metamorphic rock, with a high content of talc that renders the surface very soft. A common medium for carving by indigenous northern artists.
Smallpox / The pox
Highly infectious virus, often fatal if untreated.
St. Lawrence River
The waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the first of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario.
Tuberculosis
A disease of the lungs, also known as consumption, fatal if untreated.
Typhus / Typhoid Fever
Infectious, often fatal disease, spread through close contact and unclean water.
Wretch
A particularly sad or pitiable individual.