Episode 59. The Appeal of an Island

After waking up to find her house on fire around her, Big Bertha's cousin Minnie found herself unwilling to go to sleep again inside of anywhere. On the first night of her ensuing drive from California to Big Bertha's home in Nova Scotia, she checked into a motel and checked right out again after lying down and closing her eyes for five seconds. After driving in a panic through the rest of the night, she bought a cheap sleeping bag at a Walmart and thereafter tried to find a stopping place where she could put the bag outside the car. When it rained or when police chased her away, she slept in the car but she did not sleep much, as every few minutes she would wake in a sweat and a panic.

The situation perplexed Bertha till she thought of her boat Noah's Ark and its broad back deck. Then for the time being that became Minnie's bedroom. In the evenings after dinner, Bertha would have her grandson Noah row Minnie out to the Ark, that was moored in the harbour, and in the mornings Noah would retrieve her. The sleeping bag would be wet with the heavy coastal dew, and so they would bring that in too, to dry on the line in the backyard.

On the third evening of this arrangement, Minnie asked Noah if he and his canine companion Sir Barksalot would mind staying on board and keeping her company for a while. Noah asked his grandmother and Bertha rummaged in a closet and came out with another sleeping bag and told him he and Barkie could stay all night if Minnie wanted. So it was that in the evening he was on the Ark with Minnie and his dog, with his grandfather's dinghy tied up alongside.

They sat on folding lawn chairs, side by side, he and Minnie, while Barkie reposed in Noah's lap.

"For a dog named Sir Barksalot, he's very quiet," said Minnie.

"He lost a fight," said Noah. "Lost it pretty bad. They say humans get the stuffing knocked out of them. Barkie got his barks knocked out."

"I sympathize. I got my stuffing knocked out. But you're easy to talk to."

"I'm just a boy. That's why."

"Maybe so. Still, that's a pretty wise thing for a boy to be able to say."

"I don't know."

"Maybe because you're sad. Sad for your dog. They say sadness makes us wise."

"I don't know," said Noah.

"His cap is very cute. I like the little embroidered fishies."

"He lost half an ear in the fight. So it's not to be cute. It's more like a bandage, to keep him from hitting it on stuff. Plus it's his thinking cap. I want him to think about what he did. 'Cause he's smarter than that. He doesn't need to fight. He's got a good home now. He's not a stray anymore."

"I had a good home," said Minnie. "Now I'm a stray again."

Noah's legs were too short for his feet to touch the deck, so in his sudden restlessness he kicked them back and forth. "You shouldn't say stuff like that," he said.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Granddaddy Mac says 'cause it makes you believe it, even though it's not true."

The fog wafted in while they sat, till outside the harbour everything was obscure. They could hear the bell buoy tolling. Inside the harbour the water was calm and reflective. The house on Saul Island sat on a tower of its own reflections.

"Bertie says Saul Island is for sale," said Minnie. "I've been thinking I might buy it and go and live in that house."

"Me and Barkie go out there to play," Noah said, "but I wouldn't want to live there. For a while it's fun. Then it would be very lonely, I think."

"So it would," said Minnie. "So it would. Say, when the stars come out, will you tell me their names?"

"They won't come out tonight," said Noah. "The fog will come on in."

"No stars? Oh. I was hoping for stars."

"The fog is all right. The fog is not so bad."

"You're right. If there were stars, I'd watch them all night. And that would keep you up. Anyway, I like the fog. You can hide in the fog. Right out in the open. And no one can find you. I like that. I don't want to be found. I want to disappear."

"You shouldn't talk like that."

"I know."

"You've got to let your sad wear out. It won't wear out that way."

"Did Mac say that too?"

"Yes ma'am. He did."

"Does it work?"

"It works for me."

"Then I'll try it."

They slept with their sleeping bags pushed together. Noah kept Sir Barksalot in his bag and slept with an arm around him. Minnie would have liked to put an arm around Noah. Instead she curled up slightly so her bag curved around his like a crescent moon. In the morning she told Bertha she would like to change her clothes and sleep inside the house. Bertha made loonie pancakes to celebrate. These were pancakes about the size of the Canadian dollar coin with a loon on one side, and were Noah's favourite, being small like him. They had them with the genuine maple syrup that was too expensive to use all the time, and later Bertha took Minnie shopping for clothes. There was a sofa in the sewing room that pulled out into a bed, and that became Minnie's bed. When she heard the rain against the window later on, she smiled at the good timing that represented and sighed and sleep came to her like a long lost lover and when she woke in the light of the morning with that family of early risers stirring she had been dreaming such a pleasant dream that she didn't mind at all not being able to remember it or even a single thing about it.

20 May 2018
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca