Part 37 (2/2)
Jeanne slapped her gla.s.s of wine on the coffee table. ”This is insane.” She started up the stairs. ”I've told you people I won't do it. And I won't do it!”
The door slammed at the top of the stairs and Madison eased herself up. If she hadn't been pregnant and somewhat queasy from the mulling of wine, she might have chased Jeanne. She might have begged or enlisted her father to squeak out a few tears.
She drew a gla.s.s of cold water and peeled a banana. Through every one of her windows, all she could see were feet and legs. Hiking and snow boots. Madison finished her banana and started upstairs to find her father. Outside her door, bodies flowed down the icy concrete walking pad toward the street. Madison stood behind her door, unable to open it.
Finally, as the crowd thinned, she snuck outside. There was Jeanne, on her front porch, surrounded by people, opening the door. Jeanne turned and saw Madison over the sea of heads and she paused. On the verge of a smile, Jeanne turned the key and walked inside. The people followed.
A teenage girl, in a knit toque and puffy down jacket, started past Madison. As she did, the girl opened the lid on her white wooden music box. A tiny ballerina spun to The Blue Danube Waltz.
90.
mythic furniture Rajinder piloted the rented moving truck into a strip mall on Gateway Boulevard. It was an unusually warm December day, with a sweet-smelling wind blowing in from the distant western hills, so Jonas had the window open in the pa.s.senger seat. High in the cab of the truck, which came with a CB labelled ”Don't Touch,” Jonas pretended his can of root beer wasn't diet. He pretended he cussed regularly and had trouble with his little lady back home. Darlene.
When Rajinder pulled the key out of the ignition, Jonas hopped out and pretended he was pot-bellied and bowlegged. He cussed quietly about Darlene, who never did the d.a.m.n dishes.
”Did you hurt yourself?” Rajinder stopped at the entrance to Shangri-La Exotic Home Decor. ”And who are you speaking with?”
Jonas walked normally. ”It's a political exercise I've invented. Over the course of the election campaign, I want to inhabit the voters.”
”What does that mean?”
”I've never been a handyman, a mover, a roofer, a digger, a roughneck. I've never been a secretary or an accountant or a housewife. But I have to appeal to all of them.”
Rajinder did not seem to know how to respond. He opened the door to Shangri-La and allowed Jonas to lead him to the bookshelves and cabinets. To fully express Edmonton's diversity, they wanted to display the small objects of mythic power on furnis.h.i.+ngs from around the world. Nordic, yes, but African and Indonesian, too.
This was their fourth trip in the rented moving truck in as many days, as 10 Garneau was to be completed by the weekend. Rajinder and Jonas had moved the Perlitz belongings into storage. Then they had bought lumber, paint, and other building supplies for the volunteer carpenters and designers. Now, Rajinder and Jonas were driving all over the city to buy tables, counters, shelves, and hanging baskets.
The owner of Shangri-La offered them tea, coffee, or hot chocolate while they browsed. But they didn't have time to browse. Jonas chose two cabinets and Rajinder picked two matching bookshelves. They parked at the back of the strip mall and stuffed new items in with other shelves, tables, 1930s stereo boxes, and extended gla.s.s display cases.
Back in the van, Rajinder reached out and squeezed Jonas's arm. ”Are you Jonas or are you inhabiting a garbage man or somesuch? At this moment?”
”At this moment, Jonas.”
”Good. Now, since you are Madison's best friend, this may feel like an imposition or a betrayal of her trust. But please. Tell me. How does she feel about traditions like marriage?”
Rajinder turned out on to the street. Jonas leaned into the pa.s.senger door and smiled. ”You're blus.h.i.+ng, Raj.”
”No, I am not.”
”You are.”
”Remember, I am brown. If I were to blush, it would be invisible to the eyes of a white man. Please, do me the favour of answering the question without drawing undue attention to it.”
Jonas crossed his legs and said, ”Hmm.” It pleased him to torture Rajinder. ”Let me see now. Madison, Madison. Marriage, marriage. I know she wanted me to get married after the bill pa.s.sed in the summer, but of course I had no one to marry. Still don't. Never will, most likely. It's hard for someone like me because I'm picky. I don't want to be with a funboy or a h.o.m.ophobe or a German. I can't explain why, but I have an aversion to Germans. And the town of Blackfalds. It's not a word I like to say: Blackfalds. Now Granum, however, is another thing altogether. I like saying Granum. Say it with me, Raj: Granum.”
”No. Answer my question.”
”Granum, Raj.”
”We have a saying in Punjabi: thusi kalay kuthay kahn.”
”No. Granum.”
”Here you go then: Granum. Please enjoy it.”
The sun broke through the clouds and reflected off puddles, concrete, cars and trucks, old hotels, discarded Tim Hortons cups. Both men gasped and reached for sungla.s.ses. ”Madison is all for marriage. If the right person asked, she would even convert to Sikhism.”
Rajinder smiled. Driving north on 109th Street, past the big church on the right, he shook his head. ”That would be unnecessary.”
”How are you feeling, Raj, about the pregnant thing? She's getting huge. Every time I see her now, all I can think is, Wow. Girl, you definitely had s.e.x.”
”The physicality of it is extraordinary. I cannot imagine going through this myself. Men are so very lucky. Our burdens are light.”
”Unless you're born fruity.”
”Indeed, fruitiness is a heavy thing to carry.”
Rajinder pulled into the Garneau Block and, to Jonas's delight, backed on to the sidewalk in front of the Perlitz house. ”Beep, beep, beep,” said Jonas, in time with the truck. Workers stripping the vinyl siding from the house and donors standing in line with small objects of mythic power parted to make room.
”h.e.l.lo, good-looking people,” said Jonas, to the crowd in front of 10 Garneau.
The good-looking people greeted him. A small group of men hurried across the yard to help carry the furniture inside. Jonas didn't want to lift another heavy item as he had to go door-to-door in the morning with his new red pamphlets. A strained lower back would make him one grumpy Liberal.
Instead of lifting half a table or a bookshelf, Jonas jumped inside the back of the truck and pretended to be a manager. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at his watch, said, ”G.o.d d.a.m.n it,” and made disdainful remarks about the volunteers. To the bald man who prepared to lift one of the Shangri-La cabinets with Rajinder, he said, ”Come on, come on. I'm not paying you to pick your nose here.”
The man opened his mouth in apparent horror. ”Pick my...pardon?”
”Please ignore him,” said Rajinder. ”He is pretending to be a nuisance.”
”Oh.”
Jonas followed Rajinder down the ramp. ”So are you gonna ask Madison toyou knowhave a monsoon wedding?”
”Go get a table.”
”Well, answer this. Do you know how to build IKEA things?”
Rajinder opened his nostrils.
”It looks easy, Raj, but it's really hard.”
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