Part 4 (2/2)

”A road still might be better,” said Quoyle imagining coffee roaring out of a spigot and into his cup.

”Well, granted we can't live in the house for a while, maybe two or three months,” said the aunt, ”we can find a place to rent in Killick-Claw where you'll be near your newspaper work until the house is fixed. Let's drive up this afternoon, get a couple of motel rooms and see if we can find a house to rent, line up some carpenters to start on this place. Want a babysitter or a play school for the girls. I've got my own work to do, you know. Locate a work s.p.a.ce, get set up. That wind is coming stronger.” The coals fountained sparks.

”What is your work anyway, Aunt? I'm embarra.s.sed to say I don't know. I mean, I never thought to ask.” Had blundered into the unlikely journey knowing nothing, breathing grief like a sour gas. Hoped for oxygen soon.

”Understandable under the circ.u.mstances,” said the aunt. ”Upholstery.” Showed her yellow, callused fingers. ”I had the tools and fabric crated up and s.h.i.+pped. Should be here next week. You know, we ought to make a list while we're right here of the work to be done on this place. Needs a new roof, chimney repair. Have you got any paper?” She knew he had a boxful.

”Back in the car. I'll go back and get my notebook. Come on, Bunny, sit here. You can keep my place warm.”

”See if you can find those crackers on the front seat. I think Bunny would perk up if she had a cracker.” The child scowled. There's a sweet expression, thought the aunt. Felt the wind hard off the bay. A roll of cloud on the edge of the sea and the black and white waves like a grim tweed.

[50] ”Let's see,” said the aunt. She had thrown new wood on the fire and the flames sprang about under the gusting wind. ”Window gla.s.s, insulation, tear out the walls, new wallboard, a new door, a storm door, repair the chimneys, stovepipe, new waterline from the spring. Can these children abide an outhouse?” Quoyle hated the thought of their small bottoms clapped onto the roaring seat of a two-holer. Nor did he like the idea for his own hairy rump.

”Upstairs floors need to be replaced, the kitchen floor seems sound enough.” In the end Quoyle said it might be cheaper to build a new house somewhere else, the Riviera, maybe. Even with the insurance and what the aunt had, they might not have enough.

”Think we'll manage. But you're right,” she said. ”We probably should clear a driveway from the mystery parking lot to the house. Maybe the province will do something about the road. We'll probably end up paying. Could be expensive. Lot more expensive than a boat.” She stood up, hauled her black coat around and b.u.t.toned it to the neck. ”It's getting mighty cold,” she said. ”Look.” Held out her arm. Chips of snow landed in the loft of wool. ”We better make tracks,” she said. ”This is not a good place to get caught in a snowstorm. Well do I know.”

”In May?” said Quoyle. ”Give me a break, Aunt.”

”Any month of the year, my boy. Weather here beyond anything you know.”

Quoyle looked out. The bay faded, as though he looked through a piece of cheesecloth. Needles of snow in his face.

”I don't believe it,” he said. But it was what he wanted. Storm and peril. Difficult tasks. Exhaustion.

On the way out the wind buffeted the car. Darkness seeped from the overcast, snow grains ticking the winds.h.i.+eld. On the highway there was already a film of snow on the road surface. He turned in at Ig's Store again.

”Getting some coffee,” he said to the aunt. ”Want some?”

[51] ”There's a big building in there and a parking lot.”

”Oh yar. Glove fact'ry it was. Closed up years back.” The man slid two paper cups with folded ear handles at him.

Shrieking wind. The bitter coffee trembled.

”Weather,” the man said to Quoyle balanced in the doorway with his damp cups.

He bent against air. Cracking sky, a mad burst. The sign above the gas pump, a hand-painted circle of sheet metal, tore away, sliced over the store. The man came out, the door jumped from his hand, wrenched. Wind slung Quoyle against the pumps. The aunt's startled face in the car window. Then the gusts bore out of the east, shooting the blizzard at them.

Quoyle pried the door open. He'd dropped the coffee. ”Look at it! Look at this,” he cried. ”We can't drive to Killick-Claw through twenty miles of this.”

”Didn't we see a motel on the way up?”

”Yes we did. And it's back in b.l.o.o.d.y Banks.” He sc.r.a.ped at the map, his hand spangled with melting snow. ”See it? It's thirty-six miles behind us.” The car trembled.

”Let's help buddy with his door,” said the aunt. ”We'll ask him. He'll know some place.”

Quoyle got the hammer from under the seat, and they stooped beneath wind. Steadied the door while the man pounded spikes.

He barely looked at them. Things on his mind, Quoyle thought, like whether or not the roof would lift off. But he shouted answers. Tickle Motel. Six miles east. Third time the year the door was off. First time the sign was off. Felt snowly all morning, he bellowed as they pulled onto the highway. Waved them into sideblown snow.

Slick road; visibility nil beyond the hood ornament. All dissolved in spinning particles. The speedometer needle at fifteen and still they skidded and jerked. The aunt leaned this way and that, hand on the dash, fingers widespread, as though by leaning she kept their balance.

”Dad, are we scared?” said Suns.h.i.+ne.

”No, honey. It's an adventure.” Didn't want them to grow up timid. The aunt snorted. He glanced in the rearview mirror. [52] Warren's yellow eyes met his. Quoyle winked at the dog. To cheer her up.

The motel's neon sign, TICKLE MOTEL, BAR & RESTAURANT TICKLE MOTEL, BAR & RESTAURANT, flickered as he steered into the parking lot, weaving past trucks and cars, long-distance rigs, busted-spring swampers, 4WD 4WD pickups, snowplows, snowmobiles. The place was jammed. pickups, snowplows, snowmobiles. The place was jammed.

”Only thing left is The Deluxe Room and Bridal Suite,” said the clerk, swabbing at his inflamed eyes. ”Storm's got everybody in here plus it's darts playoffs night. Brian Mulroney, the prime minister, slept in it last year when he come by here. A big one, two beds and two cots. His bodyguards slept on the cots. A hundred and ten dollars the night.” He had them over a barrel. Handed Quoyle an ornate key stamped 999. There was a basket of windup penguins near the cash register and Quoyle bought one for each of the children. Bunny broke the wings off hers before they left the lobby. A wet path on the carpet.

Room 999 was ten feet from the highway, fronted by a plate gla.s.s window. Every set of headlights veered into the parking lot, the glare sliding over the walls of the room like raw eggs in oil.

The inside doork.n.o.b came off in Quoyle's hand, and he worked it back carefully. He would get a screw from the desk clerk and fix it. They looked around the room. One of the beds was a round sofa. The carpet trodden with mud.

”There's no coat closet,” said the aunt. ”Mr. Mulroney must have slept in his suit.” Toilet and shower cramped into a cubby. The sink next to the television set had only one faucet. Where the other had been, a hole. Wires from the television set trailed on the floor. The top of the instrument looked melted, apparently by a campfire.

”Never mind,” yawned the aunt, ”it's better than sleeping in the car,” and looked for a light switch. Got a smoldering purple glow.

Quoyle was the first to take a shower. Discolored water spouted from a broken tile, seeped under the door and into the carpet. The sprinkler system dribbled as long as the cold faucet was open. His [53] clothes slipped off the toilet lid and lay in the flood, for the door hooks were torn away. A Bible on a chain near the toilet, loose pages ready to fall. It was not until the next evening that he discovered he had gone about all day with a page from Leviticus stuck to his back.

The room was hot.

”Take a look at the thermostat,” said the aunt. ”No wonder.” Caved in on the side as though smashed with a war club.

Quoyle picked up the phone, but it was dead.

”At least we can have dinner,” said the aunt. ”There's a dining room. A decent dinner and a good night's sleep and we'll be ready for anything.”

The dining room, crowded with men, was lit by red bulbs that gave them a look of being roasted alive in their chairs. Quoyle thought the coffee filthy, but at other tables they drank it grinning. Waited an hour for their dinner, and Quoyle, sitting with his fractious children, his yawning old aunt and gobs of tartar sauce on both knees, could barely smile. Petal would have kicked the table over and walked out. And she was with him again, Petal, like a persistent song phrase, like a few stubborn lines of verse memorized in childhood. The needle was stuck.

”Thanks,” murmured Quoyle to the waitress, swabbing his plate with a bun. Left a two-dollar bill under the saucer.

The rooms on each side of them raged with cras.h.i.+ngs, howling children. Snowplows shook the pictures of Jesus over the beds. The wind screamed in the ill-fitted window frames. As Quoyle pulled the door closed, the k.n.o.b came off in his hand again, and he heard a whang on the other side of the door, the other half of the k.n.o.b dropping.

”Oh boy, this is like a war,” said Bunny watching a plywood wall shake. The aunt thought somebody must be kicking with both feet. Turned down the bedcovers, disclosing sheets st.i.tched up from fragments of other, torn, sheets. Warren lapped water out of the toilet.

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