Part 19 (1/2)

H ARRY'S PLANE WAS DUE IN AT TEN ARRY'S PLANE WAS DUE IN AT TEN. I'D BOOKED A NOON FLIGHT to Moncton. Our plan was to meet at the departure gate. to Moncton. Our plan was to meet at the departure gate.

Montreal's main airport is situated in the west island suburb of Dorval. For years it was simply called Dorval. Made sense to me. Nope. Effective January 1, 2004, YUL was rechristened Pierre Elliott Trudeau International. Locals still call it Dorval.

By ten, I was parked, checked in, and through security. Harry wasn't yet at gate 12-C. I wasn't concerned. Dorval's ”welcome to Canada” immigration line usually makes Disney World's snake-back-and-forth-through-the-ribbon-maze queue look short.

Ten forty-five. Still no Harry. I checked the board. Her flight had landed at 10:07.

At eleven I began to get antsy. I tried reading, but my eyes kept drifting to the tide of faces pa.s.sing by.

At eleven-fifteen, I started running possibilities.

No pa.s.sport. Maybe Harry didn't know that a government-issued photo ID was no longer sufficient to enter Canada by plane.

Missing luggage. Maybe Harry was filling out forms in triplicate and quintuplicate. From previous visits I knew she didn't travel light.

Smuggling. Maybe Harry was batting her lashes at some steely faced customs agent. Right. That works.

I went back to reading my Jasper Fforde novel.

The man to my right was beefy, wiry-haired, and overflowed a polyester sports jacket several sizes too small. He kept bouncing one knee up and down while tapping his boarding pa.s.s on the armrest between us.

Montreal is not Toronto. Unlike its stodgy Anglo neighbor to the west, the island city celebrates gender and s.e.x. Nightly, bars and bistros host the pheromone ball into the wee, small hours. Billboards proclaim upcoming events with risque double entendre. Along the highways, half-naked models hawk beer, face cream, watches, and jeans. The town pulses with hot blood and sweat.

But the Big Easy North is never prepared for my sister.

When wire-hair went motionless, I knew Harry had arrived.

She did so with her usual flamboyance, standing in the cart, arms spread like Kate Winslet on the t.i.tanic t.i.tanic bow. The driver was laughing, tugging her waistband to reconnect her rump with the seat. bow. The driver was laughing, tugging her waistband to reconnect her rump with the seat.

The cart slowed, and Harry hopped out. In jeans tight enough to be mistaken for skin, rose and turquoise boots, and a pink Stetson. Spotting me, she whipped off and waved the hat. Blond hair cascaded to her waist.

I stood.

Behind me, wire-hair remained frozen. I knew others were sharing his sight line. Others with a Y in each of their cells.

Harry bore down. The driver followed, a Sherpa pack-muling Neiman Marcus and Louis Vuitton.

”Tem-pee-roo-nee!”

”I was starting to wonder if you'd gotten lost.” Spoken from the con-fines of a spine-crus.h.i.+ng hug.

Releasing me, Harry arm-draped the Sherpa. ”We were parlay-vooing, weren't we, An-dray?”

Andre smiled, clearly at a loss.

As though ch.o.r.eographed, a microphone voice announced the boarding of our flight.

The Sherpa combined two of Harry's carry-ons and handed them to her, along with a saddlebag shoulder purse. The Neiman Marcus bag was offered to me. I took it.

Harry gave the Sherpa a twenty, a high-beam smile, and a big ”mer-cee.”

Andre zoomed off, a man with a story.

The rental car I'd booked at the Moncton airport was somehow unavailable. An upgrade was offered at the same price.

What type of vehicle?

s.p.a.cious. You'll like it.

Do I have a choice?

No.

While I signed the rental agreement, Harry learned the following.

The agent's name was George. He was forty-three, divorced, with a ten-year-old son who still wet the bed. Tracadie was a straight shot up Highway 11. Gas was cheap at the Irving station just past Kouchibouguac. Le Coin du pecheur in Esc.u.minac served a mean lobster roll. The trip would take about two hours.

The s.p.a.cious upgrade turned out to be a s.h.i.+ny new Cadillac Escalade EXT. Black. Harry was pumped.

”Would you look at this bad buggy. Kicka.s.s engine, four-wheel drive, and a trailer hitch. We can boogie this iron pony uphill, downhill, and off the road.”

”I'll stay on the pavement, thanks. Don't want to get lost.”

”We won't.” Harry patted her purse. ”I've got GPS on my phone.”

We climbed in. The iron pony had that new car smell and an odometer showing forty-five miles. I felt like I was driving a troop carrier.

Though dead on about the sandwich, George had been wildly optimistic on the drive time north.

When we pulled into Tracadie my watch said seven-twenty. Eight-twenty local. Why so long? You guessed it. Harry.

The upside? We'd made friends with an RCMP constable named Kevin Martel, and with most of the residents of Esc.u.minac. We also had snaps of ourselves arm in arm before Le plus gros homard du monde. Shediac was a detour, but how often can one pose in front of the world's biggest lobster?

At check-in, the nice motel lady told Harry of a restaurant with traditional Acadian food and an outdoor deck. I waited while Harry blow-dried her bangs, then we headed to the waterfront.

Plastic tables. Plastic chairs. Plastic menus.

Nice atmosphere, though. We shared it with men in ball caps hauling on long-necked beers.

The air was cool and smelled of fish and salty mud. The water was dark and restless, flecked by white from a rising moon. Now and then an insomniac gull cried out, stopped, as though surprised by its own voice.

Harry ordered spaghetti. I went for the cod and potatoes. When the waitress left, Harry pointed to a newspaper abandoned on the adjacent table. L'Acadie Nouvelle L'Acadie Nouvelle.

”OK, chief. Background. Starting with where the h.e.l.l we are.”

”Tracadie-Sheila.” I p.r.o.nounced it Shy-la, like the locals.