Adult Onset by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Author:Ann-Marie MacDonald [MacDonald, Ann-Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-80829-5
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: 2014-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

They moved to Kingston, where, for the first time, her parents purchased a house. Her father planted a flowering crab in the front lawn, its endearing sparseness reminiscent of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. “This tree will be flowering long after we’ve moved away again,” he said in the mournful tones of Scottish contentment.

They lived in a new subdivision. These were the days when children “went out and played”; there were woods and creeks that had yet to be tamed into suburban lots, and for endless summer days Mary Rose could “light out” like Huck and not return till supper, socks burred, runners soaked.

To get to the Royal Military College where her father worked you had to drive past the Dairy Queen, the Kmart, three prisons, the loony bin, Sir John A. Macdonald’s house—with his small bed and undersized boots that showed what life had been like before vitamins—Queen’s University, Kingston General Hospital and across the lift bridge to the stone archway that led to the ivy-bearded walls wherein her father taught economics, “the dismal science.” Eventually Maureen would get a weekend job lifeguarding at the pool there and meet Zoltan Zivcovic, an officer cadet whose pillbox hat and sticking-out ears made him look like a tall, serious monkey. Andy-Patrick moved from a crib into a room of his own equipped with everything Mary Rose could desire in the way of vehicles and weaponry, not to mention clothing—she felt like an imposter in girls’ clothes. But she continued to love her brother when he was sad, sick or asleep—he got mononucleosis shortly after they moved in and he was adorable.

Her father sent her off on the first day of school with a firm pat on the head, “Do it your way, Rosie.” She lined up outside Our Lady of Lourdes with the grade fives, awaiting the bell, conscious of the butterflies in her stomach aflutter with the secret of the miracle, You have skipped a grade! She looked up and down the line, assessing which girl would be the object of her crush, a worthy successor to Lisa Snodgrass … and stopped herself, suddenly aware that it was wrong. And they knew they were naked. Having crushes on girls was something to be left behind along with her place in the slow readers’ group. It belonged to a benighted past that need never cast its shadow so long as she did her best, then better than her best. She looked up and down the line again. And chose Danny Pinder. Another miracle. Our Lady made her become normal.

She was unable, however, to leave behind the soreness in her arm. It smelled of the grave.

“Maureen! Come, I need you!” cried Dolly.

It was the middle of the day, but her mother was taking a bath. They were not at school so perhaps it was the weekend. Mary Rose followed her sister up the stairs but Mo hurried in and closed the bathroom door behind her. She pressed her ear to it, then opened it a crack.

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