All the Bears Sing: Stories by Harold Macy

Author:Harold Macy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Short Stories, Small Town, Literary, Short Fiction
ISBN: 9781990776014
Publisher: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Published: 2022-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

After the barn work, Willa washed her face and hands in the tin tub, patted some water on her sticky neck. Then she sat on the front porch snapping beans to can up and watching a few vehicles roll past on the unpaved road, raising even more dust. To her surprise, several of them were military trucks full of people, mattresses, crates of chickens, boxes with sleeves dangling out in the wind, obviously packed in a rush. Though she did not recognize any faces, their plain clothing and scads of blond children spoke of the Mennonite settlers living between them and the Oyster River. She offered a wave but there was none returned from the solemn adults. They just stared back the way they came, straining to see what was left behind.

Ed joined her and watched the procession.

“Funny, eh, with the events unfolding in Europe and Mr. Hitler, how we can have a bunch of German-speaking people right here. Mind you, they do keep to themselves. And some of them work for the King of the Comox Valley, Bob Filberg, at Comox Logging Railroad. Good workers, so I hear. Work ten hours for eight hours’ pay. Also heard they won’t sign up for army service if war breaks out, as some say it’s bound to. And I heard—”

“What’s funny, my dear husband, is how you manage to hear all this, but can’t hear me when I ask you to take off your boots outside.”

Ed smiled and looked again at the road.

“Where they going, I wonder? Back to the home country? That’d open up more jobs for us real Canadians.”

“Maybe to town for the weekend. Market is this Saturday, they’ll have lots of vegetables to sell. But, no, you wouldn’t take your mattresses for a weekend. Which reminds me, did you fill the boiler with water, like I asked, so I can get these beans done? If you managed to hear me in all this dust and heat. I have a bushel of tomatoes to put up as well. Cukes to pickle. Never stops, this life of a country gentleman. The kids’ll be home from school soon, too, and hungry as raccoons.”

A truck pulled off the road and into their yard. A family was crowded into the cab, and the back was piled with household goods. Steam leaked out from under the hood. A big-boned man leaned out of the cab and waved a saucer-sized hand.

“Speaking of which,” Ed commented, as if Willa hadn’t even spoken, “that’s Peter Friesen, one of the churchy types from up Black Creek. His farm is the closest one to us, just past the big wetlands and cattail ponds. More rocks and swamps. What they didn’t foist on us, they sold to the Mennonites.”

“You sound like those old men in town, their days spent airing grievances for all and sundry.”

“Pete works for Iron River Timber across the Oyster River. He came into the shop at Headquarters Camp a while ago needing some repair work done on a rusty old one-lung Easthope engine.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.