And Miles to Go Before I Sleep by Jocelyne Saucier & Rhonda Mullins

Author:Jocelyne Saucier & Rhonda Mullins.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Coach House Books

In Toronto, no need to wait for a ghost train for hours; there are nine daily departures for Montreal. They took the 3:15 p.m. train, which would get them to Montreal in the evening.

In Swastika and in Metagama, everyone was in the dark; they had no idea what had become of Gladys and her young friend since the Budd Car. Frank Smarz was manning the phone, calling pretty much everywhere, trying to find out whether they had taken the Sudbury–Toronto train, whether from Toronto – and it was what they desperately hoped – they had taken the bus to Swastika, whether this, whether that, a haze of suppositions because they could find no trace of an old woman on the Sudbury–Toronto train, because the ticket controller would not admit that he had allowed a passenger to board without a ticket.

They didn’t know what was going on with Lisana either. She had barricaded herself in the house, door closed, curtains drawn, phone off the hook; she would no longer answer the door or Frank Smarz. That was what he explained in an exasperated voice. ‘That woman is a curse for everyone.’

Suzan had called Frank Smarz at first light. He was the one who told her the Northlander was no longer running. She had a moment of panic when she realized Gladys would not be going back to Swastika. But she quickly pulled herself together: ‘In that case, you’d better go over to Gladys’s and stay with Lisana. Don’t leave her on her own, otherwise she’s going to do it. I’m telling you she’s going to do it.’ And Frank Smarz said nothing, not a word, a glum silence.

This conversation and the others that followed – because there were many during the course of the day – convinced her that Frank Smarz would not rush to Lisana’s rescue.

Suzan fears the dark instinct she has always had in her that allows her to glimpse what is hidden under intentions that won’t rise to the surface. As the calls mounted, she slowly realized that no one in Swastika would run to Lisana’s side. Deliberately, united, in tacit agreement.

Suzan has known Frank Smarz for years; she knows he is clumsy with his words, unable to express nuanced feelings, and, during that day when everything was in a flurry around him, he was uncharacteristically prudent, weighing and reweighing his words, and repeating with a rare and bewildering patience that she needn’t worry about Lisana. The woman had travelled the long road of despair without ever doing what can’t be undone, he said. They should be worrying about Gladys instead; they had to figure out how to get her back to Swastika.

The long road of despair, strange words indeed from this man’s mouth. His voice, his words, his prudence, his refusal to force open the door or a window (‘Good lord, Frank. I’m not asking you to go at it with an axe. A screwdriver, a crowbar, and you’re in. It’s simple.’), his increasingly expeditious way of

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