Autumn Rounds by Jacques Poulin

Author:Jacques Poulin [Poulin, Jacques]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2021-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

THE IMMORTAL MASTERPIECE BY JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

AT BAIE-COMEAU he went directly to the library, looking to the left and right along the road, trying to spot the yellow bus or his friend Jack’s Volkswagen minibus. He didn’t see either one. After he had picked up his three cartons of books, he drove all over town until suddenly he spotted Jack’s minibus parked on rue Puyjalon.

The old Volks was easy to recognize from its midnight blue paint job and its elevated roof in which Plexiglas windows had been installed. The body was battered and rusted-out and in several spots you could see sheets of tin held on with pop rivets. The rear window was plastered with stickers declaring that it had travelled across America from the Gaspé Peninsula to San Francisco and Key West, by way of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon.

As the curtains were drawn, the Driver couldn’t tell whether Jack was inside. He parked the van and knocked at a window. No answer. Remembering that his friend often used earplugs when he was writing, he knocked again, harder, but in vain. Nearby were a credit union, a restaurant, a bookstore and a grocery store: he checked all these places, starting with the bookstore, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. He left a note for his friend on his windshield and went to the restaurant to wait.

The waitress brought him a coffee which he sipped while he looked through a newspaper someone had left on the counter. When he finished reading he felt hungry and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, sugar pie with ice cream, and another coffee. His watch showed two p.m. He went to the restroom and one his way back, he heard a song from the hit parade coming from behind a door closed off by a velvet curtain. Pulling aside half of the curtain he saw a dark room with tables arranged in a semicircle around a small stage under a spotlight.

Just as he was taking a seat at the closest table, the song broke off and was replaced by a Hawaiian guitar that evoked the southern seas. The spotlight turned red and a girl climbed onto the stage. She dropped her cigarette, mashed it with her gold high-heeled shoe, then began to dance and take off her clothes to the languorous rhythm of the music.

The stripper didn’t dance very well, she swayed her hips rather awkwardly, but one thing about her was very special: her opulent auburn hair that blazed in the light. When his eyes had got used to the semi-darkness, the Driver looked around him. A dozen spectators of both sexes were distributed among the tables and most were paying little attention to the girl; they seemed very busy telling each other funny stories and drinking beer, and there was even a couple shooting craps.

Suddenly, while he was watching the girl move to one side of the stage, he noticed a man sitting all by himself at a table in the half-light.

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