Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz

Author:Saleema Nawaz
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc.
Published: 2013-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

Later, in the back of Evan’s truck, the blanket is chafing.

“We’ve had better ideas,” I say.

“What are you talking about?” says Evan. “This is the only way to judge how much room there is, by using your body as a yardstick.”

“You’re the yardstick,” I say. My hand is below his belt.

“Hardy har har.”

I push gently on his chest and he rolls off me.

We’re parked in Evan’s driveway, alongside the grey stucco house he shares with three university students from northern Ontario. The sun is just beginning to slip below the roof of the garage, and the shifting leaves of the maple filter the light in quicksilver flashes that run along the battered eavestroughing. The drone from the Queensway has petered out, and apart from its scattered rumblings the street is quiet.

Evan is talkative tonight. Over a supper of spaghetti and meatballs, he navigated a conversation with me and his roommates, steering it from either shore of computer gaming or the remaining available storage space in my basement, where it was likely to founder. Instead, we spoke of Freud, of composting, of the impending obsolescence of my laptop — Don gave it six months, Brett a year. Nick declared it already dead, pretending to groan as I handed it to him to look at. He said, “You know these things are supposed to be portable, right?” But there wasn’t much time to linger over a discussion. In their house of four young men, supper is cutthroat, the only dinner bell the cook shouting, “Wolfpack!” in tribute to the fast ravishment to follow. As with most meals here, Evan seemed focused on civilizing the conversation while never drawing out the time spent at the table. I can tell he worries that when I see him with his roommates I will think he is too young. It used to be that every time I came over, he would say he was planning on moving out.

“So, do you think one trip will do it?”

We came out here with the camping blanket under the pretext of estimating how much of Sadhana’s stuff would fit in Evan’s truck. I can feel the heat of the sun-baked metal coming up through the wool.

“Hard to say. I’m not good at visualizing. How much will this baby hold?”

“A lot, I’d wager.” He inches back until the top of his head is at the cab, his feet pointing to the garage. He flattens one palm and brings his arm up against the side of the truck bed, squinting. “I’d guess this was, oh, about four point five feet by six point five, with a depth of eighteen inches. Packed tight, about fifteen cubic feet of volume.”

“I’m not falling for that. You knew all along.”

“Could be. Would you prefer a figure in standard two-cube boxes?”

“I don’t have standard boxes. I’m eclectic.”

Evan eases onto his side to look at me. “So how did it go?” After a moment, when I don’t answer, he says, “But all packed up, right?”

“Just about. A little bit left to do.

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.