Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood

Author:Margaret Atwood [Atwood, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2025-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Survival

After we returned to Canada, I bought a house, with the encouragement of Charlie Pachter. With my screenwriting and film rights fees, and the security of my teaching job, I had enough money. Mortgages were easier to come by then, and houses comparatively cheaper than they are now. The house was on Hilton Avenue near Casa Loma, Toronto’s huge pretend castle built by an eccentric millionaire, but it was also near Bathurst Street, which was noisy. We didn’t have much furniture, but we did have a beanbag chair, which our cat—named Patience, after the Gilbert and Sullivan opera—liked to pee on.

Jim and I had the first and second floors. On the third floor were three small rooms, and quick as a wink they were inhabited by three people. First, my sister, now in her late teens, was inserted at the behest of my parents because I was still supposed to be “so good” with her. Second, a teenage male student who was suddenly just there. Finally, a young girl who was given shelter as a favour to my Very Nice Boyfriend in Vancouver; he had a soft heart and liked to be helpful to people. These three were nominally tenants. They did pay rent, more or less.

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