Caribou Island by David Vann

Author:David Vann
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Thriller
ISBN: 9780062042330
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2010-12-22T02:41:00+00:00

Gary tried to clear his head by walking. He felt accused. For years now, and what had he actually done? No crime that he was aware of. The crime only of association, of being there. His marriage a thing of pressure and weight.

He didn’t like walking in a city, even a city like Anchorage that was mostly one-story and spread out and not really a city. Dirty and empty, endless strip malls. Car and truck dealerships, industrial supply, nightclubs with no windows, fast food and gun shops. A sunny afternoon in a dead place.

Irene was working at him, had been for a while now. He didn’t know why. But she wouldn’t let up. The constant complaints. He was weak, running away, never there for her, always a failure, always a disappointment. She thought the cabin was idiotic, thought his life was idiotic. And what was her goal? Just to make the two of them miserable?

Gary took off his jacket, warming up from walking fast. Hopefully the doctor could make the headaches go away. That would be an improvement. The crazy factor would decrease considerably.

He tried not to think about her, tried to just walk. Mud-spattered pickups and campers rolling past, clogged at streetlights. He liked his trails at home, the path to Mark’s house, path over the first ridge, longer trails up the mountain. More to explore on the island, too, a lot more to explore. But first he had a cabin to finish. He was running out of time.

Gary stopped and closed his eyes and tried to see it, tried to stand inside his cabin, the log walls, an old iron stove in the corner, nickel legs. A rough table, bench seats covered in hides, a bed at the end of the room, his biggest bear hide over that. Timber wolves hanging either side of the doorway, the one window leaded. A rocking chair for looking out this window, maybe a pipe. Maybe he’d take up smoking a pipe.

Gary sighed and opened his eyes, walked on. A lot of work still before he’d be thinking about that rocking chair. And very little help from anyone. Every part of the project would be a struggle. That was the truth.

Gary found himself back at the motel room before long, opened and closed the door quietly.

I’m not asleep.

Sorry, Irene. I wish you could sleep.

Me too.

He lay down beside her, put his arm over.

Thank you, she said, happy to have him back. Easier to get through the time, listening to him fall asleep.

Irene watched the clock while Gary and Rhoda napped, and finally it was four p.m. They piled into the truck for the four-thirty appointment.

Romano put CAT scans on an illuminated white screen. Irene could see her own brain, all the soft tissues in addition to bones. Very different from an X ray, everything revealed.

These dark patches right here, Romano pointed, are your sphenoid sinuses.

Irene could see they were tucked under her brain, far back from her nose. A place hidden from X rays by surrounding bone.

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