Fruit by Brian Francis

Author:Brian Francis
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC000000
ISBN: 9781554902484
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2004-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

For New Year’s Eve, my parents and I went to the Archers. Mr. Archer works with my dad in Chemical Valley. I don’t think my dad and him are best friends or anything, but Mr. Archer and his wife were having people over.

“It beats sitting at home watching Dick Clark,” my mom said.

“Might as well watch it at someone else’s house,” my dad said.

I’d only met the Archers a couple of times before. Mr. Archer is short and fat and old. He’s always out of breath, so you think he’s about to have a heart attack or something. Mrs. Archer is fat, too. She’s younger than Mr. Archer, but I’m not sure by how much. Her name is Nadia and every time I see her, she’s wearing a muumuu, like Mrs. Roper on Three’s Company.

The Archers have two children — Kate and Billy. Both of them are adopted. My mom told me once that Kate and Billy are “behavioural” kids and that Mr. and Mrs. Archer are foster parents.

“I don’t know how they do it,” my mom said. “Opening their doors to all that chaos and such. Those kids come from such damaged homes.”

I’d met Kate and Billy last year at the Chemical Valley Kid’s Christmas party. It takes place every year in an old movie theatre. They have musicians and a magician and a guy dressed like Santa comes in at the end to hand out crappy presents. This year’s C.V.K.C. party was supposed to happen on December 15th, but there was some chemical spill in the St. Clair River that day, so the party was cancelled. But I wouldn’t have gone anyway, because I’m too old to go to kid’s parties now.

Kate Archer doesn’t think she’s too old to go to kid’s parties, because when I saw her at last year’s C.V.K.C., she looked the same age as Christine. She was fat, like Mrs. Archer, so you’d think they’re related, even though they’re not. She had a pageboy haircut that didn’t suit her and thick black glasses that made her eyes look humongous. Kate was pretty quiet and sat in a back corner all night long, sucking on candy canes. Billy, who’s a year older than me, didn’t look anything like her. I guess that makes sense, since they didn’t come from the same parents. He was thin and had a gap between his front teeth and long, greasy hair. He kept running around the theatre, tearing down the red and green streamers, yelling, “This sucks! This sucks!” over and over again.

Mrs. Archer kept trying to catch up to him. She was holding a pill in one hand and a glass of punch in the other.

“Now Billy,” she kept saying. “Don’t be like this. Take your pill. Now Billy.”

Finally, one of the dads at the party grabbed Billy and put him in a headlock.

“I got the little punk now,” he said. “You just try and get away from me, you little nut. I played for the Argonauts.”

“There’s no reason to be rough,” Mrs.

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