Tableau by Michael Kanuckel

Author:Michael Kanuckel [Kanuckel, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-11T18:30:00+00:00

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One of the best perks of being a High Guard First Class was the freedom that came with the title. After lunch (a lunch that neither man found much to talk about during), Ezra decided he’d just swing by his house and see if the locksmith had shown up yet to fix his door. The man had said anywhere between three and seven and so Ezra had planned on taking off in the early afternoon anyway, but there was just no telling with those guys. He remembered a time when he was still at home, maybe eleven or twelve, and his folks ordered a brand new washer and dryer. Ezra remembered how proud they’d been, his parents. This was the first time ever that they would have brand new appliances in the house. Their fridge, always threatening to kick the bucket and kept alive by the sheer force of his father’s will, had come with the house; their washer was from a salvage shop; cloths were hung out in the back yard to dry, be it soft green spring or the middle of the Long Winter. Well, the big box store where his parents ordered the washer and dryer promised installation on delivery. The delivery guy had called the day before he was to come out to the homeplace and said he’d be there sometime between eleven and four. Ezra’s dad said fine. The next morning, early, he got up and made breakfast for himself and his son, then grabbed some poles and his old wicker basket and took Ezra fishing out on Deadbuck Creek. Ezra’s mother was still in bed; she hadn’t been feeling well the night before, vaguely complaining of a headache and feeling sort of weak, and Ezra had to wonder now if maybe his mother hadn’t already started getting sick with the cancer that would steal her away from him, even then. The delivery guy showed up at around nine in the morning, while Ezra was fighting a catfish in the muddy shallows of the creek with his father and his mother was lying in the bed with the door shut, the curtains drawn, and a wet washcloth over her forehead. The delivery guy knocked, no one answered, so he dumped the washer and dryer right there in the yard and went on his merry way. Oh, had Ezra’s dad been pissed! The two of them installed the new appliances themselves, a hot and sweaty afternoon to be sure, and the Beckitt clan never did any business with that chain of stores again.

Ezra didn’t go back to the Justice Building for his car. He decided to hop the tram instead, feeling that sense of freedom. As a High Guard he was technically at the beck and call of the city twenty-four hours a day- but for now the day was open. Here in uptown Hatis the sky above was a perfect blue, the afternoon was heating up, and summer was in. “Summertime, and the livin is

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