The Big Why by Michael Winter

Author:Michael Winter [Winter, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, World War; 1914-1918, Brigus (N.L.), Artists, Explorers
ISBN: 9781596910256
Publisher: House of Anansi
Published: 2005-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

21

My tools arrived, my father’s tools. The big walnut case was at the station. They had salvaged them. The wood had bulked out and the hinges on the box were caked with rust. The lock busted off. I asked George Browiny about that.

Accidental, he said. Looks it. Probably when the freighter went down.

More like vandalism, I said. And I thought there was more to it than he was letting on.

I had Swift the pony lug the box home on the mail cart. The hills were full of dandelions. I opened the box and the tools jiggled on their little ledges, tucked in alcoves, hung on nails. The tools too were lined with rust, but a bit of oil and steel wool and they were fine. Behind each tool lay a painted shadow of the tool on the wood. So you knew where it belonged. All that was missing was a table clamp and a vise. It wasnt so bad. Perhaps George Browiny was right. The woodcarving tools were wrapped in cloth and leather and the cloth had oil on it. The carving tools were marvellous. My father’s tools. When my father died there was a field of dandelions. There was sun. It was a day like this day. It was before I knew that the sky wasnt always blue and bright. There was the news and there was a letter from him. And my mother folded the letter, unopened, and pushed it into the wastebasket. As though the corpse had lifted a finger, or inhaled, as if the gasses of my father had mustered in his lungs and infected the letter with decay and the roil of illness. And when his ashes came home, there was a funeral and Nanny Rosa was not invited.

My father used to open his mail with a pocket knife. He believed a man should keep a knife on him. He was a man who could do two things with his hand at once. He could hold a bottle of wine with his thumb and forefinger and gesture with the rest. Splay up with those three fingers.

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