Arthur Beauchamp 06 Sing a Worried Song by William Deverell

Author:William Deverell [Deverell, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2015-03-04T22:00:00+00:00

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

Arthur has been trying for the last two days to get through to Margaret, badgering her staff. He has not been wholly able to still his jitters about Pomeroy’s hazy, weird warning; he needs someone to share it with, a sympathetic ear. But when he finally gets her on the line this evening, he clutches when he is about to divulge why he called.

“I ought to mention, dear … ah, pass on that.”

“What?”

“Oh, I guess …” He has caught himself just in time. He won’t burden Margaret with an unsubstantiated death threat. She would only worry. That’s Arthur’s job. “Well, I was wondering how to tell you about the Fargo, Stoney claims he saved my life. Its brakes were going.”

“What are you talking about, Arthur?” He detects that new, impatient tone again.

Arthur backs up, fills in the gaps, and then continues like a wind-up toy, robotically, with more tales from home, the courtesy Cadillac, the demoralized Ernst Pound and his lust to bust tomorrow’s not-so-covert Potlatch, the nonsense about Doc Dooley showing up at a marijuana bacchanal.

“Please slow down, Arthur. You’d better make sure the doc doesn’t get caught standing in the middle of a ton of export-quality Garibaldi Gold.”

“It’s Stoney’s joke. His way of needling me because I lost the Orfmeister again.”

His tales all told, Arthur gives her a livestock report. A garden report. A weather report. Not even hinted at are the bad tidings Pomeroy may relay when he arrives in a few days. Only the prying postmaster knows anything. Otherwise Arthur has obeyed Pomeroy’s emailed caution: Say nothing, rien, nada.

“Are you well, Arthur? You sound a little hysterical.”

“Everything’s fine. Tip-top.”

He apologizes for monopolizing the conversation, and asks what’s up in the nation’s capital. Her list is challenging: a Throne Speech that gave less than lip service to the environment, botched inquiries into the vast atrocity of exploiting the Alberta tar sands, another draconian crime bill on its way, creeping fascism in the Prime Minister’s Office.

She’s venting. Margaret regularly finds relief from doing that, though she does it too often in public. Not all her sound bites win applause; sometimes her barbed tongue causes too stinging a wound. But that is our sharp-tempered Margaret Blake. She has been threatened with slander suits and occasionally has had to apologize.

Pierrette is on call-waiting, and they have to wrap up. “I love you,” he says.

“I love you too, of course.”

That sounds to him mechanical, passion-free. Again, he feels a sense of not knowing Margaret. So different from Annabelle, the vivid, playful temptress. In contrast, Margaret is narcissism-free, focussed on the world around her, this threatened planet. And he is proud of her, honoured to be her life companion, even though she has been, of late, very much … elsewhere. In physical distance, yes, but emotionally too. But that’s okay with him. Way down on his worry list.

He lights his pipe and rocks slowly on the squeaking chair as he reads today’s Bleat, hot off Nelson Forbish’s printer.

A photo of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.