Days by Moonlight by André Alexis

Author:André Alexis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781770565791
Publisher: Coach House Books
Published: 2019-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

As with any carnivorous plant, there is something terribly cruel about silk locket. But when I was a child, it was considered good luck to find one that had just closed. You could hear the fly inside the plant, buzzing for some time before it died. And though I hadn’t done this in years, I searched among the lockets to see if I could find a noisy one, wasting a few minutes before giving up.

Having lost the morning, we should have headed straight to Feversham, but the day seemed intent on driving us off course. As we got into the car and fastened our seat belts, there was a knock on the passenger-side window. A short, stocky Black man, his Afro greying in a small circle on his head, repeatedly made the sign for ‘hitchhike’ – fist held sideways, thumb out and pointing in the direction of the road. No sooner was he in the back of car than he began to talk.

– Malky Jenkins, he said. Good to meet you.

– Oh, said Professor Bruno. You’re talking!

– Course I’m talking, said Malky. I can’t be Black twenty-four hours a day. Besides, I like Schomberg but I love to talk. I’d croak if I lived here. You guys going anywhere near New Tecumseth?

Malky’s voice was pleasant and he himself was good company.

– What’s a Caucasian individual like you doing in Schomberg? he asked Professor Bruno.

– Well, said Professor Bruno, Alfred and I were curious about the town Carson Michaels came from. Do you know her?

– Sure I know her, said Malky. What about it?

– We heard a story about her and …

Malky interrupted him.

– You heard she’s the most beautiful woman around here, didn’t you? But it’s not true! Carson was okay in her day, but her sister Kate’s the one. That’s a fine woman! Carson’s one of those who believes they’re beautiful, and when a person believes themself strong enough, they get others to believe them, too. Without trying! That’s the kind of beautiful Carson was. I just don’t believe her, is what I’m saying. You can see for yourself, you know. She works in Coulson’s Hill.

– We were just in Coulson’s Hill, said the professor. I found her quite lovely.

– Man, I’m not arguing with you, said Malky. What a person finds beautiful is their own business. I’ll just say, we don’t go to the same church. But I am observant, where beauty’s concerned.

In the half-hour it took to reach New Tecumseth, Malky must have talked about a hundred things, but what stuck with me, distracted as I was with the driving, were his words about Carson Michaels’s beauty and his talk about the Museum of Canadian Sexuality in New Tecumseth. The two things were related. At least, they were for Malky, physical beauty being a hidden aspect of the museum, as far as he was concerned.

Had we been to the Museum of Canadian Sexuality?

No? Neither of us? How wonderful that we could see it for the first time today!

He highly recommended the place.

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