First Snow, Last Light by Wayne Johnston

Author:Wayne Johnston [Johnston, Wayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: 2017-09-05T00:00:00+00:00

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I decided to throw a birthday party for Brendan when he was nine. Enough time had passed, it seemed to me, to justify celebrating the double-edged anniversary. The party would begin on the evening of March 31 and end early in the morning of April Fool’s Day. It would commemorate Lucy’s life, not the day of her death, mark the ninth anniversary of Ruby Drover’s inclusion in our family and, of course, Brendan’s birthday.

In the printed invitations, I stipulated that presents were unnecessary and suggested that guests contribute something to Belvedere Orphanage in Brendan’s name. As it turned out, he received one present each from Ruby and me, but also one from everyone who came to the party—Nan Finn, every one of my relatives and my many “flunkies,” as Ambrose called the senior employees of Vatcher Enterprises, local luminaries, politicians, businessmen, anyone of local personality or celebrity status.

I was now minority owner of the Telegram, whose main rival was Smallwood’s mouthpiece, the Daily News. Smallwood accepted my invitation but sent in his place someone whose plan, I suspected, was to arrive early, stay long enough to explain Smallwood’s absence to me, wish Brendan a happy birthday, give him his present and leave before April Fool’s Day. Prowse, in other words, the man who had been the other guest the night I first met Fielding, the man who was now in my father’s old job.

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