Murder in the Family by Jeff Blackstock

Author:Jeff Blackstock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Published: 2020-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

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WHEN THE NEW baby was born, things settled down a bit. One day, Dad took us up to his and Ingrid’s bedroom to watch what he called “the miracle of breast feeding.” There was Ingrid, lying in bed with her entire freckled breast exposed, nursing the baby. We watched with our eyes popping out.

Sometime later, Ingrid received a gift of a golden retriever puppy from Bob and Jenny Borden in Toronto. Ingrid called him Whiskey, because he was the colour of Canadian rye. She took up obedience training with Whiskey and became good at it. She took us to obedience trials in which she and Whiskey were entered, and they won many first-place trophies.

Eventually, Ingrid became Louisiana state obedience champion. The crowd would laugh with delight when Whiskey snapped to heel with alacrity. Ingrid loved that dog. Owners would sometimes discipline a dog at the trials by smacking it with the leash. They’d be disqualified for this, and I asked Ingrid why. She told me it was because hitting the animal showed the owner had failed to teach the dog true obedience.

For Ingrid, teaching obedience paid dividends with us as well. Before long, she had me doing the family’s grocery shopping at the A&P supermarket. This could be awkward for me. As a diplomatic family, we didn’t have to pay local sales tax, so every time I went to the A&P checkout, I had to produce our tax card and request “no tax.” Ladies in line behind me would protest that everybody else had to pay tax, so why was this kid getting away without paying? The manager would have to be called. It made a big fuss and was very embarrassing.

My chores also included mowing the lawn and cleaning up the yard after Whiskey. Ingrid bought a scoop and showed me how to pick up the dog shit and put it into a plastic bag. After a while, she’d come out to make sure I’d done a thorough job. Ingrid was a great believer in one of my father’s favourite sayings: “A job worth doing is worth doing well.” He’d say it when he showed us how to wash his car. Ingrid applied it to cleaning up dog shit.

One Saturday morning has remained vivid in my memory. Ingrid came out to the backyard while I was cleaning up. She and Dad had slept in and had just got out of bed. For once, she didn’t seem too concerned about the dog shit. I had the scoop and bag in my hands and was all prepared to tell her that I hadn’t finished, so please not to make any judgments yet. Instead of threatening me, Ingrid had something completely different in mind.

“Jeffrey, let me tell you something. Never let a woman trap you by getting pregnant.”

“Okay,” I replied.

I had no idea what she was talking about. Now I know exactly: my mother. There must have been some pillow talk going on between Ingrid and Dad, in which, perhaps, she’d pressed him for answers.

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