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The Blank Deed: A Thursday Morning in Late September

October 27th, 2018 by Michael Dyet

The Blank Deed

A sneak preview of the story The Blank Deed from Hunting Muskie: Rites of Passage. (Check out the book trailer video.)

Three cormorants, wings folded downward like flags at half mast, cut recklessly across the path of the Sam McBride as it churned across the harbour toward Toronto Island. Lauren watched Jonathan’s grandfather, his eyes narrowing with concern as he followed their flight. Were the cormorants a harbinger of things to come or a reflection of the past she was compelled to confront?

Lauren studied the old man’s noble, weathered face. It was expressive, and yet, inscrutable. The experiences etched there were beyond her understanding. She searched for traces of Jonathan. There was a slight resemblance.

“Are you okay, Grandfather? This must be terribly hard for you.”

“And for you.”

“Am I crazy to be doing this? Everyone seems to think so.”

“Our people, the Anishinabe, believe we can’t be separated from the cycle of living things—life, growth, death and rebirth. So no, you’re not crazy.”

“Anishinabe? Jonathan told me he was half Ojibway.”

“Ojibway, Mississauga, Chippewa. We’ve been called by many names.”

Lauren turned her eyes to the island. A rising dread gripped her as the ferry neared the Ward’s Island dock. It felt disrespectful to be chasing after Jonathan’s ghost. But the journal hidden in her handbag urged her on.

 There were a handful of passengers on this Thursday morning in late September. They filed towards the bow as the ferry manoeuvred into the dock. Lauren held back, waiting until they had all disembarked, before she guided Jonathan’s grandfather over the gangplank onto the dock.

 “Thank you for coming with me, Grandfather. Do you mind me calling you that? I know we’re only related by marriage.”

 “It’s fine. You’re Jonathan’s wife and the mother of his child.”

 “Was his wife.” He cocked his head slightly. “Sorry. I don’t quite know how to refer to myself yet.”

 He nodded and crooked his arm in hers as they started down the path toward the Ward Island Clubhouse. Gulls skittered off the path ahead of them, protesting the disruption. Their plaintive shrieks sounded like cries of distress.

 

Lauren: You know that I keep this journal. So you’ll know, I hope, to look here when they come to you with the news of what I have done.

 I know you will be angry and wounded. Please, keep reading, if you can. This is my last will and testament—literally all that I have to leave you. A paltry inheritance. And yet, in some ways, more than I ever had to offer before.

 I will not say that I am sorry. People spit out those words so often as if they erase all the harm. But they never do. Apologies will not change what I feel. I have descended, slowly at first and then in terrible leaps, into a dark and unspeakably lonely place…

If you’re intrigued, Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet is available online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble. Check out the book trailer video on YouTube.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

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