Read Online 21 Days in October by Magali Favre - Free Book Online Page A

reduced to simple background noise.
    Louise finishes writing and hands the sheet to her brother. She stays near the table to help others sign the petition. Gaétan decides to wander a bit.
    Suddenly, he recognizes a face several metres away. Paul! With his red beard, he is unmistakable.
    Gaétan inches closer, but can’t bring himself to address him. This older man intimidates him. He is standing, broad-shouldered and straight as an arrow, listening carefully to the speeches.
    According to what Luc has told him, Paul grew up in Ville Jacques-Cartier, a particularly poor area of the South Shore, where he had fallen into the life of a bum.
    â€œIt’s easy to find money if you’ve got guts,” he had told Luc. “You buy a gun and rob the first bank you see. Where I come from, you’ve got a choice: either you become a bum or you work yourself to death for peanuts. But my days as a bum didn’t last long.”
    What made him change his ways wasn’t so much the fear of ending up in jail as it was the idea of making it on his own. He couldn’t accept the notion of having money and living the good life while watching others suffer. Making money itself isn’t that difficult but wanting to change one’s ways is another story. He wanted to make sure there were no more Ville Jacques-Cartiers a few kilometres away from the Town of Mount Royals. That’s why he became a union leader.
    â€œI started fighting to get us some sidewalks in Ville Jacques-Cartier,” he had told Luc, laughing.
    â€œ
But what does he really do today?” Gaétan wonders. “Maybe he’s up to his old tricks?”
    â€œWhat’s your problem? Why are you staring at me?” The man’s tone is cutting.
    â€œYou don’t recognize me? I’m Gaétan,” stammers the boy. “We met once or twice at Luc’s.”
    â€œOh yeah, I remember. You were going to start working at Dominion.” Framed by thick eyebrows, his gaze is both driven and warm.
    â€œExactly. I was wondering if you knew that Luc’s been arrested,” the boy replies.
    â€œNo, I didn’t. With everything going on, I haven’t seen him for a while,” admits the man, visibly irritated by the boy’s presence. He throws anxious glances around the room.
    He doesn’t seem to appreciate that he’s been recognized. With a tight smile, he cuts the discussion short. “Look, I’m sorry, but I gotta go.”
    Without further explanation, Paul slips into the crowd and heads towards the exit. Intrigued, Gaétan falls in step behind him. Once out on the street, the man walks towards the Sherbrooke metro station. Without hesitation, Gaétan passes unnoticed through the turnstile after him. A train arrives. Paul jumps into one of the cars. Gaétan gets on the next one.
    The metro pulls out of the station. It’s incredibly hot. Gaétan discreetly watches Paul, who is reading the newspaper and trying hard to look relaxed. The stations fly by and the boy remains alert. At the Sauvé station Paul rises quickly, like someone who has forgotten he has reached his stop, and steps onto the platform just before the doors close. Gaétan doesn’t have time to react and he watches, powerless, as the man disappears.
    His surveillance was short-lived. He’s been had. He thought vaguely that if he discovered where Paul lived he would learn more about him. Now he’s come up empty-handed, realizing to boot that he’s ditched Louise without an explanation.
    At the Henri-Bourassa station, he changes direction and takes the metro back towards the assembly. The speeches are over. Few people remain in the room, and Louise is gone. He searches in vain for a familiar face. Discarded pamphlets mixed with cigarette butts litter the floor. The room has the stale feeling of a party that’s just ended.

14
Wednesday, October 28
    â€ W hat’d you do, go