Read Online Finnie Walsh by Steven Galloway - Free Book Online

listening.
    “How about that! Who would have guessed?”
    The most marked change occurred in Louise. Without her kingdom to rule, she was like a deposed queen. She spent her days sitting sullenly in front of the television and, when one of my parents finally made her go outside, she would sit even more sullenly on the front stairs and watch the other children zip around the neighbourhood. She didn’t indicate that she wanted to join them. I suspect that she did, but was unsure how to go about it. It wasn’t just that she was unusually shy, although she was by no means outgoing. She was also a fairly attractive girl, as far as I could tell, but I’ll admit that it’s difficult to gauge that sort of thing with respect to your sister. She was tall, not quite lanky and had a face that made you want to trust her right away, but she had a way of hiding it behind a shroud of sandy-coloured hair.
    Her main problem was that she just didn’t have much she wanted to say. As a rule, if Louise didn’t think something was terribly important, she didn’t see the point in saying anything at all. For her, small talk was non-existent. Because small talk is a necessary step in forming friendships, even among children, Louise was, as a consequence of her verbal minimalism, at a distinct disadvantage.
    The fact that there was something wrong with Louise certainly didn’t escape my parents’ attention. I suspect that, as concerned as they were, they just didn’t have the time to figure out exactly what it was. Gaining access to her thoughts was slightly harder than interpreting the information contained on a computer disk without benefit of a computer.
    My mother probably would have told Louise to be positive, to find a way to make things better. My father probably would have given her a rock. It’s also possible that my parents actively chose to ignore the problem. Louise was, after all, an 11-year-old girl and they are well known for acting strangely.
    To me, girls made no sense. They were mysterious creatures and Louise wasn’t any different. I was worried about her, though, and I tried not to irritate or disturb her when she was by herself. She had always been very protective about the time she spent in the basement and I assumed that meant she enjoyed being alone. I knew that most people, from time to time, needed a little time to themselves and I figured that Louise just needed more than others.
    Finnie made me see that I was wrong. Whenever he came over to our house, which was fairly often, he would make a point of talking to Louise. I had never noticed how much she actually had to say when talking to Finnie. Whenever they were together, she came out of her shell, which for Louise was no small feat. Finnie had this effect on almost everyone. Without even trying, he could make people do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.
    When I finally asked him what he thought was wrong with Louise, he looked at me like I was an alien, a very stupid alien.
    “What?” I asked.
    “You don’t know?”
    “No, no one does. Not even my dad.”
    “But it’s so obvious, Paul. She’s
lonely.”
    Finnie was right. It was obvious, and she was lonely.
    “What should we do?”
    “I don’t know. She’ll snap out of it, sooner or later.”
    Reassured that I was in no way abdicating my brotherly responsibilities, I let the situation work itself out. Louise’s ability to cope with things in her own way was far greater than my own.

    Finnie invited me to his first hockey game. I didn’t really want to go for fear that I would see what I was missing. The game was on a Saturday afternoon and there was a surprising number of people in attendance. I was about to sit down by myself when I saw Mr. Walsh waving me over to where he was sitting with Patrick, Gerry and Kirby.
    “Hello there, Paul,” Mr. Walsh said, smiling.
    “Hello, Mr. Walsh,” I answered.
    “I was sorry to hear you wouldn’t be playing hockey this season.”
    I could tell he was