Read Online October 1970 by Louis Hamelin - Free Book Online Page B

the face of this good-for-nothing with a bright future ahead of him.
    The second time he took the Lincoln, he also laid claim to the owner’s daughter and a quarter of the owner’s chromosomes. They went to a Western, with John Wayne, at the local drive-in. It was early June and the evening was warm, much warmer in the car after the film was over. They drove south along the road to Chambly and then took the Eastern Townships autoroute to the Acadie River. In Quebec, there are as many places called Îles aux Fesses as there are Green Lakes and Long Lakes. Somewhere between Île aux Lièvres and Île Goyer, they found one where, after crossing a small bridge, they stopped in front of a clutch of cottages.
    The Acadie is a flat river the colour of mud because of all the farms it runs through. Clumps of trees and shrubs extend down to the gentle riverbank. Just after midnight, Coco drove into a narrow meadow and pushed the nose of the car into the tall grass between two ruts until it was barely visible from anywhere.
    Ginette guided his hand. Her breasts were like two loaves of bread fresh from the oven, bursting with life, and he told her so. Not long after that, the white Mark II began rocking between the cattails and the stars.
    Afterward, they smoked a cigarette.
    â€œI saw you the other morning,” Ginette said. “You with were those guys who turned Dad’s car upside-down. What I don’t get is how he could lend you the car after that.”
    â€œIt’s just politics,” Coco replied. “Don’t ask too many questions.”
    He rolled down the window and threw his cigarette butt into the wet grass, then opened the door and got out. She saw him tuck his shirt-tail back into his pants, then walk back to the trunk. She heard him open it. When she got out on her side, she felt swallowed up by the sky and the night. The sound of frogs. A few feet ahead of her, Coco was holding a rifle, a .303 Lee Enfield, army issue, fitted with a scope. He raised it to his shoulder and peered through the cross-hairs into the dark.
    â€œWhat are you doing?”
    â€œLooking,” said Coco, aiming the rifle at something on the far side of the river.
    He cocked it. A sharp, almost joyful sound came from the mechanism, metallic clicks slightly muffled by the heavy wooden stock. It pleased him.
    â€œIt’s his deer-hunting rifle,” Ginette said. “He goes every year.”
    â€œHe uses it for other things besides deer hunting,” Coco said in a mocking tone, the rifle still raised to his shoulder.
    He told her about the incident with the window.
    â€œI still don’t understand why he lent you his car,” Ginette remarked.
    Next to her, Coco could see invisible frogs in the tumultuous riverbed. He lowered the rifle and smiled to himself.
    â€œBecause I’ve got him,” he said, then said it again, for emphasis: “I’ve got him by the balls.”
    Ginette would never admit it, but she was impressed.
    There were many Saturday-night drives to the Île aux Fesses. They played with each other, made love in the back seat, being careful, as much as they could, not to start a family, and then, sitting up in the big Detroit boat of a car, smoking cigarettes, they watched the river flow by them through the darkness.
    â€œOne day,” Coco said, “I’m going to have a boat and I’ll take you out on it. I’m not talking about a little rowboat either, I’m talking about a two-master, a real sailboat, Ginette, my own, sweet Ginny. I’m talking about a boat we can sail around the world  . . . ”
    Three months later, when the hardware-store owner showed up at the pool hall, it wasn’t to give Jacques Cardinal another cushy job, it was to tell him that he had to take responsibility for his actions. The ceremony took place on a day of wet snow, slush, and ice. After a night of drinking, Coco had to swallow half a dozen bennies