dishes after supper. Dad talks a lot about some guys at his work, and who said what to who and what so-and-so thought about so-and-so. It sounds mean, but I wish heâd shut up, because itâs incredibly boring. But I donât want to hurt his feelings, so I just dry the dishes and say nothing.
I go back up to my room, leaving Dad to watch some dumb tv show. Something about monkeys. Dad is crazy about nature shows. If thereâs a monkey or a giraffe or a lion or a koala bear on tv, he has to watch it. I like action moviesâlike James Bond movies or Collateral âor shows about police detectives trying to solve old murders. Cold cases, theyâre called. I like it best when they dig up an old skull or hold up the rusty, crappy old hammer some maniac used to kill some poor guy, or when they look at a bloodstained pillowcase under a microscope. I guess thatâs sort of weird. But I make no apologies.
I put the Beatles record back on and play along to âHere, There and Everywhereâ again. Then I get under my covers, not even taking my clothes off. I shut my eyes, sniff my smelly old corn-chip pillow and pretend Iâm on that desert island again, thinking about those turtle eggs. Theyâd be all mushy inside, right? But, hey, you gotta eat to survive.
After a while my thoughts get all confused. You know how it is just before you fall asleep, and your mind starts to go into free fall, where anything goes? From the desert island I go back to that summer at Shawnigan Lake, swimming in the green water with sunlight shafting into the deeper brown-black water. Some big dark fish are down belowâ itâs scary for some reason. And then Iâm dreamingâ¦dreaming that Iâm sinking deeper and deeper, and that I can still see the sunlight. But itâs far, far above. And then Iâm asleep.
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