excerpt
In time tenants were invited to purchase their Project homes. But
introducing private ownership also meant homeowners could sell—
even, if they wished, to former adversaries, great numbers of whom
were then being resettled in Canada. I had classmates who spoke German
and Italian, kids whose fathers fought on the other side, and we
got along just fine. Blessedly, the animosities of the previous generation
did not take hold with ours.
The claim that Nelson Monroe spoke German was snuffed out as
quickly as it had spread. A few weeks after breaking the news, Mr.
Wheeler, who had sustained a head injury during the war, was telling
anyone who’d listen about the spaceship that landed in his backyard.
– The captain, he said, needed to use the bathroom.
I remember nothing of the Mrs. and little of Nelson Monroe. Only
that his fingers were stained orange with nicotine and that the
T-shirts he favoured showed a neat border where the sun had glazed
the back of his neck. Freddy claimed Nelson had a clipper ship tattooed
across his chest —another fabrication, no doubt.
I once rode a bus past the foundry where Nelson Monroe was
employed just as a shift was ending. A whistle sounded, its massive
steel doors swung open. Mr. Monroe was the first liberated, a wily
escapee distancing himself from the pack. His was one of the few
heads unturbanned.
That Nelson Monroe drank heavily was not cause for concern. In
those days, in that neighbourhood, many did. That he beat those
kids when he did so was.
– You fellas should do something, my mother pestered my father.
It ain’t right.
Cries coming from the Monroe home the previous night had
made sleep impossible. A policewoman went inside to check on
Connie and the kids. Sgt. McManus called Nelson out to his cruiser
for a chat. His release, which should have squelched the bank robber
rumour, only served to spread it.
– Do something? asked Dad. Like what?
– Yeah, my brother Burt echoed. Whattaya want Dad to do?
Libros Libertad 