The Cuckoo's Child (32 page)

The future is mysterious. We will have to deal with concrete things: Jerry's trial and Daniel's testimony; seeing our son through therapy; repairing the holes in his education and getting him started in the world. Maybe my contribution will be to convince him that none of his life was a mistake or a waste, that he is who he is, a work-in-progress to be modified for the rest of his days. That he is alone, but not lonely, a cuckoo's child just like me and everybody else.

I am full of hope. It sounds almost heartless to say it now, but the future beckons. The weight of anger has dropped away. I can think of Mum and Dad without flinching at the names; they
are
my parents, and when Mum babbles and Dad strokes his moustache to cover his anxieties, I feel bound to them in a circle of loss, reinvented as an only child, the only one they will have left.

Horizons have moved for me, edging out to the remains of my other family, meshing Magnus's and Deirdre's lives into mine, into Neil's and Daniel's, even into our parents'. Soon Dad will write to Magnus, sending him all Olivia's details so that the gravestone can finally be put right.

“He's a good man,” Dad said. “Forgiving. More of a Christian than his mother.”

And he is. When the hurricane in England was all over the news, I called him to ask about the damage at Hescot. You could hear the grief in his voice.

“Tore up a lot of those old beeches,” he said. “One came right through the roof of the orangery, glass everywhere. Not too bad in the garden because of the walls, but my dad's tree's gone—split right down the middle. The graft's always the weakest spot.”

I was horrified, but he'd moved on.

“I've a mind to start another one,” he said. “I've got the scions already. But that'll have to wait on some spare time; I've got a mort of work to do, clearing up the mess. I could do with that boy of yours; plenty for him to do here. And learn, I reckon.”

And there it was. Another opening door, and one we'll walk through soon, I think. I have to show Neil where I was born, after all, and watch him and Daniel draw it into themselves too.

The others will be back soon, and the nurses are already here. They check their patient and their machines, and tell me quietly that you do not have much more time and we should get ready to make our goodbyes. I will not say it; there are no real endings, only revolution. You will not have gone while we remember. But I will take your hand in mine, so, and make myself believe that your fingers move against mine, an intimation from far, far away that you have listened and understand it all.

I would like to thank all of the members of my writing group, past and present, especially Kathy, Helen, Gillian, Jennifer, Sara, Maureen, and Lynne, for their critical insight and many helpful suggestions over the years it took for this book to see the light of day. My thanks also to Leah Fowler, who proved to be a most enthusiastic and encouraging editor, and to Heather Sangster, for demonstrating the value of a sharp-eyed proofreader.

A note here about geography: The street names are all real, but those familiar with them may feel they are not portrayed exactly as they remember. I confess to taking some liberties with their topography, but this is fiction, after all.

MARGARET THOMPSON
came to Canada from England in 1967, and taught English at secondary and post-secondary levels until her retirement in 1998. She is the author of seven books, including a
BC
2000 Book Award–winning
YA
novel, short stories, and two collections of personal essays, and has contributed to five anthologies. She is a past president of the Federation of
BC
Writers and now lives in Victoria,
BC
, with a basset hound, a neurotic cat, and an itinerant peacock.

When is a Man
by Aaron Shepard

Paul Rasmussen is a young ethnographer and academic recovering from prostate cancer. Broken, he retreats to the remote forests and towns of the Immitoin Valley. As an outsider, he discovers how difficult it is to know a place, let alone become a part of it. Then, a drowned man and a series of encounters with the locals force him to confront the valley's troubled past and his own uncertain future. As Paul turns his attention to the families displaced forty years earlier by the flooding of the valley to create a hydroelectric dam, his desire to reinvent himself runs up against the bitter emotions and mysterious connections that linger in the community in the aftermath of the flood.f

An original debut novel that is meditative, raw, and exuberant in tone, Aaron Shepard's
When is a Man
offers a fresh perspective on landscape and masculinity.

Flying Time
by Suzanne North

In 1939, Kay Jeynes, a lively, ambitious young working-class woman, goes to work for the only Japanese businessman in town, the elderly, wealthy, Oxford-educated Mr. Miyashita. Despite differences in their age, race, and class, a friendship develops between them in the peaceful vacuum of Mr. Miyashita's office. But outside, on the city streets, a dark chapter in North American history is taking shape. As war looms, relations between Canada and Japan grow steadily worse. Travel outside North America becomes impossible for Mr. Miyashita, so he asks Kay to cross the Pacific Ocean, even as the Imperial Navy is manoeuvring into position for the attack on Pearl Harbor. He sends her to Hong Kong on the famous Pan American Clipper to collect a precious family heirloom. On this journey, Kay commits some seemingly small sins of omission. But in the paranoid climate of the times, these little white lies put Mr. Miyashita at risk of being arrested as a spy.

Told through the eyes of an older Kay, and set during the turbulent and racially charged times of the Second World War,
Flying Time
is a triumphant story of love and adventure, the impetuosity of youth and the regrets of age.

Pilgrimage
by Diana Davidson

Pilgrimage
opens in the deep winter of 1891 on the Métis settlement of Lac St. Anne. Known as Manito Sakahigan in Cree, “Spirit Lake” has been renamed for the patron saint of childbirth. It is here that people journey in search of tradition, redemption, and miracles.

On this harsh and beautiful land, four interconnected people try to make a life in the colonial Northwest: Mahkesîs Cardinal, a young Métis girl pregnant by the Hudson Bay Company manager; Moira Murphy, an Irish Catholic house girl working for the Barretts; Georgina Barrett, the Anglo-Irish wife of the hbc manager who wishes for a child; and Gabriel Cardinal, Mahkesîs' brother, who works on the Athabasca river and falls in love with Moira. Intertwined by family, desire, secrets, and violence, the characters live one tumultuous year on the Lac St. Anne settlement—a year that ends with a woman's body abandoned in a well.

Set in a brilliant northern landscape,
Pilgrimage
is a moving debut novel about journeys, and women and men trying to survive the violent intimacy of a small place where two cultures intersect.

Copyright © 2014 Margaret Thompson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (
ACCESS
Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit accesscopyright.ca.

Brindle & Glass Publishing Ltd.
brindleandglass.com

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Thompson, Margaret, 1940 November 5–, author
The cuckoo's child / Margaret Thompson.

Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-927366-30-1 (html).--ISBN 978-1-927366-31-8 (pdf)

I. Title.

PS8589.H5228C83 2014 C813'.54 C2013-906018-9

Editor: Lea Fowler
Proofreader: Heather Sangster, Strong Finish
Cover images: Antique bird illustration: nicoolay, istockphoto.com
Flower texture: zorazhuang, istockphoto.com
Author photo: Alan Thompson