Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson (ebook voice reader TXT) 📗

a single peanut. He took one with no intention of eating it but not wanting to offend. Justice put the plate on the coffee table and Hank returned to the kitchen, where he began noisily washing the dishes. Mave sat beside Justice. Jared sipped his coffee. Hank had put in so much sugar it was all he could taste.

A flash, a red flash like a basketball-shaped bird, and the flying head named Huey bumbled into the room like a happy bee, one side of his mouth grinning widely while the other twisted downwards in a deep frown. Jared was so relieved Huey was okay, he felt himself tearing up again. Huey settled weightlessly on Jared’s head with a couple of enthusiastic bounces, his way of saying hello.

Mave and Justice, oblivious to Huey, chatted about the Kinder Morgan protest on Burnaby Mountain, about who had joined the camp and what they were going to need in this miserable weather. It made him feel a little better to hear his protest-minded aunt sound more like herself. Hank asked where the dishtowels were and Mave told him to let the dishes air-dry. Sophia, when Jared dared to glance at her, stared at Huey, who dropped from Jared’s head to his shoulder, hiding from her like a shy toddler.

Sophia met Jared’s eyes.

Mave and Justice decided they should order Chinese takeout and asked Sophia if she wanted any dish in particular.

“Oh, anything,” Sophia said, smiling pleasantly.

Huey bounced a few times on Jared’s shoulder then shot out of the room, through the open balcony door and upwards.

Jared couldn’t hear Sophia in his head the way he heard his mother. But the hum inside her rose and he desperately wanted to know what she was thinking. Mave, Justice and Hank, however, were now debating which dishes to get—two vegan and one full carnivore so far—and now they asked what he wanted to eat. He blankly scanned the takeout menu Mave thrust into his hands. He remained keenly aware of Sophia, even though she was now chatting with Mave about how they were going to split the bill.

Shortly after the takeout arrived, Sophia said she was feeling the call of her bed and phoned her driver. She came over to Jared and carefully touched his hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow, my dear.”

Jared didn’t trust his voice, so he nodded.

“Good night, Mave,” Sophia said.

“Thank you for everything, Sophia,” Mave said.

Jared bit into a chicken ball, but it was all texture and no flavour. Plus, he wasn’t hungry. He sipped more coffee to get the mouthful down. Something was wrong with him, something new. He hadn’t eaten a full meal in days.

Maybe it was just the shock numbing him. Delayed reaction to the weekend in a hell universe being resurrected and eaten until he was unceremoniously dumped in his old bedroom, spat out on the concrete basement floor like this bland chicken ball.

“What’s up?” Mave said.

“Ketchup,” he said.

She sighed. “That’s my boy.”

—

His mom wore the smoke of her two-pack-a-day Player’s Light habit like a perfume. As far back as Jared could remember, the acrid, sour, faintly sweet tobacco scent meant she was home. He opened his eyes and it was morning. He couldn’t remember falling asleep or how he’d gotten into his bed. His mom sat in the desk chair studying him, lit by the desk lamp. She was still wearing her white AC/DC T-shirt, skinny jeans and worn leather jacket. The apartment was so quiet he was reluctant to break the silence.

“Hey,” he said.

“Is there anything more you want to tell me?”

Oh, he wanted to lie. He wanted her to stop looking at him with suspicion. He wanted not to be having this conversation with her now, alone. But Georgina was threatening everyone he loved and his mom was the one who knew how to deal with the homicidal.

“I shifted in the alley. After David…” Jared said, but his throat closed up. And then he forgot what he was going to say. It dropped away.

His mom fidgeted, her leg bouncing. Jared wished he could pull out a cold case of beer and they could share it and be buds and he’d tell her all this when she was buzzed and she wouldn’t hate him, wouldn’t have trouble looking at him the way she was having now, not meeting his eyes.

“I had a crush on Phil,” she said. “Mother didn’t want me chasing him to the All-Native but I went anyways. And then you came to me like a dream come true. Everything. Absolutely everything about you was Phil. Right down to his thoughts. You were that good.”

She wasn’t screaming or swearing. She was cold and calm.

“I’m Jared,” he said.

“Was there ever a Jared?”

“Mom, it’s me.”

“Mother’s first child was a boy. Guess who he turned out to be. I thought I killed Wee’git, but he could have got someone to resurrect him so he could be here, pretending to be my son. Are you fucking with me? Are you Wee’git?”

Jared couldn’t wrap his head around that level of messed-up. It explained a lot, but it meant things he couldn’t process yet.

I’m Jared, he thought at her, inviting her to be in his mind, to see his truth. “I’m not Wee’git.”

“I don’t know what you’re getting out of this. I really don’t.”

I’m your son.

She stood. “Me and Richie are going back to Winnipeg to settle some things. When I come back, you’d better be gone.” Get the fuck away from my family, Wee’git. Or I’m going to bury you so deep this time you’ll only rise with the Rapture.

He listened to her boots click against the floor as she walked out. The door banged behind her. He ached, physically, but in a different way. Then he became aware of someone watching him, a familiar presence.

In his mind, he saw Saturn and a small moon. The irresistible song of gravity drew the moon closer and closer until it reached a point where the tidal forces became stronger than the forces that