Chapter Sixteen

Counting Cousins

Salinger

I was at the downtown bus station. Of all my cousins, the guy I was bringing in was the worst one I had. I didn't want to ask him to come to Edmonton. It was only possible because he was so directionless and at the same time so talented. I bet he didn't have anything better to do than to help me with my project and as always, he didn't.

I saw Remy coming through the terminal surrounded by a cluster of teenage girls in pajama bottoms and hoodies. They had been on the night bus, which explained the stuffed animals they carried, though they probably didn't sleep much if they sat close to Remy. He had his guitar strapped to his back, next to his backpack. I hoped he had more luggage than that. If not, it would be less than three days before he started pilfering my clothing.

When I first arrived in Edmonton, I enjoyed the attention Veda's cousins gave me. It made me feel like a celebrity to have that much attention. I expected it to wane. When it didn't, it felt weird and selfish to keep the girls all to myself. Then when Fair Isle started making her nightly visits, I started thinking about whether or not I knew any guys I could room with. Merely procuring a roommate was not enough. I decided on Remy because he could room with me, help me with Intarsia, and with the work I was doing at Cold as Stone. I would not have chosen him if he wasn’t so useful, because I never got along with him.

He was a year older than me, and only a quarter Inuit instead of half. We shared a grandfather, and our fathers were half-brothers. Which made us half-cousins. The rest of his blood was white, so he managed to have blue eyes, and hardly anybody ever suspected him of being part Inuit. I had seen girls gush over it.

Bringing him to Edmonton was me burning my bridges. I brought him as a gift for Intarsia and if I gave him to her, I would never have a chance with her in the future. It was wrong to keep her as a backup. Intarsia had written to me for years and not even I was naive enough to think that she did it only for the fun of having a pen pal. Intarsia hoped that if she wrote to me, we would have a romantic relationship when we met up as adults. I didn't dare to think how far her imagination went—probably all the way. She was disappointed I had not made all her dreams come true. I was sorry, so I brought Remy in to do one thing I couldn't.

It turned out that my offer to go to college with Intarsia was unnecessary. When I toured Grant McEwan with Intarsia, everything bored her until we passed a bulletin board that had an advertisement for a harpist. You could rip off a strip at the bottom of the page and hire her to play at an event. Intarsia looked at it with longing.

“If only I could do something like that. Wouldn't that be great? Dress up all fine, do my hair up, and play beautiful Celtic melodies for private parties? If that was my job, I'd always be the belle of the ball, except I'd have no money, no one would think I was respectable, and I'd hardly ever get any work.”

I frowned, hating the idea that she couldn't do anything she wanted because she was afraid of being poor. We were supposed to be witches, weaving magic into everything we did so that the impossible worked out. Why was she so fearful? “Forgetting the money,” I interrupted, “is there anything else you would rather do?”

“I'd like to travel. That is the one thing I admire about Aunt Zellica. She travels.”

“Aunt Zellica?”

“Veda's mother, but no one thinks anything good about her because her traveling involved her leaving Veda.”

“But you're not a mother. Why can't you travel?”

“How would I fund it? Working at my mother's yarn shop would never pay for it.”

That was when I got my idea. Remy was a wanderer who played practically every instrument. He was the guy everyone called when a band member was out, and that wasn't just for rock-and-roll, it was also for bigger concerts and symphonies. The wretch had game.

The last time I had seen Remy, we had clashed, but it was water under the bridge now. I heard his news from his dad, who worked with my father in our woodshop. Remy was always playing in a different city. Sometimes he was even in the newspaper.

I didn't like him partly because he was a show-off and partly because I found him painfully flippant. He agreed with every half-baked scheme that came along, even if they disagreed with something else he just said he believed. He believed all conspiracy theories, all tabloids... everything. I couldn't stand the inconsistency. He was one of those guys who not only liked everything they saw on Facebook but also posted it. Flat earth? Yes. No such thing as gravity? Yes. Batboy? Yes. However, his insipidness didn't mean that Intarsia couldn't learn a lot from him as a musician. If she wanted to be a minstrel who traveled the world, I didn't know anyone better for her to learn from.

At the bus station, I had already caught his eye. He was bidding farewell to his gaggle of teenagers, blowing them kisses, and promising them they would stay in touch. The only thing I registered was how much he needed a shower. Even though he was a tramp, he wore expensive boots and the case on his back was brand new. He knew a bit about being a hobo.

“Hello, half-cuz,” he said when he reached me. “I'm glad you got in touch. I had just finished a gig in Victoria and didn't know what to do with myself. I almost went back to White Horse.”

“Well, it's really good you didn't have to do that,” I heard myself saying. “Edmonton is nice this time of year.”

“Let's go over this again,” he said, sounding like a stoner, but he had spoken in that drawl for as long as I had known him. “There's a girl I'm supposed to teach to play the strings?”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“Yeah,” I said.

“She's eighteen?”

“Yeah.”

“This is her?” Remy said as he showed me a picture of Intarsia on his phone from her Facebook page. In the picture, she still wore green lipstick.

“Yeah,” I said, feeling repetitive.

“She looks amazing,” he said, chill. “Green lipstick. Is that normal for her?”

“Used to be. She's wearing red these days.”

“That's going to take some getting used to.”

I did a double-take. “Why?”

“I already spent all this time getting used to her with green lipstick. Now it'll be like I'm meeting a stranger.”

“Either way you were meeting a stranger, Remy. What if it hadn't turned out to be the right girl you found on Facebook?”

“No way. She is the only girl in the world named Intarsia.”

He had a point.

I led him out of the bus depot.

“So, I'm going to be staying with you?” Remy questioned as he followed me.

“Yeah. I'm renting an apartment across from the school you'll be teaching at. Have you ever taught at an actual school?”

“All the time,” he said as he bent a fresh stick of gum into his mouth.

I took him back to the attic at Fair Isle's. There was already a bunk for him and he slid his guitar case under the bed and dropped his backpack on the bedspread.

“I like it here,” he drawled as he looked at the walls with their fake greenery. He sat down and his eyes closed. I wasn't sure if he was getting ready to sleep or do a full lotus.

“Do you want to go over to the school and see the equipment I've set up or did you have something else you wanted to do first?” I was thinking of a shower.

Remy opened his eyes. “We can go to the school.”

I knew the school would be open with at least one person in the office. For one second, I hoped Veda would not be there. I should not have felt insecure. It was just that sometimes women were very impressed with Remy. We grew up together, and I knew all about the impressions he made. If a girl wasn't impressed with the odd openness of his mind, she was always impressed by the way he performed. I saw a girl faint once when he sang. I wanted to shake her. He wasn’t a real superstar. He was just a guy with a guitar.

June was there when we came in. She shook out her gray suit and welcomed us. “Salinger, I like the harp you selected.”

I shrugged. “There wasn't much to choose from.”

“Is this your cousin?”

I stepped aside for Remy to meet June. “This is Remy. He's the teacher I told you about.”

“Pleasure,” June said.

“All mine,” Remy said... and I saw it. There was that effect he had on her, like other women. She instantly liked him. It made me feel less hopeful about Veda.

We went into the music room. It had most instruments, but it did not have a harp, so I had rented one and brought it in the day before. I didn't previously have an attitude against pianos, but the music room had two of them and I needed to move the upright if I was going to fit the harp in the only fitting place—on the lowest stair. I had permission to move it and it did not have wheels. Day two; I hated pianos.

“Would you like me to order some sheet music for you?” June asked as Remy sat on the stool behind the harp.

“Why would you need to do that?” he said easily, and he proceeded to play something both intricate and daring. He made the harp almost sound loud.

June was impressed again, but she kept her head and answered firmly, “For Intarsia.”

“Oh, then yes.” He turned his attention back to the harp. Slapping the side of it, he said, “I think she's a little out of tune.”

“It’s funny how much you remind me of Veda’s father,” June said speculatively.

I didn’t believe that. Veda couldn’t possibly be the child of someone like Remy.

“Was he handsome as hell and twice as unlucky?” Remy mused.

“Naturally,” she said, turning to brush something from her eyes.

I pushed the conversation along. “Want me to call Intarsia over?” I offered. “I don't think she's working today, so you could at least meet her.”

“No,” he said, getting up. “I'm starving and you haven't fed me yet.”

I smiled at that. He wouldn't have to worry about his meals. He was a mage who was staying at Fair Isle's. Willow would make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for him for as long as he stayed, and I wouldn't have to worry about him freeloading off me, because... I ate there too.

We got up to leave.

Suddenly, June caught up to us. “Salinger, I forgot I was going to give this to you.” She handed me a key. “I think you might need this if Intarsia's lessons run late.”

I looked at her and wondered if she knew that if she gave me a key to the school, I would use it for other things besides Intarsia’s lessons. I was famous back home for overusing similar privileges.

I thanked her and was glad that another one of my problems was half solved.

⚘⚘⚘

After dinner, Fair Isle caught me in the hallway, by slamming my back against the wall.

“I burned the book,” I said as I put my hands up to stop her from handling me roughly.

“Why?” she gasped, horror and disbelief flashing in her eyes.

“Because,” I said, extracting her fingers from around my collar. “I didn’t make that book for you.”

“I didn’t steal it because we were meant to be together,” she said desperately.

“Forget what happened in the book. It’s gone. You read that book thinking that nothing would be different if you read it. No one would even know what you’d done, and now that everyone knows, you still don’t think it was stealing because Veda doesn’t want me. It’s not stealing if you take something no one wants out of a trash bin. That’s how you are justifying yourself, but whether Veda wants me or not, I’m not trash and I get to decide who I love.” I gave her a hard look to help convince her to stop. “I won’t fool around with you for kicks.”

She took a step back and let her head droop. “Couldn’t you give me a chance? Take me on a few dates and spend a little time with me?”

I bit my teeth together before answering. “I just said I won’t fool around with you for kicks. What makes you think I would play around with your hopes when I want someone else?”

She withdrew her hands. “I see. I won’t come to your room again.”

As she wandered away from me down the hall, a storm cloud formed over her head.

When she made it to the kitchen, I heard Willow shout with dismay, “It’s happening! Get the umbrella.”