In the living room they still sat. Their eyes near-watering as the wretched stench of the downstairs bathroom wafted in. The Northwood Terrace roommate meeting was actually more of a precursor to what Welnot’s hoped-for actual meeting would be: a poll to see what day was best for everyone to meet. Welnot was elated and […]
Fiction
Posted inArts + Music
Half-heard, chapter 9
Welnot could see right through Alex’s snooty, high-falutin academic techno-babble and self-satisfaction; all his prefixed-isms and suffixed terms and endless references to other books there’s no way he finished. Right there in that room, he knew what was going on. He knew Alex was trying to pull one over on everyone, fool them all into […]
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Half-heard, chapter 8
Welnot called Sarah, Alex and Trevor into the room for the meeting w/r/t matters of household concern e.g. the toilet bowl shit, Trevor walking in mumbling, “Isn’t he the one who hasn’t let anyone flush the toilet yet?” Sarah Toile walking in, this being her first time being seen around the house since the last […]
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Half-heard, chapter 7
On the television a local anchor on a low-quality camera was fumbling through a piece. He was clumsy, and was hired because he was clumsy. That made viewers tune in to the down-home pieces about remote control boat races, demolition derbies and the canine that joined the Citadel High wrestling team. Tonight he was participating […]
Posted inArts + Music
Half-heard, chapter 6
“Yeah, well, here it is: These people, they all go to so many support groups, AA, NA, CA-type meetings. Because they can be real reality checks, you know. And create such a strong sense of awareness for others around you. You can recognize yourself in others, themselves in you, ex-etera (sic), and they go for […]
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Half-heard, chapter 5
You can open Northwood’s plant- and petiole-covered basement window if you ever want to. You would just skulk down the narrow driveway between them and the neighbours when pedestrian and car traffic is quiet and drop yourself to the ground. The window’s latch has been broken since the day Trevor forgot his keys and had […]
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Half-heard, chapter 4
Welnot didn’t believe at all that Trevor Bognetti was capable of rubbing one out into the kitchen sink, but it was not like Bong-yetti was really much of a paragon of virtue or anything like that. Though an unassuming, pathological people-pleaser who would give a pint of his type O to anyone who asked, he […]
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Half-heard, chapter 3
Alex arrived home from a weekend visiting his parents outside of the city and was dropped off at an absurdly early hour before the onset of light, earlier than expected. And as far as anyone else knew he was totally alibi’d up, ruling him out as the one who would gun his Bavarian into A.’s […]
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Half-heard, chapter 2
A. was leaning over the sink when he turned up to Alex with that I-have-something-to-say tautness to his shoulders. “How was the weekend?” “Oh, it was fine. Just making it back now. Yours?” “Yeah, fine, fine, it was fine. Listen though Alex, can we talk about something?This morning I came into the kitchen,” A.’s face […]
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Half-heard, chapter 1
Past the endless acres of trees topped with iridescent red Honeycrisp, Cortland and Northern Spy rattling beneath bellies of blue skylines littered with low-hanging clouds along the banks of the Cornwallis River lies kms and kms of invasive weed: black campion, creeping buttercups, coltsfoot, lady’s thumb, wormseed, ragweed, toadflax, purslane, ox-eye daisy—expanses of unwanteds province-wide. […]
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Great Thing echoed in the Fall
In Some Great Thing (2003) and now Fall, Colin McAdam investigates a disappearance. True, in each book, someone actually disappears, but late in the novels’ progress. The more important disappearance for McAdam is how some people conceal themselves from others, receding from the world, despite remaining physically in it. Of course, this behaviour has consequences. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Tales: Winners from our postcard fiction contest
The Winner Olden Times by Sarah Mian Great-Granny took lovers when Great Gramps went off to war. People use that expression, “take a lover,” but she really did. She took them from the streetcar and barstools and skating rinks and tucked them into her bed all in a row, like dolls. When her husband returned, […]
