Family Matters

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Jason pulled apart the crust of his bread. “We’ve explored my options so long the fall term’s begun and it’s too late to enroll.”

“Have you checked to see if you can put in a late application?” Marc suggested carefully.

“What’s the use?” Jason muttered. “We can’t afford for me to go to school.”

“There are loans, bursaries, possibly even scholarships if Jason’s marks are good enough,” Marc said.

“His options include working for a year to save money for tuition,” Fiona said.

“I’ve read the textbooks. I can do the work,” Jason replied. “Why should I wait?”

Fiona cast a meaningful glance at her brother that said as clearly as words, enough, then turned to Marc. “Would you like some more soup?”

“No, thank you.” Marc laid down his spoon beside his empty bowl.

An awkward silence descended over the dinner table.

Fiona rose and gathered up the empty dishes. “I’ll get Rowdy’s bed and then drive you home,” she said to Marc. “I hate to rush you but I have studying to do. Jason, can you please disconnect that so-called music before we open the door?”

While Jason disappeared to another part of the house Fiona went to the laundry room and came back holding a cardboard box with one side cut down and packed with an old blanket. She put the box on Marc’s lap and the puppy and his bag of food inside. “I’ll go bring the car around.”

Jason returned and wheeled as far as the front door with Marc. “Sorry things got a little uncomfortable.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Marc hesitated, wishing he could say something more. Jason was a nice kid who deserved a break. But what could Marc do to help him? “Good luck with your studies.” He made his way slowly down the ramp, careful not to tip Rowdy out of his box.

Fiona was waiting with the passenger door open and the trunk up. Marc transferred to her car and stroked the shivering dog while she loaded his chair.

“You shouldn’t hold him back,” Marc said when they were heading down the dark country road that led through Pemberton to the highway to Whistler.

She stared straight ahead, her hands gripping the wheel at the regulation ten and two o’clock positions. “I know how to take care of my brother.”

“I’m sure you do. But if he’s eager for a career why not do what you can to help him get one?”

“What goes on between Jason and me is none of your business.”

“What if something happens to you? Who’ll look after him if he doesn’t have some way to provide for himself?”

She slowed to a halt at a four-way stop and swiveled in her seat to face him. “Do you think I haven’t thought of that? I’ve got a plan. I’ve worked out our future. The problem is, Jason’s young and wants everything right now.”

“Fine. No need to get defensive.”

“I’m not being defensive,” she said, moving through the intersection. “You’re interfering.”

“I only said—”

“Don’t!”

He held up his hands in silent surrender. She was right; it was none of his business. “How long has Jason been in a wheelchair?”

“Since he was eleven.” Tension still gripped her voice; if anything it had increased. “His spinal cord was severed in the same car accident that killed our parents.”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Were you also in the car?”

“Yes.” She hesitated. “I walked away with a broken arm.”

“My mother was killed in a car accident when I was five,” Marc told her.

“And your father?”

“He’s been gone for fifteen years now.”

She glanced sideways and in the dim light of the dashboard Marc caught an expression of understanding. “We have something in common,” she said. “We’re both orphans.”

For all intents and purposes, that was true. “I was lucky. My aunt and uncle were like parents to me and Nate and Aidan, like brothers. How old were you when you lost your folks?”

“Eighteen. I’d just started university. I was home for the weekend when the accident happened. I never went back to school.”

“How did you get your teaching degree then?”

“Correspondence courses while I worked at the pub. It took me six years.” She sounded more resigned than bitter.

“It would be understandable if you were reluctant to let your brother get easily what you worked so hard to achieve.” Marc chose his next words carefully.

“You’re wrong,” she interjected, shooting him an indecipherable look. “I don’t begrudge Jason anything.”

She denied it so quickly, so vehemently, Marc wondered if it were strictly true. “Still, caring for your brother under those circumstances would have been hard enough but with Jason also in a wheelchair… You’re a mother to your brother and a savior to lost dogs.” Marc regarded her thoughtfully. “Who takes care of Fiona?”

She flinched, just a tightening of her hands gripping the wheel but he knew he’d hit a nerve.

“I take care of myself, thank you very much,” she said with a hint of the steel that must have supported her all these years.

She turned off the highway and onto the road that led to Tapley’s Estate. Marc studied her in the street-light. Something else had surfaced just then, too, a wistfulness, as if she wouldn’t mind, just once, being taken care of herself.

A few minutes later Fiona pulled into Jim and Leone’s driveway and parked the car. With proficiency born of practice she unloaded Marc’s chair and held it while he transferred into it.

Rowdy’s sniffing nose poked timidly above the lip of the cardboard box. She leaned over to stroke the puppy’s head. “Bye sweetie,” she crooned. “I’ll miss you.” To Marc she said, “Take good care of Rowdy. If you have any questions or problems just give me a call.”

As she pulled out of the driveway, Marc wondered aloud, “Does it have to be about the dog?”

“SIT, ROWDY. NOW, STAY. Staaay….” Marc wheeled a few feet away then glanced over his shoulder. Rowdy was creeping hesitantly after him.

“No, no, no,” Marc chided. With a combination of pushing on Rowdy’s rump and pulling up on his lead Marc got him back into a sitting position. “Sit. Stay.”

This time he wheeled backward down the driveway, keeping a stern eye on the dog. After a moment’s hesitation, Rowdy started inching forward on his belly, ears flattened, wagging his tail in a submissive posture.

They were out in the front yard because Leone had complained about the dog’s nails scratching her hardwood floors. But with all the distracting scents and sounds of the outdoors Rowdy was finding it hard to stay focused.

“Okay, boy, we’ll try it once more.”

He maneuvered Rowdy back into position. The dog sat for all of thirty seconds until a crow flew out of the spruce tree at the side of the house. Rowdy darted after it, barking loudly.

“So you’ve got a voice. Hurrah,” Marc said wearily. “Come, Rowdy.”

The dog ignored him. When the crow flapped his wings lazily and flew to a pine across the road, Rowdy charged after it, and was narrowly missed by an approaching car.

“Rowdy! Come!” Marc called, wheeling to the end of the driveway.

Rowdy looked over his shoulder at Marc as if to say, “are you kidding?” With more spunk than he’d shown thus far, he barked and continued to chase the bird. Marc called insistently, alternating between an angry and an encouraging tone. Nothing worked.

He was forced to follow the dog down the road, finally cornering Rowdy in a driveway where he was playfully barking at a beagle behind a gate.

Marc dragged Rowdy back to his own yard, scolding, “I can’t run after you if you take off. What if you get hit by a car, or someone even more bad tempered than me dognaps you?”

Rowdy stretched his long body out on the grass and rested his muzzle on his paws, gazing up at Marc with wrinkled eyebrows as if he was as perplexed as Marc about how to solve the problem.

“I should never have agreed to take you,” Marc told him. “It’s all Fiona’s fault for guilting me into it. No, don’t look at me with those puppy-dog eyes. I can’t train you properly and once I’m out of the chair I won’t be around to look after you. I ought to take you to the pound right now.”

Rowdy crawled forward on his belly and lovingly and thoroughly began laving Marc’s bare foot with long flat swipes of his tongue. Marc’s first instinct was to push him away but a second glance stopped him. Rowdy was concentrating his efforts on a scabbed over scrape he’d gotten when he’d bumped into a sharp corner after a shower and not felt it.

The dog was cleaning his wound with intense doggy devotion. It gave him the oddest feeling.

“Come on, then, mutt. We’ll find an obedience class.” Marc wheeled up the sheet of plywood Jim had put in place as a makeshift ramp and into the house. Rowdy trotted along on his short legs, apparently quite happy to obey when he agreed with the directive.

Marc spent half an hour on the phone trying to find a class but the one in Whistler was full and not accepting new members. Another class was starting in Squamish in two weeks but Marc didn’t want to ask Leone or Jim to drive an hour each way.

“There’s always the library,” Marc told Rowdy then caught himself. He was talking to a dog.

“Did I hear you say you were going to the library?” Leone came into the room dressed to go out in black slacks and a dark green blazer with an autumn-colored silk scarf. It was Wednesday, her day off. “I can drop you there on my way to the hairdresser.”

“Thanks.” Marc put Rowdy in the fenced backyard with a bone and a squeaky toy, telling him, “I won’t be long.”

Built on the model of an alpine village, Whistler sparkled in the autumn sun beneath the glistening peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. Tourists from all over the world strolled along the pedestrian-only lanes and squares, browsing the well-kept shops and restaurants. Sports enthusiasts, from mountain bikers in padded shorts and body armor to glacier skiers in long nylon pants and dark goggles rode or strode purposefully toward their individual pursuits, many heading for the chairlifts at the edge of town.

Leone pulled into the handicapped zone in the library parking lot. “How long do you think you’ll be?”

“I’m not sure,” Marc said. “I might go to the pub afterward. I’ll get a taxi back.” He could let Fiona know how the dog was doing. After a week’s abstinence he had a thirst but it wasn’t for bourbon.

Leone fingered the ends of her scarf, her expression troubled. “Marc, honey…”

“I know what you’re going to say,” he forestalled her before she could lecture him on his drinking. “But I’m a big boy. Don’t worry about me.”

“Jim and I do worry. You’ve never drunk too much before, not even when you first came of legal drinking age. Excess alcohol isn’t good for your health and it might even affect your recovery.”

“I know,” Marc said, smoothing out the curling ends of the Band-Aids covering the blistered pads of his palms.

Leone noticed and heaved an exasperated sigh. “When are you going to do something about your hands? All it takes is a phone call to Nate and he’ll bring you a pair of leather cycling gloves. I’ll do it for you.”