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16 | (continued) I started shouting as loudly as he. “I TOLD YOU HE NEVER SAID ANYTHING! BUT HE KNEW I WAS HERE. AND SO DID YOU. YOU BOTH SAW ME MANY TIMES, EVER SINCE I GOT HERE. I HAVE TO ASSUME THAT BROTHERS COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER. AND IF THEY DON’T, IT’S NOT MY FAULT.” “NEVER YOU MIND ABOUT THAT! THAT’S NUNNA YOUR BINESS! YOU GOT NO RIGHT TO BE HERE, ’CAUSE YOU NEVER GOT PERMISSION, AN’ I WON’T BE LIED TO!” “I’VE NEVER LIED TO YOU. WHAT WOULD BE THE POINT OF IT? BOTH OF YOU KNEW I WAS HERE. SINCE JUNE AT LEAST. WHAT WOULD THERE BE TO LIE ABOUT?” “YOU NEVER SAID HOW LONG YOU WERE GONNA STAY! AN’ YOU GOT NO OUTHOUSE! IT’S UNSANITARY. AN’ YOU’RE CUTTIN’ OUR FIREWOOD—YOU CUT THAT TREE DOWN—HOW’D YA KNOW WE DIDN’T WANT IT?”
“WELL WHADJA CUT IT DOWN FOR?” “I thought it would burn. It was a mistake. I’m sorry about that.” “Well there’s a guy from Natural Resources says you’re not allowed to camp in here. They got a reserve along the river. It’s Crown Land.” “I was told about that. But nobody seems to know where the boundary is.” “Well he’s gonna come over here in the next coupla weeks, an’ he’s gonna see about it. An’ he’ll hafta ask ya t’ pack up, an’ he can call the police if he hasta.” “What if it turns out that I’m not on the reserve?” “We’ll just hafta see about that!” He turned as fast as his old body would allow, and skied off. “YOU JUST GET READY TO PACK UP! I WANT YOU OUTA HERE BY THE FIRST OF FEB’RY!” For days afterwards, grappling in silent debate with the irrationality of the man, I found a wealth of ingenious arguments to demolish his absurdities. The greatest source of pain for me was the certainty that he was too fucking stupid to understand them. |
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“It’s softwood. And it’s dead. It’s wet. It’s useless.”|
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