Blind Assassin Read Online Free PDF Page B

menu. I’m only following orders. What’s your objection—the wardrobe? Too much tulle?
    Let’s not fight, she says. She feels she’s about to cry, clenches her hands to stop.
    I didn’t mean to upset you. Come on now.
    She pushes away his arm. You did mean to upset me. You like to know you can.
    I thought it amused you. Listening to me perform. Juggling the adjectives. Playing the zany for you.
    She tugs her skirt down, tucks in her blouse. Dead girls in bridal veils, why would that amuse me? With their tongues cut out. You must think I’m a brute.
    I’ll take it back. I’ll change it. I’ll rewrite history for you. How’s that?
    You can’t, she says. The word has gone forth. You can’t cancel half a line of it. I’m leaving. She’s on her knees now, ready to stand up.
    There’s lots of time. Lie down. He takes hold of her wrist.
    No. Let go. Look where the sun is. They’ll be coming back. I could be in trouble, though I guess for you it’s not trouble at all, that kind: it doesn’t count. You don’t care—all you want is a quick, a quick—
    Come on, spit it out.
    You know what I mean, she says in a tired voice.
    It’s not true. I’m sorry. I’m the brute, I got carried away. Anyway it’s only a story.
    She rests her forehead against her knees. After a minute she says, What am I going to do? After—when you’re not here any more?
    You’ll get over it, he says. You’ll live. Here, I’ll brush you off.
    It doesn’t come off, not with just brushing.
    Let’s do up your buttons, he says. Don’t be sad.
The Colonel Henry Parkman High School Home and School and Alumni Association Bulletin, Port Ticonderoga, May 1998
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    Laura Chase Memorial Prize to be Presented
    BY MYRA STURGESS, VICE-PRESIDENT,

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
    Colonel Henry Parkman High has been endowed with a valuable new prize by the generous bequest of the late Mrs. Winifred Griffen Prior of Toronto, whose noted brother Richard E. Griffen, will be remembered, as he often vacationed here in Port Ticonderoga and enjoyed sailing on our river. The prize is the Laura Chase Memorial Prize in Creative Writing, of a value of two hundred dollars, to be awarded to a student in the graduating year for the best short story, to be judged by three Alumni Association members, with literary and also moral values considered. Our Principal Mr. Eph Evans, states: “We are grateful to Mrs. Prior for remembering us along with her many other benefactions.”
    Named in honour of famed local authoress Laura Chase, the first Prize will be presented at Graduation in June. Her sister Mrs. Iris Griffen of the Chase family which contributed so much to our town in earlier days, has graciously consented to present the Prize to the lucky winner, and there’s a few weeks left to go, so tell your kids to roll up their creativity sleeves and get cracking!
    The Alumni Association will sponsor a Tea in the Gymnasium immediately after the Graduation, tickets available from Myra Sturgess at the Gingerbread House, all proceeds towards new football uniforms which are certainly needed! Donation of baked goods welcome, with nut ingredients clearly marked please.
Three
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    The presentation

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    This morning I woke with a feeling of dread. I was unable at first to place it, but then I remembered. Today was the day of the ceremony.
    The sun was up, the room already too warm. Light filtered in through the net curtains, hanging suspended in the air, sediment in a pond. My head felt like a sack of pulp. Still in my nightgown, damp from some fright I’d pushed aside like foliage, I pulled myself up and out of my tangled bed, then forced myself through the usual dawn rituals—the ceremonies we perform to make ourselves look sane and acceptable to other people. The hair must be smoothed down after whatever apparitions have made it stand on end during the night, the expression of staring disbelief washed from the eyes. The teeth brushed, such as they are. God