The City Still Breathing

The City Still Breathing Read Online Free PDF

Book: The City Still Breathing Read Online Free PDF
Author: Matthew Heiti
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Crime, Canadian, Literary Collections
on.’
    â€˜I’m not gonna fuckin hold on. We’re supposed to be halfway to Toronto but instead we been driving all over the city and I wanna know what the fuck for!’
    â€˜Just one last stop, Francie.’
    â€˜I swear to god, Slim, if we’re not on that highway – I swear to fuckin god.’
    â€˜I’ll get you there, don’t worry, babe.’ And it’s got to be real bad, because pet names make Slim barf. As some kind of peace offering, he jams the tape back in the eight-track. The vocals kicking in, and I’m stuck here two years too long , and Francie thinks ain’t that the fuckin truth of it. In the summer this was a love song and now it’s a song about this day and yesterday and all the days before. Stuck, stuck, stuck. And then Bernard’s voice gets all crunched up as the deck mangles the tape. Francie wrenching it loose.
    â€˜You’re gonna wreck it, Francie!’ Slim trying to grab the tape from her, but she rolls down her window and tosses it. ‘Fuckin psycho!’ He pounds the wheel.
    Heck forces one of his stupid pig laughs from the back seat.
    â€˜You guys.’
    In the mirror, she watches the magnetic tape unspooling behind them in a big oily ribbon, the tape clattering on the pavement. Francie laughing. Just Married.
    Slim swings the car around behind Wembley Public, stopping in the trees down near the metal bridge over the creek. So far past talking, the three of them just watch the water, a shopping cart upended in the middle, brown foam pooling around it.
    Slim pulls the vial out of his jacket and spills three blue microdots into his hand. He drops one and passes one back to Heck. The last one to Francie, her holding the blue tab like a bug she might squish. Placing it on her tongue. Dropping this little bit of colour down her throat, down inside her. A little blue into all that grey, like the food colouring her mom used for cake icing. Sometimes a little drop is all it takes. The blue’s falling into her and outside the snow is just starting to fall.
    Before five minutes have passed, Heck’s already rubbing his face. ‘It stinks back here.’
    Slim snorts. ‘Because you fuckin blew chunks back there.’
    â€˜It really stinks.’ Heck’s struggling out of his jacket. ‘And it’s hot, like a sauna.’ Then he’s out the door, rolling around on the gravel.
    Francie pulls her legs up on the seat, chin on knees. ‘I don’t wanna be dicked around, Slim.’
    â€˜I’m not dicking you around.’
    â€˜You’re lying – ’
    â€˜I’m not – ’
    â€˜ – or you’re not telling me something, whatever, I don’t even give a shit, I just want to get down south.’
    â€˜What’s the big deal? Toronto’s nothin special.’
    â€˜It’s better than here. There’s so much to do there.’
    â€˜There’s stuff here too.’
    â€˜Like what – hanging out at the arcade? What’s up with you, I thought you hated it here too.’
    He shrugs. ‘It’s okay.’
    â€˜It’s not okay – it sucks! I want to do things, I want to be something, and this town is dead. It’s dead. You can’t be a photographer here.’
    â€˜Who says I can be a photographer anywhere?’
    â€˜Your stuff is so cool, Slim. The way you take people – it’s so fuckin cool. Nobody’s cool like that.’
    â€˜It’s kids’ stuff. I’m done with it.’
    â€˜Why’re you saying that?’ The blue is spreading through her, syruping over the grey, tinting everything. ‘You don’t mean it.’
    â€˜Photography – art, whatever – it’s not real , Francie.’
    â€˜But what about school?’
    â€˜Fuck it.’
    â€˜You said it’s one of the best in the country.’
    â€˜Well, I was wrong. It’s stupid. I’ll get a real
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