The Truth Commission Read Online Free PDF Page A

often worried because ostriches are, and I quote, ‘surprisingly tricky wee scunners.’ Mrs. Dekker is of Dutch-Scottish heritage, not Peruvian, as you’d speculated, Norm. She visited Scotland over the summer and picked up some of the lingo. Hence the term ‘wee scunners.’
    â€œShe’s saddened that her natural brusqueness, quite common among the Dutch and some Scots, is mistaken for ill temper. She started wearing the poncho so people would find her more approachable. It hasn’t worked. However, the poncho
has
been useful for keeping infant ostriches warm. Orphaned ones.”
    â€œYou should suggest she go the Aimee route,” I said. “Get her face surgically adjusted to express her warm, sunny personality.”
    â€œDon’t be mean, Norm,” said Dusk. “Being a part-time ostrich farmer is not as lucrative as it used to be. In fact, over the past several years the bottom has fallen out of what is known as the Aves market. When Blaire—that’s her first name—started, a breeding pair might go for fifty thousand dollars. Hatching eggs went for a thousand. But that was a long time ago. Things have changed in the ostrich-ranching world. At this point, she probably doesn’t have the funds to get her face done.”
    â€œBlaire?” said Neil.
    â€œOstriches?” I added. But before I could bring up the whole “head in the sand” thing, Dusk went on.
    â€œBlaire—Mrs. Dekker—
thanked me
for asking her how she felt about her job. She thanked me for asking her the truth about how she feels. We are sisters in truth. Or at least friendly acquaintances.”
    â€œJust like me and Aimee,” said Neil. “We are really onto something here. I’m so in love with the three of us right now. Which reminds me, I’m getting together with Aimee tonight. We’re doing coffee before her date with Joel Nordstrom. She just wants to touch base first.”
    â€œDoesn’t she call you almost every day now?” I asked.
    Neil sighed. “Yeah, I’m pretty much part of Aimee’s inner circle.”
    I didn’t point out that Aimee had yet to invite him out with her friends. She just took him aside and dumped all her problems on him. Neil, lover of female beauty, didn’t seem to care that the relationship was unequal. He was probably getting ready to ask Aimee to pose for him. As I have already mentioned a time or ten, the last thing I wanted was to be featured in anyone else’s art, but I couldn’t help feeling slightly left out. I pushed my feelings aside.
    Dusk barreled on. “I think Mrs. Dekker may have smiled at the end of our little talk. Also, she twice told me to call her Blaire and told me that she calls her truck Gervais. Isn’t that funny? She loves Ricky Gervais. So you know she’s okay, deep down, even if she is pretty upset about her ostrich troubles.”
    â€œRight,” I said. “Well, I’m glad we have learned the not-so-dark truth about Mrs. Dekker. She’s just Scottish and Dutch and has ostriches.”
    Dusk leaned her head back and breathed in deeply. “I feel so amazing right now. The truth is strong, Norm. Really strong. I can’t wait until you ask someone the truth.”
    I smiled, but didn’t tell her that I was already getting all the truth I could handle.

Thursday, September 1 3
    Represent! 30
    A few days after Dusk broke truth with Mrs. Dekker and discovered ostriches, I came home to find Keira’s former agent, Sylvia, sitting on our couch. Since Keira suddenly came home, Sylvia has made the trip from Los Angeles to Nanaimo every couple of months to see how Keira is doing and to check whether anything has changed, meaning whether a) Keira has decided to rehire Sylvia and let her sell the film option for Diana; b) Keira has finished the new Chronicle, for which her publisher has been waiting; or c) some other agent has tried horning in