Sylvanus Now Read Online Free Page A

him stumbling through another onslaught of pecking and flapping and squabbling.
    “Worse than Manny,” he grunted, hopping onto the beach, away from the lot of them. Digging his hands into his pockets, he leaned into the breeze and was soon whistling his way along shore, his nymph from the night swaying before him once more, luring him along some mystic path, beckoning him inside a shanty and seating him beside a fire that warmed his heart as readily as it warmed her hearth. Nothing followed him there—no boats, no fish, no creamy white pods and their wasted spawn—all vapourized by the heat of her fire as it blazed across her bare, naked skin, leaping into his veins and fevering his vision as he wove through the following days, tripping over goats and chicks, and clamouring about his stage, his flakes, his woodpile on weakening legs.
    “We needs a new house, Mother,” he said irritably one evening, stumbling over mats that had been lying on the floors since he was a gaffer, and peering critically at unpainted faceboards and faded wallpaper.
    “It’ll last the rest of my years,” grumbled Eva, pushing him out of her way.
    “There’s holes in the canvas.”
    “Stop your pacing, then, big galoot. I was thinking,” she went on as he rested his arms moodily on the windowsill, gazing outside, “perhaps we should take a smoked salmon to the Trapps.”
    He near cricked his neck, twisting it sideways to see her, but her face was hidden in the bowels of a bottom cupboard. “You talking about a visit ?” he asked incredulously.
    “With all they done for us, wouldn’t hurt to pay a visit.”
    He jammed his hands in his back pockets, studying the back of her head. “Eighteen years ago the Trapps fished Elikum out of the sea, and suddenly you wants go visit them. What’re you rooting at in there? Get your head out,” he commanded, “and tell me why in the name of gawd you’re wanting to visit the Trapps?”
    Eva hauled back on her haunches, brandishing a dusty bottle of pickles before him. “You mind yourself,” she said stiffly. “They brought your brother home. Least we got one grave marked in that cemetery. Goodness’ sakes, can’t a body go visiting without all this nonsense?”
    “Nonsense! You suddenly wants to visit the Trapps, and my asking why is nonsense? Jeezes, they’d rather sink your boat than let you ashore.”
    “They’ve never hurt a soul.”
    “Enough the way they looks at you. No thanks, the Trapps don’t like company and that’s fine with me.”
    “Then I’ll get Jake to take me.” She creaked to her feet, shuffling tiredly to the bin, polishing off the pickle bottle with her apron. “Besides,” she said, “I got something to ask of them. I was thinking on getting one of their girls to work with me this summer in the garden.”
    “Hey!? You wants a Trapp girl working for us? Oh, come now, Mother—”
    “Don’t go now Mothering me!” cried Eva, turning on him. “I’m not what I used to be, and for all the help you are these days, you might just as well move to Ragged Rock, for that’s where your mind’s at, well enough.”
    “Well, sir, is that what’s on your mind—that I’m moving off to Ragged Rock?” He struck a fist into his hand. “Bloody Manny! Up shooting off his face, was he? Got me marrying some girl up Ragged Rock. Fool! And, oh, that’s a good one, Mother. You’d have me marry a Trapp, instead—sly as dogs—”
    “How’d you know that? Nobody ever got to know them.”
    “That says it right there—a stone’s throw up the shore and we hardly knows their names.”
    “Nothing wrong with keeping to yourselves. We should all be more mindful. Least they’re not wanting roads and electricity and to be moving off all over the place.”
    “Oh, and is that what you’re thinking, that I’ll soon be getting a girl and burning me boat and buying a car? Well, sir—” and he broke off laughing.
    His mother had turned her back, polishing and repolishing