Covenant Disrupted

Book 4: Can we put this House Together Again?

September 10, 1988

Michael's eyes roved the Square from his vantage point on the roof. He had declared a workday with Monty, and they'd decided to tackle the house. A thin, morning mist hung low over the area, barely hiding parts of the hills. His eyes scanned Maxine's salon, the new Mac Mart, JR's multicolored 'Restaurant,' the police station that could barely fit Daniel Donaldson, head of police for the district, his two deputies, and a jail cell, the Major McDonald Secondary School (MMSS), and David's Hardware.

Michael looked in the direction of the bus stop where Grace would board the Encava bus to go to work at Solidarity Primary School that very morning. It was the second week of the new school year. A few people, mostly school children, stood around waiting at the bus stop for the bus that would take them to Solidarity, Manning's School, Sav-la-mar Secondary, and the market in Sav. A group of children heading to MMSS passed them. Grim girls scurried by in crisp, white blouses and blue gabardine skirts. Some boys brought up the rear, walking in two rows. In the first row was a somber, slightly overweight boy. He tried to walk briskly but was lagging slightly behind the three girls walking alongside him. Behind them in the back row, were two boys around the same age as the first. They snickered and elbowed each other, and one of them kept pointing at the boy walking ahead of them.

"Mr. Michael, you saw the hammer that you buy from David's store the other day?" Monty said from below.

Michael used the ladder at the side of the house to climb down to ground level. When he'd jumped off the last rung and pulled the hammer from his pocket to hand it off to Monty, a caustic concoction of rum and grime enveloped him.

"Mr. Clarke," Michael said, looking at Monty's dingy orange T-shirt and jeans. "Is it really necessary to drink this early in the morning?"

The older man braced himself and looked at the roof. "Your father would be very proud to see how you fixed up this place for your mother."

Michael shook his head then shrugged. He and Monty walked to the front yard and examined the work they'd completed so far.

"Actually, tearing the entire house down was what I really wanted to do, but of course, Mama says Papa's memory is in there."

"Grady," Monty said, looking at Grady's gravesite by the fence. He wagged his finger as he spoke. "Him still besting us even from the grave, eeh?"

The door near the verandah slammed shut and the clomp-clomp of heels sounded on the verandah.

"Miss Grace leaving for school," Monty said, in a muffled whisper that would make a ventriloquist proud.

They both watched as Grace descended the steps. She wore charcoal-nude panty hose under her teacher's uniform: a burgundy gabardine skirt and a pale, yellow, cotton shirt that had been starched and ironed stiff.

"Morning," she said, without stopping as she passed them. Her perfume, Avon Sweet Honesty, still lingered after she'd closed the gate behind her.

"Morning," the men said in chorus. Michael turned to watch her as she went by. He watched as she stabbed the slope leading to the bus stop with her high heels.

"If Miss Grace didn't talk to me otherwise," Monty said, "I would think that she in malice with me too."

"It's the bad company you're keeping," Michael said, with a shaky laugh

The Encava's loud horn blared from the Square, and two minutes later, it came barreling down the main road towards the bus stop.

"It's seven thirty," Monty said, glancing at his watch. "Miss Grace on time today."