The Wire Hanger

Chapter 44

The news, as we received it the next morning via official channels, was that a water main break had caused a sinkhole, which had caused significant destruction in the downtown core. Non-emergency personnel were advised to stay home, and transit would not be running through the affected area. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

            "Who'd all those limbs belong to, then," growled David, switching off the TV more violently than was necessary.

            "We knew we wouldn't hear the truth," said Ruth, sitting on the couch with her hands folded on her lap. She looked wan and drawn, and I supposed we all did. None of us had slept a wink after watching Adah blow herself up. I kept thinking of her as I knew her – before all of this had happened, when she was just my neighbour. It seemed like it must have been someone else's lifetime.

            Jezebel sighed and ran a hand through her hair. It got stuck a few inches in and she pulled it out, shaking her head. "This changes things."

            "How do you figure?" asked Martha.

            "The Bears have amped up their strategy," she said. "I mean, suicide bombers? That's a new one on me." She looked to Felix for confirmation, but he just looked back at her blankly before slowly shaking his head. "They're getting more violent. They aren't going to stop."

            "So it means we really have to get out," said Noah.

            "No," said his mother. "It means we have a responsibility." They stared at each other across the room.

            Ruth murmured, "Oh, I think I left the kettle on," and disappeared into the kitchen, which was the cue for the rest of us to disperse. Noah vanished into the backyard, leaving his mother standing in the living room, looking after him as though he were a stranger.

            I let him be for a while, hanging out with Esau and watching TV, but during a commercial break I went to find him in the backyard. "C'mon," I said, jerking my head towards the house, and we had just slipped into the kitchen when David and my mother appeared, the former of whom nodded at Noah in a gruff sort of way, and the latter gave a sympathetic look, as though she were a hair's breadth from offering him milk and cookies.

"I'll say this for your mother," said David, "she's not one to back down from a fight."

            "I guess you'd like that about her," said Noah.

            "Nah," said David, "not in all circumstances. You've gotta be strategic. When to reverse course. Retreats are a tactical maneuver same as anything else. I'm gonna maneuver one right now." And with that, he backed out of the kitchen, bowl of black market chips balanced on his forearm.

            My mother said, "It's not that Jezebel doesn't understand strategy, she's just...very single-minded. Devoted to a cause. I've known her for a long time, that hasn't changed. Certainly courageous."

            Noah stared down at the kitchen table.

            I said in a small voice, "The Professor told me, not in these words exactly, but he said, um, that courage doesn't always look like what we expect it to."

            Noah raised his head and looked at me.

            "So I think that also means that what looks like courage isn't always," I added. "Necessarily."

            "Well," said my mother, "he hasn't survived this long by being stupid, that's for sure."

            "What are we gonna do?" I asked.