Agency

In Which We Have Come Full Circle

Tuesday, the day the goose falls from the sky

Berry had spent the night in his father's hospital room again. Jim remained sedated, but he occasionally rose to the surface and made contact with his son, his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren. There was a heavy sense of value on these moments being, as they were, limited in supply. Whenever Jim's eyes opened, no matter what time of day or night, it felt important that someone be there to throw themselves into the frame.

The doctor on duty assured Berry that Jim was stable for the moment and that nothing was expected to change in the near term. If she'd said otherwise, Berry would have stayed by his Dad's side rather than going in to work that day. If it weren't for the need to push things forward on the sponsorship agreement (which did not yet exist), he would have stayed.

Berenice offered to stay with Jim during the day so that Berry could leave. She made this offer with pursed lips, thinking it would be declined, but was hardly surprised when he accepted.

"Fine," she said. "But remember, I have a professor's meeting this evening. You'll need to pick the girls up from after-school care before 6 then come back here to be with your Dad. If you're late, he'll be alone for a while.

He'd nodded. From the vantage point of this morning, it all seemed very doable.

***

Later, back in the office, he called the Six Nations Confederacy again and asked to speak with Tracy.

He waited on hold for several minutes, until Darlene, the receptionist, came back on the line.

"Mr. Ross? Tracy says to tell you the answer is still no."

"But... Darlene, does Tracy understand that all my client wants to do is make a donation to the community? Why would Tracy say no to a donation?"

"I don't know, Mr. Ross. But she also said to tell you: All boats go up in a rising tide. Do you know what that means?"

He shrugged at his desk. "No. Is it a native proverb?"

Darlene laughed. "Hardly. I think she got it from a TedTalk online."

"Well, what's it supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Hell if I know," said Darlene. "But I know her answer's no. Will we see you at the ceremony next weekend?"

He rubbed his forehead. If there weren't banners and ticket stubs and a goddamn jumbotron at that ceremony next weekend, Theirry would go mental. And more to the point, he'd claw the safety funds back. Berry couldn't allow that to happen.

"Yeah, I'll be there," he said miserably before hanging up.

***

Just before the end of the day, he tried Sylvio again. If anyone could make the impossible happen — even sponsoring an event that didn't want sponsoring — it would be him. Berry waited hopefully until his email pinged with the same old reply:

AUTORESPONSE FROM: Sylvio C, Starfluence & Co.

I'll be in Jamaica until the money runs out. Irie!

Berry checked his watch. It was 5:01 PM. He picked up his jacket, slung it over his arm and pulled his keys out of his bag.

Just then, his phone buzzed with an incoming email, which he stopped to check in case it was something important.

It was from Allegra asking him pop by her office before he left. She'd marked the email urgent.

He groaned in frustration. He couldn't be late picking up the girls. He stalked up the hall to find out what she needed.

"Come in, Berry," she said.

He was caught off guard by her calling him that. She'd only ever called him Bertrand. Why the sudden informality?

"Allegra, I can't hang around. I have to get the kids before--"

"Understood, this will only take a moment," she said. Then again, that's what she generally said before taking as long as she pleased.

"I want you to be the first to know that I'm leaving. I'm taking a new post. Word just came in."

"You're... Oh! I see," he said, trying to contain the sense of relief that was flooding him.

"I know this will be hard for you. Hard for us," she corrected herself. "But I think it's best that I go, given how close things came to surfacing yesterday. It wouldn't do either of us any favours to be found out now."

"No," he admitted, for once in complete agreement.

"There's only one small thing I need before I go."

"What's that?" he asked, willing to hurry her along if he could.

"I need Henry back. I'll be taking him with me. The fact is, your wife has been very rude about it. She's got some man-friend of hers holding Henry hostage."

"A man-friend?" Berry restated, stupidly. Did Berenice have a man-friend? "Wait, you've spoken to Berenice?"

"Ah. So she never mentioned the phone call. That explains it," Allegra said to herself.

She cleared her throat prettily. "Yes, Berry, I called her. Friday night. Don't worry, I only spoke to her about Henry."

Berry's thoughts scrambled. But Berenice thought the dog was Otto's. Because that's what I told her. So she knows I lied.

"I wish you hadn't called her, Allegra."

"Oh, don't worry about that. What you should be worried about is this:" she paused. "If I don't get Henry back within 24 hours, I am going to call your wife again. And this time, we'll speak about more than the dog."

Berry blanched. He knew it had been coming, but there it was. He'd finally stepped off the sandbar and fallen into the deep, cold, abyss.

He looked at his watch. Shit. He was going to be late.

***

And so, here we are again. We find ourselves back where we began, in a car which is racing across the Gardiner, drive-time radio droning, a flock of geese gracefully V'ing above.

Like an impressionist painting, stories seem whole from a distance, but the closer we look, the more likely the details are to overwhelm and confuse us.

A goose falls from the sky. An act of God or fate (as you prefer), or just a random occurrence? Is this the whole picture, or is it a tiny, intentional brushstroke contributing to something larger?

For Berry, that has yet to be determined. He doesn't decide necessarily to swerve and avoid the falling goose. But decision or not, that's what he does. And that decision leads to an outcome. In this case, the outcome is that, at 100 kms/hour, his car clips the edge of the off-ramp, corkscrews through air and over the barricades, landing, still right-side-up, on the westbound on-ramp where there is, fortunately, very little traffic and nobody (except Berry) gets at all hurt.