New Year's Eve (4 page)

Ron and Grady walked into the back of the hall. They looked really big coming in. Ron still had his long flashlight in one hand.

Grady’s navy parka looked like an RCMP coat. But Grady always looks like a policeman. The one you would want to see coming up to
the car window after an accident. I think that’s why he joined the Mounties.

Ron and Grady made their way up to the dance floor. The crowd parted so they could get through.

Sharla gave me my coat and whispered, “Time to go.” Jade tucked the blanket tight around Daisy in the car seat.

Nobody wants the RCMP wives around when people are getting arrested.

The boys had pretty well knocked themselves out already in their fury. One smaller guy still had some fight in him, but Grady held his upper arms in a tight hug. The kid gave up.

We were in the porch of the hall by the time the fighters all came out. I didn’t know if Grady saw us as they went by. He was pretty busy.

Somehow he and Ron got all the fighters out to the police cruiser. They fit four of them in the back seat. The father of one of the boys said he’d drive the last two over to the police station. Ron patted his shoulder and said, “See you there.”

I hoped this was not going to mean a lot of paperwork.

But of course it would.

Ron and Grady drove away, with the father’s truck following.

Inside the community hall, the music hadn’t started up again yet. Outside, the night was quiet and cold. At least the snow had stopped.

This was the wilderness. Fighting and freezing, like in the olden days. The real country started just past Ron and Sharla’s place. The lines of parked cars were only temporary. Most days this would be an empty piece of road, going into nowhere.

Jade had gone back into the hall to check on her sons. They came to the door with her. Jade walked over to say goodbye to me and Sharla, the fringes on her jacket swaying.

Softly, so the boys wouldn’t hear, Jade said, “They’re pretty shocked, but that’s good. All
those kids will be careful tonight. They say they’re going back to Donna’s place to have a party with her parents.” She turned to me. “Donna’s dad is the mayor. They’ll be safe.”

Sharla’s voice sounded loud in the cold, clear air. “Come on with us, Jade. We’ve got the hot tub going. And there’s lots to eat.”

For a moment Jade looked at her. “Okay,” she said, finally. “Twist my arm.”

She waved back to her boys, and we started across the road.

The clouds had parted, and stars were shaken like salt over the black sky. Jade stopped while Sharla lit a cigarette.

I went ahead of them. I was almost across the road.

There was no warning, only a shift in the air. A wind. And the ground shaking.

I thought a truck was coming, but no headlights cut through the night. Was it horses? Suddenly, huge shapes appeared, rushing down the road at me out of the darkness.

A buffalo ran right by me.

Another—oh God, another humped black shape pounding by, too close.

Another one coming—this one was going to run me down. My feet wouldn’t move, but I swung the car seat out of its way as far as my arm would reach.

The buffalo changed its path and raced past me. Giant shoulders, narrow pointed feet. A huge bulk, much bigger than I’d ever imagined. The warm depth of brown fur, and the horns. One bright eye, small in the huge head, stared at me. I could see it very clearly in that long half-second.

Daisy swung gently at the end of my left arm. The buffalo ran on, and the wind went with it.

Jade took the car seat, and Sharla grabbed me before I fell down. The buffalo could have— Daisy could have been killed.

“Fucking shit,” Sharla said.

My legs were shaking. I could still feel the pounding in the road.

“I guess the guys didn’t get them penned after all,” Sharla said. She told Jade about Ron and Grady going out to help the buffalo rancher.

“The fence could have been down somewhere else,” Jade said. “Buffalo are smart.”

“I wouldn’t raise those things for anything.” Sharla was right, they ought to be left wild. They always were wild—even behind a fence.
Even when I was so scared, the buffalo had been amazing. To see one so close. I was shivering, but I was not cold.

Jade said, “Everything’s okay, Dixie. The baby’s okay, you did good. They’re gone.”

“Yeah. Now all you have to do is walk to the house,” Sharla said. “Look, it’s, like, twenty more steps.”

I thought they might have to carry me. But they wouldn’t be able to. I patted at Daisy’s blanket and pulled it down to see her face. She opened her eyes and laughed.

“Do it again!” Jade said. “She’d like another ride.”

Okay. Okay. We made it up the driveway.

“The thing is,” I said, “Grady would kill me if anything happened to Daisy. I mean, I’d kill myself. But he’d come along and dig me up and kill me again.”

“She’s fine, she’s fine,” Sharla said. “I’m fucking freezing, though, if you want to know. Come on, come inside.”

I stumbled up the steps between the other two and got inside. Now I really wanted a drink.

The house was hot. All the lights blazing. Sharla put the oven on and shoved in a couple more trays of M&M snacks.

Jade and I got our coats off slowly. Daisy sat and bubbled at me. She reached out her arms for me, wanting to nurse. I could feel the milk flooding down into my breasts because of being scared.

I picked Daisy up and went to the velour couch. I sat still, nursing her, stroking her silky hair. The buffalo’s thick, curling fur had looked so soft.

Jade said to Sharla, “Looks like you had a party on tonight.”

“Not really,” Sharla said. “We thought maybe the guys from Smoky Lake detachment would come down. But the snow...”

Sharla seemed a little embarrassed. Like she should have invited Jade, but she hadn’t.

They both came and sat on the long couch.

“Over at the dance—what was that fight about?” I asked.

“Who’s sleeping with who, of course,” Sharla said.

“They were really mad,” I said. I felt stupid for saying that. Of course they were mad.

“My kids said it’s the new teacher at the high school,” Jade said. “She wasn’t there, but they say she’s having some kind of thing with a student. One of the boys wanted to report her, get her fired. They got worked up. Donna was part of it all, too. She’s got a talent for setting people against each other. But she doesn’t mean any real harm.”

“That girl is a raging bitch,” Sharla said.

“Her dad is smart. He’s got Donna taking the rest of the kids over to their place. He’ll keep them occupied. No more fighting tonight. Just lots of talk.”

Sharla got up to make drinks. White Russians this time. Brown Kahlua in the bottom, cold milk on top. Lots of ice. They looked so sweet. My mother didn’t nurse me at all, and look, I’m alive. But the books all say you should breastfeed for a solid year. And nursing is easier than washing bottles.

“I do have some powdered baby formula in the diaper bag,” I said. “The nurse gave me some free samples and a plastic bottle. I carry
the stuff around, just in case, but I’ve never tried it before.”

I looked at Jade. She would know, having two boys.

Jade nodded. “Finish nursing her now, then have a couple of drinks with us. We’ll make Daisy a bottle for the morning. You don’t have to stop nursing yet, just get her to take a bottle instead sometimes. So you’ve got the option.”

Sharla pulled another glass from the cupboard and shot ice into it from the fridge door. I’ll never be rich enough to have a fridge with ice in the door. She poured another drink and put them all on a tray with chips and dip.

“There!” Sharla said. Finally happy, now that I would have a drink. “It’ll be waiting for you.”

Daisy finished nursing. I changed her diaper and put her in a fresh undershirt. She was happy, too. Fresh and clean and full of milk, she wanted to get down onto the carpet. Jade took her hands and let her stand up and stagger around for a while.

“Okay, ladies,” Sharla said. “That hot tub is not going to soak itself.”

I took the car seat and Jade brought Daisy. We all went back into the misty sunroom. Sharla put on music and made the jets in the tub whirl the water into froth.

This time I didn’t think about it. I stripped off Sharla’s shirt and the jeans she’d given me and got into the tub in my underpants and t-shirt.

I took Daisy back from Jade and slid her diaper off. The water was a bit too hot for her, but she could sit on the island of my knee. She loved it.

The other two women stripped down, too. Sharla had no bodysuit this time, and neither did Jade. They just got out of their clothes without thinking about it. Like women in the gym sauna, easy about being naked. I wished I could do that.

They were both pretty in their skin. Sharla pink and gold, thin but soft. She was right to make herself a blonde. It suited her. Jade’s dark hair fell over her shoulders and back. She looked like a police woman, like a runner. Strong and lean.

RCMP women, wives and female members, seem to come in two kinds. Tin, strong-willed,
and pretty, like these two. Or kind and dumpy, like me.

But Jade was kind, too.

And maybe it’s just that all women come in those two types. Hot tub and non–hot tub.

Drinking the White Russian while sitting in the hot water made the treat even colder and sweeter. I stretched it out for as long as I could.

It was New Year’s Eve, after all. Sharla and Jade talked through what had happened over the last year. I talked a little, too. Where we’d been (me nowhere; both of the others to Vegas). Who had died or got married. The bad and good things.

With a sudden shout, Sharla jumped out of the tub. “Shit, I did it again!”

She grabbed a short terry robe and ran to the kitchen. Whatever she had in the oven smelled good.

“Don’t talk about anything interesting while I’m gone!” she yelled back.

That left us with nothing to talk about.

After a minute I said, “Ron told us your husband went to Vegas for some golf.”

Jade laughed. “We won a trip in the hospital lottery.”

“That was lucky,” I said.

She said, “Nah. Who wants heat and sun anyway, when you can have weather like this?”

I shuddered.

“I’m from up north,” Jade said. “I don’t mind the cold. I’d like to go home to Yellowknife. But it costs too much.”

“Do you golf, too?” I asked her.

She laughed again. “No! Tim doesn’t either. Golf is just an excuse.”

“What’s he gone for, then?”

“He’s leaving me.”

Jade moved in the water. She swept her hair back and leaned her head on one hand. Water dripped from her hand and face.

She corrected herself. “He’s thinking about it, about leaving.”

I thought she might be crying, but her voice was calm.

I said I was sorry. Looking at her, I couldn’t imagine her being left. She was so beautiful. How could he find somebody nicer?

“The boys are old enough now. They’d be okay. It’s not like we haven’t thought about this before. I used to think about it all the time, when the kids were little. About how I’d leave him. What I’d do. I was going to get a bachelor apartment in Edmonton. I used to look at the apartments for rent section in the newspaper.”