Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

Aerospace I - Lunar Harp

I had adventures and dangerous encounters. There are some deadly gangs in Saskatoon. Many based on race. They could never pin me down, but if push to shove, I favoured the natives. They were tough, but they had a kindness inside, the other gangs didn't have. It saved my life one time or at least my virginity. I let natives into the pool free sometimes. My sister works the cash.

* * *

It was my second year of Agricultural College. I got up that first morning put on one of my three standard outfits, my drugstore magenta lipstick and darkened my eyebrows. That was it. I grabbed my pack and ran in my barefoot sneakers, the four kilometres, then across the University bridge and onto the second floor hallway for my geology class.

Then Basil happened. Nothing would ever be the same. Basil Graves stole my life.

"That is it. Easy as pie. I took it last year."

Those were my last words as a 19 year old prairie girl. I sat down and my next words were, "Well, I am a Saskatoon berry!"

How it happened. I was moving down that hall just looking for my class and hoping to get there on time. There was a fuss on the steps as this native guy was swearing and stumbling. A white guy grabbed his arm, so he would not fall. This native guy asks for Soils 101. I step in and point it out.

"That is it. Easy as pie. I took it last year."

My white guy looks over and all hell is churning inside me. He is looking in the most intimate way. It was only a glance, but it was everything.

Then they walk away, the white guy dragging the native into class. I have to sit down. It would be years before I talked to him, but he was everything.

The next day my father died. We had a small funeral with just family and the official people in town. My mother continued with the store and us sisters helped when we could.

Chapter 2 : Basil and Ernie

I was an ace student always top marks, I never had to struggle. That morning, I sat on the bench and missed my class, then the second class as I watched the two men walk out of the room, the best of friends. They walked away from me, but it did not matter, even his walk was stirring me.

They must have been late starters. Many men work a few years before they take university. They were men not boys. Good men, my mother would have said. Either one, she would have invited them over and introduced him to my sister. I thought, 'But mother! You do not know what that white man did to me.'

I finally stood up and got to my climate zones class.

Basil would always be seated with Ernie at cafeteria, in study class. Girls would come over and their postures would change and they were gone. I watched from the farthest corner. I knew something had happened. Basil did not seem to notice. He was quiet while Ernie did the talking. They were men talking, I suppose, about men things.

I knew they were not gay. They ignored all the boys and glanced at the girls. I would have liked to get closer, but I was very afraid of him. Scary man of my life. My heart. Me a shaky berry.

I ran for the track team. Never won but came in second once on the long distant runs. Again I worked as lifeguard for the university swimming pool. My sister was just finishing her last year as Chartered Accountant studies. She still worked the pool cash.

I enjoyed the public time when older men came in for a swim. These were men that did not hit on me. They had interesting things to say. They had been everywhere and understood things about love and life. So I let them sit on the bleachers behind me, as I sat in my raised seat. They talked, I mostly listened. It was the best time.