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    Greenmantle
    Greenmantle
    Greenmantle
    Ebook462 pages7 hours

    Greenmantle

    By Charles de Lint

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Not far from the city there is an ancient wood, forgotten by the modern world, where Mystery walks in the moonlight. He wears the shape of a stag, or a goat, or a horned man wearing a cloak of leaves. He is summoned by the music of the pipes or a fire of bones on Midsummer's Evening. He is chased by the hunt and shadowed by the wild girl.

    Greenmantle is not only a gripping thriller but also an introduction to the most profound philosophical issues in literature what stories are for and how they create us. ...de Lint shows an awareness of what he's doing that makes his fiction not just a damn fine read but also a clear map of the road that fantasy follows through the human mind. ...with Greenmantle, he shows that, far from being mere escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep mythic literature of our time.
    --The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1989

    Charles de Lint is one of my favorite fantasy writers. His juxtapositions of classical folklore with modern settings are full of power and beauty. His novel Greenmantle, is no exception: strong characters deal strongly with themselves and the supernatural. What is unique about this book is that the supernatural element is not the problem that most of the people are dealing with. It's an integral part of the story, but it is seldom threatening and it's generally beautiful. In most fantasies, the supernatural is the focus: here the focus is on people learning to stand their ground.
    --Locus Magazine, December 1987

    Constructing a fantasy around the mythical figure of the horned god and interweaving it with a hard-hitting contemporary thriller is a nice idea in theory. In practice, when a story tries to cross genre boundaries or mix genre elements, it tends to lose its focus and fall into a vacuous no-man's land. Charles de Lint has succeeded magnificently where many have failed. Greenmantle fires on all cylinders and on all levels, especially in that difficult interstice between fantasy and reality. By turns poignant and upbeat, without being schmaltzy, this engrossing and pacy story will hold your attention from first to last and beyond guaranteed!
    --Fear Magazine, March 1991

    De Lint is a master of the modern urban folk tale.
    --The Denver Post

    It is hard to imagine urban fantasy done better then it is by de Lint at his best.
    --Booklist

    In de Lint's capable hands, modern fantasy becomes something other than escapism. It becomes folk song, the stuff of urban myth.
    --The Phoenix Gazette

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles de Lint
    Release dateSep 25, 2015
    ISBN9780920623640
    Greenmantle
    Author

    Charles de Lint

    Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.

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    Reviews for Greenmantle

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    • 4/5
      I like the mix of modern-day thriller and mystical fantasy which de Lint manages to weave together so skillfully. Think of a mash-up of Catherine Coulter and Angela Carter... it is something like that.Short synopsis: Former Mafia hitman, now in hiding from the 'family', acquires new neighbors - a woman who has recently won the Wintario lottery and her 14-year-old daughter. The woman's lowlife ex-husband decides to come for the money and recognizes the neighbor. Meanwhile, strange & magical music comes from the forest behind the 2 houses, affecting everyone but the daughter most of all. A mystery and a secret are calling her into the woods...
    • 4/5
      This one's due for a re-read -- I recall hugely enjoying it a few years ago, but I'm not sure if it holds up.
    • 4/5
      An very cool tale. There's some exposition on the nature of deity/mystery/supernatural and the relationship between inner and outer realities.
    • 3/5
      I chose Greenmantle solely because I read that it was a good start to reading anything by de Lint. His style of Urban Fantasy is unique because it combines both the aspects of traditional fiction with aspects of fantasy. This undoubtedly gets many true Fantasy aficionados upset that his work should be considered Fantasy at all but I now tend to disagree with these beliefs since reading this novel.Greenmantle on the whole is just a simple, yet good, story. There's nothing in the way of true discussion upon society or politics. His development of friendship between adults and children was very good I thought and his style of writing is very peaceful and easy to follow. This novel is easily just as accessible for teenagers as it is for adults and I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a good novel to read. It is especially adequate for those who dislike reading true Fantasy novels because of their inherent 'far out' nature but who still wish to read a novel with a bit of the mystic and mysterious.
    • 5/5
      This is another book by one of my favorite authors, Charles de lint. Often his novels are infused with music, either on the periphery or as an integral part of the book. In The Little Country he even includes some sheet music at the end of the story. Greenmantle uses the music to bring together the two worlds he likes to write about, ours and the fey.The story is about Tony Valenti, an ex-mob hit man who is trying to turn his life around and stay hidden after his mob family turns on him. It is also about Frankie and Ali Treasure, a mother and daughter who move to Frankie's childhood home after winning the lottery. They are also looking for a new life. What Ali and Tony (now neighbors) find, is a beautiful and haunting music that calls to them from the woods. Chasing the music and mystery it promises leads them to a forgotten village filled with people who worship and call the mystery to them every night through that music. The two worlds collide when Tony is found by a mob contact who also happens to be Ali's dead-beat father.I loved the imagery in this book and of course, the importance of the music. The music is not good and it is not bad. The mystery is not good and it is not bad. They are what you bring to them. A very important message for us all in the way we live our lives, I believe.From the back of the book:Not far from the city is an ancient wood, forgotten by the modern world, where Mystery walks in the moonlight. He wears the shape of a stag, or a goat, or a horned man wearing a cloak of leaves. He is summoned by the music of the pipes or a fire of bones on Midsummer's Evening. He is chased by the hunt and shadowed by the wild girl.When he touches your dreams, your life will never be the same again.
    • 3/5
      Really fun. As usual, characters mix with this world and another, but de Lint sticks closer to the real world in this novel.
    • 5/5
      Nice blend of gangster and fantasy neatly wrapped in a coming of age story. Happy ending for some and an ending for others. Worth the candle
    • 4/5
      This is one of Mr. de Lint's earlier works. It showcases his style but is much earthier than most of his writing. It incorporates the mythology of Pan/the Green Man with a mafioso-like story that feels odd at times but is still a very enjoyable read. Frankie and her daughter have moved into an old farmhouse out in the wilds of Ottawa. Their nearest neighbor is a retired mobster. All of them hear magical piping at times coming from the woods behind their homes. When their past lives come back to haunt them, they find more than trouble in a world where legends become real.
    • 3/5
      I found this to be an incredibly fast, breezy read (I finished it in about 24 hours) though the concept of the book is rather odd: Italian mobsters clashing with ancient mysteries in the deep woods outside of Ottawa. de Lint's characters, as always, as realistic and complex. There's a mobster framed for a don's murder, living in hiding; a divorced mom graced with a big lottery win, and her bright teenage daughter; a cast of baddies include the mom's ex-husband, a callous murderer who finds out about her jackpot; and in the backdrop of everything, soul-touching music that drifts from the woods, and a magnificent stag who is not always a stag.The ending didn't quite satisfy me, though I understand why de Lint took it the direction he did. The magical angle doesn't seem like it will be as memorable for me as the Italian mob angle. Even with my criticism, though, I am reminded that I need to read more of de Lint's work.

    Book preview

    Greenmantle - Charles de Lint

    Prologue

    Io Pan! Io Pan!

    Come over the sea

    From Sicily and from Arcady!

    —Aleister Crowley

    from Hymn to Pan

    Pan? Pan is dead. Or is that a

    pun—Pan—du pain—bread—

    peine—pain—the body of Christ?

    —Tanith Lee

    From Blood-Mantle

    MALTA, August 1983

    By the time Eddie the Squeeze Pinelli was five hours dead, Valenti was on a Boeing 747 halfway across the Atlantic. He sipped the beer that the steward had brought him and stared out the window into the darkness. He usually felt an honest regret that things had to get as far as they did before he was called in, but not this time. Pinelli had been a capo in the New York City Cerone Family, one of Don Cerone’s special boys, but now the sonovabitch was dead and the only thing special about him was that those famous fingers of his weren’t going to put the squeeze on anyone anymore. That suited Valenti just fine.

    Don Magaddino had called the hit—Valenti’s own boss. It’s personal, he’d told Valenti. "That’s why I called you, capito? It’s between you and me, Tony. Okay? I want that pezzo di merda dead and then we don’t talk about this no more."

    Eddie had got a little itchy and a lot crazy and put the squeeze on one of the girls the Don kept on the side. Valenti understood. It had been personal for him, too. Not so long ago, Eddie had tried to make a little time with Valenti’s woman, Beverly Grant. Only Bev wasn’t going to get up and walk away like the Don’s girlfriend had when Valenti had walked in on her and Eddie earlier tonight. Bev had taken a twelve-story drop and what was left of her you wouldn’t want to see walk away.

    Valenti had wanted to take Eddie down so hard then that it hurt, but the Don wouldn’t give him the word and a soldier didn’t take down a capo without an okay from way up. Così fan tutti—that was the way of the world. But Valenti was patient. He’d known that sooner or later Eddie, being the asshole he was, would lose it. All Valenti’d had to do was wait.

    * * *

    After the sweltering oven that was a New York City summer, the Maltese weather was glorious. The air was so clear that he could see for miles across the low hills with their tiered fields being readied for the fall harvest. He had the taxi drop him off at the end of the lane and walked the rest of the way to the villa, taking his time. When he reached the door, he took off his sunglasses and brushed his thick dark hair with his fingers. Then he knocked. Mario himself opened the door.

    Jesus, Tony, he said, his gaze darting nervously behind Valenti then back to his friend’s dark features. What the hell are you doing here?

    Valenti smiled. "Ciao, Mario. That’s some welcome. Drop by anytime, you tell me, so here I am and—"

    You’re a dead man, Mario cut in. You know that?

    What’re you talking about? The sun down here driving you a little crazy?

    Mario grabbed his arm and hauled him into the house, slamming the door behind them. I got a woman here, he said. I got kids. They come looking for you here, what’s going to happen to them, ’ey?

    You got some problem, Mario?

    The only problem I got, Tony, is you. He stood back and studied Valenti’s face. You don’t know, do you?

    Valenti frowned. All I know is I came a long way to see you, but you don’t look too happy to see me.

    You know the Squeeze is dead? Mario asked.

    Sure I know that. I’m the one that hit him.

    "Madonna mia! You are crazy."

    But not that crazy, Valenti said. Magaddino called the hit.

    Oh yeah? And who called the hit on him?

    What?

    "Your padrone is dead, Tony, and the word is you hit him. You hit him, you hit that girlfriend of his—the one with the red hair—and you hit the Squeeze. And let me tell you, a lot of people, they’re not too happy about it, capito? They want your balls, Tony. They called me. I’m retired—what? Five years now? But still they called me, asking if I’ve seen you. Asking if I want to make a little money. You know what I’m talking about?"

    Valenti stepped away from the door and moved slowly into the villa’s spacious living room. He sank into a canvas chair and regarded his friend.

    Mario Papale was fifty-eight now, but he wore his years well. His hair was a silvery gray—had been since he was thirty—his dark skin even darker than Valenti remembered, tanned from the Mediterranean sun. He was wearing a pair of white cotton trousers and a short-sleeved shirt that was unbuttoned. Watching the way he walked across the room, Valenti knew that the old Fox hadn’t lost a thing, retired or not. Maybe you never lost it.

    They called you? he asked. That quick?

    What did you think, Tony? Mario replied as he sat down in front of him. "This is a cane grosso—a big shot we’re talking about. Not just a soldier like you or me."

    I didn’t hit him. Eddie—yeah. But it wasn’t personal. No matter how I felt, I had orders.

    "We’re talking a padrone is dead here, Tony. Your orders don’t mean shit now because Magaddino’s dead and you’re buying the rap for the hit."

    I’ve been set up.

    Mario didn’t say anything for a long moment. He studied Valenti, taking his time about it, then slowly nodded. "Chi lo sa? he said finally. Who knows? But I believe you. You never could lie to me, Tony. So what’re you gonna do? You need anything? You need money? A piece?"

    Valenti shook his head. I’ve got a place in Canada—a safe place. Clean. No one knows who I am.

    Too close, Mario said. "These bastardi’ll smell you out like dogs after a bitch in heat. You got to go someplace where, when you say you’re a soldato, they ask what army, not what family, capito?"

    "This place I set up years ago, Mario—just like you told me to, remember? Even in the fratellanza a man needs a place where he doesn’t have to worry about his family. I’ve got money there. And guns."

    They’re never gonna stop hunting you down.

    Valenti shrugged. I was getting tired anyway.

    Bullshit.

    Okay. So it’s bullshit. You think I should turn myself over to Ricca’s justice? Ricca Magaddino was the Don’s oldest son and stood to inherit his empire.

    Mario laughed humorlessly. This afternoon you’re staying with me, he said. Tonight I drive you to the coast and smuggle you off the island. I know people with a boat. You need papers?

    Valenti shook his head. These men with the boat…?

    They’re friends—not cousins.

    "Okay. Grazie, Mario. I wouldn’t have brought this down on you if I’d known."

    "You think I don’t know that? Now let’s forget this shit. Come vai, ’ey? It’s been a couple of years. Talk to me, Tony. Maybe we don’t meet again, so we take what time we got, okay?"

    * * *

    Mario’s wife was half his age, a shy, dark-haired woman named Maria, who spoke only Maltese. Mario had grinned when introducing her to Valenti. Mario and Maria—how you like that, ’ey? She and the children were staying with her sister in nearby Marsakala when the two men made ready to leave the villa.

    The nights’re quiet here, Mario said. "And dark. Just follow me and don’t get lost, capito?"

    He went into his bedroom and unlocked a chest from which he took a pair of American .38 calibre handguns. Valenti accepted one and nodded his thanks as he thrust it in his belt.

    I hope we don’t need these, he said as they went down the hall.

    Mario nodded. My car’s got no shocks and the road’s the shits, he said, so maybe you better watch the family jewels, ’ey?

    Sure, Valenti said with a grin.

    Mario hit the lights, throwing the hallway into darkness. Valenti opened the door and the night exploded with sound. The first shot hit Valenti in the shoulder and spun him around. The second and third spat into the doorjamb, showering both men with splinters. A fourth bullet took Valenti’s right leg from under him and he fell to the floor.

    "Bastardi! Mario roared. He got off a couple of shots, then slammed the door shut and bolted it. We’re in deep now," he muttered as he glanced down at his friend. Thrusting his gun into his belt, he hoisted Valenti up in a fireman’s lift and headed for the back of the house. By the time the soldati broke in the front, the only thing left in the hallway was Valenti’s blood.

    Check out back! one of the dark-suited men ordered, but they already had men out there and he knew no one was going to get through them.

    The intruders fanned out through the villa, shooting into closets, then ripping the doors open, kicking apart the beds, checking any place where a man might hide. But they didn’t find a thing. Then word came from the back of the villa that both Jimmy Civella and Happy Manzi were dead and did Fucceri want them to check the fields?

    Sure, sure, Louie Fucceri said. They didn’t call Papale the Silver Fox just because of his hair. It wouldn’t surprise Fucceri if they were halfway to Milan by now. He found a phone that his men had mercifully left intact and put a call in to his capo to report their failure.

    LANARK COUNTY, February 1985

    The tire blew on Lance Maxwell’s pickup about a half mile past the Darling/Lavant township line. The truck skidded in the slush as Lance brought it to a halt on the side of the dirt road. He got out to check the damage, cursing under his breath.

    Stay, Dooker, he told the big German shepherd on the passenger’s seat.

    He hunkered down for a look, then stood, hitching up his pants. Christ on a cross! You’d think the sucker’d hold out for just a couple more miles till he got home.

    Okay, Dooker, he called to the dog. Come on down, boy. The German shepherd jumped down from the cab of the pickup and pushed his nose into Lance’s hand. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Go catch yourself a squirrel or something. I got work to do.

    He fetched the spare from the back of the pickup, leaned it up against the side panel, then dug out his jack and tire iron from under a mess of cords, tools and canvas. Glancing to see where the dog had got to, he spied Dooker sniffing along the side of the road, back toward the turnoff that led up to French Line. The blowout had stranded him in front of the old Treasure place. Frank Clayton’s weather-beaten For Sale sign was still out on the snow-covered lawn. Sure, Frank, he thought. The day somebody buys this crap-hole from you’s the day I stand you for a case of two-four.

    Dooker returned to see what he was doing as he got the jack under the back of the truck and started to hoist the vehicle up. Get outta the way, he told the dog when it got too close.

    He hadn’t been the one to find old man Treasure—that joy’d been reserved for Fred Gamble, who’d driven up to collect on a grocery bill but had trooped right into the place along with everybody else after the cops had hauled the body away. You never saw such a thing. Buddy Treasure mustn’t have thrown out a newspaper since before the war.

    They were piled ceiling-high along the walls of every room and hallway. Thousands of the suckers, all yellowed and stinking the way newspaper does when it gets wet. There were magazines too. Old copies of the Star Weekly—he hadn’t seen them for some time. Life. Macleans. Time magazines going back to when most of the cover was just a red border. All kinds. But that wasn’t the worst.

    It seemed that in the last year Buddy’d decided to stop throwing out his garbage or using the upstairs can when he had to go for a crap. The kitchen had more refuse in it than the town dump. There was mold and shit you didn’t even want to think about growing over everything. And talking about shit, Buddy’d taken to dropping a load in the corner of the living room and wiping his ass with a piece of old yellowed newspaper.

    Weird fucker, no doubt about that. No wonder the missus took up the kids and beelined out of there without a word to nobody.

    That was nine, ten years ago now, Lance thought as he removed the blown tire. Longer since the missus took off. Willie Fuller had bought the place from the bank and tried to fix it up, but he just couldn’t get the stink out of it. He sold it to some out-of-towner who had started to take down the walls, really getting ready to give the place a good going over. But he quit halfway through the job and the place’d been up for grabs ever since, listed with Frank’s agency. And the day Frank sold the sucker…

    Shit, he muttered as he studied his spare. The tread was worn as smooth as a baby’s ass. Well, it’d get him home. He finished up in a hurry, tossed the old rim with the flaps of tire hanging from it into the back of the truck. The jack and tire iron followed it with a clatter.

    Dook! he called, looking around for the big shepherd. Hey Dooker! Get your ass back here—double-time.

    He spotted the dog over in the field behind the Treasure place. Dooker had his head lifted high like he was listening to something, his broad head tilted to one side as he studied the woods beyond. Lance started to call out again, but then he heard it, too. A quiet sort of piping sound, low and breathy. It made him feel a little strange—hot, like the way you get when the weather warms up and springtime grabs you by the balls, telling you it’s time to make babies.

    He took a couple of steps in the direction that the sound was coming from and started to get all sweaty. He was getting hard, his penis pushing up against his jeans. Lanark County, like most of Ontario, was in the middle of one of those February thaws that come up for a few days, then buggers off with a laugh, but that was no reason for him to be feeling the way he was. His penis was so hard it hurt. His chest was all tight and it was hard to breathe. His ears buzzed with the piping sound that came drifting across the fields—not loud, but it pierced him all the same.

    He thought maybe he was going to come right there, right in his pants on the side of the road, but then as suddenly as he’d become aware of the sound, it left him. He staggered to lean weakly against the side of the pickup.

    Christ, he thought. That’s it. My first honest-to-Jesus heart attack.

    He was still weak. It took all of his energy to lift his head and look across the field. He could see Dooker, still listening, still watching the woods though there was nothing there that Lance could see. Then suddenly the big shepherd shook himself, looked around and came bounding back across the snow toward the truck. By the time Dooker was pushing his nose up against Lance’s hand, Lance was breathing easier again.

    Gotta see the doc, he told himself. No more farting around. He says diet, I’m dieting this time. Jesus.

    He called Dooker into the cab, slowly settled in the driver’s seat and started the engine up. Giving the fields behind the Treasure place a final considering look, he put the truck into gear and pulled away.

    TORONTO, March 1985

    The music was contemporary Europop, but the dancer’s moves were pure bump-and-grind. The MC had announced her as Tandy Hots: And Tandy’s always randy, boys—you know what I mean? Sitting at his table, nursing a beer, Howie Peale figured he knew just what the MC meant.

    She couldn’t be more than seventeen tops, and that body. Oh, she had the moves down all right. Teasing little moves that made him want to shout along with some of the other guys in the joint, but he held back because he didn’t want to look like an asshole to his new friend. Earl Shaw wasn’t even watching the show. He was just sitting there, his bull-neck hunched over the table as he leafed through a day-old Toronto Star. He was drinking whiskey—straight, with a beer chaser.

    Howie’d met Earl in the can—they were both in the Don Jail on drunk and disorderly charges at the time. Right off, Howie knew Earl was his man. Howie wasn’t too big and he wasn’t too smart. He had survived the street scene by latching on to someone who was both. He’d run errands, do a little of whatever, just to keep on the good side of whoever was his main man at the time. Right now that man was Earl.

    Earl was the kind of guy you could really respect. Smart and tough and he didn’t take shit from nobody. Even the screws in the can had been a little leery of him. First night they were out, he and Earl hit a gas bar and made off with a clean $243 plus change just by sticking a gun in some pimply-faced kid’s nose. Earl’d even split fifty-fifty. No way he was letting go of this gig, Howie thought.

    Tandy Hots was down to her G-string and pasties now, moving slowly across the stage until she was right in front of their table.

    They really get off on being up there, huh, Earl? Howie said. He licked his lips, looking up into the dancer’s crotch.

    Earl grunted and glanced at her. Who gives a fuck what they like, he said. Just so’s they do what they’re told.

    Howie nodded. The dancer moved farther down the stage and he tried to imagine a woman like that being his, doing just what he told her to. If they were in a hotel or someplace, just the two of them, instead of this strip joint on Yonge Street… His dreamy mood left him as he sensed Earl stiffen across the table.

    Look at this, Earl said.

    He turned the paper around so that Howie could see. There was a photograph of a good-looking woman accepting a check from a Wintario official. She wasn’t built like Tandy Hots, Howie thought, but she wasn’t bad at all.

    He read the caption. Her name was Frances Treasure and she’d just won two hundred grand in the lottery. He shook his head slowly. Jesus. Two hundred grand! And all she was planning to do with it was buy back the place where she’d grown up and fix it up.

    I tell you, Howie, Earl said, somebody’s looking after me.

    What do you mean?

    Earl put his finger down on the photograph. See this broad?

    Yeah. Lucky bitch.

    She’s my ex, Earl said.

    Howie looked at the photo again. No shit?

    No shit, Earl said. He looked Howie in the eye. And you know what I think, Howie, m’man?

    Howie shook his head.

    I figure she owes me, Earl said. Course, first we got to find her. That could take a little time. But then… He grinned, a slow and wicked grin that gave him a crazy look. Howie grinned back. Sonovabitch had a weird streak in him a mile wide, no doubt about it, but there was no way Howie was letting go of this gig. Not when the good times were just starting to roll.

    What’re we gonna do then? Howie asked.

    Earl’s grin grew wider. Then we’re gonna party.

    The Riddles of Evening

    Pan pipes a tune but once

    And all the forests dance.

    —Joshua Stanhold,

    from Goatboy

    And suddenly they knew

    that the mystery of the hills, and

    the deep enchantment of evening,

    had found a voice

    and would speak with them.

    —Lord Dunsany,

    from The Blessing of Pan

    1

    Frankie followed the moving van down the short driveway and watched it head off down the road; then she turned to look at the house. The difference between the half-gutted structure that had stood there when she bought the place and what was there now was phenomenal. In the bright sunlight of a perfect day in late May, the site of all her childhood nightmares had been transformed into the house of her dreams. A little smaller, perhaps, but cozy enough for her and Ali.

    There was still a lot of work to be done. The workmen had left their typical battlefield of litter and debris behind them, but Frankie was looking forward to doing some work around the place with her own two hands. If anyone had told her that she’d be here now, even a day before the Wintario draw…

    She found herself grinning foolishly. It was still hard to believe that she’d won. $200,000. Even after the $26,000 she’d paid for what was left of the house and its land, and the $60,000 or so she’d had to put out for renovations, she still had over $100,000 in the bank. Any day she expected someone to come up to her and tell her it was all a mistake, that she had to give it all back, but it wasn’t going to happen. She wouldn’t allow it to happen. Not now.

    She made her way slowly back to the house. Opening the front door, she almost ran into her daughter, who was carrying a stack of empty boxes down the stairs.

    Watch where you’re going, kiddo, she said.

    Ali poked her head around the boxes. Are the movers gone?

    Yup. We’re on our own now, out in the backwoods of Lanark County where few men dare to go.

    Oh, Mom!

    Frankie laughed and took the boxes from her. Ali had her curly blond hair but wore it short instead of in a long spill down her back as Frankie did. She also had Frankie’s strong Teutonic features—the broad nose and brow, the wide mouth—and eyes such a dark blue that the pupils sometimes got lost in them. They were often mistaken for sisters, which delighted Frankie, who was thirty-four, at the same time as it embarrassed her fourteen-year-old daughter.

    Are you finished with your room? Frankie asked.

    For now. I thought I’d give you a hand in the kitchen and then maybe we could explore a bit.

    Frankie tossed the boxes into the big screened-in porch that led off from the kitchen’s back door. Tell you what, she said. "Why don’t you let me finish up in here and you go ahead exploring. Then when I’m done, we can have a bite to eat and you can show me all the hot spots.

    You sure you don’t mind? Ali asked, obviously torn between wanting to get out into the sun and feeling it unfair to leave her mother working alone.

    Trust me.

    Okay. She gave Frankie a quick kiss, then scurried out the back door before either of them could change their minds.

    Frankie leaned against the sink and watched her daughter go swinging through the knee-high weeds in the backyard. She’d found a stick and was whacking the heads off of dandelions, stirring up clouds of parachuting seeds in her wake. She looked happy. Frankie just hoped it would last.

    When they’d driven out for the first time, Ali’s only comment about the house had been Gross-o. But she seemed to enjoy sitting in when Frankie went over the blueprints with the contractor, and it wasn’t as though she wasn’t used to moving. Poor kid. They’d been in a different apartment for almost every one of Ali’s years. They were both looking forward to some stability.

    When Ali moved out of sight behind a screen of trees, Frankie turned back to the kitchen, chose a box and began to arrange its contents in a cupboard.

    * * *

    Ali was happy, just walking along and swinging her stick. Whack. She watched the seeds explode at the impact, then slowly drift toward the ground. Some made it. Some got tangled up in the weeds and grass. Some caught the wind just right and went floating off. Whack. She knew her mother was worrying and she wished she wouldn’t. Moving out here was the first good thing to happen to them in a long time.

    Not that the fourteen years of her life had been bad. It was just that living out here, away from other kids her own age, she didn’t have to go on pretending that she was into all the things that they were. Whack. If her mother knew how she really felt, she’d have some justification to worry, but Ali wasn’t about to let that cat out of the bag.

    How was she supposed to explain that she didn’t like her peers, that she wasn’t into hanging around, drinking, smoking cigarettes or dope, running after boys, groping in some backseat or on a living room couch when the parents were out…Who needed that stuff? Whack. Maybe she couldn’t yet put into words what it was she did find important, but at least she knew what wasn’t.

    Out here she could do what she wanted. Go for walks. Read. Find out who she wanted to be without the pressure of other kids, or the pressure of her mother desperately hoping that her daughter was fitting in, that all the moving around from neighborhood to neighborhood wasn’t messing up her underdeveloped psyche.

    Ali grinned and whacked another weed. Underdeveloped. That was something else the other kids liked to rag her about. The fact that she was still skinny as a beanpole, not filling out like the rest of them. Whack. Who needed that? She’d seen what a good figure had done for her mother.

    She lifted her stick to hit a tall weed—that was one thing she was going to have to do right off: learn the names of all the plants and trees and stuff around her—when she paused, stick frozen high in the air. Looking at her from the side of the road was a rabbit.

    Ali didn’t dare breathe. It watched her with liquid brown eyes, nose twitching. Jeez, it was cute. She lowered the stick slowly, not wanting to appear threatening, but as soon as she moved, the rabbit turned and bounded off into the woods. Wow. There were probably all kinds of animals right in their backyard. Rabbits and raccoons, deer, maybe even foxes.

    She had a couple of Tom Brown Jr. wilderness guides back in her room and she could hardly wait to get them out of whatever box they were in and put them to some use. This was going to be a great summer.

    Whack, whack. She hit a couple more weeds and started to hum as she followed the road again, wondering where it led. It took her around a bend and she could see buildings about three-quarters of a mile farther on. The road seemed to go on into the woods beyond them and she decided to go that far and maybe have a peek at the buildings. She wouldn’t go too close—she didn’t want to end off her first day by having some cranky old farmer getting pissed off at her because she was trespassing—but she did want to see what the place was like. Please don’t let them have any kids.

    The road just sort of piddled out as it got to the forest. It looked as though it had continued once, but now it was overgrown and only a footpath went on through the trees. It’d be fun to see where it went to, she thought as she turned her attention to the buildings.

    The set-up was much like what she and her mom had: a renovated farmhouse with an old gray-timbered relic of a barn towering up behind it and a few outbuildings. But unlike their own place, here the grounds were neatly tended with a hedge running alongside the road, some apple trees up by the barn and flowerbeds in front of the house, filled with multi-colored blossoms. The forest closed in around the landscaped lot on three sides, dense and darkly mysterious to Ali’s city-wise eyes. The smell of cut grass hung in the air. She moved a little closer, her stick scraping in the dirt by her sneakers.

    What can I do for you, kid?

    The voice startled her, lifting goosebumps on her skin. She turned to see a man standing up on the other side of the short hedge, and she wondered where he’d popped up from. She hadn’t seen him as she’d walked up. He was dressed in jeans, with a red bandana around his head like a sweatband. His hair was thick and black, and his muscular body was darkly tanned except for a number of white puckers and lines that stood out against the dark skin. His eyes were pale blue and reminded her of Paul Newman’s. She’d just seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the umpteenth time on the late show last week. As he moved closer toward her, favoring his right leg, she realized the marks on his body were scars. Lots of them.

    I said, what can I do for you?

    Uh…nothing, Ali stammered. I’m just, uh, walking—you know?

    This is private property, he said. Maybe you better go hiking somewhere else instead—okay?

    Ali nodded quickly. Sure. I’m sorry. I just…that is, my mom and I just moved in down the road. I was just checking out the neighborhood…

    Something changed in his eyes as she spoke and he didn’t look quite so menacing anymore. What? The place they were working on this spring?

    Ali nodded again. He studied her for a long moment, then smiled. I was just gonna have some lemonade, kid. You want some?

    Ali didn’t like the idea of going off into some strange guy’s house, but he was going to be their neighbor and she didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with him right away. With that bad leg, she thought, she could always outrun him.

    Sure, she said at last.

    C’mon. He led off, limping, and she fell in beside him. So what’s your name, kid?

    Ali glanced at him. How come you keep calling me ‘kid’?

    I don’t know. They’d reached his front steps. Take a seat. I’ll bring the lemonade out. You want it on the rocks?

    What?

    With ice.

    Sure. Thanks.

    Hey, wait’ll you taste the lemonade first. Betty Crocker I’m not.

    He disappeared into the house and Ali sat down on the steps. What a weird thing to say, she thought. But it was a good line. She’d have to try it out on Mom the next time she made dinner. She was still trying to remember the little swagger he’d put into his shoulders as he’d said it when the screen door banged open and he was back.

    He’d put on a white shirt while he was inside. It made his tan seem darker. The ice clinked in the glasses as he handed her one. She was about to thank him when she remembered what he’d said and decided to taste the drink first. He grinned as though reading her mind, and then she had to giggle. She covered it up by taking a sip.

    Thanks, she said. It’s good.

    He took a sip himself and set his glass down on the steps between them. Yeah, it’s not so bad. So what’s your name?

    Alice Treasure—but everyone calls me Ali.

    You don’t like Alice?

    They might as well’ve called me Airhead, don’t you think?

    He shrugged. I don’t know. I kinda like Alice. My name’s Tony Garonne.

    Have you lived here for a long time, Mr. Garonne?

    Tony. Call me Tony, okay? And I’ll call you Ali. Yeah, I’ve lived here for a while. Not steady, you understand, but I’ve owned the place maybe fifteen years.

    My mom grew up in the place we just moved into.

    No kidding? What happened? Did she inherit the place from her old man or something?

    No. She didn’t get along too well with her parents. She took off when she was pretty young, but her mom had already left her dad by then and…well, we just got some money so she bought the old place and had it fixed up. Why am I babbling like this? she asked herself.

    Yeah, well, they did a good job. There was a moment’s silence and they both worked at their lemonades. So it’s just you and your momma living there?

    Ali nodded. Yeah. My dad…we don’t talk much about him.

    Hey. I’m sorry.

    It’s okay. I don’t really remember him. He took off when I was just a kid. But he was…pretty rough on my mom.

    Guy like that… Tony began, a frown creasing his face, then he paused and found a smile. So where’d you move from?

    Ottawa.

    It’s gonna be different for you up here. I mean, it’s not that far from the city, but it’s quiet—you know? Evenings, it’s just really quiet. And dark. Takes some getting used to for some people.

    I think I’m going to like it. She finished her drink and set the glass down. I’ve got to be going, Mr.…ah…Tony.

    Mr. a-Tony. I like that. It’s got a ring to it, don’t you think?

    Ali laughed.

    Listen, he added. You’re welcome to come round here any time you want. The reason I wasn’t so friendly earlier is I get kids joyriding up this road all the time. I mean, who needs it? And sometimes they want to mess around in my yard and I don’t like it. I just want some quiet. But you’re a neighbor and you seem okay. Bring your momma up sometime and I’ll cook you up some pasta. I make a mean spaghetti. What do you say?

    I’ll ask her.

    Good. I’ll walk you to the road.

    You don’t have to, Ali said, thinking about his limp.

    He caught the glance she gave it. No, it’s okay. I gotta give it a lot of exercise. I don’t move so quick like I used to, but I can still get around.

    Ali wanted to ask him how he’d hurt it, but she decided to wait for another time. She’d already been pushing her luck as it was. He seemed friendly enough now, but she was sure he’d be happier without some gawky teenager like her hanging around.

    You come back for another visit now, he said as though reading her mind again. And if you or your momma need anything, you just give me a call, okay?

    Okay. Thanks…Tony.

    "Ciao," he replied.

    What’s that mean?

    "It’s like ‘so long’ or ‘take

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