A Game to Play on the Tracks"A Game to Play on the Tracks" is the story of booze-loose and too-smart singer, Arden, and her failed return to the life of country music and the British Columbia bar scene. She has a new baby, some unhealed hurts, and a husband, Nichol, who is stuck in boyhood and thinks and talks in bad poems. Arden doesn't survive the road, and the story belongs then to Nichol and Roy the Boy, those left behind to search the west coast for a good home, a good life, a meaningful history. Without Arden, Nichol tries a series of goofed-up love affairs and real estate blunders, and Roy grows up questioning a fallen pastoral world that isn't always kind to children, haunted by his long-gone mother and her big-city tunes. |
Contents
Where Do All the Shells Come From? | 11 |
Why Do We Get a Headache in a Crowded Room? | 26 |
What Is the Cause of Quicksand? | 41 |
Why Do We Forget What Happened When We Were Babies? | 58 |
Where Does All the Bad Air in the World Go? | 76 |
Why Does a Noise Break a Window? | 97 |
Does the Smoke of a Train Go the Opposite Way to the Train? III | 111 |
Do Fishes Close Their Eyes and Sleep under Water? | 133 |
Is It Good to Have to Work? | 149 |
What Does the Pattern in a Brick Wall Mean? | 167 |
What Do the Poets Mean By Arcady? | 183 |
Why Is Concrete Used for Building Purposes? | 200 |
What Does Birthright Mean? | 219 |
Is It True That Children Will Rule the World? | 237 |
Common terms and phrases
Arden arms asked baby beach beer boat Book of Wonder bottle breasts brick Butchy called Cassie Chum clean climb cold colour cougar dark Darlene door Douglas fir drink drywall Elizabeth Everly Brothers eyes face father feel feet floor Fraser River front fucking Garry oak girl glass Gram Parsons hair hands hard head hill huge island kids kitchen knees Kriegie laugh legs light look lovely Margaret morning mother Nanette never Nichol night Nimpkish River okay Pascal Perry Como Primavera pulled rambling rose river road rock Roy the Boy Roy's Sapperton says Scooter shit shoulders skin sleep smell smoke smooth squirrel stay stop sweater talk tell There's told took trees trying turned Vancouver walk walls watch wears What's window wine