21 Days in October by Magali Favre Read Free Book Online Page A

answers in French.
    â€œ
Where do you live?”
    â€œWe’re not from here,” Louise answers. “We live at the bottom of the mountain, further down.”
    â€œThey don’t speak French?” Gaétan asks naively.
    â€œ
This is Westmount. You cannot loiter here. This park is restricted to residents. For security reasons.”
    â€œWhat are they saying? They can’t speak French like everyone else?” he grumbles.
    â€œThey’re saying that we can’t stay here. The park is reserved for residents only.”
    â€œ
Please, you must leave
!”
    â€œNature isn’t for everyone?”
    Gaétan lets out a low “
Fuck!
” under his breath, the only English word that he knows.
    â€œ
Please, return to your district
.”
    Not having a choice, they get up. One policeman leads the way and the other follows them, escorting them to the park’s exit.
    It’s the first time that Gaétan has been thrown out of a place like this, and he can’t believe it. But he keeps a lid on his anger, unlike Louise, who is visibly upset.
    â€œYou’d think we were in a South African township or on an Indian reserve. Better not step on their stupid grass with our shoes covered in poverty and filth. ’Cause it’s so civilized here an’ all!” she exclaims, putting on a working-class accent.
    â€œWatch it, you!” the smaller of the two policemen, a redhead, barks roughly at her in French with a strong English accent. “I’m from down the mountain.”
    â€œIt’s funny how they understand us when we raise our voices!”
    â€œThat one must be one of the Irish from Verdun,” Gaétan snorts.
    â€œHe’s from the British side, the strongest side!” Louise adds scathingly.
    When they get to the end of the path they leave the park, relieved but furious.

10
Saturday, October 24
    Y flottait dans son pantalon
De là lui venait son surnom
Bozo-les-culottes
Y’avait qu’une cinquième année
Y savait à peine compter
Bozo-les-culottes
Comme il baragouinait l’anglais
Comme gardien de nuit il travaillait
Bozo-les-culottes
Même s’il était un peu dingue
Y’avait compris qu’faut être bilingue
Bozo-les-culottes

    Raymond Lévesque,
Bozo-les-culottes, 1967
*

    F or the first time in his life, Gaétan understands the song that Luc used to play on the patched-up turntable he had rescued from the street. He’d never really paid attention to the words before. But they sunk in yesterday in that neighbourhood full of hypocrites. He had felt the conqueror’s deep contempt of his language when the police officers spoke to him in English. Gaétan recognizes the working-class man who had never held a pen: it’s his father.
    Pauline Julien’s passionate voice seems to nearly explode the small transistor perched on the kitchen shelf.
    CKAC has just announced the singer’s release from prison. At the end of the song, the announcer explains that despite her release, police officers have raided her house again and arrested her fifteen-year-old son, eighteen-year-old daughter, and the cook.
    â€œThey’re all crazy!” Gaétan exclaims.
    â€œDon’t forget that the police are still looking for James Cross,” his mother replies. “I heard those terrorists have enough explosives to blow up the whole city. The mayor said they’re looking to seize power.”
    â€œBut Pauline Julien is a singer, not a terrorist.”
    â€œYes, but she’s spreading her bad ideas to the public. Doesn’t she talk about dynamite in her song?”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous! You should stop listening to Frenchie Jarraud’s gossip on CKVL. That’s all just to scare us. The Parti Québécois and even Claude Ryan, publisher of
Le Devoir
, is calling for the municipal elections to be postponed because of all the insane rumours going around. And they