Northward to the Moon by Polly Horvath Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Polly Horvath
interested.
“Pick a candy bar, Jane!” says Ned.
I startle. He usually doesn’t call me Jane unless he’s irritated with me. So I grab a Three Musketeers, which I don’t even like, which goes to show that his technique of snatching the first one at hand doesn’t work for everyone, and he pays for all four candy bars and hustles us outside.
I peer at him questioningly and he relents. “Look, I just wish I knew more about this money. You understand I haven’t spoken to anyone in my family for twenty years? I don’t even know where they are anymore. And now I find myself carrying money that came from who knows where. And why was John going north of northern B.C.? The whole thing makes no sense.”
“But I like it,” I say. “It’s an adventure. It’s an
outlaw
adventure.”
“Well, it makes
me
nervous,” says Ned.
“Does it make Mom nervous?” I ask.
“Sometimes I think nothing makes your mothernervous,” says Ned, and just then my mother and Maya come out of the washroom. They see us eating candy bars and go inside to get a couple for themselves with Ned’s toes tapping.
“You sure are fidgety,” I say.
“Did you see that cashier’s ears perk up when you mentioned a bag of money?”
“Oh, you’re just being paranoid,” I say.
“Uh-huh,” he says in an unconvinced voice, and gets the boys into the car and buckled in so we can set off the second my mother and Maya return.
“I think you ought to try deep breathing,” I say when we are rolling along again. “Although don’t do it too obviously or no one will take you seriously as an outlaw.”
“Why should Ned try deep breathing?” asks my mother.
“Jane thinks I’m too nervous,” says Ned.
“Oh well, I suppose we’re all a little nervous …,“ says my mother vaguely. She is leafing through the Nevada guidebook she bought at the gas station. Now she looks up and points out the window into the scrubby desert. “Look at that! Wild burros!” She finds the section about them and reads it. Hershel and Max are leaping up and down in theirseats even though my mother is the only one who saw the burros because we are whizzing by so fast.
“Should I turn around and see if we can find them again?” asks Ned, but he looks pale and strained. His neck muscles are tight and corded.
My mother glances over at him. “Don’t bother,” she says. “I’m sure we’ll see more.”
Then everyone goes back to reading or playing games or trying to grab my feet and beautify them and it is quiet the rest of the way to Reno.
Reno is full of casinos. We come in as the light is fading and the bright casino bulbs shatter twilight.
Money is what a lot of people seem to think about in Nevada. Ned explains that people rarely win at gambling. That some win but mostly the casinos know they will always take more money than they lose. I don’t understand how this works but if it is true I feel sorry for all these gamblers who don’t seem to know this.
The first hotel we stay in in Nevada is a casino in Reno. To get to the elevator you have to pass this big dark gambling place full of mirrors andflashing lights and slot machines. It is very disorienting. I think if people come to this place on purpose they must be trying to disappear because when you are inside it, it is as if no part of your life has ever existed. There seems no way out to your future, your past is not here, all there is is the dark present with the flashing lights and the money going clink clank clunk. John has chosen to live in Nevada. Is it just because that’s where he could make a living as a magician or does he like it? I want to ask him when we see him but I don’t know how to do it without sounding rude.
The next morning we leave Reno at the crack of dawn.
On the way down to Las Vegas we barely pass another car except when we come to small towns and sometimes not even then. We see large military installations and what I now know to be legal whorehouses because I asked
“Pick a candy bar, Jane!” says Ned.
I startle. He usually doesn’t call me Jane unless he’s irritated with me. So I grab a Three Musketeers, which I don’t even like, which goes to show that his technique of snatching the first one at hand doesn’t work for everyone, and he pays for all four candy bars and hustles us outside.
I peer at him questioningly and he relents. “Look, I just wish I knew more about this money. You understand I haven’t spoken to anyone in my family for twenty years? I don’t even know where they are anymore. And now I find myself carrying money that came from who knows where. And why was John going north of northern B.C.? The whole thing makes no sense.”
“But I like it,” I say. “It’s an adventure. It’s an
outlaw
adventure.”
“Well, it makes
me
nervous,” says Ned.
“Does it make Mom nervous?” I ask.
“Sometimes I think nothing makes your mothernervous,” says Ned, and just then my mother and Maya come out of the washroom. They see us eating candy bars and go inside to get a couple for themselves with Ned’s toes tapping.
“You sure are fidgety,” I say.
“Did you see that cashier’s ears perk up when you mentioned a bag of money?”
“Oh, you’re just being paranoid,” I say.
“Uh-huh,” he says in an unconvinced voice, and gets the boys into the car and buckled in so we can set off the second my mother and Maya return.
“I think you ought to try deep breathing,” I say when we are rolling along again. “Although don’t do it too obviously or no one will take you seriously as an outlaw.”
“Why should Ned try deep breathing?” asks my mother.
“Jane thinks I’m too nervous,” says Ned.
“Oh well, I suppose we’re all a little nervous …,“ says my mother vaguely. She is leafing through the Nevada guidebook she bought at the gas station. Now she looks up and points out the window into the scrubby desert. “Look at that! Wild burros!” She finds the section about them and reads it. Hershel and Max are leaping up and down in theirseats even though my mother is the only one who saw the burros because we are whizzing by so fast.
“Should I turn around and see if we can find them again?” asks Ned, but he looks pale and strained. His neck muscles are tight and corded.
My mother glances over at him. “Don’t bother,” she says. “I’m sure we’ll see more.”
Then everyone goes back to reading or playing games or trying to grab my feet and beautify them and it is quiet the rest of the way to Reno.
Reno is full of casinos. We come in as the light is fading and the bright casino bulbs shatter twilight.
Money is what a lot of people seem to think about in Nevada. Ned explains that people rarely win at gambling. That some win but mostly the casinos know they will always take more money than they lose. I don’t understand how this works but if it is true I feel sorry for all these gamblers who don’t seem to know this.
The first hotel we stay in in Nevada is a casino in Reno. To get to the elevator you have to pass this big dark gambling place full of mirrors andflashing lights and slot machines. It is very disorienting. I think if people come to this place on purpose they must be trying to disappear because when you are inside it, it is as if no part of your life has ever existed. There seems no way out to your future, your past is not here, all there is is the dark present with the flashing lights and the money going clink clank clunk. John has chosen to live in Nevada. Is it just because that’s where he could make a living as a magician or does he like it? I want to ask him when we see him but I don’t know how to do it without sounding rude.
The next morning we leave Reno at the crack of dawn.
On the way down to Las Vegas we barely pass another car except when we come to small towns and sometimes not even then. We see large military installations and what I now know to be legal whorehouses because I asked