Chapter 1

The sound of traffic on Edmonton's Stony Plain Road is almost soothing, like listening to surf on the shore. I dig my spoon into the top of my Blizzard, mine a huge chunk of ice cream laced with Reese's Pieces. Slowly suck the mess off my spoon.

For a moment, I'm just here, sitting at a hard plastic booth at Dairy Queen, letting the ice cream dissolve in my mouth, crunching the candy with my molars. Just a girl enjoying a frozen treat on an early September day. Not Darby Swank, crime victim, niece to a murderer, daughter to a coward. Survivor of the news cycle. My classmates at Grant MacEwan College have been tactful but distant, not asking about the black eye that lingered the first few days of class. Well, most of them have been distant. One girl, Ruby, immediately asked if I was okay, and it was all I could do not to start crying.

It could be worse. At first I worried my voice might have been damaged permanently, ending my singing career before it even began. However, the hoarseness faded quickly with vocal rest.

And so I am lucky. I am counting my blessings. But I am not okay.

I stare blankly across the street at the orange rectangular building where I'm supposed to be unleashing my musical creativity.

Once I had a well of music I could tap into, a source for my own songwriting. I could lower my bucket and haul up a new song. That well sustained me through so much in my life: my mom's shitty behaviour and then her early death from cancer, bullies at school, my own shitty cheating on my nice boyfriend, Luke.

But since my uncle tried to throttle me a few weeks ago, the well has been dry, as they say. Or maybe it's been filled in, with rocks and chunks of concrete. Beyond repair.

It starts to rain hard outside, and the setting sun infuses the rain with gold. Stony Plain Road sounds even more like an ocean, with the traffic whooshing through the puddles. I'm not in Livelong anymore. Far from the lakes and the forest I know so well.Everything is okay right now, I tell myself. Uncle Will is in custody right now, no threat to me. I try to practise being present, as my new therapist suggested. Notice the solid floor beneath my feet, the hard seat of the booth I'm sitting in. The clean, cool plastic table I'm resting my arms on. I want to lay my head down, press my cheek against the smooth surface.

I linger in the Dairy Queen, licking the last bit of the Blizzard from the spoon and thinking about what I need to do next. I feel exhausted, so tired I don't even want to drive back to my shitty basement suite. At the same time I feel like a skinned cat somehow walking around in the world, sensitive to every breeze or temperature change. Vulnerable.

The bell above the door rings, and two girls walk in. They're both short with delicate facial features that would make them ideal for roles as fairies or waifs if they were actors. Both beautiful, in a slightly odd way, with green eyes that are set a little too wide apart and small noses that are a bit sharp. They are nearly identical, but the taller one has a golden tinge to her hair. It takes me a moment before I recognize the slightly shorter one as my classmate, Ruby, the one who asked me if I was okay on the first day of class.

I have to walk by them to get to the parking lot anyway, so I stop and say hi.

"Hey, Darby. This is my little sister, Amber."

Amber smiles widely, revealing sharp, pointed eye teeth. She gives me an outsized wave. "Hi!"

Amber turns back to the menu. "I don't know what I want." She sighs dramatically, then pouts, as though she is preparing for future disappointments.

Ruby turns back to me. "Whatcha doing? Wanna hang out? I was hoping to practise vocal phrasing with you. You're such a natural at it."

Citește tot Restrânge

Recenzii

"This wrenching novel grips you from page one. All That's Leftç takes a deep dive into what happens -sometimes supportive, sometimes terrifying-in the spaces between people. This is a story filled with tension and tempered with tenderness. Lisa Guenther understands relationships at their best, and at their worst. And she understands the ways that community and connection, music and art help us to pick each other up and carry on, as we must, when the unimaginable happens." -Leona Theis, award winning author of If Sylvie Had Nine Lives and Sightlines

"All That's Left is a sprawling and fascinating story spanning generations, locations, and human experiences. It seamlessly blends the worlds of music touring, Canada's vast prairies, processing family trauma, and the healing power of our connection to animals. It's a captivating journey whose directions kept me guessing, and I loved being along for the ride. A highly recommended read by one of Canada's emerging literary talents." -Eliza Reid, bestselling author of
" "Secrets of the Sprakkar
"Passionate, sometimes reckless, and always honest, Darby Swank is an enigma, even to herself. A talented musician, a horsewoman, and a survivor, she takes us on a ride from Edmonton's Whyte Avenue to the bar stages of Toronto and back to the family ranch in Saskatchewan. With a 'Jesus Horse Cult', a ruthless stalker, a lesbian preacher, and a family torn apart by silence,
" "All That's Left explores obsession in its many forms, the sometimes-lethal results of the secrets we keep and the lies we tell ourselves, and the explosive legacy of domestic violence. A renaissance-like fusion of music, horses, sex and love, this page-turning story keeps us in the saddle and hanging on as we thunder toward Darby's full reckoning with both past and future." -Anne Lazurko, award winning author of
" "What is Written on the Tongue and "Dollybird

All That's Left

Chapter 1

Preț: 98^.39 lei

Carte disponibilă

Specificații

Recenzii

Papetărie, jocuri, reviste

All That's Left

Chapter 1

Preț: 98.39 lei

Specificații

Recenzii

Preț: 98^.39 lei