He stared at the liverspots on Doug’s shiny head.ĭoug just smiled and nodded. “What’s with the thing? You sick or something?”Īaron shrugged and held his breath. “Hey.”ĭoug pointed at his own face and swirled his finger in a circular motion. “Howdy!” Doug called, offering Aaron a Boy Scout salute.Īaron stopped to ensure he was at least eight feet fromDoug. Heaveraged five to six trips a year, and always came back smiling,sunburnt, and with a slightly larger bald spot.Aaron suspectedhe also spent a great a deal of money on prostitutes-anassumption based on Samantha’s window reportage.Theysometimes said that while not cultivating skin cancer on a whitesand beach, Doug spent his time in the city increasing hischances of contracting HIV. Doug was a car salesman who could easily afford to own a home, but had made alife choice to live in a small bachelor apartment and spend hismoney vacationing at all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. Aaron grunted at the sightof another human being.Īs the flowered shirt waddled closer, he could see it wasDoug Chisholm, a man from his building. Aaron stuffed his plastic-covered hands in his pocketsand speed-walked through the side streets, puffing into his mask.Ī man in a Hawaiian shirt moved toward him in the distance, a plastic bag flapping at his side. The air smelled of blooming flowers and carexhaust. If everything went according to plan, contamination would be minimal-nothing a scalding hot shower couldn’t kill. All Aaron had to do was pick out a container of fresh organic blueberries, join the shortest checkout line and be sure not to touch anyone, and he’d be home before he could say streptococcal pharyngitis.
The grocery store, CanPrice, was two and a half blocks, or five-hundred and twenty-seven steps, from their building. Samantha wanted blueberries but she refused to leave bed. He put on a pair of clear plastic disposable gloves and a surgical mask and left his apartment, locking all three bolts on the door. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for our publishing program. Printed and bound in Canada on 100%recycled paper. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Names, characters, places andincidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. Publisher’s note:This book is a work of fiction. No part of this book may be used or reproducedin any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews. Kent Messum, Arthur Ellis Award winning author of BaitĪll rights reserved. His words get under your skin and worm their way to yourheart and guts.”
“Madden’s writing, like the virus in this novel, is quick to infect thereader.
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