Author, Craig Spence
Reader, Craig Spence
Production by Books Unbound
In this excerpt from Entrapment Lucinda MacDonald, her sisters Loretta and Louise, and their new friend Brenda Tanner celebrate their partnership as the guardian angels of Larry, the MacDonalds’ damaged brother, who Brenda has commissioned to do a mural on the outside back wall of her Inner Worlds gallery. It’s a transitional moment for Lucinda, and she breaks down…
Larry accepted Brenda’s offer.
“He bobbed his head and mumbled something like, ‘Sounds good,’ as if he was speaking from under a blanket with a mouthful of peanut butter,” she laughed. “I said to hell with it, grabbed him by the shoulders and hugged him hard, like a mother gorilla. He went stiff as a poker of course, but at least he didn’t struggle.”
“What part of him went stiff?” Louise joked.
We four hooted, raising our glasses in a toast to success. The ringing of our crystalline cluster-clink—barely audible over the rumble of passing traffic out on Wharf Street and the clatter of dishes in the sidewalk café—marked a beginning and an ending. Larry, dysfunctional genius that he was, had brought us MacDonald women back together as family.
Til death do you part, Echo intruded.
Shut the fuck up!
And, because of him, I had met Brenda, another love of my life…
I’ll shut the fuck up for now, Echo grumped.
And forever hold your peace! I snarked.
But it is getting kind of crowded in that heart locket of yours, don’t you think?
I said shut the fuck up!
When a glass breaks it makes a tickling sound. Hearts break silently within.
If you were real, I’d throttle you.
I am real…
“Lucinda?”
Brenda frowned, puzzled; my sisters looked on, concerned.
“You okay?”
“Oh!” I flustered. “I’m just a little overwhelmed.”
I wanted to take her hand, to kiss her a second time—or at least be kissed by her. I hated myself for feeling so desperately passionate, weakened by our celebratory moment. So pathetic!
“It’s going to be okay,” Brenda massaged my shoulder and the back of my neck.
“Let go,” Louise consoled.
“What?” I didn’t understand. What was I supposed to let go of?
“All these years, Luce, you’ve been the one who’s held us together. You’ve been our centre of gravity. Let go. We’re all grown up now. We’re fine. Even Larry, in his weird way, is becoming who he’s meant to be…” She paused; I waited. “You don’t have to be at the centre anymore, Luce; we’re all of us in mutual orbit, okay?”
I bowed my head, trembling, grateful, not wanting them to see me cry.
Loretta rounded the table, pressed her lips close to my ear, and whispered from behind, “Watch me spin, Sis.”
She flew away from us like a startled bird, weaving her way through and around the café tables, twirling out into Bastion Square. She couldn’t pirouette on pointe because she was wearing her sequinned thrift-store sandals. It didn’t matter. She floated effortlessly up and down the steps, buoyed by a musical spirit I couldn’t quite hear, but which I felt in every vibrant bone and nerve of my body. Some people stopped to watch her ballet; others hurried on, pretending not to notice.
“Oh my god!” Brenda gasped.
Gorgeous! Echo sighed.
“That’s because of you, Sis!” Loretta embraced me from behind when she’d flitted back to our table. “It’s all down to you!”