You’re with friends, weaving from one bar to another around midnight with the worst of the cold being kept off by the Kokanees you drank, when your phone rings. It’s your older brother. He says your dad had an accident at work – he worked in forestry – and that he is dead.
He says you can be with your mother in Nelson by sunrise if you leave now. You don’t ask why he was called first, though he’s out East. You don’t tell him you’re drunk, because the last time you saw your dad he shouted at you for drinking too much over Thanksgiving, and that seems important now …
Bio:
Adrian Markle is the author of the novel Bruise (Brindle & Glass). His stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including EVENT, Pithead Chapel, and Release Any Words Stuck Inside of You. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and inclusion in the Best Small Fictions anthology. Born and raised in British Columbia, he teaches English and creative writing at Falmouth University in the UK.