Stardust
December 29, 1949.
5 :53 p.m.
What Violette has been feeling for more than a week; what Meldrude has been seeing in her tea leaves for the last two days; what I’ve slowly been growing into for close to a month and a half; all this is validated, confirmed, and explained in a two-minute phone call from Doctor Hamel: Violette is going to have a baby.
Violette puts the receiver back down, smiles at herself in the mirror that hangs over the couch, and quickly returns to the kitchen where Meldrude is rummaging through every drawer, looking for the potato masher. Violette – who had rushed to take the call with the utensil in hand – gently pushes the old woman out of the way and starts mashing vigorously, pouring milk and dropping big chunks of butter into the mix.
Théodore comes out of the bathroom, lights his pipe, coughs something up, spits it in the kitchen sink, plops down in the rocking chair, and asks, his head trembling, “Who was it?”
After shaking pepper, then salt, into the pot, Violette puts the potatoes back on the stove, turns to face her in-laws, and announces, with a wave of her masher, “I’m pregnant.”
6:15 p.m.
Georges (Violette’s brother) and Thomas (their cousin) arrive after a hard day’s work at the umbrella factory. Once they have washed their hands and seated themselves at the table, Violette belts out the good news. Potatoes and peas and hamburger steaks are served amidst laughter and joy.
7:38 p.m.
Violette has done the dishes and is now folding the laundry that spent the day drying on makeshift clotheslines, in the hallway. She hopes Edmond won’t work too late, and maybe even skip his regular stopover at the tavern, tonight. He was so distraught, last year, when they lost their son. She thinks the sad event could be the reason why her husband spends so much time drinking with his buddies, or even explain his distant behaviour and lack of hygiene.
This baby just might be the answer to all her prayers.
7:46 p.m.
The door bell rings: it’s Alice, Violette’s sister-in-law. Her husband, Henri, is Edmond’s brother. He’s also Edmond’s boss – owns a contracting company that does renovation jobs for movie theatres and nightclubs all over town. Henri calls Edmond his “right arm,” but in reality, Edmond is also the left arm, the painter, the carpenter and the foreman; he does all the work.
Violette likes her brother-in-law, but she hates her sister-in-law. She finds her arrogant and bitchy and downright
condescending.
Without even so much as a polite nod to the rest of the household, Alice orders Violette to grab her coat – “Snap to it, the motor’s running!”- they’re going to Côte Ste-Catherine, on the other side of the river, where there’s something she thinks her sister-in-law should see.
8: 17 p.m.
Dragging Violette by her coat sleeve, Alice barges into the Pink Flamingo, ignores the doorman’s extended hand, rushes by the coat check girl, knocks down a fake palm tree, and coming to a halt in front of the band, points a ferocious finger towards the middle of the dance floor. There, in the arms of what her mother-in-law would call a “cocotte,” Violette finds her Edmond, swaying to the sound of Stardust – their song.
8:18 p.m.
The womb is struck with a tremor so big that my 4 mm body is nearly ripped to shreds.
And Philippe thought the whistling was bad.
