The Matter of Sylvie (21 page)

Lesa looks at her mother's closed eyes, expects her mother might open them, some memory of this long-forgotten ritual, this practised remembrance between a mother and her children, but her mother doesn't open her eyes. Seems she's given in fully, let Lesa take the reins. In this moment, Lesa realizes her mother has had no one to take care of her, that she's raised her children, buried both her parents, nursed a dying husband, and now she's alone. Lesa has to steady her shaky hand to make the purple eyeliner skim over the surface of her mother's pale lids. Lesa traces her mother's uncomplaining, wordless mouth with raspberry lip pencil, follows the curved contour of her mother's still-full lips. Where her mother has had no keeper, Lesa is/will be.

Lesa flicks her cigarette into the chipped enamel sink that her mother has touched up temporarily with Wite-Out, examines her own face in the silver-flecked mirror. In the everyday light of her mother's bathroom, she sees the sliver of her mother, her father, Sylvie too, beneath her brown freckles, the water green of her eyes. Lesa pulls out her face powder, brushes it lightly, softly across the deficit of her mother's face, along her high cheekbones, over her strong jaw, and finally covers over the tiny red fissures beneath the surface of her mother's skin, if only to make them both feel better for the time being.

My thanks to the Michener Centre in Red Deer for their kind help given toward my research. In particular, Margaret Rumsey, who shared numerous working life stories of Michener, both present and past. Dr. Robert Lampard, for taking the time to answer my many, many questions. And thanks also to the security staff, who immediately questioned my driving, walking, skulking about the grounds, usually within minutes of my arrival. When I told them who I was and what I was doing, they graciously unlocked the no-longer-in-use buildings and allowed me to walk through, thus sparking both childhood memories along with the current-day surroundings of a wonderfully evolving Michener.

Special thanks to my sister, Jody Kvern, and the lovely ladies of West Terrace Three. Thanks, also, to the fine, long-standing women who care for the Terrace ladies.

My mother for not being the mother in the story, her many years of daughters, service, love, guidance through less than perfect times. Her continued years, love, guidance in our adult years. My father, whose bright presence I miss daily.

My thanks, yet again, to the gentle, funny, trusting, highly concise editing of Lee Shedden, and his wife, Fiona Foran, for her intuitive reading and thoughtful insights.

My thanks to Brindle & Glass Publishers, to Ruth Linka for her coastal support of prairie writers.

The Alberta Arts Foundation for their financial support in making
Sylvie
possible.

My constant sisters: Kelly Gray, Bobbie Charron, Dani Kvern.

My tall, great, growing-in-all-ways guys: my artist husband, Paul Rasporich, whose unvarying husband/artistic support allows me to write all the livelong day, my boys, Kai and Seth, who are ever-patient, always sympathetic. Writer/mothers are not the easiest to live with, and yet they do.

LEE KVERN is an award-winning author of short stories and fiction. Her novel,
Afterall
, was nominated for the 2006 Alberta Book Awards. Her short stories are well celebrated:
White
was the winner of the 2007 CBC Literary Awards, and
I May Have Known You
was nominated for the 2010 Alberta Literary Awards. Her work has been published in
Event
,
Descant
,
enRoute
and
Joyland, New York
. Lee lives in Okotoks, Alberta. Visit Lee's website at:
www.leekvern.com

Copyright © 2010 Lee Kvern

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, audio recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher or a photocopying licence from Access Copyright, Toronto, Canada.

Originally published by Brindle & Glass Publishing Co. Ltd. in 2010 in softcover
ISBN 978-1-897142-48-6

This electronic edition was released in 2011
ePub ISBN 978-1-926972-22-0

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Kvern, Lee, 1957–
The matter of Sylvie : a novel / by Lee Kvern.
Print format: ISBN 978-1-897142-48-6
Electronic monograph in PDF format: ISBN 978-1-897142-89-9
Electronic monograph in HTML format: ISBN 978-1-926972-22-0
I. Title.
PS8621.V47M37 2010 C813'.6 C2010-903670-0

Edited by Lee Shedden
Cover image by Angel Strehlen
Author photo by Paul Rasporich

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Brindle & Glass is pleased to acknowledge the financial support for its publishing program from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF), Canada Council for the Arts, and the province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

www.brindleandglass.com