A Murder of Crows Read Free Page A

and Alexander ?”
    â€œ Fanny and Alexander; in Swedish; Fanny och Alexander , 1982, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Originally conceived as a four-part miniseries for TV. A one-hundred-eighty-eight-minute version was released as a movie. The TV version has since been released as a film; both the long and the short version have been shown in theatres around the mundo. Supposedly Bergman’s last film, but it wasn’t.”
    â€œPlot, Eddie—do you remember the plot?”
    â€œBoy wants to be a writer. His father dies. His mother marries a prick of a pastor who makes the kid’s life hell. Mother finally leaves the pastor and marries kindly merchant. Very Dickens that—who else believes that merchants are kindly, I mean really?”
    â€œEddie—the plot.”
    â€œRight. Once at the merchant’s place the boy begins to write, roll credits, finita la musica .”
    â€œGood, Eddie, but you missed something.”
    â€œMe, the great raconteur, missed something? Enlighten me.”
    â€œAt the end of the film the boy finally sits down to write, but he feels a cold gust of wind. He turns and sees—”
    â€œThe mean pastor.”
    â€œAnd what does the mean pastor say to him?”
    â€œÂ â€˜Never forget me—you must never forget me.’ ”
    â€œAnd the pastor’s right, Eddie. The freedom—the wildness—that boy feels living with the kindly merchant doesn’t make art. It—the wildness— makes art only when constrained by the pastor’s sternness.”
    â€œArt? You think Las Vegas should be about art?”
    Then Decker found himself laughing—the absurdity of it simply overtook him. Talking art philosophy on the streets of Las Vegas—what was he thinking! He dug into his pocket and pulled out the USB key that had the data from his casino truth-telling session and held it out to Eddie. “Take it and hide it for me, Eddie, and don’t tell me where you hid it.”
    â€œAnother dangerous one?”
    â€œYeah—a lover betrayed.”
    â€œYikes.”
    â€œIf Seth weren’t so sick I’d have walked out of that thing on the second question, the cash be damned. But Seth might need the money—right, Eddie? Seth might need it, right?”
    Eddie looked away then back to Decker. “Okay. Ask.”
    â€œAbout my son? You’ll answer questions about Seth?”
    â€œHe swore me to secrecy but he’s sick now, so ask away.”
    â€œDo you know where he is?”
    â€œNo.”
    Decker knew that even if he wanted to “truth-tell” Eddie, it wouldn’t work. He cared about Eddie. It never worked on people he cared about.
    â€œHonestly?”
    â€œHonestly, Decker, he never told me and when I’d ask he’d duck the question.”
    â€œDid he cash the twenty-thousand-dollar bank draft I gave you for him?”
    â€œNot yet.”
    â€œBut he got it.”
    â€œYes, Canada Post did a fine job getting it to him.”
    â€œSo you do know an address, dammit, Eddie.”
    â€œI don’t. He gave me a generic Victoria, BC, postbox.”
    â€œWhen did you hear from him last?”
    â€œA while after you tried to find him out there.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œNot sure you want to hear this, Decker.”
    â€œFuck, tell me!”
    â€œHe said to tell you to keep away from him. That bad things happen to people you get close to. Then something about a dead boy in ice that he said you’d understand.”

6
A DREAM OF SETH’S—T EQUALS 1 MONTH PLUS
    SETH WAS FLYING IN HIS DREAM.
    He saw the huge glass structure in the far distance and turned toward it. The faster he flew the farther away it seemed to get. But it was always there, beckoning him onward to go deeper into the dream. It was his favourite dream, and he was urging himself forward when suddenly he felt himself falling and crashed into waking as the vomit