Provider's Son Read Free

thing the other brother would have to get one just a little bigger. The problem was that a labourer didn’t make the money a pipefitter did, so Bobby was quickly driving himself so far in debt trying to keep up with his brother that bankruptcy would soon be his only option.
    But Alberta wasn’t the only place there was money. For some the crab fishery was downright lucrative. On the right boat a crew member at the crab fishery could easily make twenty thousand dollars in a month’s work. And if a seventeen-year-old crew member was making that kind of money you could imagine what the skipper was pulling in. But with three men, a mid-sized boat, and a small quota, which was how Levi and his brothers had operated, making the big bucks was not as easy. In fact it was impossible.
    And as easy as it was to be jealous of the crab skippers who made it rich, some even millionaires, Levi would not allow himself. Partly because of the satisfaction it gave him to smell the jealousy off some of the landsmen in Gadus. “The fishermen got it made,” was their favourite line — only when there wasn’t one in the room of course. He wondered which fishermen they were talking about? Those who were brave enough to stay in the tattered and mismanaged industry, or the thousands who were forced to find work elsewhere? And after five hundred years of poverty, if those that were left did have it a little easier, didn’t they deserve it?
    Levi stared down at his E.I. report card. Maybe this time he would phone it in. Dealing with one of those automatic voice machines didn’t thrill him, but he was getting annoyed with filling out his card and putting it in the mail. Frank claimed phoning it in was easy, but according to him everything was easy. Levi read the number on the report card and thought about it. If Frank could do it he could.
    Levi picked up the phone and dialed the number.
    A monotone female voice answered.
    â€” Hello, this is the Employment Insurance Call-In System. If you would like a demonstration of how the report card Call-in System works please press one. If you would like to go ahead and file your E.I. report please press two.
    Levi pressed two.
    â€” Please enter your Social Insurance Number followed by the pound sign.
    Levi cursed softly.
    â€œAnita.”
    â€œAnita!”
    â€œWhat!”
    â€œWhats my Social Insurance Number?”
    â€” Please enter your Social Insurance Number followed by the pound sign.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œMy Social Insurance Number?”
    She yelled out his number.
    â€” Your allotted time is over. Good-bye.
    â€œGoddamn it.”
    Levi started over again and when he was asked to type in his Social Insurance Number he did but didn’t press the pound key. He moaned and tried again.
    â€” Please enter your Access Code followed by the pound key.
    â€œWhat the hell is my Access Code?” Levi shouted into the phone.
    â€œIts written on the tear-away part that was attached to your report card,” Anita shouted from their bedroom.
    Levi scrambled over to the kitchen table to get the report card, but he remembered that he had already thrown the tear away part in the garbage. As he ran for the garbage the monotone voice told him his time was up.
    â€œYou bitch.”
    â€œWhat did you call me?” Anita shouted.
    â€œIm not talking to you.”
    â€œOh, youre talking to a machine.”
    â€œThats right. Even a recording is a pain in the ass when its a woman.”
    â€œAsshole.”
    â€œOne more time,” he said through clenched teeth, fishing through the garbage.
    He managed to enter his Access Code and actually get to the report questions.
    â€” Answer yes or no to the following questions. One represents yes, Nine represents no. After you answer the question your answer will be repeated to make sure it is correct.
    â€” Did you work during the period of this report; including work for which you will be paid for