Washika Read Free Page A

into place. Just being with your friends is often difficult. You’re a misfit in this universe of ours.”
    â€œBut why is it like that?” Henri felt the stinging in his eyes. “I have friends, you know. They seem to like me. I work hard and I’ve got good grades and everything. My parents seem to be happy with my work.”
    â€œI know all that, Henri. But I also know that there’s not much happiness in your life. There must be a change in how you see life.”
    â€œI can do that?”
    â€œYes, I believe so. But it must be you who sees the possibility of change. Do you understand that, Henri?”
    â€œNot really.”
    â€œThink about what I’ve just said. Think about those people you know who seem to float through life without a care, how everything just seems to fall naturally into place for them. These are people we might describe as having it all— ils l’ont l’affaire . Then there are those, much like you, Henri, who struggle through life— ils ne l’ont pas l’affaire —they just haven’t got it. Let me show you something.”
    Brother André slid off the desk and went up to the chalkboard. He picked up a piece of chalk from the ledge and wrote in large capital letters: HAVES / HAVE-NOTS.
    â€œThere you go, Henri,” he said. “Two labels for life. The line I’ve drawn between them is to denote ‘time and experience.’ Together, the words and their dividing line imply that the latter can be transformed into the former, and vice versa, of course. If you believe this, then there can be hope.”
    The man stood facing Henri, his hands clasped in front of him. He looked kindly upon his student, this young man who would be leaving high school soon.
    â€œThis is all I can offer you, Henri. I know that you’ll be leaving soon for the lumber camp and then for the Capital most probably. I want you to think of these two words, every day if you can. At this moment you belong to the ‘have-nots,’ you just haven’t got it. But that’s okay. Let the dividing line between the words remind you that things can change, there’s hope that your life can be transformed and then when they speak of you they’ll say, il l’a l’affaire , now he’s got it, now he’s a have.”
    â€œYou think that can happen?”
    â€œI believe so, Henri. Just think of that dividing line and the strength it carries. And I’ll pray for you, that life will allow you the option of change.”
    From that day onward, Henri adopted the two words given to him by brother André. He thought of all his classmates, all of his close friends, and he saw only ‘haves.’ Not a single one of them resembled him. None seemed to suffer the isolation that he experienced in his life. Brother André had not offered him a solution but he had presented him with the possibility of hope.

Chapter 2
    M ore than a month had gone by. After the first three weeks the students were sent down to Ste-Émilie for the weekend. The trip down was almost as eventful as their time at Washika. There was the stop at the Cafe D’Or, a restaurant on the main highway, where they flirted with the American tourists’ daughters and caused no small degree of disturbance in the restaurant itself. Later they were introduced to the clerk at the Company’s Pay Office where they were treated like men for the first time in their lives. Saturday night in Ste-Émilie was the big night: drinking and storytelling and swinging the girls around the dance floor at La Tanière, seeing the girls shaking their bodies and waving their arms above their heads, the music so loud that you could feel its notes in your beer glass. And now they were back. They had returned to Washika on a Monday, their heads still filled with the pleasures of town life. Two weeks had gone by and their weekend in town was little but a memory as the