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Authors: Julie Wilson

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Procession

The only time she was alone with her best friend's father was the day he hoisted her bike into the wide trunk of his Cadillac and drove her back over the tracks, up the long, unfinished drive to her home. They arrived just as her mother was about to lock the screen door for the night. Her mother pinched her robe closed at the neck. His smile offered explanation; her mother's offered apology. His hand ushered the girl over the threshold with a final pat.

Your best friend lives next door, across the street, occasionally two yards behind you. Your best friend can be in your class, but it's not mandatory. Street rules: a ten-year-old and a seven-year-old have enough in common if all they do is toss a ball in the street until dinner's called. And if parents are willing to take in the mail while the other's out of town, best friends are pretty much forced upon one another.

This boy, though, had lived a bike ride away — a twenty-three minute ride, to be exact — on the other side of a bridge. Twelve and eleven, they had somehow found the other. Together, they scavenged ravines and stood watch across the street from the funeral parlour, grasping each other's hand tightly, boasting they weren't afraid of death.

READER

Caucasian woman, late 20s, with long brown hair in hairband, wearing tan skirt, white tank top, and pistachio-green sweater.

Mistress of the Sun

Sandra Gulland

(HarperCollins, 2008)

p 217

The Birth of a Handsome Nose

She was nine years old. The kitchen linoleum slid under her sockettes like ice, her ankles strong, balance pegged. Not the most graceful dancer, but with each glide her confidence grew. She shouldered her weight across the counter, bracing herself into a scissor-kick lift, chin grazing the breadbox.

When she landed, it was with a dull thud. She thought she heard something creaking, a trail of blood creeping along a fissured bridge. Left in place, the doctors took the chance it would straighten.

Three years later on a volleyball court, she stepped up to the net, the game-losing spike blocked: the final blow. Yet, the birth of a handsome nose.

READER

Asian female, early 30s, with broad shoulders, wavy hair bunched up high, wearing black
v
-neck cotton shirt.

Dusk Dances 2007

Withrow Park, Toronto

p 97

Pink

There are syrupy bumps on the back of her pink bathroom door buried under multiple coats of paint. They've been there since she moved in; who knows how long before that. The bumps remind her of her grandmother, the hinges on her pink bathroom door painted so many times it barely shut. She leans forward on the toilet and delicately traces the bumps with her finger. Just two pink bathroom doors in a long line of pink bathroom doors.

READER

Caucasian female, early 20s, wearing low-slung white jeans, white puffy jacket, French tips, and
ugg
s.

The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell

(Little, Brown and Company, 2000)

p 82

Hero

He comes in the same time each day, reads in the back corner for hours until he pulls out a journal into which he doodles madly. She refills his coffee, piling fresh creamers beside his pens and watercolours. Occasionally he stands, walking up and down the aisle between the mostly empty booths, on the balls of his feet, hands shoved into the high pockets of his khaki floods. Bottom lip stuck out, he doesn't sit until he's reached some conclusion, a thought he punctuates with a salute and a click of his heels to no one in particular. His short curls are matted down from sleep, he doesn't always smell very nice, and his teeth protrude a little, but she's certain that in his story, he's the hero and gets all the girls.

READER

East Indian female, early 30s, with long black hair, wearing purple velvet coat, long black skirt, and thick-soled boots.

Brown Girl in the Ring

Nalo Hopkinson

(Grand Central Publishing, 2007)

p 174

Holding

He was sitting on the couch holding the phone to his ear when his wife strode in with the groceries. He nodded once and continued to flip through a magazine. Minutes later, he held the receiver away from his ear, the cursing on the other end of the line heard well into the kitchen where his wife stood over a steeping tea bag, hands planted firmly on the counter. “How long have you been on this time?” she murmured so quietly it was as if to herself. “An hour. Mum's just forgotten where she is again,” he replied, and then, assuringly, “but she'll get back,” as if to himself. “What, darling?” his wife said from the kitchen.

READER

South Asian male, with short brown hair and labret piercing, wearing glasses, grey hoodie under black fleece, low black jeans, and black Converse sneakers.

Atmospheric Disturbances

Rivka Galchen

(HarperCollins, 2008)

p 63

Twisty Ties

The woman beside her wants to talk. She wonders aloud, are these cars air conditioned? Should she have brought a jacket?

This woman hugs a small suitcase to her knees, a white leather purse with ball point scribbles along one seam stuffed in her lap. Her son sits across from her, his suitcase closing him in. He rests his head on top of it, one earphone in, the other dangling, emitting the steady beats of hip hop.

“You forgot to put the twisty ties on the zippers,” the woman calls to her son.

He lifts his head, shrugs.

“I didn't buy you no new shorts and
t
-shirts to have somebody steal ‘em.”

“Ma,” the boy mumbles. “Twisty ties ain't gonna keep no-body out of this luggage if they want to get into this luggage.”

“Every bit helps,” she says, looking at her neighbour again.“You have kids,” the woman says, not so much a question as a statement. “They don't know until they got to pay for it themselves.”

“Maybe,” she responds, turning the page of her book.

“Ma,” the boy grumbles.

“Maybe. Maybe not. But, one day, somebody's gonna take something from you, and then you'll know. Every chance, we got to try.”

READER

Black woman, early 40s, wearing white sleeveless shirt,grey dress capris, thick-soled black sneakers, carrying turquoise leather purse.

Sweeter Than Honey

Mary B. Morrison

(Kensington, 2009)

p 56

Author's Note

Publication dates and publishers provided refer to the sighted edition of each book, not necessarily the text's original publication date or original publisher.

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