Amanda, you finally decided to answer the phone, her mom exclaimed after picking up at the first ring. Where’ve you been, what’ve you been up to?Mom, do you remember when I was a kid, I had a friend,...
Wendy’s house, unlike many in Cape Breton, had three floors, along with a basement and attic. Aside from Wendy’s bedroom, there was a laundry room. The dirty water in the sink would rush from the wash...
You’re innocent until proven guilty, Mandy exclaimed, unable to hide her gleeful smile. She missed the way people used to have normal conversations, used to be more caring for each other than themselv...
Kipster is a perfectly valid word, Wendy argued, about to write down her score on the little notepad that had come with the game. Okay, so what does it mean? Mandy wanted to know. Wendy struggled to c...
Hey Alecto, film this! she called out. With the slide being as tall as a two-storey house, it felt slightly risky being up there. On second thought, why don’t you come up here? It’s a blast being up h...
Yeah, you’re right about having entire rooms full of film and photos… in that Sydney Mines house I have a darkroom, I have boxes of film and home movie footage… I have a few projectors, I have piles o...
Alecto, have you noticed how downhill this little island is becoming? Mandy questioned sadly. All these organic food stores and yoga studios and cellular phone towers… Cape Breton was one of the only...
With Pollution, emotion is irrelevant, it is not their nature, Mearth sighed, making a face as if she were talking to an ignorant small child. I didn’t create them, humans created the Pollution. Chery...
What are you doing? Alecto asked in surprise, stepping back. Laughing brightly, she dragged him towards the greenhouse, the shattered glass reflecting rainbows as brilliant as a million Kodak flashcub...
We were poor back then. Not living in a cardboard carton poor, not we might have to eat the dog poor, but still poor. Poor like, no insurance poor, and going to McDonald's was a really big excitement...
I think we ought to find something else to do, said Mandy. But Alecto my love, you’re the first person to notice my retro diner kitchen. When my parents saw it, they thought I was creating a weird art...
When the north wind blew across the tar ponds, voices were carried away.
Mandy was thinking back to when she was five years old, when she, her parents and Jud went outside before Christmas and had a snowball fight with the gray snow of Sydney Mines. This is a wicked blast,...
Alecto isn't a person! He's just something that society made and then threw away, a memory that refuses to die.
I might be the hazardous waste site that polluted it, but Cape Breton Island is still my home.
If you were me you’d do the right thing, help your friends, because you’re not a coward, Mandy sighed sadly. I covered up a murder because I was scared to go to jail and I did the wrong thing… well, n...
Super 8 film is the language of silence.
Oh, I’m Chrissy Mackenzie, I’m from Vancouver but I came here to study environmental journalism, the girl exclaimed with way too much enthusiasm. You got any advice?Search me, Mandy muttered, spooning...
And what if the other kids laugh at me? Kerry complained to her parents as she nibbled on a piece of toast that morning. I have a Cape Breton accent! They’ll know I’m from Canada and they’ll start ask...
Smile for the camera, pretty little Sydney Tar Ponds.