venona

Last Days of Montreal
John Brooke
Abstract p. 54-55

Big background: 1995 Referendum of Quebec
Background of this particular story: a man named Last Days tried to stop a woman Claudia from jumping from Cartier Bridge.

Last Days: “…You stop! Stop being such a fucking lamb! Don’t just slip over the side of a bridge. Rub their noses in it! Take drugs, get on welfare, go sit in the Emergency room at the hospital all day, or drink beer and eat donuts and get dangerously fat. Die slowly!go down moaning, screaming—or laughing like me!go down as ugly as you can! It’s all we can do to make them know!”
…
Last Days: “So what’s your name, darling?”
“Claudia.”
“Claudia. That’s nice. I knew a Claudia once. Crakhead. She didn’t make it… Maybe you’re the next Claudia. Maybe that’s your job.”
“No! I have no job.”
“Well, who does? I  mean something to do. Everyon’s allowed to have something to do in this life—even you. And if they won’t give you money, do it anyway!”
…
Claudia: “I’m married!”
“Damn.”
This claudia scowled at him. Kind of bent, like him. “I’m married to a tree.”
Last Days had to smile. This was definitely his kind of woman. “that’s nice. Which tree?”
“behind the house. Two trees…two horrible poplar trees. My father gave me to them. All I ever do is stand there and cry. I’ll never have sex with anyone.” She turned toward the sky.
…
He told her, “You’re perfext for Montreal. Really. A woman like you, you’re not Claudia, you’re goddamn Miss Montreal!” …

venona

Last Days of Montreal
John Brooke
p. 71

“here in Montreal…we have soul-killing weather in winter and oversealous parking cops. We have a  mayor (1996) with the brainof a tulip, police with itchy trigger fingers, an underarchieving hockey team, and the chief executive of our baseball franchise is clearly sado-masochistic and hopes to convert us all. We have hookers and homeless kids with drug problems, and bikergangs with drugs and bombs. We have giant holes in our roads and people driviing around them at uncivilized speeds. We have libraries that are shut on those days when people are most free to use them and a casino that never closes. We find less health care services and more video gambling machines. We have out-of-this-world restaurants, and food banks with line-ups they are unable to serve. We have festivals in the streets from June till September, and probably the largest critical mass of beautiful, exquisitely dressed women in the world. It is probably the same for men, if that happens to be your point of view. These are our problems and pleasures…”