“I’m going to be an aunt,” she said.
I looked at her.
She shrugged, smiled sadly. “Deirdre’s pregnant. Two months, now.”
The news echoed in my ears, quivered through my bones. I mouthed the words, Deirdre’s pregnant. Deirdre was seventeen years old.
There seemed nothing more to say except goodbye and good luck.
As I stepped into the sunlight, stunned and blinking, a murmur of longing and regret whispered through me. It continued unabated as I walked toward home, past my street, to the waterfront. All the while that voice welled until it surged through me like a cry…
I cannot let this passing of affection happen without a word...
Matthew St. Amand is a life-long resident of Essex County. His two most recent published books include The Kilominator: Cycling Through a Global Pandemic In Search of Sanity & Stability (www.kilominator.com), telling the story of his obsession with cycling that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gas of Tank: A Canadian Law Enforcement Odyssey 1979 – 2019 (www.gasoftank.com), which chronicles a friend’s four-decade law enforcement career.
Matthew has also authored seven plays (two of them performed by Post Productions: Shelter in Place, 2018, and Negatunity, 2021—his play Tether will be produced in 2024).
Beyond these works, Matthew regularly contributes articles to The Drive Magazine and Windsor Life Magazine.
Over the past thirty years, his short fiction has appeared in The Toronto Review of International Writing, Opium Magazine, FRiGG Magazine, as well as numerous online publications. His prose poetry has appeared in The North American Review, Agni, and Phoebe. His other books include a collection of short fiction titled, As My Sparks Fly Upward (2004), a volume of poetry, Forever & a Day (2004), a suspense novel, Randham Acts (2006), and a comic novel, Loitering with Intent to Mope (2009).
His blog, The Kilominator Chronicles on Wordpress (www.kilominator.wordpress.
Matthew lives in LaSalle with his wife and two sons.