Scots Bay, Nova Scotia

Caucasian woman, early 40s, wearing faded jeans, black T-shirt, her wavy hair tangled in the wind.

Are You Somebody? Nuala O’Faolain (Owl Books)

Pg. 183

Time. I note every day the physical detail of middle age. The transparent polyps that have formed on the skin of my neck. The first white hair in my eyebrows. Pigment spots on my midriff, which will never tan again. I see people my age cherishing their parents. No service they can offer is too much. If my mother had got old and I had been able to love her, would I be able to love my own aging body now? If I had had children? How do people arrange to love their aging selves?

Every year on her birthday, her mother would tell her the story of her birth. It didn’t matter how far she went from home or how late is was when they finally found one another by phone — once the how are yous and the weather talk was out of the way, her mother would begin the tale. She always managed to make that same story — of a pregnant woman, a county fair, a candy apple craving, and a late July thunderstorm — sound new, and miraculous, time and again.

Now she makes stories of her own, measuring the sentences, and counting the years like this—

I am forty-one and two.

Forty-one years since the day of her birth, two years since she last heard her mother’s voice.

Ami McKay

Sidewalk patio of the Just Us Cafe — Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Caucasian male, late 20s, with brush cut, sunglasses perched on top of head, and wearing black fleecie.

You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe, Christopher Potter (Knopf Canada)

Page 59:

It’s Not About You

Not at first did the gods reveal all things to mortals, but in time, by inquiry, they made better discoveries. -Xenophanes

Our understanding of how the contents of the large-scale universe are arranged – as a hierarchy of stars in motion – is the result of hundreds of years of scientific investigation. Whatever the scientific method has become, it was not always as it is now. It has evolved over time, in tandem with our understanding of the universe, and doubtless will continue to evolve as our understanding of the universe deepens. Science and the universe are inseparable.

My first birthday was five days after the moon landing, but my mother always liked to brag that I took my first “giant leap” before Neil Armstrong. My father, in his excitement over the Apollo 11 mission, took photographs of our bulby television set. Sadly, the pictures all failed, the screen turned to a murky green in the blinding Sylvania flash. It was cause for deep disappointment. You have to understand, he was a Navy man. He was a flight mech. in the Korean war, keeping the planes going, testing them by day, but never flying by night, never completing a mission because he was colour blind. He was nineteen.

Ami McKay

Just Us Cafe — Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Caucasian female, mid 20s, with long blonde hair, blue plaid shirt, jeans, and large pink handbag.

Before and After Getting Your Puppy, Dr. Ian Dunbar (New World Library)

Page 2:

Your puppy needs to be prepared for the clamor of everyday domestic living — the noise of the vacuum cleaner, pots and pans dropping in the kitchen, football games screaming on the television, children crying, and adults arguing.

She smiles to herself, remembering it was his idea to get a dog. They have narrowed it down to a lab mix or something with border collie — energetic but not yappy. They are going to look at the shelter today. His mother is coming to visit next week. They should have the puppy by then. She will make it clear it was his idea to get the dog.

Ami McKay