The Swan Suit Read online

  The Swan Suit

  katherine Fawcett

  The

  Swan Suit

  Copyright © 2020 Katherine Fawcett

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca, 1-800-893-5777, [email protected].

  Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.

  P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, BC, V0N 2H0

  www.douglas-mcintyre.com

  Edited by Silas White

  Cover design by Anna Comfort O’Keeffe

  Text design by Carleton Wilson

  Printed and bound in Canada

  Printed on 100 percent recycled paper

  Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Title: The swan suit / Katherine Fawcett.

  Names: Fawcett, Katherine, 1967- author.

  Description: Short stories.

  Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2020015303X | Canadiana (ebook) 20200153048 | ISBN 9781771622608 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771622615 (HTML)

  Classification: LCC PS8561.A942 S93 2020 | DDC C813/.6—dc23

  For Jack and Lilah

  Contents

  The Swan Suit 9

  The Devil and Miss Nora 30

  Nasal Cannula 48

  The Maternal Instinct of Witches 68

  Crumble 72

  What the Cat Coughed Up 86

  The Virgin and the Troll 91

  Ham 112

  Mary Wonderful’s New Grimoire 125

  East O 131

  The Pull of Old Rat Creek 146

  Mycology 183

  Fluidity 202

  Happy? 211

  Acknowledgements 222

  The Swan Suit

  The white swan twisted her neck around and prodded her beak under the feathers on her backside. When she found the zipper head, she gently pulled it along a seam on her spine, up between the base of her wings and up the back of her neck as high as it would go.

  The swan’s outer layer split apart in an upside-down V.

  A little wiggle, a stretch and a shrug, and the swan suit crumpled to a heap at the feet of a fair young maiden. She picked up the suit, brushed off the sand and dirt and hung it delicately on a tree branch. Then she rolled her shoulders back, cracked her knuckles, shook out each ankle, walked into the cold lake until she was waist-deep, raised her arms over her head and dove in.

  The suit of feathers fluttered in the breeze like the flag of a magical country.

  A stocky young fisherman standing on a dock nearby heard the splash that broke the morning’s silence. He saw the naked girl frolicking in the deep water on the far side of Mosquito Lake and held his fishing rod perfectly still, not even daring to breathe, so he could watch her without being seen. Never before had the fisherman been in the presence of such beauty. Such perfection.

  She leapt playfully forward in a somersault and the fisherman nearly fainted when her buttocks cut through the water’s surface, disappeared and were followed by an arc of delicate toes. When she finally burst up for air, mouth open wide and eyes squeezed shut, a bead of drool dangled from the middle of the fisherman’s bottom lip.

  A rainbow trout nibbled the bait off his fish hook and swam away, scot-free.

  After a few minutes, the maiden exited the lake. Drops of water slid down her body like butter melting off a cob of bronzed Chilliwack corn. She twisted her hair to squeeze the moisture out and laid it over one shoulder. Unaware of the fisherman’s gaze, she took her swan suit from the tree and stepped back into it, dressing like a burlesque dancer in reverse. She used the serrated edges of her swan beak to carefully close the zipper. Then she shook her tail feathers, stretched her neck, gave a little honk, and after a few powerful beats of her wings, flew away.

  * * *

  Does our fisherman call the Audubon Society of Western Canada and report a new breed of Cygnus, one that encapsulates a woman of flesh and blood within its feathery exterior? Or would the National Enquirer be more appropriate? Exposed! Half bird/Half woman Shocks BC Bachelor with Nude Waterplay! Does he contact his local airstrip or the aviation board? Let them know that someone dressed in a bird costume is flying around the jurisdiction, perhaps presenting a danger to low-flying aircraft? Or does he laugh it off and check for hidden cameras? Maybe someone’s playing a prank on him. Maybe the video will show up online and he’ll be the butt of jokes for a few days, tweeted and retweeted, and then everyone will forget about it, except for him.

  No, our fisherman is a romantic guy. He believes in destiny and falls in love.

  * * *

  “I’ve found my soulmate,” he said to his mother that evening after recounting the day’s events. “She’s sublime. Beautiful and monogamous.”

  He knew the story sounded absurd, but he told her anyhow. Perhaps she didn’t believe him. You couldn’t blame her if she didn’t; like most fishermen, he’d been known to stretch the truth.

  “As the honeybee loves the flower, do I love the swan-woman,” he said dreamily. “Of her sweet nectar do I yearn to drink.”

  “So,” said his mother, thrumming her thick fingers on the countertop. “No fish?” It was past suppertime and the fisherman’s mother, a woman of considerable weight and appetite, was famished. She went to the kitchen pantry and took out her bow and one arrow.

  “Mama, it was love at first sight,” he swooned. “With this nymph—this goddess—as my bride, I shall be the envy of all the men in town. Who else could claim their wife has the grace of a swan, the face of an angel and the body of a Victoria’s Secret model?”

  The fisherman’s mother belched inside her throat and blew it out the side of her mouth. She used to be a beauty queen, but that was a long time ago. She didn’t believe in soulmates anymore.

  “Quiet,” she said. “I need to concentrate.”

  The fisherman’s mother was a gifted archer, and her talents had served them well on days when the fish didn’t bite. Decades earlier, she’d decided she needed something to fall back on when she lost her looks; when her hair turned grey, when her skin became flaky and when fat and gravity had their way with her torso and breasts. So she took up archery and practised daily. Now, whenever her son failed to bring home fish for dinner, she would wait for a small animal to wander innocently into the garden—usually a rabbit, raccoon or squirrel, but sometimes a woodpecker, once a stray cat and once a three-legged Welsh terrier—point her weapon through a hole in the torn kitchen window screen, draw back her bow and release her arrow with a sharp twang. She never missed. But, like most former beauty queens, she was lazy. Once she’d killed her prey, it was her son’s responsibility to go outside, pull the arrow out of the bleeding animal’s body, skin it and prepare it for supper.

  “Believe it or not, kiddo, I have some experience in the field of courtship and love. So I suggest you pay attention.” She shut one eye and took aim from between the green and yellow checkered curtains. “Go to the lake as usual tomorrow morning…”

  The point of the arrow was a missile with a direct path into the heart of the hapless creature nosing for a grasshopper at the far side of the potato patch. Fwonk! A marmot. Right between his big brown eyes. She placed the bow on the kitchen table, wiped her nose on her sleeve and tucked a few stray hairs back into her bun.

  “…with a box of chocolate. High quality, not just any old crap. I don’t know much about swan food, but believe you me, no girl can refuse fine chocolate. And don’t start talking about babies right off the bat. That’ll turn her cold.”

  They had roasted marmot and fried potatoes for dinner that night. To be honest, the meat wasn’t very good. Too tough. If she’d had her way, she would have eaten tender, juicy lamb chops every night. Or lamb shanks. Some kind of kebab. A lamb gyro, wrapped in a pita pocket with cucumber/yogourt sauce and some thinly sliced red onion. But what were the chances of a baby sheep stumbling upon the cottage? Slim to none. No one in the region kept sheep. Too many wolves.

  The next day at dawn, the fisherman settled himself on the dock, obscured by a half-fallen tree that leaned across the water, and scoured the lake and shore for a sign of his love. His plan was simple: offer her chocolates, recite a haiku, flex his biceps and before long they’d be exchanging vows.

  He cast his line and waited. For almost an hour, there was no sign of any naked girl frolicking. No splashing, bouncing, fleshy maidenhood. He was about to give up when, between some reeds on the far side of the lake, the fisherman spotted an elegant swan gliding along the water, moving its head ever so slightly as it propelled forward, like the hand of a monarch waving to her subjects. Its beak was the colour of marigolds, its body the size and shape of a pillow and its neck curved to form a perfect half heart. The fisherman puffed out his chest as if he were the other half.

  From what he could tell, the creature was 100 per cent bird. Could the fair maiden from the day before really be disguised as this large waterfowl? The fisherman’s brain felt like a tangled knot of fishing line as he considered a suit of feathers containing a woman of flesh. He put a hand to his eyebrow to shade his view and watched the swan intently. It scooped its neck down into the water, presumably to eat a bug.
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  Impossible, he thought. That is a swan through and through. Yesterday’s wicked sun must have caused my eyes to play me the fool! A cruel jest! My heart, tricked. My dreams, shattered.

  After a short while the swan waddled ashore. It shuffled its webbed feet a few times in the sand, manoeuvred its neck in a way the fisherman thought quite unnatural, and in one smooth motion, its body appeared to split like a bag of grain sliced open by a knife. But instead of kernels pouring out, the golden-haired maiden emerged. The giant wings, the white feathers, the black mask around the eyes and the marigolden beak—all that had been swan—fell to a heap at the girl’s bare feet like a feather boa off a showgirl on a Las Vegas stage.

  Oh, glorious day! It hadn’t been heatstroke or hallucination! She really was disguised as a swan, the bird of royalty and passion. No wonder she was so graceful and regal. No wonder he’d fallen in love.

  The girl picked up the swan suit, hung it neatly on a tree branch, waded out up to her waist, then dove into the lake, still seemingly unaware of her watcher. She must be under a spell that turns her into a swan, thought the fisherman. He knew quite a bit about spells. He’d read his Grimm and his Hans Christian Andersen.

  The fisherman imagined walking into the Buzz Cut Tavern for Poetry Slam Open Mic Night with his muscular arm around the girl’s slender waist. “Go on, Honey,” she’d say, and nudge him playfully with her elbow. “Read the one you wrote for me on our wedding day.” He imagined playing Pictionary with her and his mother at the little kitchen table late into the evening; how the two women would laugh together, perhaps even conspire against him in good-hearted fun. Then he imagined the girl in his bed, her body against his, and became light-headed. He placed his palms flat upon his quads until the feeling passed.

  Unfortunately, what he couldn’t imagine was walking over to her, introducing himself and proposing to her. He, a lowly fisherman. Muscular, yes. Buff, some might say. Handsome enough, with all the right parts in all the right places. A strong Boggle player with a flair for language. All in all, a decent catch. But deep down, the fisherman was awkward and shy. He didn’t have much (any) experience with young women. He always felt uncomfortable in his own skin around them.

  What if she laughed in his face? What if she screamed and ran—or flew—away? What if she slapped him, like they did in old movies? His feet felt as if they’d become boulders he could not lift. He put a hand deep into his pants pocket and jostled his testicles around, but still he could not muster the courage to approach her.

  At his last Toastmasters International meeting, the Table Topics Master had told them courage was only a matter of semantics. Don’t call yourself nervous. Call yourself excited! The fisherman had been psyching himself up for an extemporaneous public speaking exercise on the topic “When Thirty-Somethings Live with Their Parents: Benefits and Pitfalls.” The members that night were a supportive audience, but he still found himself stammering, speaking too quickly and saying “um” and “like” far too much.

  The maiden finished her swim. She dried off in the sun for a few moments, then carefully put the swan suit back on, zipped the zipper, shook her swanny head a few times, stretched her wings, gave a little toot and flew away.

  My cowardice is a cloak around my heart, he thought. Its dark shroud could cost me my love. Then he used his Swiss Army knife to slice open the box of Turtles, and ate all twelve.

  * * *

  “Moron!” said the fisherman’s mother when he returned home with no girl, no fish and an empty orange-and-white-striped box. “Tomorrow, you take her a nice bouquet of flowers. Girls are suckers for flowers. And at least you won’t go and eat them.”

  She shot a hedgehog that night, but it was small and the meat was gristly. It required substantial amounts of ketchup to be remotely palatable. One day, I’ll get a really good meal, thought the fisherman’s mother. A true feast. She figured at least if there was a wedding celebration, the caterers would pull together a decent menu. She would insist on lamb chops roasted with minced rosemary for the main with a nice dollop of mint chutney on the side (all paid for by the bride’s parents, of course; in some ways, the woman was a devoted traditionalist).

  The next day, the fisherman walked to the lake with his tackle box and fishing rod in one hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the other. He’d bathed and applied smoothening product to his hair.

  It wasn’t long after settling himself on the dock that he spotted the swan gliding gracefully across the water on the other side of the lake. After a time, the mighty bird climbed ashore, doffed her swan suit, hung it on a branch and plunged into the lake. Once he gave her the flowers and recited some Kahlil Gibran, it would only be a matter of time until the little cottage was filled with the happy sounds of children’s laughter, Lego strewn across the floor and the stone pathway decorated with sidewalk chalk drawings. He did a few squat-thrusts on the dock, something that usually helped boost his confidence and got the blood flowing. At this point, he didn’t care if she saw him. In fact, that might have made things easier.

  But by the time he finished one set, the girl had already left the water. He stuffed his hands deep into his pants pocket as he watched her put on her swan suit, zip it up, nibble a bit of pond scum off her belly feathers, bob her head up and down, extend her wings and fly away.

  Aaaarrgh! My hope for love fades like a suntan in October, thought the fisherman, and he flung the bouquet into the lake. Three rainbow trout circled it as it drifted to the bottom, snapping at the raffia ribbon the whole way.

  * * *

  “Idiot!” said the fisherman’s mother that night, taking her bow and an arrow from the kitchen pantry in a huff. “So now you’ve wasted a nine-dollar box of chocolate and a dozen perfectly good carnations. You can’t do anything right, can you? How will you ever get a wife? And to top it all off: no fish for three days!”

  Fwonk! She shot the first animal she saw.

  “Oh joy,” she said. “Crow, again.”

  The fisherman looked at his feet.

  “You’re too wimpy. No spine. That’s your problem.”

  “Perhaps I could woo her with music,” he suggested, brightening at the thought. “It’s the language of the heart. I’ll bring my mandolin to the lake tomorrow.”

  The mother remembered his mandolin lessons. “Don’t,” she said.

  “Well, maybe I could ply her with fine wine and ale. Spirits to free her of her inhibitions; release her from the bonds of propriety.”

  “Bad idea. You don’t want a boozer for a wife.”

  The fisherman’s mother knew her boy was no Prince Charming. Sure, he spoke in fancy words, and was strong enough to lift anything that wasn’t nailed down or rooted to the earth, but the smell of dead fish was ever-present on his hands and clothes. His face was scarred with pits from a serious case of chicken pox when he was nine. His nose featured a prominent lump at the bridge and nostrils that were not quite level with one another. Their cottage was basically a dinky hovel: low ceilings, hardly any storage space and mould along the bottoms of the window panes.

  But he was her only son. He cared for her as she grew old. He was a good boy. Why shouldn’t he enjoy some of the pleasures a woman’s body can provide a man? Most nights she heard the lonely squeak squeak squeak coming from his bed frame after the sun went down. And also in the early hours of the day. And sometimes just after supper. He was healthy and virile. It was only natural that he take a wife. And if this half-woman, half-bird creature was his only hope—and her only hope for a daughter-in-law, and for the grandchildren that such a union was sure to produce—then so be it. She hoped that swan-ism was a recessive gene, but she swore she’d love and accept them even if they did come out part bird.

  “I have an idea,” she said. She bade her boy come closer and whispered something into his ear.

  The fisherman’s eyebrows lifted and his jaw dropped. “That’s cruel,” he said. “Do you think it will work?”

  The mother smiled. They both knew it would.

  * * *

  “Give that back, right now!” cried the maiden when she emerged from the lake the next day.