Читать книгу Combat Journal for Place d'Armes - Scott Symons - Страница 14

DAY ONE

NOTEBOOK

— awake at noon — pills have abated flu-fever. Lie abed, slowly draw me together

— read a little of Bozzy — just to place things a bit.

— Got La Place on my brain

& gingerly out of bed, palp embodiment for self-certification: all intact. Out pipes! Brunch in greasy spoon

down thru the city — Peel St — Dominion Square (is it true that a sparrow hawk nested atop Sun Life Bldg. I hope so!) Pick up tourist map, postcards

— the Cathedral, squatting like English parish church amidst La Place Ville Marie, Sun Life (no hawk in sight) and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel (Fr-Cdns call it Le Reine Elizabeth — even the Queen has changed sex in this goddam country!)

Quebec Hydro — Christ, pull yourself together — Hydro Québec: that’s what the “nationalization” was all about — the provincialization, the French Canadianization of the hydro, three yrs ago.

Taxi drops me at edge of La Place d’Armes. Proceed on foot — to reconnoitre. Not much snow — fortunately.

Don’t want to see too much yet. Not till I dig in, get some sort of control centre for Operation Place d’A. Otherwise might shoot the whole venture prematurely. Phtt … 10 years out the window. Mortal expenditure — & nothing to show for it. Except the notes kept while in training, intermittent, these past 7 years, & they are, at best, sketches — undercover sketches!

just take an oblique glance, out the side of my head … yes — still there! A few changes — one big one :Who is it?

retreat down sidestreet, right under the nose of Target — & set out to find quarters. Sthg nearby — not more than 5 minutes from the Square. I’ll have to scout the quarter, foot by foot this next fortnight:reinterpret every map — translate them. All out of date — & more dangerous — all deceptive, deliberately — hiding the Place. Know that from odious experience (that night, in ’61 …)

Ethg will be disguised! Masked.

I’ll have to devise my own map … prerequisite for safe encounter with Target. Will be tricky — every foot of the way mined.

Can’t find right digs — ideally a small pension over the Square. Best facing the body of Target — bull’s eye!

Small hotels — five blocks East (Old Directions) … several — in a sub-Square: La Place Jacques Cartier (meaning?) What is relationship between Square & sub-Square — Big Place & Little Place.Conniving. I’m wary tho. Make sure to find out. Excellent proximity.

Question of hotel … which one? Comes down to two: one faces City Hall (Old Style) & the old Market & the belltower of Sailors’ Church. The other faces La Place — tho I can’t see it from here.I’ld rather face forward blind, than backwards visual. Moreover the seamstress on the second floor reminds me of … no matter

Hotel Nelson. Why? Aside from its relationship to Monument in the Little Place it confronts.

Kick me all day for choosing this hotel. Too much like an old hen. But it is the right one — the one that 1st engaged my attention, my loyalty. Besides, each time I go out I’ll interrogate the view from the other, wondering why I didn’t take it, & that way get best of each world.

If I’m wrong I’ll move (tho I never will! Besides it would attract too much attention.)

Installed by nightfall. Try to read; fail.

Why have I come? I would give anything to know & more not to know!

Squander remaining energy on this why for. Flee to dinner, across La Petite Place. Buy conscience off with spaghetti, soup. Slink to sleep.