The Good Neighbour

            On Friday morning I finished posting “Complainte du progrès" by BorisVian on Christian's Translations.
            I finished working out the chords for “My chérie Jane” by Serge Gainsbourg.
            I was about to wash a section of my kitchen floor. I keep my wash bucket upside down in front of the eastern window of my apartment because it’s over the radiator and dries out quickly. I walked over to get it when I looked out and saw my next-door neighbour Benji down on O’Hara Avenue and signalling while looking up at my window. I opened the window to hear him and he wanted me to open the front door. He’d gone to the Dufferin Mall and had left his keys in his other pants. It’s lucky that over a year ago after I had to break into his place for him he made copies of his keys for me to hold in case of another emergency. I gave him the keys; he opened his door and gave them back to me for next time.
            I washed another six boards of the kitchen hallway floor but it was so cloudy outside that I could barely see what was doing while working in the shadows. I couldn’t tell if there were little specks of white paint to scrape up. I’ll have to look it over again when I have a sunny day.
            I had the rest of a can of black beans with salsa and a bowl of salt and vinegar kettle chips for lunch.
            The bent over woman who panhandles on Queen and her old boyfriend Paul were outside about to cross the street. I heard him say her name for the first time as he called impatiently, “Come on Bea!”
            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Kingfish hears that the jewellery store on Lennox Avenue was robbed at a certain time a few days before and that there is a $1000 reward for information that leads to the thief’s capture. He remembers that he and Andy had been walking around on Lennox at that time while Andy took pictures. He had one more shot on his roll and asked Kingfish to pose for him in front of the jewellery store. It had been just then that a rough looking man walked between Kingfish and the camera. Kingfish realizes that Andy unknowingly has a picture of the robber on his yet to be developed roll of film. Kingfish plots to get the film from Andy so he can claim the reward for himself. He convinces Andy that he is now in the French dry cleaning business and offers him a free cleaning of his suit. Andy strips to his long underwear and gives his suit to Kingfish. Kingfish goes into the back room and comes back ten seconds later saying, “It’s all done!” But Andy notices the film is missing and threatens to punch Kingfish in the nose. Kingfish confesses the real reason that he wants the film and they agree to split the reward money. They head out to look for a drug store. Andy notices a couple of young women smiling and giggling at him and he thinks they are flirting until Kingfish tells him he’d better go back and put his pants on. It’s Sunday and so they can’t find an open drug store. They have to wait but meanwhile the thief hears it through the grapevine that a couple of guys from the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge have photographic evidence against him. He comes to the lodge and forces them to give him the film. Just then Stonewall the lawyer walks in. The thief advises them all to keep their mouths shut and then leaves. Stonewall says, “A crook like that is bound to get into trouble some day. I ought to give him my business card.” Andy is discouraged about the loss of the film and leaves. Kingfish tells Stonewall that he gave the wrong film to the robber and that he still has the roll they shot in front of the jewellery store and so now he can have all the reward for himself. He asks Stonewall to take the roll directly to the police station so they can develop it. He says to tell the cops that the robber in the last frame of the film. It turns out however that the robber had actually stepped clear of the camera just before Andy clicked the shutter and so the only person in the shot was Kingfish. Kingfish is arrested.
            I finished reading the paper on the two-row wampum. The people that wrote the paper claim that the two-row wampum holds symbolism that provides an ideal guide to maintaining a relationship between Indigenous and European cultures.
            I finished reading Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian. It’s both funny and pessimistic at the same time but he does end on a hopeful note. I don’t think that his claims that the government has done nothing are fully accurate. Certainly not enough has been done but thinking that there has been no progress is illogical and ignores the facts.
            I had three small potatoes, two drumsticks and some gravy for dinner while watching Zorro. This story begins with two bandits wounding and robbing a courier on his way to bring money to Monterrey. When Diego hears of this he goes to see Don Gregorio to tell him. He also informs him that to fool the thieves the couriers from Los Angeles, Sergeant Garcia and Corporal Reyes, would be coming by way of the Guadalupe Trail rather than the Camino Real trail. This is a deception by Diego because he wants to see if this information will be leaked to the bandits. The fact is that Garcia and Reyes would not be changing their route. Zorro checks on the Guadalupe Trail and discovers not only that the bandits have been leaked the information, but also that the leader of the bandits is Gregorio’s Indigenous servant Pablo. Satisfied, Zorro goes to escort Garcia and Reyes into Monterrey but sees them take the Guadalupe Trail. Garcia had decided to take the other route so they could stop at the Guadalupe Winery and refresh themselves along the way. Zorro tries to catch up with them but he is not riding his fast horse Tornado. Seeing that Zorro is pursuing them Garcia and Reyes think that Zorro is after the money. They take shelter in the winery, which is where the bandits are waiting for them. Reyes is wounded in the shoulder with a bullet and Garcia is disarmed. Garcia and Reyes are both to be killed and Garcia is being forced to dig the grave of Reyes first. Zorro knocks out a sentry and the man forcing Garcia to dig. Zorro and Garcia advance on the winery but just then Verdugo arrives. At first it appears that he is in league with the bandits. It turns out that he had hired a man on Pablo’s recommendation to protect the couriers, not knowing that they were both bandits. Zorro and Verdugo fight the two men. One is killed but Pablo escapes.