Chapter
2
Two
weeks later, a boy was surprised to see his schoolmate's father
peering under a rock. He did not know Gary’s father's name, but he
was almost certain that the man with the golf bag was the same man
who picked up Roger, Gary and Sarah at school every day. The man
glanced around, and then exchanged a similar stone from his pocket,
although this one appeared to be hollow. The man placed a film
capsule in it before glancing around again, and placing it on the
ground. Unseen near a trash burn barrel, Etienne hesitated to call
out, and the man left without noticing him. “He must not have seen
me,” the youth thought. He finished replacing his derailed bicycle
chain, and continued his grocery store run. Although he was Canadian
on his father's passport, he felt a conspiratorial protectiveness for
the secrecy of his American friend's father. “I'll never ask him
about it,” he thought.
