It was a typical day in Sault Ste. Marie after the war ended. The narrator and her parents, older brother, and maternal grandmother were living in a bungalow in what was known as the Halfbreed Projects.
For the most part, her life was routine. She took the bus into school where she got good grades, played road hockey with her brother and her friends, and was madly in love with a boy named Hugh McIvoy.
Hugh was one of the only white kids in the whole school, the rest of the kids at school being bussed in from the reserve or from out by the hockey arena. For sure he was the only blonde, and he was the tallest kid in the school, even taller than some of the teachers. The only word that could describe him was “radiant”, being so fair that he shone.
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The narrator would spend every day at the bead quarry in The narrator would spend everyday at the bead quarry in the gravel yard at school. It was infested with beads, ground into the dust and stone. One day in late April, she collected a lot of beads, including a peach hued glass oblong dazzler. By afternoon recess she had attained a varied and colorful collection.
She was unsure on how to proceed with the beads and she wanted to do something befitting of her exquisite find. Therefore, she gave them to Hugh. She snuck the beads into Hugh’s desk at the back, wondering what his reaction would be.
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