Bad Ideas Read online

  And then the whole car seemed to tip backward. Suddenly they were hanging from their seat belts, but still rising. Were they upside down now?

  Everything outside the car was just grey. Water? Sky? Which way was down?

  Orange flames filled the windshield. And then something inky black spread across the glass from the bottom up.

  The water hit the roof first, making a hollow sound, then it filled the frames of the windows, black and grey and mossy-green.

  It was quiet and muffled.

  They could hear each other breathing.

  And then they couldn’t hear anything at all.

  Acknowledgements and Thanks

  This book was inspired, in part, by the Mile Jump of Ken Carter, the Mad Canadian. This sad story is beautifully told in Robert Fortier’s 1981 NFB film, The Devil at Your Heels. I could not have written this book the way I did without having watched it many, many times.

  Thank you to my family (especially Peter Shmelzer) for encouragement. Thank you, Andrew Steinmetz, for your help. Thanks to the Banff Centre for peace and quiet. Thank you, Susan Renouf of ECW, for your investment in this story and your skilled guidance. And thank you, Laura Pastore, for your attention to detail.

  Finally, I would like to thank Michael V. Smith, who was gracious and kind (and even helpful) when I told him I had written a book with the same title as his excellent collection of poems. Michael: you are a nice person.

  About the Author

  Missy Marston’s first novel, The Love Monster, was the winner of the 2013 Ottawa Book Award, a finalist for the CBC Bookie Awards and the Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers’ Choice. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

  DISCOVER ONLINE

  A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice

  With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.

  The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.

  Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.

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  Copyright

  Copyright © Victoria (Missy) Marston, 2019

  Published by ECW Press

  665 Gerrard Street EastToronto, Ontario, Canada M4M 1Y2

  416-694-3348 / [email protected]

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Editor for the press: Susan Renouf

  Cover design and book illustrations: Tierra Connor

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Library and archives canada cataloguing in publication

  Marston, Missy, author

  Bad ideas : a novel / Missy Marston.

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-77041-461-7 (softcover)

  ISBN 978-1-77305-321-9 (pdf)

  ISBN 978-1-77305-320-2 (epub)

  I. Title.

  PS8626.A7677B33 2019 C813’.6 C2018-905343-7 C2018-905344-5

  The publication of Bad Ideas has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country and is funded in part by the Government of Canada. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. Ce livre est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada. We acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,737 individual artists and 1,095 organizations in 223 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.1 million. We also acknowledge the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, and through Ontario Creates for the marketing of this book.