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was an individual struggle over some specific issue. Their fights were about drinking or about something one or the other of them had said without thinking. With Arvel it was different. He and Arvel just had one long fight that got taken up anew whenever they saw each other.
    When he awoke it was still dark. The TV was hissing, its grey eye dancing with random dots. Dunya was standing over him, shaking him awake.
    “Ennis! Wake up, goddamn it. Did you feel it?”
    “What’s the time?” he said. He sat up, swung his feet to the floor.
    “Something happened,” Dunya said. He pressed the light on his watch. 5:29.
    “What?” Ennis said. “
What
?” His hangover came in through his eyes, pushing backward toward his brain.
    “The house shook. It woke me up.”
    “Forget it,” he said. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”
    “Jesus, Ennis. Didn’t you
feel
it? I’m telling you, Ennis. Something happened.”
    Ennis rose slowly from the couch. He went into the kitchen and stopped when he got to the side of the fridge. The fridge door was ajar and a plastic pitcher of orange juice had somehow shaken loose and ended up spilled on the floor.
    “Did you do this?” Ennis said.
    Dunya came up beside him. “I haven’t been in here this morning. See? Whatever woke me up shook this juice right out of the fridge.”
    Ennis stepped around the pool of juice and filled a big glass with water. His heel ached, and now he remembered catching it on the door of the fridge. He put a hand back and pressed gently on his tailbone. It was bruised, but he wouldn’t know how badly until later. He was drinking his second glass of water when he looked out the kitchen window and down to Rutherford Street. In the light of the street lamp, he saw Ziv coming out the back door of the Burgess house.

J ackie was leaving in the morning. Her friend Colleen was driving from Halifax to pick up her and the girls. They’d stay at Colleen’s place until they could find an apartment of their own. After years of complaining about Arvel’s drinking and his volatile temper, after years of throwing him out, taking him back, and throwing him out again, she was finally making a break.
    So she could gather what she and the girls would need at least to get them through the next few weeks, she’d set up the girls in the living room with enough toys and games to keep them occupied. The packing had gone much more quickly than she’d expected, and she was finished early enough to have the girls in their beds at the regular time.
    Yesterday morning she’d told them what was happening. The part about moving to Halifax, at least. The part about leaving their father behind she had not yet discussed with them.
    The girls had not asked any questions. In her mind, she’d gone over possible answers numerous times since she’d asked Arvel toleave the house a few days ago and decided that this was it, this was the last time.
    Is Dada going to come with us?
she thought Kate might ask.
    No, dear, he can’t come. He has to stay here and work and we all have to go to Halifax, to work and to go to school. Why?
    Well, Mama and Dada have problems they can’t solve. They’ve tried to solve them for a long time, but they can’t. Now we have to move on, move out of our problems
.
    There were only a few suitcases and an old sports bag of Arvel’s, full of clothing, some of the girls’ toys and books. She’d packed what they’d need to get them through the next few weeks, at which point she would come back and organize the rest. She moved the packed bags from the living room and piled them next to the back door, made herself a cup of mint tea, and sat down at the kitchen table. Halifax. Her friend Colleen Chisolm had been trying to convince Jackie to move to Halifax for years, ever since she’d gone there herself.
    Arvel would find a job there for sure. She said that it would be a lot easier for him there than in Albion Mines.
    Colleen was working at Gregor’s, an