Guide to The Peripheral by William Gibson

I first read this book in 2015, the year after it was published. The hardcover version clocks in at 485 pages. In 2022 it surfaced again on Amazon Prime as a mini-series, though the second season was cancelled due to a writers' strike, a disappointment as I thought the cast was great and there were parts that I found unforgettable -- the haptic band of brothers and their use of drones, and especially the eerie portrayal of a future London with tall buildings that are part ruin, part classical sculpture. So I picked up the book again this year, but had forgotten how reading Gibson can be like boarding a moving train. He speeds through chapters without fully explaining what's going on and backfills gaps later on. This streamlines the story but the scattered clues can be difficult to pick up. Many of the details, while interesting, are not germane to the plot. Add a few twists and stir in the mini-series, which does not hew closely to the book, and you'll be forgiven for feeling a bit dazed.

PLOT SYMMETRIES

The 124 chapters alternate between the future and the past, and between the POV of two main characters. The cast is large and there is much detail which, though entertaining, is unimportant to the plot. The overall effect is like a linear jigsaw puzzle. 

Far-reaching consequences set the story in motion in chapters 8 and 15. They involve murders in two locations (London and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch). They appear unrelated at first, but later we find out that two sisters are involved, Aelita and Daedra. One is a victim, the other a perpetrator, although we do not find this out until later. The murders are bizarre and could only happen in the future.

Featured in the other half of the story, which takes place in the near-present, is another pair of siblings, this time a brother and sister named Burton and Flynne. An imaginative version of time travel brings the present and future together, separated by something called the Jackpot, a combination of war, disease, drought, and climate change that decimated 80% of humanity. Those who survived (mainly the wealthy) were able to rebuild thanks to a surge in technology, but it's mostly an empty world. Androids and nanobots do the heavy lifting, everything from menial tasks to killing.

In the near-present people drive cardboard cars made in China, and make money in two principal ways -- online gaming and the drug trade. Flynne and Burton are good enough at the former to attract the attention of a wealthy dilettante named Lev who dabbles in the past as a hobby. In other words, he too is a kind of gamer.

Burton is offered big bucks to role-play what he thinks is a game, but at a critical moment Flynne has to take his place, and she witnesses a murder. This immediately attracts the attention of unknown rivals who send a hit-squad to take out Burton and Flynne in the present. Burton however is an ex-Marine who was part of Haptic Recon unit. At first, he and his ex-military buddies are more than a match for the people pitted against them, but the conflict between present and future quickly escalates.

VIRTUAL TIME TRAVEL

No time machine necessary. Instead a mysterious server in China ("something to do with quantum tunnelling") enables an exchange of data between the present and the future. The consciousness of a person from the present can be uploaded into an android, aka "a peripheral." Such a person is called a polt (not a poult -- though that might be more fun), and is able to interact with others in the future. Peripherals have no digestive tract, and must be infused with a nutrient every 12 hours. People in the future use them as casually as people use characters in online games, both in their own timeline as well as in the past.

As soon as a connection with the past is made, an alternate timeline (or "stub") is created. Thus Flynne's present does not lead directly to Lev's future. Yet that does not prevent two of the characters from existing in both Flynne's present (which is only a few years beyond today) and Lev's future (which is 70 years distant from hers). Flynne's is the first stub created by Lev. Others exist, but we are not told anything about them and their presence is not widely known. It is soon discovered that someone else from the future has made a connection with Flynne's stub, and a deadly race ensues between the two groups for control of the past with Flynne and her family caught in the middle. How people from the future operate in the present is not explained in any detail, except to say they use their phones.

Wilf, when asked if he's from the future, says, "I'm in the future that would result from my not being here. But since I am, it isn't your future."

CHARACTERS & GLOSSARY

[Shaded entrees = Future]

Aelita West - Sister of Daedra, and a murky American figure whose murder is witnessed by Flynne.

Annie Courrèges - A Neoprimitive curator.

Assemblers - Nanobots that build things.

Ash - One of Lev's "technicals" who along with Ossian helps manage his hobbies. She has moving tattoos, doubled (figure eight) pupils, and a hat that resembles a black leather toad.

Aunties - Algorithms.

Badger - A social media platform. (A sarcastic jab by the author?)

Boss Patcher - A peripheral operated by Hamed. Has keratotic skin, no neck, features of a bullfrog, two penises. Lives on a plastic island in the Pacific.

Bullpup - "An Army rifle that looked like it had been telescoped back into itself, squashed front to back."

Burton Fisher - An ex-Marine getting disability from VA due to problems caused by his haptics. Uses the avatar "Easy Ice" when playing online games, and has won many drone competitions. When warned that a contract has been put out on him, he replies that he's not "a particularly easy target."

Coffee Jones - A coffee chain that also serves freshly printed cronuts. Flynne once worked there.

Conner Penske - The only other HaptRec vet. Missing an arm, leg, a foot, and several digits. Drives a special trike that burns cooking oil. Kills a 4-man hit team sent from Memphis to take out Burton and Flynne. In London his peripheral is a martial arts instructor aka the dancing master.

Corbell Pickett - Richest man in the county, involved in the drug trade. Burton pays him hush money after Conner kills a hit squad from Memphis. Corbell has Flynne kidnapped after getting an offer to kill her. Flynne is rescued by Burton and Corbell's home blown up. Corbell flees the country.

Carter - The youngest of Burton's posse, helps monitor the drones around the Fisher home.

Danny - Runs Jimmy's, a bar & grill.

Duval - Part of Burton's posse, helps monitor the drones around the Fisher home.

Carlos - A volunteer EMT, part of Burton's posse.

Clovis Fearing - A very old friend of Lowbeer who owns a shop in London dealing exclusively in Americana. Resembles "some crumbling relict saint," and is familiar with continua enthusiasts who will "buy anything from the twenty thirties, twenty forties." They "try to get as far back from the Jackpot proper as they can. About 2028, latest." She is "also a former British spy, as was Lowbeer, who ran her out of the embassy in DC."

Clovis Raeburn - An American in Flynne's time. In the future she is Clovis Fearing.

Daedra West- A celebrity exhibitionist, herself "the product" in an art form that is part reality television, politics, and performance art. After each media event she has herself flensed and sells the skin to art collectors. She breaks her agreement with the backers of her latest project (visiting the Patchers) by appearing naked and tattooed. It's a deliberate provocation of the Patchers, who had eaten the last two envoys. According to Ash, Daedra "or one of her associates is our competitor in the stub."

Dominika - Lev's wife.

Edward - Part of Burton's posse, works at Forever Fab.

Ella Fisher - Ailing mother of Flynne & Burton.

Fabbitt - A 3D printing chain.

Flynne Fisher - Burton's sister. Would have signed up for the Armed Forces when he joined the Marines, but stayed at home to look after their mother. Makes money by online gaming, and is better at it than Burton. Shoots Hamed at the end of the book.

Fitz-David Wu - Best Shakespearian actor of his day.

Forever Fab - A 3D print shop owned by Shaylene.

Gobiwagen - A Mercedes land-yacht "commissioned for a tour of Mongolian deserts" by Lev's grandfather.

Gonzales (Felicia) - President of the US. Her assassination "was pivotal, a tipping point into the deep Jackpot." 

Great Pacific Garbage Patch - A floating island made of recovered plastic, inhabited by fewer than 100 Neoprimitives.

Griff (Gryffyd Holdsworth) - Lowbeer when she was much younger. Flynne mistakes her for a man when they meet in the present. 

Hamed al-Habibi - "Minor Gulf klept...a fifth son. Quickly the black sheep." He killed Aelite, the woman he was involved with.

HaptRec Recon 1 - A unit of Marines outfitted with haptics that enable them to coordinate their movements on the battlefield.

Hefty Mart - A large chain of stores suggestive of Costco or Wall-Mart with headquarters in Delhi.

Homes - Homeland Security.

Hong - Owns Sushi Barn.

Jackman - A sheriff in the pay of Corbell.

Jackpot - Civilization "dying of its own discontents," according to Lowbeer. Androgenic and multicausal "with no particular beginning and no end." See the Heinlein short story, "The Year of the Jackpot."

Janet - Friend of Flynne, makes socklike things for Conner.

Janice - Friend of Flynne, helps look after Ella, married to Madison.

Jimmy's - A bar & grill.

Klein Cruz Vermette - A law firm out of Miami working to keep Flynne and Burton safe.

Klept - Russian oligarchs.

Leon - Cousin of Burton and Flynne. An Army vet, he aids Burton by accepting a $10 million prize via a state lottery rigged by the future.

Lev Zubov - The youngest of a powerful Russian family in London, and a dilettante who is "a sort of scout for the family." Looks for things they might invest in as well as "sources of novelty." Flynne's is his first stub. When it's discovered that someone else is accessing it via the polt that Wilf gave to Daedra's sister, he takes steps to block their efforts. Has two older brothers, Anton and Pavel, and two pet "thylacine analogs" named Gordon and Tyrenna. Lowbeer thinks he will pervert the economy of Flynne's world.

Lithonia - Friend of Flynne, spells Janice in looking after Ella.

Lorenzo - Rainey's cameraperson, he records Daedra's meeting with the Patchers.

Lowbeer - Detective Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer of the Metropolitan Police in London and a former spy with global intelligence feeds. Called in by Lev after he heard Flynne's story about the murder. Has broad shoulders, white hair, and wears clothes "as ambiguous as she was." A former spy. See Griff.

Luke 4:5 - A religious group "as much a business as a cult." Hated by Burton.

Macon - Gay friend of Burton and Flynne, good at math, excels at 3D fabbing.

Madison - Playing vintage sims like Sukhoi Flankers, a main money earner for him and Janice.

Maenads' Crush - a bar.

Matryoshka - Name given to those opposing Flynne and Burton. "Out of Nassau, so that's probably where they first came through from the future." Racing Milagros Coldiron for ownership of the world in the past.

Medici - A healing device, in appearance "something like a cross between a bull's balls and a jellyfish.".

Michikoids - Aka koids, AI-operated androids able to move like spiders when the need arises, and grow extra sets of spider eyes.

Milagros Coldiron - A shell company in Colombia set up by Lev to facilitate operations in the present.

Mobi - A blimp.

Neoprimitives - People who "either survived the Jackpot on their own or have opted out of the global system." Some embrace "heritage diseases" like the common cold.

Operation Northwind - A game played by Flynne before being contacted by the future.

Ossian Murphy - Aka the Irishman, named after a fictional Gaelic poet. He and Ash sometimes communicate with each other in a synthetic language that sounds like birdsong. They work for Lev and mind his hobbies for him. He wears a pigtail and sometimes acts as a butler.

Party Time - A chemical that turns people into homicidal sex maniacs.

Patchers - A small group of Neoprimitives who cleaned plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and used it to assemble a huge floating island. They are into grotesque body modifications. They ate the last two envoys.

Pharma Jon - A pharmacy chain.

Polt - Short for poltergeist. A person operating a peripheral.

Rainey - Lives in Toronto and works for the Canadian government. She hired Wilf for Daedra's project, and afterwards tells him that they had been used to facilitate the deaths, which were an assassination, a hit.

Remembrancer - Sir Henry Fishbourne. A crooked official of the City who collaborated with Hamed. Appears only at the end of the book and is killed by Burton.

Reece - An Army vet and part of Burton's posse, forced by Pickett to kidnap Flynne.

Shaylene - Friend of Flynne, owns Forever Fab where Flynne sometimes works. She went out with Burton in high school.

Squidsuit - A camouflage suit like "cluttlefish camo, like Burton and Conner used in the war."

Tarantula - Conner's trike.

Tommy Constantine - Deputy sheriff, an honest cop.

Tacoma Raeburn- Red-haired sister of Clovis Raeburn, also a notary and a CPA who works for Griff and for Klein Cruz Vermette. Claims she's better than Clovis with a gun. 

Vespasian - A continua enthusiast from Berlin and "a weapons fetishist, famously sadistic."

Viz - An eyepiece that provides views feeds from other sources. 

Wheelie Boy - A ball with a tractor tire on each side and a mini-tablet on a stick. Used by Wilf when he visits the present, as no peripherals are available there.

Wilf - A friend of Lev, with whom he went to school, now a glib publicist with a drinking problem. Worked briefly for Daedra, and with whom he'd had an affair. He tried to impress her by mentioning Lev's stub and offering the use of a polt (Burton), but she wasn't interested. At her suggestion the polt was given to her sister. He was fired after the fiasco at the Garbage Patch in chapter 8.

SUMMING UP

Rainey told Wilf they'd been used by someone to kill the Boss Patcher and his his entourage. That someone could only have been Daedra, with whom Wilf had had a brief affair. Daedra didn't want the polt that Wilf offered her, and suggested that it be give to Aelita. Presumably she was the one who contacted Burton to provide security, mainly to keep paparazzi drones away from a reception she was holding. Flynne took Burton's place and witnessed Aelita being killed by Hamed, who had learned about the stub from Aelita, as they had been together for quite a while. Immediately after Aelita was killed, Ash tells Lev that someone has been accessing their stub: "seems as though it has something to do with your polt." When Hamed learned there was a witness to the murder, he went after Flynne and Burton.

On page 354 Ash comments that "it's almost certain that Daedra, or one of her associates, is our competitor in the stub." Presumably one of the associates is the City Remembrancer (Sir Hentry Fishbourne), who was involved in the monetization of an island "that he created," (p. 458), presumably the one inhabited by the Patchers who, according to Hamed, have "endemic health issues...of which they aren't yet aware." On page 471 Lowbeer speculates that the Remembrancer "might have suffered some well-concealed setback in his affairs: a real estate and development scheme, with resource extraction?" This suggests the media stunt that Daedra orchestrated sank whatever financial aspirations the Remembrancer had for the island. As soon as he is killed, Lowbeer says to Flynne and Burton, "Sir Henry's death has deprived your competitor of the sort of advantage that Lev and I afford you now."

In the end Hamed gets away with murder, as "he's too well-connected to be bothered by any of this" (p. 474). Daedra is tormented by Conner for a while but isn't harmed, so she too gets away with murder, for she had obviously set up the confrontation with Hamed, who was pretending to be the Boss Patcher. (He wasn't killed but some of his followers were.) Daedra "was covered with a hypersonic weapons-delivery system...something orbital, ready to drop in" (p.32).

The final two chapters are saccharine, probably because Gibson figured we'd had enough nastiness with the revelations about Hamed, Daedra, and the Remembrancer, and with the worst of the Jackpot still to come (but then again, maybe not in this stub). 

UPLOAD 

William Gibson makes a very brief appearance in this humorous series on Amazon, in which people can be uploaded to a virtual afterlife. In Season 3, Episode 5, he appears as a hologram in a San Francisco library and offers a few words about "AI-generated characters."

John Boyd and the Art of War

 

If you've seen Top Gun, you probably have a stereotyped image of brash and cocky fighter pilots. Boyd was just such a person, a true maverick. He wasn't just loud, he ate fast, talked fast, and poked others in the chest (including senior officers) to make a point. 

"He appeared a wild man. His reputation was like the shock wave in front of an aircraft; it rode ahead of him and disturbed everyone it washed over. It left people rolling in its wake, confused and often angry." 

He flew with the same abandon, pushing a plane to its limits, wanting to know what it could and could not do. The one time he had to eject led to the discovery of an undocumented design flaw in the aircraft. If someone boasted of a perfect safety record among the pilots he was training, Boyd said he was failing them.

Though Boyd was crude at times, he was also one of the best fighter pilots in the world, and after the Korean War became an instructor at Fighter Weapons School at Nellis AFB, the equivalent of the Navy's Top Gun. While there he discovered a "quick and violent maneuver" that solved the adverse yaw problem with the F-100 Super Sabre, "one of the most quirky and treacherous fighter planes in the history of the Air Force." He made a standing offer to all comers that he could reverse positions with a plane on his tail in 40 seconds. He was never defeated and became known as Forty-Second Boyd.

The F-100 Super Sabre

 

 

 

 

 

He was also a thinking fighter pilot at a time when dogfighting was "almost a lost art in the Air Force." After Korea, the Air Force's main focus was strategic bombing, much to the disgust of fighter pilots, who thought flying a B-52 was much like driving a bus. Boyd became obsessed with quantifying the performance of a jet fighter, and developed his Aerial Attack Study, a 150-page manual that explained how, if a pilot knew the position and velocity of his opponent, he would then know what maneuvers the enemy could perform and what counter-maneuvers were available. 

"Within ten years the Aerial Attack Study became the tactics manual for air forces around the world. It changed the way they flew and the way they fought. Forty years after it was written, even with the passage of the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, nothing substantial has been added to it."

The Air Force sent Boyd to university where he learned about thermodynamics and the difference between available and unavailable energy -- in other words, entropy. This enabled him to further refine his thinking and resulted in his Energy-Maneuverability Theory, which was based on thrust and drag ratios. His work showed that in many respects Soviet aircraft were superior to US aircraft. He continued to elaborate the theory after graduating, but had to do so in evenings and on weekends. He also had to "steal" computer time at the base where he was stationed, and in this he was helped by an influential friend, Tom Christie, who "flew top cover" for him. Christie was the first of several gifted loyal supporters of Boyd.

The Pentagon

Ordered there in 1966, he tried to apply his E-M theory in the development of a new fighter. The generals he briefed were rattled by what they heard, e.g. that the two primary aircraft being used in Vietnam, the F-105 Thuds and F-4 Phantoms, were inadequate, and that the F-111, which was under development at the time, had many faults. It turned out to be "one of the most scandal-ridden aircraft in US history."

The F-111 Aardvark, a swing-wing fighter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Politics at the Pentagon were "byzantine and deadly." The rivalry between Air Force and Navy was intense, particularly in the area of funding, and the place was staffed with officers fearful of damaging their careers if they disagreed with superiors. Boyd faced opposition at every step, and his bullheadedness and extravagant behaviour made him many enemies. He was so intemperate in his speech and actions that to many he seemed out of control. His "manner went beyond the coarseness, the close-in spittle-flying conversations, the arm waving and loud voice, the long hair and disheveled appearance, and the nocturnal work habits." He once burned a hole in the necktie of a general with his cigar. "His behaviour bordered on insubordination."

One of his achievements was ramming through a decision to use a fixed-wing instead of a swing-wing design. "History has proven Boyd correct. The variable-sweep wing was one of the major engineering blunders of the century. Hollywood and the movie Top Gun notwithstanding, the F-14 Tomcat is a lumbering, poor-performing aerial truck." Although Boyd is acknowledged as the father of one of the finest aircraft of its type at the time, the F-15 Eagle, he remained unhappy with its weight and expense. He and a few close friends began working in secret on a new lightweight fighter, which eventually became the F-16 Falcon, another highly regarded aircraft.

The F-14 Tomcat, another swing-wing fighter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The F-15 Eagle

 

 

 

 

 

 

The F-16 Falcon, a lightweight fighter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patterns of Conflict

He began to study war itself, and over a span of years produced Patterns of Conflict, which was an updating of Sun Tzu and a repudiation of von Clausewitz. He praised commanders who fought at a high operational tempo and practised the rapid exploitation of opportunity." The goal was to create chaos by using ambiguity, deception, and multiple thrusts. "To attack the mind of the opponent, to unravel the commander before a battle even begins, is the essence of fighting smart." He referred to this as "maneuver warfare." At the heart of Patterns is something called the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act cycle, or the OODA Loop, which since then has been applied not just to war but any form of conflict, such as business and sports.

Meanwhile, following the war in Vietnam, the American military hit a low point and began taking hits from the press. In 1979 an article entitled "The Muscle-Bound Superpower" appeared in The Atlantic. Much of it revolved around Boyd and his Patterns of Conflict, which questioned the value of the high technology solutions so favoured by the military. This thinking was backed up by the failure in 1980 to rescue hostages in Teheran. Jim Fallows, the author of the Atlantic article, later wrote a book, National Defense, a damning indictment of the Pentagon and the defense industry, and it portrayed Boyd and his friends as Reformers who might have the solution to all that was wrong.

In 1983 Time magazine ran a piece on the military with one of Boyd's associates, Chuck Spinney, on the cover. Spinney had authored a report called "Defense Facts of Life," "one of the most important documents ever to come out of the Pentagon." It claimed that "the unnecessary complexity of major weapon systems was wrecking the military budget." Pentagon officials were in shock and the Air Force declared war on Spinney. Generals ridiculed him, and one became so over-wrought during a briefing by Spinney that he collapsed.

The Army

Another of Boyd's associates, James Burton, was put in charge of testing weapons at a time when the Bradley Fighting Vehicle was in early production, and testing was largely done by computer modelling. When Burton ordered field testing, the results were faked. "Time after time the army lied about the realism of its testing. Billions of dollars hung in the balance. Boyd told Burton, "Jim, you can't have a normal career and still do the good work. You have to decide."

The Army responded by trying to transfer Burton to Alaska and changing his position description. When reporters got wind of what was happening and a Congressional hearing announced, Burton was told that everything he planned to say was classified. By then Burton was worn out and retired. Later he wrote a book about it called The Pentagon Wars, which was subsequently turned into a film of the same name. (As of the date of this review, the film is streaming on Crave.)

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Marines

Boyd's name became anathema at the Pentagon, and the Air Force did its best to bury him. He was spied upon, given poor performance appraisals, and passed over for promotion. Only the Marines embraced him wholeheartedly.

"No two branches of the American military are farther apart than the Air Force and Marines... The Air Force is a technocracy while the Marines are a warrior culture... Marines are utterly contemptuous of the Air Force." Boyd became a regular lecturer at the Marine Corps and took an active part in tactics classes, emphasizing fluid and fast-moving tactics that disrupted enemy thinking. Marines were instructed to bypass resistance, and to use multiple thrusts and ambiguity to confuse the enemy. The Marine Corps became the most intellectual branch of the US military.

When Boyd died, the Air Force "all but ignored his passing," while at his funeral the Marines were conspicuous by their presence. "Placing the symbol of the US Marine Corps on a grave is the highest honour a Marine can bestow. It is rarely seen, even at the funeral of a decorated combat Marine."

Further Reading

• Hammond, Grant. 2012. The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security
• Richard, Chester. 2004. Certain To Win: The Strategy of John Boyd Applied to Business
• Robinson, Stephen. 2021. The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War

The most recent book on the list finds flaws in Boyd's thinking.

Novel Scotia - Deleted Scene

The first draft of the novel was, at 140,00 words, too long, so I began trimming. The following scene I liked very much, but the support structure to make it work was awkward, so out it went.

He arrived home just in time to avert a disaster. Smelling smoke, he rushed into the kitchen. Eula had left a pot of potatoes simmering on the stove. It had boiled dry and the potatoes were a smoking ruin. He yanked it off the stove and dropped it, the handle being too hot to hold. When Eula saw the scorch mark on the floor, she was so upset she took to her bed for several days, and the burnt floor was a constant reminder of her close brush with a fire. Unable to absolve herself of the mistake, she decided that it was time to move into a home for seniors. She was adamant about it, saying to Avon, “I’ll not be a burden nor a danger to you.” 

Lettuce agreed, emphasizing that it was for her own safety, though adding that a move would not happen anytime soon, for there was always a long wait to get into a nursing home. In this they were proved wrong by the Department of Elderly Affairs, which announced the opening of a special retirement centre in an abandoned factory in Windsor. Lettuce, who in looking after the farm’s books was adept at dealing with bureaucracy, made inquiries and returned with documents for Avon to sign. On the day of departure she provided the transportation, though there was a slight delay when she checked Eula’s bag. Avon had done the packing and included a toothbrush, a hotwater bottle, a bit of food, but no clothing beyond socks and a spare sweater. He had been too shy to look for anything of a more personal nature, so Lettuce went into the house to do it for him.

Eula was in good spirits, and reminded them once they got under way that Lemuel had often sailed into Windsor before the Avon River causeway was built, and now impeded the river in its journey to Minas Basin, Cape Blomidon, the Bay of Fundy, and the ocean beyond. The town had been one of Canada’s busiest ports in the 19th century, shipping apples, gypsum, and lumber to the world until it burned to the ground during the Great Fire of 1897. The textile factory, being just outside of town, survived that fate, and which at a later date inspired it to produce a line of flameproof union suits with trap doors. Eventually the business shut down, and an attempt to convert the building to a condominium failed during the economic crash of 2008. Though empty for years, the three-storey heap had remained a landmark of sorts due to its visibility and imposing appearance.

Inside, the factory’s industrial look was retained by walls of exposed brick and rows of bench-style seating, where a number of seniors waiting to be admitted discussed their bowel movements. Their voices competed with the blabberings of a large-screen wall-mounted monitor. and the sound of hammering on the floor above, for the place was still undergoing renovations. When Eula’s name was called, Avon and Lettuce accompanied her to a counter where an orderly in a white tunic registered her and insisted on checking her bag. Inside he found a few pieces of dried fungus and some smoked eel in a plastic container. “Sorry, not allowed. The diet of test subjects is carefully controlled.”

“Test subjects?” Lettuce asked.

“I mean guests, but don’t forget that this facility is is part of a pilot project and during this phase it’s crucial that conditions are carefully regulated so that results are statistically valid.”

“You’re experimenting with drugs?”

“Absolutely not. That would be contrary to our goal, which is to find a healthy and viable alternative to imprisoning seniors into ghettoes of the aged.” He handed Avon an informational booklet, then opened the gate to admit Eula, saying, “You can come through now. Welcome to your new home.”

She folded back the edge of her bonnet and offered her cheek to Avon. “Goodbye, my lamb. You must come and visit.” He watched as she was led down a green-tiled corridor and around a corner, after which he slowly turned away. As they left the building the monitor on the wall was cycling through testimonials of happy 90-year-olds living active lives, interspersed with infomercials on erectile dysfunction and the popularity of adult diapers in Japan.

It was several weeks before Avon saw her again. He made numerous attempts to visit, but never succeeded in getting past the orderly at the counter. Eula was either attending a seminar, workshop, or training session to learn new life skills. Finally he was summoned there by a phone call for an update on her progress. The foyer was still full, but less noisy since work on the second floor was now complete, and when his number was called he was shown into the office of the deputy director, a trim middle-aged man in casual attire, his desk backstopped by a wall with numerous diplomas in undecipherable Gothic script. He greeted Avon with a warm handshake and a medical homily.

“If you follow the news at all, you’ll know our health care system is in crisis. Attempts to remedy the situation usually focus on reducing the doctor shortage, but here we’re taking the opposite approach. It’s no coincidence that our senior population is the highest in the country. People are living longer, and the healthier we can keep them the less pressure they’ll exert on our overloaded health services. That’s what we’re trying to do here, and why a person of your grandmother’s advanced age was included in our study. We want as broad a range of subjects as possible. The restoration of this building is symbolic of what we’re trying to achieve.”

He beamed when Avon mentioned that he had been unable to visit Eula. “I’ll take that as a compliment. It’s one of our goals to keep our guests busy. Besides, visits can be disruptive, so we keep them to a minimum.”

“Can I see her now?”

“Absolutely.” He emerged from behind the desk, bringing his narrow Italian loafers out of hiding, and led the way to a tiled corridor with doors on each side. As he unlocked one of them, the cellphone on his belt played a merry tune. “I have to take this,” he said and waved Avon in. “Be with you in a moment.”

The door opened into a dim cavity scarcely large enough to hold a bed. The air was cool, the walls blank, the smell of disinfectant strong, the shape on the bed motionless. “Eula?” he said softly but there was no response. The only sound he heard was the purring voice of the deputy director in the hallway. He waited several minutes, then words poured out of him in a rush. He asked how she was doing and apologized for not visiting sooner. Was the food okay? Was there anything he could bring her? When there was still no response, he reached out and touched the mound on the bed, only to find that the shape under the blanket was made by pillows. He left the room and confronted the deputy director, who was just concluding his conversation.

“My grandmother’s not here.”

“Yes, sorry about that. I forgot there was an activity scheduled for her. You may not be aware of this, but seniors don’t want to sit around all day watching TV and playing bingo. An active and meaningful life is what they’re interested in, and we want to help them achieve that. Pretty soon we’ll have her doing bench presses. No, don’t look skeptical, weight-lifting promotes heart health and is on the program. In your grandmother’s case, I’m happy to report that she’s doing just fine. In fact, yesterday she crawled out a window and was found trying to hitch a ride on the 101.”

“You mean, she tried to escape?”

“Yes, we’re very pleased with her progress. She getting lots of fresh air as well as gentle exercise that promotes flexibility and stimulates the hippocampus, which is so important for memory retention.”

Questions bubbled out of Avon. “Why is the room so small? Where is she now? Could she have escaped again?”

The response was calm and rational. The room’s size was to discourage people from staying cooped up, and as to the possibility of another escape he said, “We certainly hope so, though not in a legal sense, as you’ll see if you check the documents you signed when she was admitted.”

Back in his office he asked Avon to sign a visitation report attesting to the satisfactory care that Eula was receiving. When asked why there were so many pages, he said, “Oh, it’s just a formality. You know, blah blah blah, that sort of thing.”

Avon complied, but afterward drove immediately to the Valley to make sure the furnace tank in the house was topped up with fuel, and that his uncles had keys to the gate and knew that the front door should remain unlocked, in case Eula ever got that far in an escape attempt.

NOTES

1. In 2021 part of the roof collapsed. Demolition has begun, but some of the structure will be preserved. 

2. YouTube has some great video clips of the place, and a lovely song entitled "Cotton Mill" by Terra Spencer, recorded inside.

 

Pumpkin People

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every October zombie-like creatures appear in the streets of Kentville. They're lumpy, ill-dressed, and sometimes their heads fall off. They're the stars of the town's Pumpkin People Festival, which celebrates the approach of Hallowe'en.

In 2006 they staged a parade. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2010 they were joined by a bad bunch from Star Wars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2013 the police nabbed one of the culprits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkins Are Big in the Valley

Every October there's also a Pumpkin Festival in nearby Windsor. One of the main events is a weigh-off where growers compete for the heaviest pumpkin title. The seeds used are those of the Atlantic Giant variety, developed by Howard Dill of Windsor. They are capable of producing behemoths so huge that forklifts are required to move them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smaller versions, in the vicinity of 500-600 lbs are snapped up by people to compete in the annual Pumpkin Regatta. They are hollowed out, painted, and paddled across a small lake. There's even a motorized division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valley Ghost Walks

I'm not sure why pumpkins are associated with Hallowe'en, especially since in some places it used to be called Cabbage Night, but pumpkin people share the limelight with Valley Ghost Walks, now in its 15th season and taking place in the evening in various venues. 

I went to one in 2015 and heard about spooky and sometimes unsettling events from the past, such as the location of Gallows Hill where hangings once took place.

I attended another at Riverside Cemetery in Hantsport, and learned that buried there in 1888 are more than 30 people, the cause of death believed to be "black fish cholera" resulting from beached pilot whales that were used to fertilize fields. 

Nova Scotia has a powerful association with ghosts and spooky phenomena. Being on the Atlantic coast, it has seen its share of maritime disasters. A graveyard in Halifax holds most of the bodies recovered from the sinking of the Titanic. The Halifax Explosion killed 2000 and flattened the north end of the city. There are shipwrecks on every coast, and attacks by by pirates and privateers have fed superstitions about hauntings and forerunners, as recorded by Helen Creighton in Bluenose Ghosts and Bluenose Magic. Even ghost ships have been spotted.

2022 

The theme for this year's Pumpkin People is the Animal Kingdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pumpkin People were featured in a charming children's book by Sandra and Ron Lightburn, published by Nimbus in 2008. It's 32 pages long. 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, my own attempt at celebrating Hallowe'en.

Yellowknife Reviews in Good Reads

Some nice comments about the book at Good Reads