Boreal
FAREWELL POSTINGS
Love, Sex & Islam
LEAVING MONTRÉAL
November 12, 2024
Rather than wait for a balloon to burst or on a fanatic like those in the above photograph to do their worst, maybe it’s time to do a Leaving Las Vegas type of exit. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it stars Nicholas Cage who plays a despondent character who “decides to move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death… Once there, he develops a romantic relationship with a prostitute played by Elisabeth Shue.”
Having been unable to connect with a partner who would join me for some excessive drinking and a bout of intimacy, and be well rewarded if I don't survive, maybe it’s time to return to Montréal and hook up with a working girl like Mary, or travel back in time with a girl like Jasmine.
Lucette, when I got depressed in the more than two years I was stuck at home preparing one appeal of my firing after another, would tell me to go to Montréal, have a good time and see you tomorrow. But of course this is not quite the same thing, which, at this stage in my life, she would probably say: “Are you out of your mind?”
I don’t think so, but I am so much older.
CHANTAL AND ANNE
February 28, 2025
Just about every morning I open my Facebook page, and seldom close it without first taking a peek at Chantal’s and Anne’s pages. Chantal’s page rarely changes and Anne’s page hasn’t since she posted her weeding photos almost two years ago.
Chantal once worked for me. Anne is the woman that almost got me to leave the woman I loved for a woman I liked.
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Chantal
(Abbreviated from Love, Sex & Islam, Boreal Books)
Chantal lost her mother to breast cancer when she was in her teens, perhaps earlier. I think Lucette reminded her of her mother, and Chantal reminded my Lucette of the daughter she never had. She got to know Lucette while working for me part-time in the two years I continued as a consultant after returning to Ottawa from Montréal.
Most of that time, I worked out of my home office with Chantal helping out. Lucette and Chantal enjoyed each other’s company and it showed. When Lucette would open the front door and announce her arrival with a joyous, “I’m home,” Chantal would bounce down the stairs, shouting, “Lucette’s home, Lucette’s home,” greeting her before she had a chance to close the door behind her.
Chantal would often help Lucette with dinner and then stay for part of the evening. Yes, this is the same Chantal that you have already met. Chantal thought her father would make a better husband for my Lucette and “maybe we should introduce them,” as I obviously did not deserve the woman who “absolutely adored me.” She was unable to suppress an expression of disbelief when she said that.
I must admit to fantasizing about being the married man Chantal had been seeing the last few months that she worked for me. Who wouldn’t? I don’t think Chantal realized the effect she had on me when she stood next to me in shorts or tight jeans that drew attention to her nice round bum as I tried to focus on explaining the work that had to be done that day. The view was even more enticing when she curled up in the fetal position on the office couch to take a nap. It was a nice distraction, I must admit.
What I did not care for was her prattling on about who was enjoying what she had to offer. It was enough having to resist offering to scrub her back when she jumped in the shower before running to meet her adulterer (yes, I am aware of the irony) for a nooner. I asked her repeatedly not to talk about her sex life with that man.
….
It was a sunny summer morning; Lucette was away at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake with a girlfriend, a yearly tradition, when Chantal showed up for work. She went on and on about spending the weekend with her married man on his boat. She was happy and I couldn’t take it anymore.
I spoiled it for her, for me and for my Lucette: I fired her then and there, telling her to leave, and that was that. Like the others there was no turning back, which may have been my way of avoiding falling any harder for Chantal and risking hurting my Lucette again.
A CELEBRATION OF LIFE AS A REASON TO YEARN FOR DEATH
March 27, 2025
This morning finds me in bed clicking through postings looking for something memorable. Again, I am drawn to a chapter from Love, Sex & Islam. The fact that Cancer Girl allows me to again talk about my beloved partner may have influenced my selection. Perhaps, but it is Lucette’s toast to life at the beginning of this book and how a death cult masquerading as a religion has perverted a celebration of life into a reason to yearn for death—the central message of Cancel Girl—that was the deciding factor.