The Underpainter

The woman is standing near the window in the downstairs front room of a log house on the north shore of Lake Superior.

It is the winter of 1937.

She is wearing a grey tweed skirt and a checked woollen bush jacket. Her dark-blonde hair is pulled back from her face and hangs in a thick braid almost to her waist. Despite the fact that she has kept her fires both in the Quebec heater in this room and in the stove in the kitchen burning all night, it is cold enough that she can see her breath. In her hand she holds an unopened envelope with the words "Canadian National Tele gram" printed on it. Her head is bent and her shoulders are slightly stooped as she stares at this folded and glued piece of paper.

From The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart 2011. Published by McClelland & Stewart.