Bouchard Luc - Away Running

Text copyright 2016 David Wright and Luc Bouchard

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bouchard, Luc, 1963 June 6, author
Away running / Luc Bouchard and David Wright.

Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4598-1046-4 (paperback).ISBN 978-1-4598-1047-1 (pdf).
ISBN 978-1-4598-1048-8 (epub)

I. Wright, David, 1964, author II. Title.
PS8603.O92435A93 2015 jC813'.6 C2015-904518-5
C2015-904519-3

First published in the United States, 2016
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015946245

Summary: In this novel for teens, Matt and Free meet in Paris, where they both play American football on a team in a poverty-stricken suburb where racial tension affects the team.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover design by Teresa Bubela
Cover images by Getty Images and Dreamstime.com
Author photos by Jonathan Wei, Julie Durocher

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19 18 17 16 4 3 2 1

For Zyed Benna, Bouna Traor and Muhittin Altun

But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there.

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

CONTENTS

VILLENEUVE-LA-GRANDE
APRIL 15

The Wednesday before game dayour last game of the season, for the league championshipme and Matt take the suburban train, the RER, from Paris up to Villeneuve-La-Grande early, way before practice. Me and him play American football for the team there, the Diables Rouges. We meet a bunch of our teammates outside the station and walk to a field between some abandoned cinder-block warehouses and their high school to play a pickup game of soccer.

A few guys from their projects join us, including Karim and one of his crew. Me and Karim got history, dating back to when I first got here, in February. Him and his set were slinging dime bags outside their high-rise like the bangers do back in my hood in San Antonio, and he just strode up on me, spitting French slang I didnt understand at the time, but I squared off with him all the same. Thats what you do when someones fronting on you.

Now he acts like he doesnt remember or doesnt care. But Matt whispers in English, Keep cool, Freeman. Well be going home soon. No more Karim.

Im like, Tsst. I aint studying that fool.

Never having to see Karim again is the last thing I think on when I think of home. I think about Mama, my brother Tookie and baby sister Tina, who I havent seen in so longyou know I do. But I also think about not seeing Matt anymore, him going back to Montreal and off to college to major in business and become a big businessman like almost everyone else in his family. Im going to miss every single one of the Diables Rouges. Even Moose. Weve gotten pretty close since our rough start. Thats what I think on when I think about leaving.

Moose takes charge now. The two Ricains, he says, pointing to me and Matt, with me, Jean-Marc and Couly. Sidi, you and Mobylette take Adar, Franck, Karim and?

Hes looking at Karims boy.

Omar, Karims boy says, doing that dope-smoker giggle thing as he pulls his hoodie off over his head.

Like so many here, the field is more dirt than grass and the goals dont have nets, but theres a brick wall surrounding the lot, so we shouldnt have to go chasing after too many missed kicks. Adar pulls a ball out of his book bag and kicks the game off.

Matt insists on covering Karimor trying to. Karim is cat quick. He plays with a cigarette dangling from his lips (that pisses Matt off even more) and dribbles circles around Matt.

Im no better. I play cornerback and am fit, but all you do in soccer is run, and every few seconds Im bent over at the waist and wheezing. (I think Moose put me and Matt on the same side to humiliate us Ricains, as the guys call us North Americans, even more.)

And I notice something: everybody is loose todayall our teammates. Sidi pulls Mooses T-shirt over his head to steal his dribble. Jean-Marc and Mobylette and Adar play grab-ass as much as soccer. They dont act nothing like before, like after we beat the Anges Bleus and then the Camans and everybody pretended like it was no big deal but they were all sniping at each other and practices were a disaster. This week, the week of the last game of our season, everybody is Zen.

Karim passes the ball to Sidi, and I cover him. Sidi plays it serious, dribbling forward, shifting his weight to keep his body between me and the ball. Nearing the box, he does this dope scissors move where he switches it from one foot to the other, and then he fires it into the goal.

Dang!

I jog back upfield. Ill never again in my life look down on the sport of soccer, I say, saying soccer in English, the rest en franais.

Football, Moose corrects me, pronouncing it in FrenchFOO-tuh-bowl. This is the real football, not what we do with the Diables Rouges. He jogs ahead, teasing, All the world calls it by its proper name but you bullheaded Ricains.

The sun is setting. Matt points to the incoming black clouds. Its going to rain a river.

Should be a great practice tonight then, I say. Slogging around and drenched and no footing.

I hope the weather clears by Sunday, Matt adds, looking worried.

Matt is our starting QB, but its not about stats with him. Rain will make a mess of our passing game, and everybody knows, our opponents included, that we need the pass if were going to win on Sunday. A heavy, slick ball will make Matts job all the harder.

We play a little while longer, till it gets too dark to continue, then call it quits. We have to grab our gear from the clubhouse and then get to practice on time, and were cutting it a little close. Still, everybody is laughing, boasting about his best play (except me and Matttheres not much to boast about).

Moose grabs Karim from behind in a bear hug and lifts him off his feet. How many times do I have to say it, mec? Youve got crazy quicks. We could use you on the Diables Rouges.

Mec means guy, but up here they use it kind of like we do back home, like dawg or G or whatnot.

Karim flips the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head, strikes a match and puts it to his cigarette, the glow lighting up his face. Naw. Sports is your thing. Ive got other interests.

The Diables treat us right, Karim, no joke, Moose says. City hall finds guys work, stuff like that.

City jobs. He pulls hard on his smoke, the tip burning bright. My pay scale is higher.

Karims friend Omar laughs, and he and Karim head off in the other direction from us.

Oueche! Karim calls over his shoulder. Yo! Kill those bourgeois pricks Sunday.

The rest of us, ten or twelve or so, walk down the street, past an abandoned warehouse, its windows all busted out, a machine shop and a funeral home, then along the corrugated tin fence of a darkened construction site.

Sidi says, I know a shortcut.

Through the site? Moose sounds reluctant.

Itll save us fifteen minutes.

Sidi climbs up onto the padlocked chain-link gate and jumps down on the other side. Matt follows suit, and I follow him.