Chapter 4 third chapter

James Cameron was in a brothel the night his daughter and son were born, drunk.When the brothel's bustard, Kirsti, knocked on the door, he was lying on the bed, squeezed in the arms of a pair of Scandinavian Nguyen sisters. "James!" the bustard yelled, pushing open the door and barging in. "Bah, you old shrew!" James roared shamelessly. "Even here, can't a man have his privacy?" "Sorry to interrupt your show, James. Something happened to your wife." "Fuck her!" James growled. "You fucked it," Kirsty retorted, "and now she's giving birth to you."

"Really? Let her be born. Isn't that what you women are made for?" "The doctor just called. He's been looking for you. Your wife's not doing well. You'd better go and see." James Cameron sat up and slumped over to the edge of the bed, trying to clear his head. "Damn woman, she never gives me peace." He said to the bustard, "Okay, I'll go." He glanced at the naked sisters on the bed again, "But I can't pay them. " "Not now. You'd better go straight to the inn." She turned to the sister and said, "You two come with me."

James Cameron, who used to be a handsome man, now has the marks of excess on his face.He's actually only 30 years old, but looks like he's in his early 50s.He worked as a caretaker at a boarding house run by Sean McAllister, the town's bank owner.In the past five years, James Cameron and his wife Peggy have three chapters: Peggy's duty is to clean and cook for 24 tenants, and James' thing is to drink.Every Friday he went to McAllister's four other inns in the town of Glace Bay, where he collected rent from the tenants.This also became his reason for drinking out all day, if he needed a reason.

James Cameron is a poor ghost who is convinced that he has tasted all the suffering in the world, and he has never made a good appearance in his life, so he blames everyone.After a long time, he secretly became intoxicated with his poverty, frustration and inaction, and felt that he was suffering and making sacrifices for others.His parents emigrated from Scotland to Glace Bay when he was only a year old, living a scrape-by-leg life with nothing but what little luggage they could carry.When James was 14, his father sent him to work in the coal mines. At the age of 16, he suffered a minor back injury in a mine accident and left the mine immediately.A year later, his parents were killed in a train accident.James believes that his downfall is not his fault, but that fate is against him.However, he had two great gifts: first, he was extremely handsome, and second, he was charming when he wanted to.One weekend in Sydney, a small town near Glace Bay, he met a fledgling young American named Peggy Maxwell, who was vacationing there with her family.Peggy wasn't pretty, but the Maxwells were rich, and what James Cameron lacked was money.He soon drove Peggy Maxwell into a state of insanity.She disregarded her father's advice and married him.

"I gave Peggy $5,000 as a dowry," her father told James. "This is enough money for you to start a family. You can invest it in real estate and double it in five years. I will help you." But James is not interested in waiting five years.Without consulting anyone, he and a friend invested the money in a dodgy oil company.Two months later, he had nothing left.His father-in-law was so furious that he refused to help him again. "You're a fool, James, and I'll never throw money in the water again!" The marriage that was supposed to be his dream turned out to be his disaster: now he has to support his wife while he has no job.

It was Sean McAllister who saved him.The banker in this town is in his fifties, with an arrogant attitude and a short stature. A heavy gold watch chain hangs in front of his vest.He came to Grice Bay 20 years ago and sniffed out ways to get rich right away.Miners and loggers poured into the town to work, but they couldn't find a place to live.Someone else might have given out housing loans to the workers, but McAllister had better calculations, and he concluded that it would be more cost-effective to use boarding houses to attract these foreign workers.In two years he built a hotel and five inns, which were never full.

Finding custodians for these inns was not so smooth, because the job was tiring.The job of the caretaker is to make sure that all the rooms are rented out, the tenants are fed, and the house is kept to a minimum of cleanliness.Sean McAllister is never sloppy about the salary he pays. He is not a person who throws money for nothing. One of his innkeepers had just resigned, and McAllister felt that James Cameron was a candidate to consider.From time to time, Cameron borrowed money from the bank to pay off debts that were overdue.McAllister sent for the young man. "I've got a job for you," McAllister said.

"you?" "You're lucky, I just vacated a very good position here." "Is it to work in a bank?" James Cameron said.Going to work in a bank is very much in his mind, as long as it is a place where money comes and goes, there is always a chance to make a fortune. "Not to the bank," McAllister said to him. "You're a handsome young man, James, and I think you're very well suited for company. I want you to be the inn in Cablehead Street." administrator." "You mean an inn?" said the young man dismissively. "You need a place to stay," McAllister said sharply. "You and your wife get free board and lodging, plus a little salary."

"How many?" "I'm giving you a special treat, James, at twenty-five dollars a week." "25...?" "Do you want to do it? Others are still waiting." Finally, James Cameron had no choice, "I will." "Very well. Besides, I want you to go to the other inns every Friday to collect the rent, and to give me the money on Saturday." When James Cameron broke the news to Peggy, she was stunned. "James, we don't understand hotel management at all." "This can be learned, let's do it together." She trusts him. "Okay, let's try it," she said.

So, they began to try in their own unique way. In later years, James Cameron had several good employment opportunities, which could lead to a more decent job and a higher salary.But because he was too content with his down and out life, he didn't want to try it. "What are you fussing about?" He said indignantly, "If fate is against you, tossing is a big deal!" On this September night, he cursed to himself, "She won't even let me play a whore in peace, this damn bitch." The cool September wind was blowing when he came out of the Kirsty brothel. Before I get face-to-face with these disturbing things, I will start with a glass of wine to refresh myself.He went into the Old Merlin pub.

An hour later, he staggered towards his inn in New Aberdeen, the poorest part of Grice Bay. When he finally got home, a group of lodgers were anxiously waiting for him. "The doctor's on Peggy," said one of them, "you better hurry, man." James stumbled into the couple's small, dark, bleak bedroom when he heard the cry of a newborn baby from the adjoining room.Dr. Patrick Duncan, who was bending over his wife, turned away at the sound of his entry. "What's going on?" James asked. The doctor straightened up and looked at James with disgust. "You should have sent my wife to me sooner," he said. "Go and throw away the money for nothing? Isn't she just having a baby? It's also worth it..." "Peggy died, I did everything I could. She gave birth to twins, but I couldn't revive the boy." "Oh my God," James choked out, "it's fate again!" "what?" "This is life. It has always been against me, and now it has taken my son. I..." A nurse came in with a baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms. "This is your daughter, Mr. Cameron." "Daughter? Damn! What do I want my daughter to do?" His tongue could no longer articulate the words. "Hey, you make me sick," said Dr. Duncan. The nurse said to James, "I'll stay here until tomorrow, and I'll show you how to feed her." James Cameron looked at the emaciated baby, wrapped in a crumpled blanket, and thought with a fluke that maybe she too would die. For the first three weeks, no one could know if the baby girl would survive, and a wet nurse looked after her.Finally one day the doctor said: "Your daughter can survive." He stared at James and said in a low voice, "God wants the poor boy to live." The nanny said, "Mr Cameron, you have to name the baby." "You can call them whatever you like, I don't care." "Why don't we call her Lara? Look how funny this kid is..." "Go ahead and tease yourself." Thus the child was christened Lara. ※※※ Around Lara, no one cares about her or educates her.The inn is full of men busy with their livelihood, who will pay attention to this baby?Only Bertha, a stocky Swedish woman hired to cook and do chores, was constantly at her side. James Cameron is determined not to have anything to do with his daughter.Damn fate had betrayed him again and let her live.Every night, he sat in the living room drinking a bottle of whiskey, muttering, "This girl killed my wife and son." "How do you say that, James?" "Hmph, I'm going to say it. I could have had a big, smart, rich son, and someone who would take care of me when I died." The tenants had to let him talk nonsense. James Cameron tried several times to get in touch with his father-in-law Maxwell, hoping that he could take the girl away from him, but the old man disappeared without a trace.If the old thing is dead, maybe I'll be lucky, he thought. ※※※ Grice Bay is a town full of strangers.There was a constant stream of residents in the inn, French, Chinese, and Ukrainians, as well as Italians, Irish, and Greeks; carpenters, tailors, plumbers, and shoemakers.They flocked and filled Main Street, Bell Street, North Street, and Water Street along the lake.They went to work in the mines, cut wood in the forest, and fished on the seashore.Grice Bay is a primitive, backward, messy frontier town with a horrible climate.The heavy snow in winter will not stop until April next year, and because the thick ice in the harbor has not melted for a long time, the whole April and May are still bitingly cold. From July to October, it rains again and again. There are 18 inns in the town, some with as many as 72 tenants.There are 24 lodgers, mostly Scots, at the inn run by James Cameron. Lara longs for love, but doesn't know what love is.She has neither toys nor dolls, nor any playmates with her.Apart from her father, she has no relatives.She made her father many little presents, childishly, and tried in every possible way to please him, but he either ignored them or made fun of her. When Lara was 5 years old, she overheard her father complaining to a tenant. "The child who should have survived died, and the one who should have survived was my son..." That night, Lara fell asleep weeping sadly.She loves her father so much and hates him so much. When Lara was six years old, she looked like a character in a Keane painting: a pale, thin face with big eyes.A new lodger came that year, a burly man named Mungo McSwain.He immediately took a liking to the little girl. "What's your name, little girl?" "Lara." "Oh, it's a boy's name. Go to school?" "School? No." "Why don't you go to school?" "have no idea." "Well, maybe we can figure it out." So he asked James Cameron: "Just now I asked your daughter why she doesn't go to school." "Why does she go to school? She's a girl, she doesn't need to go to school." "You're wrong, man. She should be educated so she'll have a chance in the future." "Forget it," James said, "that's a waste." But McSwain insisted on convincing him, and James was finally speechless. At least it would save me from seeing the stinky girl for a few hours every day, he thought. Lara is terrified of going to school.All her life she lived in the adult world and had little contact with other children. She stayed till Monday when Bertha sent her off to St. Anne's Grammar School.Lara was taken to the principal's office. "This is Lara Cameron." Mrs. Cummings, the principal, is a middle-aged widow with white hair and three children.She looked at the ragged little girl standing in front of her. "Lara, what a cute name." She smiled, "How old are you?" "6 years old." She desperately held back tears. The child is frightened, Mrs. Cummings thought. "Oh, we're glad you're here, Lara. You're going to have a great time and learn a lot." "I can't stay," Lara blurted out. "Oh why?" "My dad will miss me." She tried not to cry. "It doesn't matter, we only let you stay here for a few hours a day." Lara reluctantly followed the principal into a classroom full of children and was ushered to a seat near the back wall. Miss Takeer, the children's teacher, was busy writing letters on the blackboard. "A is for apple," she read, "B is for boy. Does anyone know what C is for?" A small hand was raised, "Candy." "Fine. And what about D?" "dog." "What about E?" "Eat." "Excellent. Now, who can name a word that starts with F?" Lara replied loudly: "." ※※※ Lara was the youngest student in the class, but Miss Teckel found in many ways the oldest in the class, with a worrying maturity in her. "She's a little grown-up, she's only short of height," the teacher said to Mrs. Cummings. At lunch on the first day, the other kids pulled out little colorful lunch boxes and opened apples, pastries, and sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper. But no one thought to prepare lunch for Lara. "Where's your lunch, Lara?" asked Miss Tackle. "I'm not hungry," said Lara stubbornly. "I ate a lot of breakfast." While most of the girls at school wore neat, crisp skirts and blouses, Lara wore faded, out-of-date clothes and frayed blouses too small to fit.She went to her father. "I need some clothes for school," she said. "Is that so? Well, I can't make any money. Go to the Salvation Army barracks and ask for it yourself." "That's a charity, Dad." Her father slapped her hard. ※※※ At school, the kids would play a lot of games that Lara hadn't even heard of.The girls all had their own dolls and toys, and some of them were willing to let Lara share them.Still, she was painfully aware that none of these things belonged to her.And that's not all, Lara got a glimpse of a whole different world in the years that followed.In that world, parents give their children presents, throw them birthday parties, love them, hug them, and kiss them.For the first time in her life, Lara realized that so much was missing from her life.It made her lonelier. The Inn is a different kind of school, a microcosm of the world.Lara learned to judge the nationality of the tenants from their names.Mike is a Scottish name, Hodder and Pike are Newfoundland, Kiathorn and Aucoin are French, Dadashe and Kosik are Polish.Among the lodgers were lumberjacks, fishermen, miners, and businessmen. They gathered in the dining hall for breakfast and dinner every morning and evening. Their chats fascinated Lara, as if each group had its own mysterious language. In Nova Scotia there are thousands of loggers scattered across the peninsula.The lumberjacks who lived in the inn, smelling of sawdust and burnt bark, talked together about inexplicable things like chippers, sharpening blades, and chamfering. "We're going to cut about two million lumber this year," said a logger over dinner. "Woolen cloth?" The question elicited roars of laughter. "Son, planks are planks that are one inch thick and one foot square. When you grow up and get married in the future, if you want to build a log house with five rooms, you will need 12,000 planks." "I'm not going to get married," Lara swore. The fishermen are another family.They returned to the inn each day smelling of the sea, talking of their oyster-farming experiments in Sandy Bay, and showing off to each other their catches of carp, herring, mackerel, and cod. But among the tenants Lara was most fascinated by the miners.In Cape Breton there were 3,500 miners working in the coal mines of Lingen, Price, and Palen.Lara liked the names of these mines, Jubilee Mine, Last Chance Mine, Black Diamond Mine, Lucky Lady Mine. She pricked up her ears and listened with interest to their talk of what had happened during the day. "Is what I heard about Mike true?" "True. The poor boy was sitting on a rake when a box rushed over the track and crushed his leg. The goddamn foreman said it was Mike himself who was too slow to dodge." Well. Mike has been turned off." La Laxin made Monk Zhang Er puzzled, "What are you talking about?" A miner explained to her, "They are talking about Mike going down to work. The rake refers to the crane that carries people up and down in the mine between the wellhead and the pit face, and the box refers to the rail car that transports coal. At that time Suddenly the rail car came running and knocked Mike down." "Then what about the lights being turned off?" The miner laughed. "If someone says you've been fired from the mine, it means you've been fired from the mine." ※※※ When Lara was 15 years old, she entered St. Michael's Secondary School.She was tall and clumsy, with long legs and hair like black strings.In her pale and delicate face, the sharp gray eyes were very large, and it was impossible to see what she would become.She was about to grow into a big girl, and her appearance was going through a delicate phase of change: she was either ugly or beautiful. In James Cameron's view, his daughter is ugly. "You'd better catch the first fool who proposes to you," he told her. "You have no bargaining power." Lara stood there without saying a word. "Tell that poor fool I don't have a dowry for him." Mungo McSwain came in just in time and stood listening angrily. "Come on, girl," said James Cameron, "go back to your kitchen." Lara escapes. "Why are you treating your daughter like this?" Max asked warmly. James Cameron raised his head and said with cloudy eyes, "It's none of your business!" "you're drunk." "Why, why don't you get drunk? If you don't have women, you've got to have whiskey, don't you?" When McSwain came into the kitchen, Lara was washing dishes at the sink with tears in her eyes.McSwain held her with his arms outstretched. "Don't take it seriously, girl," he reassured, "that's not what he meant." "He hates me." "No, it's not." "He never said a word to me in a pleasant way. Never!" McSwain had nothing to say. ※※※ In summer, tourists flock to Glace Bay.They drove luxury cars, dressed in fancy clothes, went shopping along Castle Street, dined at Seda Restaurant and Jasper Seafood Restaurant, and watched Ingonish Waterfront, Smokey Head and Bird Island.They were gentlemen from another world, and Lara envied them, and longed to follow them when they departed at the end of summer.But how to escape? Lara had heard about Grandpa Maxwell. "This old bastard wants to break up my marriage to his precious daughter," James Cameron complained to every tenant who would listen. "He's rich as hell and guess what he gave me? Shit Neither. How did I treat him? I took care of his Peggy with all my heart..." Lara dreamed that one day her grandfather would come and pick her up, and take her to the charming cities written about in the book: London, Rome and Paris.That way I can wear nice clothes and have hundreds of suits and new shoes! However, as the years passed, there was still no news of my grandfather.Lara finally understood that she would never see her grandfather again, and that her life was destined to be spent in Glace Bay.

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