She noticed that there were still papers scattered about the living room, and she thought she'd clean up a bit while waiting for the milk to heat. On the coffee table, she noticed that the manila file that Mr. Vincent had brought was still sitting there, undisturbed. Hadn't he said that this would give some background information about what was happening to her grandfather? Kat picked up the file and took it with her to the kitchen table. She continued to straighten up the living room, then walked into the kitchen and poured the now steaming milk into a mug. She sat down at the kitchen table with her milk and the file.
It was about a dozen typed sheets. The header said, "Library of Parliament" and "Parliamentary Research Branch" and there was a Government of Canada crest on the top. The title was "Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals." This was the Deschenes Commission report.
She flipped through the pages but the type just swam in front of her eyes. It was too overwhelming to read right now, she decided. Maybe later. She finished the last of her milk and headed back to bed.
CHAPTER 13
THE NEXT MORNING, as Kat and Genya stood waiting for the school bus together, Kat wanted to talk to her sister about what her grandfather was going through, but Genya was not interested.
"If Dido truly cared about us, he would pack his bags and move back to Ukraine," said Genya. "He's obviously done something, and now we're all paying for his past." Genya's face got a bit red as she continued, "We could lose our home because of him. And I probably won't be able to go to medical school."
Kat looked at her sister coldly, "Don't blame the victim."
"If what they say is true, then he's no victim," responded her sister.
"I don't even know what it is they're saying," said Kat hotly. "What is it that he's supposed to have done? And where's the proof?"
Genya glared at her in stony silence. Mercifully, the bus came moments later. Genya sat in the front seat, and her sister walked to the back.
Ian was sitting in the very last row, with Lisa. He looked up at Kat when she walked onto the bus and motioned for her to come and sit with them.
Lisa, for once, did not look too annoyed with the suggestion.
"Ian told me about the parachute," she said. "It sounds perfect."
"It is," said Kat.
"We should practice putting it up," said Lisa. "Can you come to school tomorrow morning?"
"I could stay late tonight," said Kat.
"Can't do that," said Lisa, looping her arm around Ian's elbow proprietarily. "It's Friday. We're going to a party and it's going to take me forever to get ready."
Kat smiled awkwardly. Ian was her friend, but he was Lisa's boyfriend. She'd known that all along, so why did she feel jealous? She tried to imagine what it was that Lisa was planning on doing to herself that would take so long. It had to be a Goth party. Even Lisa's everyday make-up and clothing probably took an hour to assemble. What constituted party wear?
"How about tomorrow, midmorning?" asked Ian. "I'm pretty sure the school's going to be open in case some people need to practice for the concert.
"Can't do it in the morning," said Kat. "And I'll probably be too zonked by the afternoon."
"You're going to a party too?" asked Lisa.
Kat smiled. Wouldn't it be nice to have nothing more serious on her mind than partying, and what to wear to a party? "No," she replied. "I'm getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go mushroom picking with my grandfather."
Kat expected Lisa to laugh at her, but instead, Lisa perked up with interest. "You're kidding," she said. "I do that every spring with my grandparents. We never go in the fall though. Where do you find mushrooms now? We buy dried mushrooms from the Vietnamese store, but there are a couple of days in the spring when we can find this one kind of mushroom that's almost like one of their favourites from back home. And fresh picked mushrooms are so awesome."
"We like them fresh too," said Kat. "But we pick a bunch and dry the rest to use all year round."
"Wow, you dry your own? I'm going to have to tell my grandparents," Lisa said. "They'll be impressed."
Ian looked from Lisa to Kat, and then grimaced. "I can't imagine eating a mushroom that I just picked from the ground. What if it was poisonous?"
Lisa looked over to Kat and they both smiled. It was the classic Canadian response.
"It is something you just know" explained Kat.
Lisa nodded.
Kat rolled out of bed the next morning just after dawn. It was an inhuman time to be awake, especially on a Saturday. But pidpenky were worth the effort. Kat figured she'd have a shower when she got home, so she quickly splashed cold water on her face and then threw on an old pair of jeans and a flannel shirt and headed down the stairs.
Danylo was already dressed and waiting impatiently at the kitchen table. After all the sadness and uncertainty of late, the thought of picking pidpenky seemed like a relief— a refuge — for Danylo. Whenever he held an autumn mushroom and breathed in its wholesome mustiness, it made him think of Nadiya. They had met at the Displaced Persons camp after the war. Nothing as fine as pidpenky was served to the DPs, but he and Nadiya had devised a game. As they ate their thin wheat gruel or their onion stew, their stomachs would rumble as they would try to top each other with fantastic tales of pidpenky past. Nadiya claimed she could bake them into a pastry; Danylo claimed he could make a pidpenky soufflé. Stuffed in a noodle for borscht, or thinly sliced and fried in butter, nothing beat pidpenky for delicious dreams.
He was sipping a cup of tea with lemon, and on top of Kat's place mat was a cooling cup of tea and a piece of soggy buttered toast that looked like it had been sitting there for awhile.
"Eat up," urged her grandfather.
Kat didn't even bother sitting down. She took a huge bite out of the cold toast and washed it down with a gulp of tea. "I'm ready," she said. They wouldn't be the only ones out this early looking for pidpenky so there was no time to waste. Her mother would be delighted if she and Dido actually found some this year.
Cawthra Bush was an old growth forest that backed right onto Cawthra school property, and that's where Kat and Danylo had decided to try this year. Danylo tucked the two canvas bags underneath his arm as he stepped onto the bus. Kat was right behind him, and she noticed with a smile that they had their choice of seats.
Perhaps they wouldn't run into too many people with the same idea after all. Sensible people had decided to stay curled up in their warm beds on this chilly autumn morning. It seemed odd to be taking the Cawthra bus route on a Saturday and especially odd to be taking it with her grandfather.
Kat had not taken a bus ride with her grandfather for almost two years, nor had they gone mushroom picking. Her grandmother's illness had immobilized them all. Danylo chose to sit right behind the bus driver. As Kat sat down beside him, she looked over at his profile and was struck by how worn out he looked. It was as if a light had gone out inside. She could feel tears welling up in her throat. This past year had been so hard on him: first Baba dying, and then this trial.
She remembered the first time he had taken both her and her sister pidpenky picking when they were children. Genya didn't enjoy it at all, but then, she wasn't much of a nature lover and hated getting dirty. Kat took to it right away. Aside from the fact that she liked spending time with her grandfather, she had always found great satisfaction in seeing the sparkle in her Baba's eyes when she brought home a big sack of delicious pidpenky.With Baba gone and this dreadful accusation against her grandfather, Kat's family needed comfort food more than ever. She also hoped that this adventure would help her grandfather forget his worries, if only for a little while.