SWAMPED a novel by Manolis Aligizakis
(Excerpt)
Pleased with how well his son was learning the business, Eteo went upstairs, changed into jogging pants and drove to Ambleside Park. As he started his walk, he caught sight of Frankie, a broker he knew from downtown, talking excitedly into his cellphone. At that moment, Frankie saw Eteo and signaled to him to wait. Then he quickly finished his phone call and came up to Eteo to shake his hand.
“How are you, Eteo?”
“I’m good, Frankie, and you?”
“Couldn’t be better, to tell you the truth.”
“What’s up with you? How long has it been since you left Yorkshire?”
“It’s been more than a year now.”
“Where are you these days?”
“Lionsgate Entertainment.”
This was a new name to Eteo.
“New company? Resources?”
“Yes, new, but not resources. Films.”
“Films?” Eteo wasn’t sure what Frankie meant.
“Yeah.” Frankie smiled. “Movies. Look it up. It’s going places.”
“I shall.”
“Have a good day, Eteo,” Frankie said as his phone rang again and he walked off as he answered it.
Eteo had met Frankie when they both worked for Yorkshire Securities, one of the solidest firms in Vancouver. He had known Henry, Frankie’s brother, first, and through Henry he had met Frankie, who had risen from a junior broker there to being one of the big wheels in downtown Vancouver.
Frankie had important contacts all over, which meant he could raise huge amounts of money for any deal he thought was good. Eteo knew nothing about the film industry, but if Frankie said Lionsgate Entertainment was going places, Eteo knew he should look into it. He walked toward the 22nd Street dock. The water was beautiful again, with small swells washing over the rocks on the shore and making the sea weed and barnacles that covered them shimmer. Countless sea gulls circled and swooped above calling out strange messages that only gulls understood. Their screeching voices always struck Eteo as almost out of this world. They seemed to inhabit a world of wonders and exaggerations. Did Frankie, who had left the resource sector to get involved in the film industry, inhabit another world of wonders now?
Eteo knew that a lot of brokers followed Frankie wherever he led. They all wanted a piece of whatever action Frankie had. At one time there had even been rumors that Frankie controlled Yorkshire Securities. He had certainly seemed to have the biggest say in everything the firm got into. Then the rumors were that he had left the firm to develop something totally his, a company from scratch. Could this Lionsgate Entertainment be the one? Eteo always admired people who started from the bottom and became leaders in their field. Frankie was such a man, and Eteo promised himself to look into Lionsgate as soon as he could.
His eyes were drawn to a runabout coming under the Lions Gate Bridge and speeding toward the outer area of English Bay. Runabouts were used as water taxies to ferry harbor pilots, who by law were assigned to command the vessels in and out of the harbor. The water taxis also took seamen from the anchored ships into the harbor, seamen who had to go to the doctor, for instance, or do other required things, and would then run them back to their ship when their work was done. This runabout was racing full tilt to the outer part of the bay and Eteo thought of a line on top of the water, a schematic symbol of people creating and people working, a line of water sliced into two parts, one closer and the other farther away, but coming together to become one mass after the wake subsided. He admired the image and promised to one day set it down in verse.
Mayanaam
vequinox
Manolis 