HIS FAVOURITE breakfast is Cream of Wheat. His favourite supper is roast chicken with mashed potatoes. His favourite bread is store-bought white, though your mom bakes her own. His favourite shirt has snap buttons and two pockets, one for cigarettes, one for pens. His favourite pen shows two minks, one on top of the other. It’s in the bottom drawer of his side of the dresser, below the hankies your mother washes and irons. You’re not supposed to know it’s there. His favourite story is how he picked up a semi trailer from the factory in Windsor years ago, drove it through Detroit and all the way to Swift Current without stopping for a sleep. His favourite competition is arm wrestling. He wins all the matches at the Healy Hotel. You wish your arms were as hairy and powerful as his. His favourite expression is “real good.” His favourite drink is Pilsner Old Style. Before you could read, you sat on his lap and counted the crows on the label. His favourite TV program is Don Messer’s Jubilee. He always says, “Look at old Charlie dance.” He doesn’t have a favourite book. The only thing he reads is the Swift Current Sun. He follows the lines with one finger, the nail bitten to the quick, and reads everything three times. You don’t know how much he understands.
HER FAVOURITE drink is water from a tap. Her favourite outfit is a loose tank top that covers her belly and a matching pair of shorts with an elastic waist. Her favourite game is curling. She’d miss a wedding or a funeral to watch the final in the Tournament of Hearts. Her favourite dance is the foxtrot. Her favourite dog is still a bull terrier named Patsy that Dad bought when they got married. There are two photographs of her holding your brother at eight months old above Patsy’s back as if he were sitting on the dog, but he isn’t. Her favourite possession is two Dionne Quintuplet spoons. The letters E-M-I-L-I-E climb from the bowl up the handle on one spoon, C-E-C-I-L-E on the other. Her favourite footwear is the first pair of bowling shoes she could afford to buy, “Goodyear” stamped on the rubber heels. Her favourite place to sit in church is in the balcony, near the back so she can get out fast. She uses her favourite expression to stop you from complaining when you don’t get what you want: “It’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” Her favourite place is Saskatchewan: she can’t understand why anyone would want to go anywhere else, even for a holiday, even in winter. Her favourite meal is what anyone else in the family wants.