Incident on Manhattan Avenue

Tom Bryan

832 Manhattan Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Identikit pastel three-bedroom bungalow, designed mainly for the urban overspill from the old ethnic neighbourhoods to provide housing for fathers returning from the European War. Their brides came from every country. My mother was Scottish, from Portobello.

Three cement steps lead up to the front door. Living room, hallway from the living room, two bedrooms off one side of the hallway and a bathroom and bedroom off the other side of the hallway. If you walk in the front door you can also walk in a straight line to the kitchen. There is a back door there, which leads down some wooden steps into the backyard. Also leading from the kitchen is a weather-beaten door down the wooden steps to the cellar, off limits to a child. ... (continues)