“I don’t really think of myself as Canadian,” said Courchene. “I just joined the army to get away.”

“They came to help the British,” Tak-Wing said. “They are the British. We don’t need them.”

“I’m not British!” said Courchene, indignant.

“So you love the Japanese now?” I said to Tak-Wing.

“I ain’t no Jap lover!” Tak-Wing yelled. I realized he was drunk. Not that it was an excuse for anything he did.

Emily screamed as a violent contraction rolled through her. “Bill!”

“I’m right here, my sweet,” Courchene said.

“I’ll kill you!” Tak-Wing shouted. He charged Courchene.

I cast Ting-Yan a pleading look.

She grabbed Tak-Wing by the shoulders and yanked. “Come on, Brother-in-law. Let’s get you out of here.”

“Get your filthy hands off me!” he yelled. “You think I have any interest in you? I never liked you, not even a little bit! Just because your father and my father are friends doesn’t mean I have to give a hoot about you. It was always only ever Emily.”

“Whatever interest I had in you is long over, you stupid fool.” Ting-Yan had pried him off Courchene and now had a firm hold of his arm. He tried to shake her off, but she wasn’t having any of it. “Come on, let’s go.”

By now, Emily was howling like a wild dog in the hills.

“Breathe, breathe, breathe now, darling,” Courchene said, mopping her brow with his left hand, as she clutched his right, so hard that someone’s blood oozed red and steaming through both his fingers and hers. Tak-Wing wrenched out of Ting-Yan’s grasp and tried to pull Courchene off Emily but they had one another in a death grip. I went over to help Ting-Yan pull Tak-Wing away. It was like trying to get a grandpa barnacle off an old rock, but finger by finger we got him loose. Though he was already filthy drunk, Ting-Yan gave him a shot of brandy. “Let’s go for a little walk, shall we?”

“You’re the ugliest girl I ever saw,” he told her.

She just smiled at him and patted his hand as though he were an idiot child. “That’s right,” she said. “The ugliest girl ever. Let’s get out of here, okay?”