12.62 Winnipeg

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62. Winnipeg

“Why Winnipeg?” Asks Brenda, after Ali reveals her destination.

   “Because I wish to give birth to a New People person; no roots in the old, corrupt society. First, I do not wish anyone to know of the conception."

   “But why Winnipeg?” persists Brenda and Ali laughs recalling a famous Marx Bros colloquy from their 1929 movie, The Cocoanuts.

   "Winnipeg because it is a not far English-and-French-speaking place and not the USA. I do not want the child to have any record of being born in the USA. No corrupting influence of growing up in USA. So, Canada is ideal because it is a loose confederation and Winnipeg is at center of continent and although it is the biggest city in Manitoba, it is only two-hundred thousand, has many Amerindians and also my heritage, French."

   “But it’s too far north.”

   “Bren, that is a plus. I study the latest conservationist writings and they cite data for a rising carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution started and they say a greenhouse warming effect will make the present temperate regions of earth a hellish hothouse. Winnipeg is going to be the place to be when he will be 23." She stops again and looks directly in Brenda's face. "I said, He!  Gee, it's gonna be a boy!”

   Brenda does not really think Ali is talking sense but she shrugs. Ali then tells her that Sister Barbara has a friend, a priest, Father Tim, who runs a parish on the outskirts of Winnipeg. She called him and he has offered to rent a small house nearby.

   “So I take the train next week.”
   She could fly but prefers not because of the increased cosmic rays at 10,000 feet having an effect on the embryo within her.

   Ali gives Brenda 5,000 US dollars and advises her to continue to pay the rents on Apartments 1A and 2A, as though the previous tenants remain, and Brenda & Dr Stan to use them. She will leave behind most of her possessions. Then she says, "Brenda this is not goodbye. For New People like you and I, we musn't say goodbye."  They hug tightly.

She also tells Eddie she is going away. She is sure he has benefited from her and will do well now. 

A day after these conversations, she boards the famous Twentieth Century Limited at Croton on Hudson with a coach-seat ticket. It will take her to Chicago Union Station and from there she will take a bus north to Winnipeg. She carries only one valise with a set of clothes and 100,000 Canada dollars she converted from U.S. dollars at the Royal Bank of Canada, a week before.

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