The Quiet: Short Story

By Michael Christie

Finch stole his first car when he was a nimble twelve-year-old. Hundreds of cars later, he slips behind the wheel of an emerald-green Benz and takes his chances in the night, picking up a passenger along the way. “The Quiet” is part of Michael Christie’s critically acclaimed short-story collection, The Beggar’s Garden.

The Beggar’s Garden follows a diverse group of characters, from a bank manager to a drug addict to a retired Samaritan, a web designer, and a car thief, as they drift through each other’s lives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Michael Christie’s darkly funny debut collection won the Vancouver Book Award; it was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781443421812

Michael Christie

MICHAEL CHRISTIE received his MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Prior to this, he worked in a homeless shelter on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and provided outreach to the severely mentally ill. A former professional skateboarder, he is a senior writer for Color Magazine, an award-winning publication that celebrates skateboarding culture. Michael Christie lives in Thunder Bay, and is working on his next book, a novel.

Book preview

The Quiet

Michael Christie

Contents

Cover

Title Page

The Quiet

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Quiet

Tonight he’d plucked an emerald green Benz S600 from the spiralling garage of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The sky hung with violet dregs of twilight, and a recent rain was held by tire ruts worn in the pavement like the prints of snakes. Finch piloted the Benz over the stately Lions Gate Bridge, up some switchbacking mountain roads to a turnout with a clear view of the city. He parked, mindful to leave the Benz running—it wouldn’t start again without Stanislaw’s laptop. He discovered a set of pristine golf clubs in the trunk and hit nearly thirty balls from the cliff out into the inlet. This took an hour: he held