Shuggie Bain

by Douglas Stuart

A murdered young girl, and the best photo her family could provide was the extra copies she had done for her monthly transit pass.

When he saw his mother, he got up very quietly and passed her with a polite nod, like a stranger in the street.

Agnes had the urge to wrap her mother in her arms, beg for her forgiveness, even though she felt not a shred of remorse.

“Mark my words. Shug Bain is only interested in Shug Bain. He’s going to take you out there to the middle of nowhere and finish you for good.”

For the next three years Brendan McGowan had sent his money every Thursday and taken the children every second Saturday.

“So if your body doesn’t go to heaven, it doesn’t matter if another boy did something bad to it in a bin shed, right?”

Then, within a month of her father’s death, her mother died, and there was no one left to scream at any more.

The desire to jump into the cold fridge and shut the lid on himself