Description

In this story, two significant events in Canadian history intersect: the Rollout of the Avro Arrow on October 4, 1957, and the ongoing land claims of the First Nations Mississauga. Lois Michelsen is almost fourteen when she is uprooted from her childhood home in small-town Ontario and moved to Centrewood, a brand-new, model satellite community located on the outskirts of Toronto. Her father views it as his 'ideal city', since its plan is based on concentric circles instead of a grid plan, which Lois prefers. Only the adjacent abandoned farm with its fallow pastureland, resurgent wildlife, winding stream and quiet woods offers her solace through the long, hot and lonely summer. There she befriends a newly hatched painted turtle, discovers a red salamander and finds herself protected by a bald-headed eagle. Concerned about Lois facing a new school alone, her mother foists on her a 'new little friend' from the neighbourhood: a little hussy named Mitsy whose 'cat's eyes', sharp tongue and lewd behaviour wreak havoc. Unlike normal dreams, Lois is susceptible to 'waking visions', when real time is suspended in dual planes of reality. Her father is lead aeronautical engineer for the Avro Arrow. When she attends the Rollout in Malton, her sensibilities open her up to the 'waking vision' of an Indian chief standing on the tarmac next to the Arrow.