The Composer I Never Knew

Yesterday, a familiar face walked into my little shop, ACCO PHOTO.

We have known each other for more than ten years.

Back then, we were simply two fathers picking up our children from the same family daycare. Later, our children attended the same neighborhood school, École Ludger-Duvernay.

His daughter was selected to continue her music education at École Le Plateau in Grade 2. A few years later, my younger son followed the same path. Eventually, both of them continued to Joseph-François-Perrault High School, one of Montreal's well-known music schools.

Life moved on.

Yesterday he came to photocopy a collection of sheet music he had composed.

Only then did I discover that he is a composer.

For more than a decade, I had never known.

Perhaps that is one of the quiet beauties of a neighborhood. People don't introduce themselves with titles. They are simply parents, neighbors, customers, or familiar faces. Years later, you suddenly discover another side of someone you've known all along.

We talked about our children. His daughter is working in a restaurant during the summer. I told him that my older son is volunteering with several non-profit organizations, while my younger son is spending the summer training with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets' band program.

Then something unexpected happened.

He noticed a copy of my novel Nonimportantech on the counter.

Our conversation shifted from music to literature, then to feminism, multiculturalism, and writers such as Gabrielle Roy and Michel Tremblay.

I told him that the feminism I try to express in fiction is not primarily about political equality.

It is about who gets to tell the story.

Many remarkable novels written by men are deeply feminist because they allow women to become the emotional and narrative center of the work. Michel Tremblay's writing has always reminded me of that possibility.

Before leaving, he bought a signed copy of Nonimportantech.

Smiling, he said,

"This might be a wonderful novel to read during the trip."

His family is probably heading to Italy for their vacation.

As I watched him leave, I realized that the conversation itself felt very much like one of the scenes in Nonimportantech.

A composer I never knew.A photographer who secretly writes novels.Children who grew up together.A neighborhood that quietly keeps everyone's stories until the right moment arrives.

Sometimes, the most interesting people are the ones who never think they need to introduce themselves.