Volkswagen Blues

When Jack and La Grande Sauterelle reach Toronto, rainy weather convinces them to get rooms at the YMCA. The girl defies the organization’s sex-segregation policy by sneaking into Jack’s room on “the floor for male guests” and seducing him (44). She then fashions herself into a boy with some of his clothes. This scene unfolds in tandem with another from Jack’s childhood, during which Théo “told the story of Étienne Brûlé” to a group of boys (45). After arriving in “New France with Champlain,” Brûlé explored the Great Lakes region and gained the trust of the Indigenous people, “who adopted them as one of their own” (45). Théo finishes his story, and the boys enact a battle between white and Indigenous people. When the skirmish peaks, “Étienne Brûlé himself made his appearance and brought the confrontation to an end” (45).

Jack and the girl, dressed as a boy, go to the Toronto library because “La Grande Sauterelle wanted to ‘borrow’ a book” (47) about Étienne Brûlé. With the book tucked inside her shirt, La Grande Sauterelle audaciously starts a conversation with the friendly, eccentric security guard. When he learns they are on a quest to find Jack’s brother, he suggests they check the records at police headquarters.