Chapter Four - Jane's Adolescence
A few years later, Jane went off to a new high school called Claremont. Her past tormentors didn't go to this school. They vanished from Jane's life. Now the Sinclair family were still adjusting to the Canadian climate, which was another battle.
Every late November the snows came and didn't vanish until April. In the winter with the snow on the ground, the mercury would sometimes plunge to fifteen below zero Farenheit. Then came the spring rains that washed away the snow. The rains were followed by moist heat and often torrential thunderstorms. The heat of India soon receeded in Jane's mind to a distant memory.
Both Jane and Beatrice went to Claremont High School. They studied hard and were outstanding students. Their brother who now called himself, Tom, did well in school too. He liked to play hockey and listen on the radio to 'Hockey Night in Canada'. Later in the 1950's the Sinclairs got a television and Tom was glued to it on Saturday nights watching hockey.
"What's your favourite team?' Jane once asked him, Jane knew nothing about hockey at all
"Why the Boston Bruins of course," he shot back."They'll win the Stanley Cup one day." At this point, in Tom's life that didn't happen. While the Sinclair children adjusted easily to their new life in Canada, Mrs. Sinclair wasn't happy in her new home.
The family lived in a sizeable two story home on the ouskirts of Fredericton. Mrs Sinclair hired a cleaning lady, a French speaking woman to help her with her chores. But she still pined for the Indian mansion with its 67 servants.
"This is the provincial capitol, " Mrs Sinclair told Jane on one hot humid June day. "It doesn't seem like a capital city to me. But it sure is provincial. I do miss India. Fredericton is so small." Mrs. Sinclair may also have missed seeing her husband. For Doctor Sinclair now headed up the rehabilitative services in New Brunswick. He often worked more than ten hours a day. And neither his wife nor his children saw him too much.
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