I suppose most of these cases are settled out of court. Dominic mopped up the last of the sauce with a folded piece of bread.
I would much rather be publicly exonerated. Sadly, it will be the word of an honest man against that of a liar and a hypocrite.
Louisa reappeared with an apple tart in one hand and a tub of vanilla ice cream in the other. Richard got slowly to his feet. Let me fetch the bowls.
♦
Angela placed a stack of dirty plates in front of Benjy because she was determined that at least one of her sons would leave home with a few domestic skills. Put these in the dishwasher. Carefully and one at a time, OK?
I’ll do the greasy stuff in this sink, said Daisy. You can do the glasses in that one.
Let’s play the story game, said Benjy.
Concentrate, said Angela. If you drop any it’ll be coming out of your pocket money.
Which story game? said Daisy.
The one where you say a word and I say a word then Mum says a word and we have to make up a silly story.
So long as it doesn’t have poo in it, all right?
But I like stories with poo in.
We know, said Angela, patting his head, but that’s a personal problem and I really do think you should keep it to yourself.
OK, then, but I start.
Go on then.
Once…
There…
Was…
Tangerines…
You can’t have ‘was tangerines’.
Why not?
Because it’s grammatically incorrect.
OK. Once there was a…
Grapefruit…
But I wanted ‘tangerine’.
It’s not your go. You have to wait till your next turn and then add something ridiculous. So…Once there was a grapefruit…
Whose…
Trousers…
Were…
Made…
By…
A…
Squirrel…
Who…
Lived…
In…
A…
Handbag…
Made…
Of…
Poo…
Benjy…
♦
Melissa popped open the second Rotring tin, took one of the joints out and smelt it. Resin. Like the stuff you used on violin bows in its little velvet handkerchief. It was a kind of amber, wasn’t it? Rebuilding dinosaurs from mosquito blood. God, the T. rex should have eaten those whiny kids. She got stoned with Mum once and Mum told her how Dad tied her to the bed with the dressing-gown cord sometimes, which was really funny at the time and so deeply not funny the following morning. And when Megan tried it for the first time…This is totally fucking freaking me out, all snot and mascara, so Melissa spent the whole night feeding her mugs of black coffee and letting her win at Pictionary. But Melissa liked being stoned, the way everything backed off and time went rubbery.
She checked the landing was clear. Downstairs the clatter of plates. There was a door at the end leading to a flight of stone steps into the garden. She opened the Yale lock and left it on the latch and stepped out into the dark. The moon was almost full, ragged clouds were racing high up, but the air in the valley was completely still. The dog was still barking. God, she was going to be hearing it in her sleep for the next month. Faint voices from the yellow windows, everyone drinking coffee and talking bollocks about schools and house prices. She sat on the rusted lawn roller just inside the woodshed and took the joint out of her pocket. She spun the rough little wheel of the lighter. Sparks like a tiny blue thornbush in her hands.
♦
Once upon a time there was a beautiful woman, Koong-se, who fell in love with her father’s clerk, Chang. But her father had promised Koong-se to a wealthy duke, so he sacked Chang and built a high wall around the palace to keep the lovers apart. The duke arrived bearing a casket of jewels and the wedding was set for the day on which the willow blossom fell. The day before the wedding Chang slipped into the palace disguised as a servant and the two lovers ran away with the casket of jewels. Koong-se’s father saw them and chased them over the bridge brandishing a whip. Luckily they managed to escape by stealing the duke’s ship and sailing it to a deserted island where they lived happily together.
Years later, however, Koong-se’s father discovered the whereabouts of this deserted island and dispatched soldiers who caught the two lovers and killed them. The gods saw this and took pity on Koong-se and Chang and transformed them into the pair of doves who hover permanently in the sky above the water and the willow trees and the temple garden.
♦
Society has become far too materialistic, said Daisy. We’ve lost sight of the important things.
For an intelligent young woman, said Richard, you really are incredibly naïve.
Richard…said Louisa.
I am not naïve, said Daisy. She didn’t want to be protected, she wanted to win the argument on Richard’s terms.
Alex stretched out his legs and knitted his fingers together as if he was settling down to watch a good film.
You want to live in the Middle Ages? said Richard. He knew the conversation with Dominic had upset him and that he was taking it out on Daisy, but he disliked being lectured, especially by someone who thought the rest of them would burn in hell. You want kids to die of cholera and dysentery? You want your teeth to fall out? No radio, no television, no central heating?
Richard…said Louisa, more insistently this time.
That’s not the point, said Daisy. She hadn’t drunk alcohol for eight months whereas Richard had downed a bottle of wine. It should have given her an advantage but it seemed to work the other way round.
It is precisely the point, said Richard. You need money. You need big business. You need competition. You need people to want more, to want better, to want faster. Materialism is not some evil tumour in the body of society. Materialism is the reason why most of us in this room are actually alive.
Angela had rather enjoyed it at first, these two opinionated people locking horns, but something more was at stake now and she could hear the malice in Richard’s voice. She remembered their conversation in The Granary. She was beginning to realise that he was not a very nice man.
Just because you’re more intelligent, said Daisy, you think that makes you right.
One-nil, said Alex, who had drunk several beers himself. Straight through the keeper’s legs.
Richard didn’t take his eyes off Daisy. And you’ve got some growing up to do, young lady.
I think that’s probably enough, Louisa said quietly to Richard, as if he was a small boy, and Angela thought, Yes, that’s exactly what he is.
♦