All the Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma

Author:Priya Sharma [Sharma, Priya]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Publisher: Undertow Publications

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Thomas’s parents seemed so old to him when Umbra started to work for his family but his mother was only twenty-five and his father thirty-four. Thomas only knew him through the women in his life—Mother, Umbra and then Marcia. Chun Hin was a stranger that came in and out of the apartment in Dragonfly Mansions demanding to know why he wasn’t doing better at school and making Mai Yuen more fractious than normal.

Thomas used to go to his father’s closet, trying to fathom who he was. All his clothes were sealed in dry cleaner bags. He tore one open and put his face against Chun Hin’s jacket but all he could smell were wool and chemicals.

The closest he’d ever been to his father was that weekend, when he was sixteen and he didn’t even know Thomas was there.

Thomas had gone out to a Mandarin tutorial that morning but halfway there he’d called the man, claiming sickness. He felt unsettled and wanted a morning alone with Umbra while his mother was at the gallery and before his father’s flight landed.

A mop and bucket were abandoned in the hall. His father’s suitcases were close by. He was back earlier than expected.

Thomas slipped off his shoes and stood, listening. Nothing. He walked through the kitchen. A half-drunk cup of tea sat on the work top. Thomas put a hand around it. It was cold.

Umbra’s door was ajar. Thomas could hear breathy moans and soft cries coming from within. In that narrow gap he could see his father. Chun Hin’s white shirt was tangled around his torso, his trousers and shorts pushed down around his thighs. The muscles of his buttocks strained with each thrust. Umbra head was tilted at an angle that made the sinews of her neck taut. Her eyes were closed.

An involuntary thrill shot through Thomas’ groin. When the sharp spasm passed a dull ache remained. He hated that watching them could make him feel that way, hated what his father was doing to Umbra and that she was allowing him to.

Thomas imagined himself a man because he’d had sex with older girls and drunk beer late into the night, but he wasn’t yet man enough to understand the meaning of the shadows on the wall. Umbra’s wasn’t entwined with Chun Hin’s but was sat in a corner with its arms wrapped around its drawn up knees.

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