Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth

Author:Emma Jane Unsworth [Unsworth, Emma Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary
ISBN: 9781443433051
Google: pKifAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00GWLBFVO
Barnesnoble: B00GWLBFVO
Goodreads: 18946007
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

NEAR-DEATH IN A SUBTERRANEAN BAR

Back at Jean’s I sat on the end of the sofa near the door so I could get in and out without disturbing anyone. The house was full, with a queue halfway down the stairs for the bathroom, and smalltalksmalltalk everywhere. I looked from face to face, trying to spot couples, looking for matches in expressions and mood, like I was playing a kiddies’ card game. Jean was standing by the wall talking and holding Shirley. The baby’s long white dress trailed to the floor while the black plastic aerial of the stereo system was positioned on a shelf just behind Jean’s head in a squarish halo. I remembered wanting to see Jean when she was pregnant, to map the changes on her; the mystery of life going on inside. I wanted to see whether any of that mystery showed on her face.

Tyler came over with a glass of Cava. My own glass was empty. She tipped half of her drink in. ‘Thanks.’

‘Eh, mi Cava es su Cava!’

‘Fancy a fag?’

‘Boy, do I. I just made the mistake of reading the christening cards.’

I sipped my drink. My hangover was receding. The hair of dog theory held, depressingly. We walked outside and stood on the street. I shook two cigarettes out of my pack.

‘Welcome to the club,’ Tyler said, taking a cigarette. ‘That’s what they all say. Welcome to the club!’ She exhaled. ‘You know what the “Baby Club” is? The Baby Club is one of those godawful discos in Leicester Square: starkly lit, tacky and full of tourists. The décor is dated and you can’t get a decent drink, and every time someone new walks through the door everyone who’s in there smiles manically with this huge relief because they’re just so glad someone else walked into their shitty club after they paid twenty quid and can’t leave.’ She went on: ‘But I’d never say that to them, you know, Stick your shitty fucking club – I’ve got better places to be.’

I wondered whether to tell her that Jim and I hadn’t been –

‘Are you worried you’re getting too old to have a baby, Tyler?’

‘I’M TWENTY-NINE!’

‘Thirty in two weeks.’

‘Still. Fifteen years at least before I need to freak. I know you think I’m pissed because I didn’t get my invite to the baby party yet. But I’ll tell you something, my friend, I’ll tell you something. If I do decide to do it then it’ll be something I just do and not something I try and sell as an exclusive event when in fact it’s anything but. I have my definitions, my developing theories, and I will never live without a lonely hungry longing in my soul, never.’

We smoked in silence.

‘Listen to that,’ Tyler said.

I strained my ears, my neck.

‘Hear it?’

‘You mean the distant rumble of Time’s winged chariot with its massive fuck-off spike on the front?’

‘Just behind that.’

I listened again. ‘Mm, not sure.’

‘Precisely. Nothing. The sound of the suburbs. They sell it as peace but it’s actually death, closing in.

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