Augustine's Lunch by Laura Bloom

Author:Laura Bloom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ligature Pty Ltd
Published: 2021-11-13T00:51:57+00:00

14. Blood And Beer

It was something to do with Judy.

At dinner that night, Luke announced that Judy wasn’t speaking to him. ‘I think we’ve broken up. No one’s ever broken up with me before,’ he said flatly, staring down at his plate.

‘Oh, Lu,’ said Dior, and put her hand over his on the table.

Mark pushed his chair back over the cork floor-tiles. Dior shuddered but she didn’t yelp ‘Mark!’ as she usually did, even though she loved those tiles. She’d made Mark’s favourite meal, too—steak, salad and baked potatoes. They must have had a romantic night last night, deduced Gus. For his part, Mark praised every bit of food put down in front of him, despite Dior’s reliably terrible cooking. Gus sighed. At least some couples managed to get it together and make each other happy. Miraculous but true—and here was the evidence, right here in his own home.

Mark went into the kitchen and came back carrying three bottles of beer. He dumped them down onto the table and hooked his arms around Luke’s neck.

‘Not speaking doesn’t mean breaking up, mate.’

Take it from the expert, thought Gus. Even though Dior went all silent on Mark sometimes, generally she was one happy customer. Luke put his hands up to Mark’s beefy forearms and pulled down, releasing himself from their grip.

‘Judy’s never not spoken to me before. Isn’t that right, Gus?’

Gus nodded, staring at the large piece of grilled meat oozing blood on his plate. (Mark liked his meat rare.) A vision, a beautiful picture materialised before him: Luke laid out, arms and legs trussed to a pole, eyes rolled to the back of his head, dead as a doornail. Blood oozing warm and clogging from the hole in his chest where Gus has gored him with his spear. Shouldering up the load and lugging him home to his cave where his cavewoman awaits. ‘Ug! Fresh human!’ she exclaims delightedly. ‘We’ll spit roast him,’ grunts Cave Gus, ‘it’ll make a nice change from mammoth.’

Luke took a long swig of beer. ‘Usually when I do something bad she wants to tell me all about it.’

‘Then what are you complaining about?’

‘There’s bad and then there’s bad,’ muttered Gus.

Mark took the top off his beer with an expert twist. Dior splayed her long red fingernails over the top of her glass and Mark shrugged at her before refilling his own.

‘This is weird, isn’t it, Gus?’ said Luke. ‘It’s weird. She hasn’t spoken to me all day.’

Gus raised his head quickly to catch Luke’s eye and smote him with his thoughts: Die! But Luke was looking down, busily sawing at his steak. Mark reached over the table and pushed a beer at Gus. ‘Go on, Gussy.’

Gus glanced at Dior. She smiled at him encouragingly.

‘A boy as big as you is old enough to have a beer, I reckon,’ said Mark.

‘He is taller, isn’t he?’ said Dior. ‘Our baby chicks are growing up so fast!’

Gus frowned. He hated being talked about like this. His size was the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.