Bluebirds 04.Firebird by Melvyn Fickling

Author:Melvyn Fickling [Melvyn Fickling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Sunday, 20 September 1942 – Cairo

Katie roused to the splashing of bath taps wheezing out water in the bathroom. Their noise mingled with the dull throbbing that tightened the skin on her forehead and pulsed in her temples. Bryan emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and shaving soap lathered around his jaw. He paused the stroke of his razor and grinned widely.

‘You look terrible,’ he said.

‘I’m hungover.’ Katie sat up in bed and squeezed her eyes closed against the pounding swell of pain the movement brought to her skull.

‘I let you sleep as long as I could,’ Bryan said. ‘But we’re in danger of missing breakfast if you don’t get a move on.’

‘Ooooh, breakfast.’

Katie climbed carefully out of the bed and padded across to the bathroom, keeping her head as steady as possible. She shut off the taps, dabbled her hand to test the temperature then climbed into the tub, lowering herself gently into its warm embrace. She scooped a double handful of the clear water and splashed it onto her face, washing the sleep from the corners of her eyes. She blinked away the water and regarded Bryan standing at the wash basin. He’d followed her into the bathroom to finish his shave; now he rinsed his razor and whipped the towel from around his waist to dab his face dry. He picked up a bar of soap from the washstand and passed it to Katie with a smile. He dropped the towel by the bath and walked into the bedroom to get dressed.

Katie lathered the soap between her hands and rubbed away the smudged vestiges of last night’s makeup, all the while pressing her knees together and willing the buzzing in her abdomen to subside.

***

Katie eyed her plate of scrambled eggs with deflated enthusiasm as her stomach squeaked and bubbled at her neglectful treatment. She grasped the nettle and took a swig from her coffee, following it with a forkful of her breakfast. She swallowed purposefully and closed her eyes briefly, waiting for a revolt. The bubbling settled and the strong, hot coffee began to spread its magic into her blood. She added another mouthful of scrambled egg to reinforce the effect.

‘I thought it might be nice to go to church,’ she said.

Bryan levelled a look across the table: ‘I was thinking cocktails by the pool at the Gezira Club.’

‘Church first, then cocktails,’ Katie said.

Bryan stayed silent.

‘There are difficult times ahead, Bryan,’ Katie said. ‘It might do us both a bit of good to pause the party for an hour or so and settle our minds on something else.’

‘Alright, Sweetheart,’ Bryan said. ‘Let’s see if it does that.’

***

The taxi dropped them off on the road outside All Saints Cathedral on Gezira Island. A trickle of people flowed towards its doors from both directions, some were civilians, but most wore uniform. Katie regarded the squat building sat within its own dusty little square.

‘How lovely,’ she said. ‘How did you know this was here?’

‘It’s in the guidebook,’ Bryan said.

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.