Buster by Alan Burns

Author:Alan Burns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2020-01-10T11:47:55+00:00

Chapter 5

He was downstairs early, before them. The maid, on her knees in the lounge, was laying the fire; her bare legs stuck out from under her skirt. Among the plates on the breakfast table there were, as usual, two butter dishes. One, between his father’s place and Helen’s, held yellow heavy butter. In the other, convenient to his own place, he recognized the white flakiness of margarine. He changed the dishes over. At breakfast he spread the butter thickly, asked for more toast, kept the dish close to him. He smiled at Helen.

His father was calling for him to come out to the car immediately; he couldn’t wait all morning; he, at least, had some work to do. Dan went quickly to the maid’s room, stood holding the door open. She sat on the cheap bed, darning her skirt.

“Could you spare just ten bob, Joan?”

“You know I’m not paid till Friday.”

“Sorry.”

“Wait – I think I have two shillings.”

She opened the wardrobe with a little key that had survived three owners and two second-hand shops. While she searched in her handbag, he looked, ashamed, at the bits of worn carpet which didn’t match. A porcelain Christ hung from a nail on the wall. Catholic pamphlets and women’s magazines were piled up, tattered from being read religiously. She gave him half-a-crown.

“I’ll pay you back. It’s damn nice of you.”

“It’s nothing of the kind.”

He walked from his father’s office to the public library. Intently, he indexed things: a charwoman washing the tiles in the doorway of a chemist’s shop; her broken shoe; a cubic yard of white hot coke in a machine thuga-thugathugathuga making asphalt; a chap looking up at a lorryful of fruit.

At a table in the reference library and reading room he struggled to study, learnt rare words, wrote sexy stories. A tired woman dragged a child to The Nursing World in a rack on the wall, hisswhispering:

“Michael, I’m not hurting you. Now stop it. I’ve got you, so your hand can’t slip.”

Situation vacant. The Law of Master and Servant. Preface. The author could not forbear to mention the generous assistance afforded him by… A ragged tanned man asked at the counter for the Bankers’ Almanac, please. The librarian, a thin girl with tight curls permanently waved, consulted reference books about reference books.

He said: “It’s all right – I’ll find it.”

She hurried, touched his elbow.

“It’s BA 332.8.”

She pointed to the shelves.

“I can get it,” he said.

He hovered in the middle of the room. Reaching up on tiptoe, she put her hand on a large blue book, tips of her fingers at the top of it, her palm resting along the spine. He looked down at her shoes.

“Thanks; I’ll get it,” he said.

She eased the book out so that a triangle of it was away from the shelf. She walked back to the counter, past him. He stood before the books, reading their heavy-lettered titles. Hummed a bit. His long brown forefinger touched Bankers, did not move the book. He took his hand away.

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