Country Cat Blues by Alison O'Leary

Author:Alison O'Leary [O’Leary, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Dog Press/Bloodhound Books

27

Morris continued talking, his voice softer now.

“And mother was rich. Her husband had died and left her well-off. She needed something to fill her days and that something was me.” He paused and stared ahead of him, gathering together the words. “We had a comfortable life together; I can’t deny that. I never had to do anything that I didn’t really want to. We travelled. I saw and experienced things that I would never have had in my old life. The furthest I ever went before mother took me home with her was a day trip to the seaside and even that was a disaster. The coach broke down on the way,” he explained. “By the time they got it going and we got there, it was practically time to turn around and come back again. We just about had time to run down to the sea and stare at it and that was it, bye bye Clacton. We never even got our feet wet.”

He fell silent again and closed his eyes, as if he were dreaming.

“She sent me to a small private school in the town. We had to wear these stupid little jackets and caps. And short trousers. Can you imagine? Short trousers. I used to cringe every time I put them on. Michael and Josie would have died laughing. Well, Michael would have kicked my head in first and then died laughing. Mother used to encourage me to write and to paint and draw. She even set me up a little studio in the garden of our house in Essex. When I was a teenager, I had some pictures in exhibitions occasionally, just locally, nothing grand, but she couldn’t have been prouder. Especially when they were bought.” He snorted suddenly, halfway between a grunt and a laugh. “I found out after she died that she was the one who bought them. They were all stacked, carefully wrapped, at the back of her big old wardrobe. They’re still there,” he added.

Aubrey lifted his head and watched as Maudie glided gently down the chimney breast on her back and came to rest on the other armchair.

“Just wanted to make sure she got her train all right.”

“And did she?”

Maudie nodded, lifting one of the satin ribbons from her long hair and threading it through her fingers.

“What would you have done if she hadn’t?” Aubrey asked, suddenly curious.

“Spooked the driver and stopped the train.” The small dimples around her mouth twinkled.

Aubrey opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. He never really knew when Maudie was serious. He wriggled slightly as Morris lifted him gently and placed him back down on the rug. Standing up and moving over to the fireplace, Morris looked directly at Maudie, speaking softly, his voice barely above a whisper. Maudie dropped the ribbon and sat up straighter. Aubrey looked from one to the other. Surely Morris couldn’t see her?

“Everything about me, I mean the real stuff like who I was and where I’d come from, mother tried to sort of erase until I could hardly remember myself.

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