Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Author:Mary Lawson [Lawson, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-37356-4
Publisher: Seal Books
Published: 2002-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Christmas was approaching—that family time, that worst of all times for the newly bereaved, that unrivalled time for magnifying tensions.

“What are we going to do about presents for the Mitchells’ kids?” Matt said.

We were in the kitchen. Matt was cleaning spark plugs in readiness for another vain attempt to start the car. It was a hard winter, one of the coldest on record, and the car had been an early casualty. In the unlikely event of a job with the right hours turning up in town, Luke would need a car to get there.

Luke was scraping carrots for supper. Long ribbony shreds of carrot peel were piled on the counter. Some hung limply over the edge and Bo was playing with half a dozen that had made it to the floor.

Luke looked blankly at Matt. “What?”

“The Mitchells’ kids,” Matt said. “There are two of them. The Mitchells are sure to give Kate and Bo something—maybe us too—so we’ll have to give their kids some-thing.”

Reverend Mitchell and his wife had invited us to spend Christmas Day with them. None of us wanted to go but there was no way out of it. The Tadworths had invited us for Boxing Day and we didn’t want to go there either. I can imagine the church mothers anxiously working out who should have us, unable to bear the idea of our being on our own and unable to see that we would have preferred it.

Luke put the carrot down and turned around to look at Matt properly. “Will they expect presents?”

“No, they won’t expect presents. But we still have to give them something.”

Luke turned slowly back to the carrots. He’d managed to knock off quite a few more peelings which Bo was draping elegantly over her head.

“How old are their kids?” he said finally. “And what sex?”

“How can you not know that?” Matt said. “You’ve known them all your life.”

“I don’t notice everybody’s kids.”

“They’re girls. They’re about … ten.” He looked at me. “Do you know how old they are, Kate?”

“There are three of them,” I said anxiously.

“There are?”

“How could you not know that?” Luke said. “You’ve known them all your life.”

“Are there three, Kate? I only thought there were two.”

“The baby’s pretty small.”

“Oh, well, a baby,” Matt said.

“Oh, right,” Luke said. “A baby doesn’t count.”

“Martha’s ten and Janie’s seven,” I said quickly.

Another pile of carrot peelings dribbled to the floor. Bo made a gobbling noise and scooped them up lavishly.

Matt said, “For God’s sake don’t work so close to the edge! They’re all going on the floor!”

“I’ll pick them up later,” Luke said.

“If you didn’t peel them so close to the edge, you wouldn’t need to pick them up later.”

Luke looked at him over his shoulder. “Does it matter?”

“Yes it matters! It matters because you won’t pick them up later, you’ll forget, and walk all over them, and traipse them through the house where they’ll join the rest of the crud! That’s why this house is such a pigsty!”

Luke put down the carrot and the scraper and turned around.

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.