Easy Avenue by Brian Doyle

Author:Brian Doyle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV039020
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd.
Published: 2004-02-29T16:00:00+00:00

9 Easy Avenue

THURSDAY after gymnastics, at about 5:30, I climbed the wide front steps up to the huge curved veranda at 210 Easy Avenue for my first day on the job. The door was heavy and black and the knocker was shiny brass. Miss Collar-Cuff’s nurse opened the door and introduced herself and brought me into the dining room while she put on her coat. There was a huge table there, set for one.

“See you next Tuesday,” she said, “if you work out.” Then she touched me on the arm and left.

Miss Collar-Cuff was sitting in a big plush chair in her living room beside the fireplace that had tall gold lions on each side guarding the fire. The reflection of the flames was flickering in the glass eyes of the lions, making them look like they were blinking.

I sat at the dining-room table and a lady dressed as a cook brought my supper to me. It was three fat, sizzling pork chops with mint sauce and potatoes and tiny carrots that looked like candies. I tried to move my plate a bit but I burnt my fingers.

“Don’t touch the plate,” said the lady. “It’s hot.”

And all the milk you wanted. And hot apple pie with cheese on it.

The napkin beside my plate was made of heavy white cloth and was rolled up in a silver ring. The ring and the napkin had fancy engraved letters on them. C.C.

Three glasses of milk. And the glass seemed just as heavy when it was empty as it did when it was full. The table was long and shiny and black. The salt and pepper shakers were tall silver statues of a king and queen.

After I finished eating the supper I took my dishes into the kitchen and the lady dressed as a cook in there told me I didn’t have to do that anymore.

“Don’t forget,” she said, “when you come back on Tuesday, you leave the dishes right where they are. That’s if you’re back on Tuesday.”

I went into the living room and sat down on the chesterfield and looked at Miss Collar-Cuff and the blinking lions. She was very thin and her skin looked like white silk. She had on a long black dress with white frills around her wrists and around her throat. She sat very straight and very stiff, and with her chin up she looked like she was looking down her own long face and then at me.

She sat so still, staring at me, that I had to look away. I looked down at my legs and then at my raggedy shoes, then over to the window, then down at the flowered pattern of the couch, then at some paintings on the wall. Then at the blinking lions. Then back at her.

The lions seemed to move around more than she did.

I was wondering what Nerves would do if he were sitting here. I put my head back and looked down my face at her the way Nerves might but I knew I couldn’t last.

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