Greta and Valdin by Rebecca Reilly

Author:Rebecca Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Published: 2021-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Analysis

V

There’s some kind of commotion outside the apartment and I pretend it’s the reason I can’t sleep. Greta’s awake and has music on. She’s started listening to nineties pop playlists all the time. Edie Brickell, Suzanne Vega, the song ‘Two Princes’, which I thought was gay but turns out to be very hetero. Greta is always up very late. She read an article stating that many people in their early twenties experience a time shift which means they have trouble sleeping before 2am, which she brings up every time I point out that disordered sleep is associated with OCD.

‘Greta?’ I call out in the dark, lying still in my bed.

‘What?’ she shouts back from her room.

‘What are you doing?’

‘I was going to do some readings for class.’

‘You won’t be able to concentrate, there’s a commotion outside.’

‘Thanks for letting me know.’

‘Will you come here?’

‘Why?’

‘I can’t sleep.’

‘Because you’re worried about your trip tomorrow?’

‘No. Because of the commotion.’

I hear her groan but several minutes later she appears in her mint-green dressing gown, smelling like the face cream I use when she’s out.

‘Can I turn the light on?’

‘No.’

She sighs and sits on the bed next to me in the dark. I stay lying down and offer no hospitality.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ she asks.

‘No.’

She seems frustrated with me and leans against the headboard with her arms folded.

‘What are you going to do while I’m away?’

‘My life will carry on without you.’

‘I know.’

‘I’m going to an Iranian film night with Fereshteh. Her family friends approve of her having an Iranian friend.’

‘You’re Māori.’

‘Yeah, I know, but they accept me. Fereshteh taught me some phrases and says I’m from Shiraz, which makes them all nod and say that explains it.’

‘Is that unethical?’

‘I don’t think so. When I lived in Germany people were always disappointed in me for not being able to speak Turkish. They thought I had forgotten my roots.’

‘You never forget your roots. How was Cas the other day?’

‘He was good. He was a bit sad because Tang doesn’t really need him anymore. Something’s happening with him, Ell knows but she wouldn’t tell me.’

‘Shit, I wanted to see him before I went away but we couldn’t figure out a time. What’s going on with Ell?’

‘With me and her? I think things are going pretty well.’

‘No, with her and herself. Gre, I know a gay crisis when I see one. Her hair gets shorter every time I see her.’

She sighs. ‘She’s been experiencing a personal renaissance ever since she moved here. She has conservative parents who live on a farm in the Highlands so she moved to the city when she left school expecting that everything would come together, you know, in a gay way, and then it just didn’t. She said there were a few people here and there but nothing really significant. Then her supervisor quit right before she was supposed to start her PhD, and no one else at her uni was specialising in her topic, so she ended up coming here,

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