Home Truths by Mavis Gallant

Author:Mavis Gallant [Gallant, Mavis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55199-628-8
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2011-03-29T04:00:00+00:00

Picked out in the headlights, a badger crossed the road, steadily, like an enormous dachshund. It turned and looked into the lights, and Ramsay, sitting next to Katharine, experienced the revulsion he felt in the presence of animals and wild creatures in particular. They had taken Peggy to the airport at Geneva and there – as at the exhibition of French paintings – he had felt completely himself and at home.

Back at the chalet was the incomprehensible language of birds, and the cat with its savage nature, and the cannibal magpies, the cannibal jays.

“If we park here, the car will be in shade tomorrow,” he said.

“No, the trees are on the wrong side,” Katharine said.

“There must be some shade, no matter which side they’re on.”

“You would have thought that after years of this, they would either have enlarged the garage,” Ramsay remarked to himself, “or built another, or figured out which side of the trees received the morning sun.” The car lights were put out, and flashlights distributed. Larch branches pressed on the car windows, white in the night. Katharine sat as the others – Anne and Nanette – got out. Ramsay, holding the door for her, shone his flashlight on her face.

“Do you think much about that girl in Berlin?” she said.

No. He thought of his mother in a camel-hair coat, her legs thrust out, staring straight before her. He said, “Most of the time I never think about her.”

“Anne had a conversation with me today,” she said. His stomach contracted; his hands were without strength. He released the switch of the pocket light. “Never mind about it,” said Katharine. “There’s a moon. Anne wants to go to Ascona with Nanette this week. She wants to stay all July. She and Peggy have funny holidays – school in August.”

“Are you letting her?”

“Why not?” she said, without looking at him. “She wants to get away from home, which is normal. I told her she could go wherever she liked. She is old enough. I can’t …”

You can’t read her mail forever, he thought.

“What are your plans, Douglas? You can stay as long as you like. I feel there have been too many people around. We’ve never had a real conversation, have we? I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with my cooking in July. I’ve fired the cook.”

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.