I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward

Author:Gerard Woodward [Woodward, Gerard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Azizex666, General
ISBN: 9780099286936
Google: zI_0LAZQmgcC
Amazon: 0393328007
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Published: 2004-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

13

Aldous, Colette and Julian arrived at Janus Brian’s bungalow just after noon on the first day of their summer holiday. Net curtains were lifted in neighbouring bungalows about the turning circle, as Colette, after repeatedly ringing an unanswered doorbell, let herself in. Janus Brian had, of course, been constantly reminded of the fact that Aldous and Colette would be calling for him that morning. Only the day before yesterday she’d spoken to him on the phone to make sure he would be ready, and he’d sounded perky and optimistic, said he was looking forward to going away, that he would be ready with his suitcase at 12 o’clock, understanding how Aldous and Colette didn’t want to wait around, that they wanted to get to Tewkesbury in good time.

So she was surprised, for once, by the squalor in which they found him. Semi-conscious and semi-naked on the bed, he’d evidently urinated while lying down, merely aiming himself roughly over the side of the bed, because the carpet beneath was drenched with pee.

Colette slapped him about the face, showing a rare loss of patience with her brother. Aldous, too, was cross, and stomped about the bungalow, rooting out Janus Brian’s stock of alcohol, while Janus Brian wailed huskily.

‘I’m not going,’ he said, ‘I can’t do it. Buzz off without me.’

‘You’re coming with us,’ snarled Colette, ‘you’re coming with us if I have to tie this bed to the back of the car.’

She yanked her brother out of bed and he fell in a crumpled heap on the floor. She and Aldous dragged him, his feet trailing, to the bathroom, where he was stripped and dipped. The quietness of his voice did slightly worry Colette. It was almost as though he’d lost his voice completely, and although he was trying to shout, barely more than a whisper was coming out.

Aldous did his best to tidy the bungalow, while Julian drifted from room to room, sometimes reading from the paperback he’d brought with him, Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, noting with interest the faecal deposits in the bedroom where, in the top drawer of the chest, he found two pornographic magazines, a Penthouse and a Men Only. Almost instinctively he stole one of these, the Penthouse, slipping it into his inside pocket, then pushing it down into the lining of his jacket.

Colette soaped her brother’s face and shaved it, sponged his scalp and brushed his hair. There were no clean clothes in which to dress Janus Brian, they had to make do with the least soiled elements of his meagre wardrobe, with the promise of clean clothes in Tewkesbury.

Aldous found several bottles of Beefeater gin, mostly empty, though one was nearly full. As Colette finished her grooming of Janus Brian in the living room, he caught a glimpse of Aldous passing the door with his arms full of bottles.

‘Christ,’ he whispered, ‘what’s he doing. No, don’t let him.’

‘No more gin now, Janus,’ said Colette, ‘not today.’

‘Stop him for fuck’s sake,’ he cried, faintly, as a clinking sound came from the kitchen, of several empty bottles falling into a bin.

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.