In the Fold by Rachel Cusk

Author:Rachel Cusk [Rachel Cusk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571267170
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2010-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

‘You compare Egypt to Don Brice’s land,’ said Adam, ‘and it’s amazing really, the difference.’

We drove out of the track and turned down the empty road to Doniford. I saw the deserted vista of the hillside, with its descending waves of green and the glinting heap of the town at its feet.

‘What is the difference?’

‘He’s farmed all the life out of it. There’s no love.’

I was surprised to hear Adam talk of love.

‘Dad does things the old-fashioned way. People respect him for it. I don’t know whether I’d be able to keep it up.’

‘Keep what up?’

‘He wouldn’t even let the council run electricity cables over his fields. There’s a house beyond the farm that’s still powered by a generator because it’s too circuitous to run it along the road and Dad won’t let them go over his fields. The family tried to bribe him.’ Adam laughed. ‘They offered him a whack of money. It’s depressing the value of their house so much they reckoned it was worth it.’

We had passed the boundary of Egypt: the rudimentary litany of what I now knew to be Don Brice’s fields flowed past my window instead. It was an untidy patchwork of electric fences and half-dug pits and pawed segments of earth. Everywhere, decaying lengths of plastic sheeting anchored by old car tyres waved their tatters in the wind. Adam slowed down to look at the sheep. The pregnant ewes were penned into a muddy square steeped in their own dung. The smell came through the open window like a fist as we drove by. Half a mile down the road, a man was driving a mud-splattered four-wheeled motorbike along the verge with two scrappy dogs twisting around him, one on either side like a pair of apostrophes.

‘That’s Don,’ said Adam. ‘He’s always on that bike. I can’t remember the last time I saw him standing on his own legs.’

The man craned his head around and squinted at us over his shoulder. He was smoking a pipe. He raised his arm. Adam pulled up alongside him and the dogs jumped yapping at the window. One of them had a yellow eye. The other dog was brown and white and ran around barking at its own tail.

‘You done midwifing for the day, then?’ said Don. His lined mouth opened like a wound around his pipe.

‘You don’t look far off yourself,’ said Adam.

‘‘Nother three weeks yet. It’s your dad likes to get them in early, so’s the frost can kill ’em off.’

‘We’re having a good year,’ said Adam. ‘A few twins.’

‘Is that so?’ said Don.

‘We’ve kept them all so far except one.’

Don laughed and folded his arms as he sat astride his bike.

‘He’s saved you the price of the petrol, then,’ he said.

‘Beverly’s running a tight ship.’

‘Surprised that girl can run a tap. Sharrup!’ Don scooped the barking brown and white dog on to his boot and forked it into the verge.

‘Yours aren’t looking too bright for that matter, Don,’ said Adam. ‘You should try rotating them.

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